Srila Prabhupada, the empowered deliverer of Gaura-kripa
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by Gokulananda das
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Lord Caitanya has been appropriately glorified by His chief follower, Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhupada, as Mahavandanayavatar, the most magnanimous of all incarnations. So great was His heart’s desire to give the highest perfection of love of God, even to the least qualified, that His divine sentiment of audharya overflowed into the pure hearts of His many devoted followers. Their synergy of hearts has thus flowed down in an unprecedented shower of divine mercy, to offer all souls the process of regaining their rightful natural place in the eternal service of the Lord, by the simple process of Harinam Sankirtan.
Srila Prabhupada has been sent from within the Lord’s inner circle to carry out their munificent desire to abundantly deliver this greatest blessing. His appearance in this world is the fulfillment of the vision of Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur, as well as the expressed desire of his glorious son, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, to see this great mercy inundate the whole world. In deep communion with Mahaprabhu’s unlimited compassion, Gaura-kripa, they have all joined forces to help bring mankind back to Reality: to the eternal spiritual Realm of pure love where Lord Krishna shares His supremely sweet loving play with innumerable pure servants. In that eternal festival of divine love, all of the Lord’s loving associates swim in the limitless waves of His splendorous beauty.
Although such perfection is rarely accessible, Sri Caitanya has now opened the floodgates of His ocean of mercy, Karunasindhu, and sent His empowered associates to deliver such perfection to every doorstep. Srila Prabhupada was specifically chosen to be the greatest ever channel of this divine flood of Gaura-kripa. Having spent his entire life deeply absorbed in pure devotion to Guru and Krishna, he was thus able to deeply realize the sublime truths of Krishna-tattva revealed to the world by Sri Caitanya and His empowered followers such as the Six Goswamis of Vrindavan. Sustained by such perfect revelations, he spent his entire life’s energy to share these greatest truths for the salvation of all mankind.
One may wonder what was the secret of his amazing success. As in all such matters, the key is also contained in his enlightened books. He often quoted the axiomatic verse “Yasya deve para bhaktir..” that all the truths of transcendental life are fully revealed only to one who has implicit faith in Guru and the perfect Vedas. We can readily observe in Srila Prabhupada’s own life how great was his own faith in his great master’s every word. After repeatedly being told to spread the sublime message of Mahaprabhu to the English-speaking world, he made that instruction his heart and soul as his life’s only mission. Nourished by his unconditional faith, he was able to draw down the miraculous empowerment of Mahaprabhu Himself, Gaura-shakti, to fully carry out this divine order and eventually spread Krishna-bhakti on an unprecendented scale world-wide.
A veritable volcano of Krishna consciousness, Srila Prabhupada was thus able to connect millions with the Hare Krishna explosion. In the process, he also attracted thousands of dedicated disciples; safe under his enlightened guidance, they also shared in his faith and preaching potency to most effectively transmit the Yuga-dharma of Hari Nama to countless others.
One obvious measure of Srila Prabhupada’s unique potency is the power of his chanting the Hare Krishna Maha-mantra. As a pure devotee of Sri Caitanya from birth, Srila Prabhupada is Nama-premi, a devoted lover of the Holy Name. When he sat down under that tree in New York’s Tompkins Square Park to chant for the pleasure of his great Masters, his pure love for the Holy Name was able to start working miracles into the hearts of his listeners. When these first fledging followers then started attending his classes, he simply preached the glories of the Holy Name, along with long potent kirtans that really changed their hearts. And thus he empowered them to also spread the chanting everywhere, as it quickly became the anthem of the new Hippie counter-culture. Then the Beatles also picked it up from Srila Prabhupada’s first recording; and George Harrison recorded the London devotees to spread it further through the radio ether all around the world.
All this amazing spiritual epidemic is nothing short of a miracle, all emanating from Srila Prabhupada’s potent pure chanting. Such are the glories of Gaura-kripa so abundantly flowing from Srila Prabhupada’s heart and lips. May we all continue to bathe our hearts and minds in this divine flood of mercy and thus help spread this greatest blessing to the whole world. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. Jai Sri Guru and Sri Gauranga!
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