The Meaning of Vyāsa-pūjā

Vyas Pūja is a literary offering of praise and gratitude from the students unto the pure Vaisnava spiritual master. By its very nature such a compilation of praise of a pure devotee must face insufficiency. Just as devotees cannot adequately describe the infinite glories of the Supreme Lord, so a disciple cannot do justice to the immeasurable ocean of kind, transcendental instruction who is the spiritual master-the representative of Krsna appearing before us conditioned souls. He is stated by Krsna in Bhagavad-gita to be "the dearmost" for his preaching Bhagavad-gita As It Is to the devotees, and the Lord says that there will never be one more dear to Him. If one thinks of the Vyasa Pūja as an attempt to finish up glorification of the spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, then we must inform him that in that endeavor this book must fall far short of the goal. In a preface to his Srimad-Bhagavatam translation and commentary, Srila Prabhupada writes as follows concerning the Supreme Lord, Sri Krsna:

What is true of the Supreme Lord is true of His pure devotee: the glory of His causeless mercy outmeasures all collections of praise. Just as the Ananta Sesa incarnation failed to enunciate a complete description of the glories and varieties of the Supreme Lord although He tried for thousands of years with thousands of heads, so thousands of disciples cannot capture in writing the infinite scope and worth of Srila Prabhupada. Even leaders of nondevotees have come to appreciate the ISKCON movement founded by His Divine Grace, and in newspapers and magazines we read comments such as: "These are good men; we need more of them in our community." "The Krsna consciousness movement is teaching about God on an educated level," "They are good, peaceful people, who do not go in for intoxication or illicit sex," etc. Anyone seriously concerned with improving the current degraded times can appreciate that Srila Prabhupada is turning wretched young men and women into flowerlike devotees who do not take part in any sort of vices and who engage twenty-four hours a day in the topmost welfare work by informing everyone of his eternal spiritual nature in love of God. It is a fact that anyone Who takes to Krishna consciousness and who chants Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare will get relief from material misgivings and will get free of repeated birth and death and become eligible to go back to the kingdom of God. Srila Prabhupada is freeing everyone from the clutches of the material nature. His potency to distribute elevation from material misery, love of God, comes directly in the line from Lord Caitanya, who was prayed to as follows by Rūpa Gosvami: "I offer my obeisances to You. You are the most munificent person because You are directly distributing love of Krsna."

This book is a sampling. Some of the praises are more eloquent than others, some are more expert, some are factual reports, attempts at slokas-but none can completely capture how dearly and strongly our spiritual master loves Krsna and how completely Krsna loves him and reciprocates with him at every moment. But it is in order with the scriptures and the line of acaryas that we present this book to our spiritual master; for it is a sincere expression from the disciples who are prostrated at his lotus feet. We can understand that as a father likes to hear the talk of his baby child, even if it is broken, infantile speech, so the spiritual master appreciates our attempts at transcendental speech because we are his children, and are sincerely engaged in loving service.

These written pieces are transcendental and confidential. The unsympathetic outsider who pokes his nose into this relationship cannot enter its understanding. One who does not chant Hare Krsna cannot understand or feel the relish of chanting because chanting is for those who chant. Similarly, Vyas Pūja is for the disciples and the spiritual master. It remains a great secret to those who are not touched with the association of devotional service. "The line of service as drawn by you is fresh and bracing as morning dew."

Our object, as you have so carefully taught us, Srila Prabhupada, is not to keep Krsna consciousness to ourselves, but to spread it all over the world. This year you have been traveling to India personally speaking and managing ISKCON and showing us the meaning of acarya by example. And now you are traveling and inspiring the devotees and centers in the U.S. and Europe. At Vyas Pūja time we, your intimate children, are gathered at your feet to tell you our feelings as best we can. By your blessing, we can go forth from this Vyas Pūja gathering of 1971 and, all devotees together as one great ISKCON, without faction, truly perform the work with our thoughts, words and deeds. Let us go and distribute this literature of Srila Prabhupada's-Krsna's message-kindly delivered to the Western countries. Let us cooperate without ill feelings among ourselves. Let us very strictly observe all the regulative principles and stay as pure representatives. Let us celebrate pure sahkirtana and magazine distribution to please you. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

All your disciples pray that you will remain in our presence for many years to come, and by our cooperation you will be able to spend time writing volumes of Bhagavatam while we carry on the program and mission of your Guru Maharaja.