Sacimata devi dasi

Dear Guru Maharaja,

Please accept my most humble obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Each year, as I set out to write a Vyasa-puja offering to you, my heart ponders on what offering I can make to my Guru Maharaja. This year’s Festival of the Holy Name messages have stirred my heart and have stayed with me the longest so far. During the seminar, the class that you gave on “indifference” to Krsna has both intimidated me and shaken me out of my comfort zone of indifference to Krsna. It was a very scary situation to realize that I have been indifferent to Krsna for so many years on the pretext of performing devotional service in Krsna consciousness! I was beating on the empty husk all these years with no result. The other lectures that followed were so much hope-instilling, especially on the topic of Srila Rupa Gosvami. You explained that Srila Rupa Gosvami’s exclusive educational objective for each and every one of us was to gradually develop and reach the stage of love of Godhead from wherever we are. This is the roadmap we have access to. We are fortunate to have received Srila Rupa Gosvami’s compassion. My chanting falters every now and then, but one thing I am practicing every day is to remember to recite Nectar of Instruction, Text 7 and pray to Srila Rupa Gosvami to bestow his causeless mercy upon me for developing a taste for chanting the pure holy name of the Lord.

syat krsna-nama-caritadi-sitapy avidya-
pittopatapta-rasanasya na rocika nu
kintv adarad anudinam khalu saiva justa
svadvi kramad bhavati tad-gada-mula-hantri

“The holy name, character, pastimes, and activities of Krsna are all transcendentally sweet like sugar candy. Although the tongue of one afflicted by the jaundice of avidya [ignorance] cannot taste anything sweet, it is wonderful that simply by carefully chanting these sweet names every day, a natural relish awakens within his tongue, and his disease is gradually destroyed at the root.” [Nectar of Instruction 7]

Thank you, Guru Maharaja, for your constant painstaking efforts to instill in each and every one of us the importance and need for chanting the pure holy name of the Lord. Praying at your lotus feet that I may continue to pursue my endeavors to chant the pure holy name of the Lord following your instructions.

Your aspiring servant,
Sacimata devi dasi