Dear Srila Prabhupada,
To glorify you on this Vyasa-puja celebration I will paraphrase your
famous offering to your Guru Maharaja from March 1936. Thus I'm offering
something that is already yours, as in any aratik ceremony we offer back
to our Lord what is His — to finally offer our own selves too. The
greatest fortune in following your footsteps is just to repeat — and then
wait to fully realize — your transcendental messages, life after life:
Dear devotees, on behalf of ISKCON's Founder-assistants — or Srila
Prabhupada's contemporary students — let me welcome you all because you
have so kindly joined us tonight in our congregational offerings of homage
to the lotus feet of the world's instructing spiritual master, who is the
founder and Adi-shikshacharya of this ISKCON Mission, and is also the
Founder-Adi-shikshacharya of the League of Devotees, the Back to Godhead
Magazine (BTG), the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (BBT), the ISKCON General
Body Commission (GBC), The Bhaktivedanta Institute (BI), and the
Bhaktivedanta School of Arts — I mean our eternal divine master, Om
Vishnupada Paramahamsa Parivrajakacharya, Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Swami
Maharaja Srila Prabhupada.
One-hundred and fourteen years ago, on this auspicious day, ISKCON
Adi-shikshacharya made his appearance by the call of Srila Goura Mohan De
at Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
Devotees, the offering of such homage as has been arranged this
evening to glorify ISKCON Adi-shikshacharya is not a sectarian concern,
for when we speak of the fundamental principle of gurudeva — comprising
Chaita, Diksha and Shiksha-gurus — we speak of something that is of
universal application. There does not arise any question of discriminating
my guru from yours or anyone else's. There is only one guru, who appears
in infinity of forms to teach you, me and all others.
It has been enjoined in the Scriptures that to receive
transcendental knowledge, one must approach the guru. Therefore, if the
Absolute Truth is one, about which we think there is no difference of
opinion, the guru cannot be two. Our ISKCON Adi-shikshacharya to whom we
have assembled tonight to offer our humble homage is not the guru of a
sectarian institution or one out of many differing exponents of the truth.
On the contrary, he is the jagad-guru, or the guru of all of us; the only
difference is that some obey him wholeheartedly, while others do not obey
him directly.
To receive transcendental knowledge, we must completely surrender
ourselves to ISKCON Adi-shikshacharya in a spirit of ardent inquiry and
service. Actual performance of service to the Absolute under the guidance
of the acharyas who honestly follow our Adi-shikshacharya is the only
vehicle by which we can assimilate transcendental knowledge. Today's
meeting for offering our humble services and homage to the feet of ISKCON
Adi-shikshacharya will enable us to be favored with the capacity of
assimilating the transcendental knowledge so kindly transmitted by him to
all persons without distinction.
Devotees, although it is imperfectly that we have been enabled, by
his grace, to understand the sublime messages of our Adi-shikshacharya we
must admit that we have realized definitely that the divine message from
his holy lips is the congenial thing for suffering humanity. All of us
should hear him patiently. If we listen to the transcendental sound
without unnecessary opposition, he will surely have mercy upon us. The
Adi-shikshacharya's message is enabling our entrance into our original
home, in God's realm. Let me repeat, therefore, that we should hear him
patiently, follow him in the measure of our conviction, and bow down to
his lotus feet for releasing us from our present causeless unwillingness
for serving the Absolute — and all souls.
Sitting at the feet of ISKCON Adi-shikshacharya, let us try to
understand from this transcendental source of knowledge what we are
(Jiva-tattva), what is this universe, what is God (Guru-tattva), and what
is our relationship with Him (Rasa-tattva). The message of Lord Chaitanya
is the message for the living entities and the message of the living
world. Lord Chaitanya did not bother Himself for the uplifting of this
dead world, which is suitably named Martya-loka, the world where
everything is destined to die. He appeared before us five-hundred and
twenty-six years ago to tell us something of the transcendental universe,
where everything is permanent and everything is for the service of the
Absolute.
But recently, Lord Chaitanya has been misrepresented by some
unscrupulous persons, and the highest philosophy and managerial directions
to perform sadhana leading to spontaneous loving service to the Lord has
been misinterpreted to be the cult of a mundane society. We are glad to
announce tonight that our Adi-shikshacharya, with his usual kindness,
saved us from this horrible type of degradation, and therefore we bow down
at his feet with all humility. We are happy that we have been relieved of
this horrible type of malady by the mercy of His Divine Grace. He is our
eye-opener, our eternal father, our eternal preceptor and our eternal
guide. Let us therefore bow down at his lotus feet on this auspicious day.
Devotees, although we are like ignorant children in the knowledge of
Transcendence, still, my Adi-shikshacharya has kindled a small fire within
us to dissipate the invincible darkness of empirical knowledge and
managerial bureaucracy of this temporary world. We are now so much on the
safe side that no amount of philosophical argument by the ambiguous
schools of thought can deviate us an inch from the position of our eternal
dependence on the lotus feet of His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada.
Devotees, had he not appeared before us to deliver us from the
thralldom of this gross, worldly delusion, surely we should have remained
for lives and ages in the darkness of the helpless captivity. Had he not
appeared before us, we would not have been able to understand the eternal
truth of the sublime teachings of Sriman Gauranga Mahaprabhu.
Devotees, the destiny of ISKCON's non sectarian and all-embracing
spiritual success has been left on your hands — most particularly within
your hearts — once you are the generations meant to implement its
leadership. Srila Prabhupada desires his mission to be lead by thoughtful
independent Krishna conscious thinkers. Therefore on behalf of some of
ISKCON's Founder-assistants, I beg you to deeply scrutinize — to then
attentively study — the spiritual legacy of philosophical conclusions, and
managerial skills, left behind by our Adi-shikshacharya A.C. Bhaktivedanta
Swami Srila Prabhupada. His "Master Plan" for the International City of
Mayapura is not an initiative inviting mundane administrations to obscure
its transcendental dimensions.
We humbly request you to diligently save, and always protect, the
dozens of Trusts or Corporations that conform today's ISKCON International
City of Mayapura. These Trusts-Corporations seem to have fallen into
impersonal administration, or a stagnant system that may inspire thievery,
and other consequent sinful acts. According to Srila Prabhupada's
managerial legacy we realize that each one of the many Trusts or
Corporations presently dividing the huge amount of land comprising ISKCON
Mayapura, should be independently managed as individual ISKCON
Temples-Community. Kindly read and study Srila Prabhupada's instructions
on how to manage his ISKCON mission — most particularly his Directions of
Management of 28th July 1970, and his Directives of Decentralization of
22nd December 1972.
Srila Prabhupada's "master plan" for his International City of
Mayapura infers the managerial skills of its Temples-Community to
gradually awaken daivi-varnashrama on all members. When Vedic or mundane
varnashrama-dharma has been naturally set into motion, the goal of a
spiritually lead society is simultaneously achieved. This is as a natural
consequence of every member's inherent nature to experience the eternal
religion of the soul — sanatana-dharma. This spiritual re-evolution is
achieved under very strict — though loving — spiritual discipline under
ISKCON Adi-shikshacharya Srila Prabhupada's unique guidelines.
Sri Gauranga's inclination is to protect His dear devotees, and by
His will, West Bengal's laws prohibit the possession of huge amounts of
land by a sole Trust or Corporation. Therefore to comply with such laws,
ISKCON Mayapura is conformed under dozens of Government's duly approved
Trusts or Corporations — each one allotted to a maximum amount of land.
Please establish all Trusts already existing at Sri Mayapura as individual
Temples-Community, comprising a management and financial entity that
independently functions as an individual ISKCON Temple. Thus each one of
Mayapura's Temples-Community naturally submits to our ISKCON-GBC spiritual
guidelines exclusively.
The ISKCON members, who live on each piece of land conforming
Mayapura Temples-Community, should voluntarily — and lovingly — cooperate
among themselves, and with other individual Temples-Community within
Prabhupada's Mayapura Master Plan, thus implementing Srila Prabhupada's
sacred formula of Love & Trust. The spirit of healthy competition among
yourselves is to please Krishna, and it is only possible by pleasing His
most intimate servant.
Each piece of land having a Temple-Community's gathering place,
exercises independent management administered by a devotee or set of
devotees chosen by each local Community Members. Such devotees officiate
as their Temple President, or either a choice of a Temple Board (Community
Leaders, Panchayat, or any other Vedic denomination), thus conforming to
Prabhupada's Directives of Management and Decentralization.
Temples-Community areas are maintained and administered by their members,
having local residential areas, and dharmashalas for pilgrims as well.
As any homogeneous family protects its self-interest, by preserving
the spiritual interests of each one of our Temples-Community, the whole of
our ISKCON Family will proportionally grow for the spiritual sake of
suffering humanity. If the Mayapura Temples-Community are mainly
established by senior members already in their vanaprastha stage, there
will be a natural impetus to perform Harinama constantly — whether
individually and collectively — and this is the best model propaganda for
a progressive spiritual City.
According to Srila Prabhupada's guidelines each Temple President —
or eventually a Temple Board — become fully responsible for all managerial
affairs under their own Temples-Community administrations. Once this basic
structure develops, the natural consequence is to select a Mayor to
further its growth, and then the regular chain of administrative
departments will conform a fully functional City. As meant-to-be
self-realized spiritual mentors, we have to place our faith in our
spiritual perceptions first, and then downwards to the material needs —
not the other way around.
Don't EVER let an inch of the holy land of Srila Prabhupada's
International City of Mayapura remain idle — it'll be occupied by
parasites! A healthy active body in Krishna consciousness naturally purges
unwanted organisms. Prabhupada's ISKCON is a "movement" of spiritual
activities, and to keep the holy grounds of Mayapura aloof from devotional
activities tantamount to shanta-rasa, which is not what Gaudiya
Vaishnavism is all about. Please always invite senior stalwart followers
of Prabhupada to always OCCUPY ISKCON MAYAPURA with devotional activities
— as delineated by our Adi-shikshacharya Srila Prabhupada — and your life
will be successful in all respects.
NEVER become entangled in materially sophisticated managerial
duties. Sri Gauranga and His associates always live in Mayapura, and They
show the way of "plain life under spiritual thinking" by Their eternally
personal exemplary lives. "The message of Lord Chaitanya is the message
for the living entities and the message of the LIVING world. Lord
Chaitanya did not bother Himself for the uplifting of this dead world,
which is suitably named Martya-loka, the world where everything is
destined to die." Be ALIVE by always preaching through your exemplary
lives. Srila Prabhupada will always lead the way for every one of us, as
he did in his own life-performance through the four ashramas of
interpersonal conduct.
The simultaneous spiritual and material progress of Srila
Prabhupada's International City of Mayapura (Prabhupada's ICOM) will be
always proportional to the Krishna consciousness OCCUPY MAYAPURA Movement — which promotes Srila Prabhupada as the truly spiritual icon of Sri
Gaura's Universal Religion of Love & Trust.
Kindly establish an irrevocable rule that all Temple Presidents
and/or Temples-Community Boards, and their local residents are conformed
by devotees having different diksha-gurus, however all of them officially
and wholeheartedly subscribing to Srila Prabhupada's position as their
Adi-shikshacharya. Furthermore, all of Mayapura's individual
Temple-Community administrations should officially submit to follow Srila
Prabhupada's ISKCON-GBC spiritual guidelines. Therefore Srila Prabhupada's
ISKCON-GBC is duly officiating as His Divine Grace Adi-shikshacharya's
managerial representatives in charge to supervise, and duly uphold, the
whole of ISKCON's spiritual standards. Their unique impartial service of
monitoring and inspiring the spiritual performance of each of the various
Temples-Community within Mayapura's Master Plan, becomes the seed of
Prabhupada's "master-plan" to spread Krishna consciousness literally
everywhere else. Thus Srila Prabhupada's ISKCON Movement progresses to
previously unimaginable extents — many-feasting in every town and village
in the world — as Srila Prabhupada have already envisioned or masterly
planned under Sri Gaura's prediction.
Personally, I have no hope for any direct service of the coming
thousands of births in the sojourn of my life, but I am confident that
some day or other I shall be delivered from this mire of delusion in which
I am destined due to my past misdoings, but let me have this power of
recollection: that I am nothing but a tiny servant of the Almighty
Absolute Godhead, realized through the unflinching mercy of my divine
masters. Let me therefore bow down at my Adi-shikshacharya Srila
Prabhupada, and all the pure Vaishnavas' lotus feet, with all the humility
at my command.
Sadhudasa Anudasa
For Like-minded Members, ISKCON's Founder-assistants, Sri Mayapura
Vyasa-puja homage to Shaktiavesha Rasikacharya Srila Prabhupada - 11th
August 2012
