Sankhadhari dasa and Paramesvari devi dasi
om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri gurave namah
nama om visnu-padaya krsna-presthaya bhu-tale
srimate romapada-svamin iti namine
mukam karoti vacalam pangum langhayate girim
yat-krpa tam aham vande sri gurum dina-taranam
Our most dear and most respected Guru Maharaja and eternal father,
Please kindly accept our most humble obeisances in the dust of your merciful divine lotus feet. All glories to your Divine Grace! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Dear Guru Maharaja, when everything turned upside down due to the pandemic, your causeless mercy continued to flow more intensely. Many people’s lives have fallen apart because of Covid and so has mine. However, many people whose lives were thus affected didn’t have shelter and fell to the position of anatha, but Your Holiness has given me divine shelter opening the doors to becoming sanatha. Without your protection, I wouldn’t even have survived the pandemic.
You are so kind to fallen souls like me, taking extreme risk of traveling far and wide in America simply to give your association during these dark times. You are compassionate and magnanimous.
It appears that many people are suffering three-fold miseries and foolishly trying their best to counteract them with their own effort. I’m also suffering the three-fold miseries day in and day out, being born in the mode of ignorance. I am simply foolish and my eyes are blinded by the darkness of false ego, which causes me to think of myself as an independent doer and enjoyer. Due to my uncivilized background, I did not understand your glories in spite of having the opportunity. Kindly excuse my offenses.
Srila Prabhupada writes in Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.31.16 purport: “Therefore there is no possibility of one’s being situated in his own position unless he is blessed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Unless he is enlightened with the supreme knowledge, one has to undergo the severe penalties of the hard struggle for existence in the material nature. The spiritual master is therefore the mercy manifestation of the Supreme Person. The conditioned soul has to take direct instruction from the spiritual master, and thus he gradually becomes enlightened to the path of Krsna consciousness. The seed of Krsna consciousness is sown within the heart of the conditioned soul, and when one hears instruction from the spiritual master, the seed fructifies, and one’s life is blessed.”
Your mercy is essential for my sustenance. Just as Jagai-Madhai were delivered by the mercy of Sri Nityananda Prabhu—the spiritual master being the representative of Lord Nityananda and I being the fit representative of Jagai-Madhai—I pray at your divine lotus feet for your continued compassion on this fallen soul. Consider me as a very insignificant servant and therefore worthy of Your divine compassion. Thank you very much, Guru Maharaja.
Your servant,
Sankhadhari dasa
Paramesvari devi dasi’s offering:
Guru Maharaja, on this auspicious day of your Vyasa-puja, I would like to thank you from the core of my heart for your tireless, selfless service to humanity as a service to Srila Prabhupada. Especially in this pandemic, you are traveling like a bird flying from one place to another, and never complaining of tiredness. Rather, even after travel, you are ready to spread the glories of Krsna that evening itself. This shows your service mood and your commitment and dedication to Srila Prabhupada! I feel blessed having such a spiritual father in my life who inspires me with his words, actions, and his own example. It is not that you don’t care about the situation, but you do take precautions and take good care of your health to use every moment of your life in service to Srila Prabhupada.
Guru Maharaja, my heart melts when seeing your humility, patience, and tolerance. Sometimes, it becomes hard to adjust to our own family members with whom we are living every day. But you are such a gentle and kind personality that every few days, you live with different people, with different mentalities, and a different atmosphere, and yet, you always adjust, rarely complain or correct (unless you feel that strong relationship, which is to protect the other person). As you always say, I have so many children, which is so true. Not only your disciples, but you see Srila Prabhupada’s whole family as your children. You teach us to see the same, and you love all of us equally. Unless you feel that we are your children, how can you tolerate all our foolishness, stubbornness, arrogance…… so on and still adjust with us and bestow your mercy upon us? Thank you so much, Guru Maharaja, for always keeping us in your shelter.
Guru Maharaja, this year I have gone (and am still going) through many hardships. At one point, I was feeling like I have nobody, and I couldn’t really feel the shelter of Krsna. I felt I may go mad and end my life. As you always say, Krsna is so kind, I was remembering those words and continuing to take deeper shelter of Krsna’s holy name, and sitting in front of the altar and talking to you, the disciplic succession and begging you to please accept my appeal. What has helped address my heart and given me hope against hope is, as always, going through your lectures and the study of Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita—first and second chapters—and discussing with children. One fine day, when I heard that you are visiting Washington D.C., I was so happy that I wanted to be engaged in your service fully so that I may forget everything for some time. Thank you so much for your mercy, Guru Maharaja. When you came here, and I shared some things with you, you simply said I am a worrier. You said, “you don’t have to be a warrior, but don’t be a worrier.” With this, I felt I want to be a warrior against maya and be a tiny instrument in service of Guru Maharaja, rather than being worried and doing disservice to you. Whenever you were calling me a worrier, I felt you are removing my worries and giving me strength to face reality. Thank you so much, Guru Maharaja, for all the kindness that you shower upon me.
Sacikumar Prabhu and Prema-tarangini Mataji always have a special role in our life. They are always there for us in pleasure and pain, and tolerating us mercifully. Even recently before moving to Florida, very mercifully, they stayed with us for two days. It was a very strength-giving association and we shared very happy moments. We are very thankful to Mataji and Prabhu for their mercy on these insignificant souls. Children were also very happy; after a long time, they got to be with Mataji and Prabhu. Thank you so much, Guru Maharaja, for giving us all these facilities in our life for our progress. Guru Maharaja, for Balarama Jayanti, I was thinking of sharing the importance of Lord Balarama’s plough with the children, and I was searching for lectures. I found Radhanath Swami Maharaja’s speech on this, which made me realize what you do and how many gallons of blood you shed to bring us to the point of pure devotional service.
Why does Krsna carry His flute? To simply attract and charm the hearts of all living beings to His loving service. And why does Balaramaji carry a plough? What do we do with a plough? We clear the road. We prepare the field so that the seed will grow. We use the plough for either of those purposes—in agriculture, and even to make roads—to clear the obstacles. As the original spiritual master, Balaramaji is personified with His plough for the purpose of… first of all, the guru ploughs our hearts. His words are like a plough to make our hearts nice and soft so that the seed of devotion can grow and be attracted to the sweet sound of Krsna’s flute. Now, we must understand that when the dirt of the ground is very dry, it has to be ploughed and that plowing may not be a very pleasurable thing for the earth; the ground is being ripped apart. Just being ripped and ripped and ripped. So, this is the purpose of a guru: to rip our hearts apart until it becomes very soft; to just plough it, plough it and plough it until all the hardness of the false ego and pride and illusion and lust and anger and greed go away. He has to make our hearts soft so the seed of love can grow in it. That’s what Balarama’s plough is for. Through His representative, the spiritual master, He softens and prepares the field of our heart for the seed of love to be attracted to the sweet flute of Sri Krsna. And as far as clearing the road, the spiritual master clears all obstacles from our spiritual path just like one uses a plough for that purpose. And the spiritual master is considered to be the representative of Sri Balaramaji.
After reading this, I understood a little bit what it takes for a Spiritual Master to bring us to be in relationship with Krsna. Thank you so so much, Guru Maharaja, for accepting this fool as your insignificant servant. Guru Maharaja, I beg at your lotus feet, please kindly forgive me for all my foolishness and kindly keep me in the dust of your merciful lotus feet.
We are very thankful to all the devotees—superiors, peers, and juniors—for being inspirational personalities in our lives to move forward in our Krsna consciousness. Thank you so much Guru Maharaja for giving us this wonderful sanga and loving relationships. Thank you so much, Guru Maharaja, for giving me the opportunity to write this offering for my purification. Hare Krsna.
Your insignificant servant,
Paramesvari devi dasi