Vyasa-puja offering to Srila Prabhupada 2008

(view 2008 offerings by disciples)

Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, Please accept my prostrated obeisances at your lotus feet. In your devotional service, dedicated followers can see how pure love of Kṛṣṇa surcharges all three phases of time. First, your vapu bequeathed to us the wealth of an inconceivable past. This most sublime personal estate—the Prabhupāda memories—enriches our days and nights.

Then, through your vāṇī association, you share with us a now, a present, that defies mundane conceptions. Our heart’s solace and sustenance is indeed that “thou art living still in sound,” especially as the recorded kīrtanas in the form of your books. Furthermore, because of both the past and the present that you’ve already bestowed, a resplendent future in bhakti awaits us—in either the ISKCON here or the version in the spiritual world, where, as you said, somehow we’ll all recognize one another.

Your gifts, strategies, and goals have withstood the century’s change. The question becomes not “Are your goals and you still relevant?” but “Are we, as your followers, still relevant?” During the sixties and seventies, we had difficulty matching the vigorous pace of your morning walks. Since your physical departure, the decades have revealed how challenged we are to keep up with your spiritual vision, mandates, and strategies.

The foundation and preparation you gave us for the twenty-first century bring to mind a famous humorist and social commentator’s quip: “When I was a teenager, I thought that my father didn’t know so much. Then, upon reaching my thirties, I was shocked to perceive how much the old man had learned.”

I’ve grown up to realize, even more, that you had always been over the next hill, far ahead of us—in ISKCON vision, scope, and insight. Yearning to follow in your wake, clinging to your coattails, I beg for the genuine humility and pure motives required to be your effective servant.

Aspiring to be a real disciple,
Devāmrita Swami