20201023 Zoom Participation In Gujarat Bhakti-vrksa Program

The following is a zoom participation in Gujrat Vhakti-Vriksa program by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on October 23rd, 2020 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur, India.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Jayapatākā Swami: I want to first mention how His Grace Yaśomatīnandana Prabhu, he established the Gujarat yātrās. We were hoping that he would be present at this occasion, but as you mentioned, since he is in the hospital, let us all chant one Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra for his speedy recovery:

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa
Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare 
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma
Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

Today is a special day in Bengal and all over India. It is Saptamī, that they worship Mā Durgā. Actually, as Prema Padminī devī dāsī was mentioning, these devas and devīs are all devotees of Kṛṣṇa. And when Lord Śiva he was chanting the name of Lord Gaurāṅga and Pārvatī wanted to know what was that name, then he explained that He is the Lord who appears in the Age of Kali to give out love of Kṛṣṇa. He does not consider who is qualified, who is not – He gives out the love freely to everyone. So she wanted to see Him, she wanted to meet Him. So she asked, where to go? Then Lord Śiva explained that He is always present in Navadvīpa dhāma. Then she came to Navadvīpa dhāma and was chanting

Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga!

And Lord Gaurāṅga appeared to her. And then she offered Him a prayer. She said, “I heard You are giving out love of Kṛṣṇa freely. I am very unfortunate. All the devotees call me the witch māyā, they don’t like to associate with me. I want to get love of Kṛṣṇa. How do I get that?” Then Lord Caitanya gave her the blessing, according to the acintya-bhedābheda-tattva, you are simultaneously one and different. So in one sense you are non-different from Rādhārāṇī. I bless you that may understand your non-difference from Rādhārāṇī. Immediately Mahāmāyā had great spiritual ecstasy for Lord Kṛṣṇa and she took the dust of Lord Caitanya’s lotus feet and put it on her head in the parting of her hair. She became known as Sīmantinī Devī. Because the part of the hair where the ladies put kuṅkuma is known as sīmanta. And that is the residence of Śrī Devī or Lakṣmī. So she put the dust of the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya on that parting in her hair. So that island, one of the nine islands of Navadvīpa is known as Sīmantadvīpa. There we have a deity of Sīmantinī Devī and Lord Caitanya. As I said, all the devas, all the devīs, they are actually devotees of Kṛṣṇa. Maybe some of them have some material desires, but they are devotees.

When they had the churning of the ocean, the devas and asuras, they were churning. So then Viṣṇu came as Mohinī Mūrti and then She gave the nectar to the devas and not to the demons. Rāhu, he intercepted, and he started to get the nectar. But then the Sudarśana cakra, He cut of his head. So his head is immortal. That is why we have the lunar eclipse. Rāhu, he eclipses the moon.

So like that when we want to enter the holy dhāma of Navadvīpa, you need to get the blessings of Lord Śiva and Pārvatī. They protect the dhāma as Prauḍha Māyā and Vṛddha Śiva. Similarly, in Vṛndāvana as Gopeśvara Śiva, he protects the holy dhāma. If you want to enter the rāsa-līlā, you have to go through the gatekeeper, Gopeśvara Śiva. So like that in the different Purāṇas, Kṛṣṇa meets with the devas and tells me to incarnate in the Vṛṣni and the Bhoja dynasties. So some of His children are also devas. Anyway, we should not disrespect any deva. We consider them as Vaiṣṇavas. We try to cultivate pure bhakti. We don’t want any kind of material exchange as an exchange for our bhakti. We want the mercy of the Lord, to be a pure unalloyed devotee. Of course, that is our interest. That was the teaching of Lord Caitanya. We heard also that He visited Gujarat in His journey around India. That is mentioned in some of the historical books. He went to Gujarat to Dvārakā. We know of course, Śrīla Prabhupāda, he started his preaching in Gujarat, in Surat. He had a wonderful reception. At that time, I was in Calcutta, Māyāpur. I could not attend but we heard about the wonderful reception Surat gave him. I think this is the anniversary of that visit. You are all very blessed and I thank you for your offering of some special Gujarati delicacies like ḍhokla, khāṇḍvi, in the plate I saw. We found that Gujarat has the highest number of vegetarians in India. And Bengal has the lowest. 98% non-veg. But we would want all the people not only to be vegetarian but Kṛṣṇatarian, eat kṛṣṇa-prasāda. And that is why in your Bhakti-vṛkṣa groups can outreach and request the people to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. And that is the way to purify their life. We know that Kṛṣṇa went from Vṛndāvana to Mathurā and Mathurā to Dvārakā. And I have seen some videos on YouTube saying how there is a city under the sea in the place where Dvārakā is supposed to be. They said that the docks there are bigger than the largest docks in Europe. So, you are all living in a holy place. So we would like to see the whole state become Kṛṣṇa conscious. Since Kṛṣṇa, He was there and therefore people should take advantage of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So we hope that the Bhakti-vṛkṣa would intensely outreach to other people especially now that the Dāmodara month is coming. In the Dāmodara month we try to encourage everyone to offer a lamp to Lord Dāmodara and Yaśodā. Usually, I would say that most Indians are agreeable to do that. But even we found that Westerners, Latin Americans, they also do that. I cannot say about other places, maybe in the USA, Russia they do that? My Russian translator says, “Yes, they do!” What is your experience Prema Padminī (devī dāsī)? You preach in Russia.  

Do they offer lamps?

Prema Padminī devī dāsī: They don’t. I told them but they don’t go door to door preaching. I think they should do that. If you can give them some instruction Guru Mahārāja, maybe they will do that. Because door to door they cannot do.

They don’t allow to enter. It is restricted.  

Maybe they can do in malls like in Malaysia. If you have a message for them. This year because of COVID they cannot do but maybe on Zoom going to different homes and doing Dāmodara ārati. Maybe they can do that.

Jayapatākā Swami: So this year during the COVID-19 pandemic we can do the Dāmodara outreach through zoom and other internet media. So, I was just reflecting that since Gujarat is such a holy place, since Lord Kṛṣṇa came here Lord Balarāma came here, Dvārakā was here. So the people should be Kṛṣṇa conscious. I was encouraging Bengaluru devotees to make the city Kṛṣṇa conscious. But I am encouraging the Gujarat devotees to make the state Kṛṣṇa conscious!

Haribol! Haribol! Haribol!

Gaurāṅga!

Jay Gurumahārāja!

So, Kṛṣṇa’s lotus foot dust is there all over Gujarat. Śrīla Prabhupāda, he went to Gujarat and he had a wonderful reception. So we should not stop until everyone gets the mercy. So that is my main message.

This human form of life is very rarely gotten. And out of 8 million 400 thousand species, the human life is 400 thousand. And in the human form of life we can think why am I here? What is the purpose of life? Who am I? You are all very wonderful people to look at because the ātmā is there. Once the ātmā leaves the body, the body is no more beautiful. You are beautiful because of the ātmā. Without ātmā, no beauty. Unfortunately, the people, they think the body is so important. But they don’t actually concentrate on the ātmā. We are the ātmā. We have a body. So the body is beautiful as along as the ātmā is there, once the ātmā leaves, the body is no longer nice. So, that is why Lord Caitanya, He was encouraging everyone to be Kṛṣṇa conscious. And other yugas there were various processes like meditation, homa, temple worship. But in Kali-yuga we are not capable of doing such things. So the Lord has come as His Holy Name. And His holy name is non-different from Him. When we chant the holy name we get the benefit of all the other processes. In fact, the holy name is more powerful. So Lord Kṛṣṇa in the Brahma-Vaivarta Purāṇa, He predicts that five thousand years after Kali-yuga starts, someone will come and spread the Harināma all over the world, and then for ten thousand years, there will be a golden age. There will be only one varṇa, one caste – Hari bhakta, devotee of Kṛṣṇa. And so, Śrīla Prabhupāda came exactly five thousand years after the beginning of Kali-yuga and spread the saṅkīrtana movement all over the world. And now we have the responsibility to finish that. To let people take advantage of the valuable human form of life. Go back home back to Godhead at the end of this life.

Actually, the real problems of life are birth, death, old age and disease. And we should try to solve that. That can only be solved by becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious. So the Bhakti-vṛkṣa process is such that one being a gṛhastha can also achieve pure Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Gṛhe thāko vane thāko sadā hari bole ḍāko. So being a gṛhastha you can achieve the shelter of Lord Kṛṣṇa by practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness, through the Bhakti-vṛkṣa. According to the jñāna-yogīs, the Śaṅkarācārya followers, you can only achieve mokṣa if you are completely sannyāsa. But by bhakti-yoga you can achieve Kṛṣṇa even being a gṛhastha. The Pāṇḍavas were gṛhasthas but they achieved Kṛṣṇa. In Dvārakā they were also gṛhasthas but they achieved Kṛṣṇa. So please take advantage of this Bhakti-vṛkṣa program. I see that there are different leaders, from different groups who have come together. So thank you for this cooperative effort and we are very grateful that you are doing Bhakti-vṛkṣa preaching. And we hope that many people can be blessed by this opportunity to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, to worship Kṛṣṇa and to study the teachings of Kṛṣṇa. I see Seva Svarūpa (dāsa) here, the manager of our Congregational Development Ministry. He is working with great effort. So, we want all the Gujarati Bhakti-vṛkṣa devotees to also concentrate on this Dāmodara month. And encourage other people to take up the worship of Lord Dāmodara. In this way, you can get many new contacts and you can cultivate them and bring them into the Bhakti-vṛkṣa. In this way, we hope that after the end of the Dāmodara month, your number may double or more! So, I am very glad that you invited me to attend this program. I am also glad that you are attending.

Thank you very much! All those who want can download my Jayapatākā Swami App. It is available both on Android and Apple, free! 

Any questions?

Prema Padminī devī dāsī: How do we give this message of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu to the people and what will the effect be if we let them know who Lord Caitanya is?

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Caitanya is predicted in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and different Purāṇas. That Kṛṣṇa will come in the Kali-yuga but He will not be in Kṛṣṇa’s color. He will give out the love of Kṛṣṇa, He will establish the saṅkīrtana movement and those who are intelligent will follow Him. By following Him, you can get the highest blessing of human life. You can go back to Godhead. You can get love of Kṛṣṇa. What else do you want? You want a peaceful life and go back to Kṛṣṇa. Of course, in this material world there is also so many problems. And if there are no problems, we won’t want to go. So it is Kṛṣṇa’s mercy that He shows us the real nature of this material world. Right now the whole world is shut down due to the pandemic. And India has moved up from the 5th place, 4th place, now it is in the 2nd place. Only America is no.1, most cases of corona virus. So we should want to go back to Kṛṣṇa. In Vaikuṇṭha there is no disease. No old age, no death, no rebirth. So, that is what you get by the mercy of Lord Caitanya. You get love of Kṛṣṇa, you get residence in the spiritual world, whatever you want you get.

Question: I am trying to get up at 3.30 am but not able to do it regularly. (Inaudible).

Jayapatākā Swami: Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. I think the secret of getting up early is going to bed early. Also, not eating too much at night, eat light food. If you eat heavy, then you sleep heavy. So light food like poha or mūḍi or something light. And eat early. I eat my dinner at 6 pm. And then by the time I take rest it is digested. So then I can get up for maṅgala-ārati every day. Getting up at 3.30am is a bit early. The brāhma-muhūrta starts one and a half hours before sunrise. It is recommended that we should get up in the brāhma-muhūrta. And that is a little later maybe. I don’t know what time the sun rises in Gujarat? (approximately 6 am). So 4.30am should be alright, take a bath. Maṅgala-ārati starts at 4.30 am in Māyāpur. What time does it start in Gujarat. (4.30 am or something). Anyway, the process is go to bed early and not eat too heavy. And chant.