Srila Prabhupada Built A House In Which The Whole World Can Live in Peace
nama om visnu-padaya krsna-presthaya bhu-tale
srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine
namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine
nirvisesa-sunyavadi-pascatya-desa-tarine
My dear Srila Prabhupada, please accept my sincere and humble obeisances at your lotus feet on this auspicious and exalted day of your divine appearance, Vyas Puja.
There are neither earthly nor heavenly calculations how I can possibly repay even a microscopic iota of gratitude for bestowing upon me the shelter of your lotus feet. In my quest for spiritual realization early in my life, I was highly fortunate to come in contact with you and you accepted me as your disciple.
My first glimpse of you convinced me to dedicate my entire life to Krishna consciousness. I had never seen nor met anyone like you before; you were like someone from another planet! Your bright facial countenance effulgent like the shining sun, your deep compassionate eyes, your solemn demeanor, yet your friendly and affectionate nature attracted all of us to you. You are all attractive, Srila Prabhupada just like Lord Krishna, a veritable saint and my savior, nay, you are the savior of all mankind!
You built a house the whole world can live in peace, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Your house attracted many conditioned souls in the sincere pursuit of the highest goal of life, God realization. Your house is ever blissful, aesthetically embellished with colorful flowers, aromatic incense, offered for glorification of the Lord. It is overflowing with joyful chanting and dancing, sumptuous prasadam, philosophical talks expounding the absolute truth, and the association of many jubilant bright faced spiritual brothers and sisters.
You established 108 temples throughout the world which are oases in the desert of this materialistic culture of the present day. With your transcendental chanting at Tompkins Square Park, many young boys and girls flocked to you, abandoning their parents, friends, schools, jobs, etc. Srila Prabhupada you are truly the modern day "Pied Piper" of the twentieth century enticing us with your magnetic transcendental tune of the maha-mantra:
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare
You brought the message of the Golden Avatar, Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu to the Occident, the Western world. In this fallen age, charlatans and self-professed gurus only seek monetary compensation and mislead the innocent public. However, you abundantly distributed the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, "the great chant for deliverance," free of charge. You gave the world the panacea that can remedy all material sufferings in this dark age of Kali. Srila Prabhupada, you are a jivanmukta, an eternally liberated soul, a paramahamsa, who descended from Vaikuntha, the spiritual abode of Lord Krishna. You are a saktyavesavatar, jagat guru, the empowered spiritual master of the universe who has incarnated for the salvation of the entire world!
We joyfully remember the sixties and seventies when you were physically present with us. Devotees throughout the world would rise early and daily attend mangala-aratrika to praise you. All your disciples were fully engaged in preaching Krishna consciousness. Most of us would go out on book distribution, some were worshiping and cooking for the Deities, and others were preparing your books for publication at the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. The artists drew beautiful paintings -- "windows to the spiritual world" as you described them -- to illustrate your books. We were protecting the cows, making ghee and sweets, farming fruits and vegetables, going out on Harinam, and engaging in a host of blissful services for your satisfaction. All your disciples understood clearly that pleasing you was the object of our life and the key to making advancement in Krishna consciousness.
In the house that you built resided a dynamic society of devotees. The ambiance was personable, friendly, surcharged with enthusiasm, and everyone shared an unparalleled dedication and love for you, Srila Prabhupada. You built a house where we found an intimacy and camaraderie beyond race, gender, ethnicity, or nationality. You injected genuine "love and trust" throughout your society. The devotees would daily offer dandavats to each other, "please accept my humble obeisances prabhu" was the common greeting in those days. We were your selfless servants; everyone served you without expecting remuneration. We just wanted to live blissfully with you Srila Prabhupada in the house that you built.
You gave the order to disseminate the Krishna consciousness movement all over the world, and most importantly, to become Krishna conscious ourselves. You ordered your disciples to chant a minimum of sixteen rounds daily, follow four regulative principles, attend the temple programs regularly, and dedicate everything we do in the service of Lord Krishna. You stated that you gave us everything in your books and that they shall be the spiritual law books for humanity for the next ten thousand years. Your books are replete with the absolute knowledge to perpetuate the legacy of your disciplic succession, originating from The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Krishna. Therefore, it behooves all your disciples, grand-disciples and your sincere followers both individually and collectively to take up your order as their life and soul. As Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur strongly affirmed: "Just as one cannot separate the soul from the living entity, the disciple cannot separate the order of his spiritual master from his very life."
During your final pastimes (lila) in 1977 in Vrndavan, India, you requested that if we could not expand the Krishna Consciousness Movement, then at least we should maintain what you started. You also conveyed that our love for you would be exhibited by how we cooperate to serve you. You issued the mandate that we should not change anything. You once said "Krishna says, 'Surrender unto Me.' I say, 'Surrender unto Krishna.' is there any difference?" When instructing your disciples, you used many examples, analogies, similes, metaphors, etc., to illustrate the science of Krishna consciousness. One example is that of the postman. The postman simply delivers the mail and does not tamper with it. In that spirit you presented the Bhagavad Gita As It Is.
Srila Prabhupada, you reached numerous monumental achievements: you came to the West at the advanced age of sixty-nine years old and founded the Hare Krishna Movement. You traveled around the globe fourteen times and accepted thousands of disciples. But the crowning glory of your illustrious success is the translation of the topmost Vedic literatures, namely Srimad Bhagavatam, Bhagavad Gita, Caitanya Caritamrta, and other important religious works. Your books have been translated into sixty-four languages and placed in major universities, libraries and institutions all over the world! You have received honors and innumerable other accolades from distinguished and erudite scholars, but you never accepted any personal credit. As you stated in the preface of the Bhagavad Gita, "If personally I have any credit in this matter, it is only that I have tried to present Bhagavad Gita as it is, without adulteration." In due course of time, noted historians will document how this Krishna consciousness movement saved the world; and this credit is deservedly and unequivocally all yours, Srila Prabhupada.
Today, on this most auspicious occasion of your Vyas Puja, all your disciples are deeply meditating upon indelible memories of you. We are reminiscing the times during your morning walks, while hearing your lectures, when being present in your room conversations, or kindly receiving a cookie or a flower from you. We call to mind encouraging words you once said to us, and we are taking time again to attentively read the letters you wrote us offering your affectionate guidance. But most significantly, we are remembering the sacred day when we received our initiation and you accepted each of us as your eternal disciple.
And for those second generation devotees, who did not have the fortune "in this lifetime" to physically meet (vapu) and greet you, you stated that you are present in your instructions (vani), your books, pictures, recordings, videos, and your murti on the vyasasana. Your unalloyed mercy and the shelter of your lotus feet are equally available to them. As confirmed by Bhaktivinode Thakur: "He reasons ill who tells that Vaisnavas die when thou art living still in sound! The Vaisnavas die to live and living spread the holy name around!"
So, it has been nearly 33 years since you have disappeared from our mortal vision. Today we fervently pray that you bless us, Srila Prabhupada, with the strength and resolution to maintain our vows and continue to expand the society you founded. All your disciples, grand-disciples and sincere followers humbly offer you our eternal gratitude for building the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, a house in which the whole world can live in peace. Srila Prabhupada ki jai!
Humbly submitted on this day of Vyas Puja, September 2, 2010
Vaisnavananda dasa (ACBSP, 1972)
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