Dear Srila Prabhupada,
Please accept my humble obeisances at your lotus feet on this auspicious occasion of your Vyasa-puja 2000.
Here in India we are getting a lot of very encouraging preaching results, and in that regard your preaching mission is being accomplished. The book distribution is ever increasing. I had the honor of handing out first prize to the leading Srimad-Bhagavatam set distributor, a devotee from Mayapur. You always encouraged standing orders and set distribution, and ISKCON Mayapur and ISKCON Bombay have been the world champions for so many years. Even our Padayatra India is at the top in the small-temple category of book distribution.
Having used the first Padayatra chariot for almost sixteen years, we recently offered a new chariot to the Padayatra Deities, Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundara. During my lecture on the occasion, I shared my realization of how every day, an average of 100 Bhagavad-gitas are distributed by padayatris in remote villages of India. The people of these villages buy a Bhagavad-gita only once in their lifetime, and because to them it is a good sum of money they don’t purchase another edition. If someone proposes to sell them another one they say, “I already have a Bhagavad-gita.” So this means your Bhagavad-gita As It Is is the only one in their possession and will be in their homes and hearts for generations. Padayatris have been going to 1,000 villages a year, visiting with the residents and distributing books. You can imagine the results in due course of time as the padayatris go on planting thousands and thousands of Gitas.
A short time ago we celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of the opening of the Krsna-Balarama temple, and on the occasion we read the following statement you made on April 20th, 1975: “ The movement is undoubtedly increasing in foreign countries, why not in our country? The government, the leaders, and the guardians, they should deeply contemplate on the serious nature of this movement and help us. Now we are bringing men from the foreign countries to preach. How long I shall bring? If we want to spread this movement all over India very seriously, we invite all educated intellectual young men to come forward.”
So that is happening now. Do you remember how they used to call our temple Angreji Mandir (English temple)? The sole reason was because during those early years when you were establishing the Krsna-Balarama temple, you had only the assistance of Western devotees. Seeing most devotees running the temple were Westerners, the locals and visitors naturally thought of it as an English temple. But now things have reversed. Now ninety percent of the residents of the Krsna-Balarama temple are Indians, and our temple in vrindavana is becoming known as the ISKCON temple or Krsna-Balarama temple. On the occasion of Ratha-yatra in Kuruksetra, I attended the Kuruksetra temple’s pandal, at which thousands were in the audience. Saksi Gopala Prabhu, the temple president, informed me, ”Maharaja, more than half these people are chanting Hare Krsna on beads.” I was highly pleased to hear that. Only five or ten years ago hardly anyone knew the maha-mantra, but now there are thousands who are taking vows to chant a fixed number of rounds.
In Juhu, Bombay, there are many temple projects coming up. The Bombay team, headed by Bhima and Devakinandana Prabhus, seem to be moving forward with plans to build another huge temple complex in the back of the existing temple. I was thinking it is like your formula of “Double it!”- they are applying it to temple construction. The Delhi, Bangalore, Baroda, and Ahmadabad temples are all now fully operational, and several mare temples are on the way, in particular the Mayapur Temple of the Vedic Planetarium. There seems to be progress on various fronts, such as book distribution, devotee-making, congregational development, and temple construction. These are the wonderful offerings made to you on this day of your appearance, the day after Krsna’s appearance.
On another front, there are also a lot of things that are a cause for a lot of concern and anxiety. Arguments and quarrels, hypocrisy, politics, fratricidal war, loss of faith, anarthas and ill motives, suicide attempts, court cases, fault-finding and gossiping, confusion and bewilderment. It sounds like kaler dosanidhe rajann: “This age of Kali is full of faults.” In 1977 in Bombay you have a pandal lecture series titled “Modern-Day Civilization Is a Total Failure; the Only Solution Is Krsna Consciousness.” We always thought the faults of this age were present only in “karmi” society. But currently these faults seem to have infiltrated the lives, thoughts, and actions of our own devotees. We seem to be ineffective and powerless to fight against these anti-Krsna conscious forces and personalities.
Srila Prabhupada. I am feeling helpless on the occasion of your appearance day, and I am rushing to your feet and begging for your mercy, your intervention, for my empowerment so that we can flush out anything and everything that is checking the progress of your Krsna consciousness movement. Prabhupada, you would never tolerate these disturbances if you were physically present. You would have fought tooth and nail. You would have not left any stone unturned. You would have spent sleepless nights to find the solutions. Srila Prabhupada, you are here. Please continue to direct and inspire us so that we can preserve your great movement and propagate Krsna consciousness, the gift of the holy name. You are an empowered representative of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the sena-pati bhakta. Please, O Commander-in-Chief of the sankirtana army, is the most compassionate Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu not compassionate anymore? Of course, I can’t doubt His magnanimity, but seeing the circumstances around us, faithless persons like I begin to wonder, “Why is Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu not doing anything to crush all the nonsense that is going on in the midst of this Krsna consciousness movement?” If the Krsna consciousness movement does not do yare dekha, tare kaha ‘krsna’-upadesa, purely and forcefully, then who else will? Srila Prabhupada, you always said, “The Hare Krsna movement is good for everyone, and it will benefit the whole world.” There is no alternative to this movement. Please, please protect and purify us, your movement. This is our desperate plea. With a straw between my teeth I beg you. Please give us intelligence and purity of purpose so we can give a befitting fight to the enemies of the Krsna consciousness movement. The worst enemy is the enemy that is hidden within us, hidden within the members of the Krsna consciousness movement. You said we couldn’t be defeated by any outside forces. You said the most dangerous thing is the internal fight. This would ruin us. Srila Prabhupada, I can’t tolerate to see this happening in front of my eyes. I can’t stand it, but what can I do without your mercy? It is all that we are made of.
Begging for your mercy, I remain
Your unworthy servant
Lokanath Swami