Partha Sarathi Dasa Goswami’s Vyasa-puja

Sukumari dasi: Maharaja, when you said that you were not coming to India, he was very sad because he said that he had his notebook where he writes down questions and he needs to discuss different things with his god-brothers, they can help him. And he was sad that he couldn’t ask you those questions this trip.

At one point he was, when the message was sent on the conference that you were not coming because the doctor expressed that it was not good for you to travel and that Bhurijana Prabhu sent a message where you asked everyone to pray for you, so I printed that message for him and then he said to me that for forty-five minutes during his japa he was thinking about that e-mail you sent and he was really, really thinking of writing you and asking you to please come, but then I told him that Indradyumna Swami also advised you not to come. And he said of course Indradyumna Maharaja understood your health condition better than what he does and how could he ask you to come and if he did that it’ll be for his personal gain that he wanted you to come but he said still he’ll be hoping that something can happen in your health situation that you could come and he could get your association.

And when we go to his house to clean, there is a special room that he has made, the past few years. . . we call it his japa room because most of the time he sits there and chants but what’s so special about this room is that on the wall there are frames, pictures of god-brothers that are dear to him and now godsisters. Every morning before he chants he says for at least forty-five minutes he offers different prayers to different devotees there. That’s his altar he said. And he offers them incense. So when you were reading this, I was thinking he is just not saying it, he really means it and he is doing it every day. 

I pray that whatever he is teaching me by his example that one day by the blessings and guidance of everyone that I too one day can follow in his footsteps of taking shelter of devotees.

Giriraj Swami: How long is he planning to be in India?

Sukumari dasi: Till the first week of April. He left today, Maharaja.

Radha-priya dasi: Being here today I have been hearing so much about my guru maharaja from Sukumari. I was just telling her that in the twelve years of being away from South Africa, being here, this is the first year that I actually have a godsister to share this day with. So it is really special and even more special that we get to do something for my guru maharaja right here with you.

Two very important instructions that my guru maharaja gave me many years ago, one he always emphasized chanting that whatever may happen we should continue with our chanting and be very sincere about our chanting; and the other one was he said that most of our advancement in devotional service is due to the association of devotees. He always emphasized how important it was to be with devotees, to be in the association of devotees, especially senior, advanced devotees, to take instructions from them. And he said that if we concentrate just on these two things—the chanting and associating and serving the Vaishnavas—then our life becomes perfect and just by doing that we will go back to Krishna.

The last few months I wrote to you, I think in one of the more recent e-mails, I have been thinking so much about serving devotees. I have always liked to serve the devotees but an overwhelming mood has come over me the last four months. I just have a very, very intense desire to serve the devotees in whatever capacity I can and it is all coming from my guru maharaja, the mercy from him. And one of his most important instructions regarding associating with devotees is in every letter, in every conversation I have with him, he always tells me that I should just hang onto your (Giriraj Swami’s) lotus feet no matter what. I should serve you, serve you, and serve you, do whatever I can to render some service to you. And he guaranteed that if I continued serving you I will definitely go back to Godhead.

Today I am begging for his mercy and begging your mercy that no matter what happens—I have my good days and my bad days—but that you always give me this chance to serve you. That way I know that I am serving my guru maharaja and he is very pleased with me if I continue with this service.

Swarup Damodar dasa: Partha Sarathi Maharaja is personally very encouraging in my spiritual life and service in Durban. He has a very nice way of making light of challenges in life in service. All of us know him. He is a very humorous person. He loves teasing. He really loves teasing a lot and whenever he gets a chance, he always teases me about something and often it is about soccer. I get the sense when he teases that he kind of makes light of all the challenges we have in life because they are all temporary by Krishna’s mercy that if we just stay the course in spiritual life, whatever challenges we are facing will ultimately be lifted up away by Krishna’s grace and by the spiritual master’s grace. And what we saw as so intense and so difficult will no longer be there. So his wonderful, gentle, kindhearted nature helps me see things like that and not to just be self-indulgent and completely overwhelmed all the time.

He also often in public programs would speak about the role of the temple president and he would say that the temple president’s position is like that when something is going wrong in the temple the first thing people will ask is, “Where is the temple president?” and when something is going right in the temple, they will say, “Oh, it is Krishna’s mercy.” And he said he had that experience because he was the temple president for a short while. 

He is a very attractive devotee especially because of his deep attachment and taste for chanting Krishna’s holy name. Earlier this year or was it late last year in Vrindavan, Dhanurdhara Maharaja told me something in appreciation of Partha Sarathi Maharaja and he said that people sometimes consider him (Dhanurdhara Swami) to be intelligent, to have a very sharp intelligence, but he said he would at the blink of an eye he would give away all that intelligence, give it away in exchange for a fraction of a drop of taste that Partha Sarathi Maharaja has for chanting the holy name. He finds that to be so intense, so deep, and he also prays for that taste.

So today I also pray for Maharaja’s continued generosity to me and encouragement and I pray always to be blessed with his association. Hare Krishna.

Tulasi dasi: Last year while I was in India I had the opportunity of visiting Maharaja with Sukumari and he said to me, he was pleased that I came to serve you. He said, “It is good and it is nice you left home and you came to do some service.” Then a second time when I went he said, “It is good but don’t forget you have your husband back there.” And then the one time Ananga-manjari just picked up her laundry and she was standing there holding the white sari in her hand, so Partha Maharaja said, “Give that sari to Tulasi. She is in Vrindavan to serve her guru maharaja.” And then he laughed and then he said, “You must remember you still have Gopala Raja back home.”

He has been really kind and merciful to us. In the early days when he had no disciples in Port Shepstone we used to have a lot of association. He used to come and spend a lot of time with us. He would stay. We always think of the time he would come for the tent campaign and he used to take these big pots—we have pictures of him cooking the Food for Life prasāda—serving from these huge pots and all the nice dramas. 

He always encouraged us in Krishna consciousness and gave us a lot of mercy and even my children and Gopala Raja, he really took care of us. So we pray that he continues to bless us to continue in our service.

Kuntidevi dasi: When I first joined, Partha Sarathi Maharaja was one of my first authorities. He was our saṅkīrtana leader. Then I moved to India and in Vrindavan also he gave me some very nice instruction once about chanting, he wrote a letter how of all the five most potent forms of devotional service chanting is the most important one. And I always kept that letter and especially when I was living in Vrindavan I really tried to practice that.

But after I moved here I didn’t see him very much or at all. But then I became very lucky with Sukumari coming and Radha-priya being here because in a way I felt that was even sweeter because I got to know him so much through their association and also a tree is known by its fruit. I just felt that I know a few of the nicest devotees in the whole of ISKCON and they are all Partha Sarathi Maharaja’s disciples and they are such a wonderful representation of him, imbibed his mood so much. Every time Sukumari comes when we take lunch we sit and talk and she just tells us little, little stories and it is always so. . . and through those stories I have gotten to know Partha Sarathi Maharaja more. That mood of humility and his love for chanting and his humility in relation to his god-brothers and I find that so inspiring. Every time when she comes and he doesn’t like people to know that but she goes around the world collecting little bits of mahā-prasāda off his god-brothers and she gives it to him. Every day before he chants he takes a little bit, a little transcendental feast. 

He takes care of so many devotees that he just gives Lakshmi to like Madhumangala Prabhu and there are others. They are just devotees who are doing some service and who maybe don’t have any means, he would just give them Lakshmi. And sometimes they don’t even know. So just that mood. Like you were reading in the offering not making distinction between high and low and that is our mood but in the material world especially in the western world there is so much of emphasis on higher and lower, material qualifications, and I just like Partha Sarathi Maharaja’s mood of really just looking for the essence of devotional life because it is said in the Bhāgavatam that Krishna sees the essence of a devotee’s mood and I think Srila Partha Sarathi Maharaja surely embodies that.

I don’t see him very much, but I always like to send a little gift for him, and he always acknowledges that no matter how small it is. I don’t even write a letter or anything because I feel so unqualified but he always writes in return something. And it is just very, very nice to have Sukumari and Radha-priya here. In that way I feel I get more of his association. Thank you.

Giriraj Swami: I have known Srila Partha Sarathi dasa Gosvami for many years. When I first came to South Africa he was the saṅkīrtana leader and very much absorbed in his service and in engaging the devotees, encouraging them. The very first time I came he had just started the tent campaign [but then??] the devotees were concentrating on building the temple. But then he revived the tent campaign and that was also so powerful.

And then I remember when Bhagavan Prabhu left, he was very strong on the point of Prabhupada’s disciples not imitating him and not posing to be the same as Prabhupada. Then when I got back into to India we spent time together in India. And then last November/December we lived together at Govardhana. One evening in particular a group of us went to his house. He came to see me very soon after he arrived, first day or second day. We had a very intimate talk and he was asking questions and he was writing down what I was saying like what he wrote of his offering, taking it seriously. Also he met with His Holiness Niranjana Swami who was there at the time but then he left soon thereafter. 

And then one evening Kesava Bharati Maharaja and Bhurijana Prabhu and I went over to Partha Sarathi Maharaja’s place. It was a very wonderful discussion of shastra and Krishna consciousness and Srila Prabhupada. Maharaja is very learned in scripture. He reads many, many scriptures and he knows the concepts, he knows the Sanskrit terms, technical terms and although he was asking the questions but it was really a way of engaging us in kṛṣṇa-kathā and encouraging us to think more deeply of different topics. 

We also overlapped at Govardhana earlier just very briefly and that time I was going to go to Jagannatha Puri for the first time and I asked him for his advice and he mentioned reading the book Embankment of Separation by Srila Gour Govinda Swami Maharaja. 

So having heard especially of what Sukumari said, I really do have to follow what the doctor said. The doctor also really knows me well so I should follow what the doctor said. [?] specifically from him but it is very important for me to go to India and spend time with him.

He does take very good care of not just his disciples; he took care of thousands of devotees. It’s amazing. One year in Mayapur that time when I went in 2007, I became very sick so one devotee, I think it was actually Nama Cintamani’s sister, gave me his book and that time I had diarrhea, lack of appetite, it was really miserable, I couldn’t do anything, and I read that book and I got so much from that book, it was a very high [?] of his association and it really answered so many questions and it dealt with so many issues that I was facing especially at that time being so ill and unable to participate in the Mayapur programs and I felt that I was really getting his association by reading his book. And that was very, very encouraging and enlightening. So I also have faith that anyone who reads his books in a sincere mood. . . I was quite desperate at the time. . . but get the real guidance and experience his association through his books.

Of course these are just little drops from the ocean but for the sake of time we will leave it at that for now. Devotees have spoken a lot about Radha-priya and Sukumari but I also put Syama Nanda Prabhu in that category, almost in that category. I did think of him too. He is also very exemplary, very encouraging. Hare Krishna.

Kuntidevi dasi: Whenever we are with Sukumari I also get a sense that he is also struggling with his health and he is in terrible pain. I feel so bad that he is in so much pain but he has to sometimes sit up and chant. You are also struggling with your health. That example of carrying on despite the physical body, that’s also an example. I am also feeling I am getting a little older now but I am not as strong as I used to be so now I am beginning to realize it is not always going to be. . . that you can take for granted that you can go to bed at nine, get up at four. Eventually you might have to start at your physical limitations whatever they may be and that is not always easy. And then you may feel that other people are judging you. I find it very inspiring from Partha Sarathi Maharaja with incredible pain and physical challenges he remains so fixed and strong in his spiritual practices.