Jayapataka Swami’s Vyasa-Puja

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. 

[Prayers]

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

It is some special mercy for me to be here on this special occasion with all of you fortunate souls. My association with Srila Jayapataka Swami Maharaja goes back many decades. We were among the first devotees who went to India when Srila Prabhupada returned to try to revive Krishna consciousness in the homeland. But today I thought to focus on some of my later association with Srila Jayapataka Swami Maharaja which I found very illuminating and inspiring. 

In particular, I recall one Sunday when he and I were scheduled to speak at the Laguna Beach temple, and this was after his stroke and all of the changes that took place in his physical condition. After his stroke I had spent time with him—he was staying here in New Dvaraka and I came and I spent time with him here—but I had not seen him in a public preaching setting and I didn’t know what to expect. When he entered the temple room—and the temple room was packed and of course the beautiful Deities of the Pancha-tattva and Jagannatha, Baladeva, and Subhadra, and Srila Prabhupada and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura—but it felt as if the whole room was being flooded with this sublime spiritual energy and the consciousness of everyone was being uplifted. There is a saying that when the tide rises, all the boats rise. So it was as if this tide of love for Srila Prabhupada and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was coming out of Maharaja’s heart and filling the whole temple room. And the consciousness of everyone in the temple room was being elevated.

Of course his message was wonderful. It was somewhat hard to understand because of his face but what really struck me was that we say, ahaituky apratihatā, that pure devotional service is unmotivated and uninterrupted, nothing can impede it, and I saw that nothing of his physical condition could impede the tide of nectar that was emanating from his lotus-like heart. 

And then we. . . they had arranged a room for Maharaja and I to have prasāda together, at the front of the Laguna Beach temple, and we were supposed to be honoring prasāda and I guess we eventually did honor some prasāda, but there was a stream of people coming to see him and he just very patiently and ecstatically blessed all of them, each in his or her individual way. Sometimes he will. . . tapping them on the head, offering them some scared substance from Mayapur or Jagannatha Puri. So very patiently and kindly reciprocating with each and every person—a long line of people—and making each one feel very encouraged and satisfied with his reciprocation.

And the same with me. One small incident comes to mind is that after many years of being away from India due to my own health issues, I finally went back to India and went to Mayapur, and while I was there I got some really virulent form of dysentery or something. It was bad enough. I really couldn’t even leave my room in Mayapur for several days and there was a fever and so many things. And Srila Jayapataka Maharaja had just come from his own travels and his own issues but even then—I don’t know how he did it—within his busy schedule but I guess he had heard I had come to Mayapur and I was sick, so he sent a note saying, “You have been away from Mayapur for too long, so you don’t have the same resistance to the amoebas that you used to have. So you have to spend more time here so you can build up your resistance.” And then he sent some tablets like a remedy which was so thoughtful, so kind and compassionate and thoughtful, because I knew he had just himself arrived, he would have had so many things to attend to. He was just so thoughtful that you can see it made a very deep impression on me.

Some devotees have commented or one friend commented that he is larger than life and I was meditating on that phrase. In a way he is larger than life because his devotion, his surrender, his realizations, and his spiritual energy are beyond any material limitations and they flow without any hindrance. And then recently someone mentioned that—I don’t know, it was their thought—that the Bengalis need someone who’s larger than life because they are so wild, unless there is someone who is larger than life, nothing will subdue them. And I thought that was also a nice reflection on how that role that he has adopted or that image he has assumed has been so effective in Srila Prabhupada and Lord Chaitanya’s mission.

Just in the last few days, because he has such deep wisdom and realization and knowledge of our tradition, two different senior devotees or maybe even three—but I am remembering two right now—just in the last few days, they quoted times that they had consulted him about some matter and one of them, His Holiness Devamrita Swami mentioned that he had consulted Maharaja about a sort of intricate, esoteric question about the relationship between gaura-līlā and kṛṣṇa-līlā and Maharaja had given a really beautiful poetic but practical answer. So that struck me, “Wow! He has such deep realizations.” And His Holiness Devamrita Swami could understand that he would be the person to ask the question to about kṛṣṇa-līlā within gaura-līlā.

And then the other one that came up just again within the last few days was from His Holiness Jayadvaita Swami, it was more of a practical ISKCON matter. Jayadvaita Swami and some others had had an idea of something that would be appropriate in a certain situation and I agreed, I was of the same opinion. And then it just so happened that His Holiness Jayapataka Swami had come to Juhu—this was in the last few days—and so Jayadvaita Swami went to meet him and explained the situation to him and His Holiness Jayapataka Swami had more or less the same perspective. So he was quoting Jayapataka Swami as an authority in that matter.

So what’s striking to me about the juxtaposition of these two cases is that in one case he was consulted about a very esoteric question of Vaishnava philosophy about kṛṣṇa-līlā within gaura-līlā and in the other case he was consulted about something very practical about how something should be done in ISKCON. But in both cases his deep spiritual realization and dedication to Srila Prabhupada and the mission and the devotees allowed him to help us all in that way.

It is his mercy. I was scheduled to leave last night at six o’clock and then I thought, “All right, well, I will stay till eleven this morning, maximum. Definitely cannot say beyond eleven.” And here I am, his mercy that I could be here with you all on this occasion.

Hare Krishna.

Srila Jayapataka Swami Maharaja ki jaya!
Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!
Gaura-bhakta-vrnda ki jaya!