Report Melbourne, Australia, 2018
Dearest Guru Maharaj,
Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
All glories to your Divine Lotus Feet!
We at Melbourne Mahaprabhu Mandir wish Your Holiness a very happy & healthy 69th appearance day!
We humbly pray to Srila Prabhupada and Lord Krsna to shower their blessings to Guru Maharaj! We are delighted to report that by your holiness mercy we have completed Vyasa Puja celebrations at Melbourne Mahaprabhu Mandir on 28th March 2018. Please find the highlights video of today's Vyasapuja.
Festivity started with kirtans at 10:00am (Wednesday the 28th morning). There were over 250 devotees including disciples, well-wishers and guests participated jubilantly in the celebration.
The vyasa puja celebrations program began with Bhajans by team of devotees starting from “yadi prabhupada na hoito". HG Charu Caitanya prabhu read two recent messages from Srila Gurudev. Following that we had senior devotees, disciples & well-wishers offered their homages. Among those who glorified Guru Maharaj included HG Prabhava das, HG Prana das, HG Chiranjiva das, HG Jaisachinandan das, HG Rasanandini devi dasi, HG Ananda Vallabha das, HG Mahatma das, HG Karunanidhi Krsna dasa, HG Jagannath Ram das and several others. We read from your book “Vrindavane Bhajan” and also watched you “Never Give Up” video clip. There were many devotees who wanted to read their homages but as usual we were running short of time.
As much as we receive inspiration from Guru Maharaj's past times via whatsapp and facebook mesasges, we collectively felt your separation due to us missing your divine association during 2017 Snana yatra festivities.
Srila Prabhupada’s and Guru Maharaj's Vyasasan were decorated very grandly in purple with golden highlights and two white swan carriers in the decorations made the Vyasanas seem as though they just landed from the spiritual world, decorations were made possible by expert guidance of Baladev prabhu (Disciple of HH Tamala Krishna Goswami Maharaj) from Philippines. He spent 3 nights in making Vyasasan decorations, during which he shared many pasttimes with you in Mayapur.
Very opulent selections of about 157 Ekadasi Mahaprasadam items were offered for Guru Maharaj’s pleasure. These included a huge, beautifully decorated Ekadasi cake, raj bhoga preparations, paneer & capsicum sabji, peanut chat, Ekadasi pizza, quinoa kichari, paneer skewers, over dozen types of pakoras, milk pedas, sandesh, chutneys, jellies, pistachio srikhand, sweet yogurt, milk sweet balls , gulab jamuns, cashew burfi, coconut burfi, carrot halwa, variety of juices, yogurt drinks, few types of kulfi, etc. Although being a weekday, as always we had several well-wishers and devotees outside of Godfamily actively participated in rendering various services during the Vyasapuja day celebrations.
Pushpanjali was led by HG Karunanidhi Krsna Das and Temple president HG Aniruddha Prabhu joined to offer his respects. HG Ananda Vallabha das performed arati while HG Vallabha Gaura Sundar das led a rousing kirtana. Feast prasadam was served at 1:45pm to senior guests and other devotees.
Every year all devotees look forward to honouring the Vyasa puja Ekadasi prasadam and they are often awed by Guru Maharaj’s mercy in enabling such a large variety of prasadam items to be prepared and served abundantly. They were fed to their hearts content to the extent that they could not eat anymore!
There will be a grains feast coming Saturday the 31st March 2018 during evening time for your pleasure. We have made elaborate arrangements for it.
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, presenting, vegetable cut-ups, 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 vyasa puja 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 vyasa puja celebrations a grand success for Guru Maharaj’s pleasure.
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 for your health and impending transplants and also wish you a full recovery to continue your services to Srila Prabhupada. We are hopeful of your promise during the last video call to have your association in Melbourne soon.
From your spiritual children and well-wishers at Melbourne Mahaprabhu Mandir.
