It is very nice when you can listen to a speaker and you feel that he is feeling from your own heart. You can rejoice every second of it. You feel "Home Comfort," you feel somebody appreciated something which I also have a very deep inclination for. I can definately say that for the speeches that I have heard today. Of course they also took everything away, even though by listening to them we could clearly understand that their words were nothing but the tip of the iceburg. If I would have allowed them, continuously they would be going on and on and on to chant the glories of Srila Prabhupada. Undoubtedly his glories are the most deep and extensive at the same time, that for a human being, a conditioned being, to give an ample description of them is utterly impossible. And I have been thinking a lot lately about Srila Prabhupada and his accomplishments. And of course, today facets of truth are coming into visibility as in our ongoing life so that facets are being revealed. Like Tripurari Maharaja's words on his prayer to Lord Krsna, "Please Her, it will be advantageous for You." This type of confidential approach I never understood from that verse in so many years of reading the prayer and being deeply impressed by it, a different translation. And when I read it I was so charmed and I was thinking, such a daring proposal to Krsna. Of course, at a certain level of intimacy such things naturally become possible. So, Srila Prabhupada, he came to us like a transcendental lightening, in the total darkness, which at once lets you see everything. And then when the lightening is over and then again everything is dark again. And he threw those type of lightenings into the material world with a great frequency in his manifested pastimes. And even later though his different agents, but we always said that if you want to keep in that line, if you want to keep having that mission, then you have to follow me. Then you have to follow these instructions. Somewhat resembling that sometimes Krsna appears to a devotee, gives him some great mercy and then disappears and then the devotee is left behind to show he really wants to be there, he really wants to live that, really come to the eternal association to Krsna. So in a similar way, Srila Prabhupada like a lightening flash in this world he appeared everywhere and so extensively and so strongly that like Narasingha Maharaja said, it was actually noticed all over the planet, distinctively noticed. To what degree of awareness in the individual case, that is another question. But it was distinctively recognized. The other day also, contemplating the greatness of Srila Prabhupada, I thought how he did not make any great mention in his contribution of neither the Gaudiya Matha nor the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition. When I say he didn't make extensive mention of it, obviously I did not mean to say that he ignored them. He never did that. He carried his guru's lotus feet straight on his head. Nevertheless, his attention was put on serving his guru by serving his disciples. So much that practically speaking we joined the mission. Every word of that mission for quite a few years, and some of us didn't know what Gaudiya Matha means. And neither did we know what Iskcon meant. At least, and I'm speaking for myself, I never consciously joined a mission. It never dawned on me that by becoming a disciple of Srila Prabhupada that I am now becoming a member of some kind of religious institution. Probably if I had thought so, I would have run away before listening to the class because religious institutions weren't exactly on my popular itinerary. So, Srila Prabhupada, he charmed us, not personally in my case because I only met him when I was going personally to get his mercy of initiation one and a half years later after making a decision of wanting to follow him. I was charged by him through the energy he invested in his followers, his living energy. I remember one of my godbrothers, a french boy, he would do so much service and then anytime he would sit down and listen to a tape of Prabhupada. And I in those days didn't speak a word of english, so I also said, "can I listen." I would listen to somebody speaking something I couldn't understand, but it sounded sweet -- my guru. I couldn't understand it so I wouldn't listen to it for too long. I gave it back to him but I saw this boy and this eagerness -- he was sucking in every word of the tape, you know. And I would say, "I've got to meet Prabhupada. I don't know how long I can bear it without meeting him." Of course we were there and we learned surrender. And surrender meant you have to be there and do what you are told because you want to serve the Supreme Lord's servant. So there was a great amount of discipline and as we all are probably disciple which means, it is derived from discipline. Somebody follows the discipline given by the well-wisher of him. So no institution, so I didn't know anything. As a matter of fact in those days we didn't know what was a guru-puja.  That hadn't dawned on us yet, it hadn't appeared yet. The Sundar Aratika songs, we only knew five prayers. One devotee, after Acyutananda published a songbook, went to Prabhupada. He said to Prabhupada, I have some very special question. Yes. Is there any special reason why we only sing five parts of the Sundar Aratika song, any special reason? Because maybe there is something wrong with them or we are somewhat different. And he was real excited about his discovery. Prabhupada looked at him and "Yes, there is a reason. I forgot the others." Thats why we ... I like it, Prabhupada could even forget something. Still the transcendental energy will go undisturbed thru him igniting even the most amazing fellows, referring to myself, without any offense to anybody. Srila Prabhupada, he was himself the pure devotee of Krsna. He didn't come out and say, "Wait a second. Let me first show you my credentials. Hold on, I have my diploma here, my transcendental diploma. All honors received from, and properly sealed and stamped and approved by the Indian embassy. Forget it. He was himself and thats all.And within him, everything was there. Just like when we hear that when you get Krsna, then nothing more is to be obtained. If you know Krsna then there is nothing more to be known. So as a pure devotee surrendered to Krsna, that was him. And anyhow thru him it was everything, meaning, everything we had met afterwards, everything we were able to read. Thru him we heard that we must get Brhad-bhagavatamrta and read it. It is a very important book. And Jaiva Dharma  and this and that. He was giving out everything but anyhow it was all in him, therefore he could say things like, "Just read my books." He could definately say "Don't go anywhere else. Stay here and study." Don't think that spiritual life is going into a spiritual supermarket and shopping around in a selfish mentality of just trying to accumulate acquisitions for yourself -- accepting and rejecting in that way. It is all coming down by mercy and that mercy is totally in the control of the asraya-vigraha,  Srimati Radhika Herself and She chose Prabhupada to be who he is. She chose this. He didn't choose it himself, She chose it. (Applause and approval)

So, therefore Prabhupada came to us by that divine arrangement and there is another aspect to that which is not easy to vocalize for myself. But the living principle of Srila Prabhupada, that very living principle I dare to say here today, it is not in his books, and it is not in the Deities that he installed. And it is much less in some institutional paper signed before some lawyer. That living principle is living within his faithful disciples. We are fearlessly following that line of devotion taught by him -- the light of devotion taught by you. That which he received from his Guru Maharaja. Even though he met him on very few occasions he imbibed entirely the line of devotion and that line of devotion, as much as it is available in this world today, it is available thru those who have imbibed it in their heart. No rubber stamp seal is necessary. But at the same time, yes we glorify Srila Prabhupada today, tirubhava-tithi.  Yes he is the greatest, we all agree. We are all happy about it. But that again, will we become the greatest just by carrying his picture on our heads and saying he is the greatest, he is the greatest. No, you will only be connected to him if you are surrendered to him as the greatest. And then that greatness of his will go thru you to others. So of course we have a picture and keep it here and keep it there and keep it everywhere. But still unless you keep it inside, that line of service, you just have a bunch of pictures to take the dust of regularly. (Applause)

So, the practical contribution which we can give to Srila Prabhupada is to become pure devotees. I can't say much more about this because I am definately not an example of this. But I know that this is where I have to go. If I were to rejoin my gurudeva at any instance in the future, if I want to be a bonafide representative of him, if I just want to be considered his disciple, which is something easy to say, but not easy to be. To become a pure devotee and to understand profoundly the line of service known by you, shown by you, lived by you, given by you, distributed by you -- that, to become that yourself and then be bold enough to represent it. And if that is happening then Srila Prabhupada surely will be satisfied with us individually and shower his blessings on us because His Divine Grace is loved. Nobody is the owner of divine grace except Srimati Radharani Herself. She is the giver of that divine grace. And whoever is surrendered to Her will become the most important deliverer to those who come in contact with Him. Something which is sometimes neglected, thats why I am very humbly making this point today. The ongoing principle of this sampradaya  is that the now present humble souls who dare to preach Krsna consciousness, who dare to say that we want to represent Srila Prabhupada, that they are now the contact to Srila Prabhupada. And therefore, new disciples focus on them even though godbrothers fight that somewhat. It is awkward sometimes to assimilate, so much that they sometimes prefer to be separate from that, but it is a fact that you can only get, like the example was given, don't bite the hand that feeds you. Jumping over the spiritual master, we also heard about that. We shouldn't do that. It is an ongoing principle. So in as much as we want to serve Srila Prabhpada sincerely, we have to become, in a peculiar way, self sufficient servants of His Divine Grace, which means depending on His Divine Grace to deliver divine grace. Anyhow it is difficult to vocalize. Hare Krsna.

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