Hurdy Gurdy Man, by Tamohara dasa v acbssp
"T'was then when the Hurdy Gurdy man came singing songs of love
T'was then when the Hurdy Gurdy Man came singing songs..."
T'was then when Srila Prabhupada was sent to us from above,
Lord Nityananda's Grace, down, for us, from above.
Down for us in all power and humility,
Then when he came singing us songs of a splendid Reality.
We soon were rising, singing, sweeping, weeping
His delivering voice ringing above,
" Jiv jago!"
Sighing, smiling, crying, roaring,
Servants now of a true devotee's's love.
Chanting, cooking, cleaning, reading
Gayatri, prasad, mid-morning rounds
Done sometimes on the nod !
But not often, and less often later ! ...
Once we got an inkling of what really matters.
Caitanya Mangala, circa 1500 A.D. by Srila Locana dasa Thakura Goswami, contemporary and Gaudiya Vaisnava historian/biographer of Sri Krsna Caitanya;
Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu bol :
"yadi papi cadi dharma dure dese yaya mora senapati bhakta yaibe tathaya"
"If some sinful people escape ( His sankirtana movement ) and giving up religious principles go to far off countries, then My Senapati Bhakta ( Great General amongst the devotees ), will come at that time to give them Krsna
consciousness."
The temple is a place not for eating and sleeping, but as a base from which we send out our soldiers to fight with maya."(Srila Prabhupada Letter, 3/8/1973)
" Down through all eternity, the crying of humanity... "
"Oh! Help them Lord Krsna!, please help us, Srila Prabhupada !"
"Books!" he emphasized, the transcendental bombs;
To blast them to kingdom come, Srila Prabhupada !
Blast them well, our Prabhupada !
Pull us up from hell, make us come alive !
The competition cooperation
Lead us to; the liberation of the nations !
Parking lots, city streets, malls, wherever people gather,
To eat, to cross the street, door to door, office to office,
Whatever street you're on doesn't matter.
Bang the Krishna gong!
Airports, sneakers on cold concrete,
Sagging shoulder,
The heavy book bag holder.
Late night prasad
A young life gladly striven
In the service of God.
Actually it was often good fun to meet
The people of the world.
Banners unfurled,
Sastra held affectionately in hand
Distributing books like walking hot sand
At the beach, on fire!
And when you found some time to talk,
Empowered now by grace,
You sure knew how to preach!
NOTHING EVER got me "higher',
Faster, farther, better, than
Sankirtana!
Srila Prabhupada, Los Angeles, December 9, 1973: [...]
"Soul is immortal. Soul is eternal. These things are described in the Bhagavad-gita. In the beginning, this is the beginning lesson: dehino 'smin yatha dehe kaumaram [Bg. 2.13] This is the beginning of spiritual understanding."
What have you done Srila Prabhupada, on the grande scale of humanity? How successful has been the preaching in the mind of the common Western "modern" man ? Beyond the worldwide-movement and millions of devotees, and millions more to come, I mean?
source: newsweek.com
- fully 25% according to a 2008 Harris poll, say they accept the concept of transmigration of the soul. - 2008 Pew Forum survey, 65 percent of us believe that "many religions can lead to eternal life" - 37% of even white evangelical Christians believe that other paths can also lead to God! - 30% of Americans call themselves "spiritual, not religious,"
according to a 2009 NEWSWEEK Poll,
up from 24 percent in 2005. - Stephen Prothero, religion professor at Boston University, has framed the American propensity for "religion" as "very much in the spirit of Hinduism. So agnostic are we about the ultimate fates of our bodies that we're burning them-like Hindus-after death....agrees Diana Eck, professor of comparative religion at Harvard. So let us all say "om."
You, Srila Prabhupada,
Have thus liberated millions of sleeping persons
Into the life-re-awakening knowledge of
Their eternal deathless pure spiritual bod.
Decimating the material fraud,
Revealing their lies with superlative reason
Worldwide, Krishna was an obscure Name,
The " eighth incarnation of Vishnu "
But it is you, Srila Prabhupada,
who manifest Lord Krishna's fame so well.
Now His Name is known everywhere,
Every town and village!
Everywhere in India, " oh yes!, they are knowing it very well ",
who is Sri Krsna, and even Who is Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu !
Now here we are, many years later
Yet it is eternity
And we are still here with you
And we feel and know you are also with us
And for this, we are eternally grateful.
We, your tried and true soldiers,
Are at your service, our servant of God,
Great General and Eternal Commander A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Srila Prabhupada.
Replies
Dandvats