Giriraj Swami’s Vyasa-puja—Talk by Giriraj Swami

Giriraj Swami:

oṁ ajñāna-timirāndhasya
jñānāñjana-śalākayā
cakṣur-unmīlitaṁ yena
tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ

śrī-caitanya-mano-‘bhīṣṭaṁ
sthāpitaṁ yena bhū-tale
svayaṁ rūpaḥ kadā mahyaṁ
dadāti sva-padāntikam

nama oḿ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine

namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe

vāñchā-kalpa-tarubhyaś ca
kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca
patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo
vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare
hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare

I don’t know whether I’m supposed to be in Dallas or Houston, or Govardhana; I think I’m in Govardhana. But it’s been very overwhelming to hear so many expressions of appreciation. Maybe ten days ago I was discussing with HH Ṛtadhvaja Swami, the phenomenon of people or devotees getting from me things which I can’t take the credit for, and I related an exchange I had with Badahari dasa who sings beautiful kirtan.

For some time, I would facilitate japa retreats and quite often, whenever possible, we would have Badahari dasa come and lead kirtan in the evening. Because that was the program, that in the evening there would be kirtan and sometimes, yes, I was asking him what he thinks when he leads kirtan? And he said he just tries to focus on the holy name and he doesn’t really think about anything else. He said sometimes he’ll lead kirtan and people will really start to dance very enthusiastically and wildly, but he is not aware of it. Then he said, sometimes people will ask him, ”That was really fantastic what you did, can you do that again?” Badahari dasa would think, I don’t know if he would say it, but he would definitely think, well, “I didn’t do it in the first place, so how can I do it again?”

And so, I related that to our situation in which sometimes I guess you could say things happen, and I guess we are a part of it, but it’s way beyond us individually. But it’s. . . I mean, when I yeah. . . it’s just, I mean the whole process is quite amazing how, yeah, Srila Prabhupada came and inspired these mainly young boys and girls to join him.

That was an interesting exchange in the “Ocean of Mercy,” the book “Ocean of Mercy,” in which HH Bhakti Charu Swami said that the devotees who had come to support Srila Prabhupada, they had an eternal relationship with him, or they were sent by his Guru Maharaja, by Srila Prabhupada’s Guru Maharaja to help him, or by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to help him. I’ve also heard some godbrothers, HH Indradyumna Swami—he has also expressed a similar thought-that we must have eternal relationships with Srila Prabhupada. Otherwise, how is it possible that from such an early stage, we became so dedicated to him, and just naturally dedicated.

But thinking of my birthday, my birth in Chicago, I was reminded I was born in Chicago. It doesn’t seem to be very auspicious or special or divine, so, it’s easier in a way to think of myself as just a fallen soul who was floundering in the ocean of material existence and who was picked up by Srila Prabhupada. Because it really seems like that and feels like that, and I believe that to be the case.

But Srila Prabhupada’s mercy is such that he can really infuse people with devotion and engage them in ways beyond their ordinary capacity. The things that the early devotees did to spread the movement are inconceivable, I mean when we think about how Srila Prabhupada would just send devotees out to different cities, different countries, different continents and he also made it sound very simple and he himself set the example. And he said, ”You just go and do what I did, you sit down in a park and you chant Hare Krishna and when people come to see who is this crazy fellow and what is he doing, then you tell them about the Bhagavad-gītā.

Over these days I’ve heard different stories about HH Tamal Krishna Goswami, how things began in Dallas, or how things began in Houston. He began with a very sort of meager support and then Krishna sent help, Srila Prabhupada sent help. Hearing the history here that. . . I mean I really got a lot of this from Arjuna Krishna dasa, because he really just saw the whole thing so clearly. How it started in a very simple way, in a very meager way and then devotees came from Tennessee and then Gurudeva got people to come from here and there, and he just organized them and then pretty soon everything was exploding.

Both things really impressed me, one was how Srila Tamal Krishna Goswami made things happen and that was very impressive, but I found it equally impressive how he began with so little and he persevered with so little, until things did change. Fortunately, maybe two days ago Rupanuga Prabhu was giving class and that particular day I felt extremely desperate for Srila Gurudeva’s mercy, and I sort of got this intuition that after guru-puja I should go to his samadhi and just chant in his samadhi. So, I was chanting at his samadhi and circumambulating and it was very powerful, it’s subtle, but it’s very powerful. Then Arjuna Krishna came to do the offering and so, the door to the samadhi was open, and I went up and the class was playing on the radio in the samadhi and Rupanuga Prabhu was giving the class. And it’s a very fascinating class about a lot of the struggles, in the early days. Some of the struggles were not just getting help from outside, but a lot of the struggles were getting the devotees to behave properly with each other. I’ve heard quite some amazing stories these last few days of the fighting that went on among devotees.

So, anyway, so, afterwards I came in the temple room and there was ambient noise outside, so there was one thing that Rupanuga Prabhu said that I missed and it sounded very interesting so,  I said, “I was listening to you on the radio and that there was something I couldn’t quite catch, it was something about. . .” Anyway, he knew what it was, something about garbage and he said that Srila Gurudeva had said, ”That when the devotees come, they bring their garbage cans with them and then they dump all their garbage on me.” So, then Rupanuga started to reflect on what Gurudeva actually dealt with, and how he would listen to all the devotees’ complaints or problems, or whatever and just try to help them. Rupanuga, he just commented with deep emotion how kind Gurudeva was.

So, I’ve especially on this visit, I’ve really gotten a sense of both how Gurudeva brought together various elements, and made very successful projects. But also, how much he struggled in the earlier stages to work with what he had with what Krishna sent him and then gradually build upon that.

So yeah, but whatever the situation is, we should never think that we’ve reached where we are supposed to be, because we haven’t. Wherever we are now, we should know we are meant to be a lot further than we are and we should be ready to take on whatever challenges we have to perform whatever austerities we have to. And those austerities can take different shapes, they may be physical austerities, but they may be emotional austerities.

Just do what we have to do, to move things forward, and if we think, yeah, like Anuttama Prabhu. . . we were very fortunate to have Anuttama Prabhu with us in Houston during most of my stay, and so he was commenting on the temple there. He was saying, ”That’s okay, we’ve opened the temple, but that’s just the beginning.” I mean, we shouldn’t think, ”Okay, I built the temple so, me and my family and my forefathers, my so many of these generations, they get, they have all the puṇya now from the opening of the temple and I’m okay and they are okay and everything’s okay, and so now we can relax.”

But he was saying, ”No.” That the temple is open, means that’s just the beginning, now I have to use the temple to preach Krishna consciousness to spread Krishna consciousness. So, whatever the milestone is, it’s just a step on the way to the next step, it’s not the end; it’s not that we’ve ever reached where we are meant to be, but we’ve reached a point that’s a milestone, but then we have to go many more miles.

So, but I definitely do feel very much Srila Gurudeva’s presence here and I was also feeling, I guess sort of like Anandalila, that I was also eager to go to Govardhana. And because of this writing project mainly, I felt it’s not going to really work. I mean, I consulted many godbrothers and it was a nice idea, I go to Vrindavan and write, but it’s not going to be very easy to actually write in Vrindavan. So, they suggested, just you have everything in Santa Barbara, just go to Santa Barbara and write. But I was also thinking, well, what about Govardhana? Okay, I’m in Santa Barbara and okay, maybe according to some dream, there is something sacred about the rocks in Santa Barbara, but what about Govardhana, what about Govardhana? Then I saw this and I thought, well, this is Govardhana. By the mercy of these devotees I’m in Govardhana. The whole Govardhana backdrop on the altar, it’s all Govardhana.

And Govardhana is very special, of course that name when Srila Prabhupada initiated me by mail; so, I got the letter, “Your name. . .” There was more to it, but then he said,”Your name is Giriraj dasa, Giriraj is a name for the Govardhana mountain where Krishna used to tend His cows and sometimes devotees take a stone from Govardhana and worship it as a representation of Krishna.”

That thing, it’s true to our knowledge, that means the Teton family, we were the only Tetons in the world, or at least in North America. So, it was a matter of pride in  the grand Tetons, and it was one of those conceptions that I brought with me when I came to Krishna consciousness. So, I still had that sort of residual attachment and then, yeah, I got that letter, “Giriraj is the name for the Govardhana mountain where Krishna used to tend His cows.”

And I thought, ”Wow!” I was so attached to my mountain name and Prabhupada gave me a better mountain name. Then of course there was one program we had somewhere in north India, I don’t remember exactly where; we were at this man’s house and the man kept. . . He was very enthusiastic and referring to me as Giriraj, Giriraj, and Prabhupada sort of admonished the man –he is not Giriraj, he is Giriraj dasa.

So, dāsa dāsa-anudāsaḥ, so yeah, but Govardhana Hill yeah, hari-dāsa-varya, the gopīs themselves say he is the best servant of Lord Hari. It is a beautiful verse I mean and our acharyas have written very beautiful commentaries on it, but one word in the verse is pramodaḥ which means exceedingly pleased or happy.  Govardhana, he renders service to Radha and Krishna and Their associates, but pramodaḥ with great pleasure and he gives his body to Them, They walk on him.

Sometimes when we have false ego, we don’t want people to walk on us, or our friend will say, ”You can’t let that person walk all over you like that.” But Govardhana Hill, They walk all over him, but pramodaḥ, he takes pleasure in it, he takes pleasure in being walked all over by Them. So, when the servant takes pleasure in the service, that gives the master more pleasure, and then when the master feels more pleasure and that makes the servant feel more pleasure, and then when the servant feels more pleasure, the master feels more pleasure. And so, that’s really the reciprocation of service and love.

If someone renders the service begrudgingly, I mean it’s sort of okay, I guess as a matter of duty you do it even if you don’t want to, but when they do it with pleasure, then that gives the master pleasure. So, I think that’s one lesson we can learn from Govardhana Hill—how to take pleasure in serving the master. And yeah, Srila Prabhupada said that Govardhana Hill in the Kṛṣṇa book which is, it’s a summary study of the Tenth Canto, that Govardhana Hill knew the secret of how to please Krishna by giving pleasure to Krishna’s devotees, the cowherd boys and the cows. So, we also, the more we are dāsa dāsa-anudāsaḥ, the more we are at the end of the chain, the more we give pleasure. And I think of this one exchange that I heard from I can’t remember his name, but they call him AK-47, Arjuna Krishna, Arjuna Krishna.

So, yes, Arjuna Krishna and you can correct me if I’m not telling it exactly right, but he approached Srila Gurudeva and he said “I’m doing service and I’m chanting and I’m doing so many things, but I feel I want to make advancement faster, what can I do to accelerate my advancement?” And Srila Gurudeva replied that, ”"If you serve Krishna, the spiritual master will be pleased and if you serve the spiritual master, Krishna will be pleased, but if you serve the Vaishnavas, both Krishna and the spiritual master will be pleased.”

So, that’s really the secret to be dāsa dāsa-anudāsaḥ and then everyone up the chain, and the lower you are on the chain, that means the more people there are above you on the chain, which is good, and they are all pleased. So yeah, so I’m extremely grateful for this opportunity to serve all of you and serve your servants, serve your dogs and I pray to continue eternally, thank you very much.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Srila Gurudeva ki jaya!