Devamira dasa and Shirin
Respected Maharaja,
Hare Krsna!
Please accept our humble obeisances at your divine lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to you, Maharaja.
On this most auspicious occasion, we are extremely fortunate to get this opportunity to glorify you and express our heartfelt gratitude.
As time swiftly rolls by, we are realizing that it takes immense strength to live by the principles of pure devotional service. Indeed, it is a very rare soul who actually surrenders to the Lord. How fortunate are those who get a chance to associate with such pure and fully surrendered souls. Such compassionate souls extend themselves to one and all, without considering their disqualifications. Maharaja, you are one of these extremely rare, pure souls, whose only mission is to serve their spiritual master and follow in his footsteps.
Maharaja, I have no words to express the quality of compassion and love which you feel for one and all. Your only desire is for us to walk on the path of pure devotional service and for that you extend yourself fully. You are more eager to give and we find ourselves lacking in the desire to receive fully the gift which you really want us to receive, taste and relish. Inspite of our resistance, you continue to invest your energy and facilitate and orchestrate opportunities to engage us in pure devotional service. You deeply care for us and at the same time you are completely detached. You break apart our resistance by your love, compassion, tolerance and your ever growing hope in the divine mercy of your Spiritual Master, Srila Prabhupada. You are superlatively qualified and yet you are completely dependent on the divine mercy of your spiritual master.
We find ourselves in the firm grip of many anarthas, especially the sense of being the doer, controller and enjoyer. We are struggling to free ourselves from these and other material attachments and conceptions. While we are so engaged, we always find you standing very close and patiently waiting for us to surrender. You never force us, but lovingly encourage us to surrender as soon as we can. You know we can never be free by our own efforts, yet you continue to bestow your blessings hoping someday we may turn to you and surrender. Maharaja, we simply cannot comprehend your compassion and tolerance. Our submission is intermittent and fluctuating but your submission and hope in the divine mercy of Srila Prabhupada is only increasing thousandfold.
Maharaja, your each and every act is filled with gratitude to Srila Prabhupada. Your life and every breath is dedicated to serve Srila Prabhupada. You still feel that you have received infinite times more than what you have done to serve Him and that you would never ever be able to reciprocate fully. Maharaja, we fall at your feet and beg with tears in our eyes and very feeble strength in our hearts to give us the strength to try to establish such a bond of gratitude with you. Please bless us with wisdom to understand your divine position and strength to express that through practical service. Please bless us with eyes that truly behold your power, opulence and devotion. Please bless us with a humble heart which only sings your praise with unshakeable faith in your role as our sole deliverer. Please empower us to always remember you, worship you, pay our obeisances to you and become your devotee. Only then would Srimati Radharani be pleased with us and recommend us to Lord Jagannatha. Please bless us with the heart and eyes to behold you as our Lord and Master. O, ocean of mercy! We have no other shelter. Please be merciful to us.
We thank you for all the wonderful gifts and resources which you have mercifully bestowed on us. The Holy Name, your transcendentally powerful lectures and the loving association of Jagadananda Prabhu and Ananda Vrndavana Mataji are some of these amazing gifts.
Your aspiring servants,
Devamira dasa and Shirin