The Devotees Of Russia, Ukrainia, Belarus And The Various Republics Of The Former Soviet Union:
om ajnana timirandhasya
jnananjana salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena tasmai
sri gurave namah
The Appearance of patita pavan Sri Gurudev in the lives of conditioned souls is like heart-nourishing sunrise. Hopelessly wandering through all of the death ways of samsara, by the power of the sunshine care of the true Vaishnava saint the jiva-soul begins to do his very first steps on the way of real life, realizing that the merciful feet of his savior, Sri Gurudev, are the only shelter. In the shadow of that shelter the roar of the ocean of sorrow has no place.
Bhava maha davagni nirvvapanam: this is the effect of the contact with the merciful Gurudeva's glance; all inauspiciousness is going away. This is the all-inspiring sign of the long-waiting homeward journey. On this path we have obtained real well-wishers, real friends and real relatives. Taking this path we have obtained the brightest prospect in life, that is seva. And by this path we have received the heart-capturing nature of the constant fulfillers and servitors of Sri Guru's order. This was much beyond of all our expectations. Therefore we cannot but offer our the humblest dandabat pranams to the lotus feet of our dearmost Srila Gurudev and hope that His Holy Wish always will be our only guideline. We pray always for the mercy of Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj.
Dear Srila Govinda Maharaj, please take our humble dandavat pranams again and again.
All of us here in Moscow are happy to celebrate your Vyas Puja day. In the past, all of us have seen different gurus and yogis, but we all choose Your Divine Grace as our spiritual master. This was not a blind chance. This was the deep desire of our hearts, and the mercy of the Lord. We became attached to spiritual qualities, represented by your true and close servant Srila Sagar Maharaj.
What were these fine qualities? Humbleness, austerity, no connection with any material desires, freedom from false ego, mercy to the common people. I think none of us have ever seen before such qualities in one person. At first, we didn’t see Your Divine Grace personally, but we thought: "If his servant has such elevated qualities, what wonderful qualities his spiritual master must have!" That way we all accepted Your Divine Grace as our spiritual master and eternal father.
Not so long ago we were happy to see Your Divine Grace personally, during Your visit to Moscow in September,1996. And we became very glad that we weren't mistaken in our choice of a Spiritual Master. We all hope to become bona fide disciples of you, a bona fide guru.
At this Holy Day we pray to Your Divine Grace to bestow some understanding to our poor fallen dirty consciousness, that we will be able to make some spiritual progress with this understanding of the true Spiritual Path. Every progress that we hope we will make is only for your satisfaction and from your divine mercy.
Your servants,
Sanatan das
Maha Laksmi didi
Nandarani didi
Yamuna Priya didi
Varahadev das
From Jagganath Vallabha das:
Vyas Puja of His Divine Grace
Your Glorious Appearance Day
We’re celebrating here today
Your birthday -- this is chance for us
Who’re lower then a blade of grass
You’re like magician or mystic yog
Who made a human being from a dog
By giving chance to serve your feet
What can be higher?! What else we need?!
With our dandavat pranams:
Jagganath Vallabha das, Lalita Mohini didi
Moscow, Russia
(PS I am hoping to come to India after January 15. )
The United States Of America
New York City and New Jersey
Today the world rejoices in the celebration of the appearance
of the mercy potency of Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Gandharvika Giridhari which
has become manifest and revealed through the current world acharya Jagat
Guru Om Vishnu Pada Paramahamsa Parivrajakacharya Astotara Sata Sri Srimad
Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev Goswami Maharaj.
If we count our blessings we will fall short in estimating
the extremities of the unlimited all embracing mercy quality of His Divine
Grace who has appeared in the guise of the most exalted servitor and friend
of Om Vishnu Pada Paramahamsa Parivrajakacharya Astotara Sata Sri Srimad
Shrila Bhakti Rakshaka Sridhara Deva Goswami Maharaj. Therefore, giving
up the calculative persuasion, we must find our comfort in the certitude
that our Acharyadev, Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Maharaj, is none other
than the representation of Sri Nityananda Prabhu Himself and has appeared
as the ashraya vigraha (shelter giving form) for the jiva souls overburdened
with the ill conceived pursuit of self indulgence.
If we focus our view in the direction of the refuge of
the cooling rays of the lotus feet of our revered Acharyadev, we will see
in the distance that he is seated as if in the center of the whorl of a
lotus flower whose petals are formed by incalculable numbers of paramahamsa
vaishnavas eagerly intent on savoring his Divine fellowship.
Witnessing the beauty of this Divine assembly we query ourselves as to the nature of our own absence of position within this illustrious group of self effulgent personages. It is then that we come face to face with the dreadful cause of our displacement. It is our own foolishness born from the selfish unwillingness to submit to the discipline of his guiding hand. We pray that he will never-the-less continue his undaunted and untiring dispensation of grace and instruction which are the only hope for removing the veil of darkness and ignorance which surrounds us.
A humble tridandi bikshuk,
Swami BK Giri
White Plains, New York
I had the strangest dream this morning. I dreamed I was on this ship dressed in my best suit. The weather was clear and the people on board were walking around talking to each other about politics science and whatever else they found interesting. Most of the people in this dream appeared to me as nineteenth century Indian upper-class. I remember thinking, "this might be the Jaladutta", but even in the dream I knew the Jaladutta was a cargo ship and not a pleasure yacht.
However, as soon as I thought that it might be the Jaladutta I saw Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami talking to some people . Srila Sridhar Maharaja was there as well. They were explaining to some of the passengers how life is being wasted at every second. I remember thinking I should go offer my respects at their feet and introduce myself as your disciple. But, as I tried to go over to them one person after another obstructed me and tried to engage me in passing conversation.
The reason I tell you this, Gurudeva, is that this dream pretty well illustrates my plight as a conditioned soul. I, like so many others, is trying to maintain some connection with your Divine Grace. Yet, for whatever mundane reasons, that connection is not as mature and developed as we might think. During all this trial and tribulation the position of the Guru Mahabhagavata is the only anchor. My life is like that dream. I was seeing so many things and thinking that some of them were real enough to interact with. Yet, during that illusion I was able to remember you and those other stalwart preceptors in this Brahma-Madhava Gaudiya Vaishnava line. Without your Divine influence I, like so many other unfortunates, would only go through that dream as a ghost - with no real substance. So, please Gurudeva, on this wonderful day, let me bow my head at your feet with all the humility at my command.
Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev Goswami Maharaja ki jaya!
Yours sincerely,
Gokulananda das
New York December 26, 1996
Pacifica, California
Dear Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev Goswami Maharaj:
Please accept my respectful obeisances at your divine feet which can lead any lost soul out of the darkness.
In 1982 I was fortunate to move into the San Jose Ashram under the guidance of Srila Bhakti Sudhir Goswami Maharaj. One of the first services he ever gave me was to transcribe tapes of Srila Shridhar Maharaj. Actually, my service wasn't transcribing, but proofreading for spelling, etc. When I heard the following words spoken by Srila Shridhar Maharaj I realized that at last I had found what my heart had always been searching for: I had found someone who knew the Lord. I had found someone who could tell me how to find Him. Those words were along these lines: that one's days in the material world would be numbered if we could see that we have nobody to blame for our predicament of being here than ourselves. I think he used the phrase "a bad workman quarrels with his tools", (or stools). The realization that the dirt was in my own eyes, that I actually had full responsibility for my situation was extremely eye-opening, and a relief. Not that it would be easy to clear the dirt from my own eyes, but knowing that that was what I had to do, and that I had come to a bona fide representative of the Lord who could show me the way, that was one very joyful day I will always cherish.
Gurudev, you give us the means to begin clearing away our cloudy vision. You give us the means by which we can see what is what. Gurudev, you tell it like it is. Gurudev, you really see, with crystal clear vision. You have your eyes at all times on the spiritual realm. Due to your endless compassion towards the wandering souls of this material plane who cannot see, who cannot begin to perceive of the spiritual realm, you make yourself available to us. You offer us service. By offering us the oppurtunity to serve the vaishnavas, you open up the spiritual realm to us.
In this material world, seeing is believing. But to be there, in that higher plane, one will see if one will believe. We develop faith through service. We believe the vaishnavas and we begin to perceive that higher plane. We begin to sense that what our heart desires is very real there, in that place, it is to be found in Reality the Beautiful, through Sri Guru and His Grace. That what we are hoping for most of all, love and beauty, does indeed exist. You've given us such joy and such hope for a bright tomorrow. I pray to somehow remain in the shadow of your servants, for in their shadow I may experience a glimpse of that cool Reality, away from the harshness of the material existence which burns my soul again and again.
Your disciple,
Anusuya devi dasi
Santa Cruz, California
"What we need are good friends and association. Then we can proceed happily. And the other factor is that if our surrender is perfect, then from the upper level faith will come to us and protect us. If someone is fully surrendered to Krishna in His form as Guru or sadhu, then Krishna will certainly protect him. He must protect him."
"A teacher is always necessary, whether we reach a very junior class, a senior class, or a higher class. Even if we want to eat something, there also a teacher is necessary. Guidance is always necessary! Guidance is always good for everyone."
Om Vishnupad Paramahamsa Thakur Sri Srimad Srila Bhaktisundar
Govinda-dev Maharaj.
om ajana timirandhasya jnananjana salakaya chaksur
un militam yena tasmai sri guruve namaha
On this auspicious day of the appearance of my divine guide and agent of protection, Om Vishnupad Paramahamsa Parivrajakacarya Asstottara Sata Sri Srimad Srila Bhaktisundar Govinda-dev Maharaj, who has extended his mercy to even one such as myself, words yet escape me to accurately chant his glories. My true life began on July 2nd, 1992, at the home of Sriman Rishabdev Prabhu in San Jose, California, when Gurudeva extended harinam diksha to me, and gave the name Jatindra Mohan das.
Since that time, although your instructions for spiritual advancement are so simple and sweet, still I have managed to not perform one drop of service to your lotus feet, and for most Holiest Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math of Nabadwip. This is my eternal lament and cry; not even can I pray for the opportunity to serve you somehow, but even I must pray just for somehow that desire to come into my nasty heart.
Your Divine Grace's own spiritual master, Om Vishnupad Paramahamsa Thakur Sri Srimad Srila Bhatki Rakshak Sridhar-dev Maharaj, once said of the despair of the devotee lost in the web of maya; "Sooner or later, the finite must meet the Infinite; it is only a matter of time." These words I pray to again and again as I live this wasted life of mine. By your grace and divine mercy upon me, my thoughts are turned to you today. This is the realized potency of the descent of Sri Guru; otherwise, I would have no power to think of your form, teachings and pastimes at all.
My thought was to give an offering to you on this day; but my mind is so disturbed by the fires of illusion that I have failed to adequately do that. But a happy thought occured to me that the highest thing is service to Sri Gurudev, and to his servants even better. So in that connection, I fall piteously moaning to your lotus feet and beg you to please accept this Vyas Puja web page containing the offerings of your real servants all over the world, both represented here on the web, and in the heart of your divine self.
My identity is covered by material illusion, and so am practically invisible. However, it is easy to find me; I am located at the very extreme bottom of the list of all your real servitors throughout the world; Maharaj need only look to the bottom of the heap, and there he shall find me.
With all the sincerity my wasted heart can summon, I,
Jatindra Mohan das, sing your innumerable glories on this happiest of days.
ALL GLORIES TO SRI SRI GURU AND GAURANGA!
Jatindra
Mohan das
Santa Cruz, California.
Presented by SevaNet;The International
News And Resource Center For The Devotees of The Worldwide Sri Chaitanya
Saraswat Mandal
  Sri Vyasa Puja: |