Bhakti Charu Swami’s Vyasa-puja

Giriraj Swami: My first and most prominent impression when I entered the room today was of Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja’s deep love for Srila Prabhupada. I also remembered how soon after Maharaja met Srila Prabhupada, Prabhupada included him in his personal staff and made him secretary for Bengali and Hindi correspondence. Within a short time Srila Prabhupada gave Maharaja first and second initiation and then sannyasa. And Maharaja personally served Srila Prabhupada through Srila Prabhupada’s last days.

Maharaja is also very devoted to ISKCON. He always considered ISKCON to be a unique creation of Srila Prabhupada’s, and he always wanted and still wants to serve ISKCON—not just the devotees in ISKCON but ISKCON as an entity, a manifestation of Srila Prabhupada. His mood of service to ISKCON and appreciation of the devotees in ISKCON was expressed in his very beautiful and wonderful offering to Srila Prabhupada in this year’s Vyasa-puja book. He is really in the mood of service to the devotees, especially the devotees of ISKCON, and of service to ISKCON itself.

He is a very pure hearted and loving person. His love for Srila Prabhupada is seen in his love for the devotees and people in general, whom he wants to bring to Srila Prabhupada.

In her offering today Vrajesvari Prabhu told us how when Bhakti Charu Swami encouraged her to take more responsibility in the temple in Mauritius, he said that the bigger responsibility one accepts, the bigger servant of the devotees one becomes. And what he said reminded me exactly of something Srila Prabhupada said. Once a disciple came into Srila Prabhupada’s room in Mayapur and began to complain about the management in Mayapur. So maybe Srila Prabhupada said something like, “Well, if you think you can do better, why don’t you?” We don’t know exactly what Srila Prabhupada said, but the disciple came out and announced that Srila Prabhupada had made him temple commander, and so he began to give orders to all the devotees. Then some other devotees complained to Srila Prabhupada that so-and-so said you had made him the temple commander, and now he was giving orders to all the other devotees. Then Srila Prabhupada called the devotee and instructed him: “First you become the servant of the devotees, and then you become the temple commander.” Thus Srila Prabhupada expressed the same idea, that the bigger position means becoming a bigger servant of the other devotees.

Even hearing Maharaja’s other instructions, we see how they are coming through disciplic succession. Some are very close to what Srila Prabhupada actually said, and some take the basic principles that Srila Prabhupada gave and are, one could say, sweetened and made more personal by Srila Bhakti Charu Swami’s personal realizations.

Of course, one can misunderstand a Vaisnava, and generally, as neophytes, we do tend to misunderstand Vaishnavas. When Kandarpa Manjari was speaking about how Bhakti Charu Swami saw cooking as a way of serving and pleasing Vaishnavas, I thought of one devotee who had accompanied Maharaja to a store to shop for some ingredients. In the store Maharaja carefully considered various versions of the same item in order to choose the one most suitable for the occasion, but the devotee who was with Maharaja very unfortunately misunderstood Maharaja. He thought Maharaja was—I do not know what he thought exactly, but something like Maharaja was spending too much time or paying too much attention to fine distinctions that the devotee may have thought were related to material enjoyment. And knowing what Maharaja’s actual mood of service is, as Kandarpa Manjari Mataji explained, and thinking how the devotee so misunderstood Maharaja, made me think how important it is to always appreciate the service of other Vaishnavas. And if one is not able to appreciate the service or understand the motivation of a Vaishnava, at least one should withhold judgment until one can get a better idea through association or superior guidance, because offenses are the greatest stumbling block to spiritual advancement.

Certainly His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami exemplifies the quality of offenselessness. He is very careful not to commit any offense against any devotee or any living entity, and if he feels he has committed an offense, he immediately tries to mitigate the effects by approaching the devotee or person, apologizing, and asking forgiveness. Somehow or other he tries to rectify the offense. From our point of view we wouldn’t think he committed an offense, but within his pure heart he may feel he committed an offense and immediately he will try to please the devotee he offended and become free from the effects of the offense.

So Maharaja’s heart is very pure and sensitive—full of appreciation for other devotees and very sensitive to his own faults—which again from our point of view wouldn’t even be considered faults. And that’s really the heart of a Vaishnava—full of love and appreciation for others but very sensitive to one’s own internal deficiencies or occasional mistakes.

I wish Maharaja were here in person. But fortunately, as he always reminds us, we do have wonderful association of devotees in ISKCON, and through the association of the devotees in ISKCON we can experience Srila Prabhupada’s presence, and along with the presence of Srila Prabhupada, the presence of Srila Prabhupada’s dear and beloved associates like Srila Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja.

Srila Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja ki jaya!
Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca

patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ.

Hare Krishna!