The Most Blessed Event
September 4, 1969
The Appearance Day of Our Beloved Spiritual Master
His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupäda
His Divine Grace Oà Viñëupäda 
Paramahaàsa Parivräjakäcärya Añöottara-çata 
Çré Çrémad A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupäda
Founder-Äcärya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
All Glory To Sri Guru And Gouranga!
This booklet is offered to the Lotus Feet of His Divine Grace 108 Sri Srimad A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad. He has graced us with the Absolute Truth—that Lord Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and we the living entities are His parts and parcels. All we can offer in return is our transcendental loving service birth after birth after birth.

(International Society for Krishna Consciousness)

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All Glories To Sri Sri Guru Gouranga
namah Om Vishnu Padaya Krishna Presthaya Bhutale
Srimate Bhaktivedanta Swamin Iti Namine
ISKCON—Boston
—Uttara Dasi
Just at the end of night, when all is still
And hung with blindness, breeding dark decay,
The sun, with rays of cleansing, living light
Moves forth on the horizon, and brings day;
So an Acharya comes, bearing the light
Of love of God, the clearest beams of all.
He is our Shelter from the eyeless night
Of nescience, and we know we shall not fall.
If we but keep His teachings in our hearts
We shall love Krishna by this one life's end,
The Master's order is our life and soul
For He is Krishna's confidential Friend.
I therefore offer this most humble prayer
That Srila Prabhupad make my faith strong;
He is the sun; illuminating all:
Go back to Godhead, back where you belong!
—Uttara Dasi
(ISKCON—Boston)
*         *         *
—Jahnava Devi Dasi
Prayer for Spiritual Guidance
Prabhupad, by Your Mercy You are our Father
Offering transcendence to our prodigal souls
Insignificant we are within these corpses of matter
Surrendering to your devotional knowledge our only stronghold.
By Your Mercy may I receive Your radiant Mercy
Prostrating myself eternally at Your Sheltering Feet
Fulfilling all desires to serve for which I am thirsty
By surrendering to the Greatest, Krishna, the Complete Complete
—Jahnava Devi Dasi
(ISKCON—Boston)
*         *         *
—Lilavati
For Prabhupadji
As we walked through the streets of New York, through the heat and the dirt and the waste,
An indescribable smile came over His beautiful face.
Not a smile that would last for a moment, or was curled by disdain or desire,
But perpetual, blissful, secure, shyly gleaming with spiritual fire.
We gazed at that smiling so long, with its peace, its surrender and grace,
That it seemed that the world of the living had its source in the glow of Your face.
Now can we praise or describe You, who has plucked us up from our strife,
Who has lit up this dark place of danger, and has given us back our life.
There was never a basis for living, there was never a reason to act,
And now You have blessed us with unbound gifts, and every moment is packed
With meaning, with hope and with joy; one small wish, one stubborn desire:
To serve You and chant Hare Krishna for the rest of my eternal life.
—Lilavati
(ISKCON—Boston)
*         *         *
—Giriraj
To The Spiritual Master
We shall work to serve You dear
Be in Your sunlight always near
And in Your rainfall always hear
Hare Krishna in our ear
Oh Swami, You are so beautiful,
So perfect, great, and just,
So nice and Oh so wonderful
To come to souls like us.
And so I love the Lord,
Because You, so great, do love Him
And this life which I am wont to hoard,
Let me spend in His Kingdom.
Krishna loves You, Swamiji,
And so must I love in return
Him the Source of all that be,
All love, all truth, and all we learn.
At night I always think of You while going to take rest
And in the morning wake to think upon you even more
In between I dream of You, Who are the very best
Whose every move I relish and whose person I adore.
Like fresh youth obsessed with young maiden
I think on your scent of rose crops
On your skin of sunlit heaven
On your voice of honey raindrops
That enters in my earthen ears
And absorbs my wretched mind
Into a pool of such deep tears
I fall and think I'll never find
My balance. Oh Prabhupad,
You are guiding me truly back,
Back Home and back to God.
And I am following, just like the sack
Of bones I think I am. Heart
And soul You move in me because I love you so
And never would I find myself apart
From That where You would go.
Let me serve and be with you—
In separation all is bliss—
And let me further love You too—
Who can imagine such as this?
You awaken our dormant love of God,
For loving You we have no choice
But love Your Master, Prabhupad,
And sing aloud with simple voice:
Hare Krishna! The Holy Name
In praise of Him so good and kind
To send You dear of mercy fame
To love and make our life sublime.
—Giriraj
(ISKCON—Boston)
*         *         *
—Rukmini Dasi
Namah Om Vishnu Padaya Krishna Presthaya Bhutale
Srimate Bhaktivedanta Swamin Iti Namine

My Dearest Guru Maharaj,
Please accept my humblest obeisances at Your Divine Lotus Feet on this holy day of Sri Vyasa Puja. All Glories to Sri Guru and Gouranga!
Our desire knotting into an illusory wheel
A wheel of death and rebirth long unbroken
We’re spun numb in the temporal and eternally we reel
With our words of surrender left unspoken.
A fallen leaf in the wind may appear to hold life
But detached from the whole tree it will wither
Life without Divine Refuge—my Master—is strife
Your service is evergreen, your Grace draws us together.
Your unworthy servant,
Rukmini Dasi
(ISKCON—Boston)
*         *         *
—Saradia Dasi
Two Aspects of Love
Our tears falling like rain
Come back to see You again.
You we have come to meet,
Bow down at Your Lotus Feet;
To hear Your nectarine words,
Praise of the Supreme Lord.
Your presence like morning dew,
You're covered with golden hue.
So long waited for this time,
That again could bathe in Your shine.
Still, the whole truth is not in meeting,
But in separation; that’s Your teaching.
This is actually more sweet
Than touching Your Lotus Feet.
Because that is our life’s perfection:
Feeling love for You in separation.
Your humble daughter and servant,
Saradia Dasi
(ISKCON—Boston)
*         *         *
—Satsvarupa
Vyas Puja Offering
In the first verse of his Prayers Glorifying the Spiritual Master, Sri Viswanath Chakravarty prays that the spiritual master is like a rain-pour of mercy. The rain is merciful because it alone can extinguish the blazing forest fire. That forest fire is compared to the burning heart of the man in material existence. He is trying to enjoy, but his heart is burning with anxieties: the pleasure of the senses is incomplete and temporary, the course of the mind is uncontrollable and sometimes beset with misery; and to take refuge in philosophic speculations or art and novels is finally too dry and tedious to be completely satisfying by itself. The atmosphere in which we live—the very conditions of existence on any planet in the universe—makes it impossible to relax, be peaceful or attain happiness. Because, although no one desires it, old age devours youth, diseases stop one and all from the pleasures of continual good health and everyone’s duration is at last cut off by the axe of death. Rebirth, old age, disease and death break out suddenly like fires, and no one is needed to start them. Just as in the city no one wants so many fires or accidents, and yet the ambulance or fire engine is always wandering in the street. Everywhere there are miseries!
Yet we learn from Bhagavad Gita that each and every living entity is factually aloof from all these miseries. The real person, the actual self who is eternal spirit-soul, is not subject to old age or death or any other disadvantage of the material world. Lord Krishna, the Personality of Godhead, declares that the real person is His part and parcel and is, as God Himself is, always blissful, eternal and full of knowledge. Our only mistake is to fall into illusion and forget our original position as eternal servitor of the Supreme. The retaining of the position of eternal blissful knowledge remains only theoretical for those souls who continue to wander, birth after birth, through the millions of species of life, as described by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Teachings of Lord Chaitanya. It is only by the mercy of a bonafide spiritual master who is coming in disciplic succession from Krishna that one can receive the realized knowledge by which he can cut the knot of ignorance which binds him to continue in his repeated sufferings. By the realized knowledge of the spiritual master, one can himself become self-realized (Gita, 4/34) and at once end his illusory struggle to be happy without God-consciousness. It is only by the mercy of the spiritual master that we can gain the goal of God-consciousness.
We therefore offer our respectful obeisances to our spiritual master, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, who as our only real and permanent father, has kindly kindled in us the desire to serve eternally in the position of a transcendental worker in the Hare Krishna movement of Lord Chaitanya. The spiritual master descends like a stout rope down into the dark and filthy well where we are loitering; by Krishna’s Grace we can catch hold of that rope and be easily lifted into the invigorating and bright atmosphere of Krishna Consciousness.
But this present age is so rank with the cheating propensity that, even in so-called spiritual affairs, nine times out of ten the “guru” or “yogi” or “rishi” who proposes to revive our original consciousness turns out to be a fraud claiming himself to be God; a fraud who can only collect a fee, who cannot engage us in any full-time transcendental pursuit. We are certain to have escaped the plight of surrendering to a false guru by the mercy of the unbreakable chain of disciplic succession of spiritual masters called the Gaudiya Sampradaya, of which A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami is the present, leading acharya—in direct line from Lord Chaitanya, the Original Teacher of Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagwatam. What our spiritual master teaches us is purely spiritual, one hundred percent confirmed by the purport of the shastras, which is, that Krishna is to be sought out and served in love. The result of this process is seen in the students of Krishna Consciousness, whose lives are externally and internally distinct from all pretender-groups in that they are engaged with mind, body and words in the practical direct loving service of the Personality of Godhead, and wholeheartedly detached from material desires.
We offer our prostrated obeisances to the spiritual master who through his many books is always filling our thoughts with the nectar of the Pastimes of Krishna, the Lifter of the Goverdhan Hill and the Beloved of the gopis. As far as I am concerned, I do not know Sri Krishna, but I know Prabhupad, and he knows Krishna. I offer my humble obeisances because he has engaged us in transcendental Samkirtan Party and given us transcendental dress, because he feeds us on prasadam or spiritual food and gives us spiritual family life. We cannot expect great numbers from the masses—who take a “guru” out of sense gratification or seeking health remedies, mystic powers or business success—to be attracted to the selfless acme of devotion to Krishna. We cannot ourselves ever love him enough or repay him or serve him in measure to the gift he made to us: fixing us onto the goal of service to Krishna. We can, however, make continual prayer to Krishna that our service to Sri Guru expand in enthusiasm and respect and that our home remain at his lotus feet.
—Satsvarupa
(ISKCON—Boston)
ISKCON—Buffalo
—Rupanuga
EIGHT INADEQUATE APPRECIATIONS ON THE APPEARANCE, DAY OF HIS DIVINE GRACE 108 SRI SRIMAD BHAKTIVEDANTA GOSWAMI PRABHUPADA:
We are in darkness,
Your Divine Grace the light
To guide us beyond
This material night.
Your Divine Grace has shown
The whole world’s sleeping
With hardened heart
Against Sri Krishna’s seeking.
Yet by Your Divine Grace
Of Lord Krishna we can hear:
His Glorious Pastimes
Give us boundless cheer!
Your Divine Grace
Has proven, beyond doubt, 
The Absolute is the Person
We cannot live without.
As Acharya, Your Divine Grace
Has shown us by example
What we each are
His infinitesimal spiritual sample.
Your Divine Grace
Has given the principle of Bhakti
The only legitimate business
Of Lord Krishna’s Jivashakti!
Your Divine Grace is perfect
So what is our improvement,
Except our hearty promise
To push Lord Chaitanya’s Movement.
Who can sing full of that day
—Our obeisances are simply lame—
When Your Divine Grace, Oh!
Delivered the Holy Name!
—Rupanuga
(ISKCON—Buffalo)
*         *         *
—Prahladananda
You came with Krishna Chaitanya in your heart and asked us humbly to come home. I in my fog stumbled into a circle of chanters of your merciful song and my heart began to melt. Oh! Prabhupad, Oh! deliverer of all wretched creatures such as I, how can I understand your love—I accept so little but you want to give so much. Oh! Krishna! Oh! Rama! Oh Chaitanya, Oh Nityananda! I beg you for the strength to repay your gift.
Prahladananda
(ISKCON—Buffalo)
*         *         *
—Jagadisha
For Prabhupada, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, the Most Wonderful Shelter, on His Appearance Day
A baby—without sense
Just come from nescience
I try to praise
His Divine Grace.
Perfection Personified
He’s come to these states
Chanting Hare Krishna!
His Divine Grace.
His only desire
to serve Narayan
From out of the mire
He’s pulled the most fallen.
Samkirtan ki jaya
Has come to this place
Lord Gouranga’s Servant!
His Divine Grace.
In contact with Maya
Getting kicked in the face
The Most Wonderful Shelter!
His Divine Grace.
O Prabhupad!
With Lotus Face
Our Father and Mother
His Divine Grace.
Thank You Lord Krishna
For this wonderful boon
Our Beloved Guru
Has come none too soon!
To be His servant
Is nectar to taste
There’s no other shelter,
HIS DIVINE GRACE!!
O, PRABHUPAD!

—Jagadisha
(ISKCON—Buffalo)
ISKCON—Chapel Hill
—Tosan Krishna
He brings the light
Of a fresh new day
Once lost in darkness
We rejoice, now gay.
All glories to Prabhupada
Our loving father who guides us
He is the One, there is no other
May I serve Him, He came to accept us.
He delivered the message of blissful life
Dispelling the fall of impersonal disaster,
Sinking in the mire of self entanglement
We are saved by the Grace of our Spiritual Master.
All Glories to Sri Guru
Whose mercy lifts the nescient cloud; our eyes may see.
He is the confidential Servitor
May I offer my most humble obeisances to a pure devotee.
He has taught us the Divine Reality
All Glories to Him, again I repeat
Spiritual Souls, eternally free to serve
May I nestle near His Lotus Feet.
Prabhupada, Your mercy I can never fathom
You are the benediction for the whole human race
I beg to always serve You
I offer my humble obeisances, Your Divine Grace.
—Tosan Krishna
(ISKCON—Chapel Hill)
*         *         *
—Bhurijana
All Glories to Jagat Guru!!!!!!!
Janmani Janmani I want Your Grace
Of service to the Human race.
Dearest Prabhupad, what can we give
To You who taught us how to live.
Without God we’re dead, and nothing more.
We’re forced to shop in Maya’s store.
Our freedom’s nil—there’s no way out! .… 
You’ve caused a seed of Prem to sprout.
This seed within my heart You’ve sown
It will not stop until it’s grown
To the LORD SRI KRISHNA Whom it will greet
And nestle, sheltered by His Lotus Feet.
You’ve made simple, easy, plain,
The method used to remove the pain
Of Birth, death, old age and disease.
Please accept my obeisances, Prabhupad, please.
Maha mantra is the way
For self realization in this day.
Begone! Envy, lust, anger, and despair.
You’ve cleansed my mind of Maya’s lair.
The Devotional Moon, Your Grace has shone on me,
It’s Light, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu—has let me see
That, yes, God is Great and all in all…
But KRISHNA’S BLUE AND SIX FEET TALL!
So Prabhupada , I beg and ask and beg again
To let my service never end;
Of Krishna’s Glories let me sing;
And to Your doti let me cling.
—Bhurijana
(ISKCON—Chapel Hill)
*         *         *
—Vrindaban Chandra
Namah Om Vishnu Padaya Krishna Presthaya Bhutale
Srimate Bhaktivedanta Swamin iti namine
Without the Lord, man’s life is folly
Completely controlled by the whims of Kali
Ever engaged in seeking perverted pleasure
Man foolishly forgets life’s full measure
So intoxicated with reality’s reflection
They are blinded to life’s perfection”
Knowing not the Supreme Objective
They live with so limited a perspective
Put to sleep by Maya’s lullabye
Their only reason in life is to die
But you have come to awaken them all
By allowing them to hear Chaitanya’s call
Your mercy, O Prabhupad, is so difficult to conceive
For all their burdens you have come to relieve
So allow me to offer you my respects from every side
And by your teachings may I eternally abide.
—Vrindaban Chandra
(ISKCON—Chapel Hill)
ISKCON—Los Angeles
—Nara-Narayan Viswakarna
Adoration to Prabhupad
All Glories to Srila Prabhupad who is the dearmost person to all true Souls. At his lotus feet now I may take shelter from Maya’s deluding embrace. Oh Krishna, Your impartial lotus eyes have been moved by Prabhupad’s unswerving love; and mercy, fathomless bliss is ours! (unworthy sinners though we be) And wrecked, creeping to the showering light of his divine eyes embrace (tho’ obsessed by material life’s disgrace, No! We heal and shine in His aspect’s visage.) Prabhupad! Please take me with You to Lord Jagannath’s abode. Your miracle glance has trapped me now, forever in the Rasa of Your Love.
—Nara-Narayan Viswakarna
(ISKCON—Los Angeles)
*         *         *
—Vishnujana
Sree Vyas Puja Offering
Tvam na sandarsito dhatra dastaram nistitirastam
Kalim satwaharam pansam karnadhara ibarnaram
We think that your goodness is met by us by the will of providence just to accept you as the captain of the ship which desires to cross over the difficult ocean of Kali which deteriorates all the good qualities of the human being.
All Glories Unto His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Oh thou spotless Merciful One
You have severed this knot I could not have undone
I was thinking that painful was actually fun
Wine woman and song that cold birth and death pace
Not to deny, but simply replace
All desires we have with the Highest of tastes
Under loving Direction of Your Divine Grace.
We are singing—Hare Krishna; Raising children—Hare Krishna; We are dancing—Krishna Krishna; always offering prayers—Hare Hare; We are cooking—Hare Rama; stringing garlands—Hare Rama; We are working—Rama Rama; That You’re pleasure is our care—Hare Hare.
Please accept this Life You have given me.
—Vishnujana
(ISKCON—Los Angeles)
*         *         *
—Tamal Krishna
Most Beloved Prabhupad,
You have come offering blessings from Vrindaban. Leaving the yogis sitting safely on their skins, you have come to a country of anxiety and have made us to dance and chant. With the knowledge of Vyasa and raging like Narasingha, Your Grace has defeated the nonsense atheists. The whole world has become puffed-up in forgetfulness of Krishna—You are our Rescuer, bringer of the Maha Mantra.
Your Divine Grace has proven that devotional service is spiritual life. From Your Grace’s transcendental form is revealed a body of lotuses. We, Your devotees, are so fallen that Lord Krishna has been compelled to give us His Greatest Mercy—Your Divine Grace. Had Your Grace not come we would yet be drowning but You have picked us up and restored us to life with Hare Krishna.
So now we are offering you our most humble obeisances from in front, from behind, and from all sides; we are singing Your praises, Deliverer of Lord Chaitanya’s Mercy, Your Divine Grace.
—Tamal Krishna
(ISKCON—Los Angeles)
*         *         *
—Bhismadev
Prabhupad,
You have come, A divine mirror showing us who we are—A link with the Eternal, Broadcasting Supreme Truth—Completely involved with us, Yet you exist in some other place. Thank you dear mirror of the soul. Hare Krishna. Your humble servant, Bhismadev
(ISKCON—Los Angeles)
*         *         *
—Chintamoni
My Beloved Spiritual Master Prabhupad,
I am only a beggar, begging for your mercy. Oh please lift me out of this wretched condition and let me love You and Krishna. I am so anxiously awaiting the day when I will be filled with love for that Blue Boy—Govinda whose beauty is beckoning me on, and melting my heart.
I have absolutely no qualification for your mercy save being a fallen soul. So when I think how low I am, my heart grows heavy. But when I remember Your Divine Grace, I have great hope for myself and all fallen souls. For surely it is of no quality of my own that you are lifting me, but your own causeless love and mercy. Surely if one as fallen as I can obtain mercy, no man can fall so low as to be beyond mercy.
Oh Prabhupad, Your love for us is cascading over these fallen souls and I fear we are drowning in an ocean of bliss. Never can I begin to appreciate your causeless love and mercy. I can only say Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna!
—Chintamoni
(ISKCON—Los Angeles)
*         *         *
—Lawrence A. Heyda
Prabhupad, your name calls up a wonderful, new hope in the frozen depths of my conditioned heart and I am groping towards you as the only reservoir for my total faith, love and devotion.
—Lawrence A. Heyda
Hare Krishna
(ISKCON—Los Angeles)
*         *         *
—Woomapati
Vyas Puja Tribute
“The Spiritual Master is honored as much as the Supreme Lord on account of His being the Most Confidential Servitor of the Lord. This is acknowledged in all revealed Scriptures and is followed by all authorities. Therefore I offer my respectful obeisances unto the Lotus Feet of my Spiritual Master who is the bona fide representative of Hari.” (prayer)
“O Suta Goswami, the great sages who have completely taken shelter of the Lotus Feet of the Lord can at once sanctify others who may come into touch with them while the water of the Ganges can do so after a prolonged use only.” (Srimad Bhagwatam, 1.1.15)
I offer my most humble and respectful obeisances to my beloved Spiritual Master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Goswami Maharaj, who out of His unlimited compassion and mercy has brought Krishna Consciousness to the most fallen souls of the kaliyuga.
One can only approach Krishna by the mercy of the bona fide representative of Krishna. How can we know how to approach Krishna by ourselves? Only someone who already knows how Krishna wants to be approached can direct others in the proper way of approaching Him. For this reason the Spiritual Master is honored and respected as much as Krishna Himself. This can be easily seen in His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami; for, which of us would know anything of the Supreme Absolute Truth, the All-Attractive Sri Krishna without the causeless Mercy of our Spiritual Master?
“I was born in the darkest of ignorance and my Spiritual Master opened my eyes with the torch of knowledge. I offer my respectful obeisances unto Him.” (prayer)
The genuine Spiritual Master teaches completely in accordance with the revealed Scriptures without any personally motivated interpretations, as the mailman delivers the letter without writing anything on himself. In this way, the Spiritual Master shows the student the Source of Divine Knowledge, so that the student can now see. The Spiritual Master also shows the student how to live in the revealed knowledge according to the directions in the Scriptures Themselves. I was such a fool to think that on my own I could find anything, let alone the Supreme Absolute Truth, but my Spiritual Master, by refusing to compromise with my idiocy, told me to simply take Krishna’s Word for things and see if it wasn’t better that way.
What can I say; what can I do; what can I write to communicate? Krishna Consciousness is perfect. Prabhupada is the perfect Spiritual Master. Everybody should fall at His Lotus Feet in humility and surrender. He has made His Mercy available to everyone and anybody who wastes this opportunity is a fool. Who else is showing so plainly the Beautiful Truth, the Supreme Person Sri Krishna? Who else is teaching us how to love Krishna the way that Krishna wants to be loved?
I beg to offer this most unworthy and inadequate tribute to my Spiritual Master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Goswami Maharaj on Vyas Puja, 1969. I prostrate myself at His Feet and offer my most respectful obeisances and undying gratitude again and again and again.
Namah Om Vishnupadaya Krishnapresthaya Bhutale Srimate Bhaktivedanta Swamin Iti Namine.
—Woomapati
(ISKCON—Los Angeles)
ISKCON—Montreal
—Jayapataka
ALL GLORIES TO THE DIVINE MASTER!
AND SRI KRISHNA CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU!
VYAS PUJA DAY. I beg to place this teeny offering at the Lotus Feet Of my Spiritual Master.
Blind men stumbling along the path
Cannot find their way alone.
As Causeless Mercy Incarnate,
The Spiritual Master guides us home!
Back-To-Godhead the Goal set forth
Beyond our feeble mind and effort.
Only through His Divine Grace may
We, the most fallen souls, arrive in port.
A blind man thirsty with no hope my own,
Upon my head His Lotus Feet I beg to place.
His Mercy on us all knows no limit!
The thirst of the soul is satisfied by His Grace!
Amongst the pack of fools and hypocrites
One stands out in the golden gleem of Truth!
No thought of selfish ends be His!!
The Guide is kindly leading us to Truth!!
Entangled in the quicksand of mind and action’s result,
Guru Maharaj is lowering a cord of life to pull us up
Beyond the clutches of concocted pleasure and pain!
Returning us to our rightful place, there Krishna’s Love to sup!!
In the land of “Loving Exchange” the Master has His Home,
And extends the invitation of the Lord, a Gift of utmost worth!
How can we return this Gift of Boundless Grace?
Bereft of all, I can but be to serve birth after birth!
Chanting HARE KRISHNA, so sweet from Him,
We hear and dance in ecstacy of love!
Praise, praise, praise the Gurudev!!!
From all sides, below, above!!!
We are like so many sleeping fools being maneuvered in robot mechanisms here and there, sleeping souls in a nightmare created from our own perverted desires. The robot encagement is always on the verge of breakdown, both mechanically and electronically. Among these mechanically controlled personalities a free person is traversing unhampered by the robotism. He is trying to wake the sleeping fool from his robotistic situation of mechanical control to the free situation of Truth far beyond such limited scope.
We are like robots acting out Maya’s mechanical control in the three modes simply to try to satisfy the perversion of temporary infatuation. The Spiritual Master is so kindly trying to wake up the fallen souls in such precarious, unsatisfying condition of stereotype existence to the loving platform of pure devotional service. Unfortunately, we are too much anxious to sleep and let the robot act forcing us then to suffer and enjoy in relation to the machine, not tasting real happiness ourselves. No! No! Please, do not let it remain as such! Let us try to serve with willful purpose the Representative of Truth now present, although beyond the robotism of this inert material world, and thus taste the ecstacy of His Love causelessly reciprocated on our prostrate heads.
How can I, deluded in this robot cage, hope to illuminate the Glories of Sri Guru? It is like the lantern held up to illuminate the sun. I hope my poor representation of His Boundless Mercy and Grace will be understood as only the smallest voicing of His Unlimited Qualities beyond even the great demigods’ scope. All Glories to the Spiritual Master!! May He Grace us with the causeless mercy of His transcendental service for ever and ever.
The most fallen, unworthy servant of His Divine Grace,
Jayapataka
(ISKCON—Montreal)
*         *         *
—Yasodanandana
Namah Om Vishnu Padaya Krishna Presthaya Bhutale
Srimate Bhaktivedanta Swamin Iti Namine
Dear Prabhupad, you’re so kind that during, a little poem I can’t find all the words to describe your sublime kindness. While sitting in front of you, I’ve realized how powerful you are. And when you’ve touched my beads everything has been transformed. It was like KRISHNA in front of me. All your powerfulness, your kindness and your sublime work of expanding KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS through this occidental world, it’s so marvelous, fabulous and magnificent that although my poor knowledge cannot conceive all your powerfulness, I offer my most respectful obeisances unto your lotus feet, and I chant respectfully all my rounds to please KRISHNA and to ask him to continue your good health. HARE KRISHNA, HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA, HARE HARE HARE RAMA, HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA, HARE HARE
—Yasodanandana
(ISKCON—Montreal)
*         *         *
—Sripati Das
In Appreciation of His Divine Grace A.C . Bhaktivedanta Swami Guru Maharaj. I am not sincere. I am not intelligent. I am not attentive when chanting the Holy Name. I don’t know how to be sincere when I say I am not humble. I am not intelligent enough to see that failure to carry out the instructions of the Spiritual Master with greatest vigour is less intelligent. But my Spiritual Master is so great—only Krishna knows how great—that he is spreading his mercy on the whole population of this planet. He has asked me to “chant Hare Krishna” and has requested me to be very serious about this. So in times of stress, when I forget Krishna more than usual, when Maya kicks me most, I may look at a picture of Prabhupad and remember to be very serious in this chanting of Hare Krishna. This is the most merciful benefit available to the living entities at large. So why not chant Hare Krishna? Dearest Prabhupad, you have sent very nice devotees with which I can associate and copy and learn from and notice bliss lighting their eyes when they think of you. Namah Om Vishnu Padaya Krishna Presthaya Bhutale Srimate Bhaktivedanta Swamin Iti Namine.
—Sripati Das
(ISKCON—Montreal)
*         *         *
—Hymie
Hare Krishna,
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. To vibrate the mantra is to be in harmony with the Supreme Personality. This tiny Spirit Soul which am I was a note lost from the Tune until drawn back to the All-attractive Song. Prabhupad with knowing Love, You sing the Song, You shine the Light, You speak the Word to guide us back to Godhead.
—Hymie
(ISKCON—Montreal)
*         *         *
—Gopal Krishna Das
All Glories To Sri Guru and Gouranga
First of all I beg to offer my most humble obeisances at my spiritual master’s feet. I think that I am very fortunate because you have accepted me as your disciple. If you would not have accepted me as your disciple, I would have continued to live in darkness, thinking that I know how to approach God. I will never be able to repay Lord Krishna for his Gifts. However, I want to give my spiritual master a small promise, and that is that I will always try to follow your teachings no matter where I am. Your teachings shall always guide my actions. Your teachings shall always guide my thinking and I shall always try to follow your teachings. Your kindness towards everyone is beyond description. You forever are willing to see anyone who is interested in going back to Godhead. You are so keen to remind everyone that they don’t belong to this material world, but belong to the spiritual world. It is only by your divine grace’s efforts that this movement has expanded so fast in so many cities and countries. My desire to see you always remains, even though I feel guilty sometimes for taking your valuable time. Your time is like Gold, whereas my time has no value. When I see you I think that I am seeing God, when I touch your lotus feet I feel that I am touching the Lord’s lotus feet. And when I receive your blessings, I feel that Lord Krishna has personally blessed me. I thank Lord Krishna for sending me to you. I am very grateful to my spiritual master because he is always telling me to serve the Lord and to chant Hare Krishna. I pray to Lord, that I shall always remain at my spiritual master’s lotus feet. Please oh Lord, keep me at my spiritual master’s feet. All my life I want to keep singing “Bande Guror Sri Charanaravindam, Bande Guror Sri Charanaravindam, Bande Guror Sri Charanaravindain.” Namah Om Vishnupadaya Krishna presthaya Bhutale Srimate Bhaktivedanta Swamin Iti Namine.
—Prabhupad’s most unworthy servant,
Gopal Krishna Das
(ISKCON—Montreal)
*         *         *
—Baradraj
ALL GLORIES TO SRI GURU AND GOURANGA

TEACHER OF LOVE
Oh my master, You are the Messenger of Peace. Heavenly angel with your causeless mercy, You are raking the turbulent black waters of the ocean of Death fishing for drowning souls lending them the firmament of your Lotus Feet. You are glorious. Lighting up the dark caverns of my mind with soothing vibrations of Your transcendental utterings, I am becoming relieved of pain. Your speeches flow out. They are cleansing my blackened dusty heart “from dust accumulated for years together.”
You are pure, Prabhupad, Your Divine Grace. You are the Supreme Swan. I prostrate my afflicted self at Your fragrant Lotus Feet. Gathering all humility at my disposal, I wish to become Your humble servant. I wish to shut my eyes and let Your eyes see for me, for You are only seeing Krishna; Your ears are drinking the nectar of His Sweet Flute, Your tongue is always tasting the sweetness of His Name; Your feet are walking in His pastures. You are the Ark of eternal life. You are Lover of Krishna. Therefore do I offer unto You my humble obeisances. Oh Prabhupad, I am a worm trying to curl around the little toe of Your lotus feet. What can a worm do? Yet You are calling me a servant. My clumsy eulogizing only distracts others from perceiving YOUR GLORY!
—Baradraj
(ISKCON—Montreal)
*         *         *
—Yasodanandana
Namah Om Vishnu Padaya Krishna Presthaya Bhutale
Srimate Bhaktivedanta Swamin Iti Namine
All Glories To Prabhupad!
Such a powerful man as you, dear PRABHUPAD, it cannot be found everywhere. But one who is enough fortunate to find and practice your teachings of the BHAGAVAD GITA, and also chant always the MAHA MANTRA, this one, he is sure to be elevated to the transcendental platform, the platform of KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS. Therefore, O most beloved spiritual master, I must thank SRI KRISHNA, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who has sent to us a divine grace like you are, O dear Prabhupad! Myriads of thanks, and more and more, for you, Sublime Bhagavan, most knower man, O nice PRABHUPAD, who came on this earth as the greatest deliverer of Chaitanya’s Yajnas. All my wishes of good health for you, O Prabhupad.
Tavah Kara Kamala Bare Nakam Adbhuta Sringam
Dalita Hiranya Kashipu Tanu Bringam
Keshava Drita Nara Hari Rupa
Jaya Jagadisha Hari.
—Yasodanandana
(ISKCON—Montreal)
ISKCON—New Vrindaban
—Ranadhir
PRABHUPAD
Your open eyes
Shine moons through clouds.
Illuminate the Sky
To deeply mired fools (as I)
Your lightening glance
Strikes deep through doubts,
Illuminates the Sky
With Love (as far as eyes can see).
Your songs chase clouds
From Indian summer nights
Vibrate praise to God
For sending us a Golden dawn.
Your holy voice
Delights all hearts (who choose to hear),
Vibrates Love for Krishna
Whose Love alone You give (to even me).
—Ranadhir
(New Vrindaban)
*         *         *
—Anuradha Devi Dasi
All Glories to the Golden incarnation of Mercy, the incarnation of love, Srila Prabhupad, whose smile is like a beam of brahmajyoti; who is like Lord Chaitanya descended among us, dancing and dispelling the darkness of ignorance. By His presence sanctifying any place He passes through making it a place of pilgrimage even for the demigods. When I see Prabhupada dancing, playing kharatals, smiling and chanting, I see all the greastest demigods, saints and sages from all the universe paying respects by showering flowers down upon His Holy Head, for His Lotus Feet to dance on. And cows and peacocks dancing and playing and Gopis all singing and playing on mridangas and kharatals and Krishna Himself playing His flute and dancing with Prabhupada. Please let me take the dust of His Lotus Petal Feet and pay my obeisances to Him, Prabhupada, the pure devotee, the Golden incarnation of mercy, the incarnation of love, whose tears are drops of the Yamuna River.
—Anuradha Devi Dasi
(ISKCON—New Vrindaban)
*         *         *
—Nayana Bhiram
I offer my humble obeisances unto His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada who is so dear to Lord Krishna having taken shelter of the Lotus Feet of the transcendental Lord. He is even more merciful than Krishna. He has saved me from all kinds of degradation. He has given me the priceless gem of Krishna Consciousness when all I wanted was the glitter of material sense enjoyment. He has delivered Krishna and His Transcendental Abode when all I was looking for was nonsense.
Ingrate that I am, I cannot appreciate His causeless mercy nor can I fathom His greatness. But because I have accepted Prabhupad as my Spiritual Master, I try to follow His instructions by chanting the Holy Names of Krishna and to go out into the streets and tell others to do the same. Thus my life is being perfected.
All glories to Sri Guru and Gouranga!
—Respectfully submitted,
Nayana Bhiram
*         *         *
—Rudradas
All Glories to His Divine Grace Swami A.C. Bhaktivedanta
This material world is full of misery and ignorance. It is comprised of wars, prejudice, sexual perversion, quarrel and divorce. So we the young are thrust into this chaos and told to get a job and become nice respectable citizens. Those with the intelligence see the nonsense of this proposition and dropout. From there a search is started. We know the answers do not lie in this society of hypocrites, murderers and fools. But where do we go? Where do we turn? Immediately most take to drugs and sex life. But no matter how many trips and how many sexual experiences we are not satisfied. There is not peace. So here we are completely confused and yet despite all this confusion we keep hoping something or someone will come and show us something, a way, truth.
Three years ago Swami A.C. Bhaktivedanta tame to this Western world at the age of seventy and thus fulfilled the desire of His Spiritual Master and the desire of the Supreme Being Krishna. He brought us, the seekers of the truth, chanting! dancing! feasting! Not just an hour a day or once a week, but a most sublime and ecstatic knowledge that we his initiated disciples enjoy every minute of every day of every week.
All it requires to follow this pure devotee is to realize that we are ignorant. Our knowledge of the truth amounts to nothing. Everyone is walking around claiming, “I think this, or I think that,” and yet they obviously radiate no peace or love and are always in anxiety. Even those who are trying to find God have no concept of what they are trying to find. Most people tend to think of the Supreme Being as an unfeeling computer located in some distant place pushing buttons for the rain to fall and pushing buttons for the sun to shine. Or the latest arising trend is to say that I am God, you are God and we have just forgotten it.
What utter nonsense. The Supreme Truth, the Creator, does not forget. How could God be subject to birth, death, disease, or old age? So Swami A.C. Bhaktivedanta has given us, at last we can finally know, the knowledge. The Supreme Truth is not a massive computer, but actually He has a spiritual body, a spiritual name and a spiritual world where all eternally liberated spirit souls are dwelling in a loving relationship with the Supreme Personality Krishna! So at last there is a person, a divine person, who has brought us complete truth, the final truth, as is said in The Bhagavad Gita, beyond the White Light, the unmanifested, the complete Truth—Krishna the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
So let us stop our speculative nonsense of saying I think this and I think that and let us learn from and surrender unto this humble, loving and knowledgeable spiritual master, one who is in direct disciplic succession from when Krishna appeared on this planet five thousand years ago. He is the spiritual master of the world for He is bringing us knowledge of Krishna. What other so-called spiritual master is doing this? He brings us the complete truth, not just a partial truth. So everyone please take the time out to submissively examine what this divine saint is giving us. You will find that He will answer every question you can ask and the answers are backed up by the authority of the Vedas. You will find that this is not an emotional movement but a movement of knowledge. So take up this yoga of bhakti or devotion to Krishna and follow Krishna’s representative and dance in ecstasy, and as you follow your love for this saint will grow a blossom like a flower and if you please the spiritual master then you please Krishna. And just seeing Prabhupad just once who could not immediately feel this attraction for Him? He radiates complete Peace, Love and Knowledge.
There are so many things to be said about Prabhupad, but who could ever do Him justice? How can one even hope to describe a pure devotee of Krishna?
—Rudradas
*         *         *
—Jadunandan
All Glories to Sri Guru and Gouranga
Last autumn in a book store I did not want to leave without the beautiful pictures I saw there. But they were too expensive for my purse. For a long time afterward I wanted to return and purchase at least one of these beautiful pictures of Krishna. In that time I wanted those pictures more than anything else, not knowing how much it was Lord Krishna that I really sought.
In the winter I was feeling more spiritually attracted to a Supreme Consciousness beyond the seeming oneness of the universe revealed to me by my senses. I was searching for a definite way of knowing how to live, how to raise my son. Then, so magnificently, to my house came the spiritual master of this planet.
Now the telling, the thinking and feeling is less and less of anything but Lord Sri Krishna and His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami. Oh, here is the beginning for me—the hearing of the Supreme. Hearing from His Divine Grace is really hearing. Everything but hearing of Krishna is like noise, not great disturbance but not worth listening to unless the sound is a reminder of Krishna.
And all wonderful, His Grace has accepted me and my wife as his followers in the transcendental service of the Supreme Lord Krishna. We are so happy my wife and I. Initiation by His Divine Grace is truly a rebirth. My life before initiation now seems like a previous lifetime, almost of a different body. It is so nice. My poor telling is inadequate to describe the beauty of Krishna Consciousness.
Please, dear Prabhupad, please accept my most humble obeisances at your lotus feet. Krishna is so merciful that even I have found His pure devotee.
—Jadunandan
(ISKCON—New Vrindaban)
*         *         *
—Hayagrivadas
All glories to the Lotus Feet of Our Spiritual Master, His Divine Grace Prabhupada A.C. Bhaktivedanta Goswami Maharaj, Who is the Gita Incarnate, Guru of the three planetary systems, the Embodiment of all Deities, and an Ever-effulgent Ocean of Causeless Mercy and Compassion. By His Grace the Holy Name of Krishna is chanted in the Western World. Who is there comparable to Him? He has descended to Kaliyuga America to awaken the most soundly sleeping souls by His joyous hymns to God. We have wandered countless births amidst the hot mazes of the material universe, finding only suffering in this mighty conflagration. But now we have met Him, a Cosmic Thundercloud, and He is pouring the Divine Water of Krishna Prem, love of God, upon us, extinguishing our desires and nourishing the flower of devotion in our souls. He is drawing this Water from the Benediction Ocean, and its supply is inexhaustible.
—Hayagrivadas
(ISKCON—New Vrindaban)
*         *         *
—Satyabhama
My Most Beloved Prabhupad
All Glories at your glorious Lotus Feet. You are the gentle ocean of Mercy washing over us and cleansing our hearts of all the dirt collected there from lifetimes of material contamination. The dirtiest thing will come clean if there is sufficient water. And your Mercy Ocean is so vast and full that thousands of our fallen selves can bathe in its clean waters and become purified. Your causeless mercy upon us is wonderful and unfathomable. I can only fall down in the dust of Your holy Lotus Feet and beg you to accept my most humble but worthless obeisances.
—Satyabhama
(New Vrindaban)
*         *         *
—Devananda
ALL GLORIES TO SRI GURU AND GOURANGA
On this auspicious day we seek to praise and glorify our beloved Spiritual Master the Cynosure of our humble lives Who is praised and glorified even by Krishna Himself. How is it possible for us to describe such a one. He is the subject of transcendental love and bestower of such ripening love upon all the worlds of sentients as the glowing sun. He is the symbol of purity and the acme of compassion. He stands as the Vedic Tree and delivers the fruit of Love of Krishna. He is the promise of Lord Chaitanya to overflood the world with Krishna’s Names enchanting. He is the Spiritual Messenger, the Lord’s Angel of Mercy, the sweet harbinger and bringer of the Lord’s Own Flute Song charming all souls to the Lotus Land of Brajadhama, Krishna’s Own Who knows His Mind. This Cowherd of Goloka is expert in extracting milk of heart’s pure desire. O’ How He works such arts as these! He spreads the rays of the Benediction Moon, Lord Chaitanya, as the follower of the Goswamins and with the rains of His Mercy swells the springs of innumerable streams to increase the ocean of transcendental bliss.
He is the savior of all, the incomparable leader whose sweet will is only to free our fallen selves from the felon clutch of the Maya witch. He has banished the reign of impersonalist despair and established the Undenyable All Blissful Three-curved Krishna upon the throne of our minds. Who can compeer with Him. In the three worlds He is unsurpassed and most excellent. He has devoured the life of the atheists outright with the sharp teeth of transcendental knowledge, healed all wounds and bestowed life with the eternal balm of His smile and with His tongue He has licked open the eyes of the devotees. He is, the representative of Krishna’s lips resonant with intoxicating flavors of nectarean song.
O’ wonder! He has sown and caused to grow the creeper of love from this stone and barren field. I offer my most humble obeisances unto my Spiritual Master Who is the dear most confidential friend of Sri Sri Radha Krishna our Soul of souls. May He ever seal His feet in the open lotus of our heart of hearts.
NAMAH OM VISHNUPADAYA KPISHNAPRESTHAYA BHUTALE
SRIMATE BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMIN ITI NAMINE.
—Devananda
(New Vrindaban)
*         *         *
—Dwarkadish
My Dear Prabhupad,
Thank you for bringing Lord Jagganath. I like to take care of my deities all the time. I like chanting Hare Krishna on my beads. I like to have Aroti for my deities. I like to know stories about Krishna. All Glories to Sri Guru and Gouranga. Thank you Prabhupad.
—Dwarkadish
(New Vrindaban)
*         *         *
—Kirtanananda Swami
Nothing I have to offer Your Grace,
Only a life of sin and shame to show;
How can I approach Your heavenly face,
Merciful Prabhupad, Your Divine Grace.
Before You came my life was Void,
Before You spoke I thought Him dead;
But now I know by Your Divine Grace
That Senses He has, and Name sublime—Krishna.
All Glories to Your Divine Grace,
All Glories Holy Father;
All Glories Teacher Transcendental,
All Glories Srila Prabhupada.
All that I have I owe to You,
All that I know I learned from You;
All that I want I see in You,
Prabhupad, my worshipful Lord.
—Kirtanananda Swami
(New Vrindaban)
*         *         *
—Hrishikesa 
The living entity is sleeping on the bed of Maya. He is covered by illusion and unable to awaken himself. But You, Srila Prabhupad, the Pure Devotee, awaken the sleeping soul, for You see the Lord in all things and all things in the Lord.
—Hrishikesa 
(ISKCON New Vrindaban)
*         *         *
—Birbhadra
ALL GLORIES TO SRI GURU AND GOURANGA
All Glories to you my dearest Spiritual Master. You are the only one, to come all this way to America to New York to the bums on the street. And you have brought so many people to Krishna Consciousness. And it is by your mercy only that I the most fallen have come to Krishna. All Glories to you, you who are Krishna’s greatest servitor.
—Birbhadra
((ISKCON New Vrindaban)
*         *         *
—Tulasi Devi Dasi
I offer my most respectful obeisances unto his divine grace A. C . Bhaktivedanta Swami, who has lifted us out from the illusion of material sense enjoyment and is always replenishing our spiritual understanding. He is so merciful to his disciples in sharing his knowledge of the most wonderful Lord Sri Krishna. All Glories unto his lotus petal feet.
—Tulasi Devi Dasi
((ISKCON New Vrindaban)
*         *         *
Hare Krishna Dearly Beloved Prabhupad. Please accept my most appreciative thanks for opening all of my senses to the glory of Sri Sri Radha Krishna in Their eternal abode in the spiritual sky. It is only by your causeless mercy that I, the most fallen and offensive living entity, have been pulled from the mire of material existence into the awareness of the Golden, blissful and infinite realm of Lord Sri Krishna. The only true desire I have is to bow before your lotus feet and pray you will accept my most humble obeisances. Also that Your Divine Grace, my master whose every atom emanates the glory of being the greatest servitor of Lord Sri Krishna, may allow me to serve you forever. All Glories to Sri Guru and Gouranga.
(ISKCON—New Vrindaban)
*         *         *
—Roger Kearney
A Child’s Prayer
(Thanking God for Prabhupada’s Appearance)
Alas! and must we walk the lonely paths of Maya all this life, and then again inhabit but another form, to find that twice one thousand million times we’ve sinned and heard God’s cry, but heeding not His word refused to make amends and take the HAND of Life Eternal, Creation’s Very Cause and End?
A very kindly God, Omnipotent, Omnipresent, who surely shows His love where e’er be life, was gracious unto us in showing us the means whereby we might be lifted back to Godhead; chant the NAME; and glorify the Lord through Prabhupad!
—Roger Kearney
*         *         *
—Paramananda
Whenever I think of you Srila Prabhupad I think of how tolerant you are of so many faults and offences people commit out of their ignorance. You are mercy personified, your patience has no end, indeed, you are as tolerant as a tree. From my point of view I cannot understand such tolerance. I think you are much greater than I could ever realize. You are distributing Krishna to everyone, slicing through the clouds of maya, and you remain undisturbed, never deviating from the path of Krishna Consciousness. Due to your example, I feel so petty and foolish when I am not in Krishna Consciousness. Because of Your Grace, I pray to my mind to worship Sri Krishna. I am so intolerant, so uncontrolled, so fallen, and still you have taken the trouble to harness my mind, my tongue, my ears, to catch me in your net and pull me onto your ship. You have allowed me to struggle to become Krishna conscious. I offer my most respectful obeisances unto your Lotus Feet a thousand times. You are indeed the ocean of mercy. I pray that I never fall into the clutches of Maya and violate the great boon you have bestowed upon me. Wherever there is sunlight there is shadow (maya). As soon as you step out of sunlight, you are in shadow.
—Paramananda
(ISKCON—New Vrindaban)
ISKCON—New York
—Leelasuka
Prabhupada—There is no one more dear,
To take shelter of Him means no more fear.
Even more merciful than Krishna is He,
Because by His Grace Krishna we can see.
By rendering loving service to Him,
Attachment for Maya grows completely dim.
He is SO GREAT we can’t even conceive,
Oh Prabhupada Your Lotus Feet may we never leave.
Please just let us love You forever,
To serve You is the most blissful endeavor.
Hare Krishna.
Your loving daughter and servant,
—Leelasuka
(ISKCON—New York)
*         *         *
—Karunamoya
I humbly prostrate myself before the Lotus Feet of my Spiritual Master who has come to drown all souls in his ocean of Grace. He is the only sanctuary of this manifested cosmic world of birth and death. I offer my obeisances unto him a thousand times, again and again.
—Karunamoya
(ISKCON—New York)
*         *         *
—Aniruddha
On the appearance day of His Divine Grace Sri Srimad A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad, 1969.
I offer my most humble obeisances to His Divine Grace, who by His Pure Devotion has picked us up from the ocean of suffering. I, myself, have no taste for this everlasting platform of eternal blissful servitude. My heart is so polluted and full of dirt. So, I pray that my mind be fixed up at the Lotus Feet of my Spiritual Master, so I may know how to serve Radha Krishna. His Mercy is truly beyond our conception. All Glories to His Divine Grace, he is always engaged in trying to deliver all of us, the fallen souls, to the platform of Krishna Consciousness.
—Aniruddha
(ISKCON—New York)
*         *         *
—Rohini Kumara
I offer my most worthless obeisances unto my spiritual master who has forced me to open my eyes to the torchlight of knowledge while I was lost in the darkness of ignorance.
This world, being overburdened with anxiety like a boat capsizing on stormy seas, is very much agrieved. So you have come just to diminish the problem. I am the most sinful entity and just look upon my heart full of ignorance. For this body, which is ultimately meant for service to the Supreme Lord Krishna, has for so many years been engaged in nescience.
Oh, Guru of the Universe, you are the greatest of mystics. Please protect me because there is no one else who will save me from the clutches of Maya. I am such a great offender against the Lord and His devotees that I do not deserve your grace, and yet I am so puffed up as to ask for your causeless mercy. When this land is so fortunate to be marked with the impressions of your own lotus feet it appears more beautiful than Vrindaban. But when you have gone away it no longer seems so auspicious. Oh my master, when you live abroad I am no longer able to look upon your moon-like face with its smiles of full satisfaction. You alone can extinguish all my sufferings. I cannot exist for long without your presence, therefore I offer my repeated obeisances unto you, who have so kindly showered me with your benediction.
—Rohini Kumara
(ISKCON—New York)
*         *         *
—Jayadvaitadas
Om Ajana Timiran Dasya Jnanan Jnana Salakaya Chaksurum Militam Yena Tasmai Sri Gurave Namah. I offer my most respectful obeisances unto my Spiritual Master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who has opened my eyes with the torchlight of knowledge when I was standing in the darkness of ignorance. This ignorance is forgetfulness of Krishna, and by the grace of the bona fide Spiritual Master is this ignorance dispelled.
Srila Prabhupada is the Personified Mercy of the Supreme Lord and our only hope for achieving the loving devotional service of Krishna. Following in the Footsteps of Lord Chaitanya, He has benedicted us with the Holy Name of Lord Krishna; and following in the Footsteps of Srila Vyasadev, He is presenting us with the essence of the Vedic literature in the form of His treasured books.
In The Bhagavad Gita As It Is, Srila Vyasadev’s basic presentation of the science of spiritual life and the first of Srila Prabhupada’s books to be published in this country, the importance of the Spiritual Master is stressed throughout. Arjuna was in a distressful condition of confusion and perplexity, and so he submitted to Lord Krishna, the Original Spiritual Master, for instruction. “Now I am confused about duty, and have lost all composure because of weakness. In this condition I am asking You to tell me clearly what is best for me. Now I am Your disciple and a soul surrendered unto You. Please instruct me.” (Bhagavad Gita, II/7) Arjuna surrendered to the Spiritual Master. This is the beginning of The Bhagavad Gita and the beginning of spiritual life. It is understood that it is not possible to attain spiritual perfection by one’s own endeavor. Acceptance of the bona fide Spiritual Master is required. When a person desiring to cultivate Krishna Consciousness accepts initiation from a bona fide Spiritual Master, then the connection between the devotee and Krishna is established. Without such initiation, the actual connection with Krishna Consciousness is never achieved.
Therefore, in order to fulfill the mission of the human form of life, one must approach the Spiritual Master, who alone can give transcendental knowledge. The Bhagavad Gita recommends: “Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized soul can impart knowledge unto you because he has seen the truth.” (Gita, IV/34)
Spiritual Truth can only be understood from the disciplic succession. “Evam parampara praptum imam rajarsayo viduh.” “This supreme science was received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way.” (Gita, IV/2) The Spiritual Master must be coming in an unbroken line of disciplic succession, and he must be a devotee of Krishna. Krishna says to Arjuna, “That very ancient science of the Supreme is today told by Me to you because you are My devotee as well as My friend; therefore, you can understand the transcendental mystery of this science.” (Gita, IV/3) The nondevotees may speculate on the meaning of The Bhagavad Gita, but they cannot understand it. They are licking on the bottle of honey. However, if one accepts initiation from the bona fide Spiritual Master, serving him humbly and inquiring from him submissively, he can actually taste the nectar of Krishna Consciousness.
Arjuna heard The Bhagavad Gita directly from Lord Krishna and his ignorance and illusion were completely dispelled. “Arjuna said: My dear Krishna, O Infallible One, my illusion is now gone. I have regained my memory by Your mercy, and now I am fixed without any doubt, prepared to act according to Your instructions.” (Gita, XVIII/72) A few verses later, Samjaya says, “By the mercy of Vyasa, I have heard these most confidential talks directly from the Master of all mysticism, Krishna, speaking Personally to Arjuna.” (Gita, XVIII/75) As Arjuna was able to see and hear Krishna, similarly Samjaya was able to see and hear Krishna directly with his purified senses, even though he was not personally present on the battlefield, and was thus able to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Samjaya admitted that this was only possible by the mercy of Vyasadev, his Spiritual Master. Narada Muni is a disciple of Lord Brahma—a direct disciple of Krishna, and is the Spiritual Master of Vyasa. In this way, Vyasa is as good as Arjuna. If one, therefore, hears Bhagavad Gita from Srila Vyasadev or his bonafide representative, it is as good as hearing Krishna directly. Thus the bona fide Spiritual Master coming in disciplic succession from Vyasadev is as good as Lord Krishna Himself, and one who takes shelter of such Spiritual Master can achieve the same wonderful result achieved by Arjuna and by Samjaya.
His Divine Grace our Spiritual Master is the bona fide representative of Srila Vyasadev coming in unbroken disciplic succession. From his glorious activities on behalf of Lord Krishna, it is apparent that he has fully realized the purport of all Vedic literature, and thus is always personally situated in an intimate loving relationship with Lord Krishna, eternally serving His Lotus Feet. Srila Prabhupada is making the authorized transcendental science of The Bhagavad Gita available to everyone as it is, conveying its pure message without any adulteration, and is always engaged in propagating Lord Chaitanya’s Samkirtan Movement, the life of all transcendental knowledge, as the practical method for reviving our Krishna Consciousness. He is our only hope for becoming freed from the multiple miseries of material existence. By His Mercy alone, our ignorance and illusion can be dispelled and we can regain our memory as eternal part and parcel loving servitors of the Supreme Person. I offer my most humble obeisances unto my Spiritual Master, who is very kind and merciful, freely distributing love of Krishna to ourselves, the most fallen souls.
—Jayadvaitadas
(ISKCON—New York)
*         *         *
—Harold Torf
From Prabhupad you learn what transcendental ecstacy is like just by looking at his vibrating form and his shining eyes. His eyes shine as much love of Krishna at you as you want.
Prabhupad is so kind that even though I have almost nothing to give he accepts even this.
Everyone, everything is so powerful and opulent only as servants of Krishna.
—Harold Torf
(ISKCON—New York)
*         *         *
—Chandan Acharya
Even as I work, even as I engage in devotional service to His Divine Grace, Maya leers at me enticing me: “Why am I doing this? What do I gain? Why should I tire myself? Why don’t I just pack up and return to the ‘easy’ life I led before I ever heard of ‘Hare Krishna’?” How this uncontrollable mind wanders.
But when Maya seems to have conquered all, and when my unsteady mind begins to consider surrender, I grasp my last resort and ultimate weapon. I ask myself: “How could I ever continue to exist without anymore association—no matter how seemingly insignificant—of my Prabhupada? How could I dream of surviving another day with the knowledge that I would no longer see His Sunshine Face and that I would be deprived of the warmth of His generous smile? How could I ever dream of leaving the Lotus Feet of my Spiritual Master to Whom I owe my eternal existence?”
How cruel but foolish Maya is to attempt to separate me from my Guru Maharaj Who has succored me from the deepest recesses of ignorance and depravity.
This useless slave offers his worthless obeisances to such Spiritual Master. Bande Guroh Sri Charanaravindam. 
—Chandan Acharya
(ISKCON—New York)
*         *         *
—Bhima
All Glories to Sri Guru and Gouranga!
Prabhupad is a Pure Devotee of Lord Sri Krishna, and He is always engaged one hundred percent in the transcendental service of the Lotus Feet of Lord Sri Krishna. Prabhupad is one of the most confidential friends of Sri Krishna. He is in direct disciplic succession from Lord Sri Krishna. He is a bona fide representative of Srila Vyasadev, and therefore He is eligible for the Vyasa Asana, Because only those who are representatives of Srila Vyasadev can occupy the Vyasa Asana. All bona fide representatives of Srila Vyasadev in the right disciplic succession are to be understood as Goswamis, because such Goswamis restrain all the senses from being deviated from the path of the previous Acharyas. I offer my humble obeisances to Prabhupad who is always serving Lord Sri Krishna’s Lotus Feet. I offer my humble obeisances to Prabhupad because he has so kindly let me who is so fallen take shelter of his Lotus Feet. I offer my humble obeisances to Prabhupad who never deviates from what the previous Acharyas teach. I offer my humble obeisances to Prabhupad who is always teaching by example.
Hari Bol!
—Bhima
(ISKCON—New York)
*         *         *
—Balai Dasi
To His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Prostrating myself at Your most beautiful Lotus Feet, I offer my most humble obeisances unto You, and hope that by Your Causeless Mercy You will accept my lowly services. When I awake in the morning I first offer my obeisances unto You, because I know it is by Your Grace only that I am waking at all.
Every night I pray to Lord Nrishinghadev, my dear Lord, please let Prabhupada remain on this planet until He has finished His books and fixed us up in His loving Service to spread Lord Chaitanya’s Samkirtan Mission. All Glories to Sri Guru and Gouranga.
Your undeserving servant,
—Balai Dasi
(ISKCON—New York)
*         *         *
—Rishi Kumara
The Spiritual Master is compared to a giant rain cloud because as a rain cloud extinguishes a forest fire, similarly the Spiritual Master is able to extinguish the fire of conditioned life. Conditioned life means that I am trying to enjoy the resources of material nature, and in this attempt I must accept the stringent laws which material nature imposes—namely, birth, death, disease and old age. The Spiritual Master instructs us on how to stop this cycle, and for one who follows his instructions without any deviation, the ocean of birth and death is easily overcome. This is the causeless mercy of the Spiritual Master—by his perfect instructions, we become free from material bondage, a miserable condition of existence which we have been subject to since time immemorial. In this age of Kali or quarrel, Prabhupada, the Acharya for this age, has very kindly come to this country to deliver the most fallen souls by means of Samkirtan Yajna, the recommended process for self-realization in this iron age. Prabhupada is offering us the opportunity of millions of lifetimes—love of Krishna—and the process is so simple. Prabhupada says, “Simply chant Hare Krishna, and be happy.”
—Rishi Kumara
 (ISKCON—New York)
*         *         *
—Gary Prabhu
Seeing Prabhupad’s hands; feeling the Absolute overpowering strength and courage of his gentleness flow from them.
—Gary Prabhu
*         *         *
—Brahmananda
No one can claim to have wasted years wandering after such dirty things as I. No one else’s mind is so easily attracted by the promise of sense indulgence. No one is as forgetful as I. Yet His Divine Grace has accepted me as a servant. Not even my mother has given me Krishna’s Holy Name to always chant. Nor has my father taught me who I am, what the purpose of life is, and who God is. His Divine Grace has enlisted me in the transcendental loving service to Krishna instead of the service to Maya. No one else in the world could have done this. That is a fact. Therefore, I pray to the mercy of Lord Nityananda that I may spend every remaining moment of this life informing everyone I meet that His Divine Grace meets all the requirements stated by scriptures and by great authorities to be the Spiritual Master of every living entity of the universe.
—Brahmananda
(ISKCON—New York)
III/21: “Whatsoever action is performed by a great man, common men will follow in his footsteps. And whatever standards he sets by exemplary acts, all the world pursues.”
*         *         *
—Gadadhar
O’ Prabhupad, last Sunday you initiated me and it was a very ecstatic and meaningful day. I experienced the great bliss of meeting you in person, and the act of surrendering to your lotus feet is the most important action I’ve ever taken. I feel I’m being swallowed in an ecstatic tear and along with my Godbrothers and Godsisters, I’m rolling down your lotus cheeks. Just as Sri Krishna Chaitanya filled India with love for Krishna, we will inundate this world with this tear of transcendental knowledge and bliss. I am forever offering my obeisances in surrendering to your lotus feet.
—Gadadhar
(ISKCON—New York)
*         *         *
—Jimmy Feldman
Blissful Return to New York
Namah Om Vishnupadaya Krishna Presthaya Bhutale Srimate Bhaktivedanta Swamin Iti Namine. Just hearing that Prabhupad was coming back to New York, the devotees, having felt separation from their Spiritual Master, were filled now with so much bliss as could be observed through flowing tears and joyous shouts of “Haribol.” On the day Prabhupad was to arrive, the temple was swarming with activity like a beehive. After morning kirtan, Jayadvaita and Brahmananda gave everyone some task to help prepare arrangements to satisfy our spiritual master. Cleaning the temple spotlessly was very important, for as Prabhupad says, “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.” It could be definitely said that each devotee engaged to his utmost abilities in this preparation before the transcendental arrival of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami.
Knowing that my father’s apartment in New York City would be vacant for the weekend, I called my father begging him if our Spiritual Master could stay there while explaining to him that anybody who can render service to Prabhupad can be relieved to some past sins. At first my father refused giving me the excuse that a guest would be occupying the room, but when I told him that Prabhupad means a million times more to me than Arnold Palmer means to him, he got the message and okayed my most important request. Before I put down the receiver, jubilant and ecstatic shouts expressed our feeling of thankfulness.
At around noon on the day of arrival, most preparations were finished and the devotees took Prasadam, their spiritual food. Soon after, we gathered all the transcendental paraphernalia and departed for the airport singing joyfully the Holy Names of God while travelling on the bus. Arriving at the airport, the devotees paraded into the National Airlines Terminal pushing chairs aside and began to start kirtan. A crowd of spectators and National Airline officials watched as the devotees danced in ecstasy to the Hare Krishna Mantra. Finally, Prabhupad’s plane arrived, and the Swami stepped out of the terminal building while the most respectful man in the community, Kirtanananda Maharaj, offered a most beautiful garland of flowers to Prabhupad. Prabhupad, accepting the flowers from the sannyasi, then walked over to the seat prepared for him, as all of the devotees offered their obeisances. Gasps of joy were exulted as Prabhupad touched Balai’s baby in approval. Then Prabhupad was offered his khartals, and he led Kirtan. Then there was a procession out of the airport, as Ekayani strewed rosewater and rose petals in Prabhupad’s path as he walked to the car followed by the devotees, who have taken shelter at his lotus feet. In the car, driving toward my father’s apartment (which is really Krishna’s), Prabhupad warned us that no matter how far we have advanced, Maya is so strong that we can easily slip back, so always be engaged for Krishna and have complete faith. After settling down in the apartment, Brahmananda offered fruit to Prabhupad, which he then accepted and handed out to Purushottam, Hayagriva, Kirtanananda Maharaj, Jayadvaita, Chandan Acharya, and myself. I was as lucky and nervous as anyone could be and the pat my spiritual master gave me on the head was just another example of his causeless infinite mercy. Truly, this was the most treasurable and fortunate day in this life.
—Jimmy Feldman
(ISKCON—New York)
*         *         *
—Haribasara
All Glories to Sri Guru and Gouranga. Please accept my most humbly repeated but all-respectful obeisances, for Sri Bhaktivedanta Swami, who’s most dear to us, He is the Spiritual Master. The last words and meaning of The Bhagavad Gita is surrender unto the Lord, and the bona fide Vedic scriptures state surrender to the Spiritual Master totally. Prabhupad has written, “The spiritual master cannot be two.” Prabhupad is master, caring for all of us, giving us love for Krishna, thus providing the love for everything else totally. That’s love spiritually. Nothing to do with the dead mundane world. Eternally, we are—but what are we without Prabhupad? Some of the most fallen we were. Prabhupad to us means mercy—from the ever-eternal ocean. Prabhupad should by all means be the most respected on the planet as prime and dearest representative of the Supreme Lord Krishna and no longer are we animals as previously, or stiff dry clay, but original spirit souls, living entities. A usefulness now has been realized and received by Krishna’s devotees, Prabhupad’s servants. The dead body no longer master, it will fall to the earth. So wonderful is the human life under the spiritual direction. A free spirit in complete service to merciful love, merciful freshness, the spiritual master. Being totally incomplete such praises, but complete in truth, Prabhupad claims nothing for himself but is glorified by the Supreme Lord Himself, for a devotee of the Lord seeks no rewards. In reality our real spiritual self is eternally in service, to Prabhupad and Lord Krishna. The body or dead body to nature it is servant so we most fallen souls are in service eternally spiritually only, no other way, so how could we claim anything for our selves. We ourselves are spiritual servants in blissful happiness. Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta is dear to Krishna and dearest to us. May there be ever love for our spiritual master. We have a true friend, eternal friend, in service to the Supreme Lord. This life is for the spiritual master in service to the Lord with eyes decorated with the love of Prabhupad every flowing loving tears. 
Most fallen, 
—Haribasara.
*         *         *
—Patit Uddharan
“To Prabhupada”
Paramhansa of the Nectar Lake:
Did You Your Own True Love forsake;
Leaving His sweet and fragrant Lotus Breast,
To come to this world of birth and death?
Or is this a helping hand you lend
While this world of matter You Transcend,
I am perplexed, please let it be known,
Have You come to take me Home?
My feeble memory cannot recall,
Did I once in anger slip and fall?
If there is Truth, then tell me where
And from this I’ll turn and go with You There.
Tell me please of Life’s True Goal
So I can cleanse the dust out from my soul,
And from this humbly let me start
To nourish the spark of life within my heart.
Your blessing I crave as now I see,
Your Love can teach Infinity,
And of the mercy that therein lies
For this my Twice-born soul does cry!
So tell me please of Vrindaban,
And that Blue Gopala, yes the Gentle One,
Known as Krishna, Devaki’s Son;
To this sweet Abode I long to run!
“KRISHNA” yes that is the Name,
And the reason why to Your feet I came,
I pray I’ll hear KRISHNA wherever I go,
With sounds of kartals and “HARI BOL”
Now tell me of His jeweled throne
And how He dances when with Gopis He is alone,
O how His flute notes fill the air!
Tell me this in Your loving Prayer.
I see in Nectar that You swim
While herding Surabi Cows with Him,
Tell the beauty of His Lotus Flowers,
And His strength, and fame and mystic powers.
And of Devotees Whom He holds so dear
In Vaikuntha—His place where there is no fear.
Please tell of His Features so like the Moon
Tell me sweetly lest I swoon.
Now unto Your Lotus Feet I’ll cling
Lest I be whipped by Maya’s sting
Even the dust at Your Divine Feet
As I bow down tastes Nectar Sweet.
O Paramhansa of our land,
I see in glory that You stand
Ten thousand times a day
I beg Let me thank You for Your helping hand!
—Patit Uddharan
(ISKCON—New York)
ISKCON—Philadelphia
—Subaldas
In Praise of Prabhupada
I offer my most humble obeisances to my Spiritual Master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who has so kindly delivered the chanting of the Hare Krishna Mantra to the Western world. Following in the footprints of His beloved Guru Maharaj, Sri Srimad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Prabhupada, He is delivering the science of unalloyed love of Krishna to the fallen souls who are under the spell of material nature since time immemorial. A strict follower of the Goswamis and chief proponent of Lord Chaitanya’s Samkirtan Movement, His Divine Grace is the Spiritual Master for the whole world. He is acharya because His every thought, word, and deed is dedicated to the service of the all-merciful Sri Sri Radha and Krishna. We humbly beg His mercy so that we may some day be able to render service to Him for spreading this great benediction to the humankind.
Facing all difficulties alone, He began the first ISKCON Radha Krishna Temple in a small storefront in the Lower East Side of New York during the summer of 1966. Preaching, cooking, writing, talking, chanting, everything was a one man show. He maintained the establishment by simply depending on Krishna. Now He is acharya for eighteen temples in four different countries and has hundreds of disciples.
I feel my words to be very inadequate in describing His greatness and mercy. He has helped me more than I can ever repay. To quote one of His letters:
The secret of success in the matter of Krishna Consciousness is devotion to the Lord and the Spiritual Master. In the Vedas the secret of success is described as follows: “Yasya deva para bhakti yatha deve tatha gurou/ Tasya ete kathitha hi artha prakasyante mokat manah. Only one who has developed unflinching faith in the Lord and the Spiritual Master can understand the revealed scripture unfolded before Him.”
—Subaldas
(ISKCON—Philadelphia)
*         *         *
—Gopinath
We did not want to serve Sri Krishna and now we are suffering eternally. Like a man without any knowledge, we have lost all sense of preceptivity. Tried to be independent of Lord Krishna, now he has granted us this domain, so that one day we can revive our spiritual consciousness and go back to the eternal blissful spiritual plane. Lord Sri Krishna is so merciful, He has sent us beautiful Guru Maharaj, and how can we unfit wretches serve His Divine Grace without any material flaws. All I can do is pray for the mercy of beloved Prabhupada, so that one day I may become devoted even like the great saint Prahlada; and then return to the land of bliss and eternity and serve Radha and Krishna and stop the pangs of duality. All Glories to Sri Guru.
—Gopinath
 (ISKCON—Philadelphia)
ISKCON—San Francisco
—Chitsukhananda
All Glories, All Glories, All Glories to the Grand Spiritual Master of the World Prabhupad, by Your unflinching causeless mercy I have been initiated as one of Your disciples and a most unworthy disciple I am. You have helped the lowest living entity to engage himself in devotional service. Although I know that factually I cannot render any service unto Your Divine Grace.
I am very much absorbed in Maya, and I pray that I be able to remember You and in so remembering You I will undoubtedly chant the Glories of Sri Krishna Chaitanya.
I offer my most respectful obeisances unto You. All Glories, All Glories, All Glories to our Beloved Prabhupad. All Glories, All Glories to Sri Guru and Gouranga. Your most unworthy servant, 
—Chitsukhananda
(ISKCON—San Francisco)
*         *         *
—Makanlal
Prabhupad, master of my soul, I am rotting in nescience of this dark foul world, thinking yet there is some fragment to enjoy.
Prabhupad, in death, in deep illusion, I am lost without your guidance; all is useless, endless pain. This heart is black with lust and false desire; yet, burns a spark fanned only by your mercy, that I may one day come running to prostrate in surrender under the shelter of your matchless lotus feet.
Oh master, my heart is aching for your love, but still this foolish stubborn mind would feign to turn your causeless love and mercy to the side.
But Prabhupad, there is no hope, no grain or spot of hope of even slight salvation excepting at your feet, serving in your limitless effulgence. Oh light of all lands, would that I could have no taste, no attraction whatsoever except to your loving kindness to serve you without end.
Endlessly I may wander and roam throughout creation, but nowhere can I find such loving kindness, master for all sentient souls. You are so kind and gentle, yet within your heart is burning the blaze of the strength of Lord Nrishinghadev, to save the searcher and wither the nonbeliever.
Oh Prabhupad, I am your disobedient son, who should grasp each word of sweet direction from your kind lips not fall instead behind. Yet I am helpless to your mercy and so may only beg that this poor wretched soul may stay forever in the service of your sweet and gentle feet.
—Makanlal
(ISKCON—San Francisco)
*         *         *
—Hansadutta and Himavati
The Spiritual Master is receiving benediction from the ocean of mercy; Just like the cloud pours water on the forest fire to extinguish it, so the Spiritual Master extinguishes the blazing fire of material existence. I offer my most respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of such Spiritual Master.

The Spiritual Master is fit for being benedicted by the ocean of mercy, because of his full surrender unto the lotus feet of the Supreme Absolute Truth—Krishna. Krishna is a person and He is that ocean of mercy. The bona fide Spiritual Master is the factual recipient of that ocean of mercy because “He is not envious, but a kindly friend to all creatures, and does not think himself a proprietor, and is free from false ego…” (Bhagavad Gita, 12/13) Krishna says, “That kind of person, he is very dear to me.” Now one may be very dear to some person in this material world, but that kind of endearment is not meant here. To be dear to Krishna is extraordinary because He is the Supermost Person in the entire creation, He is the Chief Eternal amongst all the eternals. In the Brahma Samhita He is described in the very first verse, “Krishna who is known as Govinda [Cowherdsboy] is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful Spiritual body. He is the Origin of all and He is the prime Cause of all causes.” So the form of the Supreme Person is not like the form we are in the understanding of. This material body is temporary as compared with the spiritual form which is eternal; this material body is full of ignorance and the spiritual form of Krishna is full of knowledge; this material form is always miserable with the problems of birth, old age, disease and death as compared with the form of Krishna which is always blissful. This is Krishna—Sat-chit-ananda Vigraha. His body is fashioned of eternity, knowledge and bliss; just like our form is made of the gross and subtle elements earth, water, fire, air, etc., his form is made of Sat-chit-ananda. To know Krishna or to be very dear to Krishna is very extraordinary, because you cannot associate with that Supreme Spiritual Person unless you are also of that Sat-chit-ananda nature. As much as you cannot enter into the sunglobe unless you have got the fiery body suited for that atmosphere, or water—you cannot live in the water because your body is not suited for that nature. Now how one can be reestablished in that spiritual nature is the whole program for the human society.
Krishna is the Cause of all causes and He must necessarily be the Knower of everything. This is confirmed in The Bhagavad Gita: “I am the Compiler of Vedanta and I am the Knower of Vedanta.” Vedanta means knowledge. So whatever knowledge there may be, it is originating from Krishna.
In the beginning of the creation, Krishna imparted the knowledge concerning the constitution of the living entities directly to Brahmaji from within his heart, and thus the disciplic succession in the matter of real knowledge was started with Brahma. Real knowledge means to know about Spirit, which is what I am—“Aham brahmasmi,” I am spirit—and false knowledge or Maya means to know things on the basis of the material senses which are imperfect and cannot extend to the reality of the spiritual world of which I am a part eternally. Maya means that I think I am this body and illusion is to know everything on the basis of this false identification.
So Spiritual Master means that He has heard the narration of the transcendental message as it was originally spoken to Brahma by Krishna. Krishna and anything Krishna speaks is completely identical with Him in every way. The transcendental knowledge which is coming down to us in that line is Sat-chit-ananda; it is not different from Krishna, and therefore anyone who has the good fortune to come in contact with such line and give it submissive aural reception, on such a person it will act. The electric current may be travelling through that wire over many thousands of miles, but still, if you touch it, you will get the shock. So the Spiritual Master is the transparent medium for Whom no one is equal to or greater than. Such Spiritual Master is completely spiritual, and no one should think that there is any trace of material inebriety about such Pure Devotee of the Lord. A live wire is completely electrified, and no one should make the mistake of touching it, lest he be burnt to ashes due to its being connected to the power house; as the live wire is full of potency, similarly the Spiritual Master, being in contact with the Supreme Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead Lord Krishna, through the chain of the disciplic succession, becomes completely identical with Krishna, Sat-chit-ananda. He is Krishna Consciousness personified. He is nondifferent from Krishna. The Spiritual Master is eternal, and He has eternal knowledge and He is eternally blissful. He lives in the spiritual world with Krishna at every moment, although He appears to be in the mundane world acting amongst mundane entities.
The Spiritual Master appears in this world just to do the work of his eternal Lord Sri Krishna and He has no other business. That work is described in the last chapter of The Bhagavad Gita. Krishna tells Arjuna, “For anyone who explains this supreme secret to the devotees, devotional service is guaranteed, and at the end he will come back to Me,” and the next verse says, “There is no servant in this world more dear to Me than he, nor will there ever be one more dear.”
So the secret being explained by the pure devotees of Krishna is that the living entities are the eternal fragmental parts and parcels of Krishna and their eternal activity is to render transcendental loving service to Him. Krishna, the Supreme Lord, is giving us the suggestion that we “Always think of Me. Become My devotee. Worship Me. And offer your homage unto Me. The result is that you will come to Me without fail; I promise you this because you are My very dear friend.” It is not difficult to understand. All of us are persons and similarly Krishna or God is also a person, and since He is the Original Person, Cause of all causes, Maintainer, Creator, and Annihilator of everything, it naturally follows that He should be worshiped and thought of at every moment. Throughout eternity, that is the secret of the Spiritual Master. He has come to take us back to the Supreme Abode known as the Krishna Loka to associate there with our eternal Lord in mood of loving devotion. Imagine if the President sent his messenger to fetch you: “My dear sir, the President has sent me, and he is requesting that you come to the White House.” Would you be eager and immediately go? So this is not a matter of presidency, but the Dictator of all that be—this planet, the moon planet, sun planet and all the innumerable planets floating within this universe. The person to whom everything belongs is requesting you by the presence of His most dear friend the Spiritual Master to come home, back to Godhead.
Now there is no reason to speculate or hesitate—we have simply to clutch his lotus feet and hang on with determination, chanting the Holy Name of Krishna at every moment, crying to Krishna to please, please keep us always under the cooling downpour of mercy coming from the Lotus Feet of His Divine Grace, our Lord and Master, Paramhansa Paribrajackacharya Sri Srimad A.C. Bhaktivedanta Goswami Maharaj.
So on this auspicious day of the appearance of My spiritual Father Prabhupada, to whom I am eternally indebted, and who has so kindly given me shelter from the blazing fire of self-created miseries, I beg to offer my most humble obeisances (with his kind permission) to all of His most devoted servants, his spiritual children, my godbrothers and godsisters. They have been so kind and tolerant with me since the day of my spiritual birth by my Divine Master Prabhupada. I hope that they will always continue to help me so that some day I may be able to serve His Divine Grace with genuine loving devotion. And lastly, I beg Krishna to help me so that I may come out of the dark and dank dwelling place of this material body, and guide me so that I may be able to prostrate myself in full surrender at Your Lotus Feet, dear Prabhupada. Without the help of your eternal Lord to whom you have so kindly introduced all of us (Lord Krishna, Lord Chaitanya, Lord Jagannath), without their help I will never give up this insane attachment for the fleshy lump of ignorance which we take to be ourselves, and are anxious to enjoy.
I beg to offer my most humble obeisances at Your Divine Lotus Feet and shall hope to be eternally disturbed for coveting some small morsel of remembrance of Your Divine Grace upon me, which I think shall be enough to keep me while I go on travelling throughout the universe suffering for my countless misdeeds at Your Lotus Feet, and the Feet of my godbrothers and godsisters.
Your servants,
—Hansadutta and Himavati
(ISKCON—San Francisco)
ISKCON—Seattle
—Upendra das
I offer my most humbled prostrations at the Lotus Feet of my Spiritual Master out of Whose Causeless Mercy have sprung so many moon-like devotees of the Lord. And by Whose Merciful glance has allowed this crow-like person to associate with His Swan-like Self and thereby become saved from the mire of nescience.
I am eternally crying out in joy at this fact: that I am the servant of the servant of the servant of this Heralder of Chaitanya’s Movement. He has spread the Holy Name throughout the width and breadth of this world. I pray to remain fixed as a particle of dust in some corner of my Master’s house.
It was through my Guru Maharaj that all doubts were dispelled for final when He kindly recited this verse:
“All Glories, All Glories to the Lord Who is known as the Son of Devaki.
All Glories, All Glories to Krishna the light of the Vrishni Dynasty.
All Glories, All Glories to He whose skin is the Monsoon cloud and very soft.
All Glories, All Glories to He Who takes away the burden of the world."
O Can anyone know the simple glory of the Spiritual Master? No, not one! It is said that the Lord is All Merciful and this is confirmed without doubt in the Personification of Mercy, the Vaishnava Acharya.
So 3 times a day All Glories, All Glories to my Beloved Prabhupada Whose business it is to simply sing Hare Krishna, dance, and distribute Holy Prasadam … and my business remains to simply accept that Prasadam.
humbly prays at His Feet
—Upendra das
(ISKCON—Seattle)
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—Mahapurusha
On this auspicious day of Vyas Puja I offer my humble obeisances to the Lotus Feet of our Spiritual Master, His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad Paramhansa Paribrajackacharya Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Goswami Maharaj Prabhupad. I offer this small tribute with what genuine humility I have:
Among gentlemen, Prabhupad, You are the most cultured, because as a Pure Vaishnava. you surpass all Varnas and Ashramas.
Among scholars and philosophers You are the supermost learned because you are in perfect knowledge of the very End of Knowledge Himself.
Among singers you are the Best because you only sing of the Name, Fame and Glories of the Supreme Lord.
Among dancers, you are the Most Beautiful because you are eternally dancing in ecstasy of Sri Krishna Samkirtan together with Lord Chaitanya and all His associates.
This list can continue endlessly. But Prabhupad among the kind you are the most benevolent and merciful, and among all the servants of Krishna in this world you are the most dear to Him; nor will there ever be one more dear to the Lord, because out of your causeless mercy you have freely delivered to us the most sublime and supreme secret of Krishna Consciousness. All Glories to your Lotus Feet! All Glories to Sri Guru and Gouranga! I pray that you will kindly accept me as your unworthy servant.
—Mahapurusha
(ISKCON—Seattle)
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—Carl Lange
All glories to the Spiritual Master who, out of his causeless mercy, has picked us up from the darkness and misery of the ocean of birth and death, and guides us by the radiance of his pure soul back to our original blissful position of eternal devoted servitors of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Lord Krishna. I offer my most humble obeisances to the Spiritual Master who is the transparent medium between this most fallen and conditioned soul and the All-Pure Govinda. The Spiritual Master is teaching the highest of all knowledge and the prime benediction for our souls, chanting and glorifying the Holy Names of Krishna. It is only through these means that we can develop pure love of God and have a taste for the nectarine of Krishna’s Name and Pastimes and tinge our eyes with the salve of love so that we too can see Krishna with these eyes and deliver ourselves from the material entanglement back to Godhead.
All glories to Prabhupad!
—Carl Lange
(ISKCON—Seattle)
ISKCON—Washington
—Damodar
I offer my most humble obeisances to my Spiritual Master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad, Who is so dear to Lord Krishna on this Earth, having taken shelter of His Lotus Feet. Prabhupad is the kindest of all living entities, giving without any restriction, to any person who desires it, pure unalloyed devotional service to God. He has had such mercy upon us, miserable conditioned souls with no qualification, to give us an opportunity to enter into service of Sri Sri Radha and Krishna, the Supreme Absolute Truth. Now have we deserved this gesture of mercy? There is no question of our deserving it. Prabhupad has simply given us this chance causelessly, just by His Grace. We have seen His perfection, and have become attracted to it. He is the transparent medium through Whom we can see Krishna Himself, because Prabhupad is working twenty-four hours daily for Krishna. He is always acting in the realization that everything is Krishna’s property, and is expert in engaging others in devotional service. Prabhupad is our dearmost friend. In working to satisfy Him, we can find actual satisfaction ourselves. When Prabhupad is being fanned, all His devotees are cooled as well. We have tried to satisfy ourselves, our family, our society, but in no case can we satisfy either others or ourselves unless we take shelter of the bonafide Spiritual Master—only He can tell us who we are, and what is the goal of this human form of life. We are trying hard to be big men, but Prabhupad advises us to become great through service of the Greatest. And He is in direct disciplic succession from Lord Chaitanya, the Summum Bonum Supreme Absolute Truth. Prabhupad can deliver Krishna to us. Our Spiritual Master is not God, but He is the rarest among all living entities—a pure devotee of God. Therefore, because He is completely spiritual, He is as good, as worshipable, as God. He is a true Sannyasin. Not that He has renounced work; no, He works hard for Krishna, only for Krishna, and for His Guru Maharaj. He came to this country just to please His Spiritual Master. Even though He was living in the most auspicious holy city of Vrindaban, He left for the United States to do more for His Spiritual Master. So in this way, through the disciplic succession, such Great Souls as Prabhupad have exhibited the qualities of true love of God in their selfless devotion to Krishna. And in this way Prabhupad has become the Spiritual Father of so many children, and is raising them nicely in Krishna Consciousness. He has given us the greatest gift—life. Before we were dead, just attached to a miserable material body, suffering on account of our illusory happiness. But now we are learning how to live. Prabhupad has opened our eyes in the midst of darkness, and given us the torch of knowledge. Therefore, He is the best friend. Prabhupad has given us His whole life, just because, as a pure devotee, He is so kind. Every action, every word, is for our benefit. He cares nothing for Himself, only for serving God, and teaching others how to serve. It is confirmed in the Bhagavad Gita that such a person, who explains the process of surrendering to Krishna, is the dearest to Krishna of all His servants. Therefore I bow down to the Lotus Feet of His Divine Grace, Who has rained down His Mercy upon the forest fire of material existence, and has given us this priceless jewel of Devotional Service of Krishna.
—Damodar
(ISKCON—Washington)
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—Krishna Devi Dasi
I offer my most respectful obeisances to my Spiritual Master A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad on His 73rd Appearance Day on this planet. Who can estimate the potency of the Spiritual Master Who sings the poems of former Acharyas and plays on the holy Mridanga? Who can estimate the potency of the Spiritual Master who is always immersed in the Ocean of Bliss of Lord Chaitanya? And who is the recipient of the full mercy of Lord Nityananda? Who can estimate the potency of the Spiritual Master who is always engaged as the transparent via media of the Absolute Truth and is the Most Merciful distributor of Krishna’s Mercy to the conditioned souls?
—Krishna Devi Dasi
(ISKCON—Washington)
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—Madhusudan
Limited attempt to appreciate the unlimited Spiritual Master
I offer my respectful humble obeisances unto the lotus feet of the bona-fide Spiritual Master who alone can deliver the fallen conditioned souls such as myself from the pangs of material bondage, anxiety and raging fire-like lust. And it is he only who can impart transcendental knowledge to such fallen souls, because he has received it perfectly from the previous bona-fide Spiritual Master as originally taught by the source of all knowledge, Krishna Himself. The sound of this knowledge to the ear is like nectar to the parched throat coming straight down through him from the spiritual sky, Krishna Loka. He is the transparent medium through which we can penetrate the darkness of this material world and see clearly the pure spiritual reality which is eternally manifest and full of bliss. We have no other choice, but to always humbly worship the all-great unlimited bona-fide spiritual master and join the march, back to Home, back to Godhead.
—Madhusudan
(ISKCON—Washington)
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—Kanchanbala Dasi
Thunders crashing, minds and thoughts twisting
Misery for conditioned souls as
Hate, greed, lust, all this existing
Only Prabhupad can save us
So much lamentation inflicted
When one forgets his natural goal
As maya grabs each fallen soul
Only Prabhupad can save us.
Deluding maya so strong, yet He,
His Divine Grace, by Causeless Mercy
Can pick us up from misery
Only Prabhupad can save us.
By chanting the Holy Names of the Lord
Complete service to Krishna
And Prabhupad, all surrendered
Only Prabhupad can save us.
Rendering this devotional service
We can attain all perfection
Love Godhead by His Mercy
Only Prabhupad can save us.
Just to see Him smile, His Divine Grace
So radiant, puts out all fire
Of material desire by simply thinking of Him.
Only Prabhupad can save us.
—Kanchanbala Dasi
(ISKCON—Washington)
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—Dinesh
I am offering my most respectful obeisances to my Spiritual Master Swami A.C. Bhaktivedanta, Who surpasses all the stated qualities of the Devotee. He is distributing the fruit of the tree planted by Lord Chaitanya—pure love of God.
—Dinesh
(ISKCON—Washington)