Śrīla Prabhupāda's Disappearance Offering

Just For Today 

Just for today, Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please allow us to meet you, as we have never met you before.

Just for today, Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please allow us to discover you, as we have never discovered you before.

Just for today, Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please allow us to inquire from you, as we have never inquired from you before.

Just for today, Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please allow us to listen to you, as we have never listened to you before.

Just for today, Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please allow us to learn from you, as we have never learned from you before.

Just for today, Śrīla Prabhupāda, 

Please allow us to study you, as we have never studied you before. 

Just for today, Śrīla Prabhupāda,

Please allow us to follow you, as we have never followed you before.

Just for today, Śrīla Prabhupāda,

Please allow us to submit to you, as we have never submitted to you before.

Just for today, Śrīla Prabhupāda,

Please allow us to serve you, as we have never served you before.

Just for today, Śrīla Prabhupāda,

Please allow us to respect you, as we have never respected you before.

Just for today, Śrīla Prabhupāda,

Please allow us to chant for you, as we have never chanted for you before.

Just for today, Śrīla Prabhupāda,

Please allow us to work for you, as we have never worked for you before.

Just for today, Śrīla Prabhupāda, 

Please allow us to sacrifice for you, as we have never sacrificed for you before. 

Just for today, Śrīla Prabhupāda,

Please allow us to know you, as we have never known you before.

Just for today, Śrīla Prabhupāda,

Please allow us to defend you, as we have never defended you before.

 Just for today, Śrīla Prabhupāda,

Please allow us to satisfy your desires, as we have never satisfied your desires before.

Just for today, Śrīla Prabhupāda,

Please allow us to offer to you, as we have never offered to you before.

Just for today, Śrīla Prabhupāda,

Please allow us to protect you, as we have never protected you before.

Just for today, Śrīla Prabhupāda,

Please allow us to share you to others, as we have never shared you before.

Just for today, Śrīla Prabhupāda, 

Please allow us to inspire you, as we have never inspired you before.

And just for today, Śrīla Prabhupāda, 

Please allow us to be true to you, as we have never been true to you before. 

Just for today, Śrīla Prabhupāda,

Please allow us to thank you, as we have never thanked you before. 

,Just for today, Śrīla Prabhupāda,

Please allow us to dream for you, as we have never dreamed for you before. 

 Just for today, Śrīla Prabhupāda,

Please allow us to please you, as we have never pleased you before. 

 Just for today, Śrīla Prabhupāda,

Please allow us to worship you, as we have never worshipped you before. 

 Just for today, Śrīla Prabhupāda,

Please allow us to remember you, as we have never remembered you before. 

 Just for today, Śrīla Prabhupāda,

Please allow us to glorify you, as we have never glorified you before. 

Just for today, Srila Prabhupada, 

Please allow us to live for you, as we have never lived for you before. 

Just for today, Srila Prabhupada, 

Please allow us to represent you, as we have never represented you before. 

Just for today, Srila Prabhupada, 

Please allow us to reciprocate with you, as we have never reciprocated with you before. 

Just for today, Srila Prabhupada, 

Please allow us to dance with you, as we have never danced with you before. 

Just for today, Srila Prabhupada, 

Please allow us to talk to you, as we have never talked to you before. 

Just for today, Srila Prabhupada, 

Please allow us to feel your presence, as we have never felt your presence before. 

Just for today, Srila Prabhupada, 

Please allow us to love you, as we have never loved you before. 

 And dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,

Please bless us so that every day can be today.

Devotees: Haribol! Outside is a big blessing of a beautiful rainbow.

Visnu Murti: Is it?

Yeah, this is big blessings, actually.

I thank all the devotees for coming. We don't have much time, but we're here to celebrate the finishing of the Vani Village and the Vaikuntha Gardens, which means the finishing of the building of it, so that now we can develop it. And I think most of you know this has been built to be engaged in Śrīla Prabhupāda's service, to be engaged in Śrīla Prabhupāda's Vāṇī service, to help more and more people become attracted to, attached to Śrīla Prabhupāda's Vāṇī. We are now 48 years into doing something wonderful, which is serving Śrīla Prabhupāda in separation. This is actually a wonderful act.

When the devotees said to Prabhupāda, “Oh, you must have been alone, because... You must have felt alone when you came by yourself," and Prabhupāda said, “I was never alone. I always had the association of my spiritual master.”

So there's a few devotees here who are in generation one, and that is the generation that were blessed to be on the planet when Prabhupāda was on the planet, and even all the way up to following him and becoming his dīkṣā disciples. And everybody else here is generation two.

This is the generation of devotees who have been very fortunate to be present in this world, while the first generation is still present and to have had their association. But every generation is going to go on serving Śrīla Prabhupāda. This is our hopeful goal, a hopeful quest that Śrīla Prabhupāda’s leadership can be there generationally, and devotees can take shelter in Śrīla Prabhupāda generationally.

Prabhupāda said that “we have enough stock for 1,000 years,” in regard to reading his books. So that’s a letter to Satsvarūpa Mahārāja in 1972 saying that “you must take care of my books. We have enough stock for reading from them for 1,000 years.” So Prabhupāda imagines, at least, that we would read his books for 1,000 years, although that was only when there were ten books. So if we add on all the extra books that were printed, we have enough stock for 5,000 years. So this is Prabhupāda’s goal—to stay alive in this world generationally. That’s his offering, to give shelter to the devotees who take shelter in him, who want to take shelter in him. And as a society, we have to help that happen, right! Because it’s not automatic.



So we have to facilitate people to be able to take shelter in Śrīla Prabhupāda. And that’s the service that we’re trying to offer, and it works, as everybody knows. Prabhupāda is now very present in the devotees’ lives, and he can become more and more present as the devotees allow themselves to have that relationship with Prabhupāda. It’s all about that.

And our goals in Vanipedia is just to make that easier for the devotees, because service in separation, on one side, is not easy. And we see the first generation who had Śrīla Prabhupāda’s vapu association, when he left, it was difficult for them, for many. And only those who transferred their dependency from the vapu to the vāṇī could survive and flourish and grow, and experience that Prabhupāda is actually present, and he never leaves his disciples.

But then, the second generation may say, “Well, we didn’t have his association!” but we do have his association. And if we look at the association that we have with Śrīla Prabhupāda, this is where we can get all excited.

When I listened to the class this morning, of the different devotees speaking, I was thinking, it is just so important that we have devotees who are encouraged to become orators of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s pastimes. Keeping Prabhupāda present, you can see how powerful it is. The devotee sits down and takes Prabhupāda’s purports and takes Prabhupāda’s pastimes, reads from Prabhupāda’s biographies, and then Prabhupāda becomes present. But that cannot be lost when the first generation dwindles away. And yes, we have books about Prabhupāda, a whole bookcase of books about Prabhupāda, we have the memory videos about Prabhupāda, we have so much material now, but it’s not for us just to turn on the TV or to read a book by ourselves.

Visnu Murti: I suggest that we take up the beautiful challenge, just as we take up the challenge to learn the Bhāgavatam and we take up the challenge to learn the Bhagavad-gītā. We should take up the challenge to be able to orate Prabhupāda's pastimes, to know Prabhupāda's pastimes, which is just a question of learning, because the pastimes are so available. And then those devotees can orate them so that generation 3, and generation 30, and generation 300 are not devoid of anything. They all have the possibility to invoke Prabhupāda's presence.

Prabhupāda left us a lot of vāṇī. This is actually, practically a full set of Prabhupāda's vāṇī here — 18,900,000 words. Śrīla Prabhupāda’s vāṇī. It's a vast ocean. If you take into consideration that 24% is Prabhupāda's books, then you can understand that that's only a quarter. So there's a great wealth of association in Prabhupāda's lectures, and there's a great wealth of association in Prabhupāda's letters.

So all of that, and all the books about Prabhupāda, the videos about Prabhupāda, and there we have a full vāṇī ocean, if you like, and if that ocean can be churned and churned and churned and churned and presented in the association of the devotees, then we facilitate the devotees to fulfill their identity as being śikṣā-disciples of Prabhupāda. Right!

Śrīla Prabhupāda is the preeminent śikṣā-guru of everybody, so that makes us what? śikṣā-disciples of Prabhupāda. We're all śikṣā-disciples. That's the definition that the GBC gave us. That's what our identity is. We can be a dīkṣā-disciple of one dīkṣā-guru, and we can be śikṣā-disciples of contemporary śikṣā-gurus, but our common identity as a movement is that we're all śikṣā-disciples of Prabhupāda. That śikṣā-relationship—discipleship—is based on following!

The dīkṣā-disciple (of Prabhupāda) can say, “I took dīkṣā.” They can put that ticket, right? “I took dīkṣā.” If you want to be a śikṣā-disciple (of Prabhupāda), you don't have any extra ticket other than following his instructions. You must follow his instructions. So, that'll make the world very happy, right?

Śrīla Prabhupāda said that we should have ten million ācāryas. You know that? We should have ten million ācāryas. And then he said, “You make that organization, you become pure, you follow your ācārya’s instruction. Then everybody can become happy because the ācārya will kick out Māyā.”

The ācāryas, of course, in ISKCON are the devotees who are chaste to Prabhupāda, who are following Prabhupāda, and who know Prabhupāda. And so today doesn’t have to be just for today. Today can be every day. And by meditating like that, we feel Prabhupāda’s presence, and then we get empowered not only to serve him, but we get empowered to overcome our material conditioning, and we get empowered to attract others to us—to Prabhupāda through us.

So, we can only beg your blessings that this building will only be used, engaged in Prabhupāda’s service, and it'll be...

You know, we talk about the house in which the whole world can live, right, ISKCON. And we have to remember, just like now. When we were building here, this building (the Vani Village), before we started building, we built a very big foundation, and Pascal was even saying, “Why so much metal?” And the architect said, “Well, you have to do it, you know.” Pascal was saying, “Yeah, but it's like an over-endeavor.” He said, “Yeah, but it's a lot of weight. There's a lot of weight coming on this building, so the foundation has to be strong.” Anyway, so we created the foundation, and it was a lot of metal and concrete, and then we started to build, and we built the walls, we built the walls, we built the walls, and immediately we got to the top of the walls, what did we do? We put a roof on it. We didn't think we had finished, that we just have the walls.

We put a roof on it. Why? Because as soon as we put a roof on this building, we could start working inside or living inside. We could start the final process, right? So every house that's strong to live in, stable to live in, and free from the elements, has a foundation and a roof.

And what is the second 50 going to be? It's going to be full of, we already said, the decade of tears. So those decades of tears will go into the first decade of the second 50 and the second decade of the second 50. And then I think, there will be not one single first-generation devotee left. And because a lot of second-generation devotees joined at the same age as the first generation, when they joined in the seventies, eighties, many of them will be gone by the second 50 as well.

So, if we create a culture where the 3rd, and the 30th and the 300th generation really have that identity as Prabhupāda's devotees, Prabhupāda's servants, empowered śikṣā disciples, then we know each 50 will get stronger than the previous one. So it's a succession strategy.

On management level, we look for how to have succession. Everybody does it. But on a spiritual level, we have to see also what is the strategy that maximizes the opportunity for long-term sustainability of Prabhupāda's movement.

So, generation three are empowered. They will be blessed. They will have been given a strong foundation by first and second generations. They've been given a strong roof. Prabhupāda left his teachings in our care. There's no doubt about it. He put his teachings in our care from day one.

Before Prabhupāda engaged devotees in Deity worship, he engaged them in translation, dictaphone, helping him get his books printed. That was always the spear that Śrīla Prabhupāda had to shoot into this world, his teachings.

And modern media, right! We're here talking about modern media. Well, we believe in modern media. Prabhupāda said that we should engage all of modern media's resources in helping our Kṛṣṇa-conscious movement expand. And now modern media has developed to incredible degrees, to the point that, yes…

Prabhupāda says, “If you don't have my books on TV and radio, then everything else there is just rubbish.” You know! So what to speak about all the rubbish that's out there now. So much more rubbish. So, it is so much more important that we have Prabhupāda's teachings in modern media to give people a chance to encounter him.

Visnu Murti: So, we're hoping that talented and committed devotees will come and spend time here (at the Vani Village) and help Vanipedia go to another level. Vanipedia is no longer young. For 18 years, we've been building Vanipedia. We still have a long way to go. It's a little bit like a current generation staying at home until they're 30. There was a generation where they left home when they were 15 and 16, right? But now this generations they stay at home longer. So Vanipedia is also a little bit, still a little child, hasn't grown up completely. So maybe Vanipedia, when it turns 30, it can say that it's offered some real seva to humanity, to the devotees.

We don't have much time. So we will close this. We have some prasādam for the devotees, a little bit. Some nuts and some fruits. And tomorrow, if anybody wants, we're going to have an open house to keep the celebration going and keep the spirit of Prabhupāda-kathā. So from 11 to 1 and from 4 to 6. So any devotees can come by, one devotee, three devotees, five devotees, and we can read, and we can talk, and we can have saṅga. And the room will be turned back to its normal state, because we just emptied everything out. If you come back tomorrow, you'll see how it will be. So you're welcome for that. And otherwise, I thank you very much for singing the holy names and blessings.

We've been walking around this construction site for three and a half years, so the holy names have definitely purified everything. Although, Kanai would do some bhajans sometimes.

Any comments? Anything to say? Any question?

Devotees: Haribol!

Visnu Murti: Merciful Vaiṣṇavas. So what was it - next year? Better and better. Right? We had a beautiful Govardhana Pūjā and a beautiful Prabhupāda's disappearance day. Maybe next year, like Govardhana Pūjā, everybody volunteered to orate Kṛṣṇa's pastimes, maybe we can have a team of devotees who volunteer to orate Prabhupāda's pastimes on Prabhupāda's disappearance day. Alright! Get it started. Don't depend on the exceptional generation. Claim! Claim your relationship with Śrīla Prabhupāda. Claim it. Devotees fought to have their relationship with Prabhupāda, right? First generation. (laughs) Sometimes a little rough, you know! Competing, Prabhupāda said, “transcendental competition.” So, you know! Compete! Become orators of Śrīla Prabhupāda's love, mercy, incredible qualities, and character. Share that with others.

Everybody needs a hero. Prabhupāda is obviously the most amazing hero that anybody could ever hope to meet. You know! He's a beautiful, beautiful person. He's the conscience of human society. Nobody speaks to human society like Śrīla Prabhupāda does. So let us become his orators. Let us introduce people to Prabhupāda. That was like that, right? It was a great fervor when Prabhupāda was on the planet to get people to come to Prabhupāda, to hear Prabhupāda. So like that. You shouldn't take it for granted. Take it, don't make it familiar. Jaya! Śrīla Prabhupāda Ki Jaya!

Devotees: Visnu Murti prabhu ki! Jaya!

Visnu Murti: You want to do a little bhajan as they go? You want to? Oh, five minutes.

Devotees: Laksmipriya mataji ki! Jaya!

Visnu Murti: Yeah, don't forget Laksmipriya.