THE GUARDIAN OF DEVOTION (1)

(2) PRABHUPADA PRANAMA

Although outwardly he was like a lion, inwardly he was very very sweet, yet it could be traced only in his internal sweetness. Outwardly, the way of love was worshipped by him with grandeur, and awe and reverence, but his object was the simple and beautiful, divine love of Vrindavan, and his temperament in establishing that in the world was just like a lion’s. After his departure I described his life in one sloka. If he were living today, I think he would say, “Sridhar Maharaj has imprisoned me in a cage of poetry.”

nikhila-bhuvana-maya-chhinnavichchhinna-kartri
vibudha-bahula-mrgya-mukti-mohanta-dhatri
sithilita-vidhi-raga-radhya-radhesa-dhani
vilasatu hrdi nityari bhaktisiddhanta-vani

With his first step, he vigorously cut asunder the whole plane of exploitation, and with his second, he put a stop to all the calculations of the different scholars with their different conceptions of salvation, liberated stages. With his third step, he minimized the hardness and stiffness of the rules and regulations of calculative devotional service, by a touch of the divine love: crossing Vaikuntha, he gave us the worship of Radha and Govinda.

Calculation, the rules and regulations, awe, reverence, all these things are minimized, checked, slackened with the softness of Vrindavan within, and with the hardness of a devastator without, he created havoc in the materialistic world, fighting with one and all. Single-handedly fighting against the whole world, and cutting asunder everything—that was his external attitude. And his second attitude was to put a stop to all scholarly researchers and doctorates of different departments, and to stop their boasting research; and third, to minimize, to slacken the grandeur of the worship of Narayana. He caused the domain of love to descend into this plane with the service of Radha-Govinda, establishing the flow of divine love from the heart as all in all. With that we come to serve our object of worship, and he represented the service of Radha-Govinda as the highest attainment. That was his history. The real existence of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura Prabhupada is in bhaktisiddhanta-vani, his divine teachings. May that bhaktisiddhanta-vani dance eternally within the core of your heart.

CONTENTS

Foreword
(1) Siksa-Guru
(2) Prabhupada Pranama
(3) Brahma-Gayatri

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