Caitanya dasa (BVKS):
The vyasa-puja of Gopal Krishna Goswami took place on August 27th, 2008, in New Delhi, India. For the pleasure of all of his disciples, this is a brief report of the vyasa-puja festival.
At 7:45am, at the Radha Partha-sarathi Mandir, Gopal Krishna Maharaja led the kirtan during Srila Prabhupada’s guru-puja. The main vyasa-puja program was held at Siri Fort Auditorium, a very large hi-tech 1000 seat auditorium. I estimate that about
1200 people attended the festival at the auditorium. At the entrance of the auditorium, a few matajis had made a pathway out of flowers and colored powder for Maharaja to walk on. Maharaja arrived at the auditorium at 10am and went directly into the auditorium, where on stage a large blue cushioned vyasana had been set up for him. There were some invocation prayers which lasted until 10:15am. After that, a few guest speakers spoke. Gopiparanadhana Prabhu was the first speaker, and he spoke about the meaning of vyasa-puja. Gopal Krishna Maharaja thanked Gopiparanadhana Prabhu for speaking. Markanlal Prabhu spoke next, about Maharaja’s contribution to ISKCON. Afterwards, Maharaja thanked and glorified Markanlal Prabhu.
After the guest speakers, Prabodhanand Saraswati Swami, Gopal Krishna Goswami’s sannyasi disciple, offered the 2008 vyasa-puja offerings book to Maharaja, along with a newly released CD of some of Maharaja’s lectures.
The period for glorification by disciples started at 11am, and Prabodhanand Saraswati Maharaja spoke first. A long line of disciples and well wishers had formed, with many of them offering gifts and garlands to Maharaja one by one. During this period, there were many disciples who spoke, some of whom were: Ganapati dasa of Juhu, Janardhan dasa of Vrindavan, Saksi Gopal dasa of Kuruksetra, Srestha dasa, Vaisnava dasa, and many others.
At 1pm, the glorification by disciples ended and Maharaja began a lecture, which was in Hindi. The lecture lasted one hour, after which a pada-puja foot bathing ceremony was performed, along with a full arati. Then there was a very large bhoga offering, five tables worth of, to Maharaja, as well as a very big cake.
At 3pm, the pushpanjali ceremony was performed, and the gurvastaka prayers were led by Janardhana Prabhu, while a full arati was performed for Maharaja. This ended the first half of the day’s vyasa-puja festival. At this point, everyone shifted back to the Radha Partha-sarathi Mandir where a large ekadasi feast was served.
The evening part of the vyasa-puja festival began at 6pm and was conducted in the auditorium at the Radha Partha-sarathi Mandir. I estimate that about 500 or 600 people attended the evening part of the festival. Gopal Krishna Maharaja arrived, and the disciples continued their glorifications and offerings. Then at 9:30pm, Maharaja led a short kirtan, to end the day’s vyasa-puja festival.