Bhakti Wisdom

Of all the festivals that we celebrate at the temple Vyasa puja is my favorite.

Srila Prabhupada sacrificed so much to bring everyone closer to Krishna. Srila Prabhupada left Radha Damodar temple, he left Vaishnava association, he left Vrindavan dham, just so he could bring others to Krishna.

Appreciating what Srila Prabhupada has done for us I always try my best to offer some service on His Vyasa puja day.

This year’s Vyasa puja celebration was much different than previous years. 

Since our congregation members have not been allowed to help us with worship and abhishek ceremony we needed to manage everything between us who are staying at the temple. Since I ended up “in charge” of the deity department naturally I got responsibility to manage the festival.

Krishna must have heard my prayers and kindly made arrangements so I could serve Srila Prabhupad on the auspicious day of his appearance.

Since that was my first time managing a festival of this calibre I got very stressed. There are many aspects that I needed to manage; cooking, worship, abhisek ceremony, extra decorations, engaging all devotees appropriately plus managing daily worship schedule all the while trying to remain in proper consciousness and vaisnava behavior.

On top of that day before we had Janmashtami festival which also required lots of energy and attention to manage it properly.

For someone who is not a person who can do many things at once and definitely not someone who likes to be in charge I felt big pressure.

After midday service on the Janmashtami day I went to see how many mogra flowers we had left for the next day’s Vyasa Puja festival. I ended up being disappointed after I realised that we have only 5 boxes of mogra flowers left. I wanted to offer more.

In my mind I thought:”Srila Prabhupad gave me so much and I’m offering him only this much?! I should do more.”

With that meditation I went to chant my japa without revealing my heart to anybody.

An hour later I received a message from one Hindu man who used to sponsor flowers for the festivals in the past.He asked me to call him. I finished my japa and called him back. With great enthusiasm he said:”Hey Ananta, I have a friend in Wembley who has a shop with mogra flowers. He just told me that he has 10 boxes left. If you want I can sponsor it for the temple, you just need to arrange someone to pick it up.”

I almost cried. Could it be that Krishna heard my prayers and kindly made arrangements? 

“Yes yes” I said. “I will call my friend and we will pick it up!”

We had only 2 hours left before the shop closed.

Quickly I called a friend who kindly agreed to drive to Wembley and pick up the flowers which I so eagerly wanted to offer to Srila Prabhupad.

He managed to collect flowers on time and deliver it to the temple.

Next morning whilst going for dressing in the morning I proudly carried those flowers to the altar to offer to Radha Gokulananda and Srila Prabhupad.

This year I didn’t want to write a Vyasa puja offering to Srila Prabhupada but rather I decided to offer him my body in his service so he can use it as he likes.

I thought that that would be a better offering than just writing a few lines of glorification.

I can only pray and hope that Srila Prabhupada was happy with my small offering.

Always praying for Your blessings 

Ananta Gopal das

15 August 2020