20140411 Śrī Vyāsa-pūjā Address

The following is a Vyāsa-pūjā day Address given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on April 11, 2014 in Śrī Māyāpur dhāma, India.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-gurun dina tāriṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram
Harihi oṁ tat sat

When Prabhupāda was offered some price, often he would say, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. You are a beautiful person, that is why you are seeing something in me.” Once in the… at that time our temple was in the… where the Caitanya Exhibit is now. And there were not so many local devotees. There were mainly devotees from different parts of the world. So Prabhupāda addressed us. He said, “I am an elderly Indian and you are young people from different countries. Why is there such a loving relationship between us?” But we loved Śrīla Prabhupāda so much, and we knew that he loved us. Prabhupāda said, because our relationship is material. Because it is spiritual, that is why we have this relationship. Here we have devotees from Bengal, from South India, from South Asia, Malaysia and different parts of Asia, Africa, Latin America, North America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand – There is such a closed relationship. This is the proof that relationship is not material. [Applause] Haribol! Prabhupāda used to say, this is my United Nations of the spiritual world. So we are very grateful that the Māyāpur devotees are opening their hearts to receiving these devotees from all over the world. [Haribol!] Prabhupāda left us with great service to finish the TOVP. And we are trying to Simultaneous develop the Navadvīpa parikramā. Although it is much smaller project. So, we want to see Śrīla Prabhupāda’s vision manifest. They said that a great person is seen by what his followers do after he leaves. So as followers of Śrīla Prabhupāda, we want to see that his vision manifested. And anyone considering himself as my follower, then I hope that you will cooperate and be very respectful to all the Vaiṣṇavas. Also to try their level best in cooperation with all the other devotees to see the vision of Prabhupāda manifest. Haribol! Because, we have multiple-guru-system. We want to make the environment favorable for all gurus. And so the GBC gave some guidelines. What we should call a guru, What we shouldn’t call. Except for Vyāsa-pūjā we should have guru-pūjās in some non-public place. Some guru may have less disciples, some may have more. But every guru is the same in the eyes of Kṛṣṇa in doing their service and their disciple. There is a saying that, “My guru is jagat-guru!” So everyone feels like that. So we respect their sentiments. Prabhupāda told me to make certain number of disciples, I am over halfway. So, I have been trying to encourage my godbrothers to take up the responsibility. And I will continue to do that. But I also encouraging some disciples to also to take up this responsibility. I hope that every body gets inspiration from this festival and tries to expand the movement of Śrīla Prabhupāda. We are goṣṭhy-ānandīs, we would like to see the number of devotees increased. But we also want that, each devotee grows in their Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So, in these few words I would like to wish all the best to all of you. Haribol!