The Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Mission was honored to have as its guest speaker for the Saturday June 30^th program His Grace B.V. Nyasi Maharaja. Over recent weeks we have had some problems with the rental of our usual room on 9^th South, so this was the first program for over a month, and of course it was well worth waiting for.

Sripad Nyasi Maharaja accepted sannyas (the renounced order of life, i.e. monk) just over a year ago in Navadwipa Dhama, India, from the divine hands of His Divine Grace Srila B.S. Govinda Maharaja. Since then he has been engaged in preaching and travelling in India and Europe, from his base at our London, England temple.

Maharaja has spent his whole lifetime in service to his Gurus and their conception of service to the Sweet Absolute. Originally initiated by Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad in the late sixties he was instrumental in the opening of several North American temples of the ISKCON organization, including Chicago and Detroit. After Srila Prabhupad’s disappearance from this world, and on His divine instruction, Sripad Nyasi Maharaja then took shelter under Srila B.R. Sridhar Maharaja, and subsequently His appointed successor and our current Acharya and beloved Gurudeva, Srila Govinda Maharaja.

Sripad Nyasi Maharaja spoke beautifully on the central position of service in our devotional line, and that service too to be unmotivated by personal, material calculation. “In the beginning calculation is necessary to even bring us to this line”, he said; “we have to realize that the nature of this Krishna Consciousness is wonderful and wholesome and I will benefit from pursuing it”. After some time however, this material, selfish motivation must be left behind if we are to grow into a higher capacity for service. He gave a wonderful analogy of a “free sample”, often given out by manufacturers of products for people to try, but then once they have discovered the utility of the product they must start paying. In the same way, when we first come to Krishna Consciousness we are given a “free sample”; we become extremely enlivened and happy from taking prasadam, chanting in kirtan, and associating with devotees. Then, when we have been around a while this first wave of “jai nectar bliss” will recede; as conscious substance it has proved its veracity, but now it is up to us to pay the price to obtain more.

And what is that price? Die to Live. A favorite maxim of Srila Sridhar Maharaja, this conception is at the heart of our ideal of service. Sripad Nyasi Maharaja not only spoke about and elucidated this principle in a very beautiful way for the fortunate spiritual seekers gathered in Salt Lake City, but is also the living embodiment of this spirit in action.

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