vyasa puja - Blog - ISKCON Desire Tree | IDT2024-03-28T14:50:26Zhttps://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/vyasa+puja6-Hour Online Vyasa Puja Hosted from Historic Matchless Giftshttps://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/6-hour-online-vyasa-puja-hosted-from-historic-matchless-gifts2023-09-18T13:43:48.000Z2023-09-18T13:43:48.000ZISKCON Desire Treehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree<div><p><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12227222884,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="500" alt="12227222884?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></p>
<p>On September 7th, devotees participated in an online Vyasa Puja broadcast from the Matchless Gifts storefront to celebrate His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. The year’s event was hosted by Candrasekhara Swami with the help of a team of devotees and included offerings from over 20 senior devotees in person and worldwide.</p>
<p>The annual Vyasa Puja held at 26 2nd Avenue began as a yearly in-person gathering organized by Romapada Swami. Later, Candrasekhara Swami became its host and organizer. Having it online means a broader range of devotees can participate from around the world while having Matchless Gifts as the “base of operations” ties it to the historical beginnings of ISKCON. The GBC’s Strategic Planning Team also broadcasted the event on their Mayapur Channel. <br /> <br /> <strong>Read more: </strong><a href="https://iskconnews.org/6-hour-online-vyasa-puja-hosted-from-historic-matchless-gifts/">https://iskconnews.org/6-hour-online-vyasa-puja-hosted-from-historic-matchless-gifts/</a></p></div>The Meaning of Vyasa Puja – “He came; he gave; he conquered” By Chaitanya Charan Dashttps://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/the-meaning-of-vyasa-puja-he-came-he-gave-he-conquered-by-12023-09-08T10:00:00.000Z2023-09-08T10:00:00.000ZISKCON Desire Treehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree<div><p><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}2515261828,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="2515261828?profile=RESIZE_400x" width="400" /></p>
<p>Expression reflects and reinforces emotion. The celebration of Vyasa-puja is an expression of the gratitude that the disciple feels for the spiritual master. And that feeling becomes reinforced when a disciple expresses one’s own gratitude and hears other disciples’ express their gratitude.</p>
<p>The spiritual master’s guidance and grace are indispensable for elevating and liberating souls caught in this dangerous and treacherous material existence. The spiritual master is non-different from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as the sacred scriptures proclaim. In Srimad-Bhagavatam, in the Uddhava Gita (11.17.27: acaryam mam vijaniyam), Krishna himself declares that the acarya is nondifferent from him. This non-difference is not because of a merging of beings but because of a joining of hearts. The spiritual master is purely and selflessly surrendered to Krishna, as was Arjuna at the end of the Bhagavad-gita (18.73). The spiritual master is not just the conveyor of Krishna’s will – he is also the gateway to Krishna; on Krishna’s behalf, he receives the disciple’s service and bestows mercy.</p>
<p>yasya prasadad bhagavata prasado<br /> yasya ‘prasadan na gatih kuto ‘pi</p>
<p>By the mercy of the spiritual master is the mercy of Krishna accessed. So potent and transformational is the spiritual master’s mercy that the sincere disciple feels and remains indebted, lifetime after lifetime. The disciple strives to express that gratitude by dedicating one’s life to the spiritual master’s service.</p>
<p>During the course of our life, Vyasapuja offers us a precious annual opportunity to meditate on and better appreciate our spiritual master’s gifts. In composing our offering to the spiritual master, we go deep into our heart. Going beyond the routines and superficialities that frequently crowd our consciousness, we focus on that which matters most – the supreme treasure of Krishna-bhakti with which the spiritual master has enriched our heart. And by hearing the offerings of other devotees, we see those devotees with greater appreciation – not just for their functional roles in this world, but also as devoted and exalted souls committed to the spiritual master’s service.</p>
<p>Vyasadeva is the quintessential spiritual master. He is the literary incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. By rendering the Vedic message in written form, he preserves and propagates that timeless treasure of wisdom. Therein, he provides a comprehensive gamut of guidelines for elevating people at all levels. And he also gives in Srimad-Bhagavatam, the ripened fruit of the Vedic literature (Bhagavatam 1.1.3), the conclusive guidelines of pure devotion for those seeking life’s highest destination – eternal spiritual love for Krishna.</p>
<p>All spiritual masters follow in the footsteps of Vyasadeva and carry on his mission. Thus, the spiritual master represents Krishna, specifically Krishna in his manifestation as Vyasadeva. Through the numerous representatives of Vyasadeva over millennia culminating for us in our spiritual master, we receive the treasure of krishna-bhakti.</p>
<p>Among the many spiritual masters who have carried forward Vyasadeva’s legacy, the position of His Divine Grace A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada is distinctive. Srila Prabhupada was the commander who fulfilled the prophecy of Lord Chaitanya that the holy names will be chanted in every town and village of the world.</p>
<p>Srila Prabhupada manifested both the literary vigor of Vyasadeva and the itinerant vigor of Vyasadeva’s spiritual master, Narada Muni. Srila Prabhupada wrote prolifically and profoundly, thus doing in English what Vyasadeva did in Sanskrit. And Srila Prabhupada, following in Narada Muni’s footsteps, circumnavigated the globe fourteen times, making Krishna’s message accessible to millions who had never heard it before.</p>
<p>The Vyasa-puja celebration of 2016 is special because this year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of ISKCON. Devotees in various parts of the world have prepared inspiring presentations that demonstrate movingly the global spread and devotional depth of Srila Prabhupada’s legacy.</p>
<p>One way of contemplating Srila Prabhupada’s unparalleled contribution is by adapting a quote attributed to Julius Caesar: “I came, I saw, I conquered.” Srila Prabhupada’s mission was not one of political conquest, but of spiritual compassion; so, the variant applicable to him is, “He came, he gave, he conquered.”</p>
<p>He came: Srimad-Bhagavatam (3.5.3) states, “O my lord, great philanthropic souls travel on the earth on behalf of the Supreme Personality of Godhead to show compassion to the fallen souls who are averse to the sense of subordination to the Lord.”</p>
<p>Srila Prabhupada descended from the spiritual world to the material world on the sacred day of Nandotsava, the day after Krishna’s appearance. That Srila Prabhupada’s appearance day follows Krishna’s appearance day signifies his mission: to carry forward Krishna’s message.</p>
<p>He came to the Western world with the message of Krishna’s love – a message that had never before been highlighted despite the many gurus who had come before him to the West from India. And he came back to India with a living demonstration of the universal appeal of krishna-bhakti: hundreds of Western men and women who had given up everything else for devoting themselves to Krishna.</p>
<p>Srila Prabhupada encouraged us to meditate on his coming as a mission for our personal redemption. During one of his visits to Australia, a girl asked him why this message hadn’t been brought earlier. He replied sweetly that it was because she had not been born earlier; the message had been brought now so that she could be delivered.</p>
<p>He gave: In Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.31.9), the topmost devotees, the gopis, laud those who shower the world with Krishna’s love by sharing his glories: “Those who spread the message of Godhead are most munificent.”</p>
<p>This world is like a quicksand of ignorance, wherein we are not only kept in ignorance of life’s spiritual side, but are sucked deeper into that ignorance by the lure of material pleasures. And in the present times, the accumulation of material knowledge creates an illusion of progress that doesn’t just lure us into ignorance, but also makes us complacent and arrogant, thus keeping us in ignorance of our ignorance. Srila Prabhupada rescued us from this ignorance by sharing generously the timeless spiritual knowledge of the Vedas. And his charity went far beyond offering spiritual knowledge alone; he offered spiritual love – love for Krishna that was revealed to the world by Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And this charity of love enabled him to conquer hearts.</p>
<p>He conquered: Srila Prabhupada won the hearts of thousands of people all over the world by the power of spiritual love. He radiated pure, pristine love; his selfless, surrendered consciousness transmitted Krishna’s love to all those who came in contact with him. By that love, he inspired people from incredibly diverse backgrounds to enthrone Krishna as the Lord of their heart, conquering the many illusions that misdirected their love towards worldly things.</p>
<p>Chaitanya Bhagavata states that Lord Chaitanya descended to this world to bless it with the garland of Krishna-prema. Srila Prabhupada made that garland manifest by establishing all over the world temples that made loving Krishna intelligible and relishable.</p>
<p>The glory of his feat has been recognized not just by his followers but also by secular authorities, in both the West and the East. The religious scholar A L Basham stated, “The Hare Krishna movement arose out of next to nothing in less than twenty years and has become known all over the West. This is an important fact in the history of the Western world.” The phenomenal propagation that Srila Prabhupada pioneered has continued after his disappearance through the vision and vigor he has imparted to his followers.<br /> The Times of India in an editorial in 2006 stated, “Guess again if you think Bollywood or Indians writing in English is the country’s biggest cultural export. You may not come across any of these if you visit Cochabamba in Bolivia or Gaborone in Botswana; what you will find instead is a centre of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).”</p>
<p>“He came, he gave, he conquered” is not just a historical and historic event – it is also an ongoing event. He conquers the hearts of new people who come in contact with him through the many manifestations of his mercy such as his mission, his temples, his books and his followers. And he conquers even more the hearts of us, his followers, as our appreciation of his gifts deepens.<br /> Leading a life of devotion in a world of temptation is undoubtedly difficult, but meditating on the sacrifices of the givers of devotion lessens the difficulty. A child may be reluctant to take a bitter medicine, but if he remembers that his mother has sold her jewelry to pay for that medicine, then contemplating her sacrifice will replace reluctance with gratitude.</p>
<p>Similarly, difficulties while practicing and sharing krishna-bhakti may make us reluctant in our service. But by meditating on Srila Prabhupada’s innumerable and insurmountable sacrifices just for giving us the opportunity to practice bhakti, we can shed our reluctance and face whole-heartedly whatever challenges confront us.</p>
<p>If we keep the memories of his sacrifices alive in our hearts, he will come deeper into our hearts; the glory of his gifts will be increasingly revealed to us; and he will conquer our hearts more and more.</p>
<p>Srila Prabhupada conquered by surrendering. On the Jaladuta, in his celebrated song, Markine Bhagavata Dharma, he prayed to Krishna, “Make me dance; make me like a puppet; make me dance according to your will.” On the sacred occasion of Srila Prabhupada’s Vyasapuja celebration, during ISKCON’s fiftieth year, we pray that we too may surrender so that we can dance like puppets in Srila Prabhupada’s hands to do our small parts to push on his glorious mission.</p>
<div><strong>Source:</strong> <span style="color:#1155cc;"><u><a href="http://www.dandavats.com/?p=30807">http://www.dandavats.com/?p=30807</a></u></span></div></div>The amazing accomplishments of His Divine Grace by Bhakti Anugraha Janardana Swamihttps://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/the-amazing-accomplishments-of-his-divine-grace-by-bhakti-anugrah2023-09-08T09:30:00.000Z2023-09-08T09:30:00.000ZISKCON Desire Treehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree<div><p style="text-align:center;"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}2515133233,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="2515133233?profile=RESIZE_400x" width="400" /></p>
<p>My dearest Srila Prabhupada,</p>
<p>Please accept my most humble obeisances at the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to you on this most auspicious day of your Vyasa-puja.</p>
<p>In 1969 you wrote the following in a letter to one of your disciples:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Just as you have already understood the benefits of this Krsna Consciousness Movement, try to realize and assimilate it more and more and distribute it to the suffering humanity. Our movement is the greatest gift to the human race. They may not immediately appreciate it, but time will come and history will give evidence that this movement saved the human society from being fallen into barbarianism. [Letter to Jayasri, 13 November 1969]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This year, as we celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of your society, ISKCON, this prophecy is already being realized. Our movement is increasing more and more, as many devotees are being made, many temples are being constructed, your transcendental books in many languages are being printed and distributed by the millions every year, prasadam is being profusely distributed all over the world, many sustainable community farm projects are being set up all over the world, many restaurants are being opened everywhere, many festivals spreading the holy name are happening each year, etc. Your dream of the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium in Mayapur is quickly becoming a reality, and hopefully it will be inaugurated in 2022. All of your leaders are working hard to maintain and increase what you started, and it is sure that the movement will go on for the next ten thousand years. Many initiatives have been undertaken to make this happen. This year the third ISKCON Leadership Sanga was held in Mayapur, with over 1,200 leaders from all over the world participating. Also, this year a second batch of 48 students enrolled in the GBC College for Leadership Development, ensuring that in the future there will be a smooth transition to the next generation of qualified leaders in the various GBC zones all over the world. I would like to mention some of your main achievements so that we can meditate on your greatness as the founder-acarya of our movement on this most auspicious day. In 1965, at the age of sixty-nine, you ventured outside India for the first time to fulfill the order of your spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. During your sea voyage you suffered two severe heart attacks. You reached the shores of America with the equivalent of seven dollars to your name. After struggling alone in New York City for almost a year, on July 13, 1966, you founded ISKCON as a formally registered society with a small group of young followers. This marked the first time in history that a pure devotee of Krsna had successfully trained non-Indians on foreign soil in the strict disciplines of Vaisnavism, and you did it during the height of the blossoming American hedonistic countercultural movement.</p>
<p>You sent your followers into the streets of cities and towns everywhere to chant the names of God, and “Hare Krsna” became a household phrase. You sent your disciples to London, where in 1969 they recorded the hit single record “The Hare Krishna Mantra” with George Harrison. It became the fastest-selling of all of Apple Corporation’s releases, including those of the Beatles. The record reached #3 in Czechoslovakia and #9 in Britain, and made the top ten in Germany, Japan, Australia, South Africa, Yugoslavia, and many other countries. You formally initiated almost five thousand disciples. These initiates, both men and women, represented a sweeping diversity of nationalities, races, and religious backgrounds. You established 108 Krsna temples on six continents, installed the Deity of Krsna in each center, and trained your disciples in the process of Deity worship. Thirty-two new temples (almost three a month) were opened in a single year, between 1970 and 1971. You inaugurated the Jagannatha Ratha-yatra festival in major cities around the globe, in effect bringing the temple to the people.</p>
<p>You instituted the brahmacarini asrama, something previously unheard of in Vedic culture, to give shelter to single women wishing to practice Krsna consciousness. In 19 you instructed your disciples to start an incense business to provide financial support for the temples. Within four years the business, Spiritual Sky Incense, generated an annual revenue of one million dollars, equivalent to almost six million dollars today. You introduced the Sunday Love Feast and other programs for distributing prasadam (sanctified food). These programs have provided millions of free meals to the public, along with regular university lunches, which still go on today.</p>
<p>You created the world’s first chain of vegetarian restaurants, Govinda’s. You spoke daily on the philosophy of Krsna consciousness, delivering thousands of formal lectures. Over 2,200 were recorded and archived. You conducted many hundreds of informal conversations on the science of Krsna consciousness with disciples, scholars, professors, guests, and friends. Over 1,300 were recorded and archived. You had scores of interviews and philosophical discussions with journalists, scientists, religious leaders, and politicians, as well as meetings with world-renowned dignitaries and celebrities like Indira Gandhi, Allen Ginsberg, Ravi Shankar, Alice Coltrane, John Lennon, and George Harrison. You recorded more than twenty albums of devotional music. You published the monthly magazine Back to Godhead, which you called the backbone of your movement. At the height of its circulation in the mid-seventies, over a million copies per issue were sold. You launched the ISKCON Life Membership Program, which enrolled tens of thousands of members to encourage them to take to the devotional process. You built major temples in Bombay, Hyderabad, and Vrndavana, and founded a spiritual city at Mayapur. All became international sites of pilgrimage. You established gurukula schools to provide education in the principles of devotional service. You founded the Bhaktivedanta Institute to advance Krsna consciousness within the scientific community, engaging serious academicians in consideration of the science of self-realization. You formed the Bhaktivedanta Swami Charity Trust to unearth and renovate the holy places of Lord Caitanya’s pastimes.</p>
<p>You set up farm communities to teach “simple living and high thinking,” emphasizing cow protection and dependence on God and nature.</p>
<p>You commissioned your artist disciples to produce hundreds of illustrations of Krsna’s pastimes, windows to the spiritual world, based on your meticulous instructions and the descriptions in your books. You directed some of your followers to learn the Indian art of “doll-making” to present Vedic philosophy through dioramas. This project became the FATE Museums. Your wanted such museums in every temple. You counseled your disciples on complex managerial, philosophical, and personal issues in more than six thousand archived letters. You were the subject of more than 30,000 archival photos and more than seventy hours of documentary film footage.</p>
<p>You wrote approximately seventy books on the science of Krsna consciousness, sleeping only a few hours a night. Dozens of prominent scholars and educators from leading universities have praised your literary work. The Encyclopedia Britannica proclaimed that your voluminous translations from the original Sanskrit and your lucid commentaries “have astounded literary and academic communities worldwide.” This feat is even more astonishing considering that you wrote the translations and commentaries in English, your second language.</p>
<p>You founded the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (BBT) in 1972 to produce your books. By 1976, over 55,000,000 pieces of literature had been published in twenty-five languages and distributed in almost every country, making the BBT the world’s largest publisher of Indian religious and philosophical texts. One printing alone of Bhagavad-gita As It Is required seventy-six railroad cars to ship the paper needed to print it.</p>
<p>You completed the entire Caitanya-caritamrta manuscript (seventeen volumes) in eighteen months in 1974.</p>
<p>You circled the globe fourteen times, visiting twenty-four countries, preaching, inspiring your followers, and making countless public appearances before multitudes of people.</p>
<p>You skillfully managed your international society simply through letters and personal meetings, virtually without the use of a telephone. When the devotees wanted to use the telex machine, your quick response was that “it will simply become a gossip machine.”</p>
<p>Srila Prabhupada, our only desire is to satisfy you by becoming more and more enthusiastic to spread this mission of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, so that the holy name will be spread everywhere. If we actually sincerely work under your direction—that is, for the satisfaction of Krsna—then we are confident that Krsna will help us in every way.</p>
<p>So on this most auspicious day of your Vyasa-puja we pray that you empower us to be your fully surrendered souls and thus fulfill your desire that the whole universe become Krsna conscious.</p>
<p>An insignificant servant of your servants,<br /> Bhakti Anugraha Janardana Swami</p>
<p><strong>Source :</strong> <a href="http://www.dandavats.com/?p=30927">http://www.dandavats.com/?p=30927</a></p></div>Vyasa Puja Offering to Srila Prabhupada by Giriraj Swamihttps://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/vyasa-puja-offering-to-srila-prabhupada-by-giriraj-swami2023-09-08T08:30:00.000Z2023-09-08T08:30:00.000ZISKCON Desire Treehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree<div><p><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10779014876,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10779014876?profile=RESIZE_400x" width="274" />My dear Srila Prabhupada,</p>
<p>Please accept my humble, prostrated obeisances at your all-merciful lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Grace.</p>
<p>When an interviewer once asked you, “What is the goal of life?” you replied, “The goal of life is to enjoy.” The effort to enjoy materially, through the mind and senses, leads only to frustration and misery. But spiritually one can enjoy in relation to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and that pleasure, unlike the temporary so-called happiness of the material world, is eternal, and that eternal happiness can be realized through the mercy of Sri Nityananda Prabhu and you. Nitya means “eternal,” and ananda means “bliss.” So if we can come in touch with Lord Nityananda—through you—we can realize that eternal bliss for which we are hankering.</p>
<p>How do we become eligible for your and Lord Nityananda’s mercy? We can learn how from the description of His qualities and pastimes in Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila, Chapter Seventeen: “The Pastimes of Lord Caitanya in His Youth”:</p>
<p>TEXT 17</p>
<p>tabe saci dekhila, rama-krsna—dui bhai<br /> tabe nistarila prabhu jagai-madhai</p>
<p>TRANSLATION</p>
<p>Thereafter Mother Sacidevi saw the brothers Krsna and Balarama in Their manifestation of Lord Caitanya and Nityananda. Then the Lord delivered the two brothers Jagai and Madhai.</p>
<p>In your purport, you write:</p>
<p>“Jagai and Madhai were two brothers born in Navadvipa in a respectable brahmana family who later became addicted to all kinds of sinful activities. By the order of Lord Caitanya, both Nityananda Prabhu and Haridasa Thakura used to preach the cult of Krsna consciousness door to door. In the course of such preaching they found Jagai and Madhai, two maddened drunken brothers, who, upon seeing them, began to chase them. The next day, Madhai struck Nityananda Prabhu on the head with a piece of earthen pot, thus drawing blood. When Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu heard of this, He immediately came to the spot, ready to punish both brothers, but when the all-merciful Lord Gauranga saw Jagai’s repentant behavior, He immediately embraced him. By seeing the Supreme Personality of Godhead face to face and embracing Him, both the sinful brothers were at once cleansed. Thus they received initiation into the chanting of the Hare Krsna maha-mantra from the Lord and were delivered.</p>
<p>“Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ordered Nityananda Prabhu and Haridasa Thakura to go into Navadvipa to approach whomever they met on the way and to go door-to-door and request people to chant the name of Krishna, to worship Krishna, to follow Krishna’s instructions (bolo krsna, bhajo krsna, koro krsna-siksa)—and not to distinguish between who was qualified and who was not. And you, Srila Prabhupada, preached in that mood.</p>
<p>“When Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was ready to kill Jagai and Madhai because the latter had physically injured Nityananda, the all-merciful Nityananda Prabhu said, ‘No, Lord, don’t do that. Don’t harm them. In Kali-yuga Our mission is not to kill the demons but to deliver them. And in Kali-yuga almost everyone is like Jagai and Madhai.’ ”</p>
<p>In a conversation on June 11, 1975, in Honolulu, you said, “This is a good certificate we have got from some very authoritative person, that we are turning these drug-addicted hippies into servants of Krishna and humanity. Is it not a good certificate?”</p>
<p>“Yes. It’s true. We were all hippies,” Govinda Dasi responded.</p>
<p>And you replied, chuckling, “This is the fact. And I came to America for this purpose. Papi tapi jata chilo, hari-name uddharilo, tara saksi jagai madhai. Hari-name uddharilo, simply by chanting Hare Krishna mantra, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu delivered all sinful men, suffering humanity. Is it true? What is the evidence? Tara saksi jagai madhai. Just see, Jagai and Madhai was drunkard. So, I thought, ‘Why one Jagai and Madhai? Why not hundreds and thousands of them, if hari-nama has got so much power?’ So, actually it has done so. Now you also take it very seriously. Papi-tapi jata chilo, hari-name uddharilo. Papi means sinful, and tapi means suffering. So, these two classes of men are there all over the world: sinful and suffering. As soon as one becomes sinful, he will suffer. So, all these sinful and suffering beings were delivered simply by the method of sankirtana: hari-name uddharilo. Tara saksi jagai madhai. People would actually see Jagai and Madhai, what they were and what they have become. Try to administer this.”</p>
<p>In your purport to Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya, 16.65, you write:</p>
<p>“Jagai and Madhai were delivered solely by Nityananda Prabhu’s mercy. When they injured Nityananda Prabhu, Lord Caitanya became angry and decided to kill them with His Sudarsana cakra, but Nityananda Prabhu saved them from the Lord’s wrath and delivered them. In the incarnation of Gaura-Nitai, the Lord is not supposed to kill demons but is supposed to deliver them by preaching Krsna consciousness. In the case of Jagai and Madhai, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was so angry that He would have immediately killed them, but Nityananda Prabhu was so kind that He not only saved them from death but elevated them to the transcendental position. Thus what was not possible for Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was carried out by Nityananda Prabhu.</p>
<p>“Similarly, if one is true to Gaura-Nitai’s service in the disciplic succession, he can even excel Nityananda Prabhu’s service. This is the process of disciplic succession. Nityananda Prabhu delivered Jagai and Madhai, but a servant of Nityananda Prabhu, by His grace, can deliver many thousands of Jagais and Madhais. That is the special benediction of the disciplic succession. One who is situated in the disciplic succession can be understood by the result of his activities. This is always true as far as the activities of the Lord and His devotees are concerned. Therefore Lord Siva says:</p>
<p>aradhananam sarvesam visnor aradhanam param<br /> tasmat parataram devi tadiyanam samarcanam</p>
<p>‘Of all types of worship, worship of Lord Visnu is best, and better than the worship of Lord Visnu is the worship of His devotee, the Vaisnava.’ (Padma Purana)</p>
<p>“By the grace of Visnu, a Vaisnava can render better service than Visnu; that is the special prerogative of a Vaisnava. The Lord actually wants to see His servants work more gloriously than Himself. . . . If we simply follow Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s instructions and follow in the footsteps of Sri Nityananda Prabhu, this Krsna consciousness movement can advance, and even more difficult tasks can be performed by the preachers remaining faithful to the service of the Lord.”</p>
<p>You took up the same mood of approaching anyone and everyone—pious or sinful, qualified or unqualified—without discrimination. As Nityananda Prabhu said, in Kali-yuga practically everyone is like Jagai and Madhai. That may be more apparent in America and Europe than in India—though I did hear a talk in which you were discussing how demonic Western civilization is and how the leaders, and pretty much everyone, are demons, but then added, “Actually in my country also, 80 percent are demons.” But still, what you encountered in 1965 when you came to America was something that people now, especially people in India, can hardly imagine.</p>
<p>Krsna Candra Prabhu (Hrishikesh Mafatlal) from Mumbai used to say that people cannot imagine who you encountered when you went to America. He recommended that everyone see the DVDs of you when you came to America, first at 26 Second Avenue in New York, then at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. People can’t believe, can’t imagine, the type of people you were approaching. And they didn’t always receive you well. To get some idea of what you experienced, everyone should read Srila Prabhupada-lilamrta and watch the DVD series Following Srila Prabhupada.</p>
<p>One of the most dramatic incidents occurred in the summer of 1966, when you were living in a loft in New York’s Bowery, which was the most degraded part of the city, its “Skid Row,” and was inhabited mostly by drunks. But even they had a little respect. They would be sprawled out on the sidewalk and on the stairs leading up to your apartment, but somehow they sensed that you were a saintly person, and so they would try to move over and make room for you to pass.</p>
<p>You were staying with a young man who seemed interested in Krishna consciousness. In fact, you thought, “I’ll train him as a Vaishnava.” But one day the young man went crazy, probably from taking LSD—the 1960s equivalent of the strong liquor Jagai and Madhai were taking five hundred years ago. In his crazed state he threatened to attack you. Indeed, he seemed ready to kill you, just as Madhai was ready to kill Nityananda Prabhu. You bolted out of the room and ran down the stairs, much as Haridasa Thakura and Nityananda Prabhu had fled from Jagai and Madhai.</p>
<p>It’s quite a history. In fact, how you stayed in different people’s places and endured so much hardship for the sake of delivering the mercy of Gaura-Nitai is inconceivable. On the boat to America you had suffered two heart attacks, and even in America you had a lot of physical problems. But you endured everything—all these “attacks of maya”—for the sake of delivering Gaura-Nitai’s mercy to us. And what Nityananda Prabhu wanted in India has been fulfilled by you outside India. What Nityananda Prabhu wanted was fulfilled in Bengal, but through you it’s been fulfilled throughout the world. So, you are really the embodiment of that mercy of Nityananda Prabhu. There had not been anyone in the history of our sampradaya, no one after Nityananda Prabhu, who had taken up that mood of approaching anyone and everyone without discrimination, without considering who is qualified and who is not.</p>
<p>And you gave the same message: chant Krishna’s name, worship Krishna, accept Krishna as your life and soul—but not in so many words, because the people that you were approaching didn’t even know who Krishna was. When Nityananda approached people in Navadvipa and told them, “Chant Krishna’s name, worship Krishna, follow Krishna’s instructions,” they knew who Krishna was, they knew what Nityananda was saying, but in America and Europe nobody knew who Krishna was. So “Chant Krishna’s name, worship Krishna” had to be explained in books, and thus you wrote so many books to explain who is Krishna, what is Krishna’s name, how to chant Krishna’s name, how to worship Krishna, why we should accept Krishna as our life and soul, why we should surrender to Krishna —the same message that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu asked Nityananda Prabhu to deliver to everyone, but in an expanded form, because the people you were approaching had no idea of Krishna’s identity or instructions.</p>
<p>When we go out with your books, it is like when Mahaprabhu sent Nityananda and Haridasa to approach people with that message. Sometimes devotees are not well received, but even Nityananda and Haridasa were not always well received. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would have nocturnal kirtans in Srivasa Thakura’s house, and if anyone was proud, he was not allowed to enter. Only humble, pure devotees were allowed. So all the proud people in Navadvipa were upset that they weren’t allowed to join the kirtan, and when Nityananda and Haridasa came to their doors, they were angry with them—“Oh, you’ve come from that Nimai Pandit and Srivasa Thakura”—and they spread rumors about them: “They are thieves. They come to your door and say to chant Krishna’s name and worship Krishna, but really what they’re doing is looking in your house to see what you have so that they can come back at night and steal it.” They were spreading a lot of false propaganda. So, we have to accept that—expect it and accept it—without being deterred. It didn’t stop Nityananda and Haridasa, and it didn’t stop you, and it shouldn’t stop any of us.</p>
<p>ISKCON is the continuation of Nityananda Prabhu’s mission, and you really had His magnanimous mood. When one of your early disciples came to India and the Calcutta temple president phoned you in Bombay to tell you that the devotee was smoking ganja, marijuana, and asked what to do, you told your secretary to relay your response: “Tell him that if he doesn’t stop smoking ganja I will reject him.” Afterwards, Tamal Krishna Goswami asked you, “Is it true that if he doesn’t stop smoking ganja you will reject him?” And you said, “No—I cannot reject anyone.” Tamal Krishna Goswami asked, “But don’t you have to draw the line somewhere?” And you replied, “The mercy of Lord Nityananda is unlimited.” So that was your mood: you were in the mood of Nityananda Prabhu.</p>
<p>We are the recipients of Gaura-Nitai’s mercy through you. By your mercy we are chanting Krishna’s name, worshiping Krishna, and following Krishna’s instructions, accepting Krishna as the goal of our lives. And it is also by your mercy and order that we preach the same message to others. We can speak to our capacity, and whatever our capacity to speak may or may not be, we can give people your books, which convey the same message of Mahaprabhu. We just elaborate on it and present it in a way that people without any background in Vedic knowledge can understand.</p>
<p>So, on this most sacred and blessed occasion, we pray to you to inspire and empower us with your mood of humble persuasion. I saw that mood in you. You often instructed us, but I saw it personally. When we first came to Bombay, there was a program on the terrace of the house where we were staying—Seksaria Bhavan, on Marine Drive. It was very nice, very glamorous, near the sea, and our host, Kailash Seksaria, had invited all the elite, affluent, aristocratic people he knew in Bombay. And you, with the same humility as Nityananda Prabhu, implored them, “I am taking the straw in my mouth and begging you, Please chant Hare Krishna.”</p>
<p>You often quoted a verse by Prabodhananda Sarasvati about how we should approach people. The verse is, dante nidhaya trnakam padayor nipatya: “Taking a straw in my mouth [a sign of utter humility], I bow at your feet.” Krtva ca kaku-satam etad aham bravimi. “And I flatter you a hundred times.” He sadhavah: “O greatly learned man.” Sakalam eva vihaya durad: “Whatever you have learned, you keep it far away from you.” And gauranga-candra-carane kurutanuragam: “Just accept the mercy of Lord Gauranga, just surrender to Lord Gauranga, become attached to Lord Gauranga’s lotus feet.” You approached people in that mood.</p>
<p>One of my favorite statements of yours is “To approach Radha and Krishna, you need the mercy of Lord Chaitanya; to get the mercy of Lord Chaitanya, you need the mercy of Lord Nityananda; and to get the mercy of Lord Nityananda, you have to approach people like Jagai and Madhai.” If we ever feel, “Oh, I’m too high, I’m too holy, I can’t approach these people,” we should think of that instruction and your example and really pray, beg, to be humble instruments of your love and mercy and compassion. As your guru-maharaja told you, “That will be good for you and good for the people who hear you.”</p>
<p>Thank you, Srila Prabhupada, for all you have done for us—for the world. Kindly engage me as your servants’ servants’ servant.</p>
<p>Your eternal, grateful servant,<br /> Giriraj Swami<br /> <br /> <strong>Source: </strong><a href="https://girirajswami.com/blog/?p=18198">https://girirajswami.com/blog/?p=18198</a></p></div>The first Vyasa Puja book by Satsvarupa Dasa Goswamihttps://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/the-first-vyasa-puja-book2023-09-08T07:40:00.000Z2023-09-08T07:40:00.000ZISKCON Desire Treehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}2515262410,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}2515262410,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="2515262410?profile=original" width="500" /></a></p>
<p>The next day was Vyasa-puja day, the celebration of Prabhupada’s seventy-fourth birthday. That morning a package arrived from New York containing several copies of the Vyasa-puja booklet, a twenty-five-page paperback filled with homages from Prabhupada’s disciples.</p>
<p>Months before, one of the devotees had discovered an old issue of a magazine published by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati; the magazine contained a Vyasa-puja homage Prabhupada had written commemorating the appearance day of his own spiritual master. When the article had been brought to Prabhupada’s attention, he said that his disciples could also write their own appreciations, just as he had done forty years before. So the devotees in New York had gathered offerings from seventeen different temples and had printed them all in a Vyasa-puja booklet.</p>
<p>Prabhupada was very pleased to receive the little booklet, and he had one of the devotees read it aloud in the temple. When all the readings were finished, he explained how service and prayers were accepted by Krishna through the medium of the disciplic succession. Although outsiders might think that, “This man is becoming flattered in hearing his own eulogy,” the real meaning of Vyasa-puja homage is that it is a test of how well the disciples were understanding Krishna consciousness and serving the spiritual master.</p>
<p>Their praises were all going to the Supreme Personality of Godhead through the disciplic succession. And such praises were required training for the disciple, just as officers train soldiers in the military.</p>
<p>Reference: Prabhupada Lila – Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami<br /> <br /> <strong>Source: </strong><a href="http://www.dandavats.com/?p=66036">http://www.dandavats.com/?p=66036</a></p></div>The Meaning of Vyasa Puja By Kripamoya Dashttps://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/the-meaning-of-vyasa-puja-by-kripamoya-das-12023-09-08T05:30:00.000Z2023-09-08T05:30:00.000ZISKCON Desire Treehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}2515257486,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}2515257486,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="2515257486?profile=RESIZE_400x" width="400" /></a></p>
<p>Earlier this year, I visited the city of Kolkata and was taken by a kind devotee to an old building on a short backstreet known as Ultadanga Junction Road. I had never been there before, but had heard about the place for forty years. The square, brown brick, rather plain three storey building was formerly known as Bhaktivinoda Asana and it was here, on the flat roof-top, that Srila Prabhupada met his spiritual master for the first time. I had always been intrigued by the idea of a sacred meeting place up on a roof, and it had a special relevance for me, too. In September 1977, Srila Prabhupada came to Bhaktivedanta Manor on what was to be his last visit. I had been sitting close to Srila Prabhupada when, during the Vyasa Puja ceremony, Tamala Krishna Goswami began recounting events from his spiritual master’s early life. He faltered when he couldn’t recall the date of this roof-top meeting. Even though Srila Prabhupada had said nothing until this point, and was in some obvious physical discomfort, he smiled and said “1922” drawing a cheery “Jaya!” from all of us disciples. I was a direct recipient of what had developed since that meeting, and it was because of what transpired on that Kolkata roof-top that I was now sitting before Srila Prabhupada.</p>
<p>The connection of guru and sisya comes after much searching on the part of the disciple and much compassion on the part of God. Srila Prabhupada explained that for the meeting of the disciple with his guru, God Himself makes the arrangements. He said:</p>
<p>“So guru is also incarnation of God, mercy incarnation of God. Guru means that… God is within you, caitya-guru, the guru, or the spiritual master, within your heart. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe ‘rjuna tiṣṭhati. So this Paramātmā is also incarnation of God. And the same Paramātmā, when He comes before you, being very much merciful upon you, to teach you from outside, that is guru.” (Lecture on SB 1.3.26 October 1, 1976)</p>
<p>“Therefore God is called caitya-guru, the spiritual master within the heart. And the physical spiritual master is God’s mercy. If God sees that you are sincere, He will give you a spiritual master who can give you protection. He will help you from within and without. Without in the physical form of spiritual master, and within as the spiritual master within the heart.” (Conversation on May 23, 1974)</p>
<p>On Vyasa Puja Day we worship Srila Prabhupada as the manifested compassion of the Supreme Lord, and we give thanks for the day he appeared in this world, as well as the blessed day we met him and heard his words for the first time.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>And what are those words? The spiritual master teaches everything we need to know about the Lord who dwells within us, that one supreme person who is unseen by our eyes. As the external manifestation of the Paramatma, the guru teaches the Vedas, the sound manifestation of God. He teaches the Vedas, the Vedanta, the Puranas, and he does it as a messenger of the Lord’s incarnation, Srila Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa. Srila Vyasadeva is the original spiritual preceptor for all men. And all other preceptors are to be considered his representative.</p>
<p>Only by learning, understanding, living and teaching the Vedas is a person a spiritual master; and only being voiced through the spiritual master can the Vedas become fully manifested and understood in this world. The result of this successful combination – between God, the Vedas, the guru and the disciple – is that the cleansing of the heart takes place; the hard knot of material attraction is loosened; lifetimes of karma-phala are dissolved and the happiness of loving service to the Supreme Lord is established.</p>
<p>The spiritual master is a guru because he is heavy with knowledge and unmovable by any other, lighter arguments. He is an acarya because he moves and lives completely in accordance with the Vedas and teaches the deeper meanings of the scriptures to others. As the Manu Samhita states:</p>
<p>upaniya tu yah sisyam veda-madhyapayed dvijah</p>
<p>sankalpam sa-rahasyam ca tam acaryam pracaksate</p>
<p>One who confers the sacred thread, trains his disciples in sacrifice and teaches them the confidential meaning of the Vedas is known as an acarya, according to saintly authorities. (2.140)</p>
<p>Such a spiritual master is a rare personality indeed, and is someone whose very life contributes the best of all fortune to all those who seek his company. His presence in our life is so valuable because it gives us the greatest possible life: a life lived as a preparation for returning to our eternal home. Through the gifts of knowledge, guidance, encouragement and correction, the spiritual master takes us personally over the darkest valley of repeated birth and death and sets us up in the highest, most glorious place.</p>
<p>When the great Sri Vaishnava poet, Vedanta Deshika (1268-1370) was writing a book about the transmission of spiritual knowledge, he was trying to think of an analogy for the importance of the acarya, the foremost spiritual preceptor, when he remembered something his nephew, Mudaliyantan, had said to him:</p>
<p>“When a lion leaps from one hill to another, the little ants on its body are transported with him. Similarly, when Ramanujacarya leaped over this world of repeated birth and death, we were saved because of our connection with him.”</p>
<p>Srila Prabhupada has similarly leaped over the world of repeated birth and death, and we tiny souls have somehow or other been transported with him.</p>
<p>On Vyasa Puja Day we try to understand our incalculable good fortune of being connected with such an acarya as Srila Prabhupada. He not only carried the message of Srila Vyasadeva but showed us how to live it. He continues to personally lead us from this world of darkness to the world of eternal light. We give thanks for his boundless compassion and never-ending efforts to save us, and we think that through him, we have come to understand the meaning of the term ‘His Divine Grace’.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>‘The juiciest, sweetest mango is always in the sunshine at the very top of the tree.’ Thereby begins the classic analogy of how the highest spiritual teachings are brought down from ancient times to today. A chain of ‘fruit-pickers,’ sitting in the branches of the mango tree, carefully hand down the delicate fruit from higher to lower branches until it reaches the ground. Similarly, the compassionate preceptors always ensure that the teachings are handed down to the next generations. Yet it is no easy task, and even Lord Krishna says that He must come to the Earth, age after age, to re-establish the teachings that have been lost. One essential component of preserving the living message is therefore the chain of teachers – the parampara.</p>
<p>The greatest spiritual master is moved by compassion to make the teachings of the Vedas accessible to as many as possible. Without compromising their integrity he renders them intelligible and accessible to contemporary listeners, protects them from adulteration, and preserves them by creating the next generation of teachers. Srila Vyasa codified, compiled and protected the entire Vedas and is therefore known forever as the ‘literary incarnation of God.’ The Srimad Bhagavatam provides a description of how the sage divided the responsibility for the preservation and extension of Vedic knowledge:</p>
<p>“Paila Rsi became the professor of the Rg Veda, Jaimini the professor of the Sama Veda, Vaisampayana protected the Yajur Veda, and Angira Muni the Atharva Veda. Romaharsana Suta was entrusted with the Puranas and historical records.” (1.4.21-22)</p>
<p>The illustrious son of Romaharsana Suta, the grand-disciple of Srila Vyasadeva, Suta Goswami, then assumed responsibility for protecting the Puranas.</p>
<p>Without teaching his disciples, empowering them to become advanced in spiritual practise and also engaging them in teaching and preaching, the acarya’s work is not complete. Only when he has safeguarded the message of the Vedas for the next generation – both in precept and example – can he be satisfied that he has offered the world what his own preceptor offered him. As the Vayu Purana explains:</p>
<p>Acinoti hi sastrarthan acare sthapayatyapi</p>
<p>svayam acarate yasmad acarya stena kirtitah</p>
<p>“The acarya is thus called because he has studied and understood the meaning of the scriptures, he practises what he preaches, and he establishes this meaning in the behaviour of others.”</p>
<p>The spiritual master not only comes in parampara, but he ensures that the parampara continues by making the Vedas accessible and intelligible, the essential spiritual techniques practicable, and by fully initiating and training his disciples. He encourages his students to do the same for their countrymen and the next generation. In this way the ancient knowledge and tradition is preserved yet always kept fresh. Thus the sacred mango gets passed down the tree to the next level and to the human society that is yet to come.</p>
<p>On Vyasa Puja Day we honour Srila Prabhupada as one who preserved Vedic knowledge and made it accessible to a fresh, new audience. We honour him as one who explained the deeper meanings of the scriptures and demonstrated by his example the efficacy of the spiritual techniques described in them. We honour him as one who walked through the Earth establishing the sacred arca-vigraha, restoring brahminical culture and arguing for cow protection – the hallmarks of civilized human life. We give thanks that he initiated and trained many disciples to carry forward his messages and preserve the chain of teachers.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>On February 5th, 1919, just three years before Srila Prabhupada met him, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur performed one more duty of an acarya. He gave a human and organisational shape to the mission to perpetuate the parampara. Although the parampara will continue to exist whenever and wherever there is teaching of the Vedas, training and mantra-giving, it is such a delicate structure that sometimes it may not even be located by those who are any less than supremely dedicated. When an organised mission is established there can be greater strength. When disciples gather into groups, each with a specific task, the mission to serve the predecessor gurus can be done with improved efficacy. Yes, there is always danger that the power so accrued by such an efficient organisation may turn the heads of even the most devoted disciple, but done well and with devotion to the spiritual master, it will serve his purposes well.</p>
<p>The Six Goswamis of Vrindavan had similarly organised themselves and their followers and called their assembly the Visva Vaisnava Raja Sabha. Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur had also revived the mission of the Goswamis as a human organisation. In 1919 Srila Saraswati Thakur gave a human shape to what he described as the ‘third descent’ of the Visva Vaisnava Raja Sabha. Speaking at the property known as ‘Bhaktivinode Asana’ at Ultadanga Junction Road in Calcutta, before a large assembly of Vaishnavas, he said:</p>
<p>“Even though this Sabha is eternally established, it has descended into the world three times. Eleven years after the disappearance of Shri Mahaprabhu, when the world was beginning to darken, six wonderfully bright stars arose in Sri Vraja-mandala and were engaged in the service of Gaurachandra…</p>
<p>“Sri Chaitanyadeva is Krishnachandra Himself—the King of all the Vaisnavas in the world (Visva Vaisnava Raja). The gathering of His devotees is the Sri Visva Vaisnava Raja Sabha; the foremost ministers amongst the members of the society are Sri Rupa Gosvami and his honoured Sri Sanatana Gosvami. Those who consider themselves to be the followers of Sri Rupa are the members of this Sri Visva Vaisnava Raja Sabha.”</p>
<p>A guru lives to give systematic knowledge, relevant guidance and inspirational encouragement to all who wish to receive it from him and who are qualified to become disciples. He gives whatever he has with compassion, love and discipline, and he sets before his grateful receivers a living example of what it means to be in consciousness of God and His laws. To better share his gifts with others, the guru invites them to come and live with him.</p>
<p>Yet the guru’s mission is also to broadcast and propagate the teachings to as many newcomers as possible. Even to those who cannot live with him. That enormous task requires the training of future travelling teachers, preparation of various types of publications, and the building of temples and other venues so that people can congregate and become educated and inspired, no matter what their level of spirituality or commitment and no matter where they live. It involves organising groups and devotee farms and villages so that future would-be disciples can be part of a social network and helped toward discipleship. Existing disciples and their families can also live peacefully and be supported through the inevitable challenges of life. The disciple’s role in all this is to help the guru and to alleviate his burden. When this larger mission of the guru is understood by the disciple, he or she will participate in the mission of the guru by offering energy, time, intelligence and resources.</p>
<p>It is a privilege to be even a small part of such a glorious movement for the spiritualisation of human society. Although to mundane vision ISKCON may be perceived as merely a human institution, with transcendental vision it can be seen as a compassionate vehicle of Srila Prabhupada’s divine grace, the most important institution in the world, and an excellent means to accomplish the complete manifestation of the desire of the Six Goswamis.</p>
<p>Vyasa Puja is an opportunity for all of us gathered here today to reflect upon the mission and movement of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. It is a movement of inspired devotees of Krishna, established to make tangible the hopes of all the predecessor acaryas. It began on a suburban Kolkata roof-top in 1922 with a simple instruction to teach the message of the Vedas in the English language. Our appreciation for everything we have received from Srila Prabhupada, of how it has transformed our life, and our display of gratitude, must surely be to continue the mission and message of this most extraordinary of all representatives of Srila Vyasadeva. May we honour him today and always, and work together to share him with the world.<br /> <br /> <strong> Source: </strong><span style="color:#1155cc;"><u><a href="http://www.dandavats.com/?p=13037">http://www.dandavats.com/?p=13037</a></u></span></p></div>Call for Homages for Srila Prabhupada’s 2023 Vyasa Puja Bookhttps://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/call-for-homages-for-srila-prabhupada-s-2023-vyasa-puja-book2023-02-04T13:53:44.000Z2023-02-04T13:53:44.000ZISKCON Desire Treehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree<div><p><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10954199263,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="400" alt="10954199263?profile=RESIZE_400x" /></p>
<p>January 27, 2023</p>
<p>Dear follower of Srila Prabhupada,</p>
<p>Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!</p>
<p>Kindly submit your homage to Srila Prabhupada for his Vyasa-puja book by April 15.</p>
<p>NOTE: This year a new team of devotees will be producing Srila Prabhupada’s Vyasa-puja book. Therefore please do not send your homage to Dravida Dasa at dravida108@gmail.com but rather to Ananda Tirtha Dasa at Ananda.Tirtha.pvs@pamho.net.</p>
<p>In addition, if you’re a direct disciple of Srila Prabhupada, please check out <a href="http://www.sptributes.com">www.sptributes.com</a> to learn about a Vyasa-puja book open to all his disciples. The deadline for submission to this book is April 15.</p>
<p>The standards for submitting an homage to the Vyasa-puja book published by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust are as follows:</p>
<p>————</p>
<p>*Absolutely no homages will be accepted after April 15, 2023.*</p>
<p>Homages must be in English.</p>
<p>Please restrict the length to a maximum of 2,500 words.</p>
<p>Please omit all diacritics on words that can be found in the VedaBase. It’s easier for us to put them in. If you quote a verse from outside the VedaBase or compose original Sanskrit, please include diacritics. Any quotes from Srila Prabhupada’s writings or spoken words must be available in the VedaBase.</p>
<p>Do not “recycle” an homage — no homages from previous years will be accepted.</p>
<p>The Vyasa-puja book is meant for glorifying Srila Prabhupada, not venting grievances. We reserve the right to reject an inappropriate homage or ask for a rewrite.</p>
<p>When writing an homage on behalf of a temple or other unit, please try to write in such a way that the other devotees in your unit can also identify with the homage.</p>
<p>Who may write an homage?</p>
<p>1) Governing Body Commissioners</p>
<p>2) GBC Emeriti</p>
<p>3) Sannyasis</p>
<p>4) Authorized representatives of ISKCON temples, ministries, preaching centers, farms, gurukulas, BBT offices, and “others,” such as BTG magazine and ISCOWP (this is not a complete list). If there is some doubt, we will request you to send written authorization from your GBC representative.</p>
<p>No multiple homages. For example, a temple should not enlist all its bhaktas to write homages under the temple heading. Joint authorship (2-4 devotees) of a single homage is fine.</p>
<p>Please make sure you tell us where the homage originates. For example: New Vamsivata (the Madagascar farm community), NOT just New Vamsivata. If we don’t know where the homage comes from, we will not print it.</p>
<p>Always leave a double space between paragraphs. If you want some special formatting, submit your homage as an attached file in DOC, DOCX, or RTF format.</p>
<p>Submit your homage by emailing it to Ananda Tirtha Dasa at Ananda.Tirtha.pvs@pamho.net.</p>
<p>Homages may be submitted any time from now until April 15, 2023. We will confirm receipt of your homage by e-mail. If you do not receive a confirmation, resend it.</p>
<p>We are not responsible for lost homages.</p>
<p>————</p>
<p>Hoping this meets you well, I remain<br /> Your servant,<br /> Dravida dasa<br /> <br /> <strong>Source:</strong> <a href="http://www.dandavats.com/?post_type=post&p=105760#">http://www.dandavats.com/?post_type=post&p=105760#</a></p></div>Bhaktivedanta Consulting Group Vyasa Puja Offering and New Websitehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/bhaktivedanta-consulting-group-vyasa-puja-offering-and-new-websit2022-09-02T09:59:45.000Z2022-09-02T09:59:45.000ZISKCON Desire Treehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree<div><p><strong><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10801555654,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="500" alt="10801555654?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></strong></p>
<p><strong>By Rasa Krida Parayana dasa</strong></p>
<p>We dedicate and offer to your lotus feet a newly formed Bhaktivedanta Consulting Group. We are committed to work with ISKCON leaders in a totally confidential, objective, and transparent manner challenging boundaries and thoughts.</p>
<p>We are grateful for the talented devotees you have already sent to work with us. We pray you bestow the Bhaktivedanta Consulting Group with more of your dedicated servants so we may serve ISKCON better.</p>
<p>Srila Prabhupada, we seek your endless blessings, continuous guidance, and perpetual mercy to carry out this heavy task for years to come.</p>
<p><a href="https://bhaktivedantaconsulting.org/">https://bhaktivedantaconsulting.org<br /><br /></a><br /><strong>Source: </strong><a href="http://www.dandavats.com/?p=101961%C2%A0">http://www.dandavats.com/?p=101961 </a></p></div>Srila Prabhupada’s 2022 Vyasa-puja book now availablehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/srila-prabhupada-s-2022-vyasa-puja-book-now-available2022-08-03T10:47:27.000Z2022-08-03T10:47:27.000ZISKCON Desire Treehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree<div><p><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10742790273,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="450" alt="10742790273?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></p>
<p>If you live in North America, this year’s Srila Prabhupada Vyasa-puja book can now be ordered from the North American offices of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. The price is $14.25 plus shipping. The book can be ordered any time, but please order your copy by calling 1-800-927-4152 no later than August 5th so you’ll receive it in time for Vyasa-puja, on August 20th. If you’re not a resident of North America, contact your local BBT office to order your copy of the Vyasa-puja book.</p>
<p>The book will also be available as a pdf download from Krishna.com on and after Vyasa-puja day.</p>
<p>Your servant,<br /> Dravida dasa<br /> <br /> <strong>Source: </strong><a href="http://www.dandavats.com/?p=101141">http://www.dandavats.com/?p=101141</a></p></div>73rd Vyasa Puja of HH Jayapataka Swami – April 12thhttps://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/73rd-vyasa-puja-of-hh-jayapataka-swami-april-12th2022-04-11T12:49:43.000Z2022-04-11T12:49:43.000ZISKCON Desire Treehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree<div><div>
<div><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10343269901,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="400" alt="10343269901?profile=RESIZE_400x" /></div>
<div>Since the Covid situation, Sri Mayapur Dham hasn’t celebrated the Vyasa Puja ceremony as it has always been celebrated here in Sri dham Mayapur. Most of the celebrations has been discrete and are performed virtually ever since the pandemic. But, by the mercy of Sri Sri Radha Madhava, Sri Pancha Tattva and Sri Prabhlad Narasimhadeva we have this opportunity to once again celebrate HH Jayapaka Swami’s Vyasa Puja in grand style.</div>
</div>
<div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div>
<div>Join us whether you are present physically in Mayapur or not to celebrate the Vyasa Puja of HH Jayapataka Swami.</div>
<div><br /><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10343276270,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="400" alt="10343276270?profile=RESIZE_400x" /><strong>Source: </strong><a href="https://www.mayapur.com/2022/73rd-vyasa-puja-of-hh-jayapataka-swami-april-12th/">https://www.mayapur.com/2022/73rd-vyasa-puja-of-hh-jayapataka-swami-april-12th/</a></div>
</div></div>Second call for Homages for Srila Prabhupada’s 2022 Vyasa Puja Bookhttps://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/second-call-for-homages-for-srila-prabhupada-s-2022-vyasa-puja-bo2022-02-09T12:45:16.000Z2022-02-09T12:45:16.000ZISKCON Desire Treehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree<div><p><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10083595867,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="350" alt="10083595867?profile=RESIZE_400x" /></p>
<p>Dear follower of Srila Prabhupada,</p>
<p>Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!</p>
<p>Kindly submit your homage to Srila Prabhupada for his Vyasa-puja book by April 7.</p>
<p>In addition, if you’re a direct disciple of Srila Prabhupada, please check out <a href="https://href.li/?http://www.sptributes.com">www.sptributes.com</a> to learn about a Vyasa-puja book open to all his disciples. The deadline for submission to this book is April 15.</p>
<p>The standards for submitting an offering to the Vyasa-puja book published by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust are as follows:</p>
<p>*Absolutely no offerings will be accepted after April 7, 2022.*</p>
<p>Offerings must be in English.</p>
<p>Please restrict the length to a maximum of 2,500 words.</p>
<p>Please omit all diacritics on words that can be found in the VedaBase. It’s easier for us to put them in. If you quote a verse from outside the VedaBase or compose original Sanskrit, please include diacritics. Any quotes from Srila Prabhupada’s writings or spoken words must be available in the VedaBase.</p>
<p>Do not “recycle” an offering — no offerings from previous years will be accepted.</p>
<p>The Vyasa-puja book is meant for glorifying Srila Prabhupada, not venting grievances. The BBT reserves the right to reject an offering it deems inappropriate or to ask for a rewrite.</p>
<p>When writing an offering on behalf of a temple or other unit, please try to write in such a way that the other devotees in your unit can also identify with the offering.</p>
<p>Who may write an offering?</p>
<p>1) Governing Body Commissioners</p>
<p>2) GBC Emeriti</p>
<p>3) Sannyasis</p>
<p>4) Authorized representatives of ISKCON temples, ministries, preaching centers, farms, gurukulas, BBT offices, and “others,” such as BTG magazine and ISCOWP (this is not a complete list). If there is some doubt, we will request you to send written authorization from your GBC representative.</p>
<p>No multiple offerings. For example, a temple should not enlist all its bhaktas to write offerings under the temple heading. Joint authorship (2-4 devotees) of a single offering is fine.</p>
<p>Please make sure you tell us where the offering originates. For example: New Vamsivata (the Madagascar farm community), NOT just New Vamsivata. If we don’t know where the offering comes from, we will not print it.</p>
<p>Always leave a double space between paragraphs. If you want some special formatting, submit your offering as an attached file in DOC, DICX, or RTF format.</p>
<p>Submit your offering by emailing it to Dravida Dasa at dravida108@gmail.com.</p>
<p>Offerings may be submitted any time from now until April 7, 2022. We will confirm receipt of your offering by e-mail. If you do not receive a confirmation, resend it.</p>
<p>The BBT is not responsible for lost offerings.</p>
<p>Hoping this meets you well, I remain<br /> Your servant,<br /> Dravida dasa<br /> <br /> <strong>Source: </strong><a href="https://dandavats.tumblr.com/post/673115656154234880/second-call-for-homages-for-srila-prabhupadas">https://dandavats.tumblr.com/post/673115656154234880/second-call-for-homages-for-srila-prabhupadas</a></p></div>Call for Homages for Srila Prabhupada’s 2022 Vyasa Puja Bookhttps://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/call-for-homages-for-srila-prabhupada-s-2022-vyasa-puja-book2022-01-14T12:00:25.000Z2022-01-14T12:00:25.000ZISKCON Desire Treehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree<div><p><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10011751301,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="400" alt="10011751301?profile=RESIZE_400x" />Dear follower of Srila Prabhupada,</p>
<p>Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!</p>
<p>Kindly submit your homage to Srila Prabhupada for his Vyasa-puja book by April 7.</p>
<p>In addition, if you’re a direct disciple of Srila Prabhupada, please check out <a href="https://href.li/?http://www.sptributes.com">www.sptributes.com</a> to learn about a Vyasa-puja book open to all his disciples. The deadline for submission to this book is April 15.</p>
<p>The standards for submitting an offering to the Vyasa-puja book published by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust are as follows:</p>
<p>————</p>
<p>*Absolutely no offerings will be accepted after April 7, 2022.*</p>
<p>Offerings must be in English.</p>
<p>Please restrict the length to a maximum of 2,500 words.</p>
<p>Please omit all diacritics on words that can be found in the VedaBase. It’s easier for us to put them in. If you quote a verse from outside the VedaBase or compose original Sanskrit, please include diacritics. Any quotes from Srila Prabhupada’s writings or spoken words must be available in the VedaBase.</p>
<p>Do not “recycle” an offering — no offerings from previous years will be accepted.</p>
<p>The Vyasa-puja book is meant for glorifying Srila Prabhupada, not venting grievances. The BBT reserves the right to reject an offering it deems inappropriate or to ask for a rewrite.</p>
<p>When writing an offering on behalf of a temple or other unit, please try to write in such a way that the other devotees in your unit can also identify with the offering.</p>
<p>Who may write an offering?</p>
<p>1) Governing Body Commissioners</p>
<p>2) GBC Emeriti</p>
<p>3) Sannyasis</p>
<p>4) Authorized representatives of ISKCON temples, ministries, preaching centers, farms, gurukulas, BBT offices, and “others,” such as BTG magazine and ISCOWP (this is not a complete list). If there is some doubt, we will request you to send written authorization from your GBC representative.</p>
<p>No multiple offerings. For example, a temple should not enlist all its bhaktas to write offerings under the temple heading. Joint authorship (2-4 devotees) of a single offering is fine.</p>
<p>Please make sure you tell us where the offering originates. For example: New Vamsivata (the Madagascar farm community), NOT just New Vamsivata. If we don’t know where the offering comes from, we will not print it.</p>
<p>Always leave a double space between paragraphs. If you want some special formatting, submit your offering as an attached file in DOC, DICX, or RTF format.</p>
<p>Submit your offering by emailing it to Dravida Dasa at dravida108@gmail.com.</p>
<p>Offerings may be submitted any time from now until April 7, 2022. We will confirm receipt of your offering by e-mail. If you do not receive a confirmation, resend it.</p>
<p>The BBT is not responsible for lost offerings.</p>
<p>Hoping this meets you well, I remain<br /> Your servant,<br /> Dravida dasa<br /> <br /> <strong>Source: </strong><a href="https://dandavats.tumblr.com/post/673115656154234880/call-for-homages-for-srila-prabhupadas-2022-vyasa">https://dandavats.tumblr.com/post/673115656154234880/call-for-homages-for-srila-prabhupadas-2022-vyasa</a></p></div>Vyasa Puja at Bhaktivedanta Manor by Visakha Dasihttps://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/vyasa-puja-at-bhaktivedanta-manor-by-visakha-dasi2021-09-03T12:14:57.000Z2021-09-03T12:14:57.000ZISKCON Desire Treehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree<div><p><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9527088880,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="450" alt="9527088880?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></p>
<p>At Bhaktivedanta Manor, ISKCON’s flagship centre in the UK, Srila Prabhupada’s 125th anniversary theme was: Srila Prabhupada offers enlightenment to the world through his books.</p>
<p>For the occasion, the stage in the new Haveli was decorated with dozens of candles symbolizing the light of knowledge that Srila Prabhupada brought to the world through his spiritual teachings. Throughout the morning of Vyasa Puja, Srila Prabhupada’s disciples and grand disciples expressed their gratitude to him and appreciation of him.</p>
<p>Prior to Vyasa Puja – throughout the three-day Janmashtami celebrations on the Manor’s 78-acres that was attended by 33,000 guests and worshippers – Srila Prabhupada’s glories were continuously relayed by devotees speaking from the main stage. In addition, the Manor’s book distribution team, Go Matsya, has been dedicated to inspiring people to acquire Srimad-Bhagavatam sets with Srila Prabhupada’s translation and commentary. And the Manor’s harinama Sankirtan team has been spreading the holy name in London’s 400 tube stations.</p>
<p><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9527089701,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="400" alt="9527089701?profile=RESIZE_400x" /></p>
<p>At Bhaktivedanta Manor we were especially delighted that 45 enthusiastic second generation devotees once again came forward to make dishes for Srila Prabhupada’s feast. Altogether they made 440 preparations that were offered to Srila Prabhupada in his Manor darshan room. Some of these second generation devotees have been helping make Vyasa Puja dishes for Srila Prabhupada since they were small children – starting with preparing fruits. The next generation team was organised by Visvadevi and headed by Radhika.</p>
<p>Plus, fifteen next generation devotees served with Visvadevi to make the flower arrangements in Srila Prabhupada’s room, as well as to decorate his Vyasasana in the temple room.</p>
<div>Engaging the next generation in Srila Prabhupada’s service during his appearance day was established by Sarva Mangala Dasi (a disciple of Srila Prabhupada) many years ago when she looked after Srila Prabhupada’s rooms, and now the children of that generation are coming forward to also help.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>In this way, the spirit of this vital festival continues, much to everyone’s pleasure, excitement and ecstasy.</div>
<div> </div>
<div><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9527090095,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="450" alt="9527090095?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></div>
<div> </div>
<div><strong>Source: </strong><a href="http://www.dandavats.com/?p=96169">http://www.dandavats.com/?p=96169</a></div></div>The first Vyasa Puja book by Satsvarupa Dasa Goswamihttps://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/the-first-vyasa-puja-book-by-satsvarupa-dasa-goswami2021-08-31T11:35:03.000Z2021-08-31T11:35:03.000ZISKCON Desire Treehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree<div><p><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9507171664,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="400" alt="9507171664?profile=RESIZE_400x" /></p>
<p>The next day was Vyasa-puja day, the celebration of Prabhupada’s seventy-fourth birthday. That morning a package arrived from New York containing several copies of the Vyasa-puja booklet, a twenty-five-page paperback filled with homages from Prabhupada’s disciples.</p>
<p>Months before, one of the devotees had discovered an old issue of a magazine published by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati; the magazine contained a Vyasa-puja homage Prabhupada had written commemorating the appearance day of his own spiritual master. When the article had been brought to Prabhupada’s attention, he said that his disciples could also write their own appreciations, just as he had done forty years before. So the devotees in New York had gathered offerings from seventeen different temples and had printed them all in a Vyasa-puja booklet.</p>
<p>Prabhupada was very pleased to receive the little booklet, and he had one of the devotees read it aloud in the temple. When all the readings were finished, he explained how service and prayers were accepted by Krishna through the medium of the disciplic succession. Although outsiders might think that, “This man is becoming flattered in hearing his own eulogy,” the real meaning of Vyasa-puja homage is that it is a test of how well the disciples were understanding Krishna consciousness and serving the spiritual master.</p>
<p>Their praises were all going to the Supreme Personality of Godhead through the disciplic succession. And such praises were required training for the disciple, just as officers train soldiers in the military.</p>
<p>Reference: Prabhupada Lila – Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami</p>
<p><strong>Source: </strong><a href="http://www.dandavats.com/?p=66036">http://www.dandavats.com/?p=66036</a></p></div>Celebration of Srila Prabhupada’s 125th Anniversary Vyasa Pujahttps://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/celebration-of-srila-prabhupada-s-125th-anniversary-vyasa-puja2021-08-31T11:30:35.000Z2021-08-31T11:30:35.000ZISKCON Desire Treehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree<div><p><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9507076464,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="400" alt="9507076464?profile=RESIZE_400x" /></p>
<p>GBC Resolution passed unanimously on August 18, 2021:</p>
<p>Celebration of Srila Prabhupada’s 125th Anniversary Vyasa Puja</p>
<p>Whereas His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada is the Founder-Acarya of ISKCON, and his teachings and example are the guide and inspiration for the entire International Society for Krishna Consciousness;</p>
<p>Whereas celebration of his appearance in this world is an annual event of great significance for all ISKCON devotees throughout the world;</p>
<p>Whereas Srila Prabhupada’s Vyasa Puja Day 2021 marks the 125th year of his appearance in this world;</p>
<p>Whereas special advance events leading up to the celebration of his 2021 Vyasa Puja Anniversary were limited due to the impact of the global covid pandemic;</p>
<p>Therefore,</p>
<p>The Governing Body Commission requests all ISKCON regions, temples, and communities to highlight and celebrate Srila Prabhupada’s 125th Appearance Anniversary throughout the upcoming year, including Prabhupada’s Vyasa Puja Day 2021 and ending with Vyasa Puja Day 2022.</p>
<p>The GBC is particularly grateful for the ideas, themes and programs generated by the Prabhupada 125th Anniversary Committee in India.</p>
<p>The GBC recommends that devotees around the world to utilize the ideas the Committee has generated, including the official 125th Anniversary logo, as well as any other ideas and programs that may be locally initiated, to celebrate this historic year in a humble mood of gratitude and service to His Divine Grace.<br /> <br /> <strong>Source:</strong> <a href="http://www.dandavats.com/?p=96131">http://www.dandavats.com/?p=96131</a></p></div>Srila Prabhupada's Vyasa Puja Book 2021https://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/srila-prabhupada-s-vyasa-puja-book-20212021-08-31T09:50:09.000Z2021-08-31T09:50:09.000ZISKCON Desire Treehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree<div><p><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9506734897,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="400" alt="9506734897?profile=RESIZE_400x" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Hare Krishna,<br /> Dear Devotees<br /> <br /> Click this link for download pdf : <br /> <br /> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}9506657279,original{{/staticFileLink}}">Srila Prabhupada's 2021 Vyasa Puja Book</a></p></div>Final call for Homages for Srila Prabhupada’s 2021 Vyasa Puja Bookhttps://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/final-call-for-homages-for-srila-prabhupada-s-2021-vyasa-puja-boo2021-03-10T11:51:51.000Z2021-03-10T11:51:51.000ZISKCON Desire Treehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree<div><p><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}8652068478,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="8652068478?profile=RESIZE_400x" width="400" /></p>
<p>March 9, 2021</p>
<p>Dear follower of Srila Prabhupada,</p>
<p>Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!</p>
<p>This is our final reminder to kindly submit your homage to Srila Prabhupada for his Vyasa-puja book by April 7.</p>
<p>In addition, if you’re a direct disciple of Srila Prabhupada, please check out <a href="http://www.sptributes.com">www.sptributes.com</a> to learn about a Vyasa-puja book open to all his disciples. The deadline for submission to this book is April 15.</p>
<p>The standards for submitting an offering to the Vyasa-puja book published by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust are as follows:<br /> </p>
<p>*Absolutely no offerings will be accepted after April 7, 2021.*</p>
<p>Offerings must be in English.</p>
<p>Please restrict the length to a maximum of 2,500 words.</p>
<p>Please omit all diacritics on words that can be found in the VedaBase. It’s easier for us to put them in. If you quote a verse from outside the VedaBase or compose original Sanskrit, please include diacritics.</p>
<p>Do not “recycle” an offering — no offerings from previous years will be accepted.</p>
<p>The Vyasa-puja book is meant for glorifying Srila Prabhupada, not venting grievances. The BBT reserves the right to reject an offering it deems inappropriate or to ask for a rewrite.</p>
<p>When writing an offering on behalf of a temple or other unit, please try to write in such a way that the other devotees in your unit can also identify with the offering.</p>
<p>Who may write an offering?</p>
<p>1) Governing Body Commissioners</p>
<p>2) GBC Emeriti</p>
<p>3) Sannyasis</p>
<p>4) Authorized representatives of ISKCON temples, ministries, preaching centers, farms, gurukulas, BBT offices, and “others,” such as BTG magazine and ISCOWP (this is not a complete list). If there is some doubt, we will request you to send written authorization from your GBC representative.</p>
<p>No multiple offerings. For example, a temple should not enlist all its bhaktas to write offerings under the temple heading. Joint authorship (2-4 devotees) of a single offering is fine.</p>
<p>Please make sure you tell us where the offering originates. For example: New Vamsi-vata (the Madagascar farm community), NOT just New Vamsi-vata. If we don’t know where the offering comes from, we will not print it.</p>
<p>Always leave a double space between paragraphs. If you want some special formatting, submit your offering as an attached file in Microsoft Word or RTF format.</p>
<p>Submit your offering by emailing it to Dravida Dasa at dravida108@gmail.com.</p>
<p>Offerings may be submitted any time from now until April 7, 2021. We will confirm receipt of your offering by e-mail. If you do not receive a confirmation, resend it.</p>
<p>The BBT is not responsible for lost offerings.</p>
<p>Hoping this meets you well, I remain<br /> Your servant,<br /> Dravida dasa</p>
<div><strong>Source: </strong><a href="http://www.dandavats.com/?p=92563">http://www.dandavats.com/?p=92563</a></div>
<div> </div></div>3,400 Devotees Contribute Offerings for Delhi Prabhupada Vyasa-Puja Bookhttps://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/3-400-devotees-contribute-offerings-for-delhi-prabhupada-vyasa-pu2020-09-05T10:21:48.000Z2020-09-05T10:21:48.000ZISKCON Desire Treehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree<div><div><strong><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7835734694,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="500" alt="7835734694?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></strong></div>
<div id="article_byline"><strong>By Madhava Smullen<br /><br /></strong></div>
<div id="article_body">
<p>This year, the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust released a free, downloadable PDF version of the annual international “Sri Vyasa-Puja” book, featuring a collection of homages to ISKCON Founder-Acharya Srila Prabhupada from devotees and temples all over the world.</p>
<p>Meanwhile ISKCON of Delhi, India notably compiled its own three-volume Vyasa-Puja book with offerings to Srila Prabhupada from an incredible 3,400 local devotees from all the temples and preaching centers in the Delhi National Capital Region (NCR). </p>
<p>Physical editions of the books were printed by ISKCON-affiliated publishing house Golden Age Media, and offered simultaneously to the Srila Prabhupada murtis in each of ISKCON Delhi’s fourteen different centers on Vyasa-Puja day, August 13th. </p>
<p>The idea originated four years ago, when ISKCON Delhi became the third temple internationally to offer its own separate book of Vyasa-Puja offerings to Srila Prabhupada. </p>
<p><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://iskconnews.org/3400-devotees-contribute-offerings-for-delhi-prabhupada-vyasa-puja-book,7486/">https://iskconnews.org/3400-devotees-contribute-offerings-for-delhi-prabhupada-vyasa-puja-book,7486/</a></p>
</div></div>Srila Prabhupada's 2020 Vyasa Puja bookhttps://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/srila-prabhupada-s-2020-vyasa-puja-book-12020-08-14T11:35:37.000Z2020-08-14T11:35:37.000ZISKCON Desire Treehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7458816672,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7458838854,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="7458838854?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p>
<p>This year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the BBT did not print a Vyasa-puja book. So here is the pdf of offerings</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:14pt;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7458816672,original{{/staticFileLink}}">Vyasa Puja Book 2020</a></span></p></div>Srila Prabhupada Puja and Murti Care Standardshttps://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/srila-prabhupada-puja-and-murti-care-standards-22020-08-13T12:21:25.000Z2020-08-13T12:21:25.000ZISKCON Desire Treehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree<div><p><img class="align-center" src="http://www.dandavats.com/wp-content/uploads/226204203_3b5ef_o.jpg?profile=RESIZE_584x" width="450" alt="226204203_3b5ef_o.jpg?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></p>
<p><strong>By the GBC</strong></p>
<p><strong>Temple Room Srila Prabhupada Murti</strong></p>
<p>“Dress”</p>
<p>Daily change Srila Prabhupada into clean clothes. Ensure the clothes are freshly washed and ironed, without holes, stains, and odor, or in disrepair. The clothes should fit properly. Pure silk or cotton are the best fabrics to use for Srila Prabhupada’s clothes. Synthetic cloth should never be offered<br /> Dress Srila Prabhupada in the style and color of clothes he wore when he was physically present<br /> Devotees who dress Srila Prabhupada are encouraged to study photos of Srila Prabhupada, such as in the Vyasa-puja book, so they can learn the way Srila Prabhupada dressed himself.<br /> Undress and dress Srila Prabhupada privately.<br /> Where possible dress Srila Prabhupada so both his feet are showing.</p>
<p>“Murti”</p>
<p>The murti of Srila Prabhupada should be in the standard pose, that is sitting cross-legged with his hands together or with the hands apart and the right finger raised.<br /> The murti must closely resemble Srila Prabhupada.<br /> Keep the murti of Srila Prabhupada spotlessly clean. Pay special attention to his nostrils, in his ears, and in between his fingers and toes. The inside of the ears and nostrils can be cleaned with a moistened cotton bud (q-tip) or similar.<br /> It is normal for resin murtis to sag over time. It commonly happens that the arms get closer to the legs. This is not something mystical and can make it more difficult to dress the murti. Sometimes it is necessary to replace resin murtis.<br /> The murti needs repainting occasionally. Always keep the features of the murti, such as eyes, eyebrows, tilaka, lips, finger and toenails, etc. in good condition. It is helpful to keep a good quality photo of the murti, taken when the murti was properly painted as a reference for repainting. Repainting or touching up the paintwork should only be done by an experienced artist who has knowledge of the appropriate paints to be used for the murti.</p>
<p>“Vyasasana”</p>
<p>Clean the vyasasana daily. The area immediately around Srila Prabhupada is best cleaned after removing his clothes.<br /> Keep the vyasasana, including upholstery, cushions and woodwork, etc. in good condition. The vyasasana must be stable.<br /> The vyasasana is the seat of the representative of Srila Vyasadeva. Cleaning items and devotees personal belongings such as beadbags, etc. must be stored elsewhere. It is acceptable to hang the camara and peacock fan (in season) on the back of Srila Prabhupada’s vyasasana as these items are used daily in the worship of Srila Prabhupada.<br /> Where possible, illuminate the vyasasana with suitable lighting. Keep Srila Prabhupada’s comfort in mind, for example, it would be uncomfortable for Srila Prabhupada to sit under hot spotlights all day.<br /> Keep the brass vases, incense holders, etc. bright and clean.<br /> Keep at least one vase of fresh flowers near the vyasasana. On festival days when the deities are offered extra flowers, offer Srila Prabhupada extra flowers, more opulent garlands, and more vases.</p>
<p>“Worship”</p>
<p>As part of regular daily worship, Srila Prabhupada is offered guru-puja with full arati along with the singing of the Guru-vandana prayers written by Narottama Das Thakura. During guru-puja, devotees come forward and offer flowers or flower petals to Srila Prabhupada’s lotus feet. The flowers must be fresh, not wilted or old. Do not use wet flowers or wet petals.<br /> It is recommended that the flowers offered at Srila Prabhupada’s lotus feet be removed after the temple morning program is completed.<br /> Offer Srila Prabhupada a fresh flower garland or a maha-prasadam garland (in good condition) daily. This is normally done just before the start of the guru-puja. The garland is left on Srila Prabhupada until the temple is closed at night. Where possible, avoid garlands made with flowers that will stain his clothes. Do not use artificial flowers.<br /> Srila Prabhupada’s forehead can be anointed with sandalwood paste (candana) at the beginning of guru-puja. This is more commonly done during the hot season but may be done daily as part of the regular worship. This candana may either be prasada from the deities or freshly made for Srila Prabhupada. In some cases candana may eventually cause damage to the murti.<br /> The large resin deity is generally not removed from the vyasasana. If there is a need to remove Srila Prabhupada, this must be done with care. Occasions that Srila Prabhupada may be taken from the vyasasana are Ratha-yatra (when he rides on the cart), or when there is a public abhiseka, such as on Srila Prabhupada’s Vyasa-puja. The altar deity of Srila Prabhupada may be bathed for Vyasa-puja instead of the temple murti.<br /> Items offered during the arati to the temple deities may also be physically offered to Srila Prabhupada on his vyasasana before being offered to any of the assembled devotees in the temple. However, this is not mandatory. This is done in the same manner the item would be offered to any other devotee, i.e. the lamp is not offered in arati style but held before Srila Prabhupada’s hands so he may respect the prasada of the Lord. Care should be taken to avoid hot ghee staining the vyasasana.</p>
<p>“Other Notes”</p>
<p>a) Avoid rubbing offered scents from the deities on Srila Prabhupada’s hands. This will eventually damage the murti. The scents may be held just before Srila Prabhupada’s hands and devotees can meditate they are offering them to Srila Prabhupada.<br /> b) During the morning japa period, Srila Prabhupada may be offered a beadbag.<br /> c) Before the Srimad-Bhagavatam class, place Srila Prabhupada’s glasses on him. Open the Srimad-Bhagavatam to the current verse and place it in front of Srila Prabhupada on a bookstand so he may read it.<br /> d) Keep a glass of water and/or water pitcher near the vyasasana for Srila Prabhupada to drink. Clean the glass and refill it with fresh water at least once a day. Keep the glass covered. Do not put flowers on top of the cover.<br /> e) Some temples also have on or near the vyasasana, a walking cane, a gong, and beadbag with beads, for Prabhupada’s use.<br /> f) Some temples have shoes for Srila Prabhupada on a footstool in front of his vyasasana. This is not mandatory.<br /> g) If devotees would like to offer glasses to Srila Prabhupada according to the prescription he wore, his prescription is:<br /> Right Lens<br /> O.D. +3.5 -1.00 x 90<br /> Left Lens:<br /> O.S. +3.5 – 1.00 x 90 Add +2.25<br /> x90 is Axis<br /> Add +2.25 is bifocal. Have the optometrist do the bifocal as a small circle in the bottom of the lens.</p>
<p>“Respecting Srila Prabhupada”</p>
<p>While taking darsana of the Deities, as far as possible avoid standing directly in front of Srila Prabhupada’s vyasasana or with your back directly facing Srila Prabhupada.<br /> If there is a name plaque, use Srila Prabhupada’s full name and title as it appears on BBT publications: “His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder-Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.” The name plaque must be kept clean.<br /> Srila Prabhupada disliked the use of synthetic flowers. Use fresh flowers for decorating the vyasasana, for vases, and garlands and placing in Srila Prabhupada’s hands.<br /> Devotees and guests must be guided in principles of sad-acara. Just as it is inappropriate to sit with one’s back to the deities, it is also inappropriate to sit with the back to Srila Prabhupada. No one should sit on the steps in front of Srila Prabhupada’s vyasasana.</p>
<p>“Altar Prabhupada Murti Standards”</p>
<p>Srila Prabhupada requested that wherever his deity was present on the altar there should also be a deity of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. Where possible, temples should try to follow this standard. All aspects of care for Srila Prabhupada’s deity should be extended to Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura as well.<br /> Offer the deity of Srila Prabhupada a fresh flower garland daily.<br /> Daily change the deity of Srila Prabhupada into fresh clothes. A metal deity of Srila Prabhupada should be polished and bathed regularly according to the procedures in Pancaratra Pradipa (ISKCON’s Deity Worship handbook.) However, deities made of all other materials should not be bathed with water; rather they should be wiped down with a dry or damp cloth after undressing. If wiped with a damp cloth, dry the deity before dressing.<br /> Where appropriate, the small altar deity may be carefully taken on circumambulation of the temple as seen in Mayapur and Vrndavana. This may be done daily or weekly. Exercise care when moving and carrying the deity.<br /> It is not necessary to offer bhoga plates to Srila Prabhupada on the altar. He will take the deities’ prasada remnants. In temples that do offer plates to Srila Prabhupada, it is suggested that tulasi is put on all the preparations, as Srila Prabhupada will offer the bhoga to the Lord.<br /> It is also acceptable to wake Srila Prabhupada and put him to bed when these services are being done for the Deities. This may be done according to the guidelines given in the Pancaratra Pradipa.</p>
<p>“Srila Prabhupada’s rooms”</p>
<p>For temples fortunate enough to have rooms for Srila Prabhupada, it is important to understand that these rooms are a memorial to Srila Prabhupada. The appropriate mood while in the rooms is one of awe and reverence. This will help increase our appreciation for Srila Prabhupada. When guests enter Srila Prabhupada’s rooms, they should become spontaneously appreciative of the devotees’ love and devotion for Srila Prabhupada.<br /> In a letter to Gurudas written in 1977, Srila Prabhupada gave the following instruction regarding his rooms at Radha Damodara:<br /> “Everything should be kept neat and clean as if I am staying there.”<br /> As such, Srila Prabhupada’s quarters must always be kept in a pristine condition: neat, clean, and everything ready as if Srila Prabhupada were just about to arrive.<br /> <br /> Source: <a href="http://www.dandavats.com/?p=5703">http://www.dandavats.com/?p=5703</a></p></div>Srila Prabhupada and Lord Nityananda’s Mercy: Vyasa-puja Offering to Srila Prabhupadahttps://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/srila-prabhupada-and-lord-nityananda-s-mercy-vyasa-puja-offering-2020-08-13T11:37:54.000Z2020-08-13T11:37:54.000ZISKCON Desire Treehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree<div><p><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}6521715094,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}6521715094,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="450" alt="6521715094?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a><br />By Giriraj Swami</strong><br /> <br /> My dear Srila Prabhupada,</p>
<p>Please accept my prostrated obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Grace, the embodiment of unlimited mercy.</p>
<p>Knowledgeable devotees agree that you were a saktyavesa-avatara, an empowered incarnation, and you have indicated as much yourself. Sri Caitanya-caritamrta (Antya 2.13–14) states, “To deliver people in regions throughout the universe who could not meet Him, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu personally entered the bodies of pure devotees. Thus He empowered living beings [His pure devotees] by manifesting in them so much of His own devotion that people in all other countries became devotees by seeing them.”</p>
<p>And in your purport you explain, “As stated in the Caitanya-caritamrta (Antya 7.11):</p>
<p>kali-kalera dharma—krsna-nama-sankirtana<br /> krsna-sakti vina nahe tara pravartana</p>
<p>Unless one is empowered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, one cannot spread the holy names of the Hare Krsna maha-mantra throughout the world. Persons who do so are empowered. Therefore they are sometimes called avesa-avataras, or empowered incarnations, for they are endowed with the power of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.”</p>
<p>Your learned godbrother Sripada B. R. Sridhara Deva Goswami Maharaja also accepted that you were a saktyavesa-avatara, and he opined specifically by whose shakti you were empowered—Sri Nityananda Prabhu’s.</p>
<p>Lord Nityananda is renowned for delivering Jagai and Madhai. As described briefly in Sri Caitanya-caritamrta (Adi 17.17), abe nistarila prabhu jagai-madhai: “Then the Lord delivered the two brothers Jagai and Madhai.” In your purport, you write, “Jagai and Madhai were two brothers born in Navadvipa in a respectable brahmana family who later became addicted to all kinds of sinful activities. By the order of Lord Caitanya, both Nityananda Prabhu and Haridasa Thakura used to preach the cult of Krsna consciousness door to door. In the course of such preaching they found Jagai and Madhai, two maddened drunken brothers, who, upon seeing them, began to chase them. The next day, Madhai struck Nityananda Prabhu on the head with a piece of earthen pot, thus drawing blood. When Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu heard of this, He immediately came to the spot, ready to punish both brothers, but when the all-merciful Lord Gauranga saw Jagai’s repentant behavior, He immediately embraced him. By seeing the Supreme Personality of Godhead face to face and embracing Him, both the sinful brothers were at once cleansed. Thus they received initiation into the chanting of the Hare Krsna maha-mantra from the Lord and were delivered.”</p>
<p>But as you wrote about yourself in your purport to Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya 16.55:</p>
<p>“If one is true to Gaura-Nitai’s service in the disciplic succession, he can even exceed Nityananda Prabhu’s service. This is the process of disciplic succession. Nityananda Prabhu delivered Jagai and Madhai, but a servant of Nityananda Prabhu, by His grace, can deliver many thousands of Jagais and Madhais. That is the special benediction of the disciplic succession. One who is situated in the disciplic succession can be understood by the result of his activities.”</p>
<p>Srila Prabhupada, you took up the same mood of approaching anyone and everyone—pious or sinful, qualified or unqualified—without discrimination. As Nityananda Prabhu said, in Kali-yuga practically everyone will be like Jagai and Madhai. That may be more apparent in America and Europe than in India—though I did hear a talk in which you were discussing how demonic Western civilization is and how the leaders, and pretty much everyone, are demons, but then added, “Actually in my country also, 80 percent are demons.” But still, what you encountered in 1965 when you came to America was something that people now, especially people in India, can’t even imagine.</p>
<p>Krsna Candra Prabhu (Hrishikesh Mafatlal), from Mumbai, used to say that people cannot imagine who you approached when you came to America. He recommended that everyone see the early DVDs of you, first at 26 Second Avenue in New York, then at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Most of us can’t believe, can’t imagine, the type of people you were approaching. And they didn’t always receive you or treat you well.</p>
<p>I hope all your followers have read Srila Prabhupada-lilamrta; everyone should read it as well as see the DVD series Following Srila Prabhupada. There was one incident when you were living in New York, in a loft in the Bowery, which was the most degraded part of the city, its skid row, inhabited mostly by drunks. But even they had a little respect. They would be sprawled out on the sidewalk and on the stairs leading up to your apartment, but somehow they sensed that you were a saintly person and would try to move over and make room for you to pass.</p>
<p>You were staying with a young man who seemed interested. In fact, you thought, “I’ll train him as a Vaishnava.” But one day the young man went crazy, probably from taking LSD—the 1960s’ equivalent of the strong wine that Jagai and Madhai were drinking five hundred years ago. He went crazy and wanted to attack you. And he was ready to kill you, just as Madhai was ready to kill Nityananda Prabhu. You bolted out of the room and ran down the stairs like Lord Nityananda being chased by Jagai and Madhai.</p>
<p>It is quite a history—what you endured for the sake of delivering the mercy of Gaura-Nitai is inconceivable. On the boat to America you suffered two heart attacks, and even in America you had a lot of physical problems. But you endured everything—all these attacks of maya—for the sake of delivering Gaura-Nitai’s mercy to us. And what Nityananda Prabhu wanted in India you have fulfilled outside India. What Nityananda Prabhu wanted was fulfilled in Bengal, but through you it’s been fulfilled throughout the world. So you really are the embodiment of the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu. There’s no one else in the history of our sampradaya, no one after Nityananda Prabhu, who has taken up that mood of approaching anyone and everyone without discrimination, without considering who is qualified and who is not.</p>
<p>And you delivered the same message: chant Krishna’s name, worship Krishna, follow Krishna’s instructions—but not in so many words, because the people you were approaching didn’t even know who Krishna was. When Nityananda approached people in Navadvipa and told them, “Chant Krishna’s name, worship Krishna, follow Krishna’s instructions,” they knew who Krishna was and they knew what He was saying, but in America and Europe nobody knew who Krishna was. So “Just chant Krishna’s name, worship Krishna” had to be explained in detail in books, and thus you wrote so many books to explain who is Krishna, what is Krishna’s name, what are Krishna’s instructions, how to chant Krishna’s name, how to worship Krishna, why we should surrender to Krishna and follow Krishna’s instructions—the same message that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu asked Nityananda Prabhu to deliver to everyone, but in an expanded form, because the people you were approaching had no idea of Krishna’s identity or instructions.</p>
<p>When we go out with your books, it is like when Mahaprabhu sent Nityananda and Haridasa to approach people with that message. Sometimes devotees are not well received, but even Nityananda and Haridasa were not always well received. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would have nocturnal kirtans in Srivasa Thakura’s house, and if anyone was proud they were not allowed to enter. Only humble, pure devotees were allowed. So all these proud people in Navadvipa were upset and angry that they weren’t allowed to join the kirtan, and when Nityananda and Haridasa came to their homes, they were angry with them—“Oh, you’ve come from that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Srivasa Thakura”—and the people spread so many rumors about them: “They are thieves. They come to your door and say to chant Krishna’s name and worship Krishna, but really what they’re doing is looking in your house to see what you have so that they can come back at night and steal it.” The people spread a lot of false propaganda. So we have to accept that, expect it and accept it, without being deterred. It didn’t stop Nityananda Prabhu, and it didn’t stop you, and it shouldn’t stop any of us.</p>
<p>So, your movement is the continuation of Nityananda Prabhu’s mission, and you really had that mood. When one of your early disciples came to India and the Calcutta temple president phoned you in Bombay to tell you that the devotee was smoking ganja, marijuana, and asked what to do, you told your secretary, Tamal Krishna Goswami, to relay your response: “Tell him that if he doesn’t stop smoking ganja I will reject him.” Afterwards, Tamal Krishna Goswami asked you, “Is it true that if he doesn’t stop smoking ganja you will reject him?” And you said, “No—I cannot reject anyone.” Tamal Krishna Goswami asked, “But don’t you have to draw the line somewhere?” And you replied, “The mercy of Lord Nityananda has no limit.” So, that was your mood; you were in the mood of Nityananda Prabhu.</p>
<p>We are the recipients of Gaura-Nitai’s mercy through you. By your mercy, we are chanting Krishna’s name and worshipping Krishna, accepting Krishna as the goal of our lives. And it is also by your mercy and order that we preach the same message to others. We can speak to our capacity, and we can give people your books, which convey the same message of Mahaprabhu. We just elaborate on it and present it in a way that people without any background in Vedic knowledge can understand.</p>
<p>So, on this most sacred and blessed occasion, we can pray to you and Nityananda Prabhu to inspire and empower us with this mood of humble persuasion. When Nitai approached people, after giving them instruction He would say, “If you accept this instruction, I will consider you more dear to Me than My own life.” And if someone did not accept the sacred instruction, He would prostrate Himself at their feet and beg them to take it. He is Lord Balarama, the first of all of Krishna’s expansions; He is the origin of Maha-sankarsana, who is in turn the origin of Maha-vishnu, Karanodakasayi Vishnu, by whose breathing countless universes are generated from the pores of His body. And then a portion of that Maha-vishnu is Garbhodakasayi Vishnu, and He enters into every universe and gives birth to Brahma and engineers the creation of every universe. And Ksirodakasayi Vishnu is the Supersoul in everyone’s heart. Nityananda is that original Supreme Person, and He is rolling in the dust at people’s feet and begging them, “Just chant Hare Krishna.”</p>
<p>I saw that mood in you. You often tutored us in it, but I saw it personally. When we first went to Bombay, there was a program on the terrace of the house where we were staying—Seksaria Bhavan, on Marine Drive. It was very nice, very glamorous, near the sea, and our host, Kailash Seksaria, had invited all the elite, affluent aristocratic people he knew in Bombay. And you, with the same humility as Nityananda Prabhu, implored them, “I am taking the straw in my mouth and begging you, please chant Hare Krishna”—just like Nityananda Prabhu.</p>
<p>You often quoted a verse by Prabodhananda Sarasvati about how we should approach people the way Nityananda Prabhu approached people. The verse is, dante nidhaya trnakam padayor nipatya: “I take a straw in my mouth . . .” (it is a sign of utter humility) “and I bow at your feet.” Krtva ca kaku-satam etad aham bravimi. “And I flatter you a hundred times.” He sadhavah: “O great learned sadhu.” Sakalam eva vihaya durad: “Whatever you have learned, you keep it far away from you.” And gauranga-candra-carane kurutanuragam: “Just accept the mercy of Lord Gauranga, just surrender to Lord Gauranga, become attached to Lord Gauranga’s lotus feet.” And you did it yourself.</p>
<p>In that humble mood, Nityananda was begging for people to take the holy name—falling at their feet, rolling in the dust, and begging them. And that, in essence, is what you did with us. None of us would be here today if you hadn’t done what you did.</p>
<p>In Bombay, an Indian gentleman came to you, pleading, “Please save me; please save me. Only you can save me. Please save me.” And you replied, “I cannot save you; you have to save yourself. But I can give you the process by which you can save yourself.”</p>
<p>So, Srila Prabhupada, you have given us the process by which we can, with your mercy, save ourselves, and on this auspicious occasion we resolve to follow the process in greater earnestness.</p>
<p>In one brief statement you encapsulated our entire procedure: “To approach Radha and Krishna, you need the mercy of Lord Chaitanya. To get the mercy of Lord Chaitanya, you need the mercy of Lord Nityananda. And to get the mercy of Lord Nityananda, you have to approach people like Jagai and Madhai.” So, if we ever feel, “Oh, I’m too high, I’m too holy, I can’t approach these people,” we should think of that instruction and your own example and Nityananda Prabhu’s example and really pray, beg, to be humble instruments of your love and mercy and compassion. And as your guru maharaja told you, that will be good for us and good for the people who hear us.</p>
<p>In a talk in Bombay you said, “Our Krishna consciousness movement is trying to make fools and rascals and sinful men wise. And actually it is happening. Papi tapi yata chila, hariname uddharila, tara saksi jagai madhai. You want evidence? Look at Jagai and Madhai. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu delivered two sinful brothers named Jagai and Madhai. Now you can see how strong is Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s movement. Many thousands of Jagais and Madhais are being delivered. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s movement is greater than Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu personally delivered Jagai and Madhai, but now, by His movement, thousands of Jagais and Madhais are being delivered. This is the practical evidence. If you take advantage of it, you will be glorified, and we shall be glorified. This is our process.”</p>
<p>Srila Prabhupada, despite your merciful association and instructions, I am still possessed of some qualities of Jagai and Madhai. So, on this auspicious occasion, please purify me and reform me.</p>
<p>sri-guru karuna-sindhu, adhama janara bandhu,<br /> lokanath lokera jivana<br /> ha ha prabhu koro doya, deho more pada-chaya<br /> ebe yasa ghusuk tribhuvana</p>
<p> “O spiritual master, O ocean of mercy and friend of the fallen! O universal teacher and life of all people! Alas, alas, O master, please be merciful unto us and give us the shade of your lotus feet. May your glories now be proclaimed throughout the three worlds.”</p>
<p>Hare Krishna.<br /> <br /> <strong>Source: </strong><a href="http://www.girirajswami.com/?p=16235">http://www.girirajswami.com/?p=16235</a></p></div>2020 Vyasa Puja book for Srila Prabhupadahttps://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/2020-vyasa-puja-book-for-srila-prabhupada2020-08-10T14:11:49.000Z2020-08-10T14:11:49.000ZISKCON Desire Treehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree<div><p style="text-align:center;"><img class="align-center" src="https://i.imgur.com/wJlLOE1.jpg?profile=RESIZE_584x" width="450" alt="wJlLOE1.jpg?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></p>
<p><strong>By Dravida dasa</strong><br /> <br /> Due to the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic, this year the BBT published Srila Prabhupada’s Vyasa-puja book in pdf format only. You can download the book by clicking on this link:<br /> <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BuMNtvuBKoTtSP_uTuE9k1rNqrZtzJ0O/view">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BuMNtvuBKoTtSP_uTuE9k1rNqrZtzJ0O/view</a></p>
<p>Your servants,<br /> Members of the NABBT Book Production Team<br /> <br /> <strong>Source:</strong> <a href="http://www.dandavats.com/?p=88201">http://www.dandavats.com/?p=88201</a></p></div>HH Bhakti Charu Swami’s Vyasa Puja 2012 offering to Srila Prabhupadahttps://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/hh-bhakti-charu-swami-s-vyasa-puja-2012-offering-to-srila-prabhup2020-07-06T11:46:54.000Z2020-07-06T11:46:54.000ZISKCON Desire Treehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree<div><p><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}6636081094,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="450" alt="6636081094?profile=RESIZE_584x" />One day you asked me not to cook for you, saying, “You can see that I can’t eat anything. Still, why are you cooking? You have so many things to do. Why are you wasting your time cooking for me?”</p>
<p>I told you, “I cook, hoping that someday you will feel better and would like to eat something.”</p>
<p>You replied, “I will get better only when I leave this world.”<br /> I broke down crying. In a very soothing voice you said, “Is this what you learnt from me? Is this what I taught you? Didn’t I say, didn’t I teach you that the spirit soul is immortal and never-changing. It is only the body that changes and finally dies when the soul leaves the body.”</p>
<p>When you left this planet, those instructions remained as my guiding beacon. Although my heart ached with constant agony due to your separation, I tried to remember that you were always there. At that time I used to imagine that just as a mother sometimes hides while teaching her son to walk, urging him to start walking by searching for her, similarly you are hiding behind some invisible curtain so that I will search for you and thus develop my ardent desire to go where you are.</p>
<p>Those days I used to think I had so many things to do here. Therefore, I needed to stay. Now that I have done whatever you wanted me to do, please allow me to go back to you. You have already called back so many of your dear children. Now please allow me to have this good fortune.</p>
<p><strong>Aspiring to be your eternal servant,<br /> Bhakti Charu Swami<br /> <br /> Source:</strong> <a href="http://www.dandavats.com/?p=87087">http://www.dandavats.com/?p=87087</a></p></div>Vyasa Pooja at Iskcon Prahalada Desh (Pakistan)https://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/vyasa-pooja-at-iskcon-prahalada-desh-pakistan2019-11-16T09:05:31.000Z2019-11-16T09:05:31.000ZISKCON Desire Treehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree<div><div>
<div style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}3715453084,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}3715453084,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="500" alt="3715453084?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></strong></div>
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<div style="text-align:center;"><strong>75th DIAMOND JUBLIEE VYASA POOJA 2019</strong></div>
<div style="text-align:left;"><strong><br /> By Chetan Kumar & Neeta Maheshwary<br /></strong></div>
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<div>As a member of <strong>ISKCON Prahla desh</strong>, lastly I received a formal invitation to attend an annual offering of special honor pooja known as<strong> 75th Diamond Jubilee Vyasa Pooja</strong> at the Library Hall, Swami Narayan Temple on 15th September 2019 (Sunday). I made up my mind to attend the event with my family.</div>
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<div>I never had a clear understanding what it was or could be, in fact the “Vyasa Pooja” title itself being self explanatory gave me a clear awareness that it might be related to <strong>Maharishi Ved Vyasa</strong>. While arriving at the event I witnessed a purified spiritual environment where the Devotees were chanting the Mahamantra <strong>“Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare”</strong>. Listening to these mind and soul purifier chants my conscious mind went into deep spiritual chanting itself and I found myself also chanting the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra from the depth of my heart with complete surrender and devotion to Lord Krishna. I experienced an inexpressible joy while chanting with the devotees. As the main event was about to begin, I came to know about few things which were completely new for me. Pictorial Reading i.e. the environment was print rich and very well decorated with fresh flowers. All glories to <strong>Srila Prabhupada,</strong> I paid my obeisance to <strong>Lord Krishna</strong> and the <strong>Founder Acharya of ISKCON Srila Prabhupada.</strong> My mind was still questioning me about the title Vyasa Pooja, as I couldn’t find anything related to Maharishi Ved Vyasaji. However, slowly and gradually, with my limited intellect I was able to conclude that the “Vyasa Pooja” is celebrated as an special honor to the spiritual teacher, who actually represents Krishna Himself as well as Krishna’s incarnation Maharishi Vyasadevji. Further, it was elaborated that Krishna recommends everyone seeking God to first seek out God’s representative and respectfully accept his guidance. I became more eager to know about the Vyasa Pooja celebrations therefore I got access of technology and came across some of very significant information.</div>
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<div><strong><a href="https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/18/75/" target="_blank">Bhagavad-Gita As It Is, 18.75, purport:</a></strong></div>
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<div><strong>“Actually there is no difference between hearing directly from Krishna and hearing directly from Krishna via a bona fide spiritual master like Vyasa. The spiritual master is the representative of Vyasadeva also. Therefore, according to the Vedic system, on the birthday of the spiritual master the disciple conduct the ceremony called Vyasa-puja”</strong></div>
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<div><strong><a href="https://vedabase.io/en/library/cc/adi/17/16/" target="_blank">Chaitanya Charitamrita, Adi-lila 17.16, purport:</a></strong></div>
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<div><strong>“Since Vyasdeva is the original guru (spiritual master) of all who follow the Vedic principles, worship of the spiritual master is called Vyasa-Puja”.</strong></div>
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<div>As of now I was very much aware about the celebration and its ideology. It was an intuition of my mind that the celebrations are for the Founder Acharya of ISKCON Srila Prabupadaji as he is the spiritual Teacher, however after the introduction speech, it became much known to me that the pooja celebration was for <strong>H.H. Gopal Krishna Goswami Maharaj.</strong></div>
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<div>Few hours later, the lectures segments were initiated in which I was blessed to hear the philosophy and ideologies of ISKCON by the spiritual leader for the very first time. It had an amazing positive energy which made that YouTube lecture interactive as if Guru Maharaj was communicating to us all directly; the crowd was found to be deeply engrossed into the lecture of <strong>H.H. Gopal Krishna Goswami Maharaj</strong>. The claps and laughs among the devotees made me feel as if we were in person to Guru Maharaj.</div>
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<div>Glorifications segments to the spiritual teacher (Guru Maharaj) started with the lectures of <strong>Venu Madhav Prabhu Ji, HG Gauranga Prabhu </strong>and <strong>HG Radhe Shyam Prabhu, </strong>which were telecast via multimedia. The lectures of these great personalities had so much of learning into it as I could call it as an ocean of knowledge. I felt like listening to each and every word of them with complete sincerity. It had glorifications and their personal encounters and experiences with <strong>H.H. Gopal Krishna Goswami Maharaj.</strong> I believe these souls are very fortunate to have direct guidance from the great Spiritual Master.</div>
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<div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExMDu6TP1SM" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExMDu6TP1SM</a> <strong>(HG Gauranga Prabhu)</strong></div>
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<div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NKEnsvsW8Y" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NKEnsvsW8Y</a> <strong>(Venu Madhav Prabhu Ji)</strong></div>
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<div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kfw84uHPxWo" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kfw84uHPxWo</a> <strong>(HG Radhe Shyam Prabhu)</strong></div>
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<div>The Glorifications were further continued by the devotees and I experienced that each one of them were deeply connected to their Spiritual Guru with their thoughts, words and deeds.</div>
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<div>The ISKCON talent talk team had also arranged a theatre/play <strong>“Bounce back with the beads”,</strong> written and narrated by <strong>Dr. Neeta Maheshwari </strong>and <strong>Malati Devi Dasi ji</strong> which expressed the importance of Hare Krsna Mahamantra japa regularly and how it transforms the behavior of an individual, be it a working class, housewife, or a student. The characters were portrayed so well and the body languages along with the mannerism of each character were perfectly carried by the participants. I thoroughly enjoyed the play and the most vital part of this segment was the dedication of the devotees (the members of ITT) who did not move a second carrying their cell phones to make the entire video of the play until approximately 10 to 15 minutes. Devotees also shared that the participants were practicing for the play since 3 months; honestly their hard work and effort were clearly visible.</div>
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<div>The ceremony was later lead by <strong>HG Ram Sakha Das</strong> and <strong>Jagannath Das </strong>who delivered glorifications to Guru Maharaj and shared the transcendental knowledge of <strong>Bhagavat Gita.</strong> Lastly Maha Prasadam with Abhishekh Charna Amrit were offered to the Devotees, enjoying the Aarti and kirtan, we were about to come to an end of this Mahautsav Pooja.</div>
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<div>I would also like to appreciate the team of ISKCON Prahala Desh for organizing such a wonderful event with perfection and high standards in terms of management. Lastly, may I express this year Vyasa Pooja in two words i.e.<strong> SOUL PURIFIER</strong>, the powerful chants and the vibrations of the Maha Mantra captured my subconscious mind entirely, and I am still consciously or subconsciously reciting the Maha Mantra since then.</div>
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<div><strong>Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare</strong></div>
<div><strong>Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.</strong></div>
</div></div>ISKCON Brisbane Offers Srila Prabhupada 26 Cakes For 26 Qualitieshttps://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/iskcon-brisbane-offers-srila-prabhupada-26-cakes-for-26-qualities2019-09-08T07:41:28.000Z2019-09-08T07:41:28.000ZISKCON Desire Treehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree<div><div id="article_image" style="text-align:center;"><a href="https://iskconnews.org/media/img_versions/2019/08-Aug/bb1_slideshow.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="https://iskconnews.org/media/img_versions/2019/08-Aug/bb1_slideshow.jpg" alt="bb1_slideshow.jpg" width="576" height="324" /></a></div>
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<div><strong>By Madhava Smulen</strong></div>
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<p style="text-align:justify;">For his Vyasa Puja this year, devotees at ISKCON Brisbane, Australiaoffered Srila Prabhupada multiple cakes designed on the theme of the twenty-six qualities of a pure devotee. </p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">The main cake featured the name “Prabhupada” cut into individual letters. These were surrounded by twenty-six small cakes, each with one of his qualities artfully inscribed upon it.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">As explained by Srila Prabhupada himself, Krsnadas Kaviraja, author of the Caitanya-caritamrita, lists the twenty-six qualities of a Vaishnava. They include: He offers respect to everyone; he does not desire any respect for himself; he is very kind to everyone; he is truthful; he is very peaceful; he is magnanimous; he controls his senses; he works for everyone’s benefit; and of course, he is always surrendered to Krishna.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="https://iskconnews.org/media/images/2019/08-Aug/bb3.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="https://iskconnews.org/media/images/2019/08-Aug/bb3.jpg?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="500" alt="bb3.jpg?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">The large cake letters, measuring 18 x 10 inches, were made out of vanilla cake containing golden syrup, spread with butter icing and covered in white and orange fondant.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">The small cakes were made from carrot cake with the same icing and fondant. All were beautifully decorated with edible vines and flowers.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Srimati Dasi, who works at Govinda’s in Brisbane, organized the team behind the cake. They included Radha Thakurani, who also works at Govinda’s and is well known as an expert cake-maker; full-time mother and graphic designer Bhakti Chandrika Dasi; and Radha’s son Devaki Nandana; as well as Mohana Gupta, Rasika Seva, and Lakshmi Dasi.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="https://iskconnews.org/media/images/2019/08-Aug/bb4.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="https://iskconnews.org/media/images/2019/08-Aug/bb4.jpg?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="500" alt="bb4.jpg?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">The team offered the cake at an ecstatic Vyasa Puja festival, where about 250 devotees from all over Brisbane came to take part in glorifying His Divine Grace. </p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">The event included kirtan, abhisekha of Prabhupada’s small murti, guru puja, and homages by devotees.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">“This year, the children took a bigger part in the festival,” says Srimati. “Two young girls aged around 7 or 8 sang ‘He’s a kind and gentle soul,’ by Mangalananda (Michael Cassidy), which was really sweet and touched all the devotees’ hearts.”</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="https://iskconnews.org/media/images/2019/08-Aug/bb2.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="https://iskconnews.org/media/images/2019/08-Aug/bb2.jpg?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="500" alt="bb2.jpg?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">A sumptuous feast concluded the proceedings, but judging by the Facebook reaction to photos, it may be the cake that is remembered most.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">“The response from devotees about the cake has been completely overwhelming,” Srimati says. “We have had so many devotees from all over the world making lovely comments, and we feel completely humbled. I think there have been about 500 shares of our post, which has completely blown us away.” </p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Behind the success, of course, is the cooperation amongst devotees to serve Srila Prabhupada, and that, according to Srimati, is what made this year’s Vyasa Puja at ISKCON Brisbane so special.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="https://iskconnews.org/media/images/2019/08-Aug/bb5.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="https://iskconnews.org/media/images/2019/08-Aug/bb5.jpg?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="500" alt="bb5.jpg?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">“It is inspiring that so many devotees come together and rightly so; to glorify our beloved Srila Prabhupada,” she says. “It is also inspiring how devotees work together co-operatively to make this a wonderful festival, from the decorations and homages to the amazing feast. I think devotees went home afterwards with lots of gratitude and love for Srila Prabhupada, and the desire to make next year’s festival even bigger and better. </p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">“I know our cake team are already talking about how we can make even better creations for His Divine Grace next year,” she concludes with a grin.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Source: <a href="https://iskconnews.org/iskcon-brisbane-offers-srila-prabhupada-26-cakes-for-26-qualities,7070/">https://iskconnews.org/iskcon-brisbane-offers-srila-prabhupada-26-cakes-for-26-qualities,7070/</a></p>
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<p style="text-align:justify;"> </p></div>The Most Appropriate Plan by Indradyumna Swamihttps://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/the-most-appropriate-plan-by-indradyumna-swami2019-08-25T08:15:57.000Z2019-08-25T08:15:57.000ZISKCON Desire Treehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree<div><p style="text-align:center;"><img style="height:410px;width:300px;" src="https://i.imgur.com/kmfF7xD.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img style="height:324px;width:500px;" src="https://i.imgur.com/62YSTfD.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Dearest Srila Prabhupada,</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to you!</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">This year marks the 123rd anniversary of your appearance in this world. Somehow, by the causeless mercy of the Supreme Lord, I am connected to you through initiation as one of your spiritual sons. This can never be disputed in the chronicles of time because on December 10, 1971, you wrote the following to my temple president:</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">“I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated November 22, 1971, along with beads and letters from several devotees at Detroit temple. I am very glad to accept these students as my duly initiated disciples and their names shall be as follows:</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Brian Tibbitts / Indradyumna Das<br /> Ilene Tibbitts / Krpamayi Dasi<br /> Heidi Paeva / Hrisakti Dasi</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">“These are all very nice boys and girls and I have very much appreciated their attitudes of devotion and surrender as displayed in their letters to me. I have replied them under separate cover. Their beads, duly chanted [upon] by me, are sent under separate post.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">“I hope this meets you in good health and cheerful mood,</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">“Your ever well wisher,<br /> A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami”.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Srila Prabhupada, I consider December 10, 1971, the day you wrote to accept me as your disciple, to be my actual birthday, for it was on that day that I began my spiritual life in earnest. In a lecture in Vrindavan, you quoted a verse that corroborates this perspective:</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">janame janame sabe pita mata paya<br /> krsna guru nahi mile baja hari ei</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">“Under ordinary circumstances one’s own father and mother are worshipable, but in every species one gets a father and mother. Far rarer is to get guru and Krsna. The spiritual master can bestow prema-bhakti to those who have attained his mercy; therefore he is the topmost father, mother and friend of everyone.”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">[Srila Prabhupada lecture, September 9, 1975, Vrindavan. Verse quoted from Prema Vivarta, by Jagadananda Pandit]</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Coincidentally, in that initiation letter you expressed your desire for Krsna conscious festivals to be held far and wide, a statement that planted a seed in my heart:</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">“I am pleased by your festival plan for the colleges all over the state. Actually, this roving sankirtan and college program is the most appropriate plan for spreading Krishna Consciousness and preaching. I have just received intimation from Rupanuga of a very large festival he is planning for Central Park. His conjecture is very nice and I want that many such festivals should be held in every city.”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">You then gave a hint as to how to organize such festivals:</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">“I have one suggestion. Make a tent in that backyard garden to accommodate many guests and provide profuse prasadam to all.”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">As the years went by, I often meditated on those instructions and worked on developing and expanding the idea of holding large outdoor festivals to “accommodate many guests” and “provide profuse prasadam to all.”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Srila Prabhupada, you will be very pleased to know that this year we distributed over 160,000 plates of delicious prasadam from our Food for Peace tent at the Polish Woodstock festival. That was as “profuse” as we could manage at this moment in history! I want to continue expanding on your desire to hold such festivals in as many cities as possible and I am confident I can do it, for inherent in the spiritual master’s instruction is the secret to success. You once said:</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">“I took that order of my spiritual master very seriously. But I did not think that I’ll have to do such and such thing. I was at that time a householder. But this is the arrangement of Krsna. If we strictly try to serve the spiritual master’s order, then Krsna will give us all facilities. That is the secret.”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">[Purport on the CD entitled “Prayers to Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati”]</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">I am very happy doing this service for you, Srila Prabhupada, along with a dedicated team of disciples, friends and well-wishers. I cannot think of anything else I’d rather do. To be frank, I feel I am already back home in the spiritual world by doing this service. I was elated to read a comment recently by Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana which confirmed my sentiment: he writes that the pastimes of Lord Caitanya are especially appreciable in the material world because of the dark backdrop of material existence which doesn’t exist in the spiritual world. He gives the example that when a diamond sits on a black cloth, its brilliance is more pronounced.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">My dear lord and master! Though I know our goal is to go back home, back to Godhead, I am hesitant to ask for your blessings to go there when I have not adequately fulfilled your desire in this world for a “roving sankirtan party and festivals to be held in every city.” You clearly describe such outreach programs as “the most appropriate plan for spreading Krishna Consciousness and preaching.” Of course, all the programs you introduced are “most appropriate” for the people of this age. I feel so fortunate that on the day of my spiritual birth you gave a hint as to which one I could take up. I stand ready and willing to execute your plans for many births to come.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">This sentiment is one I have imbibed from you, Srila Prabhupada, for you are the foremost of all preachers in this world. Just this morning I came across a purport in the Fourth Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam in which I felt you were speaking directly to me:</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">“After being initiated and receiving the orders of the spiritual master, the disciple should unhesitatingly think about the instructions or orders of the spiritual master and should not allow himself to be disturbed by anything else. This is also the verdict of Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur, who, while explaining a verse of Bhagavad-gita, points out that the order of the spiritual master is the life substance of the disciple. The disciple should not consider whether he is going back home, back to Godhead; his first business should be to execute the order of his spiritual master. Thus a disciple should always meditate on the order of the spiritual master, and that is perfectional meditation. Not only should he meditate upon that order, but he should find out the means by which he can perfectly worship and execute it.”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">[Srimad Bhagavatam, 4.24.15 purport]</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Surely it will take many lifetimes to implement “such festivals in every city,” especially now in the age of Kali. But whatever challenges there are, whatever austerities are involved and whatever inconveniences I might suffer, these are a small price to pay for the precious and incomparable gifts you have bestowed upon me in this lifetime. Each morning upon waking and each night before resting, I slowly repeat the following verse which serves to remind me of all you have bestowed upon me:</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">nama-srestham manum api saci-putram atra svarupam<br /> rupam tasya grajam uru-purim mathurim gosthavatim<br /> radha-kundam giri-varam aho radhika-madhavasam<br /> prapto yasya prathita-krpaya sri-gurum tam nato’ smi</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">“I bow down to the beautiful lotus feet of my spiritual master, by whose causeless mercy I have obtained the supreme holy name, the divine mantra, the service of the son of Sacimata, the association of Srila Svarupa Damodara, Rupa Goswami and his older brother Sanatana Goswami, the supreme abode of Mathura, the blissful abode of Vrindavan, the divine Radha Kunda and Govardhan Hill and the desire within my heart for the loving service of Sri Radhika and Madhava in Vrindavan.”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">[Srila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami, Sri Mukta Carita]</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Srila Prabhupada, my prayer is that the very same verse will be on my lips when I close my eyes for the last time in this life, and that it will manifest again within my heart of hearts when I open my eyes for the first time in my next life—wherever that may be in our good Lord’s creation.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">My dear spiritual master! Please never leave me! May I always remain by your side, birth after birth, as your traverse the fourteen worlds, flooding them with the ecstasy of Krsna consciousness. Like your own spiritual master, you are an ocean of compassion. In glorification of him you once said:</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">“Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura came into this world to execute the mission of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So he executed it and when it was required, he left this place and went to another place to do the same business.”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">[Lecture on the appearance day of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, February 8, 1977]</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Srila Prabhupada, I am prepared to join you wherever you go in service to your spiritual master! But should you return to Goloka while I remain here, I am confident that you will not forget me. My connection to you is through the service you wrote about in my initiation letter: to hold large events in the “central parks” of as many cities as there are on the face of the earth. When that great task is done—and done well—I will look up to the sky and say, “Your order has been fulfilled, my dear master. Pray tell me, what is your next command?” Perhaps at that time, you will appear, and taking me by the hand, lead me on to Sri Vrindavan Dhama in the spiritual sky. You wrote in a letter to a godbrother of mine:</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">“My dear Brahmananda, regarding your request for your deliverance from the clutches of Maya, please rest assured of being delivered. So far as I am concerned in relationship with my disciples who are so kindly cooperating with me in the matter of my rendering service to my spiritual master, for them I am always ready to come back from Goloka Vrindavan if they are not delivered along with me. So don’t be worried about the clutches of Maya. Be fixed up in your determination and go on serving the Supreme Lord, Krishna, with determination as you are already doing.”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">[Srila Prabhupada letter to Brahmananda, November 15, 1969]</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">The older I get, Srila Prabhupada, the more I feel your personal presence in my life. When I was younger, it was merely a point of philosophy that the departed spiritual preceptor continues guiding the disciple. Now in my old age, as I accept more and more responsibilities on your behalf, that philosophical point has matured into the blissful realization that you are guiding me at every step. You confirmed this many years ago. One of my godbrothers wrote to you:</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">“My dear Srila Prabhupada, please accept my humble obeisances at your divine lotus feet. We fervently pray that Your Divine Grace continues to remain in this world because we need your personal guidance. Even when Lord Krsna disappeared, Arjuna lost all strength temporarily.”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">You replied:</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">“I shall remain your personal guide, physically present or not physically, as I am getting personal guidance from my Guru Maharaja.”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">[ Letter to a disciple, Vrindavan, July 14, 1977]</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">O savior of the fallen souls, let me put aside these noble sentiments for now so that the tears of joy they bring forth from my eyes do not disturb my service to you. A letter has just arrived on my desk with an invitation to do a festival in Ukraine. This is “a conjecture,” as you put it in my initiation letter, that will certainly prove “very nice.” I pray to always maintain the same “attitude of devotion and surrender as displayed” in my original letter to you, so that I may develop all the good qualities necessary to fulfill your every order.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">samadi satka prada vaibhavabhyam<br /> subhakta dana vrata diksitabhyam<br /> ramadhavanghri sthira bhaktidabhyam<br /> namo namah sri guru padukabhyam</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">“I offer obeisances to the two shoes of my guru, which are initiated in the vow of giving beautiful devotional realizations to the disciple, which bestow fixed devotion unto the feet of the husband of Laksmidevi and which bestow all good qualities unto the disciple.”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">[Guru-paduka stotram, verse 7]</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">In the dust of your lotus feet,</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Your servant,<br /> Indradyumna Swami</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.dandavats.com/?p=77695">http://www.dandavats.com/?p=77695</a></p></div>Srila Prabhupada 2019 Vyasa Puja Book available online for free downloadhttps://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/srila-prabhupada-2019-vyasa-puja-book-available-online-for-free-d2019-08-25T08:11:38.000Z2019-08-25T08:11:38.000ZISKCON Desire Treehttps://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree<div><p style="text-align:center;"><img style="height:476px;width:350px;" src="https://i.imgur.com/M27lLkL.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Vyasa-puja is an annual celebration by devotees of Krishna to offer homage to their guru, or spiritual teacher. Krishna says, “. . . one who claims to be My devotee is not so. Only a person who claims to be the devotee of My devotee is actually My devotee.”<br /> In the system of bhakti-yoga, the first duty is to accept a devotee as spiritual master and then to render service unto him.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Each year, the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust publishes a limited number of copies of a Vyasa-puja book—a collection of homages to Srila Prabhupada from devotees and temples all over the world. Srila Prabhupada’s unique position as the founder-acharya of the<br /> International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) is significant in numerous ways. Essentially, he is the instructing spiritual master for everyone within ISKCON.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">These books are available below, as .pdf documents for free download. When available, the books are divided into chapters to help you find the section you want faster.</p>
<h3 style="text-align:justify;">2019 Vyasa Puja Book</h3>
<ul><li style="text-align:justify;"><a href="http://files.krishna.com/en/pdf/vyasapuja/2019/0_Front_Matter.pdf">Front Matter (Contents, Introduction, etc…)</a></li>
<li style="text-align:justify;"><a href="http://files.krishna.com/en/pdf/vyasapuja/2019/1_GBC.pdf">GBC Offerings</a></li>
<li style="text-align:justify;"><a href="http://files.krishna.com/en/pdf/vyasapuja/2019/2_Sannyasis.pdf">Sannyasis Offerings</a></li>
<li style="text-align:justify;"><a href="http://files.krishna.com/en/pdf/vyasapuja/2019/3_Centers.pdf">ISKCON Centers</a></li>
<li style="text-align:justify;"><a href="http://files.krishna.com/en/pdf/vyasapuja/2019/4_Publishers.pdf">Publishers</a></li>
<li style="text-align:justify;"><a href="http://files.krishna.com/en/pdf/vyasapuja/2019/5_Ministries.pdf">Ministries</a></li>
<li style="text-align:justify;"><a href="http://files.krishna.com/en/pdf/vyasapuja/2019/6_Others.pdf">Others</a></li>
</ul><p>Srila Prabhupada Tributes Open Vyasa Puja Book Offerings is also available for download: <a href="https://sptributes.com/downloads/">https://sptributes.com/downloads/</a></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><br /><img style="height:267px;width:500px;" src="https://i.imgur.com/eCUvRgc.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.dandavats.com/?p=77718">http://www.dandavats.com/?p=77718</a></p></div>