20150331 Śrī Vyāsa-pūjā Address

The following is a lecture given by His Holiess Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on March 31, 2015 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

So we observe the Vyāsa-pūjā or birthday as the worship of Lord Vyāsa, because the guru is representing the guru-paramaparā coming from Kṛṣṇa. Our paramparā comes from Kṛṣṇa to Lord Brahmā to Nārada Muni and to Vyāsadeva and to Madhvācārya, down the line to Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and to our present founder-ācārya His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Lord Caitanya gave His message:

yāre dekha, tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa
āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra’ ei deśa
[Cc. Madhya 7.128]

So Prabhupāda, he got this order from his guru, and he also gave it to his disciples, so having received this order from Prabhupāda, I am humbly trying to carry out this order to deliver the people, to be a guru; it is otherwise not possible, but by the mercy of Lord Caitanya, by the mercy of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, everything is possible.

In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, when Kṛṣṇa is discussing with His friend Sudāmā Vipra, they are discussing the importance of dīkṣā and śikṣā-gurus, you can read that in the Kṛṣṇa Book, so in our conditioned state we don’t see Kṛṣṇa, so the mundaners say this as blind faith, but those who are receiving this message through the guru-paramparā, for them it is not blind faith. But those on the orders of Lord Caitanya and the gurus in the paramparā chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra,

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare – they are able to experience the presence of Kṛṣṇa in His holy name. Kṛṣṇa is not different from His name, Kṛṣṇa is not different from His teachings, Kṛṣṇa is not different from His pastimes or līlās, Kṛṣṇa is not different from His dhāma, so like that, anything that is connected to Kṛṣṇa, also gives one experience about Lord Kṛṣṇa.

So in the Vedas there are many paths, this is because Lord Kṛṣṇa, He gives opportunities to different kinds of people, but the easiest direct way is the bhakti-yoga. If one practices the jñāna-yoga, they realize the impersonal liberation. If one practices jñāna-yoga (aṣṭāṅga-yoga), they can realize the Supersoul and get some mystical powers, like they could reach out and get a litchi from Hong Kong or an apple from Chile, what else… pomegranates from Afghanistan, but you can also import those things, those are material powers. Kṛṣṇa is known as Yogeśvara, He is the Lord of all mystic powers, if He wants to create a Universe, or hundreds and millions of Universes, He can do so, He has the power, “Let there be a Universe!” bas. So to directly know Kṛṣṇa and to serve Him is considered the topmost of all attainments, by Lord Caitanya’s mercy one can achieve even what people never dream about.

In the Bṛhad-Bhāgavatāmṛta, it describes the Goloka Vṛndāvana. There in Gokula all the residents are focused on Kṛṣṇa, and in different rasas, Kṛṣṇa is known as Rasa-śekara, He is expert in all rasas or mellows, and in the spiritual world everyone is connected by love, we all love Kṛṣṇa in His different forms, whether as Lord Rāma or Nārāyaṇa, or Narasiṁha, Matsya, Kūrma, Varāha, or in His original form as Lord Kṛṣṇa. So if one is too austere, they may be headed to impersonal realization, sometimes we hear devotees say, “I don’t want take birth again!” That’s all right, but the desire to serve Kṛṣṇa and that will automatically end the births, so we should focus how to serve Kṛṣṇa, within the allowed sense gratification, maybe some are a bit too much, but it is better to be too much, if you can give service to Kṛṣṇa, than being too austere and have the hard heart.

So the devotees have said, they want to help me to fulfil Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mission, but that was in a general sense. I would appreciate, if you can think specifically which service you would like to do or which services. The recent, the Guru magazine [Gurudeva Kṛpā Bindu Diyā] has some of the orders, otherwise we can print those, if you have something specific, like help Congregational Preaching or help distribute books, or help the TOVP, or help develop the Navadvīpa dhāma, so there are so many different services, making devotees, everything we do, we should do that as a service to Kṛṣṇa, and we think that, “My activity is a service to Lord Kṛṣṇa,” in this way we are performing karma-yoga. So if everyone can be active in devotional service, that will be pleasing to Lord Kṛṣṇa, that will be pleasing to me, and that’s what Śrīla Prabhupāda has prescribed.

Today we had medical appreciation, Prabhupāda was saying that we have our medicine, and we have our diet, we have our therapy, like this we have all the aspects of medical treatment, our medicine is the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura saying:

enechi auṣadhi māyā nāśibāra lāgi’
hari-nāma-mahā-mantra lao tumi māgi’

bhakativinoda prabhu-caraṇe paḍiyā
sei harināma-mantra la-ila māgiyā

“Lord Caitanya said, “I have brought the medicine for the disease of māyā, the Harināma mahā-mantra, take it by begging for it, there is no price, actually the price is so great, we can never (afford it), so you can beg and get, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura said I fell at the feet of the Lord and begged for that medicine, and I got it… I got it... I got it. [Haribol!]

What was that medicine?

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

So please think what you can do, specifically to help, fulfill Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mission. Haribol!!!