20230331 74th Vyāsa-pūjā Adhivāsa 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

Jayapatākā Swami: Today is the adhivāsa. Tomorrow is the Vyāsa-pūjā. So this way, the purpose of this adhivāsa is to prepare our mind. The purpose of this adhivāsa is that we pray to the Lord that this Vyāsa-pūjā is successful. I heard that there are people from different parts of the world here. That is why I should speak in Bengali and English.

So Śrīla Prabhupāda gave this big responsibility for me. Guru-daitva! My Gurudeva, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda ordered me to accept disciples. Now Lord Caitanya wants that every devotee will try to increase the number of devotees. We saw how Sāraṅga Ṭhākura, he did not have any disciples. And Lord Caitanya repeatedly told him to accept disciples. And so he decided that the next person he met in the next day, he would initiate him. He went for his Gaṅgā bathing in the morning. At that time, it was dark, and a body came and hit him. That was a dead body. And he took the dead body and gave the mantra in the ear. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare! And the dead body came back to life! So this was the power of Sāraṅga Ṭhākura. He had one disciple. His name was Murāri Caitanya dāsa. He had thousands of disciples. Because he had already died, he was not afraid of death. He would ride on the back of tigers! He would go into the village and tell them surrender! Now that way, he rode on tigers and asked the people to surrender at the feet of Lord Kṛṣṇa and Yamadūtas were offering obeisances. [audio break]

So we want everybody to ready, Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books. In this way if they study this philosophy then as per the instruction of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu become spiritual masters. Śrīla Prabhupāda in 1975, He said, He wants ten thousand gurus, then one lakh, one million, and one crore. Haribol! But in ISKCON we have about 150 gurus. But I have said this message many times and one person came to me. He said, I took initiation last year, I have not studied any books, but I want to be a guru. It cannot happen like this. You have to read the books. Give examination. I want to see the proof, I want to see that you have the Bhakti-śāstrī, Bhakti-vaibhava, these degrees. In Bangladesh I heard that they have given out 2,500 Bhakti-śāstrī degrees. Yesterday, the Head of the Māyāpur Institute told me that they were giving an opportunity to the Māyāpur residents to get the Bhakti-vaibhava degree. You know how many signed up? You won’t believe this! Ten! I feel that I should stay in Bangladesh! Yesterday Naru Gopāla was telling me that by reading Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books he got the Bhakti-vaibhava degree - and he had promised six months ago that before this Vyāsa-pūjā he would complete the Bhakti-vaibhava and yesterday he completed it. He said that Bhakti-vedānta degree, he would try to complete it before the next Vyāsa-pūjā. Anyway, I feel that in this way if they get the many degrees they can preach very nicely everywhere.

I heard that there is nice preaching going on in Australia, Europe, and America. This way, Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted that his followers should know the philosophy nicely. He was saying that some people were criticizing our brahmanas, our sannyāsīs because they are not speaking the philosophy very well. So he said, to get second initiation you need a Bhakti-śāstrī. To be a sannyāsī, one should have Bhakti-vaibhava. So, I heard in Bangladesh, I don’t know the latest, he did not tell me the latest, but at one point they had 212 Bhakti-vaibhava degree holders. 20 people had Bhakti-vedānta. So even those who are already sannyāsīs, Śrīla Prabhupāda said, they can study and take the test later. Now there is a summative test, with one exam or two exams you can get the degree. This for those who are elderly and those who have a lot of responsibility they are not able to manage time, this facility is there. We want that this way all the devotees study Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books.

Actually, we should promote the Vaiṣṇava culture. No excuse, everybody should be ideal Vaiṣṇavas. And ISKCON should be completely abuse free. This way, if we practice then the whole world may accept the ideals of Śrīla Prabhupāda. We can change the whole world!

So anyway, actually, in this adhivāsa we want to prepare everybody for the reestablishment of their Kṛṣṇa conscious enthusiasm and commitments. This Māyāpur is the Headquarters of ISKCON. And that the ideals of Śrīla Prabhupāda and the ideals of Lord Caitanya may spread everywhere, that is what we want to see.

Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu started the saṅkīrtana movement here. After that He took sannyāsa, He went to Jagannātha Purī. He told Lord Nityānanda that We have descended from the spiritual world to deliver four types of people. Other than the brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas people who are always delivered, We want to deliver the other four kinds of people – those who do not generally get the opportunity we want to give this opportunity to them. Lord Nityānanda then said, the four types of people are the foolish, the lowborn, the fallen and the distressed. We see that Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura prayed to Lord Caitanya that You are the deliverer of the most fallen and I am the most fallen. Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, he was certainly not the most patita, fallen. He was not at all patita! But he identified himself in such a way that he was the most fallen. Generally, we generally tell Lord Caitanya that I am the best person. I heard one person who said I am the most humble person. I am proud of my humility! So this way, one cannot attract Lord Caitanya. I was told that this garland is Lord Raṅganātha’s prasāda. Now it is late we hope that on this occasion of the adhivāsa ceremony, we get the mercy and blessing of the Deities and Śrīla Prabhupāda.

There are some books that my Archives want to release. Some in English, some in Bengali, different languages. I would like to thank all the devotees for their sponsoring and buying Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books. This we do every day. But this year we are doing something special. They are giving out remnants of my cloth to people who donate for the CPO (Child Protection Office). And I am very glad that you all participated in today’s program. Hare Kṛṣṇa!