20240827 128th Śrīla Prabhupada Vyāsa-pūjā Homage

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram
Harihi oṁ tat sat

Jayapatākā Swami: So, normally I will speak English so that will be easier. When I was coming down for this assembly I saw there was a babies’ celebration of Śrīla Prabhupāda Vyāsa-pūjā. Because the babies may disturb this gathering, therefore they had their own Vyāsa-pūjā celebration! It was nice to see the babies, are also the children, darśana of Lord Narasiṁhadeva, Śrī Śrī Rādhā Mādhava Aṣṭa-sakhi and Māyāpur-candra, Śrī Śrī Pañca-tattva. I was very happy to see Their clothes, and want to thank all the people who were part of it – the donors, the makers. Very beautiful clothes! We want the devotees to realize that the Deities were offered new dress today!

I joined the temple in San Francisco. Then I heard that Śrīla Prabhupāda was in Montreal. So I went via New York to Montreal. So for me it was a very special situation. Because I visited all the temples of ISKCON! All three!! There I met our Founder-Ācārya, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. So, Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted to establish more temples. And then after two years, he sent me to India. And on Rādhāṣṭamī day, he gave me sannyāsa in Calcutta. And then he sent me to Māyāpur. So, he would come every year, twice, to Māyāpur. Also, we would have some advance secret arrangement when some devotees who would see Śrīla Prabhupāda coming. They would hold signs and they would know that Śrīla Prabhupāda is round the corner. In the beginning, we only had the grass bhajan-kuṭīra. The son of Satyamedha Gaurāṅga dāsa had several dreams of the bhajan-kuṭīra.

So, Śrīla Prabhupāda, he had a very special relationship with Māyāpur. Gradually, Māyāpur started developing. And we had the Lotus Building. Śrīla Prabhupāda was staying there and he was saying he wanted a city built in Māyāpur. But he wanted it very clean, very exemplary. And when he walked around, if he saw any dirt or any piece of paper, he would ask, “What is that?” We had a circular bath house. Inside was for ladies. And the outside was for the men. So Śrīla Prabhupāda, with his cane hit one door open. And he said a brāhmaṇa means clean, someone did not clean up after, there is dirt here! So what kind of brāhmaṇas are you? We were all looking very sad! So one devotee from overseas had just driven up to Māyāpur. He stopped the car and ran over to see Śrīla Prabhupāda, he was smiling. And then Śrīla Prabhupāda pointed to him and said, “What kind of brāhmaṇa are you? It is dirty here!” The devotee had just driven up, so he was shocked! But Śrīla Prabhupāda, he was instructing for everyone. So one person stood up smiling although we are all very sad.

So like this, Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted Māyāpur to be very exemplary. In 1977, he had wanted to go to Māyāpur. And for that reason they rented three Mercedes Benz cars one after another, to take him to the airport. Somehow, all those three cars could not make it! Śrīla Prabhupāda said that this is a sign that Kṛṣṇa is giving me to just stay here, just a couple of months before he left. He said that if I leave in Vṛndāvana, make a Puṣpa-samādhi for me in Māyāpur. And if I leave in Māyāpur, make my samādhi there and a Puṣpa-samādhi in Vṛndāvana. So, we should continue with Śrīla Prabhupāda’s heritage for the next ten thousand years and make Māyāpur an ideal city. We have so many devotees now, many disciples of Śrīla Prabhupāda. So it is important to keep Māyāpur ideal, in the future. Śrīla Prabhupāda said he wanted a city of 50,000! Now we have about 7,500. So, that has to multiply how many times! So you can imagine how much cooperation for pleasing Śrīla Prabhupāda has to be maintained. And so, Śrīla Prabhupāda was wanting Māyāpur to show an example around the world.

So we pray to the Deities, I was very encouraged to hear Jagatguru Jayadeva speaking. And how Ravindra Svarūpa Prabhu and his good wife gave their homage. So we have to keep up Śrīla Prabhupāda consciousness. Since there are other speakers, I will end here.