20250811 129th Vyāsa-pūjā Celebration Festival Address

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: I think I was born in 1968 in Montreal. And I got my second initiation in New York. And got sannyāsa in Calcutta, in 1970. I was a brahmacārī earlier! So today we are having a special function here in the Brahmacārī āśrama for Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Vyāsa-pūjā. Śrīla Prabhupāda was a gṛhastha, then vānaprastha and finally a sannyāsī. And he was the one who preached the message of Lord Caitanya all over the world! When we initially started, we had less of Indians in our community. And Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted that there should be some Indian brahmacārīs as well. His Holiness Bhakti Cāru Swami and His Holiness Subhaga Swami were Indians. Now there are many Indians. And Śrīla Prabhupāda will be very happy to see all of you! And Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted that Lord Caitanya’s message be distributed far and wide. And he himself personally tried to do that. Now it is your responsibility that all of you do more preaching! You should also try to see that the preaching is spread as far as possible. I see Kamalāpati dāsa coming now! You should preach to all the people visiting Māyāpur. Also, Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam are being preached everywhere. Gītā Course and the Nāma-haṭṭas are preaching them. And our dear His Grace Jananivāsa Prabhu is here. He is a lifelong brahmacārī! When we had the hut and no temple as yet, he was there! And he was there when Māyāpurcandra and Rādhā Mādhava were installed. Now we have the big Rādhā Mādhava and Aṣṭa-sakhi. But then we only had the Māyāpurcandra and small Rādhā Mādhava Deities. We have the small Rādhā Gopīnātha Deities with Whom Śrīla Prabhupāda used to travel, and we have Them. After that Śrīla Prabhupāda established so many Deities in so many temples that there was no need for him to travel with the Deities.

In Māyāpur, Śrīla Prabhupāda used to come here twice a year especially. He would stay in the Dāmodara month in Vṛndāvana but visit Māyāpur for a month before or after that. And he would stay for two weeks during Gaura-pūrṇimā. I am very grateful that I had the opportunity to speak a little about Śrīla Prabhupāda!