Śreyaḥ and Preyaḥ

   Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, I take this occasion of celebrating your blessed appearance in our midst as an opportunity to offer prostrated, heartfelt obeisance to your lotus-like feet. I then turn to offer prostrated obeisance to the lotus-like feet of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda—your own beloved spiritual preceptor who, 150 years ago in this year, blessed the world by his appearance.

   Several times you shared with your disciples how, with just a few powerful words, Śrīla Sarasvatī Ṭhākura changed your life as a young man, giving you a clear and definite   mission, namely, to preach Krishna consciousness in the English language. I can understand that he whom you immediately recognized as your eternal guru-mahārāja had already been desiring to spread the mission of Caitanya Mahāprabhu to the wider world when he met you, who were at that time a young college student. In his mind and heart he was already envisioning a spiritual dwelling for the whole world and, as we all know, you in particular took this vision to heart in such a way as to make it a wonderful reality.

   And, taking this vision to heart, you expanded and deepened it, and demonstrated how it is possible to reach and touch many “unlikely” hearts, one of which was mine, when I was fortunate to meet you in Paris in the summer of 1972. It would be two years later, in Germany, that I mustered the courage to ask you my burning question: “How can I give up material desire?” To which your immediate answer was “No desire! Desire only for Krishna,” and to which you added examples of how one might serve Krishna: “You can drive a car for Krishna!” – a fitting example, considering that my service at that time was as the temple driver. It was a “practical example,” which just recently I came to further appreciate in light of a surprising comment of Śrīla Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, discussing śreyaḥ and preyaḥ (on February 14th, 1936, during his final Vyāsa-pūjā celebration in his manifest presence):

    Two streams come from independence, śreyaḥ [that

through which we get eternal benefit] and preyaḥ

[temporary happiness]. Wherein śreyaḥ and preyaḥ

have become one, meaning that service to the Lord has

become one’s object of happiness, is a situation where

everything is good for us. When preyaḥ is merged

into śreyaḥ, then our true auspiciousness takes place.

(quoted in The Mission: Śrīla Prabhupāda and His Divine

Agents, Swami B. B. Bodhayan, Mandala, ND, p. 53)

   On this occasion I wish to appreciate more deeply how you, Śrīla Prabhupāda, demonstrated by your boldness how these two apparently opposing aims—the temporal and the eternal—could be perfectly “merged” in the resolve to share the vision of the previous ācāryas with the world. As we now mark the 150th anniversary of His Divine Grace Śrīla Sarasvatī Ṭhākura’s appearance, I also seek your blessings to simply appreciate that your guru-mahārāja, being the powerful preceptor that he was, attracted many special souls to his shelter. From among his numerous disciples Śrīla Sarasvatī Ṭhākura awarded sannyāsa to several of his male disciples, and several more later received sannyāsa initiation from one or another of his sannyāsa disciples. According to the recently published book Our Mission: Śrīla Prabhupāda and His Divine Agents (compiled by Swami B. B. Bodhayan Mahārāja), altogether thirty-eight of Śrīla Sarasvatī Ṭhākura’s disciples became sannyāsīs, and three disciples accepted bābājī-veśa. All of these devotees, each in their own ways, were remarkable in their devotion, learning and preaching, as described in the book Our Mission: Śrīla Prabhupāda and His Divine Agents, which includes an especially extensive and deeply appreciative account of yourself, your life and your great accomplishments.

   While fully honoring your instruction to not associate with your godbrothers (all of whom have, I believe, now departed this world), I pray for the good wishes and blessings of all Śrīla Sarasvatī Ṭhākura’s disciples upon us, your disciples and followers, to deeply imbibe the spirit of devotional service that you demonstrate— of artfully bringing śreyaḥ and preyaḥ into perfect harmony in all your words and actions. And may our parama-guru, Śrīla Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, be especially kind upon us, as a grandfather is especially kind to his grandchildren.

Your aspiring servant,

Krishna Kshetra Swami