Poem for Srila Gurudeva

Greatest among the great, you are as good as God, and
Goloka’s your abode where you goad us to go! go! go!
Gentle as a lamb, yet gutsier than great grizzly bears!
Giver of Gauranga’s mercy, roaring, “Gaura–Haribol!”

Urgent is your mission, unenviable your task –
Saving useless urchins like me from Maya’s ugly clutch.
Universes shrink under your wide umbrella of compassion.
Unlimited love you give your undeserving, untamed, underlings

Renowned redeemer of kali–yuga’s remorseless rogues;
Relisher rare of repeated renderings of Radharani’s Krsna–lila;
Re-establisher of bhakti–yoga, the real karma–free dharma;
Resounding reverberator of SRI HARINAM – ‘RE KRSNA! ‘RE RAM!!

Unprincipled vagabonds like me roam unchecked, uncouthed,
Upon this planet under Maya’s sinfully sweet urgings.
But unannounced, you pounced, undermining her strangle-hold on me,
Thus unbelievingly unleashing my unrequited love for thee!

Dearest Gurudeva, dearer than diamonds or demigods!
Demons, devils and debauchees like me deserve only damnation.
Yet, like Lord Nityananda delivering degraded drunkards Jagai and Madhai,
You’ve decided to deliver this diehard demon despite dangers to yourself!

Empowered emissary of Truth Eternal! O Krsna’s own expansion!
Endeavour i shall to earn that trust you earnestly emplaced on me.
By embracing words and glances you encourage and endear yourself to me.
Your every song-like word, every dancing step, enslave me to sing and dance to your tune eternally.

Venerable vaisnava thakura, O sweetest breath of Vrndavan air,
Ventilator of this void, stale, vicious, heartless heart of mine,
Please fill the veins of this villainous vilifier of Vedic values
With volumes of victorious vibrations of Krsna-katha gushing forth from the voice of your loving heart.

Armed with the Absolute Truth, armies of our anarthas you annihilate!
Armed with Krsna-prema, you freely distribute it from the Arctic to Antarctic!
Astounding are your ardour-filled achievements as a bona fide acarya!
O astronomical anuga of Srila Prabhupada, O Gurudeva, please amend my absolutely conditioned, condemned atma.

Your aspiring dasanu dasanu dasanu das, bhakta g s senan – 28th Aug, 1995 / BBSR