Srila Gurudeva:
In Srivasa Angan, who was the priest? The priest was Srivasa Acarya, but the devotee was Nityananda Prabhu Himself. Lord Nityananda was to do vyasa-puja and He took some flowers and just stood there and watched. At that time Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was not there, He was out.
He was just about to come but Srivas Pandit is telling Nityananda Prabhu that You should begin Vyasa puja but He is just telling, “No, hmm, hmm, I am doing, I am doing,” but He did not start.
When Caitanya Mahaprabhu came, they complained against Nityananda Prabhu, that Nityananda Prabhu is doing, “Hu, ha hmm,” but He is not doing anything.
[Srila Gurudeva and devotees laughing.]
Then Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, “Why have You not began?”
Nityananda Prabhu replied, “Yes I’m beginning.” He took flowers and a garland and put it on the neck of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Really He is Vyasa, He is Gurudeva of all, Jagat Guru.
Vande Krsnam Jagat Guru. So He is Krsna, He is Jagat Guru, so He should be worshipped first of all.
But today is the disappearance day of my Gurudeva. He used to worship all the gurus beginning from his guru and then all acaryas, Ramanuja, Madhvacharya, Visnu Svami, Nimbaditya and all. He worshipped the acarya panchak line, Srila Prabhupada, Srila Gaur Kishora dasa Babaji Maharaj, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur and Jagannatha das Babaji Maharaj and all. And then panchaka, Sri Krsna Caitanya Prabhu Nityananda Sri Advaita Gadadhar Srivas Adi Sri Gaur Bhakta Vrinda, doing separate separate arcana, and then Radha Krsna, Gaur Gadadhar and then Nityananda Prabhu.
Then Radha-Krsna, Lalita-Visakha and all and also Vyasa in the middle, these five, this is called Vyasa-panchak: Vyasa is guru and his four disciples, who were heads of the Rg-sama-yajur-atharva Vedas—He made them the teachers of all the Vedas.
My Gurudeva used to do the arcana, this is all in the Vyasa-puja paddhati. If we neglect any of the acaryas, then we are neglecting all. So don’t think our Guru is the only one and we will not honor anyone else, or he will also give you up.
So we should try to honor from top to bottom, all gurus and Radha-Krsna, Gaura-Gadadhara, Gaura-Nityananda Prabhu, and also Govinda, Gopinatha, and Madan Mohan.
Vyasa means a point in the middle of a circle and from there, take any line from the center up to that point and all will be equal—that is called the diameter, a line passing from side to side through a circle.
Krsna is the center and if we will make our Gurudeva the center from there, we will have Krsna, and it will be Vyasa of Krsna, to manifest Krsna in the disciple’s heart, only he will be qualified to do like this. Otherwise if guru takes all the honor and daksina, money, he will go to hell and all his disciples will also go to hell.
So Vyasa-puja of Gurudeva means he is doing Vyasa-puja of his Gurudeva, not that we are authorized to take all these things.
Once Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati told that, “You are worshipping me on this date but I am not qualified for this, I am your disciple. You are remembering me and Krsna’s pastimes, so I am taking all your honor and dakshina and I am keeping it at the lotus feet of my Gurudeva. He is qualified to take it and offer it to the lotus feet of Radha and Krsna and Gaura Nityananda Prabhu.”
So this is Vyasa-puja, to manifest the message of Krsna, this is Vyasa-puja. So we should try to do like this, not thinking all is for me, this is not Vyasa-puja.
You are doing puja today, therefore you should do puspanjali to your Gurudeva and to all the acaryas.