Fwd: Vote For Srila Prabhupada, PLEASE!!

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Subject : Propose Srila Prabhupada's name and vote for him in the Times of

India's "Indian's of the Century Poll" Website :

<http://www.timesofindia.com/century/>'>http://www.timesofindia.com/century/>

 

 

Venerable Maharajas, Prabhus and our Hindu Brethren :

 

 

All glories to Srila Prabhupada, the founder-Acharya of ISKCON. Let me offer

my most venerable obeisance unto Srila Prabhupada. Let me render my humble

obeisance and respect unto all of you, the exalted devotees of Lord Krishna

and our Hindu brethren. I've written this letter to make a fervent plea to

all of you to propose Srila Prabhupada's name and vote for him in the poll

being conducted by the "Times of India" - one of the most widely read Indian

Newspapers - to determine the "Indians of the Century".

 

 

The details of the poll categorized into 4 groups : [1]: Leaders and the

Politicians, [2]: Creators of Wealth, [3]: Great Minds and Spiritual Lights,

[4]: Artists and Entertainers and the process of everybody's participation

and exercising his vote in the poll have appeared in the November 3 issue of

Times of India : "http://www.timesofindia.com/031199/03home4.htm".

 

 

According to my little knowledge, Srila Prabhupada's name figured out only

once in another poll, organized by the website "http://www.khoj.com" in

1996, the very year of his centennial birth anniversary. But unfortunately

and much to chagrin of the devotees of Lord Krishna, the name of Srila

Prabhupada - who had disseminated the principal message of the Vedas,

"Harinam Sankirtan" outside of India for the first time in the history and

who had proved to the whole world the authenticity and glory of the Vedic

tradition as it is - was not proposed in the Category [3]: "Great Minds and

Spiritual Lights" of the initial phase of the poll. Now this poll will give

a golden opportunity to the devotees of Lord Krishna, the followers of

"Sanatana Dharma" and all of our Hindu brethren to propose his name in the

List.

 

 

The more devotees and our Hindu brethren propose Srila Prabhupada's name in

the Category [3 ]: "Great Minds and Spiritual Lights" of the first phase of

the poll that has already commenced on November 1 and will end on November

30, the better impression about him will be generated in the minds of the

poll-participants as well as others - still incognizant of his name, fame,

contribution to India's aeon long antiquated Vedic Tradition and to the

humanity of the whole world.

 

 

If all the Krishna Bhaktas and many Hindus - who are admirers of Srila

Prabhupada's glorious contribution -suggest his name in the first phase and

if his name is finalized by the Poll organizers as the 100 individuals to be

eligible for the 2nd and the last phase of the poll by the criteria that his

name was proposed by the overwhelming number of the poll-participants, and

later if the devotees & our Hindu brethren continue to vote for him in the

2nd stage, only then will we be able to see Srila Prabhupada emerge as one

of the most influential Indian Saint and Spiritual Enlighteners chosen by

the Times of India's poll.

 

 

The name of Swami Chinmayananda, the late Hindu spiritual leader, Ramana

Maharishi, J. Krishnamurty and even the name of Rajnish has also appeared in

the proposed list of Times of India poll, leaving out Srila Prabhupada. With

due respect to all others whose names appeared in the Category "Great Minds

and Spiritual Lights", I have to boldly assert herein that Srila

Prabhupada's name not appearing in the Category of the Hindu Spiritual

Leaders appears to have been an ineffable injustice to this category and

made a great disgrace to this kind of poll, organized by Times of India.

 

 

It was Srila Prabhupada, who - by spreading all over the world the "Harinam

Sankirtan", the Yuga Dharma for this Kali Yuga from 1965 to 1977, by writing

voluminous commentaries on the Vedic Scriptures, by founding a World Wide

Religious Confederation "International Society for Krishna Consciousness" [

ISKCON ] to disseminate the eternal message of Lord Sri Krishna in every

town and village - not only had brought about an unprecedented Vedic

Spiritual Revolution amongst the people of the Vedic and Non-Vedic

followers, but also extirpated completely the sarcastic comments &

innuendoes hurled towards the Vedic religion by the pontiffs of other World

Religions and eventually proved to the World that the message of the Vedas

was not all full of concoctions and a subject-matter to mock at and that

espousing this message was the prime objectives of all the living entities,

irrespective of their birth, nationality.

 

 

But for Srila Prabhupada, none in the west would've known Lord Sri Krishna,

the Supreme Personality of Godhead - Whose worship was enshrined in the

Vedas as the ultimate goal of all living entities, the making of sarcastic

and flouting comments about our Vedic tradition by the ecclesiastics of

other religious faith would've continued unabatedly, the victory flag of

"Sanatana Dharma" never would've been hoisted in the west and other parts of

the globe, the "Harinam Sankirtan" wouldn't have been reverberated in every

town and villages, as prophesied by Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Lord

Jagannath's Chariot wouldn't have taken to the streets of the big cities of

the world such as San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, London, Sydney,

Rome, Paris, Moscow to bestow mercy upon the people.

 

 

In this regard, I HUMBLY SUPPLICATE ALL OF YOU, the exalted Krishna Bhaktas

and our Hindu brethren TO VISIT the TIMES OF INDIA's "Indians of the

Century" Poll WEBSITE "http://www.timesofindia.com/century/", then VISIT the

category [3 ] : - "Great Minds and Spiritual Lights" section to propose the

name of Srila Prabhupada [ Nov. 1 - 30 ] and in the 2nd stage vote for him -

who had made all of your lives glorious, especially those of the Non Indian

Vaishnavas by enlightening you with the message of Lord Sri Krishna, the

sort of mercy and spiritual enlightenment, we hadn't experienced, despite

being born into the Hindu families. Blessed are the lives of all of you, the

Krishna Bhaktas who must have performed countless pious activities in the

previous lives to such a pinnacle that you had the opportunity to behold a

self-realized soul and an empowered devotee of Lord Sri Krishna like

Prabhupada, associate with him and partake of Krishna Prasad with him. There

can be no other activ!

ities as eulogizing and pious as heaping panegyrics on one's Spiritual

Master.

 

 

So, now all of you - the Krishna Bhaktas, whose beloved Spiritual Masters

were Srila Prabhupada and all of our Hindu brethren - who knew about him

either by coming in direct contact with him, or by reading his books - can

glorify him further by suggesting his name and vote for him in the poll. We

are all indebted to Srila Prabhupada for his bestowing causeless mercy on

us. By proposing his name and vote for him in the Times of India Poll, we

all can reedeem ourselves of the debt incurred to him.

 

 

Hare Krishna

 

 

Sincerely yours

 

 

Soumitra Das

[ A great admirer of Srila Prabhupada]