Report Melbourne, Australia, 2019

Dearest Guru Maharaj,

Please accept our humble obeisances.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to your Divine Lotus Feet!

Happy 70th appearance day! May Srila Prabhupada and Lord Krishna continue to always shower their blessings on Guru Maharaj!

We, at Melbourne Mahaprabhu Mandir are indeed blessed that Lord Krsna has allowed us to take shelter at Guru Maharaj’s lotus feet. By your mercy, we are actively engaged in various devotional services at Melbourne Mahaprabhu Mandir.

By your mercy we have completed Vyasapuja celebrations at Melbourne Mahaprabhu Mandir today (Tuesday, 16th April). We are happy to report that about 200 devotees, including disciples and well-wishers, participated in the celebrations which commenced in the temple room at 9:45am today morning.

The Vyasapuja celebrations program began with "yadi prabhupada na hoito" bhajan, followed by a reading about your Holiness’s biography. HG Mathura Manohara Dasa read about meaning of Vyasa puja and inspirational quotes from articles about Gurumaharaja published on Dandavats.com, which included nectarean points mentioned by Srila Gurudev. We are happy to report that many devotees in Melbourne paid homages to you and indeed we ran short of time. Among those who glorified Guru Maharaj included HH Banu Swami Maharaj, HG Aniruddha Prabhu (Temple President), HG Prabhava Dasa ACBSP, HG Kesava Dasa, HG Bhakta Dasa and HG Bhakti Devi Dasi, HG Ciranjiva Dasa, HG Narahari Dasa, HG Prana Dasa, HG Sukadeva Dasa (Asst. Temple President), HG Karunanidhi Krsna Dasa, HG Ananda Vallabha Dasa, HG Chandra Vallabhi Devidasi and HG Leelamayi Devidasi. Guru Maharaj, cooperation among Melbourne Godfamily has manifested in success of today's Vyasapuja celebrations. At the recently held Vyasapuja planning meeting, we set a target of preparing a minimum of 170 Ekadasi mahaprasadam items for Guru Maharaj’s pleasure. We are happy to report to Guru Maharaj that we surpassed this target beyond expectations through the mercy of cooperative spirit that Guru Maharaj has imbibed in all of us here in Melbourne.

A wide array of about 260 Ekadasi Mahaprasadam items were offered for Guru Maharaj’s pleasure. These included a huge, beautifully decorated Ekadasi cake, raj bhoga items, paneer skewers, spinach & cashew sabji, eggplant sabji, potato sabji, Ekadasi pizza, Quinoa dosa wrap, potato starch roti, variety of vegetable pakoras, potato chips, gauranga potato, Buckwheat pasta, mashed potato, aloo pakora, samo rice, kadhi, sago pakora, sago pappadam, green chutney, tomato mozzarella salad, buckwheat puri, carrot halwa, Makhana roasted, shrikhand, almond halwa, “Simply Wonderful” , milk sweet balls, ekadasi gulab jamun, variety of cheese cakes, mango & coconut jelly, tender coconuts cashew burfi, carrot halwa, 26 variety of ice creams ,yoghurt and juices, mango kulfi, decorated watermelon and honey melon basket, variety fresh fruits platter, variety of dry fruits and nuts, etc.

Pushpanjali was led by HG Karunanidhi Krsna Dasa. HG Ananda Vallabha Das performed arati, while Yogesvara Govinda Dasa led a rousing kirtana. Prasadam was served at 2.00pm to senior guests and other devotees. Despite being a working day, many of your well-wishers came forward to assist with mass cooking, decorations, cleaning and other services voluntarily. Every year all devotees look forward to honouring the Vyasapuja ekadasi prasadam and they are often awed by Guru Maharaj’s mercy in enabling such a large variety of Ekadasi prasadam items to be prepared and served abundantly. All guests were fed to their hearts content to the extent that they could not eat anymore! Many arranged takeaways!

There will be a grains feast coming Saturday the 20rd April 2019 for your pleasure. Elaborate arrangements have been already made for that. Everyone participated actively and cooperated very well in the spirit of serving our loving spiritual father by engaging in various devotional services including donating laxmi, administering, emceeing, cooking, making garlands, decorating Guru Maharaj’s and Srila Prabhupada’s vyasasan in the temple, cleaning, audio/video services, etc. As such, it would be an injustice to single out any specific devotee in presenting this Vyasapuja celebrations report to Guru Maharaj. This has truly been a humble, sincere and cooperative JSSS Melbourne family endeavour in attempting to make this year’s Vyasapuja celebrations a success for Guru Maharaj’s pleasure.

To commemorate your 70th Vyasapuja and thank all the devotees who prayed for your recovery, we handed out fridge magnet memorabilia thanking them on your behalf. A picture of the memorabilia is attached. A short 5-minute highlights video has also been made for your pleasure and can be viewed on youtube - https://youtu.be/uwD4e4yzFFQ

This year, in addition to our local event expenses fundraising, we additionally fundraised 2 Lakhs (AU $4,000) which has been remitted to JSSS International as requested by your servants. This was only possible by Guru Maharaj’s mercy.

Guru Maharaj, on this auspicious day we thank you for allowing us to be engaged in your service and we all wish you a very happy and healthy appearance day.

We at Melbourne Mahaprabhu Mandir are continuing to pray that you will recover fully and that we will have your association in Melbourne soon.

From your spiritual children at Melbourne Mahaprabhu Mandir, Australia