Rtadhvaja Swami Vyas Puja

Giriraj Swami: Having heard so many wonderful appreciations and realization of Maharaja’s significance and stories about Maharaja’s care and humor, I thought I will just limit myself to the last month when Maharaja stayed with me in Carpinteria. Maharaja had flown in from Hong Kong and I’d flown in from Hungary and Philadelphia. So we were both resting and recuperating from our travels. 

After a while I actually needed to take some service from Maharaja, which I didn’t want to do, but the circumstances were such, so I told him there was a difficulty and I needed him to drive me to the doctors on Friday. He readily agreed. Then there was another development and I needed to ask him to drive me somewhere on Thursday. So I asked him and he agreed. Although I didn’t want to take service from him, I was in such a paradoxical situation because it was so much fun driving around with him, I said, “Maharaja, I don’t want to take service from you, but I am having such a good time driving around with you, I feel like staying out and doing more errands.” [laughter] 

So that was the first day. Then the second day I thought, “Oh boy, I may be falling in debt here to Maharaja.” I was already in debt from once but now this is twice. I actually thought of when Sudama Vipra came to visit Lord Krishna in Dvaraka. You probably know from Kṛṣṇa book that he was so poor he didn’t really have anything to offer to Krishna. So he borrowed somehow some broken rice which he tied in a pouch and carried it to Dvaraka, but he felt so ashamed of offering the chipped rice to Krishna, he didn’t even mention it. Krishna said, “Oh, what is that you have? You have something for Me?” So Sudama gave Krishna just a morsel and Krishna accepted it. And then he gave Him another morsel and Queen Rukmini, the goddess of fortune herself, intervened and said, “No more because if Krishna takes any more from you, He will become so indebted to you that He will never be able to repay you. Even with all of His wealth and riches, He will never be able to repay you.”

So, as I accepted this second day of service, I started getting this sinking feeling that I was so indebted to Maharaja that I would never be able to repay him. I thought, “Now what?” So I thought, “All I can do is offer myself to Maharaja,” and I thought on this occasion that is what I will do, but then my legal background came into my mind [laughter] and I thought of it as a legal statement that, “I am yours. You can do with me what you want.” And then a little asterisk, and then in fine print at the bottom, “Conditions may apply.” [laughter; applause] But then I thought about it further and I thought, “No, with Maharaja no conditions apply.” [applause] 

The other thing I thought to share—I am sure many of you have experienced it—is that often I will be thinking of some question. Some question will be on my mind, some dilemma, and I will either phone Maharaja or if we are together we will speak in person. I will explain the whole thing to him and he is so nonjudgmental, so accepting, but at the same time sympathetic. Someone can be nonjudgmental but they don’t really care, they have other things to think about, why should they even bother judging you, but he is both, he doesn’t judge you, but he cares. He is completely sympathetic and wants to help you in any way possible. Almost inevitably by the end of conversation I get the answer and sometimes Maharaja might say a sentence or two and sometimes he might not say anything, but just in the course of expressing myself to him in that loving and supportive atmosphere without judgment, the answer comes, by his good wishes and maybe Krishna in the heart cooperating with him. The answer comes.

So Maharaja has a very mystical way of instructing. Although here I had a different type of experience because here I asked him a couple of questions without having really thought about them in advance. In those cases there are things I thought about deeply, but just couldn’t come to a conclusion on my own. But here, just lightly I said, “I am thinking of this.” He said, “Yes.” So, okay, I got his permission. And then I thought about it, “Is that really the best thing?” And then it happened again, I said, “I was thinking this.” “Yes.” And then I thought, “Is that really the best thing?” So that is another way of instructing us actually because sometimes we want permission, but when we actually get permission, that anxiety is gone—we got permission, we don’t have to worry about it, we got permission—but then the next question is, “What is really best? I can do that. Maharaja said I can and I can just do it and if anyone asks me, I will pull the Maharaja card [laughter], I will say, ‘Maharaja said.’” But then, the next step is, “Is that really the best thing?” It is a continuation of the same process, but by Maharaja giving permission, that anxiety is gone, and the next question is, “What is really the best thing?” And I think Maharaja—I am just speaking from my own experience and I am sure it’s true of so many of us here—that he empowers you to actually think of what is the best thing and he inspires you to want to do the best thing.

He is really my best friend—one of my best friends. But in a way he is everyone’s best friend. He is really a friend and well-wisher of everyone. In his own way, he really empowers and inspires devotees of all ages and backgrounds and situations to do their best and be their best. So we are all grateful to you, Maharaja. Now I am yours. You can do with me whatever you like. Just read the fine print at the bottom [laughter].

Hare Krishna.