Madhu Pandit Das Vyas Puja

Madhu Pandit Dasa

My Vyasa puja offering to Srila Prabhupada:-

Dear Srila Prabhupada,

Please accept my respectful obeisances. All glories to Your Divine Grace.

Yet another year has passed under the transcendental shower of your causeless mercy. The transcendental shower that cools the scorching heat of miseries of this material world where there is the danger at every step. It is only by your mercy that over the last sixteen years we, the devotees of ISKCON Bangalore, have survived the material forces that have attempted to break the faith of thousands of your followers on this planet - that Your Divine Grace can be accepted as everyone’s direct sad-guru - both Primary Siksha and Diksha guru. 

It is easier to survive the attack of atheists than the guruvadis in ISKCON, who twist your direct orders and preach that Your Divine Grace cannot be a guru for anyone on this planet anymore after 1977. According to them, Srila Prabhupada, you are ‘no longer with us’, having physically ‘departed’ in 1977. Therefore it is only to them that the jivas have to surrender to as disciples, and not to Your Divine Grace. 

It is nothing but the twisted philosophy of ‘kill guru and become guru’. Your Divine Grace has used this very phrase while referring to ambitious neophyte disciples. This is especially so when you have explicitly ordered that those initiated in ISKCON will always be the disciples of Your Divine Grace.

This faith of thousands of devotees that: Your Divine Grace actually receives their direct surrender from them; Your Divine Grace actually guides sincere seekers in advancing in spiritual life, in the wonderful association of your other servants, in an organization Your Divine Grace designed. This truth is proven today by your lilas at ISKCON Bangalore for the last fifteen years. Thousands of lives are transformed every day, by the association of your books and your deity form in the temples of our group over the past fifteen years. The intense and foremost attachment and commitment to Your Divine Grace, of all the devotees, is the proof of this. 

Srila Prabhupada, you have nicely explained the prakata and aprakata form of the Lord. The visible and invisible. In CC Madhya 13.155 purport

“Krishna has two kinds of presence—prakata and aprakata, manifest and unmanifest. These are identical for the sincere devotee. Even if Krishna is not physically present, the devotee’s constant absorption in the affairs of Krishna makes Him always present.”

Srila Prabhupada, when Your Divine Grace were asked by a reporter, “what will happen to the movement when Your Divine Grace die?” Your Divine Grace replied, “I will never die”.

Thus, wherever Your Divine Grace is sought after as the guru and worshiped and followed, Your Divine grace, even today in the aprakata (invisible) form, continue your aprakata lila with such disciples and inspire them to advance in Krishna Consciousness as much as Your Divine Grace were doing during your prakata lila. This is the understanding from your reply to the reporter – ‘I will never die’.

Your Divine Grace also established your deity forms in your temples even when present on the planet. In these forms, Your Divine Grace is prakta, giving opportunity for rendering personal service of dressing, offering bhoga, worshipping etc. All these are in no way, different from your lila on this planet before November 14th 1977. From your teachings it is clear that there is no difference. To think that on that day, Nov 14th 1977, some significant change happened and you are no longer ‘present’ with us after that date as a ‘living guru’ anymore, is absurd and false. 

It was this falsehood that led to so called new ‘living gurus’ being propped up in 1978 and thereafter continuing till date. And this turned out to be the biggest disaster which has practically destroyed the movement- so carefully built and nurtured by Your Divine Grace. 

The Hare Krishna Movement is your transcendental creation and it transcendentally belongs to Your Divine Grace. It is your house in this world, where your service to the guru-parampara is conducted eternally, through your disciples. Your Divine Grace has expressed your transcendental ownership of ISKCON by clearly mandating through written instructions, that the words ‘Founder-Acharya’ shall always be written below, wherever ‘ISKCON’ is mentioned. 

Your mandate through this instruction is crystal clear. It is your transcendental vision to prevent future generations of ambitious neophytes from assuming that since Your Divine Grace is no longer physically present, it is time for the next person to fill your shoes, in ‘parampara’, and take over as the Acharya or spiritual successor. Promoting Your Divine Grace as the purva acarya, directly or indirectly, in ISKCON, is an act of constant offence as it means Your Divine Grace can be approached only through another current link as present guru.

On 18/2/76 Your Divine Grace said in a room conversation,

“After 80 years no one can be expected to live long. My life is almost ended. So you have to carry on, and these books will do everything.”

So it is very clear that Your Divine Grace will continue to influence thousands of souls by being directly connected to them as their spiritual master. Your transcendental vision in setting up the ISKCON organization was to facilitate and give service to all your disciples for all future generations as long as ISKCON exists to become instruments in training and strengthening every spiritual aspirant’s direct connection with Your Divine Grace as their spiritual master, both diksha and siksha guru and thus continue your parampara.

On this occasion Srila Prabhupada, I would also like to meditate on your glory of taking so many hardships for the preaching mission in this world and setting the example for future generation of disciples - the standard of hard work to spread Krishna consciousness. Srila Prabhupada, your life has demonstrated how one can express his love for his guru. To develop that love for one’s guru, one has to sacrifice one’s comfort for guru’s mission and vision. This means to take pains for his pleasure of expanding his spiritual mission on this earth. There is a tendency to think that perfection means that everything will go smoothly in this world and there will be no hardship. This principle of working hard by taking pains even for fulfilling the Lord’s mission, is nicely explained by Your Divine Grace in this following purport.

“In executing penance, one must be determined to return home, back to Godhead, and must decide to undergo all types of tribulations for that end. Even for material prosperity, name and fame, one has to undergo severe types of penance; otherwise no one can become an important figure in this material world. Why, then, are there severe types of penance for the perfection of devotional service? An easygoing life and attainment of perfection in transcendental realization cannot go together. The Lord is more clever than any living entity; therefore He wants to see how painstaking the devotee is in devotional service. The order is received from the Lord, either directly or through the bona fide spiritual master, and to execute that order, however painstaking, is the severe type of penance. One who follows the principle rigidly is sure to achieve success in attaining the Lord's mercy.”
- SB 2.9.24 purport

Anyone who reads this purport will come out of the false idea that the perfection of devotional service is one of comfort to the senses, body and mind, without any disturbance from any quarter. Your Divine Grace, as the Acarya, has taught us by your own example how to be well grounded by emotional acceptance of the reality that troubles and pains are very much part of devotional service and it is very natural. And devotees have to take up such austerities if any significant progress is to be made against maya’s plans to keep the jivas within her clutches. Situations that demand austerity in devotional service are great opportunities to purify our self-centered mentality.

Your Divine Grace wrote to your disciple on 27th July 1970:

“Kindly keep me informed of your activities at least twice in a week, otherwise I become very much anxious and due to my blood pressure sometimes do not eat, do not sleep. I am just trying to organize a worldwide movement not for any personal ambition but to execute superior orders, and by the grace of Krsna we are getting good encouragement. So I request my students to co-operate fully.”

So this is Acarya - one who sets standards by his own example. Your Divine Grace never taught an easy going life. You spent sleepless nights in the anxieties of organizing this world-wide movement for Lord Chaitanya. Your Divine Grace promised to take us back to Godhead - but instructed us all to lead a life of struggle for spiritual advancement and hard work to preach Lord Chaitanya’s mission. Dedication and commitment to fulfill the order of one’s guru, even if it means fighting formidable forces against all odds. Even if it means going to courts.

Your Divine Grace never settled to rest in material comforts or in the glory of your success while preaching in this world till your last breath. Preaching or practicing devotional service with such material ideas is just sense gratification and is just another deep anartha. Preaching mission in this world of maya means always dealing with opposing forces that are bound to attack, starting with our own body and mind.

While we are asked to take pains to preach the glories of the Holy Name, Your Divine Grace has also armed us with enough ammunition to give us real empowerment and transcendental happiness for the soul, by teaching us the art of associating with the Holy Name by chanting and hearing the sound incarnation of the Lord, “kali-kale nama-rupe krsna-avatara”. Srila Prabhupada, you have talked and talked and talked about the glories of the Holy Name - of how to chant, how to hear, how to be attentive and the theology of the Holy Name in your books. 

So many transcendental secrets of the Holy Names are hidden in simple lines of your several purports. Each one of them opens the door to the spiritual world. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu named Haridas Thakur the Nama-acarya. Your Divine Grace has extended the mission of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, all over the world and has spread the Nama which is today dancing on the tongues of millions of jivas. Your Divine Grace is the true Ambassador, like Haridas Thakur, of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who is the very personification of Hare Krishna maha-mantra. 

What a spiritual wonder you have created on this earth. Now there is no stopping of this sankirtana. How close and dear you are to the Holy Name is understandable from the degree of empowerment with which Your Divine Grace spread the Holy name all over the world in such a short span. kṛṣṇa-śakti vinā nahe tāra pravartana – (CC Antya 7.11)

We are all so fortunate to be born at a time to even hear about this Hare Krishna movement. Srila Prabhupada we all know that Your Divine Grace is in our midst, guiding and protecting us. In spite of not being surrendered enough to perfectly receive and follow all your instructions, Srila Prabhupada, you are still protecting me. I know that any complexity in your mission that is not solvable, is due to our lack of clearly hearing your directions; lack of clearly understanding your instructions; lack of enough determination to follow. 

For years together, following your teachings, I prayed to the Supersoul, for practical guidance in preaching and have received tremendous reciprocation by repeated application of Krishna’s words in Bhagavad-gita “mat citta sarva durgani, mat prasadat tarisyasi”. But, for some reason, some big preaching projects that have been conceived and started off in the recent times, by your mercy, have stagnated for years, faced by one hurdle or the other inspite of increased prayer and dependence on the Lord in my heart. I understood that Krishna wanted to teach me something important and until I learn this, He would not permit or sanction the progress of these projects. 

After a lot of soul searching, the realization dawned on me that there is a small - but significant difference - in praying, surrendering and depending on guru and praying and surrendering and depending directly on the Supersoul, Krishna. Krishna wants me to learn that first dependence is on his pure devotee - and then on Him. I have to move to the next phase of increased faith in Srila Prabhupada as the true power of attorney holder of Krishna. 

First things first. That is the true purport of “yasya prasadad bhagavat-prasado yasyaprasadan na gatih kuto 'pi”. Though I sing this every morning, yet I prayed to the Lord directly everyday all these years. After this finer realization, I am now training myself to always pray to Your Divine Grace first, for granting of devotional service and strength to overcome all obstacles in your preaching mission and then only to the Lord. And I find increased spiritual energy to serve Your Divine Grace. After that I have started to see that things are changing for good in these stagnated projects in the last few months.

Srila Prabhupada, you have preached that we always pray and surrender to the Lord in the heart. But now I know that the Lord is more pleased when we surrender and pray to His pure devotees first. The very same Lord is more eager to reciprocate with mercy of all kinds when a devotee surrenders and prays to Your Divine Grace, for that is the right culture of devotion for a disciple. 

One thing I am sure from my own realization - Your Divine Grace is by the side of anyone who wants to serve your mission without simply thinking of his own peace and bliss at the material level. And your teachings direct us to experience the transcendental peace and bliss that comes from simply knowing and feeling the sense of one’s eternal belonging to the eternal guru and the eternal Lord as their eternal servant, and becoming indifferent to material ups and downs. 

Thank you Srila Prabhupada and your dear Lord Krishna for the intense merciful grind you are putting me through to learn these finer nuances of devotional service. Thank you, Srila Prabhupada for the daily dose of “divya-gyan hrde prakashita” and hardships that make me think and learn different lessons. Thank you Srila Prabhupada for making my daily life transcendentally blissful in spite of trials and tribulations from the material energy. 

Based on this realization, on this auspicious day of this year’s Vyasa puja, I pray that if it so pleases Your Divine Grace, kindly put an end to this legal battle as soon as possible, and remove all the obstacles, and sanction us all in the coming five years the devotional service of completing the construction of a world’s largest monumental temple for your dear Lordships at Vrindavan dham to expand the glories of Vrindavan dham, which, Your Divine Grace has already put on world map.

Again I pray, if it pleases Your Divine Grace, in the coming five years, sanction us all, the service of completing the construction of an equally monumental complex of the Krishna Lila Park at Vaikunta Hill, Bangalore South, to make it the Vaikunta Embassy on this earth from where the Holy Name will be distributed to millions of souls by inspiring them through depiction of the wonderful lilas of Lord Krishna.
Again I pray, give me the knowledge and spiritual skills and strength to do the service of chanting and hearing the Maha-mantra better and better without offenses and also to serve and share such knowledge of improved japa with all devotees who have dedicated their lives to spread the Holy Name as your unalloyed servants.

Srila Prabhupada, you created a Hare Krishna explosion in 1966 on this earth - the tremors of which continue to be felt even today. Please create more such explosions, which results in creating transcendental employment of loving devotional service to the Lord for thousands of souls. Anticipating and always in great hope for such new transcendental explosions,

Your fallen servant who begs at your lotus feet to be held always by your divine mercy,

Madhu Pandit Dasa