Homages from ISKCON Centers

Homages from ISKCON Centers
Everywhere you went you touched the hearts of your disciples. You commanded their respect; you
didn’t demand it. They reposed their faith in you, and you reciprocated perfectly by giving them the
ticket to go back home, back to Godhead.
At 26 Second Avenue, when you started your Sunday Love Feasts, you did practically everything
yourself—purchasing the bhoga, cutting the vegetables, cooking, serving, and even cleaning up after
the guests had left. And you did all this without any grudge. In this regard Chuck (later Acyutänanda
Däsa) remembered a touching incident:
I had come by in the afternoon. And Swamiji had given me a plate of prasädam. So I was eating,
and a chili burned my mouth. Swamiji asked, “Is it too hot?”
“Yes,” I said.
So he brought me a tiny teacup with some milk, and then he took some rice off my plate and
took a piece of banana and crushed it all up together with his fingers and said, “Here, eat this.
It will kill the action of the chilies.”
For a sannyäsé to do such thing—touching the rice from someone else’s plate—is quite shocking.
It goes against the Vedic culture—touching the unclean remnants of an American youngster. But your
mood of service overcame such formalities; you were just committed to serving your followers.
And your love and commitment did not remain restricted just to personal dealings. Rather, you
were propounding the pure Kåñëa conscious philosophy and making sure your followers understood it
through lectures, conversations, debates, etc. When required, you would chastise your beloved disciples
and teach them lessons they would fondly cherish forever. Your guidance, correction, and chastisement
were just another part of your commitment to them.
And all this commitment to your disciples, or rather to all living entities, stemmed from your
commitment to your spiritual master. You are the embodiment of the verse
yasya deve parä bhaktir yathä deve tathä gurau
tasyaite kathitä hy arthäù prakäçante mahätmanaù
“Only unto those great souls who have implicit faith in both the Lord and the spiritual master are all the
imports of Vedic knowledge automatically revealed.” And you proved by your life that this dual faith is
the secret of success in devotional service.
On this holy day of your appearance, Çréla Prabhupäda, we humbly fall at your divine lotus feet and
beg you to grant us a drop of this dual faith in the çästra and the spiritual master. This faith will make
us more committed to following your teachings, and thus we can perfect our lives and assist others in
doing so as well. Thank you, Çréla Prabhupäda, for giving us the priceless gift of the teachings of Kåñëa
consciousness through your committed example.
Your center in Chandigarh is doing fine, Çréla Prabhupäda. You may be pleased to know that we
distributed 28,000 of your Bhagavad-gétäs in the 2011 December marathon. This is a record for Chandigarh.
In addition, thirty-eight devotees—temple brahmacärés and congregational members—completed the
Bhakti-çästré course in October 2011. All these devotees are blissfully engaged in preaching activities.
Over one hundred devotees are ready for harinäma initiation, and sixteen for second initiation.
We have built a new brahmacäré äçrama that is very open and airy. The brahmacärés are feeling very
happy in the new äçrama and are performing their services very enthusiastically.
All this has been possible by your blessings, the guidance of senior Vaiñëavas, and the mercy of Çré
Çré Rädhä-Mädhava, our beloved presiding Deities. Kindly continue showering your mercy on us so that
we may be able to serve your mission eternally.
Your servants at the ISKCON temple in Chandigarh, India.
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