Vyasa-puja Festival — New Vrindaban, 1973
Subtitles
- [02:21]
-
This ceremony… Of course, those who are my students, they know what is this ceremony.
- [02:33]
-
Those who are visitors, for their information, I may inform you something about this ceremony.
- [02:48]
-
Otherwise, it may not be misunderstood. A outsider may see it that
- [03:04]
-
“Why a person is being worshiped like God?” There may be some doubt.
- [03:15]
-
So this is the etiquette. This ceremony is called Vyasa-puja. Vyasa.
- [03:32]
-
Vyasa means the original author of Vedic literature. He is incarnation of Narayana.
- [03:44]
-
He gave us all Vedic knowledge. He received the knowledge from Narada.
- [03:54]
-
Narada received the knowledge from Brahma. Brahma received the knowledge from Krsna.
- [04:00]
-
So in this way, by disciplic succession, we get transcendental knowledge.
- [04:12]
-
So Vyasadeva… Formerly, before Vyasadeva, say, five thousand years ago,
- [04:25]
-
before that time there was no need of written literature.
- [04:36]
-
People were so sharp in their memory that whatever they would hear
- [04:44]
-
from the spiritual master they would remember for life.
- [04:50]
-
The memory was so sharp. But in this age-it is called Kali-yuga-we are reducing our bodily strength,
- [05:04]
-
our memory, power of memorizing, our feelings of sympathy for others, compassion, age,
- [05:18]
-
duration of life, religious propensities. In this way, in this age we are reducing everything.
- [05:31]
-
Every one of you can understand very easily.
- [05:42]
-
Formerly if somebody is attacked by another man, many persons will come to help him:
- [05:54]
-
“Why this man is attacked?” But at the present moment if one man is attacked,
- [06:03]
-
the passersby will not care for it because they have lost their sympathy or mercifulness for others.
- [06:11]
-
Our neighbor may starve, but we don’t care for it. But formerly the sympathy for other living entities,
- [06:25]
-
even for an ant… Just like Maharaja Pariksit, while he was touring on his kingdom,
- [06:37]
-
he saw that one man was trying to kill a cow. Pariksit Maharaja saw.
- [06:48]
-
Immediately he took his sword that “Who are you? You are killing a cow in my kingdom?”
- [06:56]
-
Because the king is supposed, or the government is supposed to give everyone protection,
- [07:06]
-
not that the government is meant for giving protection to the human being and not to the animals.
- [07:16]
-
Because it is Kali-yuga, the government discriminates between two nationals.
- [07:25]
-
National means one who has taken birth in the land. That is called national.
- [07:33]
-
That is… You know, everyone. So the trees, they are also born in the land,
- [07:44]
-
the aquatics also born in the land. The flies, the reptiles, the snakes, the birds,
- [07:53]
-
the beasts, human beings-everyone is born in that land.
- [07:59]
-
Suppose your land, America, United States…
- [08:02]
-
Why the government should give protection to one class of living entities, rejecting others?
- [08:12]
-
This means they have lost their sympathy for others. This is Kali-yuga.
- [08:19]
-
Formerly, before Kali-yuga, unnecessarily even an ant would not be killed. Even an ant.
- [08:30]
-
There are many instances that a hunter who was taking advantage of killing animals,
- [08:44]
-
but when he became a devotee he was not prepared to kill even an ant.
- [08:52]
-
So the Krsna consciousness movement is so nice that it makes a person perfect in everything:
- [09:05]
-
perfect in knowledge, perfect in strength, perfect in age, everything.
- [09:15]
-
We need so many things. So this perfection of life, the process how to make life perfect,
- [09:27]
-
is coming down from Krsna. Krsna, He is the origin of everything.
- [09:37]
-
Therefore the knowledge of perfection is also coming from Him, and periodically-
- [09:49]
-
periodically means after millions and millions of years-Krsna comes.
- [09:56]
-
He comes once in a day of Brahma. So Brahma’s days, even one day, the span of one day,
- [10:12]
-
it is very difficult to calculate. Sahasra-yuga-paryantam arhad yad brahmano viduh.
- [10:21]
-
The Brahma’s one day means about 433,000,000’s of years.
- [10:32]
-
So in each day of Brahma, Krsna comes, once in a day.
- [10:40]
-
That means after a period of 433,000,000’s of years He comes. Why?
- [10:52]
-
To give perfect knowledge of life, how a human being should live to make his life perfect.
- [11:01]
-
So the Bhagavad-gita is there, spoken by Krsna in this millennium, in this day.
- [11:11]
-
Now Brahma’s one day we are passing through the twenty-eighth millennium.
- [11:24]
-
No, twenty- eighth… In Brahma’s day there are seventy-one Manus, and one Manu lives for…
- [11:34]
-
That is also many millions of years, seventy- two millenniums.
- [11:39]
-
So we are not interested now about calculation the perfect knowledge.
- [11:48]
-
This perfect knowledge comes from God, or Krsna, and it is distributed by parampara system,
- [11:56]
-
by disciplic succession. The example is just there, a mango tree.
- [12:03]
-
On the top of the mango tree there is a very ripened fruit, and that fruit has to be tasted.
- [12:15]
-
So if I drop the fruit from up, it will be lost. Therefore it is handed over, after one, after one, after…
- [12:27]
-
Then it comes down. So all Vedic process of knowledge is taking from the authority.
- [12:35]
-
And it comes down through disciplic succession. Just like I have already explained,
- [12:43]
-
Krsna gives the knowledge, perfect knowledge, to Brahma,
- [12:49]
-
and Brahma gives the knowledge to Narada. Narada gives the knowledge to Vyasa.
- [12:58]
-
Vyasa gives the knowledge to Madhvacarya. Madhvacarya gives the knowledge
- [13:05]
-
to his disciplic succession, later on, to Madhavendra Puri.
- [13:13]
-
Madhavendra Puri gives that knowledge to Isvara Puri.
- [13:19]
-
Isvara Puri gives that knowledge to Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Lord Caitanya.
- [13:27]
-
He delivers that knowledge to His immediate disciples, six Gosvamis.
- [13:33]
-
The six Gosvamis delivers the knowledge to Srinivasa Acarya, Jiva Gosvami.
- [13:41]
-
Then Kaviraja Gosvami, then Visvanatha Cakravarti, then Jagannatha dasa Babaji,
- [13:50]
-
then Bhaktivinoda Thakura, then Gaura Kisora dasa Babaji Maharaja,
- [13:55]
-
then my spiritual master, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati.
- [13:59]
-
Then we are distributing the same knowledge.
- [14:03]
-
Jaya Prabhupada! Haribol!
- [14:09]
-
We don’t manufacture knowledge, because how we can manufacture?
- [14:15]
-
Perfect knowledge means I must be perfect. But I am not perfect.
- [14:23]
-
Every one of us, when I was speaking, because…
- [14:31]
-
We are not perfect because in our conditional life we have got four defects.
- [14:38]
-
The first defect is that we commit mistake. Any one of us who are sitting here,
- [14:48]
-
nobody can vouchsafe that he has not committed any mistake in life.
- [14:54]
-
No, that is natural. “To err is human.”
