from Vraja Sakha Das – Ukraine, Zaporozhye

Dear Srila Gurudeva,

Please, accept our most humble obeisances in the dust of Your Lotus Feet! All glories to You! All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to to Radha Syamasundara!

On this auspicious day of Your Vyasa Puja, please, let us congratulate You, glorify You as a devoted disciple of Srila Prabhupada and Lord Caitanya and offer You our humble offering.

Every year we had a possibility to see You at the Param Gati Festival in Dnipro. This festival gathered thousands of devotees from all over Ukraine. We could see how You and Your spiritual friends associate with each other and with other devotees. Since the festival has been taken place for so many years now, we‘ve taken it for granted.

But this year, we had a special occasion to experience love in separation with You. And this is a special mercy. Your mercy. Real love to Krishna and Guru can be revealed only when we feel separation. It is no more than just a few times, that You saw Your Spiritual Master in Your life, as for us, we have possibility to meet You far more often and get communication with You far more often. You have appreciated that communication You had got with all Your heart because You’ve consecrated all of Your life to service to Srila Prabhupada and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s mission. Illusion is so strong that we often cannot appreciate those gifts Krisna sends us in form of Guru.

This year due to the quarantine we’ve got a wonderful possibility to appreciate the association that You give. Despite the heat that is now in Vrindavana, You continue to preach and show us, Your disciples, how the real spiritual life should be lead. In one of Your lectures You asked us with regarding all the circumstances to wear Vaisnava clothes, tilaks, continue to perform our service and chant our rounds very attentively. We are extremely glad, that we have that chance to listen to Your live translations, they dissolve the spaces between us and in these uncertain times calm our minds and give us that feeling of very close and intimate association with You.

During the year we are regularly doing our practical service, that helps us to remember You, Srila Prabhupada and Lord Krishna. Together with my wife we worship the Deities, I chant on harinams, and she does garlands for The Deities, and of course, we try to chant our rounds as best as we can and follow all the principles. But this year we would like to offer You one special service that we can do only occasionally. It is making the guided tours of the Temple that involves preaching to schoolchildren and students.

This year, shortly before the quarantine, we made such a tour for one college. Before every tour like that I remember You lectures at the Festival and on Polish Tour, where You tell in simple words who we are and what do we live for. They help me understand how I should address the students. That tour I’m talking about was very special, because the students were very young (10–12 years old) although usually they are much elder. Speaking to senior students didn’t seem difficult to me, but I was completely lost in front of those kids. I wondered how can I explain them Deities and the maha-mantra. But Krisna was very merciful to me.

When seeing Krishna’s image, one child said: “Who is it? Is it an avatar?”. Thanks to that question I understood how I could tell them about yoga, meditation and the maha-mantra chanting. When I started to show them how the maha-mantra should be chanted, they all filmed it on their phones. So I realized, that they liked it very much and suggested them to chant together. When the children started chanting I was stunned. They were singing with such an enthusiasm, as if that was their most favorite song. At the moment I suggested them to split into two teams — that of girls and that of boys and to make a competition: who sings the loudest. They started to try even harder, it seemed to me as if it was a spiritual reality — gopas and gopis are competing. It seemed, that those children had been singing our song since their very birth. To reward them for their singing I opened the altar for them and told about the avatars of Lord Caitanya and Nityananda. Then again, for the second time they started taking photos, those of the Deities. When seeing a donation box near the altar one girl asked about it. I answered, that in that box temple’s guests put their donation, so that we could continue organize programs and guided tours in the temple. She put some money in the box. Almost all children followed her example. There I was stunned again. All this was possible, because I meditated on how You tell people about Krishna Consciousness on Your programs in Poland. When we were saying goodbye, they were given sweets and said Hare Krishna. In return they tried to repeat the Mantra in whole. Sometimes they mixed up the words, but it all was very amusing. The teacher was also very grateful. She promised, that they would come back again. At the moment I remembered the words, that You often say on Your lectures: “I’m ready to suffer all the troubles of this material world to preach the glories of the Holy Name and inspire people to sing the Hare Krishna Mantra”.

Dear Srila Gurudev, by my ignorance I commit so many mistakes and offences in my service, some of them are very bitter. Despite them I am still very blessed, because I still have taste for the Holy Name and desire to serve. On this auspicious day, please, let me ask for Your forgiveness and for Your blessing to continue to serve You, Srila Prabhupada and Lord Caitanya’s Mission.

Dear Srila Gurudev, by Your blessing, not so long ago I have got married and started a new life. But I couldn’t live my new life without Polish Tour, so two years ago, together with my wife, we came to the Tour. It was her first tour and completely new experience. Although she worried a very lot and had a lot of doubts, she has got Your mercy and received that special spiritual taste that makes the atmosphere of the Tour so unique. Last year we came and she already had no doubts, by times, being even more enthusiastic than me myself.

This year we have received, as it seems, even more of Your mercy, because we were granted with a permission from God to come to You and ask for Your blessings. We are so happy to get them. Since that moment our relationship has changed. She felt as if she is accepted in our Tour’s family as an equal and very dear part of it and I felt, that I am forgiven for all my mistakes and still have Your mercy, so I am protected and our marriage is sanctified.

We didn’t find words good enough to thank You, when You were so close, and it is hard now, but we would like to try at least to express all that gratitude, that we feel for You. For all Your kindness that You gave us, for how You accept everyone who comes to the Tour as Your very dear associate, for how You give that mercy during Your kirtans, that liberate our souls, how You show us an example of service and devotion — all these and much more other things make our hearts overwhelmed with gratitude.

I have never seen my wife so happy as when she was on the Polish Tour, I have never seen her dancing and singing so ecstatically, I think that this was for the first time that she felt that taste of the Holy Name. Once again I thought how lucky am I for I have been enjoying that taste by Your mercy, Dear Srila Gurudeva, for most of my life in Krishna Consciousness. Being back in Ukraine, where we live, she keeps telling everybody the glories of the Polish Tour. People have no chance not to believe her as they see how she has changed. Her spiritual teacher is H.G. Caitanya Candra Caran Prabhu, but she is extremely happy she has known You so close, has become a wife of Your disciple and thus has got a chance to serve You as well. We feel as if we have two spiritual families and two spiritual fathers now.

Thank You from all our hearts, dear Srila Gurudev! We wish You lots of joy from Your disciples, good health and may all Your dreams come true! We wish always to remain Your servants and help You in Your wonderful mission! We are ready to do anything just to remain in Your most amazing heart!

Your servants,
Vraja Sakha Das, Yamuna Malini Dasi