From Dhiramati Dasi – Hungary, Somogyvámos

My most beloved Srila Gurudeva,

Please accept my most humble obeisances at your lotus feet. All glories to your divine master Srila Prabhupada. All glories to you.

Recently I was listening to one of your classes that you gave thirteen years ago in Los Angeles. At the beginning of this class you read your new diary chapter to the devotees.

That year, in January 2007, you went to India to find new performers for our annual festival tour in Poland and next you flew to Mangalore, South India for a wedding. The ceremony was to take place at a resort several hours away. While you were driving towards the coast you stopped in Udupi to visit Udupi Krishna and gave Him a report about your life. You visited that region in 1979, for the first time after taking sannyasa.

“My dear friend,” you began your report, “Millions of pilgrims come before You each year, so I don’t expect you to remember me. I was a young devotee when I first met You. I was a new sannyasi with an entire life of devotional service
ahead of me. Now I’m in the autumn of my life, with just a few short years left to serve You in this world. I stand before You today somewhat embarrassed.
I don’t feel I’ve made much progress in spiritual life since we first met. But I’m proud to say I’m still Your devotee, and I hope to be so until the end of time. I’m very grateful that You have protected me in my duties throughout the years, and I thank You again and again for blessing me with many wonderful opportunities of service to the mission of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. I would consider myself most fortunate if You would continue engaging me in such service until my final breath.

I don’t want to take much of Your time, my Lord, there are other pilgrims waiting. But such moments as these, when a devotee can reveal his heart to You in such auspicious circumstances, are few and far between. Through eons of time I had forgotten You, but You have never forgotten me, not even for a moment. Your greatest act of kindness was to lead me to my spiritual master, my saviour, who is kindly teaching me the art of loving You. Please help me to act in such a way that he may always be proud of me.

Finally, my Lord, I pray that my service to You will gradually purify me of all selfish desires. It is my great hope that one day I can return to Your abode in the spiritual world and serve You in ecstatic love, in the association of Your most beloved servants. I offer You my most humble prostrations at Your lotus feet. All glories to Your beloved Madhvacharya! All glories to my beloved spiritual master Srila Prabhupada! By his grace alone could I find You again in this far distant place.”

Srila Gurudeva, since I met you, more and more of your beautiful qualities have been revealed to me. I would like to mention two of them, your compassion and your eagerness to preach Krishna Consciousness.

More than once you have said that for you the greatest satisfaction is when you see people have a genuine change of heart… that is your goal of life. Because you know that it pleases your Spiritual Master more than anything. Last year in your offering to Srila Prabhupada you said: “I am prepared to take as many births as necessary to bring to fruition your desire that all the people of this world receive the holy name. Even now, their spiritual welfare is my constant meditation. During this year’s festival tour my favourite activity was watching people as they entered our festival grounds. One by one, or in groups or families, they would enter, curious and eager for the festivities to begin. Unknown to them, however, in my mind I was offering each and every one of them to your lotus feet! This is a most suitable offering to one who was requested by the Lord Himself to come and deliver the fallen souls of this world! I wish to continue this service to you for many lifetimes to come.”

I have not a single doubt that Srila Prabhupada is so proud of you. You made your heart one with his heart. You have taken his instructions and words as your life and soul and you are always engaged in the sankirtan mission of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, spreading His holy name far and wide. You are working
so hard to execute your beloved master’s will, to continue his mission, to push it on all over the world. Srila Prabhupada said: “To become very dear to Krishna or Balarama, or in other words to Lord Caitanya and Nityananda, is to take the task of preaching work very seriously at all risk.” It’s indisputable that you are very dear to Them.

Thank you for always reminding me that we can never repay the debt that we owe to our spiritual master. We can never put a price on what the spiritual master gives us. It is priceless. Although we can not pay, we still have to try to please him by preaching Krishna Consciousness. The one who serves the message of the guru really worships him. Thank you for teaching me that showing compassion to the fallen souls is the secret for advancement in Krishna Consciousness. Our business is to share the transcendental knowledge everywhere.

The pure devotees are not only satisfied by knowing everything about the Lord, but they are also eager to distribute this information to others, they want to see that the glories of the Lord are known to everyone. Thus the devotee feels satisfied when such an opportunity is offered to him.

prayena deva munayah sva-vimukti-kama maunam caranti vijane na parartha-nisthah
naitan vihaya krpanan vimumuksa eko
nanyam tvad asya saranam bhramato’ nupasye

“My dear Lord Nrsimhadeva, I see that there are many saintly persons indeed, but they are interested only in their own deliverance. Not caring for the big cities and towns, they go to the Himalayas or the forest to meditate with vows of silence (mauna-vrata). They are not interested in delivering others. As for me, however, I do not wish to be liberated alone, leaving aside all these poor fools and rascals. I know that without Krsna consciousness, without taking shelter of Your lotus feet, no-one can be happy. Therefore I wish to bring them back to shelter at Your lotus feet.” [Srimad Bhagavatam 7.9.44].

You are like Vasudeva Datta. You dedicated your life for the benefit of the people. Your heart breaks to see the suffering of all conditioned souls. Your real pleasure in life is to share your good fortune with others and to liberate them, to save all the living beings in the material world and to bring them to Srila Prabhupada’s lotus feet.

On this auspicious day I am praying for your mercy to have a more and more burning desire to share my good fortune with others. May I always remember those moments when people joined us for kirtans, dancing and singing with us. Nothing is more satisfying than to see people enjoying the kirtans and loudly chanting the holy name, accepting the process of Krishna Consciousness, taking the first step on the path towards a brighter future. This is the real pleasure of the soul.

I pray I can be a useful instrument in your hands helping you to fulfil your beloved master’s desire. I hope one day you can be as proud of me as Srila
Prabhupada is proud of you. I hope I will be able to put my selfish desires away for the benefit of others and that my constant meditation will be to help you bring as many fallen souls as you can to your beloved master’s lotus feet. I know that if I can fully satisfy you, then my life will be successful and I will be qualified to enter the spiritual world.

Thank you so much for teaching me the process of pure devotional service and unconditional serving the Lord without duplicity. Thank you for sharing your good fortune and everything with us. Once you said that you gave the benefit of all your sacrifice to your disciples. We are unlimitedly fortunate to have such a spiritual master like you! I am so grateful that you are here for us.

I feel so fortunate that you are guiding me on my spiritual path. I cannot describe how grateful I am to have you as my most beloved spiritual master in my life.

Your servant, forever with love, Dhiramati Dasi