Yamuna Jivana dasa and Sri Radhika devi dasi
Yamuna Jivana dasa’s offering:
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
My most dear and respected Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my humble and prostrated obeisances unto your merciful lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Grace! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
At the ripe age of 77, you traverse the globe tirelessly. Witnessing the burden of your luggage as you glide from airport to airport touches our hearts. What to speak of the weight of care you carry for those who have fortunately crossed your path!? Incessant sacrifices!
According to the Gopis, ‘tava kathamrtam tapta-jivanam’ is delivered by the most merciful – ‘bhuri-da janah’. You deliver such precious, other-worldly vani in astounding fashion and regularity – every morning and evening – with serenity and infused with deep devotional realizations. Relentless kirtanam!
We get to observe and appreciate your expert personalized training through thoughtful service assignments based on one’s psycho-physical nature. You keep your disciples busy to help us grow attached to you, to seva and to Krsna. Your follow-up with every service is impeccable. Radical personalism!
The multitude and variety of services you are involved in (or inspire) is impressive and exemplary – from college preaching, to Body-Mind-Spirit retreats, to 2nd generation youth cultivation, to facilitating Deity worship training and expertise. I have never seen you waste time, nor are you rushed to complete any service. Incredible presence!
With straw in my teeth, I offer you my heart-felt pranams. May the currency of our relationship – your instructions, teachings and example – descend ever so deeply into my offense-ridden and rotten consciousness. Your love and kindness are my hope.
Your aspiring servant,
Yamuna Jivana dasa
Sri Radhika devi dasi’s offering:
My dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Your Divine Grace! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
This year has been especially meaningful for me to connect with you via recording Srila Prabhupada’s memoirs into audiobooks for you. Of all the services I’ve ever rendered, this has been the most intimate, for it is only between us. Thank you for the opportunity to be packed up tight with Srila Prabhupada and you in this way. In the last 22 years, you have expertly fanned any little spark of devotion I’ve exhibited, to provide me meaning and purpose in life, including encouraging me to learn and share better ways of communicating.
Recently, I had the opportunity to follow your travel route across the globe from Naperville to Singapore to Sri Lanka. Gaining a visceral experience, in my body, of what it takes to maintain such a travel schedule deepened my appreciation for you. Although I’m only in my mid forties, it was hard for me to keep up with your pace. Your non-stop marathon, in service to Srila Prabhupada, in what your doctor terms “your last quarter”, is awe-inspiring.
The Sri Lanka yatra was very meaningful for me. I resonated very deeply with the desolate condition of Sita devi (the jiva) while she was in captivity. Although I grew up in Delhi, which is only 180 kms from Vrndavana, a quarter century ago, maya’s snares had attracted me to a bleak land, many oceans away. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, I was in a very dark mental and emotional space.
Hanuman exerted great effort and exhibited immense persistence in finding Sita devi to bring Rama nama to her. Similarly, Srila Prabhupada and you are immensely sacrificing to give me the gift of Sri nama Prabhu. Like Gopa Kumar, I do not want to be ungrateful by not realizing the fullness of the gift you are bestowing upon me. More than any tangible service I can render, my greatest opportunity to express gratitude to you is in each pregnant moment when my consciousness comes in contact with this most precious gift of yours, Sri nama Prabhu.
Interestingly, after Rama nama was brought to her, Sita devi continued to stay amidst the raksasi’s. Your vapu is not going to remain with me forever through the trials of this world, but Sri nama Prabhu is my unwavering shelter and my unfailing connection with you.
Just like Hanuman won the trust of Sita devi (the jiva), through your character and fidelity, you have managed to win my trust so I am willing to follow you to places I never dreamt of Singapore, Haridwar, Sri Lanka, and Hampi, to name a few.
In the coming year, please bless me to grow in my reverence and gratitude to Srila Prabhupada and thereby you as his beloved son, by diving deeply into Srila Prabhupada’s biographies and memoirs, as well as serving his diety form.
Your daughter,
Sri Radhika devi dasi