VYASA-PUJA OFFERING 2018
Letting Srila Prabhupäda Speak for Himself
Part 2
nama om visnu-pädäya krsna-prestäya bhü-tale
srimate bhaktivedänta-svämin iti nämine
namas te särasvate deve gaura-väni-pracärine
nirvisesa-sünyavädi-päscätya-desa-tärine
My dearest Srila Prabhupäda,
Please accept my prostrated obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to you and your spiritually refreshing transcendental books, which are sowing seeds of pure devotion (bhakti) in the hearts of conditioned souls throughout a world suffering from the pangs of humanity’s degraded moral and spiritual values. Your books also nourish those seeds in the hearts of sincere souls who read them, especially those who drink the nectarean sound of your writings through their ears.
Srila Prabhupäda, your purports repeatedly remind us of the marvelous effects of hearing about the Absolute Truth:
Simply by receiving the glories of the Lord through purified transcendental ears, the devotees of the Lord are immediately freed from strong material desires and engagement in fruitive activities. [Srimad-Bhägavatam 9.24.62, purport]
A person trying to be perfectly Krsna conscious by hearing the words of Krsna from Srimad-Bhägavatamor Bhagavad-Gitä certainly has all the dirty things cleansed from the core of his heart. [Srimad-Bhägavatam 9.19.25, purport]
A devotee who constantly engages in hearing and chanting (çravaëa-kértana) is certainly freed from the disease of envy, and thus he becomes eligible to go back home, back to Godhead. [Srimad-Bhägavatam 9.11.23, purport]
Srila Prabhupäda, my offering this year is a sequel to last year’s, which was written in Dallas as I was convalescing from an undiagnosed fever. As I mentioned in that offering, I felt so weakened from that fever that I took a break from writing to do my daily reading of your books. In that reading you warned me that one should be very careful of relapse from fever if one is still in the convalescent stage.
Having no idea at the time how serious the fever was, I must not have been careful enough because three days after submitting my offering I had a relapse that became a fever so extreme that it nearly took my life. In fact, after I was moved to Houston from Dallas, Doctor Gurubhakti later called a doctor in the UK and found out that the fever had been diagnosed as typhoid two weeks after I had been released from the hospital there and had flown to Dallas.
Just after I arrived in Houston, my health deteriorated to its lowest ebb. The first blood test showed very little water in my blood. How that manifested itself physically and mentally was that my senses could not connect very well to the environment around me and I became so weak that I could barely function. But by your grace, Çréla Prabhupäda, from years of practice I had developed the habit of reading your books out loud every day; thus, I was able to continue to chant my rounds and read for at least an hour out loud every day throughout that dangerous ordeal.
One evening during the peak of my health crisis, as I was preparing to read Caitanya-caritämrta, Antya-lilä,I suddenly felt that I possessed nothing in this world. This consciousness was forced on me by my physical condition. It was not a result of spiritual contemplation or qualification on my part; nonetheless, the effect was there. And as I started to read out loud as best I could, the quality of the sound was different than usual. The words were the same, but somehow what I heard was more than I’d ever heard before. Suddenly I was understanding more than I had ever understood before. And the taste of Lord Caitanya’s pastimes was sweeter than ever before. Then, to my amazement, all at once my misery disappeared. I was no longer suffering.
I had been writing year after year about how important it is to read your books every day, especially out loud. I had also been stressing the number of pages to read that would allow one to finish the entire Srimad-Bhägavatamin just one year to get a continuity of the subject. But I had never paid enough attention to the quality of hearing and how important it is.
Srila Prabhupäda, the effect of submissively hearing the Supreme Lord’s pastimes is confirmed throughout Srimad-Bhägavatam and Sri Caitanya-caritämrta. For example:[DD1]
The author requests every reader to hear these talks with faith and without argument. By studying them in this way, one will be able to understand the confidential truth of Sri Caitanya Mahäprabhu. [Caitanya-caritämrta, Antya 8.308]
Anyone who desires to cross over the ocean of nescience, please hear with great faith the life and characteristics of Sri Caitanya Mahäprabhu. [Caitanya-caritämrta, Antya 11.107]
Just try to hear these topics with faith, for there is great pleasure even in hearing them. That hearing will destroy all miseries pertaining to the body, mind, and other living entities, and the unhappiness of false arguments as well. Sri Caitanya-caritämrta is ever-increasingly fresh. For one who hears it again and again, the heart and ear become pacified. [Caitanya-caritämrta, Antya 19.110–111]
I was forced by circumstances to hear submissively, Srila Prabhupäda. I can’t honestly say that I was able to maintain the degree of freedom from misery I experienced that night, but the incident did greatly increase my already strong faith in hearing your books. Thus, my sense of mission to help revive the taste for hearing your books in devotees who, for whatever reason, have stopped reading them has increased exponentially. And my faith in reading them to newcomers as the best way to give them a taste of Kåñëa consciousness has become fixed.
Toward the end of Sri Caitanya-caritämåta,Kaviräja Gosvämi goes on to say:
I now worship the lotus feet of all my readers, for by the mercy of their lotus feet there is all good fortune.
If one hears the pastimes of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahäprabhu as described in Sri Caitanya-caritämrta,I wash his lotus feet and drink the water.
I decorate my head with the dust of the lotus feet of my audience. Now you have all drunk this nectar, and therefore my labor is successful. [Caitanya-caritamrta, Antya 20.150–152]
Therefore, the readers of your books also become deserving of worship. And the active principle that underlies hearing with proper consciousness—with complete faith, without argument, in rapt attention—is the blessing of an eternal associate of the Lord. Srila Prabhupäda, you are the eternal associate of the Lord who made it possible for the world to taste real relief from the sufferings of the degraded Age of Kali and to feel true happiness by reading your books, especially out loud.
Dearest Srila Prabhupäda, my heart overflows with gratitude to you. I have no love or pure faith, but by force of circumstances and by your blessings and training I was able to hear in an especially helpless condition, without the ability to think of anything except what I was hearing, without the capacity to mentally argue, doubt, or embellish. This was the silver lining in the dark cloud of a life-threatening disease. You taught us that we are all helpless in this material world. The difficulties and suffering we face are all Krsna’s mercy, meant to help us hear His holy names and pastimes with a feeling of complete helplessness.
Whatever our social position, whatever our level of realisation, whatever our service, however busy we may be, we must all find time every day to hear the teachings and pastimes of Bhagavad-Gitä As It Is, Srimad-Bhägavatam, and Sri Caitanya-caritämrta.And this near-death experience of mine increased my conviction that if we systematically hear, from cover to cover, the main books you gave us, again and again for the rest of our lives—along with following the regulative principles strictly, chanting daily at least sixteen rounds of the Hare Krsna mahä-mantra while trying to avoid offenses, and distributing these jewels of wisdom to others less fortunate than ourselves—we will gradually become eligible to enter the pastimes of the Lord. Your translations and purports are transcendental, Srila Prabhupäda. Hearing them sincerely is as good as hearing the original Sanskrit. There is no other explanation for how Kåñëa consciousness has spread across the globe in these degrading times. As you repeatedly tell us:
It is not that because one has once finished the Bhagavad-gitä he should not hear it again. The word abhékñëam is very important. We should hear again and again. There is no question of stopping: even if one has read these topics many times, he should go on reading again and again because bhagavat-kathä,the words spoken by Krsna and spoken by Krsna’s devotees about Krsna, are amåtam,nectar. The more one drinks this amåtam, the more he advances in his eternal life. [Srimad-Bhägavatam7.14.3–4, purport]
In the sästras—the puränas and other Vedic literatures—there are so many narrations describing the transcendental activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and everyone should hear them again and again. For example, even if we read the entire Bhagavad-gitä every day, all eighteen chapters, in each reading we shall find a new explanation. That is the nature of transcendental literature. [Srimad-Bhägavatam 7.14.8, purport]
And [DD2]what will happen if we stop hearing and studying your books?
During the rainy season the roads, not being cleansed, became covered with grass and debris and were thus difficult to make out. These roads were like religious scriptures that brahmanas no longer study and that thus become corrupted and covered over with the passage of time. [Srimad-Bhägavatam 10.20.16]
All the devotees connected with the Krsña consciousness movement must read all the books that have been translated (the Caitanya-caritämrta, Srimad-Bhägavatam, Bhagavad-gitä and others); otherwise, after some time, they will simply eat, sleep, and fall down from their position. Thus they will miss the opportunity to attain an eternal, blissful life of transcendental pleasure. [Caitanya-caritämrta, Madhya 25.278, purport]
Srila Prabhupäda, in the following excerpt from a lecture on Srimad-Bhägavatam you elaborate on how intensely you want your followers to read your books out loud:
Vidura particularly came to enlighten Dhåtaräñöra and to give him a lift to the higher status of spiritual cognition. It is the duty of the enlightened souls to deliver the fallen ones, and Vidura came [for] that reason. But talks of spiritual enlightenment are so refreshing that while instructing Dhåtaräñöra, Vidura attracted the attention of all the members of the family, and all of them took pleasure in hearing him patiently. This is the way of spiritual realization. The message should be heard attentively, and if spoken by a realized soul, it will act on the dormant heart of the conditioned soul. And by continuously hearing, one can attain the perfect stage of self-realization.
Therefore, çravaëamis very essential. Çravaëaà kértanaà viñëoù smaraëaà päda-sevanam. So in all our centers, this process should be followed. We have got now so many books. Simply if we read books . . . Our Yogeçvara Prabhu is very enthusiastic to read books. So everyone should read books, and others should hear. That is very essential, çravaëam.The more you hear . . . We have got so many books. Whatever is already published . . . Just like we are describing one verse daily. So at least . . . There are so many verses already in stock, you can go on speaking for fifty years. These books already published, you can go on. There will be no want of stock.
So this practice should be adopted. Don’t waste time. As much as possible, try to hear about this transcendental subject matter, Bhägavatam.Yad vaiñëavänäà priyam.It is stated that “The Srimad-Bhägavatam is very, very dear to the Vaisnavas, to the devotees.” In Vrndävana you will find they are always reading Srimad-Bhägavatam.That is their life and soul. So now we have got already six volumes, and further . . . How many? Eight volumes are coming? So you will have enough stock. So you should read. Çravaëaà kértanaà viñëoù.That is the main business. That is pure devotional service. Because we cannot devote twenty-four hours in hearing and chanting, therefore we have extended our activities, program activities, in so many ways. Otherwise, Srmad-Bhägavatam is so nice, if you practice anywhere, any condition, simply by reading Srimad-Bhägavatam,you will be happy. So adopt this practice and make your spiritual life perfect more and more. Thank you very much. [Lecture on Srimad-Bhägavatam1.13.12–14, Geneva, 3 June 1974]
In your 1975 visit to Perth, Srila Prabhupäda, a situation arose that compelled you to correct your devotees’ thinking. Kürma Prabhu described what happened next in his book The Great Transcendental Adventure:
Prabhupäda’s chastisement went on for some minutes more. Then he suggested that someone bring a book and begin reading. As the devotees read aloud, they felt their ignorance dissipate. It was as if a heavy curtain was being lifted. Prabhupäda, the transcendental physician, had once again supplied the medicine—hearing and chanting about the glories of Lord Sri Krsna—to wipe out the disease of ignorance. The afternoon thus ended on a pleasant note, with an inspiring question and answer session before Prabhupäda spoke to his scheduled guest—a young Indian boy. [10 days in Perth,1975]
In your purport to the verses in which Prahläda Mahäräja describes the nine processes of devotional service, you analyze each one individually. In the first paragraph of the section explaining the process of hearing, you write:
Çravaëam.Hearing the holy name of the Lord (çravaëam) is the beginning of devotional service. Although any one of the nine processes is sufficient, in chronological order the hearing of the holy name of the Lord is the beginning. Indeed, it is essential. . . .
And in the second paragraph of that same section, you write:
Hearing from the text of Srimad-Bhägavatam is considered the most important process of hearing. Srmad-Bhägavatam is full of transcendental chanting of the holy name, and therefore the chanting and hearing of Srimad-Bhägavatam are transcendentally full of mellows.
In Srimad-Bhägavatam,great devotees like Sukadeva Gosvämi have specifically described Lord Krsna’s holy name, form, and qualities. Unless one hears about the holy name, form, and qualities of the Lord, one cannot clearly understand the other processes of devotional service. [Srimad-Bhägavatam 7.23–24, purport]
In another purport you state:
Hearing about the activities of Krsna is the beginning of purified life. Puëya-çravaëa-kértanaù:simply by hearing and chanting, one becomes purified. Therefore, in discharging devotional service, çravaëa-kértana(hearing and chanting) is most important. Then, with purified senses, one begins to render service to the Lord (håñékeëa håñékeça-sevanambhaktir ucyate): this is called bhakti.[Srmad-Bhägavatam 10.6.34, purport]
In this way, Srila Prabhupäda, on practically every page of your Bhaktivedänta purports you enlighten us about the importance of hearing your books along with the chanting of the holy names of the Lord. You insist that they are both kirtana.They are equally important—essential, in fact. And you also confirm this same truth in discussions with your disciples. For example:
Srila Prabhupäda: Both of them are kirtana.When you chant, that is also kirtana;when you distribute book, that is also kirtana. When you read book, that is also kirtana. [Morning walk, Honolulu, 19 January 1974]
In researching this subject, I came across the following statement of yours in a letter:
Along with the restaurants there can be “Bhaktivedanta Reading Room” where all my books can be kept and people can come and sit comfortably and read. The people will like these restaurants and reading rooms. They will take them as non-sectarian. [Letter to Subhaviläsa, 16 March 1977]
Srila Prabhupäda, please forgive me if this suggestion seems impertinent: Recently, the leaders of your movement have recognized the importance of reviving the reading of your books—for so many devotees have fallen away from reading them—and to place you clearly in the center of your movement again as its founder-äcärya by placing your books in the center once again. A revival has begun, and many ideas are being put forward. When I read your words “Bhaktivendanta Reading Room,” I had a related idea: “Bhaktivendanta Reading Groups.” I seek your blessings to establish as many such reading groups as I can and to inspire ISKCON leaders to do the same. I can think of no more efficient way to put you solidly in the center of your movement. From devotees who have set up such reading groups and sustained them over the past year, I’ve heard that their spiritual lives have changed for the better by reading your books out loud together.
To help propagate this revival, I’ve made a vow to live-stream my daily reading of your books. On the Facebook App, if one searches for “Daily Readings of Srila Prabhupäda’s Books” and “likes” the page, one can hear your books, either live or at one’s convenience. Now I’m reading the Eleventh Canto of Srimad-Bhägavatam.But when I finish theBhägavatamI’ll move on to Sri Caitanya-caritämrta and read it out loud cover to cover; then the Bhagavad-gitä As It Is, cover to cover; then back to the Srimad-Bhägavatam, and so on, for the rest of my life. I seek your blessings, Srila Prabhupäda, to complete this vow.
Srila Prabhupäda, in 2015 I wrote this to you in my Vyäsa-püjä offering:
I want to live in the Bhägavatam,to make the Bhägavatam and your other books my home, and to bring others into this transcendental abode. As Srila Sanätana Gosvämi prays:
asädhu-sädhutä-däyinn ati-nécoccatä-kara
hä na muïca kadäcin maà premëä håt-kanöhayoù sphura
O [Srimad-Bhägavatam] bestower of saintliness to the unsaintly, O exalter of the most fallen, please never leave me. Always appear in my heart and my voice with pure love. [Sri Krsna-lélä-stava 416]
I am completely unqualified to fulfill this desire of mine, Srila Prabhupäda; thus, it will be possible only by your causeless mercy. On this auspicious day of the anniversary of your appearance, September 4, 2018, let me express my unending indebtedness to you for giving me a taste for reading out loud your sublime books and sharing that taste with others.
Your eternal servant,
Kesava Bharati Däsa Goswami