Nityananda Pran dasa and Hemangi devi dasi

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 dear Guru Maharaja,

Please accept our humble obeisances at your most merciful lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Grace and Srila Prabhupada!

What a joyous occasion this is – the celebration of the event of your appearance in this world – for those of us who are benefitting by the presence of your krsna–bhakti! We’re awed at the thought that you have dedicated yourself in the service of Sri Guru and Gauranga for over fifty years; we see you spend every minute of your time as and in the sacred activity of service.

We are audacious in making an attempt to extol your sun-like personality with a few words from our limited vocabulary, and an even more limited grasp of spiritual matters. Yet this is good for us; not the audacity, but the attempt at extolling your sadhu nature. We borrow an analogy from Sri Vedanta-desika that when a dog licks the pure waters of the Ganges, it does not affect the pure and mighty river in any way, but it benefits the dog immensely!

All scriptures urge us to recognize the transforming potency of the dust of a pure devotee’s lotus feet. A speck of that dust (pada-raja) on the head of a conditioned soul can eliminate lifetimes worth of sins accumulated as dust (papa-raja) on the mirror of the mind (cetah-darpana) and make him a worthy citizen of the world (su-praja)! As Maharaja Prthu said:

tesam aham pada-saroja-renum
arya vaheyadhi-kiritam ayuh
yam nityada bibhrata asu papam
nasyaty amum sarva-guna bhajanti

“O respectable personalities present here, I beg the blessings of all of you that I may perpetually carry on my crown the dust of the lotus feet of such brahmanas and Vaisnavas until the end of my life. He who can carry such dust on his head is very soon relieved of all the reactions which arise from sinful life, and eventually he develops all good and desirable qualities.”

[Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.21.43]

This dust of your lotus feet are not the specks of dust from the street that are meant to be discarded; these specks of dust glitter from the ever-expanding realization of your relationship with the disciplic succession and the divine couple Sri Sri Radha-Govinda! 

pravistah karna-randhrena
svanam bhava-saroruham
dhunoti samalam krsnah
salilasya yatha sarat

“The sound incarnation of Lord Krsna, the Supreme Soul [i.e., Srimad-Bhagavatam], enters into the heart of a self-realized devotee, sits on the lotus flower of his loving relationship, and thus cleanses the dust of material association, such as lust, anger and hankering. Thus, it acts like autumnal rains upon pools of muddy water.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.8.5]

The pollen at your lotus feet are the outpouring of bhakti from the lotus of your heart (sarah-ruham) that is enlivened by the sun of Srimad-Bhagavatam (purana-arkah), the sound incarnation of Sri Krsna! Sri Govinda, the Lord of your heart, is as eager as a bee to drink the nectar of your heart and thereby drops the pollen (renu) for others to be touched by them and in turn become enlivened in bhakti. 

As audacious at it sounds, we aspire for these pollen to decorate our foreheads! May these lotus feet of yours be our goal and residence. We borrow from Srila Narottama dāsa Thakura’s yearning for Srila Rupa Gosvami’s lotus feet from his Lalasa song 1, verses 3 and 4:

sei mora rasa-nidhi sei mora banca-siddhi
sei mora vedera dharama
sei vrata, sei tapa sei mora mantra-japa
sei mora dharama-karama

“They are the perfection of rasa, and they are perfection worthy of attainment. They are the very law of the Vedic scriptures for me. They are the meaning of all my fasts and penances and my silent uttering of my mantras. They are the basis of religion and activities.”

anukula habe bidhi se-pade hoibe siddhi
nirakhiba e dui nayane
se rupa-madhuri-rasi prana-kubalaya sasi
praphullita habe nisi dine

“By the purifying process of favorable devotional service, one will attain perfection and with these two eyes be able to see. His transcendental form is shining like moonlight in my heart, and my heart therefore shines and reciprocates. In other words, the ordinary moon lights up the night, and its shine illuminates other objects; but the moon of the effulgence of the form of Sri Rupa-manjari shines into the heart and makes the heart also shine back to the spiritual sky. This moon shines not only in the nighttime, but day and night.”

Your servants,
Nityananda Pran dasa and Hemangi devi dasi