Homages from ISKCON Centers

Çré Vyäsa-püjä 2012
Silicon Valley
Dear Çréla Prabhupäda,
We offer you our respectful obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet.
The following is Caitanya Mahäprabhu’s order:
Instruct everyone to follow the orders of Lord Çré Kåñëa as they are given in the Bhagavad-gétä
and Çrémad-Bhägavatam. In this way become a spiritual master and try to liberate everyone in
this land. [Caitanya-caritämåta, Madhya 7.128]
As you have perfectly taken up Mahäprabhu’s order—imparted to you by your spiritual master—you
have taught the same order to your disciples, who are now passing it down to your granddisciples, who
are passing it down to your great-granddisciples.
Those who accept this order through the authorized channel of devotees attain unexpected mastery
as they apply the order through the various phases of their lives. An old Spanish proverb wisely sums
it up: “More grows in the garden than the gardener sows.”
In fact, impressing upon us the potency of following the Lord’s order, you write in Çrémad-Bhägavatam
(2.9.34, purport): “The direct order of the Lord is a manifestation of His internal energy, and this particular
energy is the means of seeing the Lord face to face.”
Taking this statement to heart, the devotees at ISKCON of Silicon Valley (ISV) have shaped their lives
around Caitanya Mahäprabhu’s sacred order. In the beginning, the devotees of ISV planted Mahäprabhu’s
saìkértana flag in a small house on New Jersey Ave. When the neighbors complained about the noise
of the kértana and Sunday crowds, ISV moved to a storefront. When the local merchants nearby also
complained, ISV moved to a rented commercial building and established their temple base there. And
when the ISV congregation overflowed the walls of that commercial building, together we purchased a
new temple from which to push on the saìkértana movement.
Çréla Prabhupäda, following Caitanya Mahäprabhu’s order under your guidance as our founder-äcärya,
the ISV devotees are growing up as learned and faithful men and women and are wending their way back
to Godhead. Hearing and chanting together, we are marking off the days, weeks, months, and years (and
now even decades), following your instructions for realizing the highest goal in life.
For your satisfaction, Çréla Prabhupäda, we continue to perform the saìkértana-yajïa, to meticulously
study çästra, to cooperate, to organize, to set and smash goals, and to care for one another.
It seems that Caitanya Mahäprabhu’s order is so straightforward that it should be simple to execute.
However, history has shown that Mäyä unleashes an unexpected barrage of obstacles before those who
sincerely try to fulfill it.
Recognizing this, you have fortified your followers by creating ISKCON, an international society
complete with advanced Vaiñëava association, an authority structure, and an abundance of çästra to
answer our questions, vanquish our doubts, and guide us in a life of pure devotion to Kåñëa. By following
Mahäprabhu’s order under your direction, we are coming to see the Lord face to face.
Because living beings are constitutionally servants, they have a natural eagerness to do good for
others. However, people who lack spiritual vision—even though they have the best of intentions—can do
little to benefit others. Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté compared the performance of humanitarian work
to one’s blowing on a boil to relieve the pain. There’s some momentary relief, but the ailment persists.
Similarly, the myriad good causes people take up—tending to the sick, feeding the hungry, speaking up
for justice, and so on—fall short of amending the ills of the world. According to Prahläda Mahäräja, those
who are ill-informed but who still try to do good for others may even increase the pain and suffering of
their recipients. Prahläda notes that the the cure for a disease is often more injurious than the disease
itself. Moreover, because work done without proper spiritual guidance does not purify the heart or bring
one to complete knowledge, its performance detains one in the material world, obligating the performer
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