Gopal Krishna Maharaja's Vyasapuja

Celebrating Vyasa Puja without physical presence

0:00Namah oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale, śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine. Namaste sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī- प्रचारिणे, निर्विशेष-शून्यवाद-पाश्चात्य-देश-तारिणे. Paschitari.

0:20It's a great honor for me to speak in front of all of you. That's the first Vyasa puja of his following Papakrishna Maharaj, which we are celebrating without his physical presence.

0:40And it's actually very purifying when we are glorifying devotees. I remember one little episode after Mayapur GBC

0:55meetings I was sitting with His Holiness Sri Radanat Maharaj and I mentioned Gopao Krishna Maharaj's name, just mentioned. And immediately just by hearing Srila Gopal Krishna Maharaj's name, Sila Radanat Swami Maharaj started glorifying him as

1:21if he had hundreds of mouses. He was praising him and saying, talking about his qualities and of course I kind of replied in my small way about his glories.

1:41And after this glorification of a Vaishnava, it was physically tangibly we could sense the purification of this process. When we speak about the qualities of a Vaishnava, it's very purifying to the heart.

Inexhaustible spiritual energy of Gopal Krishna Goswami

2:03We all have some you know tinges of envy and some other problems within our consciousness, but when we really try to appreciate and see the qualities of Vaishnava, the heart becomes purified from these traces of dirt.

2:21And of course, you know, so many people already spoke about the glories of Bopal Krishna Maharaj, and one of the most outstanding qualities which he had is his tirelessness.

2:35It's absolutely amazing how much energy he had, and for me it's hundred percent clear that the energy which he had is not of the material origin. You know, no material energy can be so inexhaustible.

2:52You know, he was as if there is totally inexhaustible source of energy

2:58within himself, and he was, you know, running from early morning every Mangalarati he was there in the you know altar of uh Shirada Syama Sundara or Radha Parta Sarathi and then till the late night, you know 10 o'clock, eleven o'clock, twelve o'clock, uh to get up early in the morning.

3:20I remember one very funny episode. Uh I had to call him urgently with some emergency in Russia. And it was around probably 9:30 at night when I was calling. And I asked Maharaj, where are you?

3:38He said, Oh, you know, I'm just driving from Delhi to uh Chandigar for Atyatra. So at night he's driving there and he started chuckling and he said I, am semi-retired now. It was so funny.

3:59He's driving late at night for this engagement and he says, I'm semi-retired. And we all know what he means when he says semi-retired, it means that he will work, you know, a hundred times more than before.

Humility and accommodating nature of Gopal Krishna Goswami

4:15And I had, you know, my friends traveling with him in America, Janardana Mahārāja, just said that he was traveling with him and they uh you know uh they only could do it once because second time it just didn't work, you know, because it was so difficult. Even though they were much younger than him.

4:34But one quality which I would like to highlight here is his amazing humility and at the same time his accommodating nature.

4:49You know when you were uh like uh now Manjari Deli was speaking about this how he was kind uh to her. And I remember at the day of uh Srila Gobal Krishna Maharaja's departure, I met his secretary Madhava Priya in Delhi,

5:10and I asked her how are you? Because I knew her, she helped me a lot in some you know governmental work and everything. And he started, she started crying. And she said he was too much kind to me.

5:29Very kind of Indian expression, he was too much kind to me. And when I heard this, I told immediately to her, he was too much kind to everyone.

5:42This his quality of being so accommodating and so kind, and especially at the end of his life, he was always like this. But by the end of his life, this quality became uh you know tangibly sensible.

6:02You could sense, you know, how he is just welcoming you. And of course, you know, the glory of India Delhi Temple, which is his major contribution to his cone is exemplary of being the place of utmost hospitality.

6:22But that's the extension of his nature. You know you could feel that he is just accepting you without any reservations, without any anything, you know, he would not see bad qualities in you.

6:37Through my long times of associating with him and there were many difficult situations when we would you know had to speak about some difficulties. Never, never even once.

6:52I heard even half of the word, not even the word, of some criticism of anyone.

Firmness and conviction in difficult situations

7:00He would not criticize anyone, at least I never heard about this, and he would always be very kind and if uh people would do uh some uh nonsense he would still find some good qualities in them. Of course, when he would especially when he would we would be speaking behind his back.

7:21But I also saw how once somebody was doing some nonsense in Russia and was deviating quite heavily Maharaj.

7:34All of Sudden, unexpectedly for me, because I never heard him doing this, all of a sudden he became very strong and he said, Krishna will crush you as a bug.

7:46And I saw that this man started trembling because he said it with such conviction and such force. So he was like, you know, classical devotee, he was soft like a rose most of the time.

8:03So accommodating, so kind, so humble, utterly humble, uh, you know, heartbreakingly humble.

Invoking devotee presence through remembrance

8:12But at the same time when it was necessary, he would apply his force and he would be very forceful when it's necessary. We saw it in these beautiful videos from Vancouver.

8:25In any case, what I want to say is that this kind of ceremony is of utmost important because by hearing the glories of the Vaishnava, we purify ourselves and we invoke their presence among us and

8:41uh I really uh hope as Janardana Maharaj and I'm sure yes that Gopal Krishna Maharaj will be present here especially when we remember his amazing Vaishnava qualities. Thank you very much.