Yamuna Jivana dasa and Sri Radhika devi dasi
om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri gurave namah
nama om visnu-padaya krsna-presthaya bhu-tale
srimate romapada-svamin iti namine
My most dear and respected Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my humble and prostrated obeisances unto your merciful lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Grace! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Over 20 years ago, you responded to a note of gratitude for attending our wedding with the following: “You can count on the same degree of ongoing commitment from me for the rest of your lives… that is my nature: commitment to others is a life-long 100% commitment, nothing less.”
Back then, with insubstantial experience, I had almost zero idea of what you meant. Prahlada Maharaja describes with deep wisdom and personal experience:
“prayena deva munayah sva-vimukti-kama
maunam caranti vijane na parartha-nisthah”
Most spiritualists, interested in their own liberation wander in solitude and silence, not dedicated to others’ welfare. You, on the other hand, are admirably dedicated to this principle of utter commitment (nisthah) to the actual welfare of other souls (paratma). [Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.9.44]
This year marks the 18th consecutive year of the Festival of the holy name. I have attended every one of them save a particular year due to a family health issue. I have watched how locations change, organizers change, participation changes, flavor of topics change, guest speakers change, yet your presence doesn’t. This year was perhaps the most meaningful and powerful experience for me in connecting with Krsna’s holy name, floating on the voluminous devotional efforts and sweet association of many, but especially yourself. Till date, I am carried by that experience, and your unrelenting commitment to provide that annual devotional opportunity moves me to tears.
I just touched on a sample of what you give. What to speak of your annual yatras, daily morning and evening live stream classes, careful and personalized nurturing of devotees through phone, voice notes, chats and emails, intense cross-country travels… all with the humility and grace of an empowered Vaisnava.
Sri Radhika and I consider ourselves so unimaginably fortunate to have had crossed the path of your merciful glance at the university, to have received your guidance and unfettered love over the years, to have been given the shelter of your caring devotees, and to have received such sweet, intimate services to Your Divine Grace. We are yours, despite our frail, conditioned natures.
You once wrote to me: “Follow in my footsteps”, “That’s our life – service to others”! No doubt, this instruction continues to descend into the depths of my consciousness and reveals to me what real, joyful life in service to guru and Krsna looks like, devoid of personal motivation. I remain at the dust of your feet, praying to you to for strength to continue on this path of — as you most recently and personally instructed: “Become Krsna conscious”.
Your aspiring servant,
Yamuna Jivana dasa