Nanda Gopala dasa
om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya
cakṣur-unmīlitaṁ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ
nama om visnu-padaya krsna-presthaya bhu-tale
srimate romapada-svamin iti namine
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
My dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my prostrated obeisances at your lotus feet. All glories to your Holiness and all glories to His divine grace Srila Prabhupada!
It is a great honor and an undeserving opportunity to be able to write this offering. Writing this offering in itself is a purifying experience. Srimad-Bhagavatam says that great saintly persons leave behind a boat for the conditioned souls to cross over the ocean of material nescience. Our beloved Srila Prabhupada left behind a boat in the form of International Society for Krsna consciousness and his Bhaktivedanta purports. In addition, he also left behind empowered captains who can navigate this boat to its intended destination, back home back to Godhead. Without a captain, reaching this most difficult destination is next to impossible. Just as Krsna is the resting place of all contradictions, Bhaktivedanta purports also have many contradicting instructions suitable to time-place-circumstances. Without proper guidance, one might get lost due to one’s own material weakness just as Arjuna got lost although equipped with Vedic knowledge. Sri Krsna helped to bring him back on track. Similarly, we are fortunate to have pure devotees like yourself whose words are as good as Krsna’s to put us on the right track.
Having been serving Srila Prabhupada so dedicatedly for the past 5 decades, you have been a guardian of the pure disciplic line. In Srimad-Bhagavatam, Prabhupada writes, “The stage of pure devotion is attained by sincerely serving a pure devotee of the Lord. The first condition of devotional service to the Lord is therefore to be a servant of a pure devotee, and this condition is fulfilled by the statement ‘reception of the dust of the lotus feet of a pure devotee who also served another pure devotee.’ That is the way of pure disciplic succession, or devotional parampara.” By serving the dust of your lotus feet, I hope to qualify one day as a good disciple who pleases the guru-parampara and Sri Krsna.
The past year has been a wonderful year despite many inconveniences due to the pandemic. I was able to participate in japa retreats and parikrama virtually. Your lectures on damodara-lila and Uddhava-gita and many more are so nectarian filled with our acaryas’ commentaries. You spend so much time in gathering those commentaries meticulously, assimilating them and sharing them with us for our benefit. It is our great fortune that we get access to these rare jewels so easily. Otherwise, I have no hope of coming across these precious gems. By your mercy which comes through hearing and endeavoring to apply those teachings, I am confident of making progress in Krsna consciousness. Although very slow, when I look at the rearview mirror, certainly, I have come a long way. I accredit my progress solely to your instruction and the slow rate to my own material encumbrances. On this auspicious day of your appearance anniversary, I seek your blessings to become more serious in my sadhana and be able to serve you just as many of your disciples do.
My sincere prayers to Sri Sri Radha Madan-mohan that may Their Lordships bless you with good health and remove all obstacles in your path to serving Srila Prabhupada.
Hare Krsna!
Your servant,
Nanda Gopala dasa