The Vyasa-puja occasion is a time for devotees to offer their respects and homages to the spiritual master. In the case of the BLISS devotees, they are honoring and glorifying their spiritual master, His Divine Grace Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the greatest exponent of Vedic knowledge and culture in the western world. Here are their offerings:
His Grace Purujit dasa: Dear devotees, friends, supporters and kind well-wishers of the Bhaktivedanta Lives In Sound Society, kindly allow me to pay my humble obeisances at your lotus feet. It is my great honour and immense privilege to celebrate with you today the 125th Vyasa Puja Day of our beloved Acharya His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada! It is by His grace we have met in this life together to create this society and by his mercy shall we continue engaging in the glorious sankirtana activities that bring the only meaningful benefit to the suffering living entities around us. All glories, all glories, the transcendental magnet, His Divine Grace, has attracted us otherwise-all-useless pieces of Kali yuga iron to the exclusive service of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Just as the gopis curse Brahma, the lord of creation, for creating eyelids that impede vision of the Lord during a wink, we may also curse him for creating a day that has only 24 hours since a mere day can hardly give us an opportunity to fully appreciate the full scope of the divine personality of His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
5000 years ago, after concluding his great lesson to the humanity contained in the sacred Srimad Bhagavad-gita, the Supreme Personality of Godhead Bhagavan Sri Krishna adds the following divine words. He says:
ya idam paramam guhyam
mad-bhaktesv abhidhasyati
bhaktim mayi param krtva
mam evaisyaty asamsayah
na ca tasman manusyesu
kascin me priya-krttamah
bhavita na ca me tasmad
anyah priyataro bhuvi
For one who explains this supreme secret to the devotees, pure devotional service is guaranteed, and at the end he will come back to Me. There is no servant in this world more dear to Me than he, nor will there ever be one more dear.
(Bg 18.70)
No one can embody the purport of these two slokas better than our spiritual master A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. In the year 1965, he has fearlessly ventured into the depths of stubborn materialism by boarding a ship to land on the banks of the North American sub-continent. He had a great plan to change the course of the world’s history. After thousands of years, the world would unite again in the glorification of its most loveable Lord Krishna. All nations, all races, all languages would unite again to engage in the glorious sankirtana movement of Lord Caitanya. There would be one God; Krishna, one prayer; the chanting of His holy name, one engagement; loving devotional service. The prophecies of the scriptures about the small edition of Satya yuga within the Kali yuga would be fulfilled. We can hardly imagine a position more exalted than Srila Prabhupada’s since all the previous acharyas within the Brahma Madhava sampradaya could only cherish a fleeting dream of such a scenario ever taking place. They have carefully drafted this transcendental plot over the centuries and endowed Srila Prabhupada with all their blessings and potencies to accomplish this seemingly impossible task. For the first time, people such as myself are now getting an opportunity to know God as He is. This is the real God, with all His beautiful transcendental character, presented with full descriptions of His multitude of potencies and energies. He is the Absolute Truth, Bhagavan Sri Krishna, and just like the sun cuts through all darkness, by knowing the simple information that Krishna is the Supreme Lord, all the relativities of religious sectarianism fade away as incomplete and archaic in the face of the newly arrived pleasing and joyful reality.
Srila Prabhupada has patiently laid down the lawbooks for mankind where the nature of Krishna is explained in a simple and yet powerful way. These books are the ticking time bombs triggered in contact with sincere souls who are ready to transcend the material existence and re-connect with their forgotten transcendental lover-Bhagavan Sri Krsna. They are meant to demolish the seemingly unshakeable walls of the present materialistic civilization and present the blueprints of a new beginning on the background of the yuga dharma: congregational chanting of the Hare Krishna mahamantra.
Srila Prabhupada is alive with us even today if we truly take his message seriously. Let us become his true representatives by carefully avoiding those unfortunate souls who tend to minimize his instructions or misunderstand his transcendental position and by repeating his words without adulteration to all without discrimination. Everyone is eligible to hear Srila Prabhupada, establish his or her relationship with Srila Prabhupada and based on this relationship become a bona fide spiritual master with the ability to inspire Krsna bhakti in the hearts of others. In this way we may further assimilate the Krishna conscious philosophy and penetrate into its secrets more and more. All that is required is our willingness to enter into this wonderful process. The world is in desperate need of such enthusiastic gurus empowered by Srila Prabhupada to bring in the healing remedy of sweet sankirtan into the wounds of the failing empire.
Maitreya rishi dasa: Nama om vinnu-padaya krnna-presthaya bhu-tale
srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine
namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine
nirvisena-sunyavadi-pascatya-desa-tarine
Your Divine Grace, Srila A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, has kindly come to the western countries to deliver the most fallen souls to the highest perfectional stage of life out of the most downtrodden and lowly conditions. Your capabilties, genious and mercy know no limit, and therefore you are able to purify the whole three worlds. This is not dry sentiment or belief, but something even a layman can clearly see. You have come to the mleccha-desa, the land of those almost completely opposed to surrender to God, practically you have come to hell, and you have inspired and purified even the lowest of the low into enthusiastic and pure Vaishnavas, and you have fulfilled the desires of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura;
"Oh, for that day when the fortunate English, French, Russian, German and American people will take up banners, mrdangas and karatalas and raise kirtana through their streets and towns. When will that day come? Oh, for the day when the fair-skinned men from their side will raise up the chanting of jaya sacinandana, jaya sacinandana ki jaya [All Glories to Lord Caitanya! All Glories to Lord Caitanya!] and join with the Bengali devotees. When will that day be? On such a day they will say, 'Our dear Brothers, we have taken shelter of the ocean of Lord Caitanya's Love; kindly embrace us.' When will that day come? That day will witness the holy transcendental ecstasy of the vainnava-dharma [the eternal occupation of devotional service to the Lord] to be the only dharma [eternal engagement], and all the sects and religions will flow like rivers into the ocean of vainnava-dharma. When will that day come?" (Sajjana-tonani in 1885)
kirata-hunandhra-pulinda-pulkasa
abhira-sumbha yavanah khasadayah
ye 'nye ca papa yad-apasrayasrayah
sudhyanti tasmai prabhavinnave namah
Kirata, Huna, Andhra, Pulinda, Pulkasa, Abhira, Sumbha, Yavana, members of the Khasa races and even others addicted to sinful acts can be purified by taking shelter of the devotees of the Lord, due to His being the supreme power. I beg to offer my respectful obeisances unto Him.
Who is capapble of performing such a feat? Who is capable of understanding so perfectly the necessary adjustments needed so that the western world could take up to the process of self-realization as enjoined in the Vedic scriptures without comprising even an inch. You have revolutionzed the system of initiation, giving a chance to western boys and even girls to come to higher levels of purity and opportunity, much to the shock and opposition of those who are envious and incapable of the same. No mere ordinary man can do what you have done. That is why anyone who refers to you as a “man” or anything of similar caliber makes a great offence at your lotus feet. A person who does so is not really a human being, but rather an ostrich with it’s head in the sand. You have taken demons from streets of the biggest, dirtiest and most sinful cities in the world and have not only purified them but have inspired them to give up materalistic family life, the pursuit of mateiralistic ideals, happiness and positions, and instead dedicate their lives for purifying others. By your words alone the universal situation has changed for the eternal betterment of human, nay, the socieities of all living entities.
No one is too much fallen for your Divine Grace. You came in the beginning of your mission to the bowry district in New york, a place even Ravana would fear to tread, with nobody to support you and barely a single penny to your name. But because of your staunch faith in the supreme Lord Sri Krishna and your perfect grasp on the siddanta of Gaudiya-Vaishnavaism, the eternal absolute truth, you have achieved what no-one else in the universe has been able to achieve. No only that, but you have established the law books and guidance for all the three worlds for the rest of the Yuga. It is not a speculation to say that you have unlimited power, for Srila Visvinatha Cakravati Thakura states in his Gurv-astaka:
saksad-dharitvena samasta-sastrair
The spiritual master is to be honored as much as the Supreme Lord, because he is the most confidential servitor of the Lord. This is acknowledged in all revealed scriptures and followed by all authorities.
Some people may misunderstand our glorifcation of you and our worship of you to be something like man-worship, or that we think of you as God because of a poor fund of knowledge, and although you never accept such worship in your pure heart, you are so merciful that you have allowed and taught us how to worship the spiritual master as the transperent via media to the supreme personality of Godhead. And how can we say that this kind of worship is uncalled for? The spiritual master gives the greastest boon of life, reconnects us with the Lord in an eternal blissful relationship and saves us from the darkest depths of hell. Is it not then appropriate to not only worship the spiritual master with grandeous pomp, reverence and opulence, but also to surrender our lives, words and thoughts to him? Are we not debauches of the highest order if we do not at least try our damnedest to give everything to him?
Our spiritual master is an ocean of mercy, the friend of the poor and the lord and master of the devotees.
Sri Narottama dasa Thakura has expressed that you are an ocean of mercy, Srila Prabhupada. May you be kind enough to let me aspire for that ocean eternally. I beg you may chastise me when I forget you, and please always keep my mind and actions in serving you. There is nothing a disiciple can do to repay his debt to his spiritual master, but I humbly pray that I might always get the chance to try and please you as much as a fallen wretch like myself can.
Paramahamsa dasa:
Nama Om Vishnu-padaya krishna-presthaya bhutale
Shrimate-Bhaktivedanta Svamin iti namine
Namaste sarasvate-deve Gaura-vani pracarine
Nirvishesha shunya vadi pashchatya desha tarine
Let me start this with essential mantra on this auspicious day, when His Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad appeared in this material world to save lost souls in this material world who for time being have astrayed for a short moment from devotional service, a moment which is not even a split of a second in spiritual world, yet it appears to us like eternity. Thanks to His Divine Grace I was given an opportunity to interrupt this split second of delusion in which I am choking; the split of a second during which I went through hard times and got a chance to understand the bitterness of this world. Is it a mercy or a curse? That´s simply a duality in which I´m being tossed from one side to another. But by the lotus feet of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, out of mercy, even still lusting after material enjoyment and my restless mind full of envy, still my spiritual master is giving me His lotus hand to drag me out of this material ocean. Nevertheless, many times I cannot appreciate it. The fact I am still given a chance to associate with Krishna´s devotees, my dear godbrothers who took so much time to teach me how to serve Krishna, who have so much patience and are so much caring; with the Holy Name; and my spiritual master, is a miracle. Under all the unfavourable conditions, some way or other, I could up until this moment somehow persist. That´s only by the causeless mercy of Lord Shri Krishna and His pure devotee A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
I humbly beg my spiritual master for giving us all the strength so we can continue our service to Lord Shri Krishna in our respective propensities. Please shower us, all the BLISS devotees with your mercy.
All glories to the BLISS devotees,
all glories to Shrila Prabhupada.
Your eternal fallen debtor
Paramahamsa Das
Bhakta Davor: nama om vishnu-padaya krishna-preshthaya bhu-tale srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine nirvisesha-sunyavadi-paschatya-desa-tarine I offer my respectful obeisances unto His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who is very dear to Lord Krishna, having taken shelter at His lotus feet. Our respectful obeisances are unto you, O spiritual master, servant of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami. You are kindly preaching the message of Lord Chaitanyadeva and delivering the Western countries, which are filled with impersonalism and voidism. Srila Prabhupada,, I would like to honor you on this special occasion. Altough I am unqalified I will try my best to ofter at least some words of appreciation in honour of the 125th aniversary of your appearance. 6 months ago I was still a spaced out college dropout looking for some meaning in life. At that time I never imagined that someone might come across who would be able to present conclusive answers to all my questions, but by Krishna's mercy you appeared just when I was ripe enough to assimilate your wonderful teaching of bhagavata dharma. The first thing that stunned me was the power of the pure chanting of mahamantra emanating from your lotus mouth. The sound was so powerful and mystic that it filled my heart with something that I had never experienced before, and opened futher enquiry about you and your mission. I heard that you opened 108 temples dedicated to Lord Krishna, published over 80 volumes of God concious literature and made more then 10,000 devotees in just a span of 11 years within which you were gracing the western hemisphere with your physical presence. The numbers were astonishing to me. I was thinking, “no way this guru is just another guru who is offering me his interpretation of ancient Indian spiritual science.” I met someone whose capabilities exceed any limits opposing the normal mortal being. This person must be empowered by God himself. I drew comparison to lord Jesus and Mohammed but quickly I found out that even their glories cannot match with your own. Next you satisfied the little questioning that my dull brain was able to produce by the wonderful knowledge presented in your books and countless classes in which you were offering completly new views on topics that I, in furstration, already found stale and irelevant. How you proceeded to piece together to a mundane mimd seemingly unrelated topics and answered the questions regarding sociology, God, politics and ecology... In such a wonderful and understandable way is unprecedented. Soon I started attempting to also follow the rules and regulative principles of freedom that you presented based on the vedic knowledge and adapted according to the circumstances that the western world finds itself in today. After some time I became ecstatic and started to preach about how wonderful Krishna conciousness is to everyone that would have a chance to bump into me. Although often misunderstood in my limited understanding of your teachings, after some time it was clear to me that there was no other other way then to start serving your mission of directing all the lost souls back home back to Krishna. By your mercy Prabhupada I was able to come in association of elevated souls fully submitted to your guidance. I only hope that I never stray away from your path and by your mercy become worthy of calling myself your disciple. Jay Srila Prabhupada!
Bhakta Nejcs: nama om vishnu-padaya krishna-preshthaya bhu-tale srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine nirvisesha-sunyavadi-paschatya-desa-tarine Please accept my humble obeisances at your lotus feet. All glories to you, Srila Prabhupada! How can such a fallen and completely conditioned soul like myself try to describe a great soul like yourself, Srila Prabhupada. I am simply like a frog in the well, unable to grasp your infinite glories, unlimited mercy and spotless character. Who can know you in full, Srila Prabhupada, when your glorious position was even mentioned by the Supreme personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna Himself! "For one who explains this supreme secret to the devotees, pure devotional service is guaranteed, and at the end he will come back to Me. There is no servant in this world more dear to Me than he, nor will there ever be one more dear." (Bg 18.68-69) And also by Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu directly, that is simply incredible. yadi papi chadi dharma dure dese yaya mora senapati-bhakta yaibe tathaya "If some sinful people escape and giving up religious principles go to far off countries, then my Senapati Bhakta will come at that time to give them Krsna consciousness." (Caitanya Mangala) You have truly united the whole world as the Senapati Bhakta, military commander of all devotees and you have engaged everyone in this dangerious war with maya. Otherwise there is no chance, but by your unlimited mercy, you have made all the illusions and troubles of this material energy less problematic than the water in a cow's hoof. You are the greatest pioneer in all aspects of missionary activities, for you have travelled on your own to an entirely different continent, fearlessly and gloriously, with your head held high, walked into the land of mlecchas simply out of compassion for the fallen conditioned souls. Out of pure love for your great spiritual master His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, you have undertaken this task that many have failed, to preach to the most fallen and dirty, to make them remember Krsna, have them give up their completely sinful life and become saints of the highest character. Every fortunate man or woman that had the intelligence or simply sheer luck to follow your perfect instructions was spiritually benefited by your grace, and even today you are uniting us all, men and women of every race, every age, every religion under your transcendental instructions as you live forever in sound, guiding us back home, back to Godhead. By your infinite mercy we are given the rarest chance, a chance to chant the holy names; Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. You have made the process very easy for us, so that everyone, even the most fallen souls, can relish the transcendental taste of devotional service and quickly achieve the highest success in life! Srila Prabhupada, it is clear as day that you are even more mercifull than Lord Caitanya Himself! As Lord Caitanya appeared in India and gave the ocean of Krsna prema freely to everyone, you have mercifully surpassed even that, spreading the movement all over the world. Your books are being printed and translated into practically every language in the world and in this way your mercy has no limits, anyone who has at least one spark of desire can immediately swim in the ocean of Krsna prema that you are so freely distributing. Your books, your classes, your talks, morning walks, letters and so much more have all been carefully preserved by the expert devotees you have trained and today everything is avaliable with the click of a button online. This is just one of the infinite reasons why you are the greatest exponent of Krsna consciousness in this world and in this entire universe. Simply by considering the all-expansiveness of your mercy we are inspired to serve your mission, your transcendental instructions keep our hearts and minds fixed on the perfection of all existence, to love you and to love Krsna. I am completely unqualified to serve your great mission, but somehow by your ceaseless mercy you have grazed this fallen soul with a ray of mercy and you are showing me the truth. So if it is your will, please kindly allow me to engage in service unto you and make pleasing you my mission in life. Jaya Srila Prabhupada!
