Celebrating Vyasa-Puja under Prabhupada's guidance
Madhudvisa Dasa: The next day was Vyasa-puja. We were not well seasoned. Kirtanananda was the most senior, as he had been a devotee for two or three years. (Although we still should have known how to celebrate Srila Prabhupada's Vyasa-puja.) Srila Prabhupada arrived at the temple about 11:30 a.m., sat on the vyasasana, and said, "Where is the puspa?" We were thinking, Puspa? What is puspa? Sudama thought, Oh, he wants puspa rice, a fancy kind of rice. There is some kind of rice called puspa with nuts and curd balls. Sudama immediately started making this rice, which delayed the process even further. Prabhupada said, "Where is the feast?" But the feast was late. "Where is the garland?" We didn't have any garlands, and there were no flowers to do the puspanjali. Srila Prabhupada said, "No puspanjali. The feast is not ready. You are not saying the right prayers. There is no garland for the Deities. How is this a Vyasa-puja? This is not a Vyasa-puja. This is a disgrace." To Kirtanananda he said, "You are a senior disciple. Don't you know how to celebrate the spiritual master's appearance day? Don't you have any understanding? This is a disgrace." Then he said, "Tomorrow we will celebrate it properly," and got up and walked out of the door. Kirtanananda started to cry, and we were all devastated. The whole temple was full of guests, and everybody felt as if a cold ice pick had been stabbed into their hearts. Prabhupada called us to his house that same day and said, "I will tell you how to celebrate Vyasa-puja, and you must not forget it for the rest of your lives." He said, "You must have flowers for the puspanjali. You must stand and offer the flowers to the spiritual master three times, bow down three times, say the mangalacaranam prayers to the spiritual master, and have the offering ready. The offering has to go on one minute before twelve so that it is on the altar at twelve. You must also read homages." We didn't have any homages written either. "You must have the homages written. This is the way you celebrate the appearance of the spiritual master." Srila Prabhupada was very strict with his disciples, and at the same time, he was very kind. After you became his disciple, he was still kind, but he wanted you to be trained up in Krishna consciousness for your own spiritual benefit so that you would know the right things to do and not be offensive by your ignorance. The next day, when Prabhupada came back to the temple, we celebrated Vyasa-puja exactly the way he wanted us to do it. He was pleased.
Reference: Memories Anecdotes of a Modern Day Saint - Volume 1 by Siddhanta Dasa
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