Hare Krishna, Siksha Gurudeva, please kindly accept my most humble obeisances; all glories to Srila Prabhupada;

all glories to your good self for your own devotion to Prabhupada and Krishna;

all glories to all the devotees of Lord Chaitanya's Sankirtana Movement!🙏

HpS - We always consider you our Siksa guru also!

I trust that all is going well for you in your devotional service: all things considered. Many things come to my mind that I would like to share with someone, but I don't want to be stopping my chanting just to ventilate my thoughts.

But be it suffice to say that I find so much shelter in my japa. There was a time in my life when I was afraid to live and afraid to die, both at the same time. That was how I first took shelter of chanting the Holy Names. Srila Prabhupada is so amazing; his character and level of compassion are so far beyond my scope of appreciation and understanding. He gave us this chanting of the Holy Names on the order of his spiritual master, just to fulfill the desire of Lord Chaitanya. In one famous purport Srila Prabhupada instructed that "our chanting Hare Krishna should be exactly like a small child crying out for its mother." When I reflect on this instruction I can appreciate that the fears and anxieties of my life are like hidden gems and blessings in disguise. I find that my chanting is most meaningful when those fears and anxieties are strong in my mind and heart.

I just had to share some of these thoughts, which come to me during my japa. How will I ever chant nicely when so much comes to my mind? And then I have some compelling need to share them with someone. Thank you, as always, for taking time out of your own spiritual life to to hear me rant on. And thank you for being such an inspiration to so many of us in our devotional service.

Yls, Bbd 🙏

HpS - Chant! Chant! ... can't can't! Rant Rant!! 😆 I had a dream of Srila Prabhupada once and his personality, presence was so, so, so personal. He was conscious, and understanding so much more deeply of everything that was happening in our situation. Like adults with children at a party.