Vyasapuja Offering
Vyasa-puja 2019
“…according to the Vedic system, on the birthday of the spiritual master the disciples conduct the ceremony called Vyāsa-pūjā.” BG 18.75. Esteemed reader, do you also turn to this purport every year during Srila Prabhupada, Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami’s Vyasa-puja?
Our offering to His Divine Grace’s Vyasa-puja, in this little essay, is an effort to illuminate a little bit of the glories of Srila Prabhupada, Founder Acharya of the International Society for Krsna Consciousness, and author of the book KRSNA, The Supreme Personality of Godhead. We are like weak sighted men, standing in the dark, trying, with our candle, to illuminate the Royal Elephant. We do this for our benefit and the benefit of others.
Thus we work to hear other articles in this Vyasa-puja book that make their own attempts to illuminate Srila Prabhupada, and maybe in choir we can get some little, but practical glimpse of His Divine Grace: No one can take everything that the spiritual master is offering. No one can know the Acharya completely.
“The transcendental pastimes of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna, are so powerful that simply by hearing, reading and memorizing this book, Krsna, one is sure to be transferred to the spiritual world, which is ordinarily very difficult to achieve.”, Krsna, Chapter 90. Our first real contact with Srila Prabhupada was this Krsna book. One of his disciples, maybe Sriman Buddhimanta Das, was distributing books at the Davis Campus of the Universsity of California about 1972 and he convinced us to donate $10 and take one. This Krsna book seems complete in every way but to gain more and more access to it Srila Prabhupada has given Srimad Bhagavatam, The Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Caitanya-Caritamrta, Upadesamrta, Nectar of Devotion, Isopanisad etc.
“The main business of human society is to think of the Supreme Personality of Godhead at all times, to become His devotees, to worship the Supreme Lord and to bow down before Him. The ācārya, the authorized representative of the Supreme Lord, establishes these principles, but when he disappears, things once again become disordered. The perfect disciples of the ācārya try to relieve the situation by sincerely following the instructions of the spiritual master.” SB 4.28.48. When Srila Prabhupada disappeared from our physical vision in 1977 we experienced just what he describes here and took shelter of the remedy that he describes here also. Now we seem to see in 2019 that our Acharya is beginning to disappear again. This time from the natural passing of the years - Disappearing from the rituals of his society, from the recollections of his disciples as they grow old and pass away. This is quite natural but the remedy is still the same, follow the instructions of the Acharya: Chant 16-nice rounds daily on beads and follow the 4-regulative principles strictly. Then, intelligence (Brahminical culture), and organization (Ksatriya culture), can be cultivated from that root.
What we have been able to take from our little connection with Srila Prabhupada is that the whole process can be boiled down into eight words: Get up early and get your rounds done. Done with enthusiasm. Then your day will be play. Management will be at your fingers end, there will be no question of shortage of funds, people will respect your preaching.
Thank you Srila Prabhupada for giving us this orchard of fruits, roots and flowers in the form of the wisdom and culture in your books. Thank you for giving us a connection to you through the Lord in the heart. Thank you for ISKCON and all its venerable members. We will try to be more sincere disciples and we hope to find some eternal place in your traveling Sankirtan.
One of your most insignificant servants,
Hanumatpresaka Swami
2019 Mar 08
