Vamsidhari dasa and Satarupa devi dasi

om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah

nama om visnu-padaya krsna-presthaya bhu-tale
srimate romapada-svamin iti namine

mukum karoti vacalam pangum langhayate girim
yat-krpa tam aham vande sri-gurum dina-taranam

Dear Guru Maharaja,

Please accept our most humble obeisances at the dust of Your Divine Lotus Feet. All glories to Your Divine Grace! All glories to Your Divine Appearance Day! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

With much gratitude and humility, we sincerely offer prayers to enable us to glorify Your many gifts in our lives and how they have kept us staying inspired in Krsna consciousness.

About seven years back, Mataji, speaking from the initial chapters of Srimad-Bhagavatam, taught us that behind even a simple nod of Spiritual Master are unlimited blessings that are more than enough for us to go back to Godhead, and that it should be properly received by simultaneously removing the weeds.

But You are so kind, Guru Maharaja, that we are not only blessed with those gestures, but You have blessed us with so many gifts – so much so that we feel as cared for by You as a child feels cared for by his loving father.

You personally let us be with You in so many instances – through specially-structured retreats, classes for our spiritual growth, taking all austerity to travel every couple of days to make personal visits to places where we live, and so on. You also blessed us with specific gifts which have nourished us so much in our lives.

Some of gifts You sent in response to our reports are:

– The prayers of Haridasa Thakura – When I (Vamsidhari dasa) went for Ayurvedic treatment, by Your mercy somehow we took that time to connect to these prayers, and it was so inspiring. The mood of humility in these prayers is so filling. Haridasa Thakura prays fervently to Lord Caitanya to somehow or other bless him with remembrance of Him through the association of His devotees. At the end, out of deep humility, he prays that even asking this huge blessing in this way is an offense, and so he asks to be blessed at least to be born as a dog in the house of devotees.

– The true meaning of friendship – You sent the image of what the true meaning of friendship is, which says a true friend is one who accepts as we are. We don’t see anyone else other than You and Your representatives who accept us so truly and so purely and encourage us to grow. We are forever indebted for your enormous, causeless kindness and care for us, Guru Maharaja.

– Writing – This is the instruction that has especially helped a lot in our current situation of stress, health issues, and other issues.

– You told me (Satarupa dasi) to stay committed in investing my focus in sadhana and primary relationships. When I kept struggling in these primary instructions, You sent me the quote on commitment. To help me with that, You also gave a clear instruction of no comparison. Your kindness, despite my attachment to my conditioned patterns and difficulty in taking further internal steps towards sadhana and primary relationships, is leaving me again with hope against hope.

We humbly report that by the mercy of Your unlimited causeless care for us, we are feeling inspired, although our internal resources are still weak. We feel humbled by knowing how far we are from serving You, Your instructions, and Your representatives.

Recently, a few months ago, Mataji very compassionately spoke in the morning class about the process of offenseless hearing. She quoted an example that touched our hearts. The example was from the time of Sri Madhavacarya. When Sri Madhavacarya spoke Srimad-Bhagavatam, his disciples thought that the classes were so deep that one of them needed to write commentary on them to understand the messages. Sri Madhavacarya, noticing their pride, said that none of them was qualified to do so, except a bull who sat near to class everyday. Then Madhavacarya explained that the bull, in general, always chews food. But this bull was hearing in rapt attention and was so deeply inspired by the classes that he stopped, forgot chewing and heard the class with attention, without any distraction. In fact, that bull took birth as an acarya (Acarya Jaya Tirtha) in next birth and wrote the commentary on Madhavacarya’s work so beautifully. We are humbly inspired to cultivate this process of offenseless hearing.

You and Your representatives, out of Your causeless mercy, speak to us so many deeply important, exalted, vital, life-giving messages that will bring us to our true nature of being a servant of Your servants. You speak, record, write responses to our reports (even if we are inconsistent), and You give us the purpose of our living. We are realizing that what we are now is because of Your and Your representatives’ speaking to us, trusting us with Krsna conscious teachings, and providing personal guidance. We also realize that we are still not experiencing the full sweetness of those gifts deeply and sometimes feel stuck in our patterns because we are not hearing fully and properly and, in turn, are not chanting from the heart of our hearts. On this very auspicious occasion we simply pray for Your mercy to practice this every day in our morning hearing. And if You so causelessly desire, may we be blessed to inspire three or four couples or devotees to be attracted to this beautiful hearing process in the course of time, Guru Maharaja. We pray that we become simple and grateful.

On this very important day, we attempt to gather all our sincerity and thank You for Your generous kindness and for the rare gift of the association of Prabhu and Mataji. We pray to sincerely re-commit to follow them with faith and enthusiasm, Guru Maharaja.

Your aspiring servants,
Vamsidhari dasa and Satarupa devi dasi