20200404 71st Vyāsa-pūjā Address

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram
Harihi oṁ tat sat

Since this Vyāsa-pūjā celebration is made during the lockdown in India, so they have a very ambitious program to send out by Facebook, Māyāpur.TV, YouTube and Zoom. So, I am very grateful that they are making such an arrangement. I know that for some people on the other side of the world, this may be midnight. So maybe some have to see this later.

Anyway, as was mentioned by some, I am trying to carry out the orders of Śrīla Prabhupāda. In the material world, the standard is sense gratification. And in the spiritual life the standard is sevā. So, in the spiritual world everyone offers sevā, out of love. But in the material world, although we want to enjoy sense gratification, actually the material world, never fully satisfies the soul – even in the best of times.

Now, we are suffering a Pandemic and everyone is suffering. Some are worrying about, they are anxious about the disease, some are worried about the financial situation, some are worried what they will eat, so there are many – this material world Kṛṣṇa describes in the Bhagavad-gītā, is a place of suffering. Dukhālayam aśāśvatam – a place of temporary and suffering. Lord Caitanya came and gave out the whole world, this treasure of bhakti. But the bhakti was kept a secret in India. His Divine Grace Abhaya Caraṇāravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda brought it around the world. He showed us how serving the Supreme Personality of Godhead is so blissful. And Śrīla Prabhupāda gave us this treasure of Lord Caitanya. And thus, we could experience the unlimited bliss of serving Kṛṣṇa. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī said that how much happiness is in the two syllables of ‘kṛṣ’ ‘ṇa’, is impossible to describe. Unlimited happiness. Ānandera sīmā nāi! Ānandera sīmā nāi! Nirānanda dūre jāy!

So, now in this time of the Pandemic, you have made very wonderful Vyāsa-pūjā homages. Rāsakṛḍa Parāyaṇa dāsa from Mathurādeśa, he quoted the prayers of Prahlāda Mahārāja. How Prahlāda Mahārāja said that he saw many saintly people, but they were all interested in their own salvation. So, he was worried about those foolish people, who are missing out on the opportunity of human birth. So that was a very nice prayer. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that we are ghoṣṭyānandīs – we want to expand the number of devotees. The bhajanānandīs, do bhajanas but they want their own salvation. Ghoṣṭyānandīs want to expand the number of devotees.

Bhakti Nityānanda Swami, he was saying, how he remembered the first time he met me. He came to Māyāpur to get his little brother Mukunda. And he felt that I was trying to trap him. So, he said, he had to leave right away. And he said that I said, “You should stay for one month. I will give you a room, I will give you everything.” And he said, I said, “Two weeks!” After he said, “Not one hour!” Then he said, “No, I won’t stay one hour!” And then I said, “One week?” And so on. He is now our sannyāsī here. So, I was thinking I don’t remember that, he remembers that. I was thinking how that such a talk, it was definitely Prabhupāda, Kṛṣṇa speaking through me. They wanted him to be a devotee, and They were using me as an instrument.

Anyway, I am so grateful that Śrīla Prabhupāda has come and given us this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And Śrīla Prabhupāda has asked me to do many things. Gaurāṅga Prema Mahārāja, different devotees, Cāru-candra dāsa, they all spoke, and they touched on some of the things that Śrīla Prabhupāda asked me to do. I cannot do so many things by myself. So Śrīla Prabhupāda has sent me disciples and godbrothers and godsisters who are helping me. We want to develop the TOVP, we want to see the Navadvīpa parikramā developed. And we want to develop the Gaura-maṇḍala-bhūmi. We want to see Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books, read and distributed. I read a quote from Śrīla Prabhupāda to Gopāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami, when he was a gṛhastha. Śrīla Prabhupāda said, “You are not a karmī. You are doing devotional service, you earn money, you spend it on Kṛṣṇa, you are preaching, you are a devotee.” And he is one of our senior spiritual masters and devotee. So, Lord Caitanya’s associates said that whether one is a gṛhastha or vairāgī, in the renounced life, everyone should chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Now in the world pandemic, all the devotees, all the followers of Śrīla Prabhupāda should take this opportunity to preach the message of Śrīla Prabhupāda. Lord Caitanya said pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi-grāma sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma – in every town and village of the whole world, My name will be sung. So now, Prabhupāda has established centers in almost every country of the world. Now is our opportunity to have all the people chant the names of God. By chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, the kalmaṣa of Kali is destroyed. But if one wants to chant some other name of God, Prabhupāda said, that was alright.

Anyway, how Prabhupāda had given us this sevā to Lord Kṛṣṇa. It is something very confidential. Even the theists, even the priests, even the paṇḍitas, no one knows about this – “serving the Lord”. They all pray to God, to help them get some peace or material happiness. They don’t know actually, how love of Godhead and how the service to Godhead, is the real happiness we are searching for. So, I hope all the devotees, all the disciples, on this Vyāsa-pūjā, would take this very seriously and develop their Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Locana dāsa Ṭhākura is saying that Lord Caitanya is the avatāra-śiromaṇī, He is the crown jewel of all incarnations of Godhead. Because, He has given a process which is simply blissful. So, we hope that all the devotees will always taste and live in this bliss.

One disciple from I think, Dāmodaradeśa, or Śyamadeśa, Sevapadmā dāsī, she wrote that the vraja-vāsīs under the Govardhana hill were also in lockdown for a week. But they didn’t feel that the time was distressful, because they were with Kṛṣṇa. So, we want all the disciples, all the devotees to be with Kṛṣṇa and feel happiness all the time. So, thank you all very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa! I am sorry that we cannot give you a big feast today.