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My dear devotees,
Please receive all my affection on this day of Sri Balaram Purnima. Today we are celebrating it in Bulgaria and then I will be traveling to Venezuela and Colombia, and stopping by Frankfurt to meet with Purushottama Prabhu and celebrate together.
This Balaram Purnima day is pretty significant to me. I took sannyas three times in my life, the first time was in a dream I had with Srila Prabhupada, where he gave me the renounced order. The second time was on the day of Sri Balaram Purnima, when in 1978 I received the sannyas order of my spiritual brothers who were in charge of the mission of Srila Prabhupada in Brazil. Then in 1984, I had the opportunity to hear the beautiful sannyas mantra from the lotus lips of Srila Sridhar Maharaj and with this I had the fortune to receive the traditional order of sannyasa in the line of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur Prabhupada.
On this day, I pray for the protection of Sri Balaramji and I ask Him to give me permission to renew this contract of the heart. This is a great responsibility to represent Srimati Radharani, Sri Balaramji, Sri Nityananda Prabhu, my spiritual masters and all the Guru - parampara and the great spiritual family. To serve as a sannyasi is not the most important, but serving with love is. Anyways, the sannyasi ashram is so beautiful. It translates into the constant sacrifice of personal privacy to be always open to the needs of those who are seeking God.
The sannyasi ashram is quite severe, because with discipline you get the chance to serve. The sannyasi ashram is the gift of Srila Prabhupada to develop more dedicated service. People like sannyasis because they feel they can rely on them. It is really difficult to count on any person in this world, but someone who is trying to follow in the footsteps of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and constantly preaching, builds trust. It is a great fortune to have contact with those who are trying to establish places where you can practice spiritual life. Srila Prabhupada gave us this fortune to us, it is difficult to measure.
Today we can see that there are thousands of places that keep the doors open for the thirsty souls of truth so they can come and practice Krishna Consciousness. Therefore I am very grateful to the Vrinda family, especially the sannyasis and maharanis who have given much of their energy and love into the wonderful projects offered to the Lotus Feet of Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada used to quote the slogan of the Indian Railway System which was "The wheels have to keep moving".We can say that "The doors of the temples and the hearts of the devotees must remain open forever", because closed doors means there is no refuge for the souls who seek it.
On this day, 30 years after the origin of this beautiful spiritual Vrinda family and 36 years after I entered this ashram, I express my deepest appreciation for every day that I have received, for each person with whom I have had the opportunity to associate with and I pray for this to continue for the rest of my days in the spirit of fortunate and humble sankirtan devotees. When I first got to know the mission of Srila Prabhupada, I immediately went out to the streets of Europe to preach, there were many hard years. So, as a beggar of love, our sankirtan was begging people to acquire the books of Srila Prabhupada.
I pray to my spiritual master to let me keep doing it for the rest of my life. In my time of sankirtan I only worried about visiting different places to be able to offer the books of Srila Prabhupada to others. But at some point I began to emerge intense feelings of concern for the temples and devotees. I myself was surprised by these feelings. A few days after that, I was sent to Denmark to take over the temple there.
Everything Sri Krsna does is perfect. Our desire is that everyone really can know about Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and (hopefully) you can join this movement, because this union creates a wonderful fraternity where service becomes a real pleasure. Service to the devotees and their association bring us entirely closer to the Lotus Feet of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Dancing in the kirtan with devotees is the introduction to the rasa dance with Krishna in His transcendental abode. But for this we need the protection and mercy of Sri Nityananda Prabhu, the force that gives us Sri Balaram and the constant association with Vaishnavas so we can continue to dance well together eternally in sankirtan with Gurudeva Atulananda with Harijan Maharaja and all of you. The Sankirtan Movement is completely mystical and the constant inspiration of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the centerpiece. He is Srimati Radharani's appearance in a very hidden manner that is full of complete mercy.
My dears, on this day of Sri Balaram Purnima I wish you all that, independent of your capabilities and limitations, to always remain steadfast and constantly keep your faith and positive attitudes towards all. I also pray especially on this day to Srila BB Tirtha Maharaj, one of the star sannyasis that is a part of our Guru - parampara who is always showing us to follow the path of devotion to the last moment of our lives. Only by the mercy of the Vaishnavas those things are possible. And of course, what would the reason be to dance here if there were no eternal dance waiting for us in the spirit world? There is, and there we will go someday if the Vaishnavas are merciful to us. The whole universe is dancing and it is inviting us to dance with Krishna eternally.
That's the secret invitation of Sri Vrindavan that has become visible in Navadvip by the Grace of Sri Caitanya. And it will be expanded worldwide by the grace of Srila Prabhupada and all of you. For all of you, whether grihastas, children, brahmacaris, sannyasis, you are all representatives of Srila Prabhupada fulfilling their momentous duties. You are all representatives of this transcendental dance.
Again once more I pray to Sri Balarama so that all of you stay spiritually healthy and happy and that by His grace itself, we can stay under the shelter of the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada.
Jay Sri Balarama!
Jay Sri Nityananda Prabhu!
Your always well wisher,
B. A. Paramadvaiti Swami
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