Vyasa-Puja Offering 2019
Dearest Srila Prabhupäda,
On this most auspicious day of your Divine Grace’s appearance in this world, I fall at your lotus feet and beg you to accept me as a fully surrendered disciple, one who aspires to be absorbed in your association by hearing and chanting your sublime literatures, assimilating the instructions contained therein into my thoughts, words, and deeds, and sharing your profound wisdom with as many persons as I can for the rest of my life – for your pleasure and theirs – the ecstasies you yourself relished as you compiled these transcendental masterpieces.
Your books are my life and soul, Srila Prabhupäda, for I feel your personal presence in sound as I read them out loud, to myself and to others, every day without fail. You confirmed this truth when you were asked the question in San Francisco, “What will happen when you die?” Your response: “I will never die. I will live forever in my books.”
A flood of nectar flows from the Hare Krsna mahä-mantraand from every syllable of theBhagavad-gitä, Srimad-Bhägavatam, and Sri Caitanya-caritämrta. And your Bhaktivedanta purports turn that flood into a tsunami of bliss. This nectar is the greatest gift one person can give to or receive from another. Only such a tsunami – caused by the mass distribution of these literatures and the application of their teachings by your sincere followers – can extinguish the blazing fire of hate, lying, dissension, violence, and political fear-mongering, a fire which is laying to waste the dignity of human society throughout the world, poisoning the hearts of today’s once innocent but now jaded masses.
How did you envision such an unlikely inundation would come to pass?
Lord Caitanya’s spiritual master instructed Him, therefore, that one must read Srimad-Bhägavatam regularly and with scrutiny to gradually become attached to the chanting of the Hare Krsna mahä-mantra. (Cc Adi-lilä 7.73, purport)
Preaching is the best service to the Lord. The Lord will immediately be extremely satisfied with one who engages in this service of preaching Krsna consciousness. This is confirmed by the Lord Himself in Bhagavad-gitä (18.69). Na ca tasmän manusyesu kascin me priya-krttamah: “There is no servant in this world more dear to Me than he, nor will there ever be one more dear.” If one sincerely tries his best to spread Krsna consciousness by preaching the glories of the Lord and His supremacy, even if he is imperfectly educated, he becomes the dearmost servant of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is bhakti. As one performs this service for humanity, without discrimination between friends and enemies, the Lord becomes satisfied, and the mission of one’s life is fulfilled. Sri Caitanya Mahäprabhu therefore advised everyone to become a guru-devotee and preach Krsna consciousness (yäre dekha, täre kaha 'krsna'-upadesa). That is the easiest way to realize the Supreme Personality of Godhead. By such preaching, the preacher becomes satisfied, and those to whom he preaches are also satisfied. This is the process of bringing peace and tranquility to the entire world. (SB 7.6.24, purport)
By associating with persons for whom the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Mukunda, is the all in all, one can hear of His powerful activities and soon come to understand them. The activities of Mukunda are so potent that simply by hearing of them one immediately associates with the Lord. For a person who constantly and very eagerly hears narrations of the Lord's powerful activities, the Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead in the form of sound vibrations, enters within his heart and cleanses it of all contamination. On the other hand, although bathing in the Ganges diminishes bodily contaminations and infections, this process and the process of visiting holy places can cleanse the heart only after a long time. Therefore who is the sane man who will not associate with devotees to quickly perfect his life? (SB 5.18.11)
When we speak of hearing and chanting, it means that not only should one chant and hear the holy name of the Lord as Räma Krsna (or systematically as the sixteen names Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, KrsnaKrsna, Hare Hare / Hare Räma, Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare), but one should also read and hear the Bhagavad-gitäand Srimad-Bhägavatamin the association of devotees. This primary practice of bhakti-yogawill cause the seed already sowed in the heart to sprout, and by a regular watering process, as mentioned above, the bhakti-yogacreeper will begin to grow. By systematic nurturing, the creeper will grow to such an extent that it will penetrate the coverings of the universe, as we have heard in the previous verses, reach the effulgent sky, the brahma-jyoti, and go farther and farther and reach the spiritual sky, where there are innumerable spiritual planets called Vaikunthalokas. Above all of them is Krsnaloka, or Goloka Vrndävana, wherein the growing creeper enters and takes repose at the lotus feet of Lord Sri Krsna, the original Personality of Godhead. When one reaches the lotus feet of Lord Krsna at Goloka Vrndävana, the watering process of hearing and reading, as also chanting of the holy name in the pure devotional stage, fructifies, and the fruits grown there in the form of love of God are tangibly tasted by the devotee, even though he is here in this material world. (SB 2.2.30, purport)
Srila Prabhupada, the pitiless intrigues of Maya, as you call them, plunk down obstacles onto the path of those trying to push on the modern branch of the movement you began just a few decades ago to re-spiritualize human society. The main obstacle, it seems to me, is the weakening of faith in your books, faith that is the cornerstone of ISKCON, which as you write is “one of the branches of the Caitanya tree.” (Cc Ädi 9.18, purport)
In 1998 I was asked by His Grace Gopiparnadhana Prabhu to be his English editor. Of course, I was hardly fit for such a task, having had almost no editing experience. But he insisted, I submitted a sample that was somehow approved by the BBT editorial department, and a journey began in which I was trained “on the job” by your senior English editor, Jayadvaita Swami, who also agreed to do the polish edit. For five years I had the unique privilege of working intimately with these two stalwart, loyal, and expert disciples of yours, getting to know them up close. The result of that five-year marathon was the publication of the English translation of Srila Sanätana Gosvämi’s Sri Brhad-bhägavatämrta, and the first English translation of his auto-commentary, called Dig-darshini.
I remembered reading years before in your Bhaktivedanta purport to Sri Caitanya-caritämrta Ädi-lilä 5.203: “Sri Sanätana Gosvämi Prabhu, the teacher of the science of devotional service, wrote several books, of which the Brhad-bhägavatämrta is very famous; anyone who wants to know about the subject matter of devotees, devotional service and Krsna must read this book.” At the time the only English translation of that book was a Gaudiya Matha edition, and the English was barely readable; plus, the commentary was not included.
It wasn’t surprising, then, that the BBT edition of Sri Brhad-bhägavatämrta received extremely high praise from the top authority on Gaudiya Vaisnavism in the academic world at that time. Indeed, Professor Joseph T. O’Connell wrote in his Foreword to the BBT’s publication:
The further I read, the less was I conscious that I was reading a translation, so naturally does one unit of the narrative flow into the next. When I did shift to the task of comparing portions of the translation with the Sanskrit, I was pleased to discover that the English prose is indeed very faithful to the Sanskrit original.
From the literal meaning of the original, little is left out, and very little is added, in the passage from Sanskrit to English…
There is a special significance to this publication over and above its making accessible to readers of English a Sanskrit classic of spiritual literature. This is the first publication by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust of a major Vaisnava theological text which disciples of the late Swami A.C. Bhaktivedanta Prabhupäda have accomplished without his immediate presence. It follows the widely disseminated versions of the Bhagavad-gitä in many languages and multi-volume translations of the Srimad Bhägavata Purana and the Caitanya-caritämrta,each of which is accompanied by an elaborate commentary. These prior publications were substantially the work of Prabhupäda himself, with certain of his Sanskrit-trained devotees, including Gopiparänadhana Däsa, serving as apprentices. The appearance of the Brhad-bhägavatämrta thus marks a new phase of textual theological scholarship by members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. They have, as it were, come into their maturity as responsible for faithful transmission of the Caitanya Vaisnava tradition of prema-bhakti, loving devotion to God Krsna. What better way to assure fidelity to the words and spirit of Caitanya Mahäprabhu and his circle of immediate disciples than to enable devotees and attentive seekers to read, hear, and visualize the foundational texts of those very scholar-devotees who had experienced the charismatic presence of Krsna-Caitanya himself!
Such high praise for your followers from a profoundly respected authority in his field certainly exalts you, Srila Prabhupäda, perhaps in the most profound way possible, for the quality of the spiritual master is measured by the quality of his disciples. What better way, then, to glorify you! How pleased you must be with Gopiparanadhana Prabhu and Jayadvaita Swami!
Srila Prabhupäda, faith in your transcendental books can be maintained simply by hearing them regularly and submissively with love, rapt attention, and without argument. I pray that my faith never wavers in your books and in those who have assisted you in the great service of editing and publishing them for your pleasure.
Dear Srila Prabhupäda, all glories to your selfless service to your spiritual master, to all the previous äcäryas, to Sri Caitanya Mahäprabhu and Sri Sri Rädhä-Krsna, and to suffering humanity. And glories to all your sincere followers and their humble service to you. May I always remain in humble service to them.
Your eternal servant,
Kesava Bhärati Däsa Goswami