From Vrinda Kumari dasi – Russia, Rzhev

Dear Srila Gurudeva,
Please accept my humble obeisances at the dust of Your lotus feet! All glories to our dear Srila Prabhupada thanks to whom today we have the opportunity to glorify his faithful servant!
On this auspicious day, the day of Your Vyasa Puja please let me try to glorify Your Grace and please forgive all imperfections of this glorification. Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur wrote: «Spiritual master is the ocean of the good qualities.» As I chant Sri Sri Gurvastakam I imagine You in each verse!
Spiritual master receives all blessings from the ocean of mercy and he showers this mercy on his disciples. Every time I admire the simplicity, care and compassion with which You give love to Your disciples! Srila Prabhupada had paternal feelings to each disciple and he wasn’t just pretending, he really worried for every soul. Dear Srila Gurudeva! You inherited this quality from Your spiritual father. Like a cloud pouring rain You extinguish the fire of material existence and rescue us, the fallen souls who are immersed in material desires. May Krishna endow You more patience and spiritual strength so that the faith of Your disciples will grow stronger and their minds will be spiritualized.
You don’t waste a single minute but You spare all Your time for spreading the sankirtana of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. From the very beginning of Your way in our Movement You have shown great enthusiasm. And it increases over the years. Numerous festivals are gaining popularity all over the world under Your guidance. I am sure that they are no less famous in other worlds, too! It cannot be otherwise! Lord Himself leads these festivals of the holy names which are so blissful for those taking part in them! And all this happens by the mercy of our dear Srila Prabhupada who fearlessly lit the world with the light of knowledge and taught how to serve God. And now he still lives in his books and great disciples. I wish You and Your godbrothers and godsisters a long healthy and happy life!
God comes in His eternal forms to His devotees to accept their desire to serve and to be useful. The first gift that You have received after accepting the sannyas was the Deity of Nrisimhadev. Since that time He protects You from all dangers and accepts loving service. You are so merciful that You allow all devotees to receive the Lord’s darshan in His various beautiful forms. And many of Your disciples by Your mercy can serve Krishna directly in His form of arca vigraha. May Lord Krishna and acharyas be pleased with Your service and the service of all Your disciples! No festival under Your guidance is complete
without Bhagavad-prasadam. This is the secret weapon of Mahaprabhu. You always distribute it with Your own hands. That increases the taste and power of prasadam and those who have tasted it change greatly. May the consciousness of these fortunate souls become more exalted in this life!
Lord Krishna has many qualities. And His devotees reveal every quality of His. All Your classes on wonderful pastimes of Sri Sri Radhika and Madhava and their devotees are full of love. You are constantly eager to listen and share these stories with others. And therefore You are very dear to Vaisnavas. It is pure nectar to listen these stories! May Your merciful heart live forever on the banks of Sri Sri Radha Kunda!
The spiritual master is the bona fide representative of Sri Hari. The spiritual master is the incarnation of the energies of Lord Balarama and Srimati Radharani. In You we can feel determination and steadfastness, gentleness and mercifulness. This is the essence of the true guru: «He is hard like a thunderbolt and tender like a rose.» He is compassionate not to the body, but to the soul. So sometimes one may think that the spiritual master is very strict and unfair, but it is not true. Krishna personally directs His pure devotee and He better understands what is ultimately favorable for the disciple.
Recently in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic I had a dream. I was in a gloomy, dark grey place where everyone was running scared. We were driving in a car when suddenly we saw shadows in the distance. Their outlines resembled the Divine Couple. We ran there. That place was brightly colored. Happiness and joy was felt in the air. The devotees were laughing and rolling down the hills. One of the devotees said: «Follow the Mahabhagavata and everything will be alright!» I was thinking of that dream for a long time and I am trying to accept this instruction. We can’t meet now and You shower Your mercy on all Your disciples and well-wishes by regularly giving online classes. And as one of our godsisters said: «This isolation has given us more opportunities to meet You even on the other side of the screen.» When a disciple is separated from his spiritual master, he surely wants to meet him personally. At the same time the spiritual master is always near and leads the sincere disciple. I do not have enough sincerity because of my irresponsibility, lack of knowledge and materialistic consciousness. However, when I try to be sincere and to listen to the world around me I feel Your deep concern.
On this auspicious day of Your Vyasa Puja I feel awkward trying to offer You some small service that I tried to perform over the past year. I happened to take responsibility for organizing and holding the meetings in our small town. Nothing could have happened without Your support, the support of Srila Prabhupada and the devotees. We are just instruments in the hands of guru and Gauranga. I also keep receiving knowledge under the guidance of the senior devotees in order to develop the qualities of Vaisnavas and at least get a little closer to them. And I realize that it is not my fancy but it is Your desire. So everything was going exactly as it should have been according to the perfect plan. My entire spiritual life is made of the mercy of Vaisnavas. I would have been lost in the darkness of ignorance long ago. Where would I be now without You, dear Gurudeva?! The spiritual master is the best well-wisher in this world! He is the only one who can save us from the ocean of worldly passions! The disciple will never be able to repay this debt. However the best thing we can do is to surrender to our spiritual master and to follow his instructions so that we can get out of material consciousness into Krishna Consciousness and never leave it again.
Dear Guru Maharaja! Thank You that despite all my losses and mistakes You are still taking care of me. In my desire to become Your worthy disciple I pray in the dust of Your lotus feet that Your instructions may be the only goal of my life which would have been given to me with joy in my heart. Please bless me to keep serving in Srila Prabhupada’s mission.
Dear Srila Gurudeva! You cannot live without service in the mission of Your beloved spiritual master, His Divine Grace Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. I want this lockdown to end as soon as possible so that You with all Your sublime qualities will be able to satisfy Your burning desire to spread the glories of the holy name all over the world, in every town, every village!
With love to You, Your unworthy daughter, Vrinda Kumari dasi