Narada Rsi dasa and Adhara devi dasi

Respected Guru Maharaja,

Please accept our most humble obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Grace. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Guru Maharaja, on the auspicious day of your divine appearance, with joyful hearts we meditate on the mercy that we have received in the last several years. Please bless us so that we can truthfully account for it.

We have heard that Srimad-Bhagavatam is the mature fruit of the desire tree of Vedic literatures (nigamakalpa-taror galitaṁ phalaṁ). But this fruit is not just thrown from the top, but rather is very carefully passed on through the disciplic succession. We consider ourselves fortunate that you accepted us in this glorious disciplic succession and we have been offered this fruit. And what is the fruit?

While answering the 6 questions of the sages of Naimisaranya, Suta Gosvami summarizes and says,

tasmād ekena manasā
bhagavān sātvatāṁ patiḥ

śrotavyaḥ kīrtitavyaś ca
dhyeyaḥ pūjyaś ca nityadā

“Therefore, with one-pointed attention, one should constantly hear about, glorify, remember and worship the Personality of Godhead, who is the protector of the devotees.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.14)

Srila Prabhupada writes in purport, “The tendency to glorify others or hear others must be turned to the real object of glorification — the Supreme Being.”

We see that how this empowerment of Bhagavatam is gradually making its way into the steel-framed hearts of Kali yuga souls like us. The programs of deity worship, chanting in the morning, morning and evening hearing, opportunity to discuss glorification of the Lord with superiors, peers and new comers, gratitude journals, accountability, services suiting our natures – all this is gradually taking our attention to the glorification of the Lord, the direction that Srimad-Bhagavatam wants to take us. Who could have imagined that something starting from attraction to “free prasadam” can have the potency to bring us here. It appears that Bhagavatam has cheated us out of our cheating mentality! It would have been almost impossible for us to take to this process just by knowing the theory. Many people, at least in India, know that the process of this age is ‘nama sankirtana’, but who is sincerely striving to follow it? These messages are best preserved through the means of culture and we both got a lot of strength from observing the lives of those who are dedicated to this process. Kindly accept our heartfelt gratitude for placing us in an environment where we can see these principles followed very strictly, thereby giving us confidence on the pertinence of these principles and also enthusiasm to practice it in our own personal lives.

Although the fruit is very potent and it is being offered to us very meticulously and generously, we regret our stubbornness in accepting it. So on the auspicious occasion of your divine appearance, we beg for your blessings to become better recipients of the gifts that Your Divine Grace has been kindly bestowing upon us.

Please forgive us for our offenses,

Your servants,
Narada Rsi dasa and Adhara devi dasi