srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine
namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine
nirvisesa-sunyavadi-pascatya-desa-tarine
Srila Prabhupada, you wanted your sannyasis to do big things.
"Make more disciples than me.
Write more books than me.
Open more temples than me."
To fulfill even one of these dictums seems for me almost impossible, but the challenge is relishable. I don't want to do anything cheaply, in an imitative way, but I do want to please you.
The preaching field is open. There are hundreds and thousands of towns and villages throughout the world, and Lord Caitanya wants His name chanted in every one of them. Millions of people are eager to know about Krsna, only they don't know yet. They have still to be woken up by your sankirtan soldiers, who go to every human habitation on the planet bringing your books, your message, your mercy.
You said people would come to us in the millions. They will have to be trained, protected, guided and nourished. You have given us many lifetimes of work, but time is short and our strength limited.
Therefore, on this most auspicious occasion of your Centennial Vyasa-puja, I am falling at your lotus feet and begging for the mercy to dive deeply into the ocean of preaching ecstasy. May my efforts to serve you expand geometrically every year. Let me do something significant in your great mission of spreading Krsna consciousness to every home and every heart.
ekaki amara nahi paya bolo, hari-nama-sankirtane
tumi krpa kari' sraddha bindu diya, deha krsna nama dhane
Your eternal servant,
Bhakti Vikasa Swami
Sva-vid-varahostra kharaih, samstutah purusah pasuh. There are many so-called great men, and they are very much praised by the general people. So Bhagavata says that anyone who is not a devotee, who never chants the Hare Krsna mantra, he may be very great man in the estimation of rascals, but he is nothing but an animal. "How you can say that such a great man is an animal?" Our business is a very thankless task. We say any man who is not a devotee of Krsna, he is a rascal. We say generally. It is a very harsh word, but we have to use it.
- From the "My Memories of Srila Prabhupada" by HH Bhakti Vikas Swami
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