Remembering Srila Prabhupada - No better guide than Srila Prabhupada - Blog - ISKCON Desire Tree

No better guide than Srila Prabhupada

The devotees held kirtana in the temple room in anticipation of the moment when His Divine Grace would come down and join them. It was a rare opportunity to be able to worship him in person on the day that we all revere more than any other of the year. At 11:00 a.m. they all leaped, danced and shouted as he took his place on the half-finished marble vyasasana. The GBCs and sannyasis stepped forward to wash his feet while Sampath Kumar Bhattacarya and his Bangalore contingent chanted various mantras in praise of him. Yasodanandana Swami led us in guru-puja and then puspanjali, the offering of flowers. He chanted aloud Srila Prabhupada's pranama mantras three times as we responded, and then, with a culminating cry of "svaha! svaha! svaha!" we showered handfuls of flower petals at Prabhupada's lotus feet and bowed our heads in joyful obeisance.

These ceremonies completed, Prabhupada asked Harikesa Maharaja to read from the Vyasapuja book. He stood at the microphone and read out the submissions of Tamal Krishna Goswami, Brahmananda Swami and Gopala Krsna prabhu, and then allowed Sri Sampath Kumar Bhattacarya to step forward to the mike and make his own extemporaneous offering.

Sampath Kumar was an animated speaker, punctuating his words with rhythmic chants as he enthusiastically lauded Srila Prabhupada and his movement. The audience clapped several times as he glorified His Divine Grace for reviving and spreading Vedic culture all around the world.

Then, on Prabhupada's request, Harikesa got up again. This time Prabhupada had him read out the names of every ISKCON center in the book. He wanted to impress upon the large gathering of people the strength of the ISKCON movement and its acceptance all around the world.

When Gargamuni Maharaja took his turn, he included in his glorification some extremely favorable book reviews, gleaned by the members of the Library Party he manages, from professors here in India. Srila Prabhupada was especially pleased to hear these.

Jayapataka Swami completed the eulogies, emphasizing how Srila Prabhupada was successfully defeating the Mayavadis and impersonalists by preaching the glories of Lord Krsna, the Supreme Person. He said that his achievements were the proof that Srila Prabhupada is directly empowered by the Lord Himself, and that anyone seeking a bona-fide spiritual master in order to find their way out of material entanglement and attain Krsna prema, should know that there is no better guide than Srila Prabhupada. "Although he is before us," he concluded, "we cannot understand his greatness. Neither we can estimate it by our minds or intelligence. But we must know for certain that his mercy and his power is unlimited because he has fully dedicated himself under the lotus feet of Sri Sri Radha-Krsna.

"Therefore we call him 'Prabhupada' because he is the pure representative of Prabhu; and therefore he is deserving of the title 'Prabhupada.' And with great honor and pride we are pleased to address His Divine Grace as 'Srila Prabhupada.'"

Cont'd

- From "A Transcendental Diary Vol 4" by HG Hari Sauri Prabhu

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