Gaurasundara dasa and Lavanya-keli devi dasi

Beloved Guru Maharaja,

Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to you and Srila Prabhupada.

We bow down to your lotus feet and transcendental vani that you vibrate which removes darkness from our life and sustains the lamp of bhakti within us. You carry Srila Prabhupada’s teachings like a shining lamp of the greater transcendental lighthouse (dipa stambha) that has been installed by followers of Mahaprabhu in almost every shore of this vast material ocean of nescience that repeatedly keeps us in andha tamas or dense darkness born out of our ignorance. The waves of this samsara sagara topple us up and down mercilessly in various forms, sometimes as high tide up in the air and sometimes as a larger whirlpool that drags us down. The adhyatma nauka or the transcendental boat captained by exemplified and sincere followers of Srila Prabhupada allow us to come on board and sail us in midst of the gushing winds of material existence, onto the shore of land of bhakti which we reverentially call as the Govinda dhama or the land of Govinda where uninterrupted and unmotivated krsna-katha, Krsna kirtana and Krsna gana-nartana happens in the loving association of other dear bhaktas. Though we know you and Srila Prabhupada are navigating us to that destination we are unable to realize that in toto and we are incompetent to appreciate the sacrifices you, Srila Prabhupada and other sadhus undertake on a day-to-day basis to uplift us from the puddle of filth we are in. Nevertheless, we make our puny attempt to glorify you and Srila Prabhupada in our broken language out of a shade of love that we have for you. Kindly accept our vandanam.

Last year, we tried to follow your instruction to preach to the people in general and strengthen our bhakti within. There have been challenges like family situations and social situations that impeded our progress. Yet we want to strive with the only hope that your divine vani is with us. Lavanya-Keli has been busy taking care of our 2-year-old son, Nitai and I try to help her in the ways I can. I have been trying to regularly associate with bhaktas at the local temple here in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. I try to do temple deity seva once a week along with the home deity service for our beloved deities you installed, Sri Sri Nitai Saci suta and Sri Sri Laksmi Nrsimha deva and Sri Prahlada. They have been kind to us by allowing us to serve Them. I am attending bhakti-vaibhava class by His Grace Bhayahari prabhu twice a week. The local ISKCON temple allows me to give classes at the temple and other preaching centers on their schedule. In addition to that I am trying to start a weekly Sunday class at a nearby big temple where a lot of people visit for darshan. Last year, we had 3 deaths in our family including my father and we had some tension in our married life. We thank His Grace Nityananda Pran Prabhu to help us go through those difficult situations and put us back in the bhakti track.

We pray to you that we continue to serve you in whatever tiny way possible. We look forward to associating with you at Vrndavana yatra this year and get to listen to the sweet pastimes of Sri Sri Radha Krsna.

In your beloved service always,

Your aspiring servants,
Gaurasundara dasa and Lavanya-keli devi das