Srila Prabhupada , the Eternal Guru .

[Guest guest]

Hare Krishna,

 

According to the lunar calendar it was on November 14th in 1977 at

7:21pm that Swami Prabhupada departed from this world and returned

to the eternal pastimes of Lord Sri Krishna in the spiritual world .

The appearance and disappearance of such great personalities are

important .

 

Srila Prabhupada was no ordinary man, nor was he an ordinary Guru.

He successfully introduced millions of people to the sublime process

of Krishna consciousness.

 

Today I am feeling the separation from my beloved Guru Maharaja,

Srila Prabhupada. How much I am indebted to him ! It is he who

saved me from my hellish, nightmarish shadow of an existence in the

materialistic world . I still remember how was I sometimes crying in

the agony of a being stuck in deep depression before I received his

mercy. Srila Prabhupada has blessed me with unlimited kindness.

Even though I was most unqualified and unfit he mercifully picked me

up from my fallen position and engaged me in the pure devotional

service of Lord Sri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He

gave me the blissful life of eternity, knowledge, and bliss. I am

eternally indebted to him.

 

Today I cry tears of separation in his absence. If he were

physically present with us now it would be the greatest cause of joy

and celebration, but alas, he is gone from our vision. Our only

solace is to connect with him via the medium of his instructions.

The Guru lives forever by his divine instructions, and his disciples

live with him. This is how we can connect with him. This is how we

can be in his presence at every minute.

 

Lord Sri Krishna never steps even one foot out of His pure devotee's

heart. Srila Prabhupada is Krishna's divine messenger ; and he

never leaves his disciples who are dutifully following his

teachings with their every thought, word, and deed in all times,

places, and circumstances. Srila Prabhupada told us that his Guru

Maharaja, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, is always seeing his

activities and guiding him within his heart by his words. If we are

following Srila Prabhupada & #8217;s teachings, he will also always see our

activities and guide us from within our hearts by his words. We simply must

fully take shelter of his teachings as presented in the Bhagavad-gita As It Is,

the Srimad Bhagavatam, and in his numerous other writings. Then our lives will

be perfect. We will live at every moment in the transcendental dimension of

immortality, and we will be able to render the best possible service to the

suffering humanity.

 

For the purpose of attracting his mercy we gather every morning at

4:10am in large numbers in Srila Prabhupada's Samadhi (a beautiful

marble temple in front of Vrindavan's Krishna Balarama temple, in

which his body is entombed) to observe an arati ceremony and to sing

to him the Gurvastakam Prayers with great love and devotion. The

first verse of Gurvastakam is as follows :

 

samsara-davanala-lidha-loka-

tranaya karunya-ghanaghanatvam

praptasya kalyana-gunarnavasya

vande guroh sri-caranaravindam

 

" The spiritual master is receiving benediction from the ocean of

mercy. Just as a cloud pours water on a forest fire to extinguish it,

so the spiritual master delivers the materially afflicted world by

extinguishing the blazing fire of material existence. I offer my

respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of such a spiritual master,

who is an ocean of auspicious qualities. " Sri Sri Gurvastaka 1

 

Srila Prabhupada, the messenger of f Krishna is constantly living in

Sri Vrindavan Dham, the transcendental abode of Lord Sri Krishna. By

worshipping Krishna purely within our hearts according to

Prabhupada's teachings , Vrindavan will fully manifest within our

hearts. The best obedience to Srila Prabhupada is to carefully

study and follow the sublime teachings which he has so painstakingly

given us in his books. If we do this sincerely and carefully we will

be living in Vrindavan at every minute and the whole world will be

transformed into Vrindavan.

 

PREDICTIONS IN THE SCRIPTURES ON SRILA PRABHUPADA'S APPEARANCE

 

In the Brahma-vaivarta Purana, in a conversation with Ganga Devi,

Lord Krishna describes that after 5,000 years of Kali-yuga have

passed, His mantra upasaka, the great Sage and worshiper of Krishna's

holy names, will appear and spread the chanting of Krishna's names

(in the form of the Hare Krishna mantra) not only in India but

throughout the world. Lord Krishna explains that by the chanting of

His holy names the world will become spiritualized and everyone will

be hari-bhaktas, engaged in the process of devotion to the Supreme.

The purified devotees will visit the holy places and holy rivers of

India and will purify them. They will also purify those with whom

they come in contact. Thus, Sri Krishna predicted the appearance of a

powerful devotee who would spread the chanting of His names

worldwide.

 

Even in the Sri Caitanya Mangala, a biography of Sri Caitanya

Mahaprabhu, the most recent incarnation of Lord Krishna, written in

1537 by Srila Locana Dasa Thakura (who was born in 1520 A.D.), Lord

Caitanya foretold the coming of an empowered devotee who would take

the sankirtana process everywhere: " I want to flood the whole world

with the chanting of the holy names. I will personally preach and

flood India with harinama sankirtana, chanting of the holy names.

And My senapati bhakta (great devotee commander) will come, preach in

different countries and flood the world with the chanting of Hare

Krishna. " This means that, though Sri Caitanya came to establish and

spread the process of congregational chanting of Krishna's names in

India, there would be one great devotee who would appear and spread

it throughout the world.

 

Later, in the 1800s, Bhaktivinode Thakura, a great devotee in the

Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya line, predicted in his magazine, Sajjana-

toshani, in an article called Nityananda Suryodoy, " Soon there will

be a time when chanting of Krishna's name will be heard

in England, France, Russia, Germany, and America. "

 

In this regard, Bhaktivinode also wrote in his Sajjana-toshani in1895

that, " Sriman Mahaprabhu [sri Caitanya] did not descend with His

associates to deliver a certain number of human beings in the land of

India, but rather His purpose was to deliver and uplift all living

beings in all countries of the world by practicing the eternal

religion of all souls. " In the same article, Bhaktivinode questioned,

when will that day come when all greatly fortunate souls take up

banners, drums, and hand cymbals and cause the ecstatic waves of

harinama-kirtans [songs of the holy names of the Supreme] and the

singing of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's holy name to rise in the

streets of their towns and cities?

 

In 1896, Bhaktivinode predicted in his book, Sri Caitanya

Mahaprabhu : His Life and Precepts, on page 62, " The principle of

kirtana, as the future church of the world, invites all classes of

men without distinction of caste, creed, or clan to the highest

cultivation of the spirit. This church will extend all over the world

and take the place of all sectarian churches which exclude outsiders

from the precincts of their mosque, church or temple. "

 

What all this means is that with his spiritual vision, Bhaktivinode

could see how the sankirtana process would be taken in the near

future to the western countries and, indeed, all over the planet. In

fact, in 1875 Bhaktivinode Thakura also predicted : " A personality

will soon appear to preach the teachings of Lord Caitanya and move

unrestrictedly over the whole world with His message. " But who could

this be? Who would do it?

 

As an answer to these prayers and predictions, on Nandotsava, the

annual festival day celebrating Krishna's birth, in the year of 1896,

there appeared His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,

known as Srila Prabhupada to many. It was Srila Prabhupada who grew

up as a pure devotee of Krishna who took the chanting of " Hare

Krishna " around the world and made it a household word.

 

 

 

Sankarshan das Adhikari