Message from Damodara dasa (ISKCON) ys pd 08/16/11

My dear Shiva Shankar Prabhu,

Please accept my humble obeisances.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada, who risked every danger to bring soul saving news of Lord Krishna to a lost world.
...
Prabhuji, I think you may possibly have missed the actual point of Puranjana dasa's Vyasa-puja offering.

Yes, many of his many words are a kind of crying out.

In his Purport to the Hare Krishna Maha-Mantra, Srila Prabhupada himself tells us: "The chanting [of Hare Krishna] is exactly like a genuine cry by the child for the mother."

Puranjana Prabhu is crying out to Srila Prabhupada, a dearmost friend of Lord Krishna. He is crying out not for himself, but for the innumerable devotees - men, women, and children - who have been so terribly hurt - in HIS (Srila Prabhupada's) name, and in Lord Krishna's holy Name ...

... that they are so beaten down, they cannot cry out for themselves. Or, perhaps even worse, they blame Srila Prabhupada for their pain, saying, "You should have known!"

So, perhaps Puranjana dasa is also, in a way, risking every danger to bring news, of an admittedly difficult nature, to a lost world.

Bringing this news, he is informing, and crying out just like a child does, to the mother.

Now that I have said this, the thing that I, actually wanted to say to you, about "missing the point" is this:

Puranjana's offering is a little like an intimate conversation. It is not like so many of the more formal, ritualistic (often superficial) Vyasa-puja offerings made.

(I admit that many of my own Vyasa-puja offering have been like that: ritualistic, formal and superficial.)

Puranjana is telling Srila Prabhupada of his complete surrender and utter belief in Srila Prabhupada.

This is very strongly stated in the parts describing how his spiritual name is so exactly perfect - for who he is, including his capabilities - as well as the myrid details of the Puranjana story that have unfolded in syncronisity with the scandals in ISKCON's history, and his (Puranjana's) place in that history.

So, he is telling it all.

Everything.

He is pouring out his whole, entire heart: all his joys, his gratitude ... his pain and anguish, too.

And he offers his hope, in what he found at this year's Ratha Yatra in San Francisco - a Ratha Yatra known to be of particular importance to Srila Prabhupada.

Puranjana's word ARE many.

But in offering everything, with nothing held back (to impress with "proper" behavior) it required many words.

Finally dear Shiva Shankar Prabhu - may I humbly point out that - without Puranjana's (and others like him) many often admittedly harsh words - said and over and over throught the years, telling the often admittedly harsh news to a lost world - you Bangalore Temple would very probably not be the Temple it is today: entirely centered on Srila Prabhupada as the infallible, never-fallen Acarya.

So please forgive our Godbrother Puranjana for any disturbance his offering may create. It is simply a very intimate offering to Srila Prabhupada, said in his way of saying things.

And said entirely from his Bhakti-heart.

daso'ham,
Damodara dasa