20090405 || 60th Vyāsa-pūjā Offering by different devotees || Śrī Māyāpur, India

I would like to request His Holiness Bhakti Charushami Maharaj to offer his speech in glorification of Guru Maharaj.

I know the time is short, so I will try to be brief. But at the same time I would like to say at least something. The first thing I want to say is that in my spiritual life His Holiness Jaya Ka Maharaj has played a very, very important role. And I am eternally indebted to Jayapataka Maharaj for that. I had the good fortune of joining ISKCON in Mayapur. And those days Jaipadhara Maharaj was the center of Mayapur. He was the head of Mayapur and we all looked up to him for our spiritual welfare and for our protection and for our maintenance in all respects. Maharaj took an immense endeavor, made an immense endeavor and took an incredible trouble to maintain Mayapur and develop Mayapur. And those who were in Mayapur at that time knew it. Those days there was nothing practically in Mayapur, just the Lotus Building and some rooms on the wall. And the temple was at the ground floor of the Lotus Building and this long building was under construction. And besides that there was nothing. It was just paddy fields and at a little distance there was the Goshala. And Mayapur did not have any source of income those days. And it is Jay Pataka Maharaj was struggling, going to Calcutta and making arrangements for the maintenance. And well, I have to admit also that not much cooperation was there from those who are supposed to help Mayapur project. And Maharaj at that time. And Maharaj had to really make an effort. And many a time we had to meet a lot of disappointment, lot of frustration because of that kind of non cooperation from some individuals who had been actually assigned by Srila Prabhupada, told by Srila Prabhupada that they should just take care of them, the financial needs of Mayapur. And then, although there may have been difficulties in that way, but we had a wonderful time, wonderful, wonderful time in Mayapur those days. Jaipada Kumaraj was there most of the time and we could just spend hours together. And we used to go to the Ganges to take bath together. We used to swim in the Pukhor and. And Maharaj was such a wonderful swimmer and he used to very easily swim across the Ganges and come back to this side. There were many incidences when Maharaj saved so many devotees from drowning in the Ganges. And we had such wonderful time. Maharaj was a leader in all respects. He was giving us guidance, spiritual guidance. He was giving us the assurance he was giving us the protection. There was also attacks from Daco and Maharaj was always there to give us the protection. And we were safe thinking that Maharaj was there with us. And it's very, very sad for us to see Maharaj in this condition. Like the other day, day before yesterday I met Maharaj in the temple. And Maharaj, after I embraced him, Maharaj told me, although I cannot externally express it, but internally I'm smiling. And my response was, but I internally I am crying. And this is how we all are feeling now. We are crying to see Maharaja in this condition. Although Krishna has saved him and Krishna has taken care of him. Like when all the doctors, not only in Bombay, the doctors who are treating him, but the doctors from all over the world, the experts in neurology, their statement was that the chances of surviving is very little and if one survives, he will be paralyzed. But we can see that Maharaj has defied all those medical. And this is a clear demonstration of Krishna's mercy. This is a clear demonstration how Ka protects his devotees, how Ka takes care of his pure devotee. And since then I have many dreams about Jaipattaka Maharaj. And I had many. And I can tell you, I can assure you that all those dreams were extremely wonderful. And I will tell you about the dream that I had the night before. I entered into Maharaj's room and I saw that Maharaj was trying to look for something in his suitcase. And I was very, very annoyed, very disturbed to see that nobody was there to take care of Maharaj. And Maharaj was himself trying to. Maharaj himself was trying to get the things that he needed. So I just expressed my annoyance saying how come no one is here? Then Maharaj just turned around and looked at me and Maharaj looked absolutely normal. And he. And not only he looked normal, he looked so bright and so effulgent and he looked so much. I mean he looks young, but he looked even younger.

So.

And that gave me a very, very clear indication that Maharaj is going to become alright and he will continue to bestow his mercy all over the world. And not only me, many other devotees had many wonderful dreams about Rlajay Pataka Swami Maharaj. And all those dreams clearly indicate that he is going to become perfectly alrigh. Now I also wrote an offering. I'll just read that. My dear Jaya Pataka Maharaj, please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada, all glories to your wonderful grace. I also offer my prostrated obeisances unto your lotus feet. Today, on the occasion of your 60th birthday, I am taking this opportunity to express my appreciation and gratitude for your outstanding contribution to our wonderful Iskcon family. Rla Prabhupada came to fulfill the mission of Sri Caitanna Mahaprabhu and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu made all the arrangements for him in all respects. The devotees who came forward to help Rla Prabhupada those days were not ordinary individuals. They were sent by Sri Caitanya Mah Prabhu and undoubtedly you are one of them, a very special one among them. At a very young age, when one is generally engrossed in frivolous activities and sense gratification, you offer yourself completely in the service of Srila Prabhupada. His Divine Grace also recognized you at the very first meeting and accepted you as his very intimate associate. And then he sent you to India to take care of his most important project in Mayapur. Personally, I am indebted to you in so many ways. From the very beginning, you treated me with so much affection and care. Although you are such an important person, the head of Mayapur Temple and I was just a new devotee, you treated me like a friend and offered me your intimate association. When I went back to my home after about a month's stay in Mayapur, you personally went there to bring me back. During my first meeting with Srila Prabhupada, you said so many nice things about me to His Divine Grace and as a result of that, he rewarded me so wonderfully. Whenever there was some important service, you suggested to Srila Prabhupada to assign that to me. In the early days in Mayapur, when life was quite austere, your association brought so much excitement and made us forget about all those hardships. You not only took care of us in such a wonderful way, but protected us from all difficulties. Also. Your recent physical difficulty vividly demonstrated how exalted your spiritual position is. All the medical experts who treated you admitted that your recovery was a sheer miracle and we saw how dear you are to Krishna and his devotees. Please get well quickly and continue to spread Ka Consciousness throughout the world as effectively as you had always done. Please stay with us for a long, long time. Please stay with us forever and please continue to be here even after we are gone and guide us in our service to Srila Prabhupada with deep admiration and love, your indebted servant eternally, Bhakti Chariswami.

I just wanted to thank. I'm sure that I was not so sensitive and he's always seen the good side. But I want to thank him for his association and he hoped that he always connected with Nayanpur and he was very dear to Srila Prabhupada. That's when he went home. I got worried. Oh no. Prabhatun had said we lost him. And so I wanted to get him to because I know that he was very dearest. Artijo Horowski Hare Godhu, Hare Krishna.

So.

We are also very grateful to His Holiness Bhaktavusha Maharaj, the time Guru Maharaja Great difficulties, health crisis due Maharaj was there and his healing and everything. So on behalf of the disciples of His Holiness Maharaj have a humble gift to give to Vishwanaja Bhaksharasya Maharaj.

So now I would like to request His Holiness Prophet Sidanda Swami Maharaj to offer his homage to Guru Maharaj.

My dear spiritual father, please accept my humble obediences.

All glory. Srila Prabhupada.

This year Krishna has given us an unprecedented wake up call with regard to your health situation and he delayed decision of of the higher powers in your future services. It seems that Ka consciousness involves full dependence on the sanctions and expect the unexpected. What has been so instructive is your ability to face this test and persevere in full determination to get back in the saddle and continue the preaching work. One Rigu said to me last year, in six months time your Guru will undergo a test, but because of his.

High level of bhakti, he will be saved.

Whatever the individual or collective reasoning within the Lord's plan may be the reality and magnanimity of loving exchanges that has followed this affair has never been since seen since the times of Rla Prabhupada's physical presence. You have so many wonderful dependents around you and you have who have come together to support you materially as you support them spiritually from your personal servants, office personnel, doctors and managers and the many devotees around the world who through the Nam Sevas, fasting and tapasyas have begged for your recovery. I was at Govardhana that day and I watched hundreds do parikram around Yuri Goberdhan one doing two prikramas a day. Others, a group of Brahmacharis were actually running the entire way around Giri Govardhan with your pitcher in their hand, observing your transcendental caregivers in their dedication, teamwork and unalloyed love for you has inspired all. For they have imbibed that sacred vibration from you in your complete dedication to Guru and Garanga. We can judge the tree by its fruits. Beyond your personal flock has been the unifying concern of your godbrothers around an event of almost losing you the shock that Rla Prabhupada could be calling another one of his generals to another field. One well known Mata, a great devotee of Gira to Kusama Sarova said, either Takwaji is taking him back, enough service has been rendered or he will be asked to stay and his offerings will triple. We are happy to note that the latter has been decided. We pray that what may follow from this affair will be a more sensitive concern of how we can work as a team in service of Rla Prabhupada in a way that can maximize our presence together in this physical plane. I pray that as dependents we can become more mature in terms of your vani without the superficial survival in just vapu. This will allow you the freedom to not only maintain your health but increase more and more, capturing the hearts of all in the many years to come.

So now I would like to request where we have got sister Guru Maharaj to come forward and offer her speech.

Today I would like to offer my respectful obeisances to Dharmapataka Swami in Caitanya Chaitamita Sababharma Bhattacharya said, My dear King, do not worry. Because of your firm determination, I am sure that R. Caitanya Mahapuhu's mercy will definitely be bestowed upon you. Just like King Prattaparudra was determined to get the mercy of Lord Caitanya. So my God brother, His Holiness Jaktaka Swami Maharaj has from the very beginning of his service in Mayapura given us an example of what it means to be determined. His desire was always to please Srila Prabhupada. When I was living in Calcutta as Pujari, Maharaj would sometimes come from Mayapur to get construction materials. Sometimes he would come in the truck, sometimes he would come in the train to get the materials to build Mayapur. But he himself, he was living simply in a straw hut. He never gave up hope that Mayapur would someday be built. And he sacrificed his youth performing great austerities so that the future generation could have a place to worship Lord Chaitanya in Mayapur. In 1972, Maharaj wrote in his Vyas Puja into Srila Prabhupada Jaya, Patalpa's life is not his own, it is Prabhupada to do with as his own. So Maharaj, he belongs to Srila Prabhupda. He is Prabhupada's man. In recent years, we can see now how determined Maharaj is to preach all over the world, that he took on thousands of disciples while sacrificing his health. And even before recovering, he is so determined he can't wait to preach and he can't even walk properly. And still he's going out traveling and preaching. So myself, I find it difficult to travel and preach. So then I think about Maharaj and then I get the strength to carry on and I get the determination to preach for Srila Palapad like he is, or it's not like he is. Nobody can preach like he is. But at least I can do my little part also with his inspiration. So we pray that Srila Prabhupada will always keep him with us and give him many more years of good health. You're serving nine.

In San Francisco in 1968, right after the Radnyaka. And one of the first things I noticed about him was that he was always eager to hear. And not only was he eager to hear, but it seemed like everything he would say to him would go right to his heart because he would often look very stunned when he would hear some astounding fact about Krishna consciousness. And then we went. I went back to New York and then I went up to Montreal for a weekend and suddenly Babaji Rajaya Takam and he was running the Montreal temple, right? He was already running a temple just to short time later. And then the next thing I saw, he was Jaitaka Swami in Mayapur.

At.

That time over to Mahashtra. I came to Mayapur with my then wife and we were looking for the Prashanthal. And I saw this devotee in Saffron come and I said, hey Prabhu, which way is a Prashantam hall? And he said so with it. And I looked at it with Chai Pataki. So I also remember at that time that one day I was speaking with Bhavananda about something and sitting right next to him was Dr. Thaka Maharaj dealing with some angry Brahmachari about something. And I just was impressed that Maharaj tells him so nicely that he just solved all the problems, you know, pacified the person. An expert manager now, Josh, the Pakistan swami, always likes to tell the story about how I wouldn't let him pick up cow dung. So we were in the car and we'd done stuff and we were driving back to the temple and we passed some cow. So he wanted me to stop and pick up the cow dung. But of course you don't usually do that in San Francisco. Go and pick up cow dung. People don't understand. So I stopped him. But today on his 60th 60 down in worship his appearance, I'm going to make a solemn promise that if it ever happens again, I'll let him pick up the cowbell. I never had the good fortune to be with Dr. Thaka Maharaj when he did many of the wonderful things that he has done. Mostly we've been in very different parts of the world. Of course now he's having some health problem which most people would consider a disastrous problem, but which I suspect that Maharaj secretly feels is just some minor difficulty because he has over the years shown so much determination. The Mayapur is built on the determination of Jaipur Thaka Maharaj. And with that much determination he can accomplish anything he wants. So I'm not worried because I know that with Jaipataka Maharaja's determination he can overcome this. What is a major difficulty for others will simply be temporary annoyance for him, right? In the future it will be just something that came and went. Because he's got this determination like the little sparrow. And because he's got a little sparrow's determination, then Krishna is going to come and personally help him. So I'd like to say that I'm happy to be here on the 60th anniversary of Dante Takaswali's appearance. I don't know if I'll live long enough to be here on the hundredth anniversary. But I'm hoping that there's going to be a hundredth anniversary celebration right here in Maya for Dallas. Okay, thank you very much. All glories to Judge Patakasone. One more thing. Jai Patakaswamy has saved many people from drowning the Ganges. But I always remember him swimming underneath and pulling me down inside. Thank you very much.

Hari Hoodson. I just wanted to thank all of him as he said. He actually after the lights that shop he drove me to where I was staying. I picked up all my material possessions which would not fit all the lights and I went to join the Hare Krishna. I'd already joined actually just wanted. So he was driving me out and then I went to Montreal to see relevant at that time, whatever he said, I took.