750831 - Lecture Hindi - Vrndavana
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Prabhupāda: I can speak a little in Hindi then you can. Today all my disciples are celebrating the Vyasa-puja-tithi. Vyasa-puja-tithi, is the birthday of the spiritual master. The real guru is Vyāsadeva, Vedavyāsa, and through the disciplic succession of Vedavyāsa. Just like it is said in the Bhagavad-gita, eva parampara-praptam ima rajarayo vidu. This Vedic knowledge is disseminated through the disciplic succession, not by any academic qualification (?), through disciplic succession. sa kāleneha mahatā yogo naa parantapa. If the disciplic succession is destroyed then this Vedic knowledge is destroyed. That is why Sanatana Goswami has said,
- avaiava-mukhodgira
- pḻta hari-kathāmtam
- sravaa naiva kartavya
Those who are not followers of the Vaiava etiquette, we should not hear the pastimes of the Lord from their mouth. What is the fault in the pastimes of the Lord? pḻta hari-kathāmtam. He says, that Hari-kathā, is like nectar but despite being like nectar if one is a non-Vaiava, then we should not hear from him. Sanatana Goswami has forbidden this. Why? sarpocchia yathā paya, milk is like nectar but if it is touched by the lips of a serpent then it is poison. And Sriman Mahaprabhu has also said this, māyāvādi-bhāya sunile haya sarva-nāúa. The scriptures, the holy books, the Vedas- sruti. That is why the Vedic scriptures are called sruti. Sruti means we have to listen through the medium of disciplic succession only. The spiritual master instructs his disciple, the disciple in turn instructs his disciple and he in turn instructs his dispciples, this is a sampradāya. Brahma-sampradāya, Rudra-sampradāya and Sri-sampradāya, so there are similar sampradāya's. Kumāra-sampradāya. sampradāya-vihinā ye mantrās te niphalā matā, those who do not follow any sampradāya and whimsically engage in Vedic mantras, will be unsuccessful. That has no value.
So this Vyasa-puja, that is we are in the lineage of Vyāsa sampradāya. Vyāsa's disciple Nārada, Nārada's disciple.. I am sorry!, Nārada's disciple Vyāsadeva. And Vyāsadeva's disciple is Sukadeva Goswāmi. Similarly through disciplic succession, Mādhavācārya, then in the Mādhavācārya sampradāya, there was Mādhavendra Puri, then his disciple Iúvara Puri, his disciple Sri Caitanya Mahāprabhu, His disciples- the six Goswami's- Sri Rupa, Sanatana, Bhatta Raghunatha. Similarly we are in this sampradāya, which is why our sampradāya is called Mādhava-Gauya-sampradāya. The meaning of sampradāya is that the ācārya of the sampradāya does not talk nonsense. He speaks whatever he has heard through the guru-paramparā . So that is why the appearance day of the spiritual master is called Vyasa-puja, the real spiritual master is Vyāsadeva and this āúrama is called Vyāsa āúrama. The spiritual masters who come in disciplic succession, they are allowed to remain in this āúrama. My disciples have organized the Vyasa-puja today and they are worshipping. This does not mean, aham-guro-upasana, that I have become God and I am getting them to worship me for showing off. This is not the case. The fact is, the scriptures say,
- yasya deve parā bhaktir
- yathā deve tathā gurau
- tasyaite kathitā hy arthā
- prakāúante mahātmana
To acquire this Vedic knowledge, there is only one solution, yasya deve parā bhaktir, to have unflinching faith in the Lord, transcendental (aprakrita) faith, and just like we have transcendental faith on the Lord similarly transcendental faith on the spiritual master.
- yasya deve parā bhaktir
- yathā deve tathā gurau
This should be practiced and to teach that we have to sit down and be worshipped by them and to teach them. This is correct. That is why the Vyasa-puja celebration is conducted, they also worship and those who have faith in the ācārya, ācārya-upāsanam, the Lord says in the scriptures that the ācārya should be worshipped. So all of you have so kindly come here, thank you. This Krishna consciousness movement, we teach this all over the world, Vedic panthā, srauta-panthā, srotriya brahma-niham. To be firmly devoted to the Absolute Truth one must accept the path of hearing from authorities (srauta-panthā). Caitanya Mahaprabhu also says at the time of imparting knowledge to Rupa Goswami, Guru-ka-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bija, through the spiritual master and Krishna we get the seed of the creeper of devotional service. These are some thoughts. Therefore it is the duty of the disciple to celebrate the appearance day of the spiritual master (Vyasa-puja), the spiritual master will teach. It does not mean that I am getting this worship done by them to increase my honor/ prestige, this is not the case. So we have around one hundred two centers all over the world and all their offerings, a book has been printed, every year such a book is printed on the occasion of Vyasa-puja to give the spiritual master. Mr. Brahmananda Swami will read one or two offerings from that book. After that you can partake in the Prasad and be merciful.
Thank you very much! (end)