Vyasapuja 2014
Dearest Srila Prabhupada,
Please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet.
All glories to Your Divine Grace!
Decades of offerings…what more can I say to glorify you who have given me real life? Srila Prabhupada, you picked me up more than forty years ago, degraded as I was, and immediately gave me the faint dawn of attachment for hearing and explaining the Bhagavad-gita As It Is—the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna’s direct teachings elucidated by your divine purports. And despite my total lack of qualification, you also gave me a glimmer of attachment for hearing and chanting the holy names and activities of the Supreme Lord and His pure devotees in the forms of Srimad-Bhagavatam and Sri Caitanya-caritamrita. In short, you performed the miracle of giving me a hint of attachment for you and your transcendental books even before I had a chance to do much of anything to please you.
Therefore you cannot be an ordinary spiritual master.In performing this miracle, and thousands more like it, you showed the true meaning of humility. You refused to take an ounce of credit for singlehandedly and unprecedentedly carrying pure love for Krishna out of India to every continent on earth, a gift you delivered in three packages: the devotee Bhagavata, your divine self; the book Bhagavata, your transcendental literatures; and the society of your disciples and followers you called ISKCON, which you define as a branch of the Caitanya tree[1] and as an incarnation of Sri Krishna.[2] And you gave the credit for all these miracles to your spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvata Thakura. The one credit you did accept was that you did not add anything to or subtract anything from Krishna’s message. Rather, you delivered the pure teachings of Lord Caitanya just as your spiritual master had delivered them to you. What’s more, you repeatedly told us that you did all this to please your spiritual master because his order was your life and soul. And unlike others, you were happy that your Society became known—not by your name but by Krishna’s—as the Hare Krishna movement.
Even more miraculous was the way you were able to adjust things, according to time and circumstance, to transplant the Vedic culture’s core values into foreign lands without compromising those values. And yet even more miraculous was that you also gave credit to your western disciples. You said, “…I have to thank you. It is all due to you. It is not my credit, but it is your credit that you are helping me in executing the order of my guru maharaja.”[3] In all these ways you showed us the symptoms of true humility, selfless service, and unconditional love. Such humility born of pure love is not of this world. Narada Muni describes this kind of humility: Wise men define dainya [utter humility] as the state in which one always thinks oneself exceptionally incapable and low, even when endowed with all excellences.[4] Srila Sanatana Gosvami elaborates on this verse in his commentary: Narada’s own definition of dainya distinguishes his use of the word from other possible meanings, such as “poverty,” “becoming selfless by not accepting charity,” and “being free from egotism.”
Someone might say that the quality of thinking oneself very fallen may also be seen in persons who are simply lazy or those who abandon auspicious work or indulge in sinful acts. Therefore Narada specifies that one who actually has dainya is endowed with all good qualities; for instance, such a person observes positive and negative regulations, he is free of false ego, and he has a healthy fear of material life… Narada then goes on to say:An intelligent person should carefully cultivate speech, behavior, and thinking that fix him in utter humility, and anything that stands in the way of it he should avoid. [5] Sanatana Gosvami comments: Ordinary dainya can be developed by human effort, but there is also a type of dainya, beyond the mundane, that comes from receiving the Supreme Lord’s favor. The word tu in this verse contrasts these distinct kinds of dainya. Almost everyone in the material world is separated from Krishna, but most people never experience dainya because they have no prema. Therefore they can never become free from suffering and attain true happiness. To achieve transcendental dainya, one must learn to love Krishna in the mood felt by the gopis, led by Sri Radha, when Krishna left them to go to Mathura. We can understand from the example of the gopis’ viraha-bhava, their feelings of love in separation, that this special dainya arises only when, by Sri Krishna’s exceptional mercy, a devotee who has realized Krishna’s sweetness develops extraordinary prema in his heart in the mood of separation. As prema appears in degrees of excellence, so does dainya. In the heat of distributing Krishna consciousness in the West, you once confirmed that our effort to assist you in spreading the sankirtana movement—in the forms of congregational chanting of the maha-mantra and the distribution of your transcendental literature—is in fact Lord Caitanya’s lila. And because Lord Caitanya is Krishna in the mood of Srimaté Radharani, spreading the sankirtana movement can also be compared to the gopis helping Krishna. The explanation given by Ramesvara that sankirtana is Lord Caitanya’s lila, which he compares to the gopis trying to engage in Krishna’s service, is the correct understanding . . .[6] Srila Prabhupada, now your disciples and grand-disciples and followers stand at the threshold of more unprecedented service: on your order, to preserve your mood and the activities you emphasized in your mission—as you preserved those of your spiritual master’s—by cooperating in the face of difficulties and disagreement to continue to distribute your gifts to the world. This you told us was a difference between the spiritual and material worlds: in the spiritual world disagreement results in cooperation, in the material world disintegration. Just before you left this world you taught us how this level of cooperation could be achieved.
You said that the test of our love for you would be in how well we cooperate to keep your movement together. In other words, you tied the success of your movement to the awakening of our love for you. You imbued us with love for you and then told us to love you by loving one another. And you wanted us to show you that love practically by taking this order as our life and soul. And what exactly is that order? To cooperate, of course, but what is our cooperative effort meant to do?
In 1977, the last year you were with us physically, you dictated your Bhaktivedanta purports to the second chapter of Srimad-Bhagavatam’s Tenth Canto.This transcendental gem came out through your lotus lips, a gem that encapsulates the order that we, your disciples and followers, must make our life and soul in order to show our love for you:
Translation: Even while engaged in various activities, devotees whose minds are completely absorbed at Your lotus feet, and who constantly hear, chant, contemplate and cause others to remember Your transcendental names and forms, are always on the transcendental platform, and thus they can understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Purport: …The word kriyasu, meaning ‘by manual labor’ or ‘by work,’ is important in this verse. One should engage in practical service to the Lord. In our Krishna consciousness movement, all our activities are concentrated upon distributing Krishna literature. This is very important. One may approach any person and induce him to read Krishna literature so that in the future he also may become a devotee. Such activities are recommended in this verse. Kriyasu yas tvac-caranaravindayoh. Such activities will always remind the devotees of the Lord’s lotus feet. By fully concentrating on distributing books for Krishna, one is fully absorbed in Krishna. This is samadhi.[7]
Srila Prabhupada, you insisted that we keep you in the center as the Founder-Acharya of ISKCON. By your will, the leaders of ISKCON are feeling of late the intense need to ensure that this awareness be acknowledged, more deeply understood, and embraced so that your mood and style may pervade ISKCON for as long as it exists. When you were physically present (vapu) you were the absolute authority of ISKCON, superior even to the ultimate managing authority you created, the GBC. Now you remain the absolute authority, but in the form of your instructions (vani). The need, therefore, to take shelter of your vani before making any decisions, individual or collective, should be felt intensely, now more than ever, by anyone connected to ISKCON, especially its leaders.
My prayer to you, Srila Prabhupada, on this holy day of your appearance, is that you continue to shower your mercy on us all so that we may keep you in the center by following your lead, especially in terms of your mood and emphasis in our practical preaching as expressed by you in the above purport. There may be things that must change with time, for that is the nature of time; but your mood and emphasis on making sure that you and your books remain at the center of our lives—and especially that your books are visible at all our preaching events— must not change. Your spiritual vision and attitudes are based on axiomatic spiritual principles given to human society by the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna Himself. In fact, you passed down to us the highest axiomatic truth, through which all seemingly contradictory concepts can be reconciled. This truth, acintya-bhedabheda-tattva—that the Absolute Truth is inconceivably one with and different from everything else—is the ultimate philosophical conclusion. It was taught originally by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself, the most munificent form of the Lord, and pervades His sankirtana movement. You asked your leaders—GBC members along with senior devotees—to meet each year in Mayapur and discuss unity in diversity, an English phrase that succinctly expresses this highest axiomatic principle.The assimilation of this truth will make our cooperation possible, even in this age of quarrel.
Srila Sanatana Gosvami applies this truth in relation to humility and love: Translation: When dainya fully matures, prema unfolds without limit. And so we see dainya and prema acting in a relationship in which each is both cause and effect. Commentary: If prema is supposed to be the final result of all devotional endeavors, how can dainya be a consequence of prema? In answer: Yes, prema is the final goal, but dainya is not altogether different from prema. Dainya is an integral component of prema, and both foster one another.[8] Thus, inconceivably, humility and love are qualitatively one. In short, you can’t have one without the other. And you yourself apply the same truth in relation to obedience and love: We are persons and Krishna is a person, and our relationship with Krishna is always open as a voluntary agreement. That voluntary attitude—“Yes, Krishna, I shall gladly cooperate. Whatever you say”—that ready willingness to obey is only possible if there is love. Forcing will not make me agree. But if there is love, oh, I shall gladly do it. That is bhakti. That is Krishna consciousness.[9] Thus, inconceivably, obedience and love are also qualitatively one. And one can’t be sustained without the other. Srila Prabhupada, we can we assimilate this axiomatic principle only by following your example, by doing what you asked us to do, by making your order our life and soul.
You fully assimilated into your character these truths, showing us how to make even your spiritual master’s subtlest orders your life and soul.
What follows is but a small sample of aphorisms spoken by your guru-maharaja. These aphorisms embody fundamentals you perfectly applied, principles that provide guiding light to help us practically apply this axiomatic truth: unity in diversity. Let me not desire anything but the highest good for my worst enemies. Be indifferent to bazaar gossips, stick firmly to your cherished goals, no lack or impediments of the world will ever stand in your way. In this world of Maya, averse to the Lord, full of trials and tribulations, only patience, humility, and respect for others are our friends for hari-bhajana.
The Lord, Gaurasundara, puts His devotees in various difficulties and associations to test their patience and strength of mind. Success depends on their good fortune. When faults in others misguide and delude you—have patience, introspect, find faults in yourself. Know that others cannot harm you unless you harm yourself. I wish that every selfless, tender-hearted person of Gaudiya Math will be prepared to shed two hundred gallons of blood for the nourishment of the spiritual corpus of every individual of this world.
Srila Prabhupada you picked me up and bound me with the ropes of your humility, obedience, and love. Please keep me bound forever.
Aspiring to be your eternal servant,
Kesava Bharati Dasa Goswami
[1] Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, Adi-lila 9.18, purport.[2] Srimad Bhagavatam 10.3.21, purport.[3] Lecture, London, August 22, 1973.[4] Sri Brihad-bhagavatamrita 2.5.222.[5] Ibid., 2.5.223.[6] SPL Nandulal Dasi, 9 June 1974.[7] Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.2.37, purport.[8] Sri Brihad-bhagavatamrita 2.5.225, plus commentary.[9] Letter to an unnamed Gurukula teacher, quoted in BTG 54.17 (1973). Light is an easy to read font, with tall and narrow letters, that works well on almost every site.