Yasoda devi dasi
My dear Gurudeva, the most respected Gurudeva, Romapada Maharaja,
Please accept my humblest obeisances. All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada and your lotus feet.
The annual auspicious Vyasa-puja has come again thus giving me bliss as I once again get an opportunity to glorify Srila Prabhupada and you. At this moment, I am in anxiety and I don’t know how to express my inner state to you. I know I’m so fallen. Due to my own limitations, I failed to follow many instructions of yours from your classes. For example, only now I have started to listen to the teacher’s recording of Bhakti-sastri classes and trying to study it with difficulty.
Due to the epidemic, I haven’t had any personal association with you for nearly two years. But I have been listening to your lecture recordings. However, I don’t dare to ask questions even if I have, but I do get benefited from others’ questions. To hear your loving and spiritually powerful sound vibrations, I repeatedly play back the recordings after the class and every word pierce deep into my soul. I also pray in front of the Deity that “May I never forget the instructions and teachings of my spiritual father and do my service with the attitude of a servant of a servant, and in the mood of taking shelter and surrender.”
Following is my current situation: Due to the kindness and grace of Lord Krsna and blessings from you, my spiritual father, my mother was discharged from the hospital by the end of June last year (she had been hospitalized for five times last year). She started relying on your kind blessing and her health has improved since then. So far, she is living together at home with my old father. The old couple chant five or six rounds a day, and my father reads Bhagavad-gita As It Is every day for about half an hour, sometimes even longer. I bought a children’s drawing board to have them write Lord’s holy name on it, and they did as per what I said. That we are here today at this point is all because of kindness and grace of Lord Krsna and your kind blessings. This magical energy is also making my sister chant the holy names for three to five rounds since the beginning of this year. She seldom takes meat now, because they take prasada that I send them at least five days a week. They offer lamps to Lord Damodara every morning, they pray to the Lord, speak to the Lord in their own language, and thank the grace of Lord Krsna.
Spiritual father! You are a true representative of Lord Krsna. You came to the world only for the benefit of fallen beings and souls like me. The whole world and all living beings are in dire straits and they are all looking for a solution including me. Fortunately, my dear spiritual father! Thank you for saving me, an insignificant soul, after wandering through millions of lifetimes in different universes, species, races, and planets, I could receive the great fortune of the mercy of Lord Krsna and the opportunity to become your disciple. By surrendering unto your lotus feet, I got the seed of bhakti planted. My deep feeling is that this causeless mercy is a debt that can never be repaid. I swear to follow your instructions and teachings to serve Krsna and devotees carefully by being mindful of mistakes and offenses as far as possible.
Best wishes to my spiritual father, I wish you good health and successful preaching.
Your disciple
Yasoda devi dasi