My Vyasa-puja offering 2009

Posted on August 15, 2009  
Filed under BVKS Sanga

nama-srestham manum api saci-putram atra svarupam

rupam tasyagrajam uru-purim mathurim gosthavatim

radha-kundam giri-varam aho radhika-madhavasam

prapto yasya prathita-krpaya sri-gurum tam nato ‘smi

“I bow to my spiritual master, by whose profuse mercy I have received the
supreme holy name, the divine mantra, the son of Saci (Lord Caitanya),
Svarupa Damodara, Rupa Gosvami and his older brother Sanatana Gosvami, the
supreme abode of Mathura, the abode of Vrndavana, Radha-kunda, Govardhana
Hill, and the desire for service to Sri Radhika and Madhava.” (Mukta-carita,
Srila Raghunatha dasa Gosvami)

Srila Prabhupada, having completed twenty years attempting to serve you in
the sannyasa-asrama, I must first thank you for giving me the opportunity to
render service to you throughout my life by traveling, speaking, writing,
and preaching. Of course, ultimately asrama is unimportant in Krsna
consciousness, and at best I am a castor-plant, Kali-yuga excuse for a
sannyasi. Yet I must still thank you for saving me from any black-hole
tragedies, for protecting and sustaining me in this difficult
sannyasa-asrama, and for giving me the freedom to preach without concern for
personal maintenance and without entanglement from children, wife, home, and
the rest.

I am very happy in your service.

atma-nivedana, tuwa pade kori’,

hoinu parama sukhi

duhkha dure gelo, cinta na rohilo,

caudike ananda dekhi

“I have become supremely happy by surrendering myself at Your lotus feet.
Sorrow has gone far away, and worry has not remained. Everywhere I see
bliss.” (Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura)

Of course, being your sannyasi brings great responsibility. Sannyasa is
meant neither for luxurious living nor carefree wandering, but for
performing significant service. You wanted your disciples to be recognized
as great-not the greatness attained by hype or by collecting sentimentalists
and sycophants, nor of attaining a high position from which to exploit
others, but the greatness that follows total surrender and utter humility.
Srila Prabhupada, my lack of significant service to your lotus feet, despite
having all opportunity to perform it, sadly speaks of my dearth of both
surrender and humility. Therefore, on this day I beg your mercy that I may
at last rectify myself and serve you as I properly should. May I cast aside
all petty ambition and become a true disciple of such a glorious master as
Your Divine Grace.

You have given us everything, Srila Prabhupada. Via the Hare Krsna mantra
you have given us Radha-Krsna and the whole spiritual world:

Prabhupada handed [Robert] a small piece of paper with the Hare Krsna mantra
printed on it.

[Robert:] While Swamiji was handing it to me, he had this big smile on his
face, like he was handing me the world.

(Srila Prabhupada-lilamrta)

Srila Prabhupada, you are the one who can bring me to the spiritual world.
You have opened the door, showed me the treasure therein, and commissioned
me to bring others also. I attempt to do that by exhorting them to heed your
message. In a world dangerously spinning toward pandemonium, your message is
more than ever urgently needed, for you have offered all solutions to the
myriad confusions facing society-even before others were aware of the
problems. There has never been a more vital nor better time for preaching.
Throughout the world, people are eager to take your books and hear your
message.

Please empower us, for the favorable factors are complicated by innumerable
hurdles, not the least of which is the state of your ISKCON-which in essence
is nondifferent from you and, being the prime medium of service to you, is
the means whereby our relationship with you is maintained and nourished.
Vyasa-puja offerings are not meant for airing gripes, but I cannot but
express concern for your movement. Various compromises and deviations,
exacerbated by pronounced leadership problems, are making your house a
precarious one in which to live.

The challenges are enormous, and we can overcome them only by invoking your
mercy and recalling how you remained steadfast amidst apparently
insurmountable obstacles. You triumphed by your full commitment to do the
unimaginable: deliver Krsna consciousness to a degraded and apathetic
populace. Your success formula is the only one that has ever or will ever
work in the spiritual sphere: invoking the mercy of the previous acaryas by
having full faith in their words and full dependence upon their favor. We
too can achieve the impossible by reverting to the same principle, the one
you incessantly taught: guru-mukha-padma-vakya, cittete kariya aikya, ara na
kariha mane asa.

Whatever happens, Srila Prabhupada, I want to stay with you. I know that you
are always with me, despite my often almost willful forgetfulness of you. I
feel your potency charging me when I speak and write; otherwise how could I
even dream to speak and write for Krsna? If you wish, you can make me a
vessel for delivering your message in a manner we now can hardly envisage.

Your mercy is all that I am made of. Praying to ever remain in the shelter
of your lotus feet, and in that of your true followers,

Bhakti Vikasa Swami

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