Yamuna devi dasi
Dearest Srila Romapada Swami,
Please accept my most humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to You on this most auspicious day. You glorify your Guru Maharaja and spread his message all over the entire world – literally!
In the study of Nectar of Devotion, one learns about the detailed instructions for pure devotional service. In the seventh chapter titled “Evidence Regarding Devotional Principles” it speaks of the importance of accepting the shelter of a bona fide spiritual master. Srila Prabhupada is always sure to add the words “bona fide” because there are so many gurus, teachers and leaders that are not qualified to have the position of authority and he wanted to warn about this. Srila Prabhupada writes on Page 59 “Any person who is seriously desirous of achieving real happiness must seek out a bona fide spiritual master and take shelter of him by initiation. The qualification of a spiritual master is that he must have realized the conclusion of the scriptures by deliberation and arguments and thus be able to convince others of these conclusions. Such great personalities who have taken shelter of the Supreme Godhead, leaving aside all the material considerations, are to be understood as bona fide spiritual masters. Everyone should try to find such a bona fide spiritual master in order to fulfill his mission of life, which is to transfer himself to the plane of spiritual bliss”.
Wow, I am so fortunate to have found such a bona fide spiritual master and to have your shelter by being given initiation. I do not understand how such a hopeless soul as mine has this great fortune. When I hear you teach deep spiritual topics so eloquently and in a clear way that we can understand, it makes me so grateful for your shelter. I wish I could take complete advantage of all of the classes that you broadcast every single day. When I listen, it is clear to me that you have realized the conclusions of the scriptures as Srila Prabhupada stated above – and you convince others of these conclusions by your clear audio and visual classes. You are a perfect example of all of the qualities of a Vaisnava that we read about and give us an example to follow and try to serve.
One of my favorite things you shared this year was your reading of Giriraja Swami’s “I’ll Build You a Temple”. You read with such joy and enthusiasm that it gave us an intimate window in how we should appreciate our spiritual family. You glorified Giriraja Swami, how nicely he was glorifying your god brothers and god sisters and it becomes an exponential growth of appreciation. This only made me feel closer to both you and Giriraja Swami and Srila Prabhupada. The gratitude for being in this family swelled in my heart as you uproariously laughed at the scenarios in the book.
Guru Maharaja, I pray that I can be an instrument to share this Krsna consciousness movement with as many people as I can. I pray that by your mercy and blessings and shelter I will be able to continue on my spiritual path and have the strength to dive deeper into my practice and my studies. I pray that I can somehow serve you in some small way. Thank you for keeping a little, fallen soul like me in your shelter.
Sincerely trying to serve,
Yamuna devi dasi.