Damodar Das Vyas Puja 2022

DamodaraDas Cooper Clark 

My tribute to my spiritual master on the occasion of his 126th birthday.

Vyas Puja Tribute 2022.

Dear Srila Prabhupada -

You are the one I pronounce prayers to three times daily and offer food to and dedicate my life too although imperfectly.

You are the one who can unbuckle the straight jacket of my karma and liberate me to a life of holy sanity.

You are the one who always smiled at me whenever we met even though I deserved a good thrashing.

You are the one who sent me to Washington DC and who sustained me as I gave your message to members of Congress.

You are the one who is forever my guiding light and heart opener who plucked me out of the muck of my tendencies.

You are the one who told the BTG staff to get out of our stuffy office and hit the streets with the sparkling Holy Name.

You are the one who wrote me letters that instructed me and sustained me by ever wishing me well.

You are the one who in the early months sat on a makeshift Seat of Vyas and fearlessly administered the straight sauce.

You are the one who sold me your Srimad Bhagwatam 3-volume set which yanked me off my Buddhist train of thought.

You are the one whose 3 Bhagwatams I worship today on my desk altar between the Jagannaths and Radha Krishna.

You are the one whose life sustaining quotes I post every day on two Facebook devotee groups.

You are the one who kindly named DC's uninstalled bell metal murtis Radha Damodar before they left for the traveling party.

You are the one who then gave us ISKCON's first Krishna murti Madan Mohan to be joined by a Radharani of your design.

You are the one who is an ocean of mercy and no one can estimate the depth of your inconceivable kindness.

You are the one I left one time but you brought me back and I pray I stay with you forever.

You are the one who even while I was away for four months was always my reference marker and guidepost.

You are the one who gives us all we need to know in your books if only we have the patience to unpack the secrets.

You are the one whose spoken words even in recordings are like honey drops of nectar for the heart.

You are the one who invites us all to sail away with you to the far bank of the River Viraja where pure souls await.

You are the one whose ISKCON is only 56 years old and who knows how much the future will proclaim your greatness.

You are the one who surely stands in the firmament along with Jesus and Buddha as a great liberator.

You are the one who wore a ring given to you by someone so that they would always be in Krishna's service.

You are the one who was expert in everything as the occasion required a Philosopher a Cook a diligent Treasurer.

You are the one whose instruction to chant Hare Krishna 24 hours daily is embedded in my soul as the rule of my life.

You are the one who wrote me that "English translation of prayers is good" but I still say them as you did.

You are the one who sat under a tree on October 16, 1966 and opened a path for me to an infinite world.

You are the one whose chanting that day gave me a crazy vision that I was riding up an infinite silver ramp.

You are the one whose chanting Hare Krishna made me chant too on an upward ride to ever increasing bliss.

You are the one whose disciple Hayagriva that day gave me a leaflet that said I could Stay High Forever.

You are the one in Tompkins Square Park who gave us a political force that I saw liberating the cosmos.

You are the one whose politics went far beyond the War Resisters League or Liberation Magazine or Dellinger or McReynolds.

You are the one who was the star of my movies and made my camera into an instrument as good as Ganesh's pen.

You are the one who returned from San Francisco in April 1967 to our airport welcome as seen in my movie "Vaishnavas."

You are the one who was welcomed by a big crowd including the health food store owner lady we called Mother Nature.

You are the one who was so pleased that we had built you a proper though very simple Vyasasan in your absence.

You are the one who recuperated from your stroke in Long Branch NJ but didn't stop instructing us how to expand ISKCON.

You are the one who had us wear little Jagannaths on a string around our necks.
You are the one who said my little movie was "very nice" but I noticed you closed your deities' curtains before I showed it.

You are the one who graciously let me film you the day before you left New York and we feared we'd never see you again.

You are the one who sat on your little space in the rear court building of 26 Second Avenue as I made "Swamiji."

You are the one who is an ideal subject for meditation as you chant, read, eat, and give instructions in that movie.

You are the one who in "Gurudev" was welcomed at Kennedy Airport in 1969 by an even larger crowd of dancing disciples.

You are the one who made us all leap in ecstasy when you got up and danced with us there.

You are the one who then returned to your apartment at 26 Second Avenue and called it "my old home."

You are the one who lectured at the 61 Second Avenue temple which used to be P. Blechman and Sons tuxedo rental parlor.

You are the one who I filmed in "Paramhansa" benedicting Boston and Montreal with your angelic presence.

You are the one who waved to me smiling as I bowed down to you while filming 

you leaving your Montreal apartment.

You are the one who waved to me again as I filmed you at the Montreal airport, thus ensuring my eternal bond to you.

You are the one who did your morning walk on city streets with Jadurani and Goursundar looking every moment the King of Boston.

You are the one who presided at the Glenville Avenue temple in Allston in front of the partition I built with my Dad's help.

You are the one who thus engaged my father in Krishna's service by your holy mercy.

You are the one who consented to be in "The Full Nectarine" a short movie by Nayana Bhiram and myself.

You are the one who thereby told a group of devotees and local children about Lord Chaitanya's taking sannyas.

You are the one whose transcendent presence there in Brooklyn Botanical Gardens made us call it Brooklyn Brindaban.

You are the one whose expansive spirit guided me as I served at Back To Godhead as art director and article writer.

You are the one who saved me I'm sure from destroying myself with my clever fabrications and ingenious degradations.

You are the one to whom I owe any continued propriety or sensibility in my life.
You are the one who said "Everything is Person" and thus obliterated the feeble philosophies of materialists.

You are the one who thus opened a view of the cosmos as composed not of dead stuff but of conscious entities everywhere.

You are the one who rides on the front of the Jagannath cart like a stalwart sea captain braving the storms of Kali Yuga.

You are the one who is our Hero and Deliverer, our Priest and Potentate, yes for my money the King of the World.

You are the one who is always my best friend even though I have denied you three times and even more than that.

You are the one whose mercy reaches down even to an idiot like me who wallows in the mud of self-importance.

You are the one who beckons us home, a beacon of hope and glory for all sentient beings, including me,

a lame man stumbling to your lotus feet, Damodara Das.