Syama-kunda dasa and Vinodini devi dasi
Dear Guru Maharaja,
I have had the fortune of Your Divine Grace coming in my life. For bestowing this fortune, please accept my prostrated obeisances at your lotus feet, which are the shelter for those troubled by six vices and also the shelter for those who are self-realized.
Guru Maharaja, in one of your lectures, you said that Srila Prabhupada is like a cotton ball. Each disciple of Srila Prabhupada takes a fibre or a portion of the cotton ball and makes it into a wick. Thus, there are many aspects to Srila Prabhupada and each disciple takes one or some of these features/emphasis points and expands it further. I find that like Srila Prabhupada, you too are a multi-faceted person. The more and more we get to know you, the more is our resolve to enhance our relationship with you. As part of this Vyasa-puja offering, I’d like to focus on a few of these aspects.
Service
This year, during the Dvaraka yatra, I was a witness to some wonderful loving exchanges. At the end of one of the lectures, as you were going back to your room at Hotel Sundar Palace in Dvaraka, Nityananda Pran Prabhu approached you and offered you a few tulasi leaves that he had received from the Dvarakadisa temple which you graciously accepted. You have taught that the disciple should always have the interest of the spiritual master in his mind and here was a live example of the disciple, out of love for his spiritual master, keeping his spiritual master in his consciousness, amidst even simple activities. This was a very touching exchange for me, although I was just an observer. What relief and what exhilaration it will be to neglect the mind’s demands and instead focus on the pleasure of the spiritual master!
On another day, as Nityananda Pran Prabhu was entering the lecture hall during the yatra, Madhumangala Prabhu quickly found out a chair which was empty and before Prabhu had to search for a chair, he offered a chair, knowing that Nityananda Pran Prabhu will be in discomfort without a chair. This was another display of the service attitude that you have imbued your disciples and followers with. In this regard, I recollect Nityananda Pran Prabhu sharing your exchange with him in which you said, “Your life and my life – is for service.” Hearing this exchange is in itself very purifying. However, observing devotees who have this principle enshrined in their heart due to your mercy, makes us want to eagerly connect to you and the devotees all the more. These are just two of the many examples where your mood of service has been absorbed by your loving disciples.
Having observed many such examples of service and commitment from devotees across the globe, I often wonder, “All the truths of devotional service are hidden in the heart of a bhagavata. But, for a common man to know the heart of such a bhagavata is near impossible. How can I, conditioned by the modes of material nature, access the heart of a bhagavata?” Pondering on this and observing the loving exchanges described above, I began to appreciate and feel a connection to Srila Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami’s refrain in every chapter of Sri Caitanya-caritamrta:
sri-rupa-raghunatha-pade yara asa
caitanya-caritamrta kahe krsnadasa
“Praying at the lotus feet of Sri Rupa and Sri Raghunatha, always desiring their mercy, I, Krsnadasa, narrate Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, following in their footsteps.”
These exchanges between you and your disciples helped me to appreciate the principle that to connect to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, one needs both the Guru (as exemplified by Rupa Gosvami) and the disciple who is taking guidance from senior devotees (Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, in this regard). What is the value of this world without Rupa and Raghunatha; or equivalently for me, what is the value of this world without the spiritual master and his disciples? Spiritual life is incomplete without the Supreme Lord, the spiritual master and his disciples. You gave your disciples the gift of a mentoring system and the association of your highly inspired disciples so that together we can serve you, the disciplic succession and Sri Krsna. And to establish this, you have sacrificed a lot by expending your energy for our edification. Be it in considering what would be valuable for devotees while preparing for your classes, or choosing the places you visit to extend your association or the services you give us or the details that you share with your disciples so as to train their consciousness, in all of these activities is your kindness manifested as your service. Many times, I have observed how you relish the association of your God-brothers during the GBC meetings. When we observe you relishing the principle that you are trying to pass on to us, it gives us a model for inspiration – since you have already touched our hearts by your purity and sacrifice, your inspirations can make way into our hearts.
Simplicity and Humility
This year, we had the opportunity to serve Your Divine Grace when you were taking Ayurvedic medication. One disciple of His Holiness Jayapataka Maharaja brought vegetables periodically for our service. He had been instructed by His Holiness Jayapataka Maharaja to take good care of his God-brothers who would come to that city. When you got to know of his service, you were very pleased with him and took time to speak to him whenever he visited. You value the services rendered by devotees and don’t take them for granted.
Often, when I used to pay obeisances in the early morning, you would fold your palms, nod your head and would sometimes say, “Krsna Krsna” – so sweet is the display of true humility. And sometimes there would just be a nod, while at other times, there would be no acknowledgment at all. There are so many dimensions to these simple but profound exchanges! You are teaching, by your example, how to receive respect and service and how to train a disciple. From scripture, we read that the pastimes of Krsna keep repeating, and yet the devotees participating in these pastimes relish new nectar in the repetition of these pastimes. This seems so illogical for a conditioned, material mind. However, after experiencing exchanges such as paying obeisances to you, we feel like repeating them again and again. If repetition of simple activities like serving you can give so much nectar, definitely the repetition of Krsna’s pastimes can also give nectar, what then to speak of the repetition of Krsna’s holy name. Thus, your service and the purity of Your Divine Grace open the door to understand transcendental truths beyond material comprehension.
In the morning, I would hold the ginger tea flask in one hand and the morning drink tumbler in the other. Noticing it, you kept the door open before I entered so that it was easy for me to keep the items without struggling to open the door – a spiritual master serving the disciple! What attention to minute details!
One time during a GBC meeting in Mumbai, one of your God-brothers wanted to meet you. He asked me to check if he could visit your room at that time. When I expressed your God-brother’s wish, you agreed and immediately went to his room instead! Your God-brother exclaimed, “Maharaja, I could have come to your room!” You replied, “Never mind,” and began your discussions with him. No high airs about yourself, no false pretence – such is your down-to-earth simplicity.
One time, when I was a student, I visited Chicago to attend programs conducted by you during Christmas. I stayed at the temple asrama for a few days. One evening, I packed my sleeping bag and kept it on the sidewalk to board onto a van to move to another devotee’s house where your program was scheduled for the next few days. After keeping my bags on the sidewalk, I went upstairs to bring your luggage down. You too came down quickly. I first loaded your luggage as quickly as possible. And as I turned back to pick up my sleeping bag, you were there right behind me, holding my sleeping bag and helped put it in the trunk of the van! Service, simplicity and humility are not something that you just preach – you live by them.
Chanting of the holy name
One time during the Ayurvedic medication visit this year, when you went for consulting the doctor in the hospital in the city, we had to wait for 1.5 hours. You had just arrived in India and you expressed that you were jetlagged. You were given a room to be seated and wait while I waited outside. The door to your room was closed and I could get a glimpse of you through a small opening in the curtain to the window of that room. As I peeped through (pardon me for doing so), I observed you chanting intensely and with feeling. After so many years of chanting, there was no familiarity with chanting in you. It was not done as a chore. I felt that you were chanting to connect to Krsna. I pray that this image remains with me.
A similar image of Nityananda Pran Prabhu chanting at our apartment in Bangalore is enshrined in my mind. Prabhu chanted clearly and with purpose, not rushing through. I wish to follow in the footsteps of Your Divine Grace and the wonderful devotees around the world. I do not have any taste for the holy name. Please bestow the taste for the holy name.
These are just a few of your wonderful qualities. Over the past few months, I have been receiving daily sadhana reports from a few devotees. I get to know many other qualities and sacrifices of Your Divine Grace through these devotees. While reading their reports, I am a witness to how their hearts are softening by being connected to you. I am thankful to the devotees for giving me a window to the spiritual world. Likewise, as I was reviewing the Vyasa-puja offerings of the Chinese devotees, I was moved by their simplicity and soft-heartedness. In India, there is a belief that Chinese are heartless people who are bound to meaningless duties due to years of Confucianism being the dominant way of thought. Whether that is true or not, anybody reading their offerings will be moved by their candour, sincerity and genuine feelings of dependence on you. Thank you for these opportunities for service, for it is such opportunities that give me a window to the huge variety of devotee’s feelings towards Krsna and the spiritual master.
sri-rupa-raghunatha-caranera ei bala
yanra smrte siddha haya vanchita-sakala
“The lotus feet of Sri Rupa Gosvami and Raghunatha dasa Gosvami are my source of strength. Remembering their lotus feet can fulfill all one’s desires.” (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila, Chapter Eight, verse 84)
Your divine grace and the devotees are my source of strength. What is the value of a life without the association, remembrance and service of the spiritual master and the devotees? I pray to you to grant this opulence of association, remembrance and service of the spiritual master and the devotees and to make me worthy to receive this opulence and cherish it.
Seeking to be established at your lotus feet,
Syama-kunda dasa