from Govinda Caran Das Rasika Siromani Dasi

Dearest Srila Gurudeva,

Please accept our most humble obeisances at the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Grace. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

On this auspicious occasion of your Vyasa Puja, we are meditating on your glorious life and character. We are meditating on the numerous gifts you have bestowed upon us. We are meditating on the meaning of your pranam-mantra. All these meditations have been so purifying and fulfilling to our hearts.

A recent conversation with a god-sibling inspired us to look deep into our own faith in you. When asked “what is the most important qualification of a disciple?”, you always reply, quoting His Holiness Tamal Krsna Goswami Maharaja that it is guru-nistha, faith in the spiritual master. Years ago, when we read your book on Vraja Lila, in one of her letters to you, Vraja Lila says “I am still a child in spiritual life. I wish I had a little love or spiritual bhava within my heart. But I have deep, firm faith in you. I am happy because of this faith and I’ll be keeping it as a great treasure.“ By your causeless mercy, we are beginning to appreciate how true her statement is and how in actuality the greatest wealth we possess, while still meager, is our faith in you. We can also see how our faith in you has steadily grown over the last eighteen years that we’ve known you. And this faith is not just a belief for us anymore, rather it is a firm conviction based on the statements of the scriptures and our actual experience of the truth of such statements observed in your person in our relationship with you.

In his work Dasa Mula Tattva, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura describes the ten fundamental truths taught by Lord Caitanya. Taking inspiration from that work, we hereby present these ten fundamental truths about you. We hold these truths to be self-evident:

That you are a sold out servant of Srila Prabhupada.
That you are an empowered preacher of Lord Caitanya’s Yuga-dharma: Harinam-Sankirtan.
That you have unshakeable faith in and deep taste for the holy names.
That festivals are your life and soul.
That you have genuine humility in your heart.
That you have unflinching faith in the power of prayers.
That you are always a giver.
That you genuinely care for your disciples.
That you worship your Deities in such a personal manner.
That you have infinite love for Sri Vrindavan Dham.
And a bonus one: That you are an excellent photographer.

On this auspicious day of your appearance, we pray that as every year goes by, our faith in you only increases more and more to the point of maturing into the other faith, that Vraja Lila so nicely shares in her letter: “It gives me another kind of faith to be back in the spiritual world and attain the service of the lotus feet of Sri Sri Radha Syamasundara. And this kind of faith is faith in real things, which I am sure are existing and just waiting for me at that side of the door.”

We are grateful for all the mercy you are continually bestowing on us by engaging us in your service through which you are nurturing our faith in those real things. We pray to Sri Sri Radha Madanmohan, Sriman Mahaprabhu, Sri Sri Lakshmi Nrsimhadeva and Srila Prabhupada, that They bestow upon you a long and healthy life that fulfills all your heart’s desires for preaching Krsna consciousness in this world in an unimpeded manner for many years to come. Hare Krsna.

Your servants,
Govinda Caran Das, Rasika Siromani Dasi