Vyāsa-pūjā Lecture 1994
At the beginning I would like to thank all the devotees involved in organizing this festival. In particular I would like to thank the devotees of the Wrocław yatra, and also apologize for the chaos we are causing with this event. I hope it is joyful chaos. I would like to thank all the disciples gathered here, aspiring disciples, friends and well-wishers. I would like to thank His Holiness Indradyumna Mahārāja, who always manages to embarrass me even when he is not personally present.
Some of you may be wondering why this festival is taking place now, at the end of September, and not in December. I decided that in December we already have another festival – namely Śrīla Prabhupāda’s book distribution Marathon, which lasts the whole month; a kind of 30-day festival. In India some temples are proud that some of the festivals they organize last up to 9 days. But in ISKCON we have a festival lasting 30 days! One can also say that each of the 365 days of the year is a festival in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So I thought not to disturb this important event by organizing another festival. Besides, practically speaking, most of you will not be where I will be in December – I will be outside Europe. Therefore, after consulting with some of my senior godbrothers, I received their blessings to make this small change of date.
As we said this morning, Vyāsa-pūjā means worship of Śrīla Vyāsadeva. From the time of a certain event involving Lord Nityānanda, it has become a tradition that the disciples worship their own spiritual master as the representative of Nityānanda Prabhu and Śrīla Vyāsadeva.
I forgot, while giving thanks, to mention how Śrīla Prabhupāda, during one Vyāsa-pūjā lecture, thanked his disciples. He said: “I thank you for making spiritual advancement.”
We also, hoping it will not be taken as imitation, wish to thank you all for making spiritual advancement. For we hope that in our relationship with Śrīla Prabhupāda we can serve him as a kind of instrument in pushing the disciples toward spiritual progress.
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura gives us a wonderful comparison involving rainy weather and a cloud, in his Gurv-aṣṭaka, which helps us understand the role of the spiritual master. He says prāptasya kalyāṇa-guṇārṇavasya – the spiritual master receives mercy, and from where? – from the ocean of mercy of Kṛṣṇa. So in a sense his occupation is simple. He simply receives the mercy and then passes it on to us so that we can receive it.
The analogy of the rain cloud extinguishing a forest fire says that when a forest fire breaks out it can cause enormous destruction, burning hundreds or thousands of hectares of forest. And that is exactly what is happening in this material world – everything is burning. But by the mercy of Śrīla Vyāsadeva and his disciplic succession we have a chance to come under the stream of this wonderful spiritual water, which keeps us wet, and thus the forest fire that destroys our spiritual life is brought under control. The whole art consists in remaining under the cloud. We must get wet and remain wet. How we are to do this is explained by Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura in the last verse of the Gurv-aṣṭaka – how does it go? yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo / yasyāprasādān na gatiḥ kuto ’pi. This describes how we are dependent on the principle of pleasing the spiritual master. Yasya prasādād means “by whose mercy we obtain the mercy of Kṛṣṇa.” Yasyāprasādān na – we will not attain our destination if we do not obtain the mercy of the spiritual master.
This is our task as disciples – to make sure that we obtain that mercy, through which we obtain the mercy of Kṛṣṇa. In fact it is quite a simple formula, and the previous ācāryas, especially Rūpa Gosvāmī, have established an entire procedure, an entire system of how we can obtain the mercy of the spiritual master, and thereby the mercy of Kṛṣṇa. Some people say – and it is a common philosophy – “We only need mercy; we do not need to make any effort.” In reality both things are connected and both are necessary.
In order to remain enthusiastic in executing the orders of the spiritual master and the previous ācāryas, we must constantly hear those instructions, and not assume that we already possess full understanding of Lord Kṛṣṇa’s teachings.
Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura tells a story about a certain Sanskrit scholar. He was on his way along a road through a forest to visit his father-in-law. Someone noticed that he was just about to enter the forest and warned him: “Paṇḍit-jī, please do not go into that forest. It is night and it is dangerous.” “Dangerous? What is dangerous about it?” “There is bāghrā (bāghrā means tiger).” “Oh, if that is so, there is no problem,” replied the paṇḍita. According to Sanskrit, bāghrā means an animal that smells – it does not eat you, it only smells you. “I am a brāhmaṇa, and the duty of a brāhmaṇa is to serve all living beings, so if a tiger comes and wants to smell me, I have nothing against it.” The people thought, “Quite a strange paṇḍit – what can we do?”
So he entered the forest, met the tiger, the tiger smelled him, and then ate him. Indeed, it smelled him, but then it also ate him. The moral of this story is that we should not think that we already know everything, but we should always continue hearing, hearing, hearing – being purified in the rain falling from the ocean of mercy.
When we do this, we become successful, we receive what we desire – spiritual success. We must be sure that we understand we really can obtain what we are constantly longing for, as long as we have the understanding of the fact that we must fully accept the shelter given to us by Kṛṣṇa. This is an essential element of Kṛṣṇa’s mercy which we receive by accepting the shelter of the spiritual master.
So I would again like to say: “Thank you all.” This is an offering – as Śrīla Prabhupāda said – we practice offering our feelings of devotion to Kṛṣṇa. So we accept these offerings, but we also pass them on to our spiritual master and to Kṛṣṇa. Do not think, however, that this is impersonal. We also have our part – we listen, we receive, we appreciate, and we feel obliged. Of course, the disciple is always obliged, or in debt, to the spiritual master, but the spiritual master also feels that he is indebted. He thinks, “What can I do for these wonderful devotees? The only thing I can do is pray for them.” And we do this – we pray to Śrīla Prabhupāda that he may bestow his blessings upon you, and to Śrī Śrī Gaura-Nitai that They may bestow Their blessings upon you.
And we especially pray that Śrīla Prabhupāda will bless you to take part, to begin to meditate on taking part in that great festival at the end of this year. Just as now we are making so many offerings, at the end of the year there is another offering in the form of Prabhupāda’s Marathon. If you could already now begin to meditate on it, even though it is only the end of September, this is a very good way to use our tendency to make plans. We are always making so many plans, and this is a wonderful way to use this tendency now – it will please us very much.
I would like to add one more apology. In the ideal situation, in Vedic culture, it is basically like this: the spiritual master stays nearby most of the time. This is very valuable, because the personal presence of the spiritual master greatly helps in making progress. Naturally, when we are not personally with the disciples, we wonder: “How are they doing?” We pray that you may be well in the shelter of the association of devotees.
However, the situation is such that soon we will leave Europe and be in India and other places for many months. I really feel very sorry about this. It seems to me, however, that it is Śrīla Prabhupāda’s desire that I be engaged in those various services that require a great deal of travelling. I hope you can understand that I also have my service to perform. I recently read in the Hari-bhakti-vilāsa that the spiritual master should not regard his service as consisting solely of the combined service of his disciples. The spiritual master cannot simply sit and say, “All right, disciples, do all the service.” That would not be satisfying, of course, and I know that Śrīla Prabhupāda wants us first to work, and samādhi will come in time.
My request, then, is that you have this understanding, which is so strongly emphasized in śāstra, about performing service in separation, and in this way maintain steady enthusiasm in serving the wonderful family of ISKCON.
Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya!
Śrī Śrī Gaura-Nitai ki jaya!