Vyasa Puja offering for the year 1991
Dear Srila Prabhupäda,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Your Divine Grace.
I must thank you for bringing me back to India once again, where your glorious presence and merciful benedictions are revealed more and more progressively. And especially I must thank you for the association of devotees, through whom you reveal yourself and your transcendental gifts.
You said that Bombay is your office. Bombay is also my prabhu-datta-desa, the place given by you to me to serve you. We have to keep your office in order, and we also have to preach. “Similarly I am building this temple for you.” Actually you are the real preacher. We are serving in Bombay only to facilitate your preaching. So we pray to you to give us the vision of how you want to preach there and the intelligence and strength required to realize it.
You said that Mäyäpur is your place of worship. Here we worship Lord Caitanya Mahäprabhu by the performance of the sankirtana-yajna. Here the senior devotees gather to execute the order of the spiritual master. Seeing how seriously the GBC’s and other devotees have taken your instructions and how cooperatively they are endeavoring to execute them is inspiring. I try to serve them as you would want, but I need your guidance. Please reveal your plans for me.
You said that Vrindavana is your home. Certainly you are an eternal resident of Vrindavana. And we are meant to live there with you. I feel more at home in India than anywhere else, and more at home in Vrindavana than elsewhere in India. But I feel completely satisfied at Govardhana. If you have any service for me there, please let me know.
You reveal how one must understand the intention of the spiritual master through your translations and purports:
When Rüpa Gosvämi fell down like a rod, Sri Caitanya Mahäprabhu got up and gave him a slap. Then, taking him on His lap, He began to speak to him. “No one knows the purport of My verse,” Caitanya Mahäprabhu said. “How could you understand My intention?” Saying this, Lord Caitanya Mahäprabhu bestowed various benedictions upon Rüpa Goswami, and taking the verse, He later showed it to Svarüpa Dämodara Goswami with great wonder, Caitanya Mahäprabhu asked him how Rüpa Goswami could understand the intentions of His mind.
[Purport:] We had the opportunity to receive a similar blessing from Srila Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvati Goswami when we presented an essay at his birthday ceremony. He was so pleased with that essay that he used to call some of his confidential devotees and show it to them. How could we have understood the intentions of Srila Prabhupäda?
[Text:] Srila Svarüpa Dämodara Goswami replied to Lord Caitanya Mahäprabhu: “If Rüpa Goswami can understand Your mind and intentions, he must have Your Lordship’s special benediction.” The Lord said, “I was so pleased with Rüpa Goswami that I embraced him and bestowed upon him all necessary potencies for preaching the bhakti cult.” [Caitanya-caritamrita, Madhya 1.68-73]
Those who are blessed to understand the heart of the spiritual master or the Supreme Personality of Godhead can similarly bless others. Srila Rüpa Goswami blesses us that we may also understand Lord Caitanya’s mission:
anarpita-carim cirat karunayavatirnah kalau
samarpayitum unnatojjvala-rasam sva-bhakti-sriyam
harih purata-sundara-dyuti-kadamba-sandipitah
sada hrdaya-kandare sphuratu vah saci-nandanah
“May that Lord who is know as the son of Srimati Sacidevi be transcendentally situated in the innermost core of your heart. Resplendent with the radiance of molten gold, He has descended in the Age of Kali by His causeless mercy to bestow what no incarnation has ever offered before: the most elevated mellow of devotional service, the mellow of conjugal love” (Caitanya-caritamrita, Ädi 3.4)
In the same way we can understand you. By association with those who know your intentions, we can also come to know your heart better, and thus please you more fully in our efforts in devotional service. And as you become more and more pleased, you will reveal more and more to us—about yourself, about your service, about your place of residence—everything.
“I offer my respectful obeisances unto my spiritual master, who reveals the holy name, the devotes, Lord Caitanya, Svarüpa Dämodara Goswami, Rüpa Goswami, Sanätana Goswami, the holy dhäma, the residents of the dhäma, Giriräja Govardhana, Rädhä-kunda, Shyama-kunda, and Sri Sri Rädhä and Krishna and Their associates and service.”
All glories to Your Divine Grace! All glories to your causeless mercy upon all the fallen souls!
Your fallen servant,
Giriräja Swami