Vyasa-puja (online)
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Bangalore · 2022
Chapters
Opening prayers and chanting
Namah Vishnu-padaya Krishna-prsthaya bhutale srimate Bhaktivedanta Svamin iti namine Namaste Sarasvati devi gaura-vani- प्रचारิणे Nirvisesa-sunyavadi-pascatya-desa-tarine Vanchha-kalpatarubhyas ca kripa-sindhubhya eva ca patitanam pavanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namah Jaya Sri Krishna Caitanya Nityananda Sripada Advaita Gadadhara Sivadi-gaura-bhakta-vrinda
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Rama Ajanulambita
bhuja-kanakavadana sankirtanaika-pitarau kamala-dalaksham visvambharodvija-varayuga-dharma-pala vande jagat-priyakarau karunarvatarau
tahisyamamavachimamprasupta sanji vaja ta kila shakti darah swadham nanyam schahastacharana sravanat vagadi pra Bhagavati Purushayatu bhyam Hare
Krishna, dear devotees I'm very grateful for you, for your eagerness to come and to celebrate, but we have to clearly understand what we are celebrating.
This is the appearance day of a spiritual master, or birthday of Spiritual Master, is the birthday of his body. And we are not celebrating this. We are not these bodies.
When Krishna comes to this world, he is coming in his full-fledged form. Srila Prabhupada often would say that Krishna has never there was not a period in Krishna's life when he was not God.
But in the life of a spiritual master there was a period when he was not a spiritual master. In fact, nobody could learn anything from him at certain moments of his life.
So we are not really celebrating the birth of the body. What we are celebrating, that's why this day is called Vyasa Puja, we are celebrating the appearance of Śrīla Vyāsadeva within our heart.
Śrīla Vyāsadeva is the compiler of all Vedic literature. He is the author of all the different Vedic literatures, including Srimad Bhagavatam and Vedānta-sūtra, the foundations of our school.
And he is an incarnation of God Himself.
It is said specifically in the Puranas that in every Kali Yuga Vyasadef is there, but the particular Vyasadef, who is the incarnation of the Lord Himself is only coming before the appearance of Lord Krishna Himself.
He is a very special personality, and it's his appearance which we are celebrating on this day. His appearance in our life. And his appearance is so powerful that he
has the Shakti, the power to overturn the whole course of our life. Completely change the course of our life, completely change the value system which we used to live, completely change everything.
You know, he's putting everything upside down. Or rather yeah. Rarely downside up or whatever.
Developing feelings of gratitude
He is really changing our life and this is what we're celebrating.
You know we the main emotion which we should experience practically every day but specifically on those days, special days of appearance of the Lord, appearance of great saints is the emotion of gratitude.
Because if it's not for them, if it if it was if it was not for them uh then where we would be? What would happen to us if Śrīla Prabhupāda didn't come?
What would happen to us if Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu didn't come, didn't appear in this life, in this earth planet. What would happen to us if Lord Krishna didn't come?
So this is the feelings which we should again and again and again encounter, especially during these days when we celebrate these great personalities. Once I was trying to figure out what do I have in this life.
Yes, I have a great treasure of Vaishnava scriptures, Srila Prabhupada's books, the books of previous Acharyas. I have so many friends who are all devotees.
I have so many well wishers wherever I would come, always there is somebody who is greeting me and sometimes I'm really surprised, you know. And these friends and well wishers are all over the world practically.
You know, I see Su-vilāsa Prabhu, he's in Malaysia. I've never been to Malaysia, but I have well wishers in Malaysia and in some other exotic places in the earth and so many other valuable things I have.
I have a very fulfilling life, which is also a rare commodity in this day and age, because most of the people are quite bewildered and confused and for the whole life are doing something which they don't really like.
And you know they are just like slaves going to job, getting some little money, trying to enjoy the senses.
But you know this list can go on and on and on so many wonderful things which I have but none of this is my is to my credit. You know I have wonderful holy which we can visit and which we can stay and uh get purified.
So many uh amazing things which we get. But is it our is it for our credit? No. Śrīla Prabhupāda gave this to us. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu gave this to us.
Sometimes, and this is also what we definitely should consider as our most precious possession. Sometimes we feel amazing very elevated and elevating emotions which are totally foreign to our conditioned nature.
Amazing, you know love, compassion, tears flowing from our eyes. But that's definitely not uh our position. This is not the possession as such, this is the gifts.
Gifts which we got from our spiritual master, from Śrīla Prabhupāda, from the whole Guru Paramparā. And this is what we're celebrating today.
Today we are celebrating the amazing gifts which we got by the way of you know because uh Krishna mercifully appeared in our life, because Śrīla Vyāsadeva somehow rather entered into our life and changed the course of our life.
Personal reflections on life changes
I heard a little bit how Nirmal Krishna was describing my insignificant biography. And I went back to those days which he was trying to describe.
I must say that there were some inaccuracies, but that's not very significant.
The idea which he was trying to convey is that you know my life at one point was changed, radically changed, and definitely changed for the better.
And I'm eternally grateful and indebted to all the people who contributed to this change. He mentioned my roommate, not in the postgraduate studies, he was my roommate in the university.
It was the last year of my studies when he met with the devotees and started chanting. And it was at that time when I became vegetarian, strict vegetarian, it was 77, 19 77, ages before, completely prehistorical era.
But what I want to say is that you know so many people besides this friend of mine who is Japa Prabhu, Jivan Krishna Prabhu. He is living in America, in California, and soon coming to Vrindavan, hopefully.
At least that was the plan. But besides him, so many people uh contributed uh into my life.
And while celebrating spiritual master, we also have to remember them because our gratitude would not be complete if we didn't remember them.
It is said in Caitanya-caritāmṛta that there is only one Diksha Guru in our life. The only one Guru who gives us mantra.
The only one guru who is taking responsibility for connecting us with God because that's the main duty of the spiritual master.
He takes personal responsibility to connect us, a tiny speck, spiritual speck, tiny spiritual soul, with God. And that's a very difficult job and a very sometimes very grateful, sometimes quite ungrateful.
You know, sometimes it's it's really wonderful to feel to be able to help the devotees in their journey. And sometimes it's such a miserable experience. But you know we're not complaining.
Anyway, I was telling that Dikshaguru is taking personal responsibility to connect us with the Lord.
He has that personal responsibility to correct us whenever necessary, to straighten us, to encourage us, and also to sometimes gently push us in the right direction.
But there are so many Siksha Gurus according to Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Caitanya-caritāmṛta says that there is no limit of Siksha Gurus which we may have.
And in fact, if we really consider other devotees as our Siksha Gurus and start learning from them, Our life will be greatly enhanced. Our special relationship somewhat compulsory relationship with Diksha Guru.
And it is indeed a compulsory relationship because Shastra very strictly regulates this sort of relationship and uh leaving no room for speculation or
for even you know freedom basically when we are taking diksha, Śrīla Prabhupāda sometimes uh would say that by putting this kaṇṭhī mālā, uh we are putting on uh how you call it this uh lease or which they put on a dog, you know, to keep the dog controlled. So yes, Diksha Guru, relationship with him are compulsory,
but this nature of relationship with Diksha Guru is very much necessary for us to learn how to also accept other people as our gurus.
Because we are very independent by nature, and because of this independent and sometimes rebellious nature, we will always have a tendency to deny the authority And to find faults.
So therefore, Shastra strictly regulates, yes, here's one person. Please don't try to find faults in him, even though you're such an expert in finding faults.
Please control to a certain extent your genius fault-finding ability and try to learn from this person.
But the benefit is that by being trained in this relationship, we will be greatly benefited by entering into similar relationship with other people. And sometimes Siksagurus may even play more important role in our life.
It happens. Because we learn more from them. That's possible. But we still have to be grateful to Diksaguru because it's only because of him we are able to learn from other Shiksha Gurus.
Relationship with whom are not so strictly regulated in the Shastras. Of course, in the Shastra it said Guru is Guru. It doesn't matter who he is.
If he really plays this role in your life, you have to try to enter into proper relationship to get the maximum benefit from this relationship.
But still, you know, we have to remember that somebody who initially impressed us, gave us this very powerful initial impetus for spiritual life, gave us strength and energy and enthusiasm to continue with the spiritual life.
You know, he plays a very special role in our life and we have to be grateful to him. Grateful for all the amazing changes which are taking place in our life.
Developing the identity of a servant
And hopefully will continue taking place in our life. In reality, we are all in the very beginning of our spiritual journey.
Sometimes we may fantasize or imagine that soon Krishna will come to me and put his garland on my neck and embrace me tightly. And it will happen for sure. Sooner or later it will happen. There is no doubt about it.
I am completely convinced that it will happen. This is our firm belief. But we may have to travel a little bit more. We may have to prove our sincerity more.
We may get some other qualities which are required to become a servant. To become an unreserved servant of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is not such an easy task. That, or whatever, uh you know, that's simple.
But to develop this ego of a servant and completely overshadow the ego of a master is very difficult. And that's also a function of a spiritual master in our life to help us to develop this ego.
And that's ultimately the most important gift which we can get from him. So many nice wonderful gifts we are getting from our relationships with the spiritual master and with spiritual masters, Siksha Gurus.
But the most important gift, the ultimate, the final gift, is this gift of spiritual identity. Real spiritual identity by which we will be able to function in our relationship with Krishna.
Because to be functional in relationship with somebody, we have to have very clear identity. The identity should not be vague, should not be kind of uncertain.
Ultimately, to be able to function in our relationship with God, we have to get very clear identity.
And this identity is coming by the mercy of the Holy Name and by the mercy of our instructing and initiating spiritual masters. This is what we're celebrating today.
And this is what we should be celebrating every day of our life.
The special day is only to emphasize certain things which we tend to forget in our routine life in the in the you know in the day to day routine. We have the tendency definitely to forget all these amazing things.
Appreciating the value of spiritual life
But you know, this day is to remind us. This is what it is, this is what I get, and it would be good if everyone would really uh would uh go over his life and uh understand what is actually happened in his life.
I recently, just a few days back, I was in my hometown, in the city where I was born, uh and uh I was going by the house where I lived for so many years by the school where I went to study.
And I, you know, I realized that I have very little relationship with the past. uh that my relationship is not so strong with these things. That uh that practically became not very prominent.
Yes, I do remember the memory is there, but you know sometimes funny memory, sometimes not so funny memory. But it's not so significant. It doesn't play a significant role in my life.
But whatever is connected with devotional service plays extremely significant role. And therefore I'm grateful to Nirmal Krishna Prabhu for his attempt to describe my life even though some inaccuracies are still there.
But it doesn't matter. Because you know this is what what is important. This is the most significant event which happened in my life and hopefully which happened in all of your lives. And we are celebrating this today.
That we are coming to consciousness. It may not be full-fledged Krishna consciousness, but the point that we are coming to consciousness is enough reason for celebration.
Because before that we were living in semi-dreaming condition without really being conscious of what is going on, where I am heading, what is going, what would be with me after death? What is the meaning of my life?
What I have to achieve. So this is all what we got by coming into Krishna consciousness. And the most importantly we got the chance to become Krishna conscious.
It's a little overstatement to say that we are already Krishna conscious, but we're trying. And that's good enough. So I guess that's it. I'm speaking long enough. My other meeting is already in place.
So I have to thank all of you. I'm really amazed that so many people are here Forty-seven people and Bhaktira Samrit Maharaj is here. This is such a surprise.
I mean I I don't know what to say about About this, let me look at all of you.