Nava Kishore dasa

Respected Guru Maharaja,

Hare Krsna! Please accept my humble obeisances at your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to Your Divine Grace.

On this auspicious occasion of your Vyasa-puja celebration, I am delighted to have this opportunity to glorify you, my dear Guru Maharaja. I am making this humble attempt for my own purification as I do not possess any of the qualities required to whole-heartedly glorify Your Divine Grace.

Remembering my first meeting with you nearly 25 years ago, I distinctly remember how you taught me to count japa on the fingers as I did not have a bead bag. That day I chanted 16 rounds and have been able to do so every day since then.

Guru Maharaja, you are extremely serious about training your disciples in Krsna consciousness and in that way extend great care to each and every one of us. Your recorded lectures are the wonderful medium through which you extend yourself to us. Each lecture you deliver encourages us to strive for Vaisnava qualities through attentive japa and Vaisnava seva. You spend hours and hours preparing for topics which are relevant to our practice of Krsna consciousness and you meticulously extract the hidden/deep teachings from the scriptures and the writings of our previous acaryas. Hearing your recorded lectures in the association of devotees is the only force which has been sustaining me on the path of pure devotional service.

Guru Maharaja, the gratitude which you feel in your heart for Srila Prabhupada and the gift which he has bestowed upon you, is very inspiring and encouraging. You have realized the immense value of the gift bestowed by Srila Prabhupada in the form of this Krsna consciousness movement and hence with great determination born from the feelings of immense gratitude you have dedicated each and every second of your life in the service of Srila Prabhupada, through preaching and managing the ISKCON worldwide Society.

The realization of the value of the gift bestowed by Srila Prabhupada and the resultant gratitude in your heart also causes you to have such wonderful and service oriented relationships with your Godbrothers and Godsisters, completely devoid of judging and fault-finding.

Also, because of your unconditional surrender to Srila Prabhupada due to this immense gratitude in your heart, you are so kind and tolerant towards undeserving souls like myself. Even though I am so much swayed by my mind and senses, you have been most tolerant and are continuously providing encouragement to march on the path to attain pure devotional service.

Guru Maharaja, I fall down at your lotus feet and beg for your blessings to realize just a fraction of the mercy of Srila Prabhupada received in the form of this wonderful sanga of devotees, especially the loving and tolerant association of Jagadananda Prabhuji and Anand Vrndavana Mataji.

Your servant,
Nava Kishore dasa