Bhakti Charu Swami’s Vyasa-puja

Host: And we would love to hear directly from you because you are so close to Prabhupada and surely, you’ll be able to give us much-much sublime and essential and the sense of all the essence of your meetings with Prabhupada.

Giriraj Swami: Okay.

[Prayers]

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

So, to begin I would like to read something. An account of Srila Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja’s response to the, you could say, untimely death of His Holiness, Tamal Krishna Goswami and I believe his words at that time are very relevant for us now in relation to him.

So, on the departure of HH Tamal Krishna Goswami, Bhakti Charu Swami shared his feelings, his ‘shattered composure,’ and his deep questioning of Krishna. The suddenness and the way Tamal Krishna Maharaja ‘tragically’ passed perturbed Bhakti Charu Swami. He questioned; “ Why did he have to leave us in this way?” What came to Maharaja then was a realization, a very important realization, and one that can help us today.

As he said, “A realization dawned on me—our existence in this material world is like a dream and therefore how one comes or departs does not really matter at all. Only those who want to remain in ignorance are concerned about how one is born and how one dies. But for a devotee situated in the Absolute Truth, it does not matter at all.”

“How one leaves the body is not important. What really matters is how one leads his life.”

So, now, here Bhakti Charu Swami is speaking about Tamal Krishna Goswami but the same applies to him. That’s the purport right now.

“For one who has lived such an intense life of devotion, always expressing his love for Krishna through dedicated service, how can Krishna ever fail him. For one who has always been seeing Krishna in the core of his heart, with eyes anointed with the salve of love, at the final moment Krishna comes to him and he sees Krishna face to face. Will he not naturally become submerged in an ocean of bliss?” 

“Therefore, how one leaves the body in not important. What really matters is how one develops his love for Krishna.”

“Krishna comes to His devotee at the most crucial time in his life; when he is about to leave his body.”

So, this reflection of His Holiness, Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja’s on the departure of His Holiness Tamal Krishna Goswami Maharaja, is completely apt and fitting and applicable to His Holiness, Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja.

Now, I will discuss more about Bhakti Charu Swami and relate it to our own Ganga devi dasi. His Holiness, Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja departed on an auspicious day. It was Guru-purnima which is also known Vyasa-purnima, the appearance day of Srila Vyasadeva, the compiler of the Vedic scriptures. It was also the disappearance day of Srila Sanatana Gosvami, the senior most of the six Gosvamis. And I reflected on the significance of Bhakti Charu Swami’s leaving on Srila Sanatana Gosvami’s disappearance day and I saw a lot of similarities between Srila Sanatana Gosvami and HH, Bhakti Charu Swami.

It is said that Rupa Gosvami was very simple and Sanatana Gosvami was very astute. He could understand people’s motives and intentions and so he was able to protect devotees in the most practical ways. So, again I thought Bhakti Charu Swami is like Sanatana Gosvami. Sanatana Gosvami was very friendly and he would approach people like a family member. He would ask them, “How is your father? How is your mother? How are your children? How is your business?” He was a real friend to them, a family member and His Holiness, Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja was like that too.

And if there were disputes in Vraja, the disputants would come to Sanatana Gosvami. He was so deliberate and just and also a well-wisher for everyone. And whatever decision he gave, everyone would accept. Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja was also very friendly towards everyone, a true well-wisher of everyone and he would help them on all levels. Ganga told me a story that when her daughter Jahnava turned four years old, Ganga had no time or opportunity to arrange a birthday party for her daughter. She was so much involved in temple service and book distribution. But His Holiness, Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja, who was in Spain at that time, found out that it was Jahnava’s birthday and he arranged a birthday cake for her, he arranged for people to make a feast and a cake and he even got her some toy dolls. He apologized that he could not find any Krishna conscious dolls, but he gave her some dolls which as a four-year-old, Jahnava would have appreciated.

So, he was very loving and caring. I had the opportunity to serve with him. In the beginning, we served together during Srila Prabhupada’s presence and later after Srila Prabhupada left, I was the GBC for South Africa and Mauritius and I invited him to come and help me. We were Co-GBC’s and devotees have very fond memories of those days, when the two of us were together. We feel his separation.

Now, it so happens that his birthday and my birthday are very close together on the calendar. As you know, his birthday was September 17th and my birthday is September 13th. So, it happened quite frequently that we were both in South Africa, in Durban, for our birthdays. So, one day we would celebrate his Vyasa-puja and the next day or maybe the next weekend to celebrate my Vyasa-puja. And each of us was so happy to have the opportunity to glorify the other. And yeah, I remember pushing the birthday cake into his mouth and he would push the birthday cake into my mouth. And yeah, it was quite wild and blissful.

And yeah, in Mauritius also, we have many wonderful experiences. I remember at one time; he was observing every Ekādaśī—- Nirjala. So, I would also observe Nirjala with him and the other devotees, as far as possible they would also observe Nirjala and stay up all night. And yeah, but we got not just the idea but the spiritual energy and potency from His Holiness, Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja to do those Ekādaśīs and they were very spiritually rewarding experiences.

So, of course, I could go on for hours speaking about His Holiness, Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja but I would like to just say. . . Oh! there is so much. I would like to speak about his qualities. I mean, we have the qualities and the pastimes and of course, the two are interrelated. But for the sake of time, I will focus on some of his qualities.

Of course, one of his most prominent qualities, when he was physically present, was his deep love for Srila Prabhupada. Soon after he met Srila Prabhupada, Prabhupada included him in his personal staff and made him his secretary for Bengali and Hindi correspondence. And soon thereafter Srila Prabhupada gave him first and second initiation and then sannyasa. Bhakti Charu Swami personally, lovingly served Srila Prabhupada throughout his last days.

He was also very devoted to ISKCON. He always considered ISKCON to be a unique creation of Srila Prabhupada’s and wanted to serve ISKCON. Both the devotees in ISKCON and ISKCON as an entity, as a manifestation of Srila Prabhupada. He loved anyone who loved Srila Prabhupada and he loved anyone or anything that Srila Prabhupada loved.

Another one of his many fine qualities was his offenselessness. He was very careful not to commit any offense against any devotee or any living entity. If he felt he had committed an offense, he immediately tried to mitigate its offense by approaching the person, apologizing, and asking forgiveness. From our point of view, we wouldn’t think he had committed an offense but within his pure heart he may have felt that he had. And immediately he would try to approach and please the person he feared he had offended to remove the effects of the offence.

I had my own experience. At one time, I took a position, I mean, this was a long time ago, but at one time ago, I took a position in relation to Srila Prabhupada that was not proper and sometime later Bhakti Charu Swami, he came all the way, he drove probably three hours from the place where he was staying south of Los Angeles, all the way to Carpinteria to apologize to me, which was not required. But what had happened was that when I took that wrong position, he spoke against it which was correct. But he came to apologize that instead of speaking with me directly he was speaking about me in public forums. But because what I was doing and saying really was not appropriate, he was justified in speaking the way he did, about me. But he felt that he had made a mistake and that he should have instead of speaking about me, he should have spoken to me. But I was really touched that he drove all that way, more than three hours, and six hours round trip, just to apologize.

Of course, he did stay with me here in Carpinteria on many occasions and we had wonderful times together. Especially. . . Well, I don’t know. Especially, having deep discussions about Srila Prabhupada and Krishna consciousness. In fact, this is a picture of us from one of his visits and I don’t know if you can see it, because of the reflection, but I’m holding a book in my lap called Sri Caitanya-candrāmṛta by Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati. And in that book, there is a beautiful verse that was one of His Holiness, Bhakti Charu Swami’s favorites and the book. . . sorry, the verse goes:

yathā yathā gaurā padāravinde

vindeta bhaktim kṛta puṇya rāsiḥ

tathā tathot sarpati hṛdya kaśmad

rādha padāmbhoja sūdhāmbu rāsiḥ

TRANSLATION

To the degree that we surrender to Lord Chaitanya’s service, to that degree we acquire qualification for service to Radharani’s lotus feet in Vraja.

COMMENT

And looking up that verse I found a message from Bhakti Charu Swami that he wrote on BCS iṣṭagoṣṭhī. I never really noticed it before, at least not in all these years. But looking for that verse, I found it quoted in this letter and so, I will read what His Holiness, Bhakti Charu Swami wrote on BCS iṣṭagoṣṭhī that shows his loving and compassionate nature. So, he wrote;

“A few days ago, when I got to know that H.H. Giriraj Swami Maharaja was in Santa Barbara, I decided to cut short my visit to Sacramento by one day in order to visit him. My initial plan was to spend two days with my very dear godbrother Udayananda Prabhu in Sacramento. When I informed him of my change of plan, he was not at all happy, but when I explained the reason, he understood my need to visit with Giriraj Swami. Fortunately, H.H. Indradyumna Swami Maharaja was also there. He spends one month every year with Giriraj Swami in Carpinteria to prepare himself for his Polish tour. It was indeed a spiritual retreat to meet these two very exalted devotees and very dear disciples of Srila Prabhupada.

Giriraj Maharaja has a place in Santa Barbara which is about one and a half hours drive from Los Angeles. It is a very serene and beautiful place famous for its avocado and other fruit orchards. As soon as I arrived, practically straight away, Giriraj Swami and I began discussing various spiritual topics. Indradyumna Swami had a severe migraine, a headache, so he was taking rest in his room but when he came to know that I had arrived, he immediately joined us. He said, “I jumped out of my bed, totally disregarding my headache, took my bath, and came running to meet you.” For about three hours we had very stimulating discussions about various spiritual topics, on how to spread this Krishna consciousness movement all over the world, overcoming various difficulties and hurdles, and thus fulfilling the prediction of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Then we took lunch and Indradyumna Maharaja excused himself due to his inability to eat because of his painful migraine. It was a delicious Iranian cuisine cooked by Kandarpa Manjari and served by a host of Giriraj Swami’s disciples. We relished so much prasādam together that both of us felt the need to lie down for some time. We met again at seven-thirty in the evening in Indradyumna Swami’s room.”

So, coming to that verse, Indradyumna Swami asked me to translate it, the verse that I just recited and Bhakti Charu Swami wrote the translation on a piece of paper as follows and this is a more literal translation than the one that I read earlier; “As one develops his attachment to the lotus feet of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, due to heaps of pious activities, accordingly, all of a sudden his heart becomes inundated with the nectar emanating from the lotus feet of Srimati Radharani.”

And Indradyumna Swami took a photo of me writing the translation. So, this doesn’t actually show His Holiness, Bhakti Charu Swami writing the translation, but it does show us with the book in our lap from that same incident and this photo, a lovely photo was taken by His Holiness, Indradyumna Swami.

So, yeah, it’s actually very purifying and enlivening to discuss His Holiness, Bhakti Charu Swami and my association with him and that very fortunate occasion when His Holiness, Indradyumna Swami Maharaja was here too and the three of us spent time together. Bhakti Charu Swami was so kind and thoughtful that while we were together, he phoned that godbrother Udayananda who lost a day because of Bhakti Charu Swami’s visit with us. So, Bhakti Charu Swami phoned him and he and Indradyumna Swami and I, we all spoke to Udayananda to pacify him. So, yeah, it’s very encouraging and enlivening to speak about His Holiness, Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja and I really do feel his presence now. Hare Krishna.