Sarvabhauma dasa
om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri gurave namah
“I was born in the darkest ignorance, and my spiritual master opened my eyes with the torch of knowledge. I offer my respectful obeisances unto him.”
Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Seeking your blessings to express my gratitude for giving me shelter at the dust of your lotus feet and for being there in my life. You have opened my eyes towards transcendence by giving transcendental knowledge, therefore you are my master lifetime after life time.
Due to being part and parcel of Supreme Lord who is the reservoir of all pleasures, I have been trying to seek out pleasures eternally. But due to my impudence I have been searching for that in a wrong place called material world. I have been wandering from species to species, one realm to another realm, all around the material world. But I was never satisfied. I never got the taste of permanent happiness anywhere. I was unintelligent and not fortunate enough to understand that to seek permanent happiness one must seek out and take shelter of lotus feet of a bona fide spiritual master.
tasmad gurum prapadyeta
jijnasuh sreya uttamam
sabde pare ca nisnatam
brahmany upasamasrayam
“Therefore any person who seriously desires real happiness must seek a bona fide spiritual master and take shelter of him by initiation. The qualification of the bona fide guru is that he has realized the conclusions of the scriptures by deliberation and is able to convince others of these conclusions. Such great personalities, who have taken shelter of the Supreme Godhead, leaving aside all material considerations, should be understood to be bona fide spiritual masters.”[Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.3.21]
Moreover, the complications in this material world are often too bewildering to the best of the intelligent person. But due to over confidence on my puny intelligence I have been falsely convinced that I can solve all my problems by myself with my own resources. But that is never the case even for best of the personalities like Arjuna in this world, what to talk about tiny living entity like me.
karpanya-dosopahata-svabhavah
prcchami tvam dharma-sammudha-cetah
yac chreyah syan niscitam bruhi tan me
sisyas te ‘ham sadhi mam tvam prapannam
“Now I am confused about my duty and have lost all composure because of miserly weakness. In this condition I am asking You to tell me for certain what is best for me. Now I am Your disciple, and a soul surrendered unto You. Please instruct me.” [Bhagavad-gita 2.7]
Somehow by the causeless mercy of Supreme Lord I have taken shelter of dust of your lotus feet who is deliverer of the fallen souls like me. I see there is no dearth of spiritual knowledge in the world and neither there is dearth of suggested fruitive activities, ready to distract us. Even after coming to devotional practice its very easy to get distracted from our ultimate goal due to our residual tendencies from old fruitive and speculative engagements. That makes every step on our spiritual journey, very challenging, requiring utmost caution and guidance from competent spiritual master.
uttisthata jagrata
prapya varan nibodhata
ksurasya dhara nisita duratyaya
durgam pathas tat kavayo vadanti
“Please wake up and try to understand the boon that you now have in this human form of life. The path of spiritual realization is very difficult; it is sharp like a razor’s edge. That is the opinion of learned transcendental scholars.” [Katha Upanisad 1.3.14]
While traversing on the spiritual path often we come across obstruction which is beyond our capacity to overcome of our own. Your mercy comes in for our rescue to help us engage in Lords devotional service and move forward in our journey despite all the obstacles. It’s the wisdom behind the guidance from you which is coming through disciplic succession, that’s helping us to see with proper discriminative vision as otherwise its very difficult for us to move ahead with our materially contaminated mind, intelligence and senses.
Journey on the spiritual path is not just matter of maintaining statuesque. It must be performed with enthusiasm and confidence, which then enables us to be spiritually progressive. If we don’t progress then we regress as told by Srila Prabhupada. But without a role model in our life, we don’t know how to develop that enthusiasm which can make our devotional journey progressive. Your enthusiasm is very contagious in a positive way. Whenever I feel out of steam, remembrance of your enthusiasm rejuvenates me and provides required propulsion to move forward on my spiritual journey. Your determination to ensure we are able to get access to your mercy by hearing from you on regular basis even though many of us are physically located far away from you, is really commendable. Not only that your resolve and relentless endeavor to clarify all our doubts, brings us closer to you with ever grateful heart. You have always been very patient with my lackadaisical attitude in devotional service, I am still continuing to be a neophyte devotee, hoping to progress some day in future.
Thank you as always for patiently guiding me over the years. You have been instrumental in engaging us in nine processes of devotional service based on our affinity. We don’t have any quality to engage in devotional service. It’s all manifestation of your mercy. As we engage in our various devotional services, we often knowingly or unknowingly tend to become less attentive towards our chanting which is core of all of our devotional service. But by your mercy you always not only try to keep reminding on the importance of attentive chanting, but also you try to assist us in various practical ways through numerous japa retreats, through association by bringing devotees in the retreats and by revealing to us the most bona fide approach towards chanting, by following the footsteps of the previous acaryas.
With regards to the process of hearing, in this age of Kali people like us have poor memory and devotees therefore need repeated hearing to get clear understanding and retain that in our memory. Out of your causeless compassion you have been traveling from place to place and teaching various Krsna conscious topics again and again. After teaching in one place, you are doing it all over again reaching the next destination. You have been doing this tirelessly for the benefit of the devotees, so that we can get clearer and deeper understanding on the subject matter.
To conclude I am remembering one of the many big contributions of yours to ISKCON in recent times. Amongst the many services that you have been performing at the institution level, one of them was the long arduous litigation case to reclaim the possession of Long Island temple property in favor of ISKCON. You put countless hours of effort for the pleasure of your spiritual master His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada, to bring the possession back on the name of ISKCON. Your tireless effort filled with resilience amalgamated with your able guidance to the devotees, enabled them to assist you in this fight and finally you led ISKCON to this amazing victory.
We have limited capacity to fathom and sing your glories, which are unlimited and we always fall short in this aspect. By your mercy one day we may understand the extent of mercy you have been bestowing upon us. Please bless me so that I can always feel the shelter in the dust of your lotus feet and become an instrument in assisting you in your service to please Srila Prabhupada and guru-parampara.
Your aspiring servant,
Sarvabhauma dasa