Vyasa Puja Offerings 2026: His Grace Purujit Dasa

The following is the Vyasa Puja offering of His Grace Purujit Dasa, founder of B.L.I.S.S.

All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda, the foremost spiritual master, the only shelter of the fallen and sinful, the ācārya whose influence knows no limits! Falling on the ground in my downtrodden position and taking the dust of his feet, I am trying to extricate my insignificant words of glorification from the depths of my contaminated heart. I pray to the assembled Vaiṣṇavas to bless me so that I may become successful in this endeavour by their mercy.

Recently this year the devotees of our society published a biography of His Divine Grace entitled Bhaktivedanta: A Biography of Śrīla Prabhupāda, Volume 1. They have taken considerable time to design, print, finance, distribute and market this unique piece of literature. It is unique because this humble attempt to glorify His Divine Grace derives its inspiration solely from the divine words of Śrīla Prabhupāda and refuses to include even a single word of speculation.

This is the proper process for presenting transcendental message, especially when describing the transcendental activities and characteristics of pure devotees. The mind and pastimes of a pure devotee are a divine mystery; any attempt to estimate, judge or interpret them with our material, contaminated and conditioned senses will surely end in disaster. Just as Kṛṣṇa Himself, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, a pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa cannot be subjected to the laws of material nature, and any conclusion that states otherwise is the conclusion of a sinful offender who should never be associated with. Therefore the devotees of the Bhaktivedanta Lives In Sound Society have followed a safe path by simply compiling and editing what His Divine Grace has already stated about himself. They are confident that, since these words emanate from the lotus mouth of such a pure devotee, they will awaken spiritual realisation in the hearts of the readers and enthuse them to render service to this glorious pure servant of the Lord.

The devotees have also received small but significant support from devotees worldwide and have become a little popular because of their accomplishment. The biography has now been distributed in hundreds of copies, filling the vacuum left by the absence of such paramparā transcendental glorification. Ordinary people naturally wish to know more about the nature of the pioneer ācārya who spread the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement all around the world. I myself am pleased that somehow the devotees involved me in this process of publication; I could assist in this service and thereby receive a golden opportunity to purify my consciousness.

And yet, despite all this good news and the favourable reviews of the biography, we must conclude that ironically, Śrīla Prabhupāda would be displeased with it. Perhaps he would not even touch it, what to speak of blessing it. In fact, he would probably severely chastise me and all who have spent so much time producing it, and perhaps he would even curse us for doing what could be even viewed as a disservice. This is the nature of a Vaiṣṇava. He never wishes to be glorified himself, but always wants to glorify his beloved Lordships Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa.

When his early disciple Yadubara Prabhu suggested that he wanted to make a biographical film about Śrīla Prabhupāda, His Divine Grace answered: “What is the need?”

This is the mood of a real Vaiṣṇava. Śrīla Prabhupāda writes:

It is characteristic of advanced Vaisnavas following the principles of bhakti that they think themselves ordinary human beings. This is not an artificial exhibition of humility:

'A Vaisnava sincerely thinks this way and therefore never admits his exalted position.'

— Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.24.26

There are other statements of Śrīla Prabhupāda that simply do not make sense if taken at face value:

'I don't say that I am liberated. I am conditioned.'

— Morning Walk – January 4, 1977, Bombay

Prabhupada: [shouting] I am not sama-darsi! I don't say I'm sama-darsi!

Guest (2): Who is sama-darsi?

Prabhupada: I don't say sama-darsi. So you say sama-darsi. Sama-darsi.

Guest (2): You should be sama-darsi.

Prabhupada: But I am not in that stage.

— Room Conversation – January 18, 1971, Allahabad

In both cases we simply cannot take Śrīla Prabhupāda seriously in a literal sense. Śrīla Prabhupāda is a bona fide spiritual master, and without being liberated one cannot initiate. Similarly, being a sama-darśī (one who sees everyone equally) is a qualification of an uttama-adhikārī, and Śrīla Prabhupāda indeed exhibits the symptoms of an uttama-adhikārī.

Although the spiritual master should be obeyed in all circumstances, we should not be fanatical. There is an exception to this rule. When a Vaiṣṇava speaks in this way, it is the sign of his humility; therefore such statements should never be taken literally. There is, unfortunately, a class of unscrupulous persons who do take these statements of Śrīla Prabhupāda literally and firmly believe that he is indeed a conditioned soul, not a sama-darśī, and so on. Thus they completely fail to understand Śrīla Prabhupāda’s exalted status due to their fanaticism. Due to their fanatical, blind faith they think Srila Prabhupada is an ordinary man and thus pave their way to the darkest regions of universe. 

Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura therefore gives us guidance on how to understand spiritual matters: one should always consult the guru, sādhu and śāstra. The śāstra, however, should take precedence. Śrīla Prabhupāda writes:

'One should accept a thing as genuine by studying the words of saintly people, the spiritual master and the sastra. The actual center is the sastra, the revealed scripture. If a spiritual master does not speak according to the revealed scripture, he is not to be accepted. Similarly, if a saintly person does not speak according to the sastra, he is not a saintly person. The sastra is the center for all.'

— Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya 20.352, purport

Examples of Vaiṣṇava humility in the sastra are abound. Lord Caitanya says He has no love for Kṛṣṇa; otherwise He would die. Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja says he is lower than the worm in stool and that if someone utters his name all his pious activities will be lost. Haridāsa Ṭhākura thought himself fallen, being born in an avaiṣṇava family and therefore unworthy to enter the Jagannātha temple. In all these cases, the workings of yoga maya are in place. Vaishnavas are nothing but top most exalted in all circumstances and defying the mundane vision of fanatics. 

Futhermore, the speaker of the Bhagavatam Maitreya Rsi explains the benefit of glorifying a pure devotee of the Lord in the following sloka: 

ya idam sumahat punyam

sraddhayavahitah pathet

sravayec chrnuyad vapi

sa prthoh padavim iyat

'Any person who describes the great characteristics of King Prthu with faith and determination—whether he reads or hears of them himself or helps others to hear of them—is certain to attain the very planet which Maharaja Prthu attained. In other words, such a person also returns home to the Vaikuntha planets, back to Godhead.'

Srila Prabhupada comments: 

'In the execution of devotional service, sravanam kirtanam visnoh [SB 7.5.23] is especially stressed. This means that bhakti, or devotional service, begins by hearing and chanting about Visnu. When we speak of Visnu, we also refer to that which relates to Visnu. In the Padma Purana, Lord Siva recommends Visnu worship to be the topmost worship, and better than Visnu worship is worship of the Vaisnava or anything that is related to Visnu. The fact is explained herein that hearing and chanting about a Vaisnava is as good as hearing and chanting about Visnu, for Maitreya has explained that anyone who hears about Prthu Maharaja with attention also attains the planet which Maharaja Prthu attained. There is no duality between Visnu and the Vaisnava, and this is called advaya-jnana. A Vaisnava is as important as Visnu, and therefore Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura wrote in his Gurv-astaka:

saksad-dharitvena samasta-sastrair

uktas tatha bhavyata eva sadbhih

kintu prabhor yah priya eva tasya

vande guroh sri-caranaravindam

“The spiritual master is 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 is followed by all authorities. Therefore I offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of my spiritual master, who is a bona fide representative of Sri Hari.”The supreme Vaisnava is the spiritual master, and he is nondifferent from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. It is said that sometimes Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu used to chant the names of the gopis. Some of the Lord’s students tried to advise Him to chant the name of Krsna instead, but upon hearing this Caitanya Mahaprabhu became very angry with His students. The controversy on this subject reached a point that after this incident Caitanya Mahaprabhu decided to take sannyasa because He was not taken very seriously in His grhastha-asrama. The point is that since Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu chanted the names of the gopis, worship of the gopis or the devotees of the Lord is as good as devotional service rendered directly to the Lord. It is also stated by the Lord Himself that devotional service to His devotees is better than service offered directly to Him. Sometimes the sahajiya class of devotees are interested only in Krsna’s personal pastimes to the exclusion of the activities of the devotees. This type of devotee is not on a very high level; one who sees the devotee and the Lord on the same level has further progressed.'

— Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.23.31

For this reason, even though we are risking disturbing Śrīla Prabhupāda by glorifying him, we are willing to take that risk, being reassured by the authority of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam itself that such glorification of Śrīla Prabhupāda is the right course of action and we shall always be callous to the expressions of insignificance, incapability or even fallen condition from the lips of a pure devotee. May he forgive us for this so-called crime.