Ananda Vrndavana devi dasi
Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my most humble obeisances at the dust of Your Divine lotus feet. All Glories to Your Divine Grace. All Glories to His Divine Grace, Srila Prabhupada.
Your Vyasa-puja is the most joyful event in our lives. In this day and age of social media, where everyone and everything unworthy is glorified, it is refreshingly nice to meditate and glorify what is really genuine and worthy of glorification in this material world – a genuine devotee of the Lord and His exemplary life of service and kindness to all living entities. Just to be a witness to such a life is a rarely achieved blessing, and to actually be a part of Your life (however insignificant) by being a recipient of Your mercy, and to be able to render service unto You, is nothing short of a miracle for a tiny soul like me. Today is the day that I celebrate this miracle and meditate on how it continues to transform my life from the inside out.
As I continue to live in Indore, far from your vapu association, I still can feel Your love and shelter strongly in my life and in the lives of so many devotees here. Your classes are the lifeline of our devotional creeper, and we hear together every morning day after day. It has been more than eight years now, and as we navigate individual and collective challenges as a community, Your morning classes always show us the way. I can see Your empowerment in the lives of many devotees here. The taste for hearing, chanting and Vaisnava seva is becoming more intense and steadier, and able to withstand the ups and downs of material life by Your mercy. It is very inspiring to witness the lives of all the amazing Vaisnavas in my life.
On a personal front, the last two years have been a roller coaster ride and unexpected developments. As a family, we have had to stay apart for extended periods of time, and we also faced health and other challenges. Yet Guru Maharaja, the undercurrent of Krsna consciousness in our lives, makes the road not so bumpy and we are all seeing this as an opportunity to go closer in our exclusive shelter of Krsna. In Manah-siksa, Srila Raghunath dasa Gosvami speaks so many wonderful instructions to the mind, in his own sweet and endearing way. It’s very inspiring and sacred when such exalted Vaisnava acaryas reveal their inner dialogues to us, for our benefit. I grapple with my mind in all sorts of ways Guru Maharaja, but Your instructions on Manah-siksa give me strength. The fear and insecurities that drive my desire for fame, cheap gossip and pride are insidious. They go deep down in my conditioned self, and are rooted in innumerable lifetimes of crazy ignorant thoughts and actions. Yet, if we continue with the process of devotional service, and increase our attachment to guru and Vaisnavas, and the process of bhakti, then the creeper of bhakti takes root and continues to grow in our hearts, gently presenting us with another alternative dimension of life. Thank you for this gift of bhakti and for watering and protecting it all these years through Your instructions and mercy.
Wishing and praying for Your association and service, life after life!
Your insignificant servant,
Ananda Vrndavana devi-dasi