Vyasa-puja offering to Srila Prabhupada 2002

(view 2002 offerings by disciples)

Dear Srila Prabhupada,

Please accept my humble obeisances at your lotus feet.

When cosmic complexities bewilder the demigods, they assemble at the shore of the milk ocean and offer majestic yet emotive prayers to the Lord. Then they await His broadcast of the solution.

Similarly, when inevitable institutional conundrums baffle your disciples, we can amass in the holy dhamas. Whether known as conservative or liberal, adhikari or sannyasi, we can close ranks and approach you, the father, with humble entreaties for guidance. In celebration of the Vyasa-puja of the founder-acarya, allow this useless soul to pose a question that both glorifies you and desperately begs an answer.

What do we do about all those wonderful books you have left us? You told us that if we want to know you we should read your books, that your books are better than you, that they are the law books for thousands of years to come, and that while anyone can translate, your purports contain your devotional ecstasies. In Australia you said that even if someone doesn’t purchase your books but merely takes one in hand, just feels some appreciation, this person becomes blessed with a human form in the next life. In Los Angeles you told us that your books have everything any level of spiritual aspirant requires-whether neophyte or most advanced.

Here in Vrndavana, I sit in front of Govardhana Hill, attempting to compose praise to you. I am convinced that just as Lord Krsna saved the residents of Braja from Indra’s wrath by His lifting Govardhana and inviting the Brajavasis to take shelter under it, similarly you have saved us tormented denizens in Kali-yuga from a storm of horrors by your erecting the shelter of your books and asking us to live within them.

Last night Dhananjaya dasa reminded us of your confidence in your literary solution to the problem of spiritual institutions surviving in the material world. You told him that even if all the GBCs, temple presidents, and pujaris leave your mission, your books are everywhere, and consequently some sincere soul will read them and know exactly how to start the Hare Krsna movement again. You urged that your disciples strive to get the reward for assisting you, but then you declared that even if we fail you, someone else will certainly arise in the future, just by reading your books and get the credit.

Obviously we are fortunate to have the first chance at your mercy-and also, obviously we are expendable.

Since your divine disappearance, twenty-five years have passed. I am wondering if times have changed, how, and to what degree. Thus I am begging for guidance. During your physical presence your books were our be-all and end-all. Now, have we entered, consciously or unconsciously, a new era of ISKCON known as “PPB”-that is, “post-Prabhupada’s books”?

More than a few seasoned devotees and supportive academics opine that indeed it’s time to move on. Maybe, while maintaining our eternal gratitude to you, our founder-acarya, it’s now necessary to evaluate what you have left us and distill whatever part of that legacy should accompany us into the future of a different world and a different ISKCON.

Therefore, amidst the perennial onslaught of time and change in the material world, I clutch at your feet and seek your clarification, since you are the most expert strategist in Lord Caitanya’s contemporary army. And because you cling most tightly to the lotus feet of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, you are the most divinely pragmatic.

1. What are your expressed desires for your books in relation to the future of ISKCON?

2. How do you see your books in relation to both training future ISKCON devotees and enlightening the present nondevotee population?

3. Amidst the burgeoning potpourri of Gaudiya Vaisnavism outside of India, do you still assert your books are sufficient for bringing us to the zenith of bhakti?

4. What should we do and feel about purports that seem to clash with current scientific, gender, sociological, and political notions and niceties?

5. How are we to commingle the previous acaryas’ literatures with your books, especially since you certainly mention other sastras in your purports?

6. Can your books withstand time? That is, are the purports and language dated-if not now, then in the future?

7. Is emphasis on distributing your books, by whatever method, outmoded? Isn’t ISKCON with out emphasis on mass distribution a breath of fresh air for us?

8. Without a doubt you urged your disciples to write books. What is the relation between our books and yours, with your ISKCON society and beyond?

9. Should our senior devotees take the lead in demonstrating lifelong dependence on your books for their spiritual sustenance and delight? Is there a danger that by doing so they could inhibit their spiritual maturity?

I can’t stand on the shore of the ocean of milk, yet for the sake of ISKCON’s future and my own well-being I beg you for clarification: Is it pie-in-the-sky and reactionary to pine for a time when we will all be on the same page (into the same books) again, “like the good old days”? Would we gain anything significant and lasting if ISKCON’s leaders, in both word and example, rallied to exalt your books as the main basis of our cultural unity? And if you deem such voluntary austerity a laudable goal, then how can we avoid setting off a wave of insensitivity and brashness to attain it (like the good old days)?

Maybe there is no one answer to these questions. Perhaps, for your practical pleasure, we should accept the reality of highly pluralistic ISKCON society, and learn to live with it. If that is your desire, I am ready to accept it.

What shall we look for: unity within the diversity … or diversity within the unity? Meanwhile, please allow me to put forth my own desire. Prostrating my sinful body on the ground before you, pressing my nose at your holy feet, I beg for the fulfilment of my private dream. In Atlanta, 1975, you told devotees that distributing your books with the goal of going back to Godhead is self-gratificatory, but when a devotee aspires to take birth again for assisting you in sankirtana, that is pure love of Krsna.

Tripurari dasa: Sometimes the devotees ask if they can take birth again distributing books for you.

Srila Prabhupada: Very good. That is real devotion. A devotee does not want to go to Vaikuntha or any liberation. They are satisfied with the service. That is pure devotion. And distributing books for the benefit of going to Krsna, that is selfishness. But “I want to simply distribute the books without any remuneration, without any my personal . . . “that is pure devotee. Just like Prahlada Maharaja says that “I do not wish to go to Vaikuntha unless I take all of these rascals with me.” That is pure devotee.

Yes, sometimes I am an author, and the BBT publishes my books. I try to write in a way that if people happen to read my books they will then seek out yours-the real benediction-with appreciation and submission.But crying in the dust of your lotus feet, I shamelessly present to you my deepest personal desire:

I want to go where you go. Let me find you quickly in my next birth and pass out your books as a member of your nirmala sankirtana party.

Praying to be an unconditional servant,

Devamrta Swami

 

Addendum:

It has come to my attention that over the years since I wrote this offering, some persons, albeit quite few, have apparently perused it rather quickly, shall we say, and have rushed to a notion beyond anything I could ever speculate. Somehow they think that in this offering I, myself, am questioning, nay doubting, the distribution of Srila Prabhupada's books and even the suitability of the books themselves.

I can appreciate that these persons don't know me personally or what I stand for. Indeed, by Krishna's grace, I have had ample and sustained opportunity to risk even my life for Prabhupada's books, for many years behind the iron curtain.

In this offering, especially at the end, I would think I clearly declared my own personal dedication to Prabhupada's books and their distribution. Midway through it, though, I did air what I consider to be worrisome issues, which I know have been bubbling in various places and times of Prabhupada's movement. Readers of the Bhagavatam may recall how Pariksit Maharaja would bring to Sukadeva Goswami's attention misgivings he observed in the audience about various issues relating to Krishna and self-realization. My desire, in the midsection of this offering, was to humbly follow in those footsteps of Pariksit Maharaja.

For example: "O trustworthy brahmanas, I now ask you about my immediate duty. Please, after proper deliberation, tell me of the unalloyed duty of everyone in all circumstances, and specifically of those who are just about to die." (SB 1.19.24) As Prabhupada explains in the purport: "Maharaja Pariksit was already aware of this fact, but he wanted the great sages assembled there to unanimously give their verdict on his conviction so that he might be able to go on with his confirmed duty without controversy."

Similarly, Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur tells us that twice, in reference to the rasa-lila, Pariksit Maharaja observed consternation in some of audience and thus queried Sukadava Goswami--for the sake of others.

As for myself, I would think I made my position clear right in the beginning section of my offering: "I am convinced that just as Lord Krishna saved the residents of Braja from Indra's wrath by His lifting Govardhana and inviting the Brajavasis to take shelter under it, similarly you have saved us tormented denizens of Kali-yuga from a storm of horrors, by your erecting the shelter of your books and asking us to live within them."

In Vedic circles, if one has any confusion about the meaning of something, one especially pays attention to the last words said. For instance, though the Gita is crystal clear, persons may confuse themselves by their thinking that Krishna advocates so many paths and yogas. Therefore the acaryas advise that such persons especially note the last chapter and its final instructions: "Always think of Me and surrender to Me."

Though I can hardly claim the immunity we grant Krishna and His great devotees, nevertheless, this small servitor stands by his words in the finale of his offering:

"Meanwhile, please allow me to put forth my individualistic desire.

Prostrating my sinful body on the ground before you, pressing my nose at your holy feet, I beg for the fulfillment of my private dream. You told devotees in Atlanta in 1975 that for a devotee to aspire to take birth again for assisting you in distributing your books is pure devotional service. "

Yes, sometimes I am an author, and the BBT publishes my books. I try to write in a way that if people happen to read my books, they will then seek out yours--the real benediction-with appreciation and submission. "

But crying in the dust of your lotus feet, I shamelessly present to you my deepest personal desire: I want to go where you go. Let me find you quickly in my next birth and pass out your books as a member of your nirmala sankirtan party."