HE WHO LIVES FOREVER IN HIS BOOKS AND IN THE HEARTS OF HIS FOLLOWERS

IN PRAISE OF SRILA PRABHUPADA – ESSAY 10: AUGUST 1, 2025

- Loka Pavani Devi Dasi

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Dear Srila Prabhupada,

You came into to my life in the form of your books and you fulfilled your statements on how you will live forever. You said to your disciples: “If I depart, there is no cause for lamentation. I will always be with you through my books and orders. I will always remain with you in that way.” (Srila Prabhupada, Conversation, 5 May 1977)

Not only did you fulfil that promise to your own disciples, but you fulfilled that promise to anyone who came close to the sound vibration of your words. The world should know that your words are not ordinary words. This is explained in the purport to the verse 4.20.25 of Srimad Bhagavatam: “The transcendental vibration from the mouth of a pure devotee is so powerful that it can revive the living entity’s memory of his eternal relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” You further explained why that is so: “Although when a pure devotee speaks the articulation of his voice may resemble the sound of this material sky, the voice is spiritually very powerful because it touches the particles of saffron dust of the lotus feet of the Lord. As soon as a sleeping living entity hears the powerful voice emanating from the mouth of a pure devotee, he immediately remembers his eternal relationship with the Lord, although up until that moment he had forgotten everything.” The pages of your books are the vibrations of your ecstasies that help us in purification and going back home, back to Godhead. I would be so lost in this material world if you didn’t find me. For the next ten thousand years you will collect lost souls in generations to come. This is the power of your words.

Another place where you have hidden yourself is the hearts of your followers, especially your loving disciples. You have created a thousand bonds of love. Those hearts now continuously speak of your glories. It is said that to understand Krishna we need to see through the eyes of the scriptures and the hearts of the great saints. Similarly, to get to know you, dear Srila Prabhupada, we need to see through the eyes and hearts of your disciples. Intimate moments that you spent with them, reveal you to us, the future generations. Those moments show your kindness, your love, your dedication, your devotion and the most important of all, your liberal spirit.

My favorite book in which your loving mood was described is “Yamuna Devi – A Life of Unalloyed Devotion”. I was attracted by its intimacy and emotion. Only in the atmosphere of intimacy and emotion can we understand who a person truly is, just like we can only truly understand Krishna if we hear about His pastimes with Vrajavasis. Yamuna Devi describes:“I remember how kirtan was so intense and joyous in your presence. How time and place dissolved in those kirtans. How your thumbs lifted off the surface of your kartals as they sizzled in sound, and how your vocal cords and mouth vibrated and extended as you filled a space with hauntingly beautiful sound vibrations. I remember losing myself in that sound wishing never to leave this space or your presence. In this connection, I pray, even if only one more time, to hold the microphone for you as you chant your favorite Vaisnava prayer, Hari Hari Bhipale, as experienced that final time at Akash Ganga in Mumbai.” (Yamuna Devi – Life of Unalloyed devotion, Preparing an Offering of Love, p. 387). For descriptions like this, I am forever grateful because reading them, created in me an intense desire of living such a life in your presence.

After ten years of following your instructions, you have guided me to the lotus feet of my spiritual master, where again the transcendental vibration of your words echoes in my heart. In that way you are forever present and by each year you are guiding me closer and closer to Krishna. You created in my heart the seed of love for my spiritual master that is now growing into a tree of devotion and need for constant surrender. All that I have in my life, is due to the seeds of bhakti that were transmitted though transcendental vibration of your words. Bhaktivinod Thakur correctly proclaimed: “He reasons ill who tells that Vaisnavas die, when thou art living still in sound!”

Had you not come, who had told The message of Krishna, forceful and bold, That’s your right, you have the mace. Save me a fallen, Your Divine Grace. The line of service as drawn by you Is pleasing and healthy like morning dew. The oldest of all but in a new dress. Miracle done, Your Divine Grace.¹

Dear Srila Prabhupada,

Thank you for your gifts and constant presence!

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¹ “Adore Ye All” by Srila Prabhupada (1936 Vyasa puja offering)