A briiliant Vyasa Puja 2006 offering: must read!

[Guest guest]

nama om visnu-pädäya krsña-presthäya bhü-tale

srimate bhaktivedänta-sväminn iti nämine

namas te särasvate deve gaura-väni-pracärine

nirvsesa-sünyavädi-päscätya-desa-tärinë

 

Periodically, discussions arise about whether or not Srila Prabhupäda was perfect. To some this means, Was he omniscient? Did he know all things past, present, and future? At the other end of the spectrum, there are those who say that while sitting on the vyäsäsana and quoting Sästra Srila Prabhupäda may have been perfect, but outside of that, he was influenced by a Victorian/Bengali worldview.

 

Neither of these arguments interests me. As for omniscience, when asked about this in Los Angeles in 1970, Srila Prabhupäda said, “I know what Krsña wants me to know.” As for cultural conditioning, there is no doubt that Srila Prabhupäda was a “Vaikunta man.” He was not limited to any particular time or place.

 

I have to say that, to my vision, Srila Prabhupäda was completely perfect.

His ability to cut to the essence was perfect. When asked why the death rate was so high in India, he countered, “The death rate is the same everywhere: 100%.”

When foolishly asked, “Is the world flat?” he answered, “Everywhere I walk it is,” and then added with a chuckle, “except for New Vrindäban.”

Someone challenged, “I say we have evolved from monkeys,” to which Srila Prabhupäda countered, “Where is the question of evolution? I say you are still monkeys.”

A man said, “Sooner or later, I will surrender to Krsna.” Srila Prabhupäda advised, “Better sooner. Do you know you have a later?”

He was perfect in his compassion. When one of his sannyäsis saw a poor woman picking through the trash, he turned to Srila Prabhupäda and said, “Sometimes I feel so sorry for these people.” Srila Prabhupäda looked at him with a gaze laden with mercy and questioned, “Why just sometimes?”

A man shouted at Srila Prabhupäda during a darçana and had to be hustled out of the room. The devotees were quite unnerved and began to speculate as to the offender’s future. Would he be sent to some hellish planet? Would he be born in a decrepit condition here on earth? How would he become free of his offense? After the discussion went back and forth among the devotees for some time, Srila Prabhupäda looked up and offered, “We could forgive him,” an option no one else had thought of.

As Srila Prabhupäda prepared to give an arrival address, he looked out over the audience of college students, hippies, factory workers, inner city street kids, Indian families, and even a few motorcyclists dressed in full leather regalia. He said to himself, softly but with determination, “Krsña’s lotus feet are big enough for everyone.”

He was perfect in humility. While he explained the Vedic system of four varnas and four an agitated communist interrupted him, challenging, “And I suppose you think you are first class?” Srila Prabhupäda stopped him cold by answering with deep conviction: “No, I am fifth class. I am a servant of all the other classes.”

He asked that a picture of Srila Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté Thäkura be hung behind his darsana desk. When the devotees came in to do so, he was sitting there working. They began to back out of the room, saying they would return later. He instructed them to go ahead with the job, but they protested, “Srila Prabhupäda, we are afraid we might bump into you in the process.” With complete innocence he replied, “What? For service, you can stand on my head.”

He was perfect in bravery. A morning walk in Kolkata took him past the massive Victoria Memorial, towering two hundred feet above the park. He related how as a young boy, when it was being built, he scaled the scaffolding to the very top. A devotee offered, “Srila Prabhupäda, you must have been very brave.” He replied, “Yes, and I am still brave. Otherwise, how did I come to America all alone?”

He was perfect as a disciple. His personal assistant was so impressed by a powerful series of evening lectures Srila Prabhupäda was giving in London that while offering the daily massage he felt like he was getting a world champion ready for a prize fight. With youthful enthusiasm he was going on and on with praise, when suddenly Srila Prabhupäda slapped his hand on the mat and said firmly, “No. I am simply the servant of my guru mahäräja.”

Srila Prabhupäda gave a small glimpse into his perfect love and dedication to his guru maharaja in the following excerpt from his concluding words to the Sri Caitanya-caritämrta:

Although according to material vision His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté

Thäkura Prabhupäda passed away from this material world on the last day of December,

1936, I still consider His Divine Grace to be always present with me by his väni, his words. . . . I think that His Divine Grace Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté Thäkura is always seeing my activities and guiding me within my heart by his words. It is to be admitted that whatever translation work I have done is through the inspiration of my spiritual master, because personally I am most insignificant and incompetent to do this materially impossible work. I do not think myself a very learned scholar, but I have full faith in the service of my spiritual master, His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté Thäkura. If there is any credit to my activities of translating, it is all due to His Divine Grace.

Srila Prabhupäda was perfect in his surrender to the order of his guru mahäräja. Srila Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté Thäkura instructed Srila Prabhupäda, “Go to the West!” and it became Srila Prabhupäda’s life’s mission. Others told him that no one beyond the shores of India would take up the teachings of Lord Caitanya. He was cautioned that it would be freezing cold and that he would have great difficulty finding vegetarian ingredients for cooking. “Then let me starve,” was his response. He was warned, “You will die of a heart attack.” Yet he still left the sweet shelter of Vrndävana and arrived in the land of the mlecchas, alone and unassisted. “When I got off the boat, I did not know whether to turn left or right.”

He was perfect in his disappearance from this world. Voltaire, the infamous atheist, called for a priest in his last hours. Many of those who preached that it is all Brahman have left this world hooked up to machines and begging for a few more days.

 

In contrast, Srila Prabhupäda never wavered and never faltered. When the devotees begged him to stop traveling and rest, he replied, “I want the benediction to fight like Arjuna until my last breath. If a warrior dies on the battlefield, is it not glorious?” In perfect appreciation of and reciprocation with his mood of selfless devotion, Krsña allowed Srila Prabhupäda to leave this world in Våndävana, giving the world his Bhaktivedanta purports until nearly his last breath.

He was perfect in his instruction. Confirming his empowerment directly by Sri Sri Gaura-Nitäi, Srila Prabhupäda managed to present the path of the Six Gosvämis in such a way that even the most fallen could take it up. At the same time, the highest liläs and most intimate understandings lie embedded in his Bhaktivedanta purports, to be revealed as the heart becomes purified.

The simple truth is that the more I surrender to following each and every one of his instructions, the more I realize how perfect they are. They are perfect for happiness now, perfect for happiness in the future, and perfect for offering the best service to all humankind. There is no way I can ever properly express my indebtedness and gratitude toward the most perfect spiritual master and friend, His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupäda.

 

His most insignificant servant,

 

Badrinäräyan Däsa

[Guest guest]

Very sweet.

 

Thank you.

[Guest guest]

I wouldn't say this is brilliant, but it expresses very sweet sentiments, which is, frankly (one of Badri's favorite words), where Badrinarayan excels. The most this tells us about guru-tattva is the extent of the disciple's debt and the depth of the need for constant, progressive surrender to the guru's instructions.

 

I have to say this, though: I don't get how it is that so many advanced devotees see Prabhupada in the past tense. I see that he is perfect, not that he was.