Vyasa-puja offering 2004

 

Dearest Srila Prabhupada,

Please accept my most respectful obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet, which to this day are giving shelter to the whole world.

Those of us who were present for the installation of the Panca-tattva Deities in Mayapur this year were fortunate enough to see, in an extremely wonderful way, your unique potency to spread Krsna consciousness, Srila Prabhupada.

As devotees hovered around those five gigantic golden forms, performing various services, like bumblebees savoring the nectar of lotus flowers, and as the kirtana of thousands of devotees, led by empowered ISKCON kirtaniyas, one after the other, escalated into thunderous waves that rolled through Mayapur and around the world, the thought kept flooding into my mind: How wonderful it is that you were able single-handedly to adjust things, just as the Panca-tattva did, in such a way that anyone, from any national, religious, economic, or cultural background, could taste the sweetness of Krsna consciousness.

The Panca-tattva broke open the storehouse of love of God, plundered it, and distributed it freely to everyone, without discrimination. No one was ineligible to receive and taste krsna-prema. And that’s just what you did, Srila Prabhupada. I was seeing it before my eyes, twenty-seven years after your so-called departure from this world—devotees from all over the world tasting the ecstasy of serving together the most wonderful forms of the Panca-tattva ever installed on the earth. Someone would have to have been blind not to have seen who you are on that day, Srila Prabhupada. It was too obvious, even to such a fallen soul as me.

Gone were any political differences, philosophical differences, economic differences, bodily differences, or past differences—and among one of the most diverse groups of devotees I had ever seen. It was truly an amazing spiritual experience, to see the power of harinama-sankirtana in action in such a dramatic way.

We will never be the same after that experience, as we will never be the same having personally witnessed the mystical way you single-handedly spread the pure chanting of the Holy Names throughout the world. You were proud of the fact that your movement was not known by your own name. You were proud that people knew your movement as the Hare Krsna movement, because you always pushed Krsna forward, not yourself. That was your humility. Let others try to imitate you and claim exclusive rights to your legacy or to advanced levels of Krsna consciousness in their own names. Your legacy was there for all to see—the day the Panca-tattva appeared in that most wonderful form—in the faces of everyone present. Tears flowed unrestrictedly, devotees danced madly, embracing one another in ecstatic happiness. It was as if you were personally there with us, Srila Prabhupada, lifting your hand ever-so-slightly, to indicate that we should chant louder and louder and dance higher and higher, lifting your head high in that charming way in which only you could express the deepest humility and gratitude.

So now, as you always did when you were with us physically, you have turned up the heat. Who knows what will be the long-term effects on our movement and the rest of the world as the results of that installation and the kirtanas that accompanied it gradually sweep over the world, inundating it with renewed love for chanting Hare Krsna.

We can declare it boldly, then, that all of us, especially from the Western countries, practicing Krsna consciousness were delivered and still are being delivered only by your potency and loving mercy. I pray for the day when all will see that and openly glorify you as the uniquely empowered representative of the Panca-tattva, the only one who could spread the Holy Name in such an unrestricted way.

We pray to stay directly in front of the tidal wave of love of God you initiated, Srila Prabhupada. We pray to be inundated in that wave and to be empowered to do whatever is required to help you continue to deliver the world in its darkest hour.

Hare Krsna.

Begging for an eternal place in the shade of your lotus feet, I remain, as always,

Your insignificant servant,

Kesava Bharati dasa Goswami