Vyasa Puja by Puranjana Dasa 2023

Vyasa Puja 2023

Dear Srila Prabhupada,

First of all I would like to thank you for saving me from the darkest regions of the universe, where no doubt I would be residing now -- without your grace. You are certainly the representative of Srila Vyasadeva and Krishna. Thanks to you I know that I am and infinitesimal particle of the Supreme Being -- a particle that He deeply cares about. Therefore, that Supreme Being sent you -- to help me. 

I have to admit that being a Hare Krishna has turned out to be quite a bumpy ride for me, but I am not complaining. I had a lot of exciting and enlightening learning experiences -- which could not have been learned any other way for me. 

Originaly, I thought that my God brothers would help me keep deviations out of ISKCON after you departed, but Kali Yuga had another situation in store for all of us. I do remember that when you gave me the name "Puranjana" -- I asked you what it means, and you said you will find out everything later. And then later on the story of King Puranjana was printed -- and I read how there will be chaos when the spiritual master departs. 

And somehow, I felt maybe I would be involved in sorting out that chaos, and initially dreaded the idea. Yet, when the post-1977 "guru chaos" started, I felt this is my call to duty and action -- to at least attempt some correcting.

It is not from a lack of instruction from you that all of this happened. Some examples of your instructions: do not go to the bogus gurus of the Gaudiya Matha. Do not make conditioned souls into acharyas [they made many]. Do not offer bhogha to conditioned souls [same policy going on now]. Do not take sins from others or you will get sick, fall down or both [some died]. 

Do not change my books. Do not drive out even one devotee from my society [they drove out thousands]. Do not mistreat the women and children. Do not allow the elder devotees to have no shelter. Do not make more sannyasa.

Do not make bogus samkirtan scams -- which will hurt the public image. Do not make giant lawsuits and waste my money. Do not drive out the book distributors and samkirtan devotees, and disturb these important projects. Do not change the deity worship process. Do not make outside gurus as the "shiksha advisors" of the GBC. Do not try to become advisors, monitors and correcting agents of the acharyas [as the GBC does all the time now]. 

Do not make it another Hindu show bottle program. Do not allow the farm projects to suffer, dwindle and fail. Do not have sannyasas interfering in marriages. Do not get rid of the pujaris and make the deities suffer from not having servants, like the Gaudiya Matha did. 

Do not make ISKCON into a public media scandal spectacle. Do not allow illegal acts and crimes. Do not commit sins in the dham [like burying deviants in samadhi]. Do not have the sannyasas living like opulent princes. Do not change the dress and temple standards. Do not give opulent salaries for service.

Do not make the Mayapur and Vrndavan holy dham projects into havens for offenders, perverts and trouble makers, because then the whole society will be implicated in dham aparadha. Do not go to various "rasika advisors" for fake rasika. And all of you should not allow or enable these deviations or you will suffer individual reactions -- such as so many devotees falling down badly and departing prematurely from fatal ailments, and collective reactions -- such as ISKCON going bankrupted and losing the second generation wholesale, and so on.

All this -- and so many hundreds of more examples of your instructions --  were not heeded. In short, "do not make it a stool society." But they did not listen.

So I was originally thinking the cavalry of my God brothers would arrive soon and help me try to address these things, but most of my God brothers did not offer help. As you know, a number of them opposed me and they supported the deviations. And then the bumpy ride started to get very serious, because the "guru" who kicked me out said "watch your back." So now they were coming after me, to take me down and put me in my grave. 

I decided that I would rather go down on the battlefield -- than go down drinking beer and watching football on TV [as some of my God brothers did]. Anyway, then that process made me study your books much more threadbare -- and to start to write papers about all this, and that has helped me refine my understanding of your instructions all the more. So it was all a blessing in disguise. And many devotees have appreciated my attempts to rectify these things. And I learned a whole lot from the whole process. And later -- at least some God brothers were sent to help me by Krishna's grace, and I appreciate that very much. 

Later on, I found out that there was a November 1977 discussion where you were complaining of poison. And I prayed to Krishna -- starting in 1990 -- to get me a copy of that tape, and by His grace I got a copy in 1997. That incident explains just about everything else that happened subsequently -- really, there has been a sinister movement within your movement. They set out to take over your mission and make it their own false guru empire. 

And all of these other disasters and deviations are an out cropping of that original deviation -- of trying to replace you. Then the whole show went downhill after the first domino was tipped. And more and more people have been telling me -- I have been fighting none other than another Judas conspiracy, or another Gaudiya Matha style attempt to get rid of the master and usurp the mission. Therefore, it is no small amount of dangerous for us dissenters, and for the world -- if the mission of Krishna is deviated and dismantled, just as you said.

Unfortunately, that also means all the people involved in that usurping process, including the acquiescing rank and file who allowed and enabled it, will have to suffer in the future. The false leaders are thinking they can usurp the mission of Krishna's representative, and others enabled their takeover. But you also warned us about that process many times, the Gaudiya Math false gurus usurped their guru's mission, and maybe gave doses of poison to their guru. Therefore, do not have the same things go on in my mission. Unfortunately, it looks like they modelled their take over from the deviated Gaudiya Matha.

In any case, all of this really revealed to me the depth of what kind of sinister movement I was challenging, and who was behind trying to harm you for their personal aggrandizement, motives and gains. And it was far more sinister than I originally imagined. So what would happen to a lowly peon like me?

Therefore, I firmly believe you and Krishna saved me from getting taken down by them. And I am eternally grateful for you and Krishna granting me that protection, without which, I'd be long gone already. 

And then many people said I was presenting the poison issue "just to make Srila Prabhupada into another Jesus." They would not be wrong. So now, by yours and Krishna's grace, I feel very nicely situated on the spiritual platform. Even if my platform is a little shaky at times, overall it is my shelter and comfort. 

I really don't want any post or position in the ISKCON society, or any other society at this stage. My main lamentation is that your mission came to this deteriorated state, and so many people were made to suffer, and many more of the ordinary Kali Yuga citizens will suffer now that the samkirtana movement -- meant to save them -- has been so badly afflicted. 

However personally, to be quite honest, I had a lot of interesting and exciting times uncovering all these things. Or as one of the ISKCON leaders told me "you are having WAY too much fun doing what you do." For sure, I had a life full of learning and realizations that I would not trade with any other person on earth. In sum, I am trying to be the Puranjana Dasa you wanted me to be.

I just hope that eventually Krishna will find a place for me in all of His infinite universes -- where I will be able to engage in His service, and I am willing to take any post of service He wants to grant me. I don't care if my future service is to be in rasika in Vaikuntha, to have another Puranjana life, or to be an insignificant insect in Krishna's garden, or whatever it is, just give me whatever service you and Krishna see fit.

And I hope that by my doing that service -- you and Krishna will see that I am trying to follow your instructions to serve the Lord. I am eternally in your debt, and I owe you my life. In sum, you are Krishna's mercy for me. You handed me Krishna, which is the gift of eternal life. And your blessing cannot be taken away or changed by anyone. All glories to you, my eternal master.

I pray to always be your eternal servant,

Puranjana dasa