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!

On the occasion on Your Vyasa-puja festival, to be held in December 2025, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude for giving me shelter at the dust of your lotus feet. Scripture says the debt to spiritual master can never be repaid. My spiritual master be pleased with me for my insignificant service is the only desire I carry in my heart in this regard.

As we continue with our journey in material existence, we come across various situations, some are pleasant and some are not so pleasant. Sometimes it becomes really overwhelming. But due to our conditioning we often fail to register the fact, that how much deep trouble we are in. Worst thing is that we often become complacent or oblivious of our precarious unnatural situation in the material existence. As Prabhupada says there is nothing auspicious in this material world. Still, we try to find ways which can ensure our best fitment in this world and look for every possible enjoyment opportunity forgetting that material existence is never auspicious. Then you, our beloved spiritual master, by your own free will come to our rescue and remind us of our perilous material conditioning and purify us with transcendental knowledge. By your grace we get engaged in our original constitutional activity of serving Radha and Krsna.

Scripture defines our body as chariot and intelligence as driver and the mind as the reins of the horses and the senses being compared to five horses who pull the chariot. Soul is the passenger in the chariot which is in the form of body. Soul goes through different experiences as one continues with one’s journey in the material existence. Our consciousness, which spreads throughout the body, is the cause of bondage in this material world. The living entity in the bodily concept of life is the owner of the chariot. The Vedic mantra pranava is the bow, the pure living entity himself is the arrow, and the target is the Supreme Being.

Question comes how can we achieve our target. We can never achieve our ultimate target by our own effort. This is only possible by the grace of spiritual master. This is confirmed by the song of Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura:

yasya prasadad bhagavat-prasado
yasyaprasadan na gatih kuto ‘pi

“By satisfaction of the spiritual master, the Supreme Personality of Godhead becomes satisfied. And by not satisfying the spiritual master, there is no chance of being promoted to the plane of Krsna consciousness.”

Therefore, our prayer to spiritual master is:

mukam karoti vacalam pangum langhayate girim
yat-krpa tam aham vande sri gurum dina-taranam
[Caitanya-caritamrta Madhya Lila 17.80]

By the mercy of the guru, even a dumb man can become the greatest orator, and even a lame man can cross mountains.

As Krsna says in Bhagavad-gita 7.27 that all living entities are born into delusion, bewildered by dualities arisen from desire and hate. Furthermore Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.15.43-44 says

rago dvesas ca lobhas ca
soka-mohau bhayam madah
mano ‘vamano ‘suya ca
maya himsa ca matsarah

rajah pramadah ksun-nidra
satravas tv evam adayah
rajas-tamah-prakrtayah
sattva-prakrtayah kvacit

“In the conditioned stage, one’s conceptions of life are sometimes polluted by passion and ignorance, which are exhibited by attachment, hostility, greed, lamentation, illusion, fear, madness, false prestige, insults, fault-finding, deception, envy, intolerance, passion, bewilderment, hunger and sleep. All of these are enemies. Sometimes one’s conceptions are also polluted by goodness.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.15.43-44]

This way the material existence comes along with its own baggage and we often find that its not us, who is in control, rather its Lords illusory energy who is in the driver’s seat as mentioned in Bhagavad-gita 3.27. So only by surrendering to Lord we can come out of conditioned existence [Bhagavad-gita 7.14]. For that we need the grace of dust of our beloved spiritual master.

yavan nr-kaya-ratham atma-vasopakalpam
dhatte garistha-caranarcanaya nisatam
jnanasim acyuta-balo dadhad asta-satruh
svananda-tusta upasanta idam vijahyat

“As long as one has to accept a material body, with its different parts and paraphernalia, which are not fully under one’s control, one must have the lotus feet of his superiors, namely his spiritual master and the spiritual master’s predecessors. By their mercy, one can sharpen the sword of knowledge, and with the power of the Supreme Personality of Godhead’s mercy one must then conquer the enemies mentioned above. In this way, the devotee should be able to merge into his own transcendental bliss, and then he may give up his body and resume his spiritual identity.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.15.45]

By our own effort we can never reach transcendence and engage in pure loving devotional service of Lord. Through the auspicious presence of Your divine grace in our life we are trying to attempt to get engaged in loving devotional service of Sri Radha and Krsna even though I am most unqualified. But with your continues grace we are sure one day we will be able to engage in pure devotional service of Lord in our original spiritual identity without any hindrance.

Your aspiring servant,
Sarvabhauma dasa