The 2016 Srila Prabhupada Tributes book – “the open Vyasa-puja book” – is now available as a pdf file from www.sptributes.com. Physical books have already been mailed. Each year, all initiated disciples of Srila Prabhupada are welcome to write offerings for the book. And any disciple who sends an offering will receive a physical copy of the book.If you were initiated by Srila Prabhupada but didn’t receive an invitation to contribute, please write to sptributes (at) gmail.com in order to be added to the mailing list.
Below is a random offering:
Dearest Srila Prabhupada, please accept my humble obeisances and commitment unto your lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Grace!
In this holy day of your appearance I would like to join the chorus of my god-brothers and god-sisters who are glorifying you in such a sincere and heartfelt way.
When I met you I immediately became aware of having in front of me an extraordinary personality. And as time went, this perception not only solidified but it became more and more verified and enhanced.
I became attracted especially by these qualities of yours:
Your concise way of speaking. You always described the Absolute Truth with a few and properly chosen words.
Your sense of detachment. You acted with urgency and involvement but at the end you withdrew your self out and let the results develop in their own way.
The integrity of your character. You were not influenced by your surroundings. You were always your self.
The true humility of your personality. You never took credit for all the success you were meeting, attributing everything to your spiritual master and the good will of the Lord.
Your vast knowledge of sastras and your ability to cite them in each and every circumstance.
Your steadiness. You performed your duty in all times, places and circumstances.
You were able to set your priorities correctly. So you executed the most important and the necessary. No wasting time in secondary engagements.
You were expert judge of place, time and circumstances. I saw you how you reacted and behaved in different kinds of situations and it was always perfect, appropriate and pleasing. I never have seen any other vaikuntha man acting like this while being in the same “mundane” plane where we were!
Once, in Los Angeles, when you were residing in your apartment which had a window towards the street, and if you were standing up, then you could be seen from the outside, I was passing that very street and looking up I saw you. And what you were doing? You were standing in front of a picture of your Guru Maharaja and offering him obeisances or prayers with your hands folded in the namaskar position. I was so moved by this manifestation of your love you were exhibiting in a solitary place!
The energy and creativity you generated was unbelievable, even though you were in a body so fragile and of advanced age.
You were always engaged with intensity, concentration and seriousness in whatever you were doing. You had complete control of your mind and your other senses and you submitted your body in austere and demanding conditions like traveling from one continent to the next and adjusting it immediately to the local timetable, climate, food etc.
Your faith to the Lord, the previous Acaryas and the sastras was so complete that you were able to move your disciple’s consciousness drastically and swiftly to the transcendental dimension.
You were balanced in your relations with others, even when confronting extreme elements, offensive behavior or craziness, still you didn’t overreacted and didn’t departed from your being a perfect gentleman.
Although you were like a general with the most important mission to save humanity still you had also the heart of a mother and never sacrificed an individual soul for the sake of your mission.
These elevated and attractive qualities could be experienced constantly by anyone fortunate to be in your presence. You had a taste for Krishna katha and you were 100% committed in the Sankirtan Yajna of Lord Chaitanya, which you carried with no signs that you were doing some austerity or sacrifice. You were always satisfied within, blissful and free from anxiety.
The benefit that all these qualities created for me, Srila Prabhupada, is that they brought me to the point of surrendering and offering all my energy to you, and through you to the Lord.
We all have the tendency and need to love, but in the material world, being continuously disappointed with our relations with the others due to the impurities, we can’t find any person we consider worth of our love, service and surrender. And as our nature is to be happy only when we experience love and express it through service, not finding a person deserving our trust and love we often end up with serving and loving nobody.
But for the fortunate souls, like us, who met your Divine Grace, finally these loving energies were liberated and manifested in the proper way, to the proper person and for the proper cause.
So, Srila Prabhupada, thanks to your personality, the personification of Bhagavatam, I found my way towards back Home, back to Godhead.
Every year my faith increases and the appreciation, gratitude and love I feel for you becomes deeper and bigger.
Your biggest gift, the chanting of the Holy Name, still reigns supreme in the center of my existence, and your teachings are still the favorable winds pushing my vessel towards the supreme destination.
I am your creation Srila Prabhupada, one of your miracles. From ignorant, lost and sleeping soul to aspiring servant of the pure devotee! What a fortune in the Kali Yuga times humanity is going through! Thank you Srila Prabhupada for bringing me back to life! I was unconsciously dreaming some nonsense and you brought me to the beautiful reality again!
You spent hours and hours translating the best of the Vedic literature so that you could convince us about the potency of the Holy Names of the Lord.
So if you engaged the most valuable time of your days for this goal then, following your example, I am considering that the highest benefit I should also strive to contribute to others is this development, maintenance and increase of their faith to the Holy Name. Because once one comes in regular contact and with faith for the Holy Name then the Name Himself will do the rest for the upliftment and perfection of that soul.
People in general may not understand why the devotees chant repeatedly these same words and they tend to think that the value and potency attributed to this chanting is exaggerated. So you have taught us to distribute your books to help them come to the proper conviction.
After all, in each and every religion, either through the prayer, the public worship, eucharistic rites or study of the holy scriptures, according to its particular beliefs, customs and traditions, all is based in the medium of the sound, pronounced silently, loudly or read, individually or collectively, as a means of connection. The same sound I am even using right now to express respectfully my deep esteem, love and gratitude for your Divine Grace.
You have described this transcendental sound to be like the favorable wind which is pushing our human life towards the supreme destination. You have also indicated that for the chanting to bring about its beneficial result there must be submissive and concentrated hearing.
So, dear Srila Prabhupada, through the chanting of the Holy Name every day, with all humility in my command and power of recollection, I am praying to continue being allowed to perform some small part in the Sankirtana movement and try, like this, to please you, reciprocating the mercy received.
Thank you for having me accepted as your disciple!
Please intercede with the Lord for this lowly soul to be able to attain His shelter! I know I am not up to the standard but if you talk to Him He will surely show some more mercy… And please help us cooperate among ourselves for your service! You are the unifying factor, if not you who else?
Mercy Srila Prabhupada!!! Mercy!!
Your aspiring servant
Citraka; dasa
Source : http://www.dandavats.com/?p=30686
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