Sydney

Our Dear Lord and Master,

Please accept our prostrated obeisances at your lotus feet.

How can we find the words to glorify Your Divine Grace? Certainly our tiny minds are limited; we can still remember our past misconceptions. So what can we say on our own? We can only repeat the perfect knowledge of the revealed scriptures which emanate from the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

A pure devotee is the rarest kind of soul. No one is more dear or rare than a pure devotee of the Supreme Lord Sri Krsna. This is confirmed by Krsna Himself in the Bhagavad-gita. It cannot be our own imagination. You are displaying boundless power to deliver us from this ocean of temporary names and dreams called the material world. Just by hearing your words, chanting Hare Krsna and remembering your instructions, there is a deep feeling in our hearts which we have never experienced before. Thus, you are the transcendental magician who has waved the wand of love of God over our hearts and turned us on the path back to Godhead. Krsna says that this experience is factually the mercy of His pure devotee, the self-realized soul. Only by the mercy of the spiritual master can one realize his eternal loving relationship with Krsna. Therefore the pure devotee or spiritual master is honored as much as the Supreme Lord.

A real spiritual master has a real spiritual master. Your spiritual master also had his spiritual master and this chain of spiritual masters begins with Lord Krsna Himself. Therefore, because you are simply repeating the words of your Guru Maharaja, you speak with the authority of God. These words can purify any fallen soul who agrees to hear them. That is also stated in the scriptures-by hearing from a pure devotee who is completely surrendered to Krsna, one becomes completely purified. All we must do is hear the words of such a great soul-and you are that great soul. It is a proven fact that your words can penetrate our dirty hearts and make us leap in ecstasy, dance and shout the holy names of the Lord. Our lives are so sublime now that we have no interest besides Krsna. So the connection with Krsna is complete by Your Divine Grace. The proven fact stands: you are a pure devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, a bona fide spiritual master.

Srila Prabhupada, you have no sin nor have you any doubt. You are a spiritual jewel, flashing upon the darkness of this world. You are the softest of the most merciful hearts, but you destroy illusion with a lightning-like sword of knowledge. You overpower the world of faithless men by the great bursting-forth of the bright sun of your knowledge just as the sun in the sky overpowers the foggy mist and the darkness of the night. Your knowledge is supreme because it is coming from Krsna, and that knowledge is fully revealed in the pages of your books.

May we all become pure reflections of your mercy so that others may share in the greatest gift. May all bow down at your lotus feet and greet a pure devotee of the Lord with body and soul. May they see the eternal mercy that is there in your face, in your smile, in your tears of love of Godhead, in your prayers, in your books, in your purifying order, in your plans so great, in your feet, and in our hearts.

The Devotees of Sydney, Australia: