Vyasa Puja Offering ~ A letter to Srila Prabhupada
~by Rukmini Walker
This is my vyasa puja offering to Srila Prabhupada for this year 2022.
**To listen to Rukmini's audio recitation of this letter, please click here or on the video image below***
My Eternal Father and Master, Srila Prabhupada,
nama om visnu-padaya krsna-presthaya bhutale
srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine
namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine
nirvisesa-sunyavadi-pascatya-
This year 2022, is the celebration of the anniversary of Sri Sri Radha Govinda-ji's arrival and installation in New York's Brooklyn temple on Henry Street, where I was serving as pujari. I made grieves offenses to your Lordship at that time, and we heard that you were furious about all that we'd done at my instigation. I was ignorant, but as I have heard you say many times, ignorance is no excuse; fire will burn even an innocent child if she comes too close. I was that ignorant child, and I was so remorseful after hearing about your anger. I felt that my spiritual life was over and that I would surely die. I wrote you a letter expressing my grief and shame, but your compassion and forgiveness surpassed my comprehension and imagination. Your return letter never mentioned my offenses but rather stunned me with undeserved praise.
Here is a quote from Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Antya-līlā verse 4.47 --
- “If by chance a servant falls down and goes somewhere else, glorious is that master who captures him and brings him back by the hair.
Later that year, you personally came to our Brooklyn temple. Sri Sri Radha Govinda-ji were dressed in a simple outfit. Govinda-ji in His classic yellow dhoti and Srimati Radharani in a Vrindavan style skirt and chuni. The temple room was crammed with guests eager to hear your Sunday lecture. You entered the long narrow temple room and walked to the front, where you stood with folded hands, gazing at your worshipful Lords for a very long time. I had just finished performing the aarti ceremony, and I hid behind the left had curtain trying to be invisible. As you started to bow down to offer your obeisances, I saw tears shoot out of your eyes like a syringe, just as we'd seen in pictures of Lord Caitanya at Ratha Yatra. The devotees on the right side of the temple room were splashed with tears. I saw them looking around to see where the water had come from. Had the pujari thrown water from the aarti ceremony over their heads? As you so humbly bowed down, I jumped off the side of the altar, telling my friend Palika, those are Srila Prabhupada's tears. We both gathered your precious sacred teardrops up from the floor and smeared them on our heads again and again.When shall my eyes be decorated with tears of love such as yours? When shall my heart be decorated with compassion and forgiveness such as yours? When will that day be mine?Thank you for your glorious, divine, amazing grace and forgiveness, which is fathomless and beyond my comprehension, without which my life would be meaningless.I beg to remain your servant eternally.Rukmini devi dasi[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VD8bHMm_RZI[/embed]
Vyasa Puja Offering ~ A letter to Srila Prabhupada
~by Rukmini Walker
Dear Srila Prabhupada, My Eternal Master, My Eternal Father,
nama om visnu-padaya krsna-presthaya bhutale
srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine
namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine
nirvisesa-sunyavadi-pascatya-
On that day in 1968, in Montreal, we ran quickly down the street, barefoot, from the bowling alley temple on Park Street, to the tiny apartment a few blocks away, where you stayed on West Prince Arthur Street, near McGill University.Sharp gravel on the driveway pricked our feet as we ran to your door, as though they were sins, anarthas, or obstacles in the heart needing to be destroyed before seeing you for the first time.I can’t deny that when I first saw you, I saw an effulgent shining- radiating from you, lighting the room all around you. Like the saints and angels in ancient paintings there you were, before us all in that room.Immanent, and transcendent, deeper than an ocean, yet joyful as well.You were delighted to see your dear ones - Mukunda and Janaki; Gurudas and Yamuna; and Shyamasundar and Malati, with new baby Saraswati in tow.After pleasing you in service in San Francisco, they were now on their way to London to please you more. They had come to Montreal to seek your blessings before embarking on their new adventure in your service.Like a particle of dust blown in with a windstorm of their devotion, I’d come with them. They offered me to you. A tiny grain of sand lifted up from the suffering ocean of this world, and placed at your lotus feet.Yamuna Devi said, “This is Wendy. She is only sixteen years old, and she wants to become your disciple”.You looked at me so tenderly, so compassionately, and said, “But where are your parents?” As though you were feeling their pain, feeling the pain of our whole culture in upheaval.With the foolish arrogance of a teenager, I said, “My parents and I get along better when we’re not together.”You immediately looked away, and I felt the sting of my pride that caused you distain. Even today, I wince remembering how my conceit caused you to look away in that moment.Then the mercy of your gaze fell on Malati and baby Saraswati. And you said, “I dreamt of that child last night! Yes, that very child!”Were you seeing your future playful pastimes with her that so charmed the crowds in India, and anyone who witnessed them? Were you perhaps recognizing an old friend from a previous life?When will I bring you joy each day in simple love like an innocent child, free from false pride? When will I grow up, and offer you mature and selfless love every day, every hour, and every minute of my life?I have no realization of pure devotion. I only know that you saved me from a fate worse than I can imagine. Fifty-three years later, once again, I ask you to please accept me. This time, I pray for genuine humility, simplicity, and maturity as I beg you to kindly engage me in your eternal loving service.Your eternal daughter,Rukmini devi dasi
Vyasa Puja
by Rukmini Walker
Saturday, August 24th, the day following Sri Krsna Janmastami (the Appearance Day of Lord Sri Krsna) is the Appearance Day of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, my spiritual master.
Vyasa Puja Offering, 2019
namah om vishnupadaya krsnapresthaya bhutale
srimate bhaktivedanta swamin iti namine
namaste saraswate deve gaura vani pracarine
nirvisesa sunyavadi pascatya desatarine
My Dear Srila Prabhupada,
We once heard that a wise astrologer saw a photo of you and said, “He can build a house in which the whole world can live”.
But what does that mean, really, ‘a house in which the whole world can live’?
In 1944, in the midst of the harsh reality of world war, you explained your vision for that house in the first issue of your Back to Godhead magazine.
In that first article, you wrote:
"Politically India may ask all so-called foreigners to quit the shores of India, but spiritually she did never ask anybody to do so, nor will she do so even now. She will rather invite all the so-called foreigners to come and exploit the spiritual resources of India’s advancement, and this transcendental exploitation will not only enhance the glory of India but will also enrich the glory of the whole world for unity, faith and humanity."
As Lord Krsna lovingly lifted the Govardhan Hill as an umbrella of protection for the residents of Vrndavan, in the same way you lovingly built a house to give protection and shelter for us from the storms of Kali Yuga.
This house you built has a veranda facing out to the world. You stand on that veranda, looking out at the suffering of the people of the world. When you sometimes see that some are being excluded, with a tear in your eye, you call out, “ Bring them in, bring them in!” Or you exclaim with compassion, “Let no-one go hungry within a ten mile radius of this house!”
As you face out to the suffering world, your glance benedicts everyone it touches, creating what you call, “imperceptible auspiciousness” as you bless all directions with the Holy Name of Lord Krsna.
At its center, this house has a courtyard, with an overflowing fountain of gratitude to the Source of all life, Sri Sri Radha Krsna. They are the owners of this house, which you built for Their pleasure: Their worship is celebrated by every member of the household.
The veranda of this house has four pillars: mercy, austerity, truth and purity. These pillars uplift us to sattva guna, the place where we access the joy of spiritual and secret knowledge (raja vidya, raja guhya), giving us direct perception of the self by realization.
The interior pillars in the courtyard are five:
To cherish the sanga of all sadhus…
To chant the holy name in humility, love and attention…
To hear and chant the beautiful Bhagavatam, enriched with your emotional ecstacies…
To revere the loving seva of the Deities of Lord Gauranga and Sri Sri Radha Shyamasundar…
And to imbibe the mood of living in such a holy dham.
In this house, there is an ambience of six loving exchanges (dadati pratigrnati) that sustain us and give us strength. Only in this mood can we authentically relish and share what you’ve given us.
This house must retain its strong, impenetrable foundation. We must be always vigilant to maintain the deep and wide foundation that you created - the principle of unity in diversity, connecting with all living beings of the world.
In this house the whole world can live. We are a joint family, a joint culture, where all voices are honored. We honor the elders, the voices of past tradition, who also need to see the bright faces of possibility in the youth. And the youth, who are the voices of the future, need to hear the discernment of experience and wisdom in the voices of the elders.
In this way, we build on our shared strengths; rather than allowing the foundation of the house to crack, due to the seepage or flooding of cynicism, small-mindedness or sectarianism.
You built this house with strong timbers of whatever is favorable to Bhakti, and you reject the worm-eaten planks of antiquated ideas that are unfavorable to Bhakti.
Your house rejects cheating religion, which is like inferior marble that’s full of holes, and filled with wax. In the fire of ordeal, that wax would melt, leaving us to cry for what is real, sincere, and sustainable.
Your Guru Maharaj built a marble palace to establish his mission at Bagh Bazaar in Kolkata. When his disciples began vying for the better rooms that faced the Ganges, he became disheartened. Yet sometimes he indicated that one day you would be the one to expand his mission beyond all borders.
We too must always remember that we are mere servants in your house. We must keep before us your intention in building such a house.
As you foretold in 1944, you built this house, inviting the world to, “come and exploit the spiritual resources of India’s advancement, and this transcendental exploitation will not only enhance the glory of India but will also enrich the glory of the whole world for unity, faith, and humanity.”
Thank you, Srila Prabhupada, for the blessing to live and serve in your house, and, following in your footsteps, to always welcome others to join us.
Your eternal daughter,
Rukmini Devi Dasi
**To listen to the audio recording of this blog, please click on the arrow in the audio player below.**
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