Nandakumar Sambandam
om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah
My dear Guru Maharaja!
Please accept my most humble obeisances at your divine lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Grace! All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada!
On your glorious appearance day, seeking your blessings and of my godbrothers, I would like to make this Vyasa-puja offering at your lotus feet. Thank you for coming into my life and making it more meaningful and more auspicious. Just as His Holiness Jayapataka Maharaja sang about Srila Prabhupada, I feel the same way that if Krsna had not brought me to your association, I could not imagine the misfortune of missing this most precious opportunity of the human form of life. Now that I have the shelter of your lotus feet, I am confident of going back home, back to Godhead. Although my weak-heartedness is holding me tightly, the determination is ever increasing fueled by regular hearing of your divine messages, which come directly from svayam bhagavan Sri Krsna through the glorious disciplic succession.
Recently when attending Srila Prabhupada’s Vyasa-puja ceremony, my realizations were simply these:
I never had personal association of Srila Prabhupada, yet he has had a profound impact on my life as well as on the lives of so many similarly disposed individuals. Many new persons continue to get touched by Srila Prabhupada’s grace and become serious in their lives to accept Krsna consciousness whole-heartedly. My realization is that the disciples of Srila Prabhupada like your holiness are the pivotal points in bringing about this transformation of our lives. Being a transparent via medium, you have shown us how deep was Srila Prabhupada’s compassion. Your dedication (similar to other god brothers of yours) to Srila Prabhupada is giving me the rarest opportunity of personal association with Srila Prabhupada. Otherwise, a dull-headed person like myself will not be able to directly perceive that compassion of our FounderAcarya from his books. We were carefully spoon-fed, nurtured and imbibed with the teachings of Srila Prabhupada by you. Srila Prabhupada’s books come to life when we see the living examples of his disciples like your divine self. You are giving us the opportunity to serve the book Bhagavata and the person Bhagavata by being who you are, a pure devotee of the Supreme Lord Sri Krsna. As revealed in Bhagavadgita, “mahatmanas tu mam partha daivim prakrtim asritah…”– you, by taking shelter of the Lord and His pure devotee and conducting your life within that shelter, exemplify Sri Krsna’s most confidential words. Otherwise, what is our hope in this age of hypocrisy, which misleads us to pseudo-mahatmas.
Maharaja, by diligently cooperating with your god brothers as per the instructions of Srila Prabhupada, you exhibit the deep sense of commitment and love for him. My sincere gratitude to you and the GBC for keeping ISKCON healthy, strong and vibrant. Srila Prabhupada is very pleased and that can be perceived by the ever-growing attraction of ISKCON as a global family. As you mentioned in your lectures, when Krsna is pleased everyone become pleased, and that is very attractive. These realizations were accompanied by a sense of responsibility. Now it is my turn, albeit insignificant, to carry on that tradition of being a transparent via media to pass on the mercy that is being unconditionally given to me. On this auspicious occasion of your Vyasa-puja day, I sincerely seek your blessings to make progress in my purification, attraction to Sri Guru and Sri Gauranga and commitment to take Krsna consciousness more seriously such that I become a true representative of our glorious movement.
My prayers are for your long and healthy life in the years to come. May Lord Sri Nrsimha deva protect you from all material dangers and evil forces, give you all benedictions and remove all hurdles in the path of serving Srila Prabhupada and Sri Krsna!
Your servant,
Nandakumar