SPD06-03 Vyāsa-pūjā Festival, 1972, New Vrindavan

[82:03 minutes]

[32:37] [Prabhupada:] This ceremony... Of course, those who are my students, they know what is this ceremony.

[32:49] Those who are visitors, for their information, I may inform you something about this ceremony.

[33:04] Otherwise, it may not be misunderstood. A outsider may see it that

[33:20] "Why a person is being worshiped like God?" There may be some doubt.

[33:34] So this is the etiquette. This ceremony is called Vyasa-pūja. Vyasa.

[33:47] Vyasa means the original author of Vedic literature. He is incarnation of Narayana.

[33:59] He gave us all Vedic knowledge. He received the knowledge from Narada.

[34:06] Narada received the knowledge from Brahma. Brahma received the knowledge from Krsna.

[34:14] So in this way, by disciplic succession, we get transcendental knowledge.

[34:28] So Vyasadeva... Formerly, before Vyasadeva, say, five thousand years ago,

[34:38] before that time there was no need of written literature.

[34:49] People were so sharp in their memory that whatever they would hear

[34:57] from the spiritual master, they would remember for life.

[35:02] The memory was so sharp. But in this age-it is called Kali-yuga-we are reducing our bodily strength,

[35:17] our memory, power of memorizing; our feelings of sympathy for others, compassion; age,

[35:29] duration of life; religious propensities. In this way, in this age we are reducing everything.

[35:46] Every one of you can understand very easily.

[35:56] Formerly, if somebody is attacked by another man, many persons will come to help him:

[36:06] "Why this man is attacked?" But at the present moment, if one man is attacked,

[36:15] the passersby will not care for it, because they have lost their sympathy, or mercifulness for others.

[36:26] Our neighbor may starve, but we don't care for it. But formerly, the sympathy for other living entities,

[36:38] even for an ant... Just like Maharaja Pariksit, while he was touring on his kingdom,

[36:50] he saw that one man was trying to kill a cow. Pariksit Maharaja saw.

[37:00] Immediately he took his sword, that "Who are you? You are killing a cow in my kingdom?"

[37:10] Because the king is supposed, or the government is supposed to give everyone protection,

[37:20] not that the government is meant for giving protection to the human being and not to the animals.

[37:30] Because it is Kali-yuga, the government discriminates between two nationals.

[37:40] "National" means one who has taken birth in the land. That is called national.

[37:46] That is... You know, everyone. So the trees, they are also born in the land,

[37:56] the aquatics also born in the land. The flies, the reptiles, the snakes, the birds,

[38:04] the beasts, human beings-everyone is born in that land.

[38:11] Suppose your land, America, United States,

[38:17] why the government should give protection to one class of living entities, rejecting others?

[38:24] This means they have lost their sympathy for others. This is Kali-yuga.

[38:32] Formerly, before Kali-yuga, unnecessarily even an ant would not be killed. Even an ant.

[38:44] There are many instances that a hunter who was taking advantage of killing animals,

[38:56] but when he became a devotee he was not prepared to kill even an ant.

[39:06] So the Krsna consciousness movement is so nice that it makes a person perfect in everything:

[39:19] perfect in knowledge, perfect in strength, perfect in age-everything.

[39:27] We need so many things. So this perfection of life, the process how to make life perfect,

[39:39] is coming down from Krsna. Krsna, He is the origin of everything.

[39:50] Therefore the knowledge of perfection is also coming from Him. And periodically-

[40:02] periodically means after millions and millions of years-Krsna comes.

[40:10] He comes once in a day of Brahma. So Brahma's days, even one day, the span of one day,

[40:24] it is very difficult to calculate. Sahasra-yuga-paryantam arhad yad brahmano viduḥ [Bg. 8.17].

[40:33] The Brahma's one day means about 433,000,000's of years.

[40:46] So in each day of Brahma, Krsna comes, once in a day.

[40:53] That means after a period of 433,000,000's of years He comes. Why?

[41:03] To give perfect knowledge of life, how a human being should live to make his life perfect.

[41:16] So the Bhagavad-gita is there, spoken by Krsna in this millennium, in this day.

[41:23] Now Brahma's one day we are passing through the twenty-eighth millennium.

[41:32] No, twenty-eighth... In Brahma's day there are seventy-one Manus, and one Manu lives for...

[41:46] That is also many millions of years, seventy-two millennium.

[41:51] So we are not interested now about calculation. The perfect knowledge.

[41:58] This perfect knowledge comes from God, or Krsna, and it is distributed by parampara system,

[42:08] by disciplic succession. The example is just there, a mango tree.

[42:15] On the top of the mango tree there is a very ripened fruit, and that fruit has to be tasted.

[42:28] So if I drop the fruit from up, it will be lost. Therefore it is handed over, after one, after one, after...

[42:38] Then it comes down. So all Vedic process of knowledge is taking from the authority.

[42:48] And it comes down through disciplic succession. Just like I have already explained,

[42:56] Krsna gives the knowledge, perfect knowledge, to Brahma,

[43:01] and Brahma gives the knowledge to Narada. Narada gives the knowledge to Vyasa.

[43:11] Vyasa gives the knowledge to Madhvacarya. Madhvacarya gives the knowledge

[43:18] to his disciplic succession; later on, to Madhavendra Puri.

[43:26] Madhavendra Puri gives that knowledge to Īsvara Puri.

[43:31] Īsvara Puri gives that knowledge to Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Lord Caitanya.

[43:39] He delivers that knowledge to His immediate disciples, six Gosvamis.

[43:46] The six Gosvamis delivers the knowledge to Srinivasa Acarya, Jiva Gosvami.

[43:54] Then Kaviraja Gosvami, then Visvanatha Cakravarti, then Jagannatha dasa Babaji,

[44:02] then Bhaktivinoda Thakura, then Gaura Kisora dasa Babaji Maharaja,

[44:07] then my spiritual master, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati.

[44:12] Then we are distributing the same knowledge.

[44:16] [Devotees:] Jaya Prabhupada! Haribol!

[44:20] [Prabhupada:] We don't manufacture knowledge, because how we can manufacture?

[44:27] Perfect knowledge means I must be perfect. But I am not perfect.

[44:37] Every one of us, when I was speaking... Because

[44:43] we are not perfect, because in our conditional life we have got four defects.

[44:52] The first defect is that we commit mistake. Any one of us who are sitting here,

[45:00] nobody can vouchsafe that he has not committed any mistake in life.

[45:06] No. That is natural. "To err is human."