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Meaning of Sri Vyasa-puja

The following is an extract from a speech given by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in honor of his spiritual master, His Divine Grace Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur.

The guru, or acaryadeva, as we learn from the bonafide scriptures, delivers the message of the absolute world, the transcendental abode of the Absolute Personality, where everything nondifferentially serves the Absolute Truth. We have heard so many times: mahajano yena gatah sa panthah ("Traverse the trail which your previous acarya has passed"), but we have hardly tried to understand the real purport of this sloka. If we scrutinizingly study this proposition, we understand that the mahajana is one, and the royal road to the transcendental world is also one. In the Mundaka Upanisad (1.2.12) it is said:

tad-vijnanartham sa gurum evabhigacchet samit-panih srotriyam brahma-nistham In order to learn the transcendental science, one must approach the bonafide spiritual master in disciplic succession, who is fixed in the Absolute Truth."

Thus, it has been enjoined herewith that in order to receive that transcendental knowledge, one must approach the guru. Therefore, if the Absolute Truth is one, about which we think there is no difference of opinion, the guru also cannot be two. The Acaryadeva for whom we have assembled tonight to offer our humble homage is not the guru of a sectarian institution or one of many differing exponents of the truth. On the contrary, he is the Jagad-guru, or the guru of all of us; the only difference is that some obey him wholeheartedly, while others do not obey him directly.

In the Srimad-Bhagavatam (11.17.27) it is said:

acaryam mam vijaniyan navamanyeta karhicit na martya-buddhyasuyeta sarva-devamayo guruh "One should understand the spiritual master to be as good as I am," said the Blessed Lord. "Nobody should be jealous of the spiritual master or think of him as an ordinary man, because the spiritual master is the sum total of all demigods." That is, the acarya has been identified with God Himself. He has nothing to do with the affairs of this mundane world. He does not descend here to meddle with the affairs of temporary necessities, but to deliver the fallen, conditioned souls---the souls, or entities, who have come here to the material world with a motive of enjoyment by the mind and the five organs of sense perception. He appears before us to reveal the light of the Vedas and to bestow upon us the blessings of full-fledged freedom, after which we should hanker at every step of our life's journey.

The transcendental knowledge of the Vedas was first uttered by God to Brahma, the creator of this particular universe. From Brahma, the knowledge descended to Narada, from Narada to Vyasadeva, from Vyasadeva to Madhva, and in this process of disciplic succession the transcendental knowledge was transmitted by one disciple to another till it reached Lord Gauranga, Sri Krsna Caitanya, who posed as the disciple and successor of Sri Isvara Puri. The present Acaryadeva is the tenth disciplic representative from Sri Rupa Goswami, the original representative of Lord Caitanya who preached this transcendental in its fullness. The knowledge that we receive from our Gurudeva is not different from that imparted by God Himself and the succession of the acaryas in the preceptorial line of Brahma. We adore this auspicious day as Sri Vyasa-puja-tithi, because the Acarya is the living representative of Vyasadeva, the divine compiler of the Vedas, the Puranas, the Bhagavad-gita, the Mahabharata and Srimad Bhagavatam.

One who interprets the divine sound, or sabda-brahma, by his imperfect sense perception cannot be real spiritual guru, because, in the absence of proper disciplinary training under the bonafide acarya, the interpreter is sure to differ from Vyasadeva (as the Mayavadis do). Srila Vyasadeva is the prime authority of Vedic revelation, and therefore such an irrelevant interpreter cannot be accepted as the guru, or acarya, howsoever, equipped he may be with all the acquirements of material knowledge. As it is said in the Padma Purana: Sampradaya-vihina ye mantras te nisphala matah. "Unless you are initiated by a bonafide spiritual master in the disciplic succession, the mantra that you might have received is without any effect."

On the other hand, one who has received the transcendental knowledge by aural reception from the bonafide preceptor in the disciplic chain, and who has sincere regard for the real acarya, must be enlightened with the revealed knowledge to cognitive approach of the empiricists. As it is said in the Svetasvatara Upanisad (6.23): yasya deve para bhaktir yatha deve tatha gurau tasyaite kathita hy arthah prakasante mahatmanah " Only unto those great souls who simultaneously have implicit faith in both the Lord and the spiritual master are all the imports of Vedic knowledge automatically revealed."

Gentlemen, our knowledge is so poor, our senses are so imperfect, and our sources are so limited that it is not possible for us to have even the slightest knowledge of the absolute region without surrendering ourselves at the lotus feet of Sri Vyasadeva or his bona fide representative.

Acknowledgements	The Meaning of Vyasa Puja	Letters of Appreciation
Homage from Disciples	Sri Guru Astaka	Suggestions

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