HH Romapada Swami

om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah

nama om visnu-padaya krsna-presthaya bhu-tale
srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine

namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine
nirvisesa-sunyavadi-pascatya-desa-tarine

mukam karoti vacalam pangum langhayate girim
yat-krpa tam aham vande sri gurum dina-taranam

My dear and most respected spiritual master and eternal father,

Please accept my most humble and respectful obeisances in the dust of your most merciful lotus feet! All glories to you, Srila Prabhupada!

Just as Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu is honored as maha-vadanyaya, the most munificent of all forms of the Lord, whose magnanimity manifested even beyond Krsna’s limitless kindness and mercy, likewise your vision—your mission—expansive beyond comprehension, has irrevocably captured my heart! Expressed in your own words:

Sarve sukhino bhavantu. That is the Vedic mission. Let everyone become happy. Sarve sukhino bhavantu. Let everyone be happy. And without being happy, nobody can execute Krsna consciousness. [Initiation lecture, 4 June 1969, New Vrindavan]

Due to your untiring desire to bring this vision into the lives of unknown multitudes of the most unfortunate Kali-yuga–victimized souls, bereft of knowledge of life’s goal and how to achieve it, resulting in the Western world’s “culture of no culture,” Your Divine Grace courageously ventured forth to give one and all the gift of true happiness by the means of genuine krsna-bhakti.

As one such lost soul, wandering in the darkness of ignorance in pursuit of ideals that would have led me only to a life of frustration and intractable illusion, just as in an untold number of lifetimes prior to this one, I was one of the fortunate recipients of your causeless mercy.

One fine day, as a young college student I experienced a series of events that resulted in a profound realization of “the gift of life”: access to awakening of genuine unadulterated sukha, which you had personally given to me. One fine day, by providential arrangement, in a few moments I palpably perceived many lifetimes of illusion at once being lifted from my whole being. The experience was both vivid and startling. Profound gratitude, in waves, filled my heart again and again. I knew, then and there, that I was deeply indebted to you, Srila Prabhupada, and that I must reciprocate somehow with you and assist you in your mission.

Fifty-one years later, as a committed peon soldier in your army, commissioned to carry forth your sarve sukhino bhavantu mission, I often interact with your sincere followers who express in a refrain the following sincere contemplation, although the language and mood vary from person to person:

I feel a growing yearning to go beyond the stage of mechanical performance of the vidhis of sadhana-bhakti. I know what Rupa Gosvami says on the topic, and I have faith in his words and in the bhakti process he has given. However, I feel I am not progressing, at least not in a palpable way. What to do?

Along with invoking the essential teachings of the Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, which disclose Rupa Gosvami’s siksa on how to “go further,” I feel compelled to request such persons to somehow reconnect with their primordial deep sense of gratitude, which initially lifted them from the throes of darkness into the light of devotional life. When the heart is genuinely touched by natural gratitude, impetus to move from a nondynamic, spiritually stagnant position then begins to flow again, naturally flowing along the rupanuga path for those who hold dear to their hearts those who cling tightly to Rupa Gosvami’s lotus feet.

Srila Prabhupada, for me you are the foremost representative of Rupa Gosvami!

Sarve sukhino bhavantu. That is the Vedic mission. Let everyone become happy. Sarve sukhino bhavantu. Let everyone be happy. And without being happy, nobody can execute Krsna consciousness.

I am at your feet, begging for your continued mercy with a heart filled with sincere gratitude to you.

Please keep me forever and ever engaged in your service, as a menial soldier in your mission.

Your humble servant,
Romapada Swami