20110823 Vyāsa-pūjā Offering to Śrīla Prabhupāda.

The following is a Vyāsa-pūjā offering given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on August 23^rd, 2011 in Śrīdhāma Māyāpur, India. The Vyāsa-pūjā offering was given to Śrīla Prabhupāda and was given with English and Bengali translation.

oṁ ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā
cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ

nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine

namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-gurum dīna-tāranam
paramānanda mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya īśvaraṁ

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

My dear spiritual father, His Divine Grace Abhaycharan Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, some or the disciples were saying that I should write, I should use some other song; I have been using your song that Nāru Gopāla Prabhu has been referring to, “parama karuṇā pahū dui jana nitāi gaura candra.”, because I was having some realisations about the song, but then I thought, “Well, there is a song by Basu Ghoṣa. He said that, “yadi gaurāṅga nā haita, ki haita, if there was no Gaurāṅga, what would have happened?” And for the Indians, they have Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa worship, but for us in the West, if Prabhupāda nā haita ta ki haita? If there was no Prabhupāda what would have happened? I started thinking, what did Prabhupāda give us? 

So, like Prabhupāda told the American’s that, “You are not Americans, I am not Indian, you are not Russians, I am not Chinese.” And now the big shock, “What do you mean I am not American. I am American! This is my passport.”

“No, you are not the body.”

So, I have a list of things.

♦ The basic thing:

So, the basic thing, “We are not the body, we are the spirit soul”, that we didn’t know. We didn’t know in the West. Most of the Westerners still don’t know. Unfortunately, a lot of Indians don’t know either. So, we didn’t have the Bhagavad-gītā. Bhagavad-gītā has so many instructions, and Prabhupāda brought that to West, Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. There were some speculative gītās, but they weren’t any principles. So, Prabhupāda taught us all these things.

♦ Mercy of Nitāi-Gaura:

Of course, this is not in the order of importance, but Prabhupāda brought the Gaura-vāṇī, he brought the mercy of Nitāi and Gaura. He brought Their process: Chanting, dancing, having a feast, ISKCON’s bullets which are sweet balls.

♦ Deity Worship:

We didn’t know about Deity worship. He told us how to worship Deities. He told us about the transcendental nature of the Deities. Those things we have in India, but in the West they are absent.

♦ Human Life:

What to speak of other things? Even being a basic human being, we didn’t know. Prabhupāda told us how to be a human being, how to think. He was accused that he is brain washing. He said, “They have no brain to wash.” He gave us brains! (laughter)

♦ Bhakti-yoga:

We didn’t know how to do Bhakti-yoga, how to offer our service to Kṛṣṇa. So, he taught us Bhakti-yoga. There are haṭha-yoga, soo many yogas. But Bhakti-yoga, it was missing. He told us how to do Bhakti-yoga. If Prabhupāda wasn’t there, what would be there?

♦ Śrīmad Bhāgavatam:

Bhāgavatam – all the ten cantos were translated by Prabhupāda… a part of the tenth. This is the book which is responsible to save us in Kali-yuga. It’s said that Kṛṣṇa left, the Purāṇārka, the Purāṇa-sun of the Bhāgavatam rose in the East. Prabhupāda gave us Bhāgavatam.

♦ Ratha-yātrā festivals:

I see this was very early. 1967 was the first Ratha-yātrā. I was at the second Ratha-yātrā. There, Jayānanda built a Ratha, and somehow, I asked some service. So, Prabhupāda gave this Ratha-yātrās to the West. Now there are hundreds of Ratha-yātrās all over the world, and Jagannātha’s mercy is also expanding.

♦ Holy-dhāma:

Then we had Prabhupāda reveal Vṛṇdāvana and Māyāpur. He tried to get some land also in Jagannātha Purī, but that was not possible. So, he is the revealer of the Holy-dhāma. And if there was no Prabhupāda, then who would teach us about the dhāma?

♦ Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa worship:

So, then after all this things comes the Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa worship. The worship of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa requires a very very high standard. We are very fortunate that Prabhupāda gave us this Rādha-Kṛṣṇa worship. This is the mercy of Lord Caitanya. But before we can get qualified, we have to first become human beings, and then brāhmaṇas. So, Radha-Kṛṣṇa worship was also revealed by Prabhupāda.

♦ Caitanya-caritāmṛta:

Also we know that Caitanya-caritāmṛta is the post graduate study. And Prahbhupāda also revealed the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Once some new reader wanted to do what you call a review of the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. They asked a Christian priest to do the review. So, I gave him the first and the last book of the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, and he read the book, and then he looked down and said, “No comment!” (laughter)

Prabhupāda kī jaya!

♦ Temple in every continent:

Prabhupāda, he established Kṛṣṇa Consciousness in every continent of the world. Russia, Africa, South America, North America, every continent! And he personally visited.

♦ Structure of ISKCON:

Of course he is a great monk and more, but he gave us and said, I gave you the structure of ISKCON, you can build now.

So, I was just thinking, yadi prabhupāda na haita tabe ki haita.
We are so indebted to Prabhupāda. Prabhupāda, we are so much indebted to you. I have no words to express.

Prabhupāda kī… jaya!