Letter from Padmapani Prabhu; Feb 28, 2015
To Tamoharadasa
Thank you for your recent messages with heartfelt words. To be pessimistic about this world is intelligent. The foolish think everything's OK like the animals lined up at the slaughterhouse. Fortunately, we somehow stumbled upon the Absolute Truth and His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada, without whom there would be no hope whatsover in this bottomless pit of darkness and despair.
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta said: "Those favoured by God find their paths set by thorns."
That may be hard to understand and appreciate at times, but it must be true. (I'm crazy, yes, but not crazy enough to argue with Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura!)
As for poverty, yeah it's rough, but Srila Prabhupada puts that in perspective too:
"I think it is good to remain financially poor because always we shall be able to pray Krishna, asking His help to execute His service. If all of a sudden we become very strong financially, Maya may dictate us for sense enjoyment, and we may fall a prey to her tactics. Therefore to remain poor is one of the qualifications for advancing in Krishna Consciousness."
(Srila Prabhupada letter, June 18, 1968)
Looks like we both meet the qualifications then. What mercy!
I always take solace in one of my all-time favourite Prabhupada quotes:
"Personally, I have no hope for any direct service of the coming crores of births in the sojourn of my life, but I am confident that some day or other I shall be delivered from this mire of delusion in which I am at present so deeply sunk. Therefore let me with all my earnestness pray at the lotus feet of my divine master to allow me to suffer the lot for which I am destined due to my past misdoings, but to let me have this power of recollection: that I am nothing but a tiny servant of the Almighty Absolute Godhead, realized through the unflinching mercy of my divine master. Let me therefore bow down at his lotus feet with all the humility at my command."
(Srila Prabhupada Vyasa-Puja speech, Sri Gaudiya Math, Bombay, 1935)
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