Dear Srila Prabhapada,
Please accept the New Delhi temple devotees’ most worthless obeisances at your lotus feet.
All that you spoke throughout your lifetime is significant and full of meaning. We very clearly remember how once you said that our love for you would be seen by observing how much we cooperate with each other after you leave. On November 14, 1977, you left for joining in the pastimes of the flute player, Krsna, and since that day we have been on trial. We are all fallen, and hence are trying to be the independent masters of all that we survey. Srila Prabhupada, we are really hard nuts to crack. Please give us a kick in the back. We fools deserve it.
Once, a dying father called in his sons and staged a small demonstration. The father picked up a single stick and broke it very easily. Then he took two sticks and broke them, too. Compared with the first attempt, he had to use more energy in breaking two sticks. Then he tried three sticks together, which was still harder than before. He ultimately picked up a big bunch of sticks and tried his best to break them. But he failed. Maya, the external energy of the Lord, is strong, and she always tries her best to spoil the individual’s devotion for the Lord. But if the individuals get together, by wholeheartedly keeping Krsna at the center they can withstand even the strongest onslaughts of maya. In the spiritual world, this mentality is the norm. Every single citizen of the spiritual kingdom of the Lord prefers the only common center, and that is the cool shade of the lotus feet of the Lord.
Srila Prabhupada, innumerable times you have reminded us that everyone in the material world is the enemy of Krsna and His devotees. So the solution is that ISKCON devotees must get together. United we will stand and expand, devided we will scatter and fall. Push on this movement – that is your instruction, so let us follow that sincerely. The cooperative devotional spirit of all of your disciples is what makes this movement. So cooperation is the basic, essential thing.
Actually, you have challenged all of us by uttering the statement that you are going to watch our behavior after you are no longer physically present with us, so every one of us who claims to have some love for you must have this cooperative spirit. Falling at your feet, we humbly beg again and again, O beloved spiritual master, that could you please be merciful enough to instill that spirit of cooperation in the core of our hearts, so that there may be some meaning to our existence.
Otherwise we remain,
Your useless servants,
Lokanath Swami
