Glories of HH Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaj | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | 17 September 2025
Today is the appearance day of Bhakti Charu Swami. Among human beings, to be a Vaishnava is rare. To practice pure Bhakti as a Vaishnava is even rarer. And to practice pure Bhakti in exemplary manner, that is even rarer. And thus, when we have such Vaishnavas or devotees, then we have to give proper respect.
We see in Bhagavatam and Upanishads, respect has to be given in order to advance in spiritual life. And thus, there is an emphasis on a qualified person, he is called a Guru. And what does a Guru do? The Guru teaches. And in order to accept the teachings properly, there has to be proper respect. And after receiving the teachings, proper respect must be given. And thus we find the principle of respect and worshipping the Guru or the devotee is prominent in the Vedic literature. And without that worship, we don’t get knowledge, we don’t get mercy. And without that mercy, we cannot practice Bhakti properly.
Of course, we know that Bhakti is independent. It does not depend on Varna or Ashrama. It can arise in a dog-eater. And even though it arises in a dog-eater, that does not make him less qualified to attain Prema than a Brahmana. So, in other words, Bhakti is for everyone. However, how do we learn Bhakti? Well, we go to scripture. But how do we get scripture? We get the scripture through a devotee. So, when the devotees deliver the knowledge of scripture to another person, that is where he gives mercy. And when he gives that mercy, then out of gratitude, we give respect.
So, in our scriptures and in our songs, etc., we have plenty of examples of how we give proper respect to the Vaishnavas. And because the mercy is manifested in their instructions or teachings, even if they happen to disappear and leave the body, the instructions remain. So, we can continue to get the mercy. So, in that sense, Bhakti Vinod says the Vaishnava never dies, because even though he disappears, his instructions are always there. And therefore, we continue to offer respect.
So, Bhakti Charu Swami, as I mentioned, was a rare person. Because he practiced pure bhakti and was a great example for others. He was able to inspire people around the world. How? By his conduct and by his instructions. So, he established his reputation because of these two factors. And many devotees were fortunate enough to take advantage of this. As I mentioned, even though he is not with us now, his instructions and his good example are still there.
The Bhagavatam describes that normally kings establish their empires, but then they die, empire disappears, and everybody forgets the king. But we never forget the Vaishnavas, because they are there in the form of their instructions. So this way, we establish an eternal relationship by continuing to follow the instructions. Bhakti Charu Swami of course was quite emphatic that it’s not that he should get the worship, it’s Prabhupada should get the worship. So it is true that we do have to respect and worship Guru. At the same time, we also respect the greater Guru. So for all members of ISKCON, Srila Prabhupada is the greatest Guru. And therefore, it’s natural that all devotees in ISKCON should offer Prabhupada, the most respect. So Bhakti Charu Swami was trying to implement this principle.
Of course, it is also, we can say, common sense that we do so. But in spite of that being a common-sense principle, still, we find the devotees would rather worship their own Guru. And they concentrate their worship and respect on their individual Guru. Of course, the reason for that, the scripture says, you treat your Guru like God. So that is true, but then we don’t just treat one Guru as God, we have many Gurus. Caitanya Caritamrta says, we have Diksha Guru and we have many Shiksha Gurus, we have to treat the Shiksha Gurus like God also, and they are equal to the Diksha Guru. And though we treat Guru like God, our Gurus like God, still, we have superior Gurus and we have topmost Guru, we have to treat them more like God. So in that way, we give the most respect to Srila Prabhupada. So, such a principle has to be understood by everyone in ISKCON. And that was one of Bhakti Charu Swami’s goals.
In relation to Prabhupada, then all the Gurus that come afterward, are servants of Srila Prabhupada. So the example is given as of a postman. So, what does the postman do? He delivers the letter. So the Guru, what does he deliver? He delivers the message of God, he delivers the scripture. And like the postman, he doesn’t open the letter and change the contents. So in other words, the message of scripture should be intact. So all the Gurus of ISKCON should regard themselves as simply messengers of Prabhupada’s message of Bhagavatam, and we’re delivering that on his behalf. So we give respect and we give most respect to the founder of our movement, Srila Prabhupada.
So, the way we get the mercy of the devotee is we follow the instructions. So Srila Prabhupada followed the instruction of his spiritual master, Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur. What was the instruction? The instruction was to preach to the English-speaking public. So when he did that, he became successful. And what did Prabhupada say? This is all happened because I simply followed the order of my Guru.
So, if we follow the instructions of Bhakti Charu Swami, then we become successful. And in this way, we can best represent him and honour him.
Hare Krsna!