Nityananda Pran dasa and Hemangi devi dasi

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

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

Our dear and respected Guru Maharaja,

Please allow us to offer our humble obeisances at your merciful lotus feet. These feet are our shelter, our guideposts, and our rejoice. All glories to Your Divine Grace! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

We are observing, nay celebrating, your gracing this planet for 75 years! A large majority of these years has been spent for the upliftment of conditioned souls in various ways and through a   multitude of connections. In your case, not a day goes by without this service objective fulfilled. One might wonder why you wouldn’t rest or slow down or resign to the holy dhama for bhajana. While there could be several reasons why you wouldn’t slow down, the one reason we notice and appreciate is your restlessness. This restlessness is not a malady of the mind. It is a condition of the heart; a heart filled with compassion and a drive to not rest until the wayward souls have accepted a bhakti anchor. This is your tranaya karunya-ghanaghanatvam quality that brings solace, hope and rejoice to the otherwise samsara-davanala-lidha-loka.

We too are restless. The restlessness of us conditioned souls and that of yours is separated by an ocean of difference. On this side of the ocean, we are restless due to wanting genuine shelter. We’ve embarrassed ourselves far too many times in this and umpteen previous lives. On the other side of the ocean where you are, your restlessness is owing to not being satisfied with your own salvation. That just won’t do! You are helplessly urged by Sri Radha-Govinda’s call of love heralded by Srila Prabhupada to benefit others on this shore. And for this you wouldn’t allow your 75-year-old body to come in the way.

You take on the spirit of Lord Siva who is celebrated as Sankara (one who only bestows auspiciousness upon everyone) in this verse from Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 8, Chapter 7, verse 44:

tapyante loka-tapena sadhavah prayaso janah
paramaradhanam tad dhi purusasyakhilatmanah

“It is said that great personalities almost always accept voluntary suffering because of the suffering of people in general. This is considered the highest method of worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is present in everyone’s heart.”

To this end, you take on risks of different kinds, though to an untrained eye it might seem you are risk-averse or perhaps risk-cautious. The risk you take is to intervene in the aimless wandering of souls like us who are searching for something, often without knowing what we are searching for. The consequence is always drastic, either in our accepting your intervention or in our rejecting it. In the former, we discover guru, the path of bhakti, and Sri Radha-Krsna. We eulogize your causeless expression of grace that transformed our lives. The risk is in whether we stay the course or we oblige you to come back to this world in search for us. In the latter, we continue with our bedazzled sojourn on the path of illusion. The risk is we become averse, perhaps even inimical towards you. You aren’t elated or deterred by these risky consequences regardless of which city, region or even country you are in. You remain prasanta!

Prahlada Maharaja is your hero in this regard, and you are our hero! He boldly asserts to Sri Nrsimha-deva in his prayers, and you too embody this concern:

naivodvije para duratyaya-vaitaranyas
tvad-virya-gayana-mahamrta-magna-cittah
soce tato vimukha-cetasa indriyartha-
maya-sukhaya bharam udvahato vimudhan

“O best of the great personalities, I am not at all afraid of material existence, for wherever I stay I am fully absorbed in thoughts of Your glories and activities. My concern is only for the fools and rascals who are making elaborate plans for material happiness and maintaining their families, societies and countries. I am simply concerned with love for them.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.9.43]

We therefore offer our obeisances as our gesture of gratitude for your intervention in our lives, for setting us on a journey of joy, and a life of service!

Your servants,
Nityananda Pran dasa and Hemangi devi dasi