Niranjana Swami’s Vyasa-puja

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

I was informed that His Holiness Niranjana Swami is going to be observing his Vyasa-puja in America this year and I was requested to write something. This is also very paradoxical because I was told I am very dear to Maharaja and that he would be happy to hear from me but I know that he does not like to be praised. It makes him feel very uncomfortable. I am sure it would make the disciples happy but I don’t know how happy it will make him. But he is always in the mood of serving the devotees so I am sure in the mood of service he will tolerate his personal discomforts for the sake of encouraging the disciples. 

So I will attempt to please both Niranjana Swami and his disciples through this offering. 

I met Srila Prabhupada in Boston and I joined the temple in Boston. That was in April of 1969. And then in October of 1970, I went to India and I never went back to Boston except in about 1980/ ‘82/ ‘84. I went one time to Boston for Ratha-yatra and then I met His Holiness Niranjana Swami. He was the temple president in Boston. We spent some time together. We visited the place where the first temple in Boston was—95 Glenville Avenue—and we visited the place where the second temple was—40 North Beacon Street—and we had some nice association.

Then one year I came to Vrindavan during Kartika and one evening during the Dāmodarāṣṭakam, Srila Niranjana Swami led the kirtan and I didn’t recognize him, but the sound went very deep into my heart, into my soul, and it had a similar effect on everyone else in the temple, and devotees began to dance madly in the temple. Even recently I discussed this kirtan with Srila Niranjana Swami—he remembered it—it was very special. 

Then I ended up having my base in Santa Barbara, California, and he was mainly in Europe and India, and the East Coast of the United States, and I never had occasion to meet him. But he had an old friend near Santa Barbara named Sarvatma dasa. So one year he came to spend a couple of days with Sarvatma and he came and spent a day with me. We had a lot of the same friends—His Holiness Radhanath Swami, His Holiness Indradyumna Swami, His Holiness Bhakti Bhrnga Govinda Swami—but we had never really spent that much time together. But that time we became very close and then he had the idea that he would come every year. 

He went through a period where his health was not so good and he spent some months with me. My place is very good for health. There is a nice physical facility for the devotees to stay in and the climate is good, the prasāda is good, there is no pressure to attend any programs or meet any devotees. He had different ailments at different times. So he stayed for one or two or three months at a time. And then one year he spent a couple of months and then he left and then I was surprised because very soon thereafter he phoned me and said that he was having a health crisis and he immediately thought of me and so he wanted to come and stay with me. He stayed maybe four months and then from my place he went to Hungary and was staying at New Vraja-dhama.

Then, as you know, his health gradually got better. He did come to Santa Barbara earlier in the year and spent less than a week and then fortunately we were just together in India in Juhu and then in Govardhana.

So, I mentioned that he had a very severe crisis and stayed for many months and then the next time he came there were different crises. At one stage he had surgery done on his knee and it made it worse so he was coming. I had a disciple who is an acupuncturist so he would come two or three times a week even though he had to drive two to two and a half hours each way. By the time it became his birthday he was somewhat better. On the day of his birthday, on the Western calendar, he was chanting japa with me in my temple room, and he received a phone call from his sister, and from what I could hear from him speaking with her, I understood it was his birthday. He is very humble so he never told us. The call was taking some time so he went out of the temple room and I was chanting in the temple room. I was overwhelmed with an inundation of mercy and so many realizations, so much emotion, and I understood that this flood of mercy was in reciprocation for all the service I had done for him on the last visit. It was very powerful. 

But to go back, the very first time he came to Santa Barbara he stayed with Sarvatma, and then the next time he stayed some days with Sarvatma and the rest with me. At the time he stayed longer and there was a japa retreat in Ojai, the first japa retreat I ever attended. I was very torn because I didn’t want to leave him but he didn’t want to attend the retreat because he was trying to rest and recuperate and he was afraid too many people would approach him at the retreat. So I went to the retreat on the first night and I said, “I can’t stay because I have His Holiness Niranjana Swami and I can’t leave him.” So they said, “Why doesn’t he come to the retreat?” And I said, “He feels if he comes devotees will have expectations and then he wouldn’t be able to take care of himself.” So they said, “No, we promise we won’t ask him to do anything.” Then he came and the only thing he participated in was the evening kirtan and he said he wanted to participate in the evening kirtans because Bada Hari dasa was there. So that was very nice.

I knew that His Holiness Niranjana Swami had taste for chanting the holy name. It is a principle that if you serve someone in the right mood, you take on the qualities of the person. So I thought, “This is very good. I want to develop more taste for the holy name so if I serve His Holiness Niranjana Swami I will develop more taste for the holy name.” And it happened. And the japa retreat also helped. 

Then maybe the same visit or maybe on a future visit, I was at the beach in Carpinteria chanting and I was going very deep in my japa. It was a very good session of japa. It was the type where you didn’t want to stop chanting. But before I went to the beach, His Holiness Niranjana Swami said that if it is not inconvenient for me and if I come back early enough, he would like to speak with me. And again, His Holiness Niranjana Swami is very humble and he doesn’t like to ask for anything. So when he asked in a very mild and gentle way I thought, “This is unusual. He doesn’t usually ask for anything. It must have some significance.” So I went to the beach and I was having a wonderful session of japa and I didn’t want to stop but I could see the sun was going down, it was going to be late, and during that period Niranjana Swami was taking rest at about eight. So I was torn. I didn’t want to stop chanting but at the same time I was thinking, “If I don’t go now then it may be too late.” So I was just chanting and thinking and then I felt that the holy name gave me the answer to my question and the holy name said that, “Niranjana Swami is very dear to Me. He is spreading the holy name all over the world so you should go back and speak with him and whatever you miss from stopping your chanting now, I will make up to you later.” So I came back and we spoke.

One time before he left, the day before he left, I went up to speak with him, and I knew that he had a lot of faith in Srila Gour Govinda Swami, so I asked him, “Do you pray to Srila Gour Govinda Swami?” And he said, “Yes.” And then he said, “And I pray to you too.” But that wasn’t on my mind so I left it. But then the next morning I asked him, “Is that true that you pray to me?” And he said, “Yes.” He said every morning he prays to different godbrothers and Gour Govinda Swami and Sivarama Swami, Indradyumna Swami—he mentioned a few names and he mentioned my name. So I said, “That is amazing because I also pray to you.” And he said, “Well, I don’t know how that works because I am getting all my strength from all of you!”

Many godbrothers come to stay at my place. So one time when Srila Niranjana Swami was staying in the main quarters upstairs, His Holiness Devamrita Swami also came to spend some days. So we both went up to Niranjana Swami’s quarters. In the evening I asked everyone if they wanted to have any prasāda and they both said no. So we left it at that. But then when Devamrita Swami came up it turned out he was hungry. So Niranjana Swami went into the kitchen—his kitchen in his quarters—and he began to make toast and cheese and lettuce and tomatoes and olive oil. He didn’t have that much but whatever he had he was just offering it to Devamrita Swami—toast and almond butter and jam.

He was so happy. He is always happy but there is also a lot of pain, physical pain, but even though there would be a lot of physical pain, he’d still be in a good mood. His Holiness Indradyumna Swami came and stayed once when Niranjana Swami was there and he also commented that, “Niranjana Swami is amazing because even though he is in so much physical pain, he is always happy.” But that night when he was making prasāda he was extremely happy. And I said, “Maharaja, I don’t think I have ever seen you this happy.” And he said, “Yes, I am very happy because I am finally getting an opportunity to serve my godbrothers.” He said, “Service is my life. Without service there is no reason to live.”

Actually, he takes extraordinarily good care of his godbrothers. He goes out of his way to help his godbrothers. And I had heard that about him and I’ve seen it also. I asked him why he gives so much priority to caring for his godbrothers and he said because he felt that would please Srila Prabhupada more.

He also loves to glorify Vaishnavas in general and godbrothers in particular. When we were at Govardhana recently, the idea was that Vaisesika Prabhu and Niranjana Swami and I would all speak and Niranjana Swami introduced Vaisesika Prabhu and me and I really wanted to introduce him because it would give me an opportunity to glorify him but somehow the morning session time got used up just with the kirtan and Vaisesika Prabhu and me. So I missed the chance to introduce him. It really would have been a way to glorify him but he doesn’t like that. 

Then another little incident, we really try to take care of the guests, especially my godbrothers when they come, and we are usually pretty efficient. But one morning I went up to his room and I saw his laundry on the floor and it seems there was maybe some misunderstanding among the servants who were supposed to do the laundry and his room hadn’t been cleaned. I said, “Maharaja, it looks like you have two days of laundry here. Hasn’t anyone come to take the laundry?” He said, “No.” And I said, “It also looks like the room hasn’t been cleaned for a day or two. Hasn’t anyone come?” “No.” So I said, “Maharaja, why didn’t you tell us? We are here to serve you. Why didn’t you tell us? And you don’t seem to be disturbed by it. What is going on?” And he said, “I always feel that I don’t deserve anything and therefore I never ask and I don’t feel disturbed if I don’t get something.”

Another time he was with us and it was his Vyasa-puja and he had maybe two or three disciples in Los Angeles and so they wanted to have a little something for him. He was also extremely considerate because he knows that I also have to take care of my health and work on my own projects so he doesn’t like to invite people. He will never invite anyone to see him at my place because he doesn’t want to put any burden on me. So for his Vyasa-puja he went to a house in Los Angeles and they made a feast with pizza and I know his diet and when he described the feast I understood it was completely off his diet. But he said that he read somewhere a very serious statement by a medical person that every once in a while if you go off your diet and have things that you really like that it is actually very good for your system and it actually improved your health and he felt that that was the effect of having the pizza and French fries and pies and sweets. 

But it is very hard to know what he wants because he never tells you what he wants because he doesn’t want you to take trouble for him. So many times I would propose something and he would agree but I never knew if that was really what he wanted. So then I would have to propose something different to see how he reacted to that and then I tried to judge his reaction to see if in some subtle way he indicated a preference for one over the other. Because basically he doesn’t want to give people trouble for him.

Last year I went to Kazakhstan for the Janmashtami Festival and Srila Niranjana Swami was there too. So after the festival was over we decided to go for a walk. There is a river, fresh running water coming down the Himalayas. There is a nice pathway along that stream so we went for a japa walk. He has a bad knee—different ailments—so we walked for a while and we decided we would sit by the stream and chant. He had a car and driver so we went to sit by the stream and chant and his assistant brought out a chair. I assumed the chair was for him so I gestured, “You sit there and I will go sit on the rocks.” He said, “No, I brought the chair for you.” He had back problems too. I said, “You have back problems.” He said, “You do too.” I said, “But your back problems are worse than mine.” So, I said, “By your association I want to learn how to be a good servant even though it is not my natural condition but I want to learn. So much of the time I am only thinking of myself and this one time I want to think of someone else instead of myself. So please do not deprive me of this opportunity.” I could see he was getting persuaded so I said, “Anyway, no matter what happens I am not going to sit in the chair. Even if you don’t sit on the chair I am not going to sit on the chair.” And then I walked to the side of the river and I sat down on a rock and then he sat on the chair.

We had so many walks and talks. Of course it would depend on his knee and his back. And then we would also sit at the beach and chant together. One day we were sitting and chanting and for his health he was supposed to eat every few hours I guess for acid reflux or something. So when we would go for our afternoon walk we would pack some fruit for him or really we put fruit in his kitchen and he would take what he wanted. So we were sitting in two chairs at the beach chanting and then he started to have his fruit and he would be throwing the peels and skins and pips and then the birds would come. I said, “Maharaja, I don’t know what pious activities those birds have performed but they are all getting liberated. I can practically see them going to back to Godhead right in front of my eyes by eating your remnants.”

We would also do a lot of kirtan but one time in particular we went to another devotee’s house and so he was playing the harmonium and singing a song by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura in a very humble mood in which he speaks about himself as being a very fallen person. The way Maharaja sang that song it was like every word entered deep in my heart and I was crying during the whole time. Afterwards I mentioned it to him and he said that when he was singing he also was crying internally. So yes, he is an excellent musician and he has a lovely voice, but it is really the consciousness or the feeling within his heart that touches the hearts of people who hear.

Niranjana Swami is also very philosophical and has deep faith in Srila Prabhupada. How to get that deep faith? By following the instructions of the spiritual master. Very early he was distributing books, which was the main program that Srila Prabhupada emphasized. And by following the instructions you get results and when you get the results then your faith increases. But yes, he really has faith in Srila Prabhupada. He has faith that anyone who comes in touch with Srila Prabhupada in any way and receives Srila Prabhupada’s merciful glance will benefit. 

Another thing we used to like to do is watch the Following Srila Prabhupada DVDs together. So there was one DVD that depicted the devotee was speaking about Prabhupada’s first visit to Vrindavan with his disciples. Prabhupada had his own car but the car broke down so then Prabhupada rode in the bus with all the disciples. They were nearing Vrindavan and devotees had never been to Vrindavan before. They were going with Prabhupada and they were waiting to hear him speak about Krishna and Krishna’s pastimes in Vrindavan. So as they were travelling there was some construction going on, on the side of the road. You look out the window you see so many things. So Prabhupada cleared his throat and it was clear that he was going to say something and it was the first time that he was speaking on the whole trip on the way to Vrindavan. The devotees were waiting to hear, “What is Prabhupada going to say?” So he cleared his throat, the devotees were on the edges of their seats, and he said, “Cement. We have to get enough cement for the construction.” And then Niranjana Swami was sitting next to me watching it, and he just laughed and he said, “Prabhupada!”

Another realization I had specifically in relation to Srila Niranjana Swami is that Krishna in the heart helps because he is so sincere. It happened to me. On his first visit to Santa Barbara—it was only maybe a four-day visit—he was staying with Sarvatma Prabhu but Sarvatma Prabhu let him come for a day to be with me. But before Maharaja left I had some questions I wanted to ask him and I knew Maharaja’s health wasn’t that good. I also didn’t want to be a burden to him. The last evening there was kirtan at Sarvatma Prabhu’s place and during the kirtan almost all of my questions were answered by the guru in the heart. This is how I understood it that Srila Niranjana Swami is so sincere and so concerned and so caring that he would want the devotee to get the answer but because of his own physical limitations he can’t give the answer personally and directly so what I think is that Krishna in the heart helps Niranjana Swami by giving the devotee the answer in the heart because Niranjana Swami so much would want the devotee to get the answer but he just physically can’t give it himself.

Previously when I was in Vrindavan during Kartika when Niranjana Swami led the kirtan in the temple I didn’t really know him but later a common friend of ours invited us both for lunch. Niranjana Swami said that he came to Vrindavan in Kartika because he wanted to focus on his personal, spiritual practices, but so many people approach him that he can’t do it. And he said, “I am never coming back to Vrindavan during Kartika.”

Now he did come during Kartika this year but not to Vrindavan but to Govardhana. The senior preachers really give a lot of themselves during the year when they travel and preach and they also need time for themselves to deepen their own Krishna consciousness. If you read the biography of Srila Prabhupada, the biography of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, they spent years and years and years focusing mainly on their own spiritual development before they really began their missions, but we were engaged in the mission from the very beginning. But at least during some time of the year we or they should be given the facility.

At Govardhana, Maharaja was given Kesava Bharati Maharaja’s room to stay in. That room is the most public room in the whole Bhaktivedanta ashram and Kesava Bharati Maharaja is a very sociable person. People go to the Govardhana Palace means they visit Kesava Bharati Maharaja. So, so many people would come to the palace and open the door to Kesava Bharati Maharaja’s room and find Niranjana Swami and he had to spend a lot of time meeting people who didn’t even know he was there. 

He was planning to stay up to a certain date but in the meantime there was a very big meeting of counselors in Kiev. So he left early to go to the counselors meeting because he thought it is a very important meeting. He said if he was able to go deep in his bhajana he might have wanted to stay longer in Vrindavan but he couldn’t really go deep in his bhajana because of all the visitors. He thought he might as well go to Kiev for the meeting. 

Niranjana Swami told me and he had the discussion with Radhanath Swami and they both agreed that without the counselor system they could not initiate so many disciples because they cannot personally take care of all the disciples. As spiritual masters they are responsible but they can’t personally take care of them so they have the counselor system. Now that may apply in Ukraine or Chowpatty but in a place outside their main zones, their specific counselor system may not be operating, but the principle of accepting guidance from others exists if you want it. There are a lot of senior devotees—many of them with direct relationships with Maharaja—so one can also approach them—but to some extent, if it is Indradyumna Swami or Govinda Swami, they may be in the same mood that they are preaching all the time and come to Vrindavan. But still, I believe if you really need guidance, Krishna will arrange for you to get the guidance that you need.

Prabhupada has left. How do we get guidance? You can’t depend on the physical presence of the spiritual master. You have to be able to get his instructions in other ways. When you go to a doctor’s office there are assistants and technicians and nurses so they take your weight and your height and your blood pressure and they do the blood tests and they get all the information. You don’t even need the doctor. You don’t need to meet the doctor. But if you are very sick and your symptoms are out of control then the doctor may personally have to intervene.

Now, how to please Niranjana Swami? He always describes our mission as described in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta to taste Krishna consciousness and distribute it. So, in general terms, he wants all of his disciples to do that. And specifically he wants devotees to care for each other. He does not like devotees to criticize other devotees and gossip about other devotees.

He wants everyone to be in the mood of servant. He is certainly in the mood of servant and that is our constitutional position—jīvera svarūpa haya kṛṣṇera nitya dāsa—and especially gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ—-being the servant of the servant of the servant. Of course he is very concerned about book distribution and he is very much involved in the organization of book distribution and Ukraine is always very high in the world in book distribution.

He is involved in all of Prabhupada’s programs but I think this is a very big focus of his, devotee care. His book Caring for Krishna’s Devotees has become a very popular book and translated in many languages.

Another point is, as I mentioned earlier, I never saw him so happy as when he was serving, but many times he told me about accepting service from disciples that he only likes to accept service from them if they are enthusiastic to voluntarily offer the service. He feels they should hear him, they should hear the philosophy and be convinced of the philosophy, and being convinced of the philosophy they should welcome the opportunity to serve a Vaishnava or by hearing the philosophy from him, if they feel gratitude toward him and voluntarily want to reciprocate and offer some service to him then he feels comfortable accepting it. But if they are doing it just because they have to do it—and sometimes it might happen that someone comes in an enthusiastic mood in the beginning for some time but then they lose their enthusiasm and then they just do it as a matter of duty—he doesn’t want to accept service from them when they are in that mood. He feels they should go back and hear the philosophy so that they feel that it is in their interest to do the service not just that they have to do it because it is their service but they feel that they will actually benefit by doing the service. And so they are happy to do the service because they feel it will contribute to their spiritual advancement and that is their main interest, their spiritual progress.

So, he will be pleased if you offer service with enthusiasm and gratitude and if you are lacking in enthusiasm, a spontaneous desire to serve, then you should hear the philosophy, hear his talks so that your desire to serve, your enthusiasm will come back. It is not an external activity that will please him but it is more the mood of service.

I am sure if you are happy in Krishna consciousness, he will be happy. I think really he just wants to see his disciples, like I said, tasting Krishna consciousness and distributing it. 

I would say in an overview that he is a very exceptional soul and a tremendous credit to Srila Prabhupada because he can do so many things so well. It is very rare to find one person who can do so many things so well. He gives wonderful classes, he leads wonderful kirtans, he is very good at counseling devotees individually, and he is very good at organizing and managing. Ukraine is one of the best zones in the whole world. And he is so humble and selfless and Krishna conscious. He is always chanting, singing, reading, and serving. So he is really unique. Of course everyone is unique but I just feel he is a great credit to Srila Prabhupada and a tremendous positive factor in ISKCON. Hare Krishna.

Srila Niranjana Swami Maharaja ki jaya!

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!