Vyāsa-pūjā of the Bona Fide Guru

The history of Śrī Vyāsa-pūjā commenced at the dawning of this world, when the Vedas were first created. Vyāsadeva later divided the Veda into four sections, and after that he further explained them in the form of the Purāṇas and the upaniṣads.

Śrīla Gurudeva has described the attitude of the guru towards his disciples in the following way:

“The guru never thinks that he is making so many disciples. These are all Kṛṣṇa’s wealth. They are all very fragrant, very smooth, and very sweet flowers. Guru takes them and offers them at the lotus feet of Śrīmatī rādhikā. Guru only does this. He never thinks, ‘Oh, all the disciples are my property.’ Never! A real guru thinks that all the disciples are very sweet, fragrant, small flowers of rādhā and Kṛṣṇa Conjugal. The guru offers the disciple like a flower at rādhikā’s lotus feet. She then places that flower in a garland and puts that garland around Kṛṣṇa’s neck” (Cessnock, Australia, February 1, 2000).

In Keśavajī Gauḍīya Maṭha, Mathurā, on the eve of Guru Pūrṇimā, July, 2008, Śrīla Gurudeva gave a class on vyāsa-pūjā. He said,

“Śrī Vyāsa-pūjā is the most holy appearance day of Śrī Vyāsadeva and His representative, śrī guru. The real meaning of vyāsa-pūjā is to surrender oneself completely at śrīla gurudeva’s lotus feet and to fulfill his desires. Vyāsa-pūjā is guru-pūjā, and cannot be performed until the mood of selfless surrender at the lotus feet of śrī guru appears in one’s heart. We have to surrender unto the lotus feet of the bona fide guru and practice serving the Divine Couple according to his teachings and instructions. Then, and only then, we can very quickly attain the transcendental loving service of Śrī Śrī rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. The factual meaning of vyāsa-pūjā is to follow the path of hearing the authentic message of the guru-paramparā that śrī guru delivers. This is called śrauta-patha. We should also reject any path wherein that message is not heard from an authentic source (aśrauta-patha). The purpose of vyāsa-pūjā is to prepare oneself for service to Śrī Hari under the guidance of guru and Vaiṣṇavas.

“The word vyāsa refers to a line drawn through the centre of a circle, connecting opposite parts of the circle. Now, if we imagine that the transcendental spiritual world is at one side of the circle and the mundane material world is on the opposite point, the line that connects both worlds is vyāsa. Śrī Vyāsa is an incarnation of the Lord Himself, who delivers the transcendental knowledge of the spiritual realm to the mundane world. The bona fide guru is His representative, who delivers the same message, and connects us with the Lord and the spiritual world. Vyāsa also means ‘to spread’. Guru spreads this knowledge throughout the universe. As a circle is complete, so guru’s transmission of knowledge is complete; it covers every point. All spiritual knowledge and all material knowledge come from Him.^[1]

“Vyāsadeva eagerly spread the glories of Śrī Kṛṣṇa everywhere, describing the Lord’s name (nāma), form (rūpa), qualities (guṇa) and pastimes (līlā). By the mercy of Śrī Nārada Muni, Śrīla Vyāsadeva narrated the pastimes of Śrī Kṛṣṇa to Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī. Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī’s worship of Śrīla Vyāsadeva, his father and spiritual master, was the first vyāsa-pūjā. Later, Śrīla Suta Gosvāmī performed the second vyāsa-pūjā by worshipping Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī. This is how the tradition of vyāsa-pūjā or guru-pūjā began in ancient times, and it continues to the present day. Worship of the guru is performed even before the worship (pūjā) of Śrī Kṛṣṇa.”^[2]

Vyāsa-pūjā, the appearance day of Śrīla Vyāsadeva, is respectfully observed in all the four sampradāyas. It always comes on the full moon day in the month of July when Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī disappeared from this world. Śrīla Gurudeva explained to us that Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī is like an incarnation of Śrī Vyāsadeva, because he has written a commentary on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam called Śrī Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta. To fulfill Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s desire, Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī relinquished not only his home, but also his post as prime minister, his abundant opulence, his servants, and everything. With the mood, “Now I am Yours,” he approached Śrīman Mahāprabhu empty-handed, and surrendered himself completely to the Lord. This alone is real vyāsa-pūjā.

On the day of vyāsa-pūjā, all Vrajavāsi men shave their heads, keeping only a small tuft of hair called a śikhā, and they perform parikramā of Śrī Govardhana hill, as Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī would do daily. Once, when Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī was performing Govardhana parikramā in his old age, he became faint with fatigue due to the blazing heat of summer. Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Śrī Baladeva Themselves appeared there as two transcendental cowherd boys. Śrī Kṛṣṇa used His own yellow cloth (pītāmbara) to shade Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī, while Śrī Baladeva used his own blue cloth (nīlāmbara) to fan him. They also sprinkled water on him and when he came to external consciousness, Śrī Kṛṣṇa told him that there was no need for him to keep doing Govardhana parikramā and undergoing so much hardship in his old age. Sanātana said, “How I can give it up? This is my vow. As long I am alive in this world, I will do Govardhana parikramā.” Śrī Kṛṣṇa then gave him a śilā of Girirāja Govardhana, with the divine impressions of His right footprint, flute, cow-grazing stick, and an auspicious imprint of a calf’s hoofprint. Śrī Kṛṣṇa told Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī that if he performed parikramā of this śilā four times, it would be equal to an entire parikramā of Girirāja Govardhana. After giving the śilā to Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī, the boys disappeared. This śilā now resides in the temple of Śrī Śrī rādhā-Dāmodara in Sevā-kuñja, Vṛndāvana, and if one requests the temple’s pūjārī, one may receive a special darśana of the śilā.

Many people come to see the Lord, but few can understand the glories of the Lord’s pure devotee, who captures the Lord by his unalloyed devotion. Just as the Lord came to Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī, He also comes to all His pure, unalloyed devotees; therefore, we should hear hari-kathā from such realized souls, and serve them wholeheartedly. When Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī disappeared from this world, the Vrajavāsis took his transcendental body and placed him in samādhi in Vṛndāvana, near rādhā-Madana-ohana temple, where he used to live.

On the appearance day of Śrīla Vyāsadeva, all the sampradāyas–Śrī sampradāya, Brahma sampradāya, rudra sampradāya and Sanak sampradāya–perform vyāsa-pūjā (guru-pūja). In the Gauḍīya sampradāya, we observe the appearance day of Śrīla Vyāsadeva with the unique feature that we also observe the vyāsa-pūjā, or the appearance day, of our own guru.

Śrīla Gurudeva explained,

“Vyāsa-pūjā does not mean that a devotee or disciple will worship me, give puṣpāñjali^[3] to me and that I will take their offerings; this is not vyāsa-pūjā. My vyāsa-pūjā means that I will do vyāsa-pūjā on this day. I will worship my guru-pādapadma, the four sampradāya ācāryas, Śrī sampradāya–rāmānujācārya, Brahma sampradāya–Madhvācārya, rudra sampradāya–Viṣṇusvāmi, and Sanak sampradāya–Nimbāditya. I will worship them by my own hand. I will give them sandalwood pulp. I will make offerings, offer puṣpāñjali at their lotus feet, make garlands, do ārati, and offer prasāda to them by my own hand. Moreover, I will pay my obeisances and offer puṣpāñjali, ārati and so forth, to my paramārādhya guru-pādapadma Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja, who dragged me from my police service and by force made me drink the nectar of the lotus feet of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. I will worship him.

“This is my vyāsa-pūjā. Seeing this, my devotees or disciples will make offerings to me, but I am not the enjoyer of that. I will take all their offerings, and offer them to my guru-pādapadma, and he will send them through the guru-paramparā to Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and the Divine Couple. This is the significance of vyāsa-pūjā. However, nowadays many unqualified, so-called gurus think, ‘It is my vyāsa-pūjā. I am the supreme enjoyer. My disciples will give me puṣpāñjali and I will enjoy those offerings.’ This is not the significance of vyāsa-pūjā at all.”

In this way, Śrīla Gurudeva observes vyāsa-pūjā with the utmost humility. With great care, he takes the offerings of the devotees–be it a fruit, a flower, or a garland, no matter how opulent or simple–and lovingly offers them to his spiritual master and the paramparā. He lovingly offers them to guru and Kṛṣṇa, and uses them in Their divine service.

Vyāsa-pūjā is also described as full surrender at the lotus feet of śrī guru (ātma-samarpana). The sole and single highest dharma is to carry out śrī guru’s innermost desire to serve Bhagavān in a beautiful way, or to act in accordance with that desire. Therefore, the further we proceed along the path of fulfilling śrī guru’s innermost desire–whose center is Śrī Vyāsadeva and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam–the more we will achieve success and perfection in our performance of vyāsa-pūjā.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

India has achieved that knowledge. One western philosopher named reverend Bishop has commented, “India guided by the Lord, can bring the world back to sanity.”

[2]:

An edited transcript of the class was published in an article entitled The True Meaning of Śrī Vyāsa-pūjā by Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja (CC-BY-SA rays of The Harmonist Issue No.19, Gaura Pūrṇimā 2009)

[3]:

Offering flowers at the lotus feet of śrī guru and Vaiṣṇavas