From Raja Vidya das – Australia, Brisbane

Dear Srila Gurudeva,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
As you know very well, Lord Krishna states in His Bhagavad Gita,
paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ
vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām
dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya
sambhavāmi yuge yuge
To deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to re-establish the principles of religion, I Myself appear, millennium after millennium. In his purport to this verse, Srila Prabhupada states, “the prime purpose of the Kṛṣṇa avatāra is to satisfy His unalloyed devotees,” and, “This avatāra of the Lord
(Chaitanya Mahaprabhu) does not kill the miscreants but delivers them by His causeless mercy.”
We can understand from this that the Lord appears in this world to deliver mercy to conditioned souls. One of those avatars is the Paramatma, the chaitya guru, who guides the soul from His seat within our heart. Great souls who have attuned themselves to the presence of the Lord within can directly understand His instructions, but for most of us this is a work in progress. So mercifully, for us the
Lord appears externally in the form of Sri Guru to ensure we receive clear and proper directions to traverse the path of bhakti.
As mentioned in the Gurvastakam prayers,
sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstrair
uktas tathā bhāvyata eva sadbhiḥ
kintu prabhor yaḥ priya eva tasya
“The spiritual master is described in every scripture as the representative of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The spiritual master is accepted as identical with the Supreme Personality of Godhead because he is the most confidential servant of the Lord.”
Without making the mistake of thinking that the Guru IS God, we can understand, as Srila Prabhupada taught, the Guru is to be worshipped as though He is as good AS God. A bonafide guru is as good as God because he is a transparent via medium through which Krishna delivers us His mercy. So, although he is not all knowing like the Paramatma, the Guru is just as good as the Paramatma because the Lord speaks to us through the agency of Sri Guru.
Allow me to share a story of how I was once graced with an experience that confirmed this truth for me. This experience occurred the year you personally attended Govinda Valley for your vyasa puja ceremony, and it involves my lost initiation beads.
That’s right! A few years earlier the unthinkable had happened and I had misplaced the japa mala You had chanted on for my initiation. Obviously I was disturbed by such an unfortunate occurrence, but I was placated when I discovered that my Godbrother Jivananda prabhu, who had also once lost his initiation beads, told me how he had requested You to chant on some new beads for him, and that You had
graciously obliged.
With that in mind I had purchased a nice japa mala on my visit to Vrindavan with the hope of one day asking You for the same re-blessing. When I learned You were attending Govinda Valley in person, I took it as an opportunity to fulfill my desire.
So I oiled my beads nicely in mustard oil and kept them in a special bag in a special place so I wouldn’t forget where they were. As the date for vyasa puja approached I made the point of keeping my beads on my bedside table out of fear that I would forget to pack them for the flight to Sydney. On the night before we travelled, I distinctly remember putting the special bag in my suitcase.
So it was withanticipation that I arrived at Govinda Valley, and it was with disappointment and utter confusion that upon opening my bag I could find no trace of my special bag containing the special beads!
Now I don’t regularly think this way, but this seemed to me a portentous omen. Was I being shown that I was an unworthy disciple, an ungrateful wretch undeserving of such an exalted spiritual master? Although I have since come to terms that that is indeed an accurate description of my character, at the time I was dejected, dumbfounded and disappointed, and it was with a heavy heart that I attended the Vyasa puja ceremony.
I was, however, greatly relieved when I sat for your lecture, within which you described a pastime of one of your God sisters who, with the same intention in mind, had approached Srila Prabhupada to request Him to chant upon some beads to replace the ones she had lost. I don’t remember the exact words you used, but You described how Prabhupada had told her, “it’s not so important,” and went on to explain the real thing is to chant, not the beads.
With those few words I immediately gained relief from my anxiety and simultaneously gained a realisation of Your exalted position as a representative of the Paramatma. Although a more sceptical mind might put such an occurrence down to mere coincidence, I was convinced and felt abundantly blessed to be in the direct association of the Supersoul, who had lovingly contrived within my life a whole sequence of events to confirm that You are indeed his authorised representative.
Your aspiring servant, Raja Vidya das