Vyasa-puja offering 2006
Srila Prabhupada: The Complete Devotee
Dearest Srila Prabhupada,
Please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet, dust which to this day continues to purify the earth. How?
Recently a teenage boy in El Paso, Texas, purchased a Bhagavad-gita As It Is at a public library book sale. He had three friends who were also seekers of truth, and the four of them began to meet together regularly to read and study the book. A few months later they were all philosophically convinced and so spiritually enlivened that they decided to join the Dallas temple.
We were all amazed at how attached to your lotus feet these young people had become, Srila Prabhupada, just by reading your book. Of course, we all know that you are present in your books, but all-powerful time tends to dull that remembrance. It was as if you had sent these young people as dramatic evidence to remind us that you are personally present in your ecstatic purports.
The next day, these new devotees appeared to be glowing with a happiness that can only come from pure faith. Again we were reminded that only pure faith—faith that if we become Krsna conscious all our needs will be fulfilled—can qualify one to perform pure devotional service. The boys with freshly shaved heads and dhotis, the girls dressed in saris, all with bright tilaka, looked as if they had descended from the spiritual world. They seemed to have been in the movement forever. And with that pure faith they at once became attached to the forms of the Lord on the altar.
Over the next few weeks we all watched as Maya tested them. Suspicious parents and relatives had to be pacified; their own minds and senses needed answers to the usual doubts and questions that invariably come up in the hearts of new devotees; the sometimes contradictory advice given by a few well-meaning but sometimes immature older devotees had to be braved. But because these youths had surrendered with their intelligence, having being convinced by your strong arguments, all of them passed these initial tests with poise and maturity. And in the process some of their family members and relatives were being transformed by the company of these new Vaisnavas.
Of course, they needed more than the books to pass these tests. They needed counseling, guidance, and support from your devotees. Eventually these new bhaktas will need personal spiritual masters, as confirmed by your teachings. We found in our talks with them that they instinctively understood that from what they had read. We instructed them to fix up their faith in you as their siksa-guru for at least a year before seeking the shelter of one of your direct disciples as diksa-guru, and to know that you were there for them eternally.
The organic or natural spiritual growth of the devotional creepers of these youngsters testifies to the completeness of your personality, Srila Prabhupada, and of the process you gave us for advancing in krsna consciousness.
apane acare keha, na kare pracara
pracara karena keha, na karena acara
‘acara’, ‘pracara’,—namera karaha ‘dui’ karya
tumi—sarva-guru, tumi jagatera arya
“Some behave very well but do not preach the cult of Krsna consciousness, whereas others preach but do not behave properly. You simultaneously perform both duties in relation to the holy name by your personal behavior and by your preaching. Therefore you are the spiritual master of the entire world, for you are the most advanced devotee in the world.” (Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Antya-lila 4.102–103)
In your purport to the second verse, you state:
The members of the Krsna consciousness movement chant a minimum of sixteen rounds a day, which can be done without difficulty, and at the same time they must preach the cult of Caitanya Mahaprabhu according to the gospel of Bhagavad-gita As It Is. One who does so is quite fit to become a spiritual master for the entire world.
As you did in your physical presence, so through your Bhagavad-gita As It Is you act perfectly and preach perfectly. While your spiritual master’s institution was burning in the fire of factionalism, you carried on undeterred to fulfill the desire of your guru maharaja, because you were fixed in your determination to fulfill his order to spread Krsna consciousness in the West and throughout the world. You were not interested in political considerations or in gathering followers and resources for name and fame, but you were interested only in changing the hearts of the conditioned souls and relieving them of their suffering for the pleasure of your spiritual master and the Supreme Lord.
Watching these youngsters, all of us were reminded of how we had met you in the pages of your books, how we had reacted in the same way, how our consciousness had been transformed, and how we had come to dedicate our youth to your mission. You are alive and well, Srila Prabhupada.
Times may have changed, but the truth of your words, your powerful logic and arguments, your revelation of the futility of material existence, your entire approach to preaching and practicing Krsna consciousness have stood the test of time. Time is powerful. It is Krsna. It can cause us to forget the fresh enthusiasm, the pure faith that poured forth from our hearts when we first contacted your sublime teachings, your wonderful personality, your complete authority. Time has even caused some to overlook these things to search elsewhere for “higher teachings.” But your teachings, your approach, your compassion, your level of organization — all are more relevant today than ever before.
The spiritual growth you engender is organic. It naturally leads to the higher realms of devotional service. Why? You are a selfless servant. This is the essence of spontaneous love for Krsna, vraja-bhakti. You weren’t preoccupied with your own advancement, and you didn’t teach us to be.
In fact, Srila Prabhupada, you sacrificed everything, even your own reputation as a sannyasi in India, to give us Westerners a chance to become Krsna conscious. No sannyasi had ever participated directly in the marriages of his disciples, nor given brahminical and sannyäsa initiations to Westerners. And many so-called spiritual authorities in your homeland criticized you for doing so. But you took that risk for the sake of others, for the pleasure of Krsna, and you uncompromisingly defended us even when we couldn’t behave properly. This is the seed of organic spiritual growth, the selfless service attitude, not artificial attempts at nirjana-bhajana.
This is why you made so many devotees so quickly. And it is why you are still making them through your purports, which are pure, transparent, and powerful.
Be merciful to us, Srila Prabhupada. Let our pure faith not be compromised by spurious arguments about how your books were edited, nor by dwelling on mistakes we made in our immaturity, nor by arguing why we can’t initiate disciples in the face of your numerous instructions to do just that. Let us not lose our energy by fighting with one another. Let us see the evidence before us. Let us see the clear light of your example and the tenor of your instructions. And let us follow them, not sit on the sidelines and find fault with those who sincerely try to follow them.
Bless us, Srila Prabhupada, with the intelligence to surrender our false egos, that we may do more than try to follow your example and teachings, that we may actually follow them without fear. And then please mold us into your instruments to increase the numbers of pure devotees, to light up the world with Krsna consciousness.
You are the complete devotee because you have full faith in Krsna and His holy names. You don’t demand things of your disciples that they can’t give or do. It is up to us to follow. No one can do it for us, and no one can stop us from doing it.
You taught us how we could engage in full devotional service from wherever we were. In that way you were fully transparent to our previous acharyas and to sastra. Your teachings and example were neither culturally constricting nor elitist, and therefore they had the potency to create a spiritual revolution in the hearts of deeply conditioned souls, individually and collectively, from all parts of the world.
In stressing the omnipotence of the holy names, you were the ultimate rasika acarya because you could touch the heart in a way that only Lord Caitanya could. Strictly following Mahaprabhu and His empowered followers, you assured us that we could see Krsna face-to-face by offenseless harinäma-sankirtana.
krsna-mantra haite habe samsara-mocana
krsna-nama haite pabe krsnara carana
“Simply by chanting the holy name of Krsna one can obtain freedom from material existence. Indeed, simply by chanting the Hare Krsna mantra one will be able to see the lotus feet of the Lord.”
In your purport to this verse, you quote your guru maharaja:
However, when one chants the holy name of the Lord offenselessly, one can realize a transcendental position that is completely aloof from the material conception of life. Rendering service to the Lord, a devotee relates to the Supreme Personality of Godhead in one of five relationships—namely, santa, dasya, sakhya, vatsalya, or mädhurya—and thus he relishes transcendental bliss in that relationship. Such a relationship certainly transcends the body and mind. When one realizes that the holy name of the Lord is identical with the Supreme Person, he becomes completely eligible to chant the holy name of the Lord. Such an ecstatic chanter and dancer must be considered to have a direct relationship with the Lord. [Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Adi-lila 7.73, purport]
I beg for the empowerment to follow in your footsteps, Srila Prabhupada. I beg for pure faith in you, the complete devotee.
Your eternal servant,
Kesava Bharati Dasa Goswami