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My dear devotees, all glories to Srila Prabhupada and all pure devotees. I write you from Miami, wishing you a happy new year, in the service of our guardians and our respective istadevas.

I have much desire to see all of you again. In particular I want to send my tenderness to all those devotees who do not have the chance to associate with me in person or with other senior devotees. I refer to the pioneer devotees in Curacao, Panama, Guatemala, Sweden, Tenerife, etc. I admire very much how they represent Srila Prabhupada in this Vrinda mission. At the same time I am also conscious about that they are those who receive more mercy, because Lord Caitanya is with them, and Lord Nityananda as well.

In every town and village

The prediction from Lord Chaitanya, the prediction about every town and village, I like this very much. Srila Swami Harijan wanted 500 temples in Colombia. Now I understand why so many have to be opened. It is because we are in a school of brahmanas and one becomes a brahmana only by sharing what one has received from the spiritual master. Stagnant water becomes rotten. It is also because big temples many times make people feel that they have become great authorities, when in reality they are not that advanced.

It is ideal that a temple president personally goes for sankirtan at least one day or several days a week, to not lose contact with the reality in the world. In small temples this is easier and it gives more chance for more people to become preachers, "sankirtaners", servants and humble Vaisnavas, until the last breath. Myself I would like to walk from village to village, establishing small preaching centers and then go.

The most delicate

In this world one gets easily attached. If we are lucky we get attached to our spiritual master and the Vaisnavas, and more - we can get attached to the compassion to help others. These attachments favour spiritual life. All other attachments rather bind us to the repeated births and deaths. Very few devotees have the maturity to administrate a lot of money and remain humble. They do not remember that all of this belongs to Krishna. And to be in charge of the life of many other persons is the most delicate in this world. Of course, to be a father and a mother is also delicate. To be in charge of another person is always very delicate, and people in kali yuga are so lusty that there is so much infidelity and other abuses. Inclusive, the numbers of sexual abuse within the families have reached horrible incalculable dimensions. Only humbleness and goodness in practice and preaching can keep a person on the line in kali yuga.

Therefore I endeavour to impact in each devotee that the very responsibility of the success in our mission, completely depends on them. Besides this, it is undeniable that devotees sometimes slip and fall. By neglecting to take care, or by their inflatedness or envy for something, Krishna gives them a slap and they slip. And it rests upon me to encourage them to get up again.

Krishna consciousness is to make people happy, not to traumatize them. Be a brahmana, be a leader or be a sannyasi; this is a charge of love, of honour and of a responsibility. In a certain form, there are few people who really are very capable to assume such a task, but in this way Krishna has created the world. Each father, driver, or pilot, has the life of others in his hand. So like this our young brahmanas have a similar mission, or even a bigger one.

The mercy is above justice

Srila Prabhupada came to conduct our spiritual life towards the supreme goal, and when there is some leader who fails in something, it is very painful for me. But it is more painful if they don't get up again. So I try to rise them up and ask the devotees to forgive them, because otherwise, how can they go forward? Once a sannyasi from Prabhupada left his sacred ashram and got married, and then he went with the wife and a son to see the guru in Mexico. When he came to speak with Srila Prabhupada, he started to cry and said: "I thought you didn't want to see me again." Srila Prabhupada answered, with tears in his eyes: "Lord Chaitanya could expand Krishna consciousness alone, but I cannot do it, I need all of you."

So whatever that happens, we have to get up again and continue to support Srila Prabhupada. Of course, a devotee has to make up his mind to live a sinful life, but the previous principle is even superior - the mercy is above justice. And the necessity of helping others is above the demand that all participants must be without failure on their way. Otherwise, how could one get up again after having slipped?

The sacred ashram of sannyas

The sacred ashram of sannyas, which we received from Srila Prabhupada and Srila Sridhar Maharaja, is a banner to hold high, to show in the preaching the goal that Krishna explained in the Gita. Our gurus gave their lives of sannyasi, just like Srila Harijan Maharaj did. But if someone cannot maintain these sacred vows, or feel sad or disturbed, he would not be able to serve others in this faculty of a sannyasi. Then it is better to serve Srila Prabhupada honestly and humbly like the other devotees. In the end, it is not the office or the position that is important; the important post is the humble service.

Not that I like to say these things, but reality is like this. Even Srila Prabhupada describes in his purport in a book, that it is better for a person who cannot maintain his vows, that he changes his ashram, and not think of ending his life or leaving the devotees. The devotees of the Lord are like jewels, and the fight against maya is strong, and to expand Krishna consciousness I need many brahmanas and sannyasis and renounced mothers and dedicated grihastas. I cannot serve my spiritual master without them; I cannot do it alone. I would have run away to stay in a place where serious devotees practice sravanam and kirtanam. But as I travel to make the same with all of you, I keep myself so busy that I cannot even think of sitting one week at the Govardhan hill to chant.

We are all maintained by the causeless mercy

So the war against maya is a battle and if one does not take care, there will be wounded people also among us. This, however, does not diminish the grand necessity of preaching and it also does not change anything in the yoga dharma. But I consider it very important to stay in contact with the simplest preaching of sankirtan and to establish centres of Krishna consciousness everywhere. The most important is that none of us come to feel superior to the others, because we are all equal. We are all maintained in our spiritual life by the causeless mercy. It is not by our qualification. And if the causeless mercy protects me, you have to understand that a slap to a devotee also comes by mercy, because there is nothing worse than to end life as a backslider.

I wish you a most successful year in practicing Krishna consciousness, with all my affection and the blessings of Srila Prabhupada and the Holy Name.

Always your well-wisher,
B.A. Paramadvaiti Swami