Exactly one year ago today, according to the lunar calendar, I became an itinerant monk. On this day after Gaura Purnima last year, Srila Gurudeva accepted me as his sannyas disciple, and gave me the name Bhakti Lalita Akinchan: "One who has given up everything for the beauty of Krishna bhakti."
And what a year it has been! After giving up my job as a network administrator in California's Silicon Valley, the computer capital of the world, and coming here to this tiny village of Nabadwip, West Bengal, to become a mendicant monk, to be initiated into the tridandi-sannyas or renounced order of life, my life changed completely.
Instructed by Srila Gurudeva to fulfill the order of sannyas — to travel and preach — I have visited twenty-one cities in seven countries on four continents, purifying my consciousness by trying to faithfully represent to others that beautiful conception of Krishna consciousness so charmingly presented by Srila Gurudeva and Srila Guru Maharaj.
By the mercy of Sri Guru and Vaishnava, I am still here today — at least physically. Please help me to remember that everything I have is a gracious gift from Srila Gurudeva; it is his wealth, his property. And it may be withdrawn at any moment; it is all adhoksaja — a gracious gift from above.
URL: http://www.imonk.net/04/03/07.html