Today we are celebrating 74th Vyasa Puja of HH Radhanath Swami Guru Maharaj. It is very important and auspicious day for all his disciples, in fact for all the devotees of the world.
I consider myself very fortunate that Maharaja gave me shelter of his lotus feet and accepted me his disciple in spite of me not been qualified.
I pray to Maharaj on his Vyas Puja day to give me determination and patience so that I can free myself from all vices like lust, anger and greed which is binding me to this material world.
On this auspicious day of 74th Vyasa Puja of HH Radhanath Swami Maharaj, let us reflect upon his 7 wonderful qualities.
1. The humble acharya
Maharaj is one of the senior most disciples of Srila Prabhupada and for more than 50 years have been tirelessly working hard to spread Krishna Consciousness all over the world. He has influenced the lives of lakhs of people. Today he has thousands of disciples and there are thousands of others who aspire to become his disciples. Not just that there are many materially well accomplished people who take inspiration and guidance from Maharaj from different parts of the world.
But in spite of all these great achievements and honour, he always remains humble. In fact, if someone who does not know Maharaj sees him, he will feel that he is just any ordinary saffron robe wearing monk.
He never allows devotees surrounding him & chanting his glories, clicking his pictures, throwing flower petals upon him or putting huge garlands upon him. He leads a very simple life and does not want to be treated as a celebrity.
Once when Maharaj was staying at the house of HG Srinathji Prabhu then prabhuji had arranged everything nicely for his comfortable stay. Maharaj was given a nice room, comfortable bed, wollen blanket so that he could take rest properly.
But to his surprise, HG Srinathji Prabhu early in the morning saw that Maharaj is sleeping on the terrace and not in the room. Prabhuji asked Maharaj, “How were you able to sleep on the terrace as there are so many mosquitoes?” Maharaj said, “While staying in the jungles and the Himalayas, he has learnt how to wrap his body nicely so that he is not disturbed by the mosquitoes.”
By this we learn about the importance of being simple in our life. I remember one of the pastimes of Lord Chaitanya with Sanatana Goswami. When Sanatana Goswami was wearing a valuable woollen blanket then it looked as if Lord Chaitanya was not happy. So, Sanatana Goswami decided to give it up. He went to the bank of the Ganges and there he traded his valuable woollen blanket with a torn quilt. And when Lord Chaitanya saw Sanatana Goswami having old torn quit instead of the costly woollen blanket, he was happy.
So, in spite of our accomplishments – spiritual or material – we should always lead a simple life and should not allow ourselves to be glorified by others.
Yes, we should not imitate Maharaj, but we should at least try to follow his footsteps and guidelines.
2. Hearing from Srila Prabhupada again & again
During this year’s (2024) Kartik Yatra at Mayapur Dham, while giving class and speaking about Jagai and Madhai, Maharaj said that, “Today morning I was hearing Srila Prabhupada’s tape and Prabhupada was describing about Jagai and Madhai.” And then Maharaj spoke what Srila Prabhupada had said in his lecture.
Maharaj might have spoken about the pastimes of Jagai and Madhai hundreds of times. In fact, I myself have heard it from Maharaj in his many lectures. But still Maharaj was hearing Srila Prabhupada speaking on this important pastime associated with Lord Chaitanya. Maharaj through his example is teaching us the importance of hearing from Srila Prabhupada regularly.
These days so many lectures and YouTube videos are available which is good. But what lesson we learn here from Maharaj is that we should make it a habit to regularly hear from Srila Prabhupada.
Now many times when I see any Srila Prabhupada lecture, I think that I have heard it earlier so let me hear something else. But Maharaj has directly heard from Srila Prabhupada, and he might have heard Srila Prabhupada’s tape on Jagai and Madhai so many times but still he is hearing.
In spiritual life, hearing is extremely important and hearing from a pure devotee have great impact in our heart. Just by attentively hearing from Sukhadev Goswami, Maharaj Parikshit attained perfection. So, if we also try to hear from Srila Prabhupada, a pure devotee, attentively and constantly, we may also one day attain perfection.
3. Leading by Example
Great leaders do not just give sermons but always teaches the masses by his own example. During Kartik Yatra, every morning Maharaj would come to the pandal to chant the Hare Krishna Mahamantra. Maharaj would always sit erect, face towards Tulsi Maharani and chant attentively on his beads.
Seeing Maharaj chanting so sincerely and with such absorption motivated us to also chant sincerely. In this age of Kali, chanting the holy names of Krishna is the only was by which we can deliver ourselves.
Maharaj by his personal example is teaching us the importance of chanting 16 rounds of Hare Krishna Mahamantra in the morning. And chanting should not be done to just finish the rounds but to be absorbed in the holy names of the Lord.
Seeing Maharaj chanting with such absorption in front of Tulsi Maharani made me remember namacharya Haridas Thakura who would sit in front of Tulsi Maharani and would remain absorbed in chanting the names of Krishna.
4. A dear, loving & caring friend of all
I have always seen that during each Kartik Yatra many of Maharaj’s godbrothers and godsisters come. It is only because of Maharaj’s loving nature that all these disciples of Srila Prabhupada who lives in different parts of the world come for Maharaj’s Kartik Yatra to give their association to all of us.
And especially on the day of the disappearance day of Srila Prabhupada, we get to hear so many wonderful pastimes of Srila Prabhupada from the lotus mouth of these disciples of Srila Prabhupada. We were not here when Srila Prabhupada was transforming the whole world. So, our connection with Srila Prabhupada is through his disciples. So, the more we directly hear from them about Srila Prabhupada, the more we come to know about him and more we feel connected to him.
Maharaj would invite HH Jayapataka Swami Maharaj to speak every evening and we had great fortune to hear from HH Jayapataka Swami Maharaj in Mayapur Dham. And when because of bad health HH Jayapataka Swami Maharaj was not able to come then HH Jayapataka Swami Maharaj sent a long message for all the devotees who had come for Kartik Yatra. In his message Maharaj was thanking HH Radhanath Swami Maharaja and the devotees for coming to Mayapur. And, he was inspiring all of us to come again to the holy Dham.
We read in Chaitanya Charitamrita that how all the devotees would always come together to glorify the Lord and the devotees. This is what we see during Maharaj’s Kartik Yatra. Maharaj is teaching us about the importance of devotee association especially with our equals.
Many times, because of our false ego and impure consciousness, we consider equals to be our competitors and so we do not develop loving relationships with them. Maharaj teaches us that we should always be respecting, honouring and glorifying our equals and should always have friendly relationships with them.
5. Always appreciating
Whenever there is an opportunity Maharaj begins to glorify the devotees.
Not just he glorifies great personalities like Vaisnava acharyas, Srila Prabhupada and Srila Prabhupada’s disciples, but he even glorifies his disciples and anyone who renders any service to Krishna. During the last day of Kartik Yatra, Maharaj was glorifying all the devotees who worked hard to make Mayapur Kartik Yatra successful.
Many times, I have seen that when someone renders some service then we think that it was their duty to do so, and there is nothing great about it. Or sometimes, although we appreciate their efforts, but we fail to glorify them in front of others.
But Maharaj makes it a point that everyone is appreciated and should feel that their services are being valued. Although it is not possible for Maharaj to remember name of each devotee who does service, but Maharaj makes it a point that he takes the name of all those devotees whom he knows. Such an appreciation by Maharaj inspires them to serve more and more. For those devotees, including me, who does not do service it gives us motivation to render some serve to Krishna.
And during his class and also during kirtan, he would recollect the services which his godbrothers and godsisters did for Srila Prabhupada.
6. Importance of cultivating devotional qualities
In all his lectures, Maharaj again and again emphasises on the need of cultivating high moral values. One of the oft quoted verses of Maharaj is
trinad api sunicena
taror api sahishnuna
amanina manadena
kirtaniyah sada harihi
“One should chant the holy name of the Lord in a humble state of mind, thinking oneself lower than the straw in the street; one should be more tolerant than a tree, devoid of all sense of false prestige, and should be ready to offer all respect to others. In such a state of mind one can chant the holy name of the Lord constantly.”
Maharaj never likes criticising anyone even if the criticism is genuine.
For example, during the Kartik Yatra 2024, the mic system was giving some issues. But I never saw Maharaj singling out those who were managing sound system. Maharaj would have pointed out their mistakes and we would have thought that Maharaj did the right thing. But he did not do it.
In one of the Vyas Puja offerings, HG Radheshyam Prabhu was saying that it is not that Maharaj does not correct devotees but he does it in such a loving way that the devotee who is doing mistakes learn the lesson and does not feel bad.
But whenever Maharaj gets an opportunity, he begins glorifying any service rendered by devotees.
In the outside world we just see the opposite. Something bad is exaggerated and something good is minimised. That is why material world is abominable, and material life is so miserable.
Maharaj by his example is teaching us the consciousness which a devotee should cultivate. A devotee should always try to see good in others. In one of the class Maharaj was saying that devotees should be like honeybees. Just like honeybees only looks for nectar in a flower and extracts it similarly we should always try to see good in others.
And we should not be like flies who loves to sit on the wounds of a person causing him pain. This may appear very easy to do. But it is extremely difficult. In this world most of the conflicts are only because people disrespect others, insults others and always sees bad in others. But as we change our mindset and starts seeing good in others by understanding that we all are parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord, Krisna, the conflicts will cease to exist.
Maharaj teaches that a devotee should think about others welfare and try his best to motivate others to serve Krishna. And along with that devotees should have impeccable character.
7. His words touches the heart
Just like after speaking Bhagavad Gita, Krishna does not force Arjuna to follow him. Similarly, Maharaj never forces devotees to do certain thing but he always inspires them so that his disciples may engage in the service of Krishna.
Although Maharaj is a sannaysi, a guru, a spiritual leader, our spiritual father but his talk is never authoritative. I was not fortunate to have any personal interaction with Maharaj but after Brahmana initiation Maharaj spoke to few of us who had got Brahmana initiation. Maharaj spoke for few minutes and while speaking he said, “Now since you all are Brahmana initiated, so try to do some deity service also.” These words were enough to inspire us to engage in deity service.
Begging for his mercy
On this auspicious day of 74th Vyasa Puja of HH Radhanath Swami Maharaj, I beg at his lotus for his mercy so that I can constantly serve Krishna, serve Srila Prabhupada, serve him, serve all the devotees without any ulterior motives. I beg at his lotus feet to purify my heart of all the anarthas especially lust so that I can always be engaging in loving devotional service to Krishna.
Maharaj’s insignificant servant
Purushottam Nitai Das
