Vyasa Puja offering to Srila Prabhupada 2016

(view 2016 offerings by disciples)

Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept my most respectful obeisances at your lotus feet.

Desiring to be of suitable service to you is our eternal quest. Whatever little expertise we have amassed derives from your service, and we strive to reinvest it in you. The yearning to become an effective instrument in your hands is the king sitting on the throne of the bhakti life you have given us. Because of the opportunity to engage in your service, we gradually find that our incongruous motivations, like species besieged by climate change, head for extinction.

Your devotees, begging for increased shelter at your lotus feet, seek divine intelligence to better serve your mission. You explained:

Kṛṣṇa’s plan becomes very easy for us when we follow Kṛṣṇa’s orders, otherwise, we are following Maya’s plan and become frustrated at every step. Following Kṛṣṇa’s orders means chanting daily 16 rounds, following the four rules and regulations, rising early, associating with devotees, like that. Unless these principles are followed, we cannot expect Kṛṣṇa’s protection.
[Letter to Jayadeva, 23 July 1972]

Currently the tossing seas of an increasingly pluralistic bhakti society pitch and roll the ISKCON boat—waves of global diversity often drenching your dedicated deckhands as they rally to keep your ISKCON ship on course. Amidst the spiritual introspection and deliberation necessary for guiding the diversity so it can thrive in unity, there is the grand panacea, though so lofty and sublime. This complete remedy tugs at our hearts and heads, impelling us forward due to your mercy:

Although he is the first living entity, Lord Brahmā is not in the category of viṣṇu-tattva. Rather, he is part of the jīva-tattva. Nonetheless, by the grace of the Lord, who instructed him through the heart (tene brahma hṛdā), Lord Brahmā could create a huge universe. Those who are actually pure devotees of the Lord are instructed by the Lord through the heart, where the Lord is always situated. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe ’rjuna tiṣṭhati (Bg. 18.61). If he follows the instructions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the living entity, even though an insignificant creature, can perform the most difficult tasks by the Lord’s grace. Lord Kṛṣṇa confirms this in the Bhagavad-gītā (10.10):

teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam
dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ yena mām upayānti te

"To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me."

Everything is possible for a pure devotee because he acts under the instructions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Through His inconceivable energy, a pure devotee can perform tasks that are supposed to be very, very difficult. He can perform tasks not even previously performed by the Lord Himself.
[Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya 16.67, purport]

Gazing far overhead at the pragmatic reality and necessity of this consummate, final solution, we prostrate ourselves before you, desiring life-after-life progress toward this pressing practical necessity, though it be so stunningly exalted—life’s ultimate goal.

Aspiring for your service,
Devāmrita Swami