Sivarama Swami's offering for the 1994 Srila Prabhupada Vyasa Puja

[Guest guest]

Dear Mharajas, Prabhus and Matajis,

 

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Bhakta-vigna-vinasa Nrsimhadeva Bhagavan ki jaya!

 

H.H. Sivarama Swami's offering for the 1994 Srila Prabhupada Vyasa Puja

gives one of the most profoundly moving and inspiring insights into Srila

Prabhupada and the kind of effect he has had all over the world. You may

have read it earlier, but this is one of those eternal, timeless,

electrifying masterpieces which one can relish over and over and over again,

and come out spiritually rejuvenated, grateful and humble.

 

Your humble servant

 

Shyamasundara Dasa

 

www.ShyamasundaraDasa.com

 

 

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Dear Srila Prabhupada,

 

Please accept my humble obeisances at your divine lotus feet. All glories to

you on the celebration of your appearance day.

 

While planning a composition for your offering , I was also attending to my

regular correspondence. One letter stood out among the others. I enclose it

here , translated into English , for your pleasure.

 

 

Dear Sivarama Swami ,

 

Hare Krsna. Please accept my humble obeisances . All glories to Srila

Prabhupada. I hope you do not mind my writing to you. I have never written

to a spiritual master before. You do not know me.

 

My name is Bhaktin Dora and I live in Pecs(Hungary).I am 14 years old , and

I live at home with my mother and older sister. In 1992 I went to the Hare

Krsna Festival with a friend. I was not very interested , but I enjoyed the

chanting and dancing at the end. After it was over I bought a book , "The

Science of Self-

Realization."

 

I do not know why , generally I never read. I think it was because of the

chanting. I took the book home and cannot remember what happened to it. One

day my mother found it and was very angry with me. She thought that I was

reading this kind of thing. You see, our family members are all very strict

Catholics. They thought Krsna consciousness was some kind of "brainwashing".

Actually I wasn't reading the book, I had forgotten all about it. Somehow,

it just "appeared". Anyway my mother was going to throw it away.

 

My grandmother , who is 68, was in the kitchen at that time. She lives in

the apartment upstairs. She came in and took the book. She looked at it and

scolded me in a very heavy way. I thought that would be the end of it. I did

not mind it so much as I was in a lot of maya at that time. About a week

later, I overheard a conversation between my mother and grandmother. Granny

was saying that this was not an ordinary book. She said that what Prabhupada

was saying is what Jesus Christ said and that Krsna is God. I was very

surprised. She said that we should listen to what Prabhupada said and chant

Hare Krsna because that was the religion for this age. There was a lot of

talk about how Christianity was no more, and no one was following the Bible,

but what Prabhupada said was pure and perfect.

 

Things really took a turn from there .One day my grandmother visited the

nama-hatta center here and began to chant on beads. She also began to buy

Prabhupada's books one by one. She was spending all her pension on buying

what she called the "beautiful, holy Bhagawatam". Sometimes she could only

afford to eat potatoes, but she kept buying the books. The devotees even

came to her flat and helped her set up an altar. When I went upstairs, they

had taken all the pictures down, and there were Krsna pictures everywhere.

 

That was really the beginning. One night, granny had a dream about

Prabhupada. Something really happened to her then. I don't know what it was,

but she began to get very enthusiastic. Next she began to get the whole

family involved. I mean, not just me and my mother and sister, but her two

sons, their wives and six children as well as her brothers, sisters and

relatives. Before she used to carry a Bible with her and quote Jesus Christ.

Now she has a Bhagavad Gita and quotes "the good Lord Prabhupada". She

became a veritable transcendental terror. Everyone in the family has to

chant at least one round a day. In addition, granny made everyone become a

vegetarian including my dog Sikra, and we offer our food to a picture of

Prabhupada and Lord Caitanya.

 

Now, I am also getting out of maya and chanting and reading a little also.

Where I go to school my friends inquire about Krsna, as they know I am a

devotee. The whole family goes to the nama-hatta, all sixteen of us. During

the Christmas Marathon, we all tried to distribute Prabhupada's books. Even

granny would take books with her to the market and sell them to the vendors.

Everyone is afraid of her because she is fearless. They all think she has

gone crazy, but she does not care.

 

Now she is saving to go to Budapest to see the newly installed Deities. She

has heard that Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda "came" to Hungary and are

being worshipped there by the devotees. She says she wants to see God just

once in this life.

 

At this year's Hare Krsna festival, you were speaking to the guests after

the kirtana. You must remember my grandmother because she came and sat right

beside you and asked so many questions. At the end when you stood to leave,

she even kissed your hand, remember ? I also wanted to ask a question, but I

was shy. Could I please ask you now ? I hope you do not mind, maharaja.

 

I want to know what kind of man Srila Prabhupada was. He must be so dear to

Krsna to have spread this message all over the world. What are these books

that changed my family so much? How is it possible that he can speak so

powerfully through them? You must feel very fortunate to be his disciple.

How great a man he is. Sometimes when my granny chants in front of a picture

of Krsna she cries. How does Prabhupada do that ? I want to cry like that

too. Granny dreams of Prabhupada, and sometimes she talks to his picture.

Although it says on the cover of the book that he passed away, is Prabhupada

really dead, or is he still alive? Do you think I can meet him someday?

 

I am sorry that I have gone on so. I would like to be a good devotee one day

and help you and Prabhupada spread Krsna Consciousness. Please could you

answer my questions ?

 

Your servant,

Bhaktin Dora

 

 

 

Srila Prabhupada, what is this brand of mercy that you gave this old lady I

just barely met, that you never gave to me ? She never met you, never saw

devotees, she is not even initiated by you. What is this kindness that you

bestow upon her, that you do not give me, "your fortunate disciple?"

 

What am I referring to ? It is just this. After having come in contact with

you for just a few months, what inspiration did you give this granny in that

dream ? What did you move in her heart that made her change her life in its

final days ? That made her turn against the current of banality and

tradition and strike out alone to change her world. No sympathy, no

association, no institutional support. Boldness I do not possess, changes I

do not have the strength to make.

 

Srila Prabhupada, I want to know what is that you say to her from your

picture when she talks to you ? I have so many pictures. You do not speak to

me through them.

 

Although I worship Deities daily, I continue to see them as made of marble

and wood. How is it this old lady has the conviction that God has "come" to

her country ? Why have you not given such vision to me ? Where did she get

the conviction that a pilgrimage to the city capital would yield the final

goal of her life ?

 

One last thing, Srila Prabhupada, how is it that when Dora's granny chants

in front of a picture, she cries ? How do you do it ? I want to cry like

that too. When will you give me that mercy ?

 

Srila Prabhupada, this is one letter , from one girl who came in contact

with you. How many millions of such souls are there who have yet to write ,

who are directly experiencing your mercy daily, who read your books with

implicit faith, whom you talk to in dreams and pictures, whose lives you

change abruptly and reward with tears when chanting the holy names ?

 

How many people cross the boundaries of rules and regulations by the strong

boat of your mercy and practice and taste Krsna Consciousness in a realm

beyond logic and argument ? I think these people are meeting you every day.

How will I acquire their good fortune ? When will you one day bestow some of

this special mercy upon me that you give to them ?

 

If I am not to acquire it directly, even after begging for it, then I will

serve such souls who have reached your mission. I will offer them prasadam,

give them your books and show them how to practice. I will chant with them.

Thus I can hope to gain a new perspective of your greatness, even though I

may never fully understand it.

 

Your

insignificant servant,

Sivarama Swami