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Homages from ISKCON Centers

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<strong>Homages</strong> <strong>from</strong> <strong>ISKCON</strong> <strong>Centers</strong><br />

a person is above the considerations of the varëäçrama institution. He is the guru, or spiritual<br />

master, for the entire world, a devotee on the topmost platform, the mahä-bhägavata stage, and<br />

a paramahaàsa-öhäkura, a spiritual form fit to be addressed only as paramahaàsa or öhäkura.<br />

Çréla Prabhupäda, Lord Kåñëa has empowered you with His direct potency to fulfill His desire by<br />

becoming the spiritual master of the whole world. Çréla Prabhupäda, Lord Kåñëa has empowered you<br />

with His direct potency to cleanse the hearts of the most fallen people and thus extinguish the blazing<br />

fire of the material world.<br />

Çréla Prabhupäda, you are the äcärya who should be considered nondifferent <strong>from</strong> Kåñëa—that is,<br />

you should be considered the incarnation of Lord Kåñëa’s potency. You are kåñëäliìgita-vigraha, you are<br />

jagad-guru, you are mahä-bhägavata and paramahaàsa-öhäkura.<br />

You, Çréla Prabhupäda, are a spiritual genius, empowered by the Supreme Lord Kåñëa to expertly<br />

set up the perfect process for purification of the conditioned souls in all your <strong>ISKCON</strong> temples all over<br />

the world. All those who follow your program for spiritual purification in Kåñëa consciousness are surely<br />

making rapid spiritual progress and are becoming qualified to go back to Godhead, back to Kåñëa.<br />

To illustrate your excellent, very practical explanations in your teachings, and how they comprise<br />

perfect guidance, I would like to mention a few significant incidents in my life illustrating what a huge<br />

positive impact your preaching has, how it radically transforms people’s lives for the better.<br />

As Kali-yuga progresses, we see more and more the disharmony between nations, groups of people,<br />

and individuals, even close relatives.<br />

If not for your mercy, Çréla Prabhupäda, there would be no possibility for me to behave properly<br />

with the understanding that every living being is part and parcel of the Lord and an eternal spirit soul.<br />

Therefore, as eternal servants of the Lord we should engage once again in devotional service to the<br />

Supreme Lord Kåñëa to awaken our dormant love of Him, pure love of God.<br />

At the very beginning of my life I belonged to the category of the most fallen people. For twenty<br />

years I lived with my family, knowing nothing about you, your books, or your Hare Kåñëa movement.<br />

Without your mercy, I was not able to get along even with my own father.<br />

However, the problem was definitively solved by Lord Kåñëa’s causeless mercy, allowing me to<br />

join your educational <strong>ISKCON</strong> spiritual movement. Because of the genuine wisdom you imparted in<br />

your informative books and your sincere and dedicated followers, I experienced a radical qualitative<br />

transformation in my life. Your books and followers helped me become eligible to receive your divine<br />

mercy.<br />

Only by your mercy, Çréla Prabhupäda, was I able to communicate well with my father without<br />

animosity. Indeed, we were able treat each other as good friends. I was also able to discuss Kåñëa conscious<br />

philosophy with him, inspire him to pay obeisances to the Jagannätha Deities, help him develop friendships<br />

with other devotees, and engage him in some devotional service in one of your temples before he died.<br />

The Kåñëa conscious process for spiritual reformation of the hearts of the conditioned souls is the<br />

perfect divine remedy, one that you brought to the West and then spread all over the world. Without it<br />

there would have been no way for me to experience this miracle with my father, or other, similar miracles<br />

in countless other situations.<br />

The perfect spiritual lifestyle in Kåñëa consciousness that you set up for the conditioned souls can<br />

mitigate all the pangs of material existence. Nonetheless, the miseries of material existence, including<br />

those of our own material body, will go their own way. However, you gave genuine spiritual knowledge<br />

on how to properly react to all miseries and be perfectly peaceful.<br />

If not for your divine mercy, the life of every living entity would be extremely miserable! By your<br />

mercy only, even a fallen soul like me was able to experience the purifying effect of your genuine spiritual<br />

education and excellent guidance. It came through your sincere follower Devämåta Swami, who on your<br />

behalf coached me in my spiritual life <strong>from</strong> the very beginning of my Kåñëa conscious career. Although<br />

the incident I am going to relate was small, it was still sufficient for me to have the sublime experience<br />

of a higher taste that came because of your divine grace and that of my Guru Maharaja.<br />

Last February I felt a pain in the lower part of my stomach and was sent to the emergency room in<br />

the hospital. The doctors said it was likely I had colon cancer. Even right before the colonoscopy, the<br />

161<br />

3_<strong>ISKCON</strong> <strong>Centers</strong>_06June2012.indd 161 6/6/12 10:40 AM

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