Narada Rsi dasa and Adhara devi dasi

Respected Guru Maharaja,

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

Vyasa-puja is the most special day in the life of a disciple. A day where the disciple takes association of several Vaisnavas with the object of glorifying the spiritual master and the mercy that the disciplic succession has offered. Kindly bless us so that we can account for the descending mercy truthfully.

Process and teachings given by Srila Prabhupada are so very powerful that practically we can challenge any atheist and in short time dismantle their atheistic claims in front of a neutral audience. We may prove many things from scriptures and tell stalwart examples like the compassion of Vasudeva Datta, the humility of Haridas Thakura, the determination of Dhruva Maharaja or the uncanny ability of Srila Prabhupada to spread Krsna consciousness. We can say that how by devotion to Krsna, all good qualities manifest. This all sounds good, but what really matters is whether we prove these teachings in our lives. If these teachings are not manifested in our lives, nobody will believe us. It will be like a magician claiming so many things, but when it comes to actual magic show, he cannot even remove his own hat.

In our Initiation lecture, Your Divine Grace mentioned that, “Disciple is an instrument in the hand of the Spiritual Master. And what is the use of being a blunt instrument”. It is dawning up on me that a sharp instrument means one endowed with the requisite Vaisnava qualities. This is what Srila Prabhupada says about his followers – “He’s a perfect gentleman. That’s all. You cannot find any fault in him.” This is what Your Divine Grace stands for, this is the hallmark of your sincere followers and this is what you always expect from every one of us.

I am grateful to Your Divine Grace for providing a platform for us to cultivate these qualities. Saintly association, refined examples, and opportunity to discuss Srila Prabhupadas books is giving us required illumination, encouragement, protection and empowerment to move ahead. Problems in life look tailor made for us to develop humility and dependence on the Lord. I remember that whenever we approached Your Divine Grace with these problems, we were directed to become better Vaisnavas. In one class we heard from you divine grace that how while traveling you takes a snap shot of the consciousness of the devotees and the devotees who make the maximum advancement are those who have great love and attachment to their superiors. To illustrate you mentioned about our teachers saying – “Just by attachment to their superiors, they are making rapid spiritual advancement”. So the secret of developing good qualities is to develop deep attachment to those who are giving us Krsna. Is that attachment possible in this time and age? Definitely, else sastras will not recommend this process. How come in little time we see followers of Srila Prabhupada making light-years of progress? It was because of their ardent love towards His Divine Grace.

The goal is high and our disqualifications are many. Though we can speak the loftiest of philosophy, we get knocked down by silliest of distraction. On the day of your divine Vyasa-puja day, we humbly seek your forgiveness for not living up to the mark and seek your blessings so that we can diligently cultivate Vaisnava qualities while carefully guarding against the tendency to find faults.

Your servants,
Narada Rsi dasa and Adhara devi dasi