Tribute to Shrila Prabhupada for Vyasa-Puja 2024

Shrila Prabhupada Vyasapuja 2024

Dearest Srila Prabhupada, 
Please accept my respectful obeisances at your lotus feet. 

Nama om vishnu padaya krishna preshthaya bhu-tale, shrimate bhaktivedanta swami iti namine.
Namaste sarasvate deve gaura vani pracharine, nirvishesha shunyavadi pashchatya desha tarine.
Om ajnana timirandhasya jnananjana shalakaya, chakshur unmiltam yena tasmai shri gurave namah.

With immense gratitude, from the depths of my heart, I offer you some thoughts, reflections, and memories. 48 years have passed since the first blessed darshan you bestowed upon me, and I am still contemplating the numerous blessings you have poured into my life. I realize that words and actions alone cannot fully express the depth of my feeling of gratitude.

You have been and continue to be my guiding light, the beacon illuminating my path throughout this earthly existence. From you, I have learned so much, much more than I could have imagined. You have opened my eyes to the beauty of spiritual life and taught me the supreme purpose for which to live. Thanks to you, I have understood that the goal is visible not only in dreams but also in everyday reality, one just needs to know where to look.

Amidst the socio-cultural chaos of the 1970s, to the extreme consequences of our threatening present where propaganda has polluted all information, you have been my safe haven and have shown me the hidden order behind every appearance. You have awakened my soul and revealed to it the coordinates to navigate through the turbulent waters of incarnate life, teaching me to understand circumstances and to discern between action and abstention.

In that first darshan, you explained to me that modern society does not believe in God hence it is always in chaos, and that so-called progress is simply the pretense of a society of ignorant people who plunder nature and fill their lives with artificial needs. Two years earlier, you prophetically expressed as follows:

Vṛndāvana, March 12, 1974
Prabhupāda: Their business will be to exploit the poor citizens. And they will be embarrassed and harassed so much = by one side, no sufficient rain, and therefore scarcity of food; and the other side, taxation by the government. In this way, the people will be so much harassed that they'll give up their home and go to the forest. Very piti... Unless they take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they'll not be saved. The varṇāśrama college has to be established immediately. Everywhere, wherever we have got our center, a varṇāśrama college should be established to train four divisions = one class, brāhmaṇa; one class, kṣatriya; one class, vaiśya; and one class, śūdra. But everyone will be elevated to the spiritual platform by the spiritual activities which we have prescribed. There is no inconvenience, even for the śūdras.

In the last years of your earthly life, you stated on several occasions that you had only completed half of your preaching project, and that the remaining part was to spread the philosophical principles of Varna-Ashrama-Dharma in society. Inspired by your words and moved by the deep desire to humbly attempt to serve the realization of your project, I have established a department dedicated to Varna Ashrama Dharma within the Centro Studi Bhaktivedanta. The aim is to develop an academic theoretical model and practical application that can offer concrete solutions to the problems of an increasingly homologated, desecrated, reductionist, deterministic, and nihilistic society, recovering lost ethical-spiritual values and promoting authentic individual and social well-being functional to the higher purpose of human life: spiritual realization and the rediscovery of the eternal loving relationship of Love with Bhagavan Shri Krishna. We are collaborating with universities and other international institutions interested in the project.

Dear Srila Prabhupada, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for constantly inspiring me, and humbly ask for your blessings so that this service I am offering you may fulfill your desires and help as many people as possible to awaken to the bhakti you inspired in us.

Your spiritual vision, sweetened by love for Shri Krishna, has enlightened me, allowing me to see every crisis as an opportunity to overcome my limitations and offer my contribution to the spread of Krishna Consciousness, accepting appearances, which are temporary by nature, and cultivating that which is eternal with love and devotion.

Your greatest lesson was to place Sri Krishna at the center of every relationship, teaching me to relate to every creature with love and respect.

But what has deeply touched me has been your personal example. You lived what you taught, embodying every virtue you preached. It was through your example that I have found the strength and inspiration to shape my life based on the principles you transmitted.

Every day, I strive to honor your teaching by living a life of virtue and love, spreading the light you have ignited in me to every soul I encounter. If there is a way I can reciprocate even a fraction of what you have given me, it is to live according to your teachings, spreading your wisdom and, above all, your love in the world as an antidote to the dire egoic belligerent spirit, the source of all human calamities, including wars.

Although you are physically absent, your luminous example still shines within me, guiding me and illuminating my path.

I will be eternally grateful for everything you have done for me, for the world, and for all humanity.

With infinite gratitude and love, imploring you to continue to correct and inspire me,

Your affectionate servant,
Matsya Avatara Dasa