Today is a festival called Vyasa-puja for disciples of Swami B. V. Tripurari, my friend and mentor. Vyasa-puja celebrates the appearance in this world of the spiritual master, who is considered a representative of Srila Vyasadeva, an empowered incarnation of Godhead who compiled the Vedic scriptures.Swami Tripurari is a disciple of my spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, and has been living in the renounced order of spiritual life for over thirty years. He was renowned for his bold outreach when we were young and has become well known for his commitment to Krishna consciousness and the depth of his understanding over the last 35 years. He is the author of many articles published in print and on the Internet, as well as of several wonderful books exploring the science of bhakti yoga as taught by Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Srila Prabhupada. I met Swami when I spent some time at the Los Angeles center for Krishna consciousness in 1973, and I have had the pleasure of his company and advice for the last eight years or so. During that time I have found myself charmed by his wisdom, humor, devotion, and compassion. I have also had the privilege of helping with the editing of some of his books and hope to serve more closely with him in the coming years. I find myself inspired to seek and accept deeper engagement in more responsible service to the mission of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu by his kindness, his broad, deep vision of Krishna consciousness and its benefits for all society, and his example of selfless surrender. I hope to be able to progressively act on that inspiration throughout the rest of my life.
A couple of years ago, I adapted a Sanskrit verse as a prayer to Swami Tripurari:
prasida suhrid artanam prasidaudarya-dharine
raga-soka-bhujangena dastam mam uddhara guro
Please be kind to me, dear friend to the distressed. Be kind, my guide, O reservoir of munificence, and deliver me, for I have been bitten by the snake of attachment and lamentation.
2 comments:
Babhru,
Your sincerity is genuine and you appear to be a good soul. I am bewildered however by the extravagant and I feel irresponsible way in which you elevate someone ordinary, i.e., Tripurari Swami way beyond his level of devotional attainment and qualification. He is at best an advanced neophyte. He has no business being a guru and you have no business encouraging others to see him as some kind of advanced Vaisnava. He's not, so stop it.
Sincerely,
Cd
Dear Cd,
I appreciate the trouble you took to express your concern. (I’m actually surprised anyone even found my blog.) However, your shot, taken anonymously, as if by a sniper, simply ricochets in the neighborhood, leaving only noise as evidence.
I don’t have any basis for judging the value of your assertion about Tripurari Maharaja or of your advice. You give no evidence for that assertion, and you do so anonymously. You give no evidence that you know Tripurari Maharaja, except perhaps by rumor, and old ones at that. And you give no evidence that you know me, or that I know you—that we have any kind of relationship at all. Those traits make it hard for someone of my experience to take either your assertion (left as simply an opinion) or your advice seriously.
If you knew me at all, you’d know that I taught writing and argumentation in colleges and universities for sixteen years, and that I don’t accept something as fact just because they say so. You’d also know that one of my pet peeves is the careless—no, let me use your word: irresponsible—way “discourse” is carried out on the Internet, especially by those who identify themselves as Gaudiya vaishnavas. You’d also know that I have a long association with Maharaja and that I have come to the conclusions I have only after careful consideration.
If you have any real desire to discuss my regard for Tripurari Maharaja, feel free to emerge from the shadows and write me personally at babhru {at} gmail {dot} com. Otherwise, you may expect no further response to your complaints.
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