Vyāsa-pūjā 2024
Dear Guru Mahārāja,
Please accept my humble obeisances at your lotus feet. All glory to you on this most auspicious appearance day of Your Holiness.
Your glories are endless. Ever since your young age, you have been engaged in the service of your spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. You have practically spent your entire life pleasing Śrīla Prabhupāda and the paramparā. You have worked tirelessly to bring ISKCON to its present-day glory. Despite so many bodily difficulties, you continue to push yourself to preach the glories of the lord. Despite being born into a rich family, you gave up everything and surrendered to Śrīla Prabhupāda. Śrīla Prabhupāda himself confirmed the name Gordan John refers to Gour Dhan Jan and stated that His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami was formerly an associate of Lord Caitanya and that you would have more than 50,000 disciples. The first time you met the devotees, you saw the tilaka on their faces and experienced seeing the tilak before, it was like a reawakening of something dormant in your memory.
In just two months after visiting ISKCON, you decided to shave your head and join the temple. Guru Mahārāja, You were rendering so many services to Prabhupāda’s movement right from the initial days. Very soon you were made the temple president of Montreal. Later you were sent to India by Prabhupāda where you were assigned to take care and develop Māyāpur. At a young age of 21, you took up sannyāsa to please Śrīla Prabhupāda. In the initial days, it was very difficult at Māyāpur, you had to keep a gun for the protection of devotees.
You had come up with expert ways of book distribution since the beginning, which is still continuing. Your mission to distribute 10,000 Mahā-big books and 1,00,000 small Prabhupāda books every month engages many devotees across the globe. You are also one of the lifetime trustees of BBT. You also started the Nāmahaṭṭa and the Bhakti-vṛkṣa system of preaching where the penetration of Kṛṣṇa consciousness reached even remote areas of the world. You have also taken up the task of construction of the temple of Vedic planetarium. Despite so many bodily difficulties, you have extensively traveled throughout the world preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Guru Mahārāja, you have been extremely compassionate and merciful towards devotees. You have inspired thousands of devotees to take up to Kṛṣṇa consciousness across the globe. In some places, you have initiated the entire village with Harināma. You always used to think about how you could accomplish the instructions of Śrīla Prabhupāda. Your dedication to keep pushing yourself to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness over decades despite facing so many obstacles has inspired me the most.
Guru Mahārāja, you are an all-rounder. When you do book distribution, you do it with the utmost dedication and happiness. When you organize a festival or Nāmahaṭṭa, again it is with the utmost dedication and happiness. There could hardly be few nations in the world that you have not traveled to and hardly any service that you have not tried your hand at. Accepting any service that is given to you as the order of guru, Kṛṣṇa, and sādhus, you do them all with love as an offering to your eternal spiritual master A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Śrīla Prabhupāda.
My words cannot begin to show my gratitude for your contribution to this world. We are fortunate to have the association of Kṛṣṇa’s pure devotee like yourself. Inspired by your association, people across the world give birth to billions of sound vibrations of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa every day. They are dancing around the universe and purifying it.
As in Gur-vāṣṭaka 8th verse,
yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo
yasyāprasādān na gatiḥ kuto ‘pi
By the mercy of the spiritual master one receives the benediction of Kṛṣṇa. Without the grace of the spiritual master, one cannot make any advancement. You have saved us by showing us the way back to Godhead. Your mercy has allowed us to chant the holy names of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa.
Dear Guru Mahārāja, may I always be able to follow your divine instructions and be able to bring as many fallen souls to our movement. Without your mercy, we the fallen souls may have to go through the cycle of birth and death for many millions of years. Please guide me so I may always be able to chant the holy name in an offense-less manner in a humble state of mind and consider myself lower than the straw in the street. Please give me the strength to be more tolerant than a tree, devoid of all false prestige, and be able to offer all respects to others.
Your mercy has opened the doors of the spiritual world and given the tools for purification. You have given us shelter at a perfect movement that will exist for the next ten thousand years. You also mentioned that Prabhupāda books are the basis of our movement and if anyone wants to please you then one must distribute Prabhupāda books. Please give me the strength to distribute as many of Prabhupāda’s books as possible.
As stated in the Gur-vāṣṭaka by Ādi Śaṅkarācārya-
masascenna lagnam guroranghripadme
tatah kim tatah kim tatah kim tatah kim
If one’s mind is not centered upon the lotus feet of the guru, what’s the use, what’s the use, what’s the use? Guru Mahārāja, may I always be able to focus my mind on your lotus feet and make your instructions the only reason for my existence. You have descended from the spiritual world just to reclaim the fallen souls of the material world, you’re the most merciful. By your mercy, one can cross this ocean of material existence and attain the lotus feet of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa.
Guru Mahārāja, you are an expansion of Lord Nityānanda Prabhu who has appeared before us to put some sense into our dull heads. Guru Mahārāja, please forgive me for I have been the greatest sinner as I wanted to enjoy this material world devoid of Kṛṣṇa. Hence, I was given a position to enjoy the material world. I desire to glorify your lotus feet and make your instructions the ultimate guideline for my life. I beg forgiveness for all the offenses that I have committed at your lotus feet, without your mercy this human form of life is useless. Thank you for coming to our rescue and for guiding us, you are a universal hero.
You are my only shelter Guru Mahārāja, please accept me as a speck of dust at your lotus feet.
Your Servant,
Madhusūdana Manamohana Dāsa
ISKCON Sheshadripuram, Bangalore, India