By Pradyumna das
Dear Maharajas, Prabhus and Matajis,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
It’s starting this year: an annual Vyasa-puja book for Srila Prabhupada in which individual offerings from all of his disciples can be included. Though ISKCON’s official Vyasa-puja book began as just such a book, as the movement grew the book evolved in such a way that most of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples are no longer eligible to contribute.
For this new book, on the other hand, all of his disciples will be welcome to write their individual offerings.
* The book will give all of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples an opportunity to express their realizations.
* It will glorify Srila Prabhupada.
* It will provide an opportunity for all of his disciples to share in the common purpose of glorifying His Divine Grace.
The book will accept offerings from everyone directly initiated by Srila Prabhupada, regardless of their personal history, present circumstances, personal views, or institutional affiliations.
The book is not meant to replace ISKCON’s regular Vyasa-puja book; it is an additional offering.
Behind the book is a “senior publishing committee” of three disciples of Srila Prabhupada, all involved in writing and publishing: a Dasa, Ranchor Dasa, and Jayadvaita Swami.
The “doers” for the book-the editors and publishing staff-are all second-generation devotees, either by birth or by having come to Krishna consciousness after Srila Prabhupada’s departure.
Courtesy of sponsorships by generous devotees from South Africa, every disciple who submits an offering will receive a free copy of the book.
The deadline for submitting an offering is 15th May 2010. To find our more-and, especially, for details on submitting your offering-please see www.sptributes.com.
And please spread the word!
Hare Krishna.
Your servant,
Pradyumna das
This is a nice idea.
I hope having a book like this for all of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples will help heal some of the rifts over what are, essentially, the politics of belonging to separate groups for serving Srila Prabhupada according to different understandings.
But even if there is no unifying or healing effect, it is still the right thing to do. All disciples already make offerings in different temples and sangas, sometimes carefully composed, sometimes extemporaneous. Such offerings should be collected into annual books, even if the books become very big, and even if few people have the time to read all the offerings.
The Vyasa-Puja books have always been very important to me. It is one place we see the recorded realization of many godbrothers, godsisters, nephews, and nieces. One time when I was thinking about blooping from the Vancouver temple I started reading some Vyasa-Puja offerings and decided, “How can I leave such a society of realized devotees?”
It is probably a good idea to encourage all disciples to actually write, too. Extemporaneous oral glorifications of Srila Prabhupada on Vyasa Puja day are nice. Sometimes they are the most interesting and inspiring offerings, because they come straight “from the heart” so to speak.
But there is something valuable about expressing ourselves in the written word that helps us clarify our meanings and compose and order our expressions of praise and fidelity and gratitude and realization of Srila Prabhupada’s greatness for the printed page. It is different from just speaking directly in the temple room. Both are good, but writing is an exercise that devotees should be encouraged to practice.
Personally, I am hoping the leaders of our movement will jump on this opportunity to create a greater sense of unity within ISKCON. If they are so inclined, here is my suggestion.
Every temple president and GBC member will reach out to the disciples of Srila Prabhupada living within the jurisdiction of his temple or zone. They will personally encourage their godbrothers to compose an offering for inclusion in the Vyasa Puja book. They may also ask for pictures of Srila Prabhupada those devotees have in their possession that they would be willing to submit along with their written offerings. When the book is published, the temple presidents and GBC representatives will invite those godbrothers to the temple to celebrate Srila Prabhupada’s Vyasa Puja Day by reading their offerings in the presence of the assembled vaisnavas. They will also be invited to offer garlands to His Divine Grace, join in the kirtana and enjoy the feast prepared for the pleasure of the spiritual master.
I believe such a gesture of friendship would have a tremendous healing effect.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada patita pavana.
Dandavat Pranams to this wonderful idea of uniting Srila Prabhupada’s family…
As a matter of fact, I was told recently by a disciple of Srila Prabhupada, of a couple disciples of Srila Prabhupada who have had the great good fortune and immense mercy of having the personal darshan of Srila Prabhupada at the time of their death, despite the fact that they had fallen down from the spiritual standard they had managed to reach earlier while Srila Prabhupada was (more visibly) present on the planet…
At a period of time when a few are considering creating some segregation to find out who is eligible to be an ISKCON member or not, I bow down to this loving initiative of bringing closer to each other and to Srila Prabhupada, his beloved spiritual family…
Your servant in the service of Srila Prabhupada
Puskaraksa das
Once a man in North India challenged Srila Prabhupad to advance the man’s own pre-conceived monistic conception of God. He asked: “Swamiji, isn’t it like the streams and rivers merging into the ocean and becoming one with and nondifferent from the ocean?” Srila Prabhupad replied: “Try to understand that in the ocean there are many living entities, some great whales and some little fish. Like that there is diversity within the Unity.”
In this way, I conceive of a healthy spiritual movement, one that respects diversity. We all are aware of the sectarian values that have plagued Gaudiya vaishnavism for the past hundred years of more. It is beneath the high conception and reality that is Sri Krishna.
If we want unity, then we must accept diversity of personalities, so long as the Parampara is revered and respected. We accept that divine truth is descending to us through the disciplic succession. But, we cannot accept homogeneity amongst people and cultures. It is impossible and not desirable.
It is a very good thing to ask disciples to glorify their preceptors, whether disciples are formally initiated or simply have received instruction from them (siksha gurus). I would not misrepresent this as unification of ISKCON. That is a dynamic that will amaze and confound one. We are constantly amazed at the current unity, and definitely confounded by the indifference in the face of the great opportunity that human life presents to reawaken Krishna consciousness. Never underestimate the power of Maya, and always hope for the mercy of Sri Guru and Sri Krishna.
Sincerely,
Pusta Krishna das
Hare Krishna. I’ve often heard that our parampara is primarily based upon siksa, that siksa is more important than diksa, and that anyone can be a disciple of Srila Prabhupada by following his teachings. However, I get the impression that contributions for this book are being accepted only from disciples initiated by Srila Prabhupada personally or by his rtvik representatives during his manifest pastimes. If that is true (and if not then I wish someone would clarify), then what kind of message does it send to those who chiefly derive their inspiration each day from hearing Srila Prabhupada speak and reading his books?
Hare Krishna
A distinction is being made between disciple and grand disciple — those initiated during the lifetime of Srila Prabhupada as opposed to those initiated after he ended his earthly pastimes.
I am hearing that many devotees feel either unqualified to submit a written offering or that they cannot open their hearts to Srila Prabhupada without expressing feelings of frustration and discontent
which would make their offerings unacceptable to the publishers. Devotees will need a lot of encouragement if they are expected to participate in this project. In my opinion, that encouragement should come, at least in part, from the leadership within our movement.
Personally, I agree that a Vyasa Puja book for Srila Prabhupada should include offerings from his grand disciples. They are no less dear to him than those devotees initiated by him. Since the sequence of offerings will be in terms of seniority by date of initiation, the final section could be offerings written by grand disciples. Are not those second generation followers of Srila Prabhupada also serving him with mind, body, intelligence, sincerity and love? I would like to see a policy of inclusion applied in this instance. It would send an important message to the society of vaisnavas, that we are all connected through our relationship with Srila Prabhupada.