19990327 Vyāsa Pūjā Talk

The following is the class given by HH Jayapataka Swami Maharaj on March 27th 199, at Sri Mayapur Dham, in India. The talk given during Vyasa Puja ceremony.

His Holiness Jayapataka Swami:

It says guru, start writing in many ways. One says the, paragomy of the kind of zonal guru is very easy, everybody one Guru-disciple. Gaudiya Math is struck with that system and made one Acarya. But then because the different Acaryas keep changing, even because they leave the world or other reason, then in one ashram we have got still disciples of many different gurus. Even at one point one guru had all the other disciples of the other gurus spend half a day with that day, would never ask to be in any positional responsibility in the ashram in the Gaudiya Math, only the disciples of one particular guru. So it became like a political thing, who’s disciple you were and then you could be a temple president. Such type of things are going on in Gaudiya Math. That’s why some of the members of the Gaudiya Math who are the disciples who are not allowed to have any position, since they were of the wrong guru like guru upperside, they came to ISKCON. They asked the guru what should we do? We are you’re disciple, we can not have any service here, can we go to ISKCON? If we didn’t go wherever there is pure bhakti being practiced, I have no objection. So most devotees in ISKCON don’t know what’s going on outside of ISKCON, in Gaudiya Math. We know here because we live here, we see here every day. And Prabhupada told that, see what they’re doing and learn from their mistakes and don’t make the same mistake. So also we’re learning from own mistake but we have to evaluate properly what is in the mistake and then come with the proper solution. As a family, if we all take up this responsibility that we need to carry on Prabhupada's legacy, his teachings into the next millennium, the next ten thousand years he wanted Kṛṣṇa conscious movement to give Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s message to everyone for ten thousand years. And very quickly he wanted to flood the whole world and put Kali on a back burner, put Kali on vacation for the next ten thousand years.

Kali is the expert in argument, in envy, in fighting, so he will try to create confusion. Just after I made the offering to Prabhupada, or I was offered the prasad, internally I was also offering that's going on simultaneously. Then someone came and handed me, didn’t hand me, there’s just the diorama showed me that the Calcutta President has gone to court against all gurus for his rithvik thing. So this is a Vyasa Puja offering, so this is Kali, this is the repetition of  Gaudiya Math, they went to court to have one of the gurus declared as Acarya and now the rithvik people had gone to court to have Prabhupada declared as Acarya, present Acarya, not Founder Acarya. So like this confusion is there in people’s mind. But amongst ourselves we shouldn’t be confused, we should be very clear what we have to do. We should work together as a united family in our Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. We’re very clear of what Srila Prabhupada, what Lord Caitanya wanted. Actually even at the time of Lord Caitanya there was confusion amongst certain devotees. And that’s why Lord Caitanya told, give the order that ‘siddantaniya na koroho alas’. That regarding the conclusion of shastra you should never be lazy. You should know very clearly what is the conclusion of shastra. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is not a sentimental movement, it’s a movement based on siddhanta, based on the philosophy and we have to be very clear about what is our philosophy and we have to practice it.

So on the eve of this Vyasa Puja I was, in English, you just say ‘you’, but in Bengali and in Spanish, in number of other languages there is two kinds of ‘you’. There’s a respectful ‘you’ and there is a familiar ‘you’. In Bengali is ‘apani’ is the respectful and spanish it’s called ‘usted’, and if the normal, the familiar is called ‘tumi’ in Bengali or it's called ‘tu’ right. No no, in Spanish ‘tu’, ‘tu’ and ‘tumi’. So very similar, it’s only because actually Spanish is coming from Latin which is coming from Sanskrit. So I told them you’re not Latinos you should actually be told Sanskritinos (clapping), all coming from Sanskrit. So it’s another topic. The point is how Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur used to call his disciples as ‘apni’ which is respectful. Because he would see them as representative of his Guru. That order to, for him to do his service guru has sent disciples. So then he would respect them by the word ‘apni’, formal ‘you’. And how there’s something very special, but in English is just ‘you’, so it’s hard to express that. Cause in Bengali you tell somebody ‘Āpani kēmana āchēna’, how are you? Then they get offended, they say no no no call me ‘tumi’, I’m your servant, I’m your disciple, say ‘tumi’, treat me as inferior or equal. But he stuck to his grounds and kept calling everybody ‘apni’.

Because as the spiritual master we had to keep also in the proper consciousness how to see disciple. Actually all the disciples belong to Kṛṣṇa and everybody in ISKCON belongs to Kṛṣṇa, Lord Caitanya, Srila Prabhupada. As a guru, one is also a caretaker, he’s responsible to bring the disciple back to Kṛṣṇa. So disciple doesn’t belong to the guru really, belongs to Kṛṣṇa, but for some time I had to guide disciples until I can bring them back to Kṛṣṇa. Prabhupada said, once that guru can bring the disciple back to Kṛṣṇa in the spiritual world then basically his work is over, still, he remains as the old friend. So some relationship is still there although that need Kṛṣṇa has many assistants there, so depending as some of you may be gopis, some may be sakhas, some may be servants, some may be like mothers of Kṛṣṇa. So according, the guru has to say alright you have to go with Yasodha, you have to go with, you are in this one, you have to be with Indulekha, you have to be this kind of give you where you have to go. You don’t have to worry about that too much right now (laughing). Right now we’re just kind of keep people from forgetting that they are the spirit soul cause we continue to think we are the body, we have to keep people from breaking the four regulative principles, we have to get people from leaving their general practices of devotional service and their service to Srila Prabhupada. Once you get them to the Spiritual world then work is complete. Even if I’m not qualified to get back if one of you becomes qualified then in order for me to do that service, we saw that even Dhruva Maharaj's mother got back, so I would get a free ticket to go back.

So primarily here we’re concerned with how to keep all the disciples busy in devotional service, to see that they get the training needed to avoid committing offenses, to be able to be rendering spontaneous service naturally, so like that it’s the spiritual family. Narahari Thakur said, well what happens if many devotees give conflicting advice to the, to their, who do you listen to? So then if you listen to your initiating guru because he’s finally the most responsible. But it’s not a conflict but then of course you listen to your father, you listen to your uncles, you listen to so many people. It’s only there’s a conflict, then you listen. Of course if the guru, everybody’s father, grandfather is Prabhupada so we all take the vow that we’ll only guide people in following Prabhupada. You see, If I ever go crazy and tell you don’t follow Prabhupada then don’t follow me. But I hope that never happens, I don’t have any intention for that to happen (laughing). I pray every day that I may never go crazy like that. But just as you see if some people go crazy and tell people don’t follow Prabhupada we get frightened, that may never happen to me, how did such a insanity happen?

So this is our training to the devotees who are guru parampara. So they were observing Vyasa Puja. There’s some guru’s in Bengal, they say you don't need to follow Vyasadeva, you don’t need the vedas anymore, it’s too difficult to follow all those scriptural injunctions. Now I’m here you can just follow me, such kind of bogus people are there. So what is the use of having a Vyasa Puja for such a guru? When he rejected himself Vyasadeva. So Vyasa Puja meaning is that we’re accepting the principle of guru parampara, we’re accepting that we’re following guru because he’s representing the previous gurus. Then the guru ever ceases not to follow the previous guru’s he’s not guru, according to our definition of guru parampara. Similarly, a disciple means to follow the guru, follow the guru parampara. Different disciples seem to have different expectations, that’s why I mentioned that day after tomorrow we’re gonna discuss that. Tomorrow maybe we get everybody’s written idea what their expectations are, what they mean to have a strong guru-disciple relationship. Sometimes some disciples said that I’m not satisfied, I’m not getting what I wanted, but they don’t say exactly what they wanted but we need to be very clear. So far I never heard that from one of my Indian based disciples but we want to be very clear what it means to be a disciple, what means to be a guru, we should be clear, we should try to do our duties in the most responsible way. What is like to be a family member to be a Vaishnava, that we want to be perfect Vaishnavas first of all, wanted to be a devotee and live as devotees. So if someone mentions the, want to preserve the guru parampara system in this discussions with the GBC, he raised the point that Prabhupada shown us the certain way of doing things is a very dynamic way of preaching, guru pujas and various kinds of worship systems to very public, to very congregational. But in the discussion of what should be the system in ISKCON, examples are given like Madvacarya’s, they sit on a little wooden seat, people come in and they give them the akshat, the rice with the turmeric, different schools they have different systems.

So that examples in those gurus considered one in seat, so maybe in ISKCON all gurus should have a one in seat and this way they can, or no seats, our is no seat so it says how to apply the principle. I was always, I’m in the bad books for many devotees, they say I have got too high-end guru profiles. I am simply trying to follow in the footsteps not imitate but following in the footsteps, follow the instructions what Prabhupada gave and trying to preach Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. Yesterday we were in Bangladesh, day before yesterday 70,000 people came to and took prasadam in the festival and hundreds thousands participated. Somebody this morning said oh! You gave initiation to 70,000 people! You are a real hero! No! I didn’t give initiation to 70,000 people (laughing) they were at the festival, they misunderstood what you said maharaj (laughing). Maybe some people took initiation but only a small, very small amount compared to that. And, but in Bangladesh people they respect, they know that sadhus feet are something very sacred. You see, so not only me but every devotee they try, they’re grabbing their feet. I asked Sri Prahlad Das and his wife Rukmini Priya that they touch your feet? They said ya! Everybody is diving on our feet! So you don't have to be a guru there to get someone to touch your feet. If you wear tilak and look like a vaishnava you better watch out! Then they will go for your feet. You have to wear rubber boots up to the neck practically to escape. This is the tradition, cause they want to get some mercy.

Of course, when we’re doing puja there’s a system, all ladies, they’re not supposed to touch the feet of a Sanyasi. So they’re gonna bring some silver shoes here, first, they want me to wear, then all the ladies anybody who wants to touch the feet you can touch that. The dust will be there, the same dust, it’s no different dust, exactly the same dust, you know, so you can get the same dust. Although I have, if the sanyasi gets touched by many women then maybe he loses his vision about what sanyasa life is, there is something, there’s some system with some tradition we have to follow. So Lord Caitanya, He followed this system very strictly. So like that I’ve been trying to follow this system, I live in Bangladesh, I live in India, we have our way of doing. When I go to south India in somebody’s house they bathe the feet, they put kumkum, they put sandalwood. I have to ask them to take off the kumkum because it makes my dhoti red, this is our system. We’re following a tradition handed down but some people they’re feeling that this is too much and to do in ISKCON, in publicly, I personally don’t agree, I don't agree that this not should be done in ISKCON but I agree not to do it to be a team player, to do it in private because in ISKCON GBC decide and I respect that many of my Godbrothers and many devotees, they also agree to follow the ISKCON system and they didn’t like it that publicly things shouldn’t been done. So we see, we have to come up with new ways of associating with each other. I’m writing a letter to all of you, a personal letter, so many of these things I’m explaining there, I’m not gonna go too much in detail here.

So one interesting thing was told to me by Hari Vilas Prabhu, he told me well instead of doing a big puja why not? Whenever they arrive in the temple you give your greeting address and then all the disciples and devotees whoever wants to, they can all offer you a homage. So every visit to a temple becomes like a mini Vyasa Puja homage. So that’s alright, we don’t mind that, we don’t want this puja, how much is our good? I said well that sounds more than a puja, just you know washing the feet is something, what’s that? But if everybody stand up and glorify some leader something much bigger but we, in general, we don’t mind that, we don’t want the puja. So that interesting, I thought that’s very interesting maybe there’s different ways of expressing, maybe you see if we can come up with new and creative ways how to express our love for each other, how to exchange our sentiments and praise each other without relying so much just on these big festivals and pujas. This may be the, just according to the rule this would be the last super big Vyasa Puja so that we can think of other ways.

The point is that the love that devotees have, I was sitting when Prabhupada was in Mayapur here on Gaura Purnima festival that he says that I am elderly Indian at that time all of the devotees were mainly foreigners from America and Europe different places, So you all are different young people from foreign countries and various countries normally different age groups, different cultural backgrounds, different nationalities, they don’t have such close thy. But how is it that we all of us so close together? So this is the proof he said this is all spiritual, it’s not to do with material, and he suddenly was crying and we were all crying. And also feel like that, we maybe work together here, we are here different backgrounds may be from our births, different nationalities, now I am Indian of course but whatever may be different birth, nationality and people here from different countries from all over the world. And not only my disciples but other devotees who are also very close with me, I am very close to them, and for me the words that Prabhupada were ringing in my ears that this if we had this type of relationship with devotees without any reference to any material things, it’s very common of people of the same village, people of the same country, people of the same language group, people of the same age group, people who, okay they can mix together. But if we can have close relationships, if we can have loving relationships, if we can have a unity even amidst all these diversities that’s only possible in the spiritual platform.

So, on one hand, I feel very much responsible for all the disciples who have taken initiation because they have taken vows and I am also responsible, the final responsible person. Maybe I’m thinking well maybe others there to help, so it’s not so much on me, but ultimately the bus stops at me, I am responsible so I have to, I want to take more of a proactive way of ensuring that everyone is being properly taken care. So whatever extent I can, although I have to depend on and I am depending on my disciples and my Godbrothers and my nephews and nieces so I am training them all over the world to be leaders. So whatever extent I want to see that, ensure that everybody is getting that. Like apart from that, that link is also spiritual, it’s not a material link. But apart from that the other siksha links, sometimes siksha disciples are coming and doing more service more enthusiastically than even the initiated disciples. Sometimes initiated disciples think that well, like somehow I take initiation, now my guru owes me so much. He has to get me married and he has to get me a place to stay and he has to love me and care for me all the time, you know even if I don’t do my service very well, he should never be heavy with me. And I got a letter from somebody who gave a very nice service, I appreciate very much but I gave a few comments that the service should have been done better in a certain way. And he said I don’t feel love for, care by you, maybe you are not my real guru! This is Kaliyuga.

Actually when Vibhishana came over to see Ram, then they said, how do we know you’re not a spy of Ravana? What’s the proof you’re not a spy? You’re just coming here and you trick and you want to create some problem. And then Vibhishana said I vow, if I’m not coming here sincerely If I am not what I said I am then let me be born a brahmana, a guru in Kaliyuga! So brahmana means the guru of all the varnas, let me be a brahmana in Kaliyuga! They said wow! He made such a heavy vow! Okay he must be true. Nobody wants to be a brahmana in Kaliyuga and nobody listens to the brahmana, everybody knows it’s in all the other yugas, nobody listens to brahmanas in Kaliyuga nobody listens to the guru in Kaliyuga. So to be a guru or brahmana in Kaliyuga means very difficult, so he must be telling the truth, you don’t wish that on your enemy! So being now in Kaliyuga somehow or another I am very grateful for all the disciples in spite of my not being able to care for them very well, in spite of my not being able to be with them all the time, in spite of my not being able to always the perfect example that I should be, could be a better example, in spite of so many problems somehow you are still here and you’re still disciples and you’re still serving Prabhupada and I am very very grateful for that.

And, what else could I say but of course I would like to see, in spite of this Kaliyuga, in spite of difficult time, but we can rise above even in Kaliyuga by Lord Caitanya's mercy, this is the golden age, so let us be golden time also for us that we can actually work together and is loving way and being come close to and close together and where everyone would be close to Prabhupada, closest to Prabhupada and want everyone bring close to all the vaishnavas in ISKCON and all the disciples to be close to their, to me, my disciples close to me and all disciples close to their gurus. In this way to make ISKCON the ideal family that Prabhupada wants. For that, I need your cooperation and help and your patience that we were in a society where we have to work as an integral part of the society. We don’t want to be separate, we may have our own little subfamily here that we work together, we help each other, that will go on. But we are also a joint family, we have to take them to greater family members also and we want to fulfill Prabhupada’s dream to make ISKCON the perfect society for helping people get back to Kṛṣṇa’s society. Still, even if we have so many problems he says that, what’s that English saying ‘Oh my country, with all your faults I still love you’, ‘England with all thy faults, I still love thee’. So Prabhupada used that with ‘ISKCON with all thy faults I still love thee’

ISKCON ki! Jai! Prabhupada ki! Jai!

You see, or maybe feel that Jayapataka Swami with all very faults still..(laughing). In any case, I told you I didn’t have a warning on this, so I am just speaking things from the top of my heart. So if I would have an hour to think about it probably it would have been more coherent. But these things are on my heart alas these days and I’m really grateful to all my Godbrothers and God sisters for tolerating me in trying to fulfill Prabhupada's vision the way I understood it. The way I understand it, I was acting a certain way, maybe my profile was considered to be too ostentatious or something. So now in ISKCON, we’re going to have a, by law a lower profile for everyone. So within that environment, we’ll see how we can function. I'm still sure my profile would be too high but even within though. Anyway, we’ll discuss that tomorrow night about all the GBC rules and come up with some consensus, everybody’s input how we can do this better, how we can preserve our faith and relationship and build the Prabhupada position in the best possible way and follow the GBC guidelines to this year as ideal members of ISKCON, I want, it’s a nice, it’s interesting, I think it’s a challenge you know, great, no matter what rules they give, we’re still gonna be able to develop our guru-disciple relationship and we’re gonna be able to have a try to ISKCON you know, as long as it’s according to scriptures then I don’t see any problem. So anyway I think I’m gonna be there in ten minutes.

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