Revealing the Heart
A Personal Letter to Sri Sri Radha Govinda Dev ji : Bramhotsavam 2026
Dear Sri Sri Radha Govind Dev ji, Please accept my most humble and respectful obeisance unto your lotus feet. All glories to You! All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to Sri Guru and Gauranga!
Today marks 2nd Anniversary of your Appearance in our temple and with a heart full of gratitude and joy, I am standing in front of you to express the inner recesses of my heart.
Frankly speaking, my heart is filled with Lust, Anger, Greed, Pride, Envy, Illusion, Diplomacy, Duplicity and many more vices but by the mercy of Hari, Guru and Vaishnavas I am happily engaged in the service of Your Lordships.
At this moment, I am remembering how, although I was reluctant to come to this place but You mercifully pulled me out of my comfort zone where I was rotting through the agency of my Siksha Guru and placed me in the dust of Your lotus-feet.
I remember very distinctly that Although I was hesitating to come on the day of Inauguration of this temple but some how or other I chose to come and I beheld Your beauty. Although it was not in my thought but I prayed to You to please cut off all my attachments and call me to Your Lotus feet and exactly what had happened. My Siksha Guru called me to come to Thane leaving behind what was I doing in Pune. When I came here to serve You, there were many challenges and one of the most difficult for me was to face the Monsoon of Mumbai. Whole day long, it rains here in the Monsoon and you can’t see the sunshine at least for 3-4 months. So, I was frustrated and one point of time I thought, “ let me get back to Pune, Staying and serving here is not the cup of my tea.” Later, I revealed my thoughts to my Siksha Guru and he said , “Do whatever you think is best for you. Now you are thinking you are facing so many challenges here. That’s how Mumbai works. I am also going through challenges, but I can’t complain. This is the service given by my spiritual master and I have to do it.”
I took some time to think, reflect and take the decision whether to stay here or shift back to Pune. One day as I was praying to You to give me strength so that I can go through this purificatory period and let me stay here and serve You and then I remembered the words of my Siksha Guru. One day , He was telling me about how is He happy and steady in his Krishna Consciousness. One day He was in front of Sri Sri Radha Vrindavanchandra at ISKCON NVCC, Pune and when He looked back, nobody was with him and then He asked Them one question. “ My dear Lordships, during my college days , there were so many devotees of my batch who were aspiring for serving Srila Prabhupada’s mission fulltime but now I see , I could find very few with me. Where all these people gone? Why am I here in saffron robes standing in front of you alone ?” . And then the answer to his question unfolded as follows as He heard his inner voice. “ You are safe and happy in your Krishna Consciousness because you have exactly followed whatever was being told you to follow by your Siksha Guru”.
So, taking the words of my Siksha Guru into consideration, I made my decision to stay here at ISKCON Thane and serve You despite many challenges and the result was that as I spent my days here serving You, my relationship with you became sweeter and sweeter. It was time for my initiation and I was constantly praying to You, Srila Prabhupada and my spiritual master to give me the name which is related to You and my spiritual master made me Your official servant by giving me the name : Bhaktivilas Govinda Das: Servant of Govinda who relishes in accepting the devotion from His devotees. Here, at ISKCON Thane, by Your mercy ,I got a wonderful family, many good friends, well-wishers and superiors who always encourage me in my practice of Krishna Consciousness. Also, I am very happy rendering services given by my siksha Guru and I want to continue such life , full of service to your lotus feet , without any selfish motive and interruption.
atma-nivedana, tuwa pade kori’, hoinu parama sukhi duhkha dure gelo, cinta na rohilo, caudike ananda dekhi
I have become supremely joyful by surrendering myself at Your holy feet. Unhappiness has gone away, and there are no more anxieties. I see joy in all directions.
asoka-abhoya, amrta-adhara,tomara carana-dwaya tahate ekhona, visrama labhiyachadinu bhavera bhoya
Your two lotus feet are reservoirs of immortal nectar where one may live free from sorrow and fear. I have found peace there now and have given up the fear of worldly existence.
purva itihasa, bhulinu sakala,seva-sukha pe’ye mane ami to’ tomara, tumi to’ amara,ki kaja apara dhane
I have completely forgotten all past history by feeling great joy in my mind. I am most certainly Yours and You are indeed mine. What need is there of any other treasure?
[Saranagati : Atma Nivedan Tuwa Pade Kori by Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura]
So, on this auspicious day of Your Appearance , I pray to you for more service. Recently we have started distributing prasadam at different places and we want to increase this distribution throughout Thane and for that Your mercy is vividly required. I have seen so many pilgrims coming for the first time out of curiosity or whatever to take your darshan and after seeing your beauty, they are regularly coming, rendering services during the festival and chanting Hare Krishna. From last few months, I am cultivating two young boys as they are daily attending Mangal Aarti. One day, their mother thought, “Let me check where my sons are going daily in the morning. Earlier I would force them to get up early and they would not listen to me. But now before I get up, they are returned from the temple. So, today let me go along with them.’’ So, One day she came for attending your mangal aarti and seeing your beauty, she had a transformation in her heart. Now, she is regularly attending Mangal Aarti and chanting your holy names. That day, after the Mangal Aarti, I met her and just glorified her for raising her sons so nicely that they are able to take Krishna Consciousness seriously. After returning to their home, the elder brother told me that my praise of her had good impact and she became very emotional and cried for a while, seeing the transformation in the lives of her sons. The elder brother was a mischief child from his childhood and all the neighbors would condemn her because of him. She would chastise him, beat him but to her amazement , there was no transformation. But now as he started coming to the temple and associating with the devotees, he gave up all his bad habits and bad association and now he became a responsible son. Yesterday I saw the two brothers and their mother happily engaged in your service throughout the day and when I met them, the mother said , “Thank you so much. Because of you , we got wonderful and a new family of devotees.” This is just one story and I have many more stories to tell. My Dear Lordships, I pray to you to please make me a humble and worthy instrument of Your mercy so that I can share my good fortune with the lost souls of this world and reconnect them back to your lotus feet.
And last but not the least, I want to thank you for giving us Srila Prabhupada. Only because of Him , we got Your service. He alone is the reason for Yor appearance in this community. We have received so much and I could say everything because of Him. May you always shower your blessings upon us so that we can serve His mission of spreading your love whomever we meet and fulfill His desires in this world so that one day we will get chance to serve you in our eternal home, Goloka Vrindavana.
nama-srestham manum api saci-putram atra svarupam
rupam tasyagrajam uru-purim mathurim gostavatim
radha-kundam giri varam aho radhika-madhavasam
prapto yasya prathita-kryapaya sri gurum tam nato ‘smi
I am fully indebted to Sri Gurudeva because has given me so many things: the highest conception of the holy name of Krsna, the highest form of sound, which contains the highest form of thought, aspiration, ideal, everything. And he has given me the service of our great savior, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and His dearmost assistant, Svarupa Damodara. He has brought me in connection with Sri Rupa, who was ordered to distribute the heart’s innermost dealings, the highest devotional love, raganuga-bhakti. Gurudeva has given me Srila Sanatana Goswami, who gives us sambandha-jnana, a proper acquaintance with the environment, and he has given me Mathura Mandala, which will help me in my remembrance of Radha and Govinda wherever I shall cast my glance. By his grace gurudeva has revealed the super excellent position of Radha-kunda, the favorite place of Radha and Govinda for Their pastimes and this great Govardhana. Lastly, he has given me the hope that one day I can get the service of Sri Sri Radhika and Madhava. I have been given all these assurances by my gurudeva, so I bow my head with all my respects to his lotus feet.
Sri Mukta-carita (Raghunatha dasa Gosvami)
Thank you very much! In your service, Bhaktivilas Govinda Das
GAUR HARI ✨