20220820 Śrīla Prabhupāda Vyāsa-pūjā Address

The following is a Śrīla Prabhupāda Vyāsapūjā talk given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on August 20th,2022.

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

Jayapatākā Swami: Because after this they go to the farm, so I would like to offer a short homage to Śrīla Prabhupāda. There was a three-year drought in Andhra Pradesh. In Tirupati Tirumala I don’t remember, they had 108 fire kuṇḍa, yajña to bring the rains, but they had the referees to see chanting the mantras. But in the Kali-yuga the brāhmaṇas are not qualified so this fire yajña ended up with smoke only and no rain. So then Śrīla Prabhupāda did the saṅkīrtana-yajña in Hyderabad, which is the yajña recommended for this age. And it rained!

Śrīla Prabhupāda, he did many miracles. Someone said well, there was a famous guru in Andhra Pradesh who could do some magical tricks, an Indian businessman asked Śrīla Prabhupāda what can you do for us? Śrīla Prabhupāda said, I went to America with 40 rupees. Now, just in a few years I have 40 crores. The businessman said, that is a miracle!

Śrīla Prabhupāda is very merciful! And he explained everything very simply. So that the people would understand. One of our swamis was going by a Māyāvādī lecturer in South India. So, people were coming out from the lecture and he asked them, the lecture was nice but what did he say? Oh! we are ordinary people, what can we understand what a sannyāsī says! That was the difference that Śrīla Prabhupāda when he would speak, he would bring the things in a simple way so that people could understand. Śrīla Prabhupāda, he came here, and he stayed in this temple, he was overseeing the installation of the Deities, the chief minister at that time he came. So this place is very special. I have seen in South India, this state has Bālājī, Narasiṁhadeva, many Viṣṇu Deities. Śrīla Prabhupāda, he wanted, when they offered him a farm of 600-acres he wanted to make some villages just as an example.

So, I was very fortunate that I was in Māyāpur, Kolkata, and Śrīla Prabhupāda would come to Māyāpur at least twice a year. Now we have the birthplace of Śrīla Prabhupāda in our possession. Little things happened, but for us they are very wonderful. Everything he saw, he would think of something Kṛṣṇa conscious. 1am, 2am any time in the morning, he would call me. He would be getting up at midnight and translating and writing/recording purports for his books. He had a Bhāgavatam in Sanskrit and ṭīkās of different ācāryas in Sanskrit. I think all of you would like to have with Śrīla Prabhupāda? He left his books so that you can study and associate with him. Rādhe Śyāma, do you think is it important to study Śrīla Prabhupāda books? Yes! You can all associate with Śrīla Prabhupāda by reading his books. Someone told me that whenever you see your guru you should humble yourself and ask for his mercy. I would do this every day when I saw Śrīla Prabhupāda. But he is a person, he would do things unexpectedly. I went and said to Śrīla Prabhupāda, I am a fool. He said, yes! I went to Śrīla Prabhupāda and said, I want to serve you life after life! He said, why you want to make me come back? I thought I said the right thing! Then I said, I want to serve you even, life after life. Then he was silent.

Anyway, I can go on talking of different things. One time, Śrīla Prabhupāda he was in the bathroom, and he called me, “Jayapatākā, Jayapatākā!” I went running and he was in the cubicle of the bathroom and there was a snake, a poisonous, viper snake was trying to reach Śrīla Prabhupāda and it was stuck in the door. Śrīla Prabhupāda was holding the door so the snake could not reach him. Śrīla Prabhupāda could not close the door because his hand would be crushed. He indicated that I should save him somehow. So I asked him to release the door. Then I pushed the door in and crushed the snake. I grabbed Śrīla Prabhupāda and pulled him out.

One time the laborers went on strike. And they were laying a slab and if they would stop the slab would have a crack in the middle. And all the sannyāsīs and senior devotees who were visiting him, he would send them up and told them finish the slab! They were carrying the cement on their heads like coolies! I was the only one who knew how to run the cement mixer. Śrīla Prabhupāda was laughing seeing his disciples doing this service! When the laborers saw that the sannyāsīs were all doing the job, they quit the strike and came back!

Anyway, you are all very fortunate to be in this temple, to be in the disciplic succession of Śrīla Prabhupāda. In one lecture of his in 1975 in Māyāpur, he said, he would like ten thousand, hundred thousand, million, ten million ācāryas. He had a vision to deliver the world by Lord Caitanya’s mercy.

The last thing I want to say – one thing I want to say is that in Japan when they were observing the Vyāsa-pūjā of Śrīla Prabhupāda, they forgot to do the puṣpāñjali. He said, the Vyāsa-pūjā is faulty, it is improper. You have to do it again, fast again and then offer puṣpāñjali! So if you don’t want to fast again and do it tomorrow, then please your puṣpāñjali three times today.

Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jaya!