Śaktyāveśa-avatāra (10/23/01)

Śaktyāveśa-avatāra (10/23/01)

Dear P____Prabhu,
Hare Kṛṣṇa.

I received your email below, but these days I am fully engaged in a variety of services here at our āśrama and I have no time for writing. But when we meet in Boston next time, this might be a good topic to discuss – śaktyāveśa-avatāras.

But in short, when a Vaiṣṇava is empowered with a particular potency of the Supreme Lord for carrying out the mission of the Lord, he is called a śaktyāveśa-avatāra. In this regard, it was Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja and Śrīla Yāyāvara Mahārāja who first declared that Śrīla Prabhupāda was śaktyāveśa, being empowered by the potency of Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu. Actually Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja said that Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu lived in the body of Śrīla Prabhupāda for twelve years and made him dance all over the world. Śrīla Prabhupāda so much placed himself at the disposal of the Supreme Lord, emptying himself of all other desires, that the potency of Śrī Nityānanda had to come down and filled every atom of Prabhupāda’s existence.

guruvajñaṁ śīrasi-dhāryaṁ śaktyaveśa-svarūpine
hare kṛṣṇeti-mantrena pāścatya-prācya tāriṇe

“We offer our humble obeisances unto Śrīla Prabhupāda, who by taking the order of his Gurudeva upon his head became empowered by Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu to act as a śaktyāveśa-avatāra. Thus he distributed the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra all over the Eastern and Western world, delivering and uplifting all fallen souls.”

I hope this meets you well.

Praṇāms,
Swami B.G. Narasiṅgha