On 3 November 1956, the day of sri govardhana-puja and annakuta, paramaradhya Srila Acaryadeva established his worshipful Sri Sri Guru-Gauranga and Radha-Vinoda-bihariji in Sri Kesavaji Gaudiya Matha. In this way he gave his followers and the Vrajavasis a golden opportunity to serve the deities. The deities’ darsana is very sweet and attractive. Those who see Them feel in their hearts that the deities have been attracted by the unparalleled prema of asraya-vigraha (srila gurudeva) and have manifested Their own prema-maya vigraha (Their form imbued with prema).
There was a great celebration when the deities were installed. Pujyapada Sri Bhakti Bhudeva Srauti Maharaja performed the abhiseka, arcana and other aspects of the installation, along with Sri Trivikrama Maharaja and Rasaraja Vrajavasi. Srimad Bhakti Kusala Narasimha Maharaja, Srimad Bhakti Desika Acarya Maharaja, Sri Paramarthi Maharaja, Sri Narayana Maharaja [the author] and other prominent sannyasis performed vaisnava-homa and other ceremonies. After the abhiseka, the deities were installed in the altar room, and there Sri Acaryadeva himself consecrated Them. He quoted a verse that he had personally composed, to explain the tattva-siddhanta regarding the white complexion of the deity Sri Vinoda-bihariji:
radha-cinta-nivesena
yasya kantir vilopita
sri-krsna-caranam vande
radhalingita-vigraham
I worship that Vrajendra-nandana Sri Krsna, who is tightly embraced by Srimati Radhika. His dark complexion has disappeared and He has become resplendent with a golden complexion, due to being thoroughly immersed in separation from Her.
Sri Mohini-mohan Ragabhusana Prabhu and Sri Satya-vigraha Prabhu charmed the listeners with their sri nama-kirtana at this ceremony. In the natya-mandira in front of the altar, Sri Girirajaji was offered a mountain of laddus, puris, kacauris, rice, sweet rice, puspanna, khicri, different kinds of vegetables, fruits, roots, curd, milk, paneer and other preparations. Many people participated in this ceremony, including professors from various colleges in Mathura-dhama, school teachers, lawyers, judges and other educated and respected gentlemen. They were all very impressed to hear from Srila Acaryadeva about bhakti-tattva in the Gaudiya tradition. And after that, they became very blissful to have darsana of the deities and honour delicious maha-prasada, which was distributed to almost three thousand people that day.
Giriscandra dasa from Purvacaka in Medinipura district bore all the expenses for the annakuta. Gajendra-mohan dasa Adhikari and Sriyukta Kamalabala-devi from Kalyanapura donated the deities, Their clothes, ornaments and so on. Sri Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti greatly appreciated their ideal service.
Preaching the message of Sri Caitanya in Assam
In December 1955, paramaradhyatama Sri Gurudeva, accompanied by his initiated sannyasis and brahmacaris, extensively preached Sri Caitanya’s message in various places in Assam. This time he went to most of the places in pujyapada Sri Nimananda Seva-tirtha Prabhu’s preaching area. Srila Gurudeva spoke on sanatana-dharma, bhagavata-dharma, suddha-bhakti and other subjects in prominent religious assemblies in Goloka-ganja, Dhubadi, Bichandai, Khanuri, Ramapura, Bongai Grama, Chakapada, Khagarpura, Sakomuda, Calantapada, Abhayapuri and other places. He returned to Chunchura Matha after about one month of preaching.
Sri vyasa-puja festival in Begunabadi
Sri Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti has for many years observed sri vyasa-puja according to the Sri Vyasa-puja-paddhati compiled by Srila Sarasvati Prabhupada and revised by Sri Bhaktivinoda Thakura. The original inception of sri vyasa-puja took place in Srivasa-angana in Sri Dhama Mayapura about five hundred years ago. Under the guidance of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Sri Nityananda Prabhu worshipped Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu on the seat of Sri Vyasa. On this occasion, Srivasa Pandita brought up the topic of a sri vyasa-puja-paddhati to Sriman Mahaprabhu. For this reason, Srila Sarasvati Thakura took great pains to collect this ancient paddhati from [Sri Sankaracarya’s] Govardhana Matha in Puri. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura then revised and developed it to make it suitable for his sampradaya. Paramaradhyatama Srila Gurudeva found this paddhati and introduced the observance of sri vyasa-puja combined with puja-pancaka. This ceremony is observed in various places every year, with great celebration.
This year sri vyasa-puja was organized in the vast courtyard of the school at Begunabadi in Medinipura district‚ and was celebrated in a grand way for three days, from Maghi-krsna-trtiya to Pancami. Ten or twelve thousand people participated every day in this festival, and on the last day, maha-prasada was distributed to a crowd too large to count. Giriscandra dasa Adhikari from Purvacaka received special praise from the Samiti for shouldering the entire expenses for the festival.
Sri Giriscandraji and his wife both received hari-nama mantra and diksa from Sri Acaryadeva on the first day of the festival. At that time he was eighty-four years old. As a wealthy landowner, he had previously spent his life in a grandiose way with pomp and show. He would order fragrant tobacco from France and other foreign countries, and used to sit on his bed smoking his golden hukka through a long pipe. But during the last eighty-four kosa Vraja-mandala parikrama, he had spent one month hearing pure hari-katha and his heart changed. Now he was free from worldly attachments and had taken a vow to perform bhajana. Before shaving his head on the day of diksa, he did a last pranama to his dear-most hukka and threw it away. Everyone was amazed to see his conviction and determination.
On the first day of sri vyasa-puja our most worshipful Srila Gurudeva offered arcana-pujan and puspanjali at the lotus feet of his paramaradhyatama Srila Prabhupada, after which Srila Acaryadeva’s sannyasi, brahmacari and grhastha disciples offered puspanjali at his lotus feet. Sri Trivikrama Maharaja gave a lecture about sri guru-puja and our most worshipful Sri Gurudeva spoke about sri vyasa-puja. At the religious assembly in the evening, Srila Guru Maharaja read the section in Sri Caitanya-bhagavata about vyasa-puja. On the second day, letters of commemoration in various languages were read and Sri Acaryadeva gave a lecture. On the third day, Srila Acaryadeva instructed Sri Narayana Maharaja [the author] and Sri Rasaraja Vrajavasi to perform sri vyasa-puja according to the Vyasa-puja-paddhati with puja-pancaka of sixteen articles.
[CC-by-ND GVP]