Letter to Shrila Prabhupada

By Patita Pavana das Adhikary

Having just spent two weeks on the Polish Festival Tour as a guest of ISKCON’s foremost preacher, His Holiness Indradyumna Swami, I have been inspired to write the following to Jagat Guru Shrila Prabhupada with hopes that our other Society members find these thoughts relevant.

My dear Shrila Prabhupada,

It has been over three decades since Kartika 1977 when Your Divine Grace departed this world for the transcendental abode of Shri Krishna. Yet, till today the words that emanated from your lotus lips on the occasion of my second initiation on April 10th, 1969, echo in my mind. On that holy day in New York, Your Divine Grace gave the example of an iron rod that itself becomes like fire when placed in fire. As you pointed out, iron is a cold, base metal; but by being subjected to flames, it soon glows red hot. Similarly, even a dull shudra like me can become purified by the fire of devotion through association with you, the bona fide representative of the all-encompassing Supreme Absolute Truth. And to underscore that point, you said that you expected each one of us, your struggling disciples, to ourselves become spiritual masters in the future. You were expressing your wish that we follow your holy example and continue igniting flames of Krishna consciousness all over the world.

Then, after your talk, you kindly garlanded me with the sacred thread and accepted this worthless nincompoop as your servant. But even though service to your twin lotus feet automatically grants all worthwhile benedictions, this cold iron rod requested one favour. Unabashedly I begged Your Divine Grace to allow me to remain as your servant birth after birth. Replying with your head held high and looking straight ahead you bellowed like a great lion, “Bow down.” (Which, by your grace, I immediately did!)

Shrila Prabhupada, I have struggled very hard all these years to fulfill your orders, though never once living up to your expectations. Like an ignorant boatman rowing a barge whose anchor has not been drawn in, my observance of Vedic obligation and ritual has been nothing more than an utter waste of this human form of life. Mired in the muck of material existence and hovering just above the whirlpools of the rivers of hell, my small assets risked being burned to cinders by the fire of forgetfulness of Krishna. Balancing precariously, had I fallen from your ship, my Captain, then the avaricious waves of the waters of perdition would certainly have drowned me in a horrible fate. But because you answered my request to serve you life after life and somehow accepted me by your causeless mercy, I have once again found myself in Your Divine Grace’s association on the Polish Festival Tour.

Through your undying love, O Prabhupada, you have reappeared in my life as bright as ever. Strong as a lion, you have now pulled in that stuck anchor that I may continue sailing up the river of Krishna consciousness. The divine stream of bliss that ceaselessly pours from your heart is the abode of swans. Shrila Prabhupada, by your living, loving grace I have again obtained your blessed association through a swanlike Godbrother who, unlike me, never fails to take your instruction to become the hot iron rod of being guru very seriously. And by the grace of that modern day spiritual master in disciplic succession from you, I have again experienced both your blazing fire of purification and your heavenly torrent of cool bhakti. For in the incredible world of Krishna consciousness, the fire of devotion simultaneously glows alongside the refreshing waters of bliss as opposites meet causing no contradiction.

O World Guru, your example has inspired sankirtan as the international religion. This then is the analogous hot iron rod igniting everywhere new flames of Krishna-prema. You taught us that good things must be shared, and thus has your true disciple ignited the blazing fire of Krishna consciousness here in these distant corners of the world along the Baltic Sea. That this all-purifying conflagration of bhakti has moved from you through time to your sannyasi disciple and onto the next generation of Mahaprabhu’s foot soldiers is proof of your prophecy that iron you touch becomes fire. Although the yagna you gave the world burns with flames of purification, it cools still our hearts like the waters of the Yamuna languishing in Lord Chandra’s silvery glow of moonlight on Sarat Purnima.

In the grand Polish land from bandstand to seaside sand and with books in hand devotees fanned the land to expand sankirtan saving souls of the damned. Thus, I witnessed:

-A Festival of Wonder wherein veritable saviours of fallen souls are disguised as entertainers, cooks, and stagehands;

-The great Message of Mahaprabhu translated into European folk tunes and lively dance;

-The Krishna puppet show in which the audience becomes Krishna’s puppets;

-The land of miod transformed into the land of madhu by the grace of the holy name;

-The flight of new signets (your grand disciples) becoming airborn in the wake of a great swan (your disciple) guided as they are by you, the Supreme Swan;

-Drumbeats of deliverance and caratals that turn keys to release slaves from the iron shackles of Maya;

-The public kitchen of Krishna whose recipes satisfy each soul’s hunger for the Supreme Absolute Truth.

-And in my mind’s eye towering above the festivities, I saw the form of you, Shrila Prabhupada, sitting in the same mood of immovable devotion to your Guru Maharaja that I witnessed at the time you blessed me with initiation and ordered me to “Bow down!” For, O Jagat Guru, you remain wherever you disciples glorify Krishna together.

Through this unbreakable chain of parampara, Shrila Prabhupada, the great world awakening of Krishna Consciousness you inaugurated continues its bright progress like a spreading fire to distant lands as each upcoming generation embraces the same yuga dharma you bequeathed the world. Who but you—empowered as you are by the Supreme Lord Himself—could have foreseen all this? Today the brilliant glory of the great Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya sampradaya has radiated from the heart of Your Divine Grace setting ablaze the soul of that sannyasi disciple in far away Prabhupada-datta-desh, and into the souls of his disciples. Thus has the all-consuming conflagration expanded unto the multitudes. By the metaphorical explanation of a hot iron rod you gave at my initiation lecture, O Supreme Swan of the Universe, it is a delight to witness first hand the continuation of the parampara as at last your best disciples have become guru.

Blessed Acharya of the Universe, your mercy is realized not only in the association of your faithful disciples, but in the company of those who follow those whom you have deputized. This humble wretch ever blessed by you bows low in the dust of the lotus feet of your servants’ servants, and begs to serve them birth after birth. If this desire of dasdasanudasa might be fulfilled, then with utmost gratitude this Patit now and evermore shall remain grateful.

Your eternal servant,

Patita Pavana das Adhikary

namah om vishnupadaya krishnapresthaya bhutale

shrimate bhaktivedanta swamin iti namine

namaste saraswati deve gouravani pracharine

nirvishesha shunyavadi paschatya deshatarine