19810613 The Pastimes of Lord Nityānanda Prabhu

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The following is a lecture on the Pastimes of Lord Nityānanda Prabhu given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on June 13, 1981 – in Montreal, Canada.

24 years of his stay here.

In our deep down.

And the next 24 he spent in Jagannath Purī and preaching all around India, visiting South India and Vrindav and other places.

So at the age of 14, Caitanya.

Mahāprabhu accepted the Grihasta Ashram. His wife died early, so again he married. First wife was Lakshmi Priya, then Vishnu Priya.

When Lord Ramachandra.

When Lord Ramachandra was banished into exile for 14 years with Sītā and Lakshman, then he visited Navadip Dharma. There’s a part of Navadip which is not different from Ayodhya, the Eternal Dharma of Lord Ram.

All the places of Vrindavana, all the.

Holy places of India, of the universe, they are having their place in Navudeep Māyāpur Dam.

So in the island of Mududun Dweet.

Which is where Vrindavan Das Thakur, who wrote the Chaitanya Bhagavat was living. I think he was born there. That place.

There’s a place that is not different from Ayodhya.

So when Sītā Ram Laxman Hanulanji went there, Sītā saw that Ramachandra was. Laughing, was smiling.

And Sītā Devī, she asked him that.

Why you are smiling? And. Said, here in the Kali Yuga, I.

Come.

As Chaitanya Mahāprabhu. And he had a Chaitanya Mahāprabhu.

At the age of 24, he left.

His wife and mother and took Sannyas. And he went and simply preached. She says, what a thing to smile about. Sītā Babi said, that’s terrible. Think of the poor wife, how she had to suffer in separation.

I hope that you never leave me.

And then Lord Ramchandra told Sītā Devī.

That no.

You see, in separation, in.

Separation.

There is a greater appreciation. There is a greater appreciation and intense type of devotion which comes. In my pastime. As Caitanya Mahāprabhu, you will be Vishnu.

Priya.

And you will experience the separation that is the ecstatic mood of devotional service. So.

Chaitanya Mahāprabhu, when he showed his six handed form.

Two hands Ram, two hands Kṛṣṇa and two hands Chaitanya Mahāprabhu.

This is because.

Ram is included within him.

And Sītā is included within Vishnu Kriya.

Like this.

When Lord Caitanya went to Purī, he saw that it was necessary that there should be a good example for the Grihasta devotees. So he also felt that Nithyananda Prabhu is Lord.

Why should he stay as A Brahmachari.

So he told Nityānanda, you go back and you go to Bengal and preach. You take wife, you get married.

And.

Because you are no need for.

You to remain like a Sannyāsī. No need for you to stay like a Brahmachari. It is necessary that people can see that Kṛṣṇa consciousness can be practiced by.

Grihasta’s husband and wife.

Awesome.

So Nithyananda Prabhu went back to Norvadp. And he was sitting in the house of Śrīvas. You hear about this before.

You heard. Anyway, these things are always relishable.

So he asked, he told Śrīnivas, Śrīvas Pandit and the others. Lord Caitanya has ordered me to take a wife.

And they were all pretty excited.

And they started sending people around to find a suitable wife.

Where was there a suitable wife for Nitinanda?

There wasn’t any.

And any woman wasn’t suitable for Nithyananda.

What would ordinary woman? How would be a suitable match for.

Nithyananda who’s himself the supreme personality of Godhead? There wasn’t really much luck.

Then you see, there was Surya Dasare Kaila, the younger brother, older brother, I believe of Gori Das Pandit who was Subal and Kṛṣṇa’s Leela. Get out of bed. And Śrīdhar Sarikayla. He had two daughters by the name of Jenova and Basuda. He was also looking for suitable husbands for his two daughters. But he couldn’t find anywhere a suitable match.

Cut me off, Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Their qualities were so exceptional.

So one day one old Brāhmaṇa came.

To him and told him, my dear Surya Das, have you found someone for your daughters?

He said, no, he said, of course not.

Your daughters are having extraordinary qualities. They’re practically like the Goddess of Fortune.

The only one person suitable for.

The hand of your daughters in marriage is Nithyananda Prabhupāda.

Nithyananda Prabhu.

But he’s an Avadhut.

He’s always wandering here and there and chanting and rolling on the dust and.

Ecstasy and different type of things. How would he be the suitable match? Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. The Brahmin says, I don’t want to hear these things you don’t understand. And who is Nithyananda? But you take my word for it. I don’t want to keep you up any longer.

There’s nobody else who’s suitable mask for your daughters.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Goodbye. Bon voyage. So then.

He left.

And then Suyedas said, how can I.

Get my daughters to some lifelong Brahmachari who just wanders here and there chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa like a madman.

He may be great devotee, but how he’s so extraordinary.

How will he be the suitable hand.

Suitable husband for my daughters? He was a little bit disturbed because Nityānanda, he was known as Awadhut. That meant he did some amazing things.

Sometimes which no one would ordinarily be.

Able to do or think to do. Just like the way he kicked Shivananda.

Sena in the Delhi to bless him. He would do some spontaneous Kripa on his devotees.

So he was a little famous. But you know, ordinary people who are not devotees, they couldn’t really understand Nithyananda’s platform of spontaneous inconceivable activity.

Avadut, you see, he was independent.

Independent Lord. So that night he went to sleep. And in his dream there he saw Balaram and Balaram.

He saw with his two consorts.

He saw Rebooty and Baluni.

And he saw that he was giving Rebooty and Baluni to Balaram in marriage. And then he saw that Balaram was Nithai and Revati and Baluni were Janawa and Basuda Devī. And the whole room was filled with light and it was disemblying and his hairs were standing on end. And he could realize that my daughters are the Goddess of Fortune, Revuti and Baruni and Itandra.

And he fell down on the ground and he woke up there. He found himself back in his room and he could realize that I must give my daughters to Nithyarando his Balram. My daughters are the Goddesses of fortune, Revuti and Bharuni. So immediately he called for the king Maharaj Kṛṣṇa Das, Kṛṣṇa Hoda Das. And he told him that you should please become a Ghatak matchmaker and go to Norvad Deep and find Nityānanda Prabhu and see if he would accept the hands of my daughters. So Kṛṣṇa Hoda, he went to Navadip, to the house of Śrīvas. There Nithyananda was sitting and Sivas and the others were there. He went over to Shivas and whispered in his ear.

Can Nityānanda Mary son of our Devī and Basuda Devī, Is it a good match?

Śrī Las?

He cracked into a big smile.

He went over and told Nityānanda, what.

Do you think about this? Nitinanda was inscrutable. No one could see through his mood.

He was simply smiling. In a slight way he said, yes, that was it.

Harilo, Harilo Nithinam is going to marry Masooda. Jawah, the daughters. The word spread everywhere. Immediately Kṛṣṇa H he sent his messenger to prepare his palace for the coming of Nitananda. And in a very short time, Nanda and all the devotees and abode they proceeded to.

In the district of Nodia, going to Borogachi, in that house of Kṛṣṇa Hara.

There all the Brahmanas performed the Mahā.

Odivas Ovi, you know, the Odivas Odhiva ceremony which is to be performed to the husband and wife to be the.

Day before the marriage.

All the Brahmanas they came to bless Lord Nityanandam Adibas means the day before the ceremony. And they had with them the pots.

Which contained the sacred turmeric dahi, yogurt mix and misal, spices, ganges, water, flowers and the chanting Vedic mantras. They began to sprinkle the sacred body.

Of Yityananda with these auspicious items, enchanting mantras. And all the women that were also witnessing in the distance, you know, all around they started to oodle, you know, oodle. You want to give demonstration? Only women can make that sound properly. Due to some siddhi they have. And that is considered to be very auspicious. When they wiggle their tongue back and forth and go, only women.

I know it sounds funny, but when.

Women do it about hundred or fifty or twenty at one time, then the sounds from another world. In South America we have the Oribas the day before the marriage and invite all the public. And we have the public also do that. The women, they go and they have their trained up in a room how to do it. And all the devotee women and the public. At the time when the odibas is going on, there has to be on four corners shastra being ready. Then one Brāhmaṇa is blessing with pancha grain, sosya, the five grains. And one is blessing with the mix of yogurt and dohi and all these things and turmeric. And then other with the Ganges water and other type of things. And then one is chanting mantras over the person. They bow down and they offer first respect to the Brahmanas.

And then the Brahmanas bless them. And then all the women and all the men yell Haribal. And the women go in this way the whole vibration becomes a wall of transcendental sound. Vedic hymns, Bhāgavatam slokas, oodling and Hare Kṛṣṇa together. You are actually completely in transcendental vibration. So there were literally thousands of people oodling and chanting and blessing Nithyananda Prabhup at that time in the house of Kṛṣṇa Hora. So as soon as it was over, then everybody, they gathered up their things and went to Shaligram, 2km away, where Janoah and Masuda deities were to do the Abhishek with them. They bowed down before the Brahmanas and then the similar ceremony was performed with them. And they were also blessed by the Brahmanas. And this was a very happy occasion.

The next day, Dinitynanda, he went to Shaligram and there the Vedic wedding ceremony was performed. And after they were married, you see, because they wanted, they were both so extraordinary that they had to both marry Nordity Nanda. There was no one else. So it meant why to marry both? That was the only Vasuda Devī had children. She had Vyavadra and Gaṅgā Devī Janavadi. We don’t find that she had any issue. So Jah Devī and Basuda, they accompanied Tananda back to the house of Kṛṣṇa Das, the king. And they had a big festival there for two weeks. Harinam Sankirta and so many devotions. These places are mentioned in our Chaitanya Charitarmita. But when I went to find them, they were.

There are no trace.

So over a period of two years were researching the ancient historical records, land records and other type of books. And then finally we met one old bearded mand he took us to the place of the Shali Rajavs where the ruins of ancient temple were. And from there we thought we had to go another five miles away to the village of Rukunupura, where Obhiram Thakur had visited one time and were the descendants of Kṛṣṇa Hora who had been made a guru by Nithyananda. Then he became known as Mohanto. His descendants were residing there and they had ancient deities of Nithyananda, Bhirbhadra, Jonava Devī. And they led us to one of their uncles who when he was 11 years old, had visited the village of Borogartsi where Nithyananda had stayed for two weeks.

But at that time he was 75 and he hadn’t been there since so 66 years before. So we begged him that please come with us and show us because you are the last living person to know where the house of Maharaj Kṛṣṇa Hora was. So then he agreed to come and we took him by jeep and he pointed out and there was one hill. On the hill there was the ruins of the palace of Kṛṣṇa Hora. Small bricks, like in Vrindavan, ancient bricks. And nearby there we found A temple of life size, almost life size, about 5ft high. Nittaigor deities that were established over 400 years before. So in this way, Prisila Prabhupāda, he had made one Trust in November 7, 1977 in Vrindavana for preparing Gormandal Bhoomi, the holy place of Navuddeep and Lord Caitanya’s pastimes.

So that the pilgrims from all over the world may know all these places and come and visit and see them. And to unite the whole Gauḍīya Vaishnava of Sampradāya together this and other purposes he made this trust. So with this trust we are doing this type of research work. And we’re hoping that very soon, before next year festival, we will have a special guidebook to take you around Novadip. And in each of the places there will be a plaque in marble which will give the brief history and will say donated Bhaktivedanta Swami Charity Trust. So anyway, Lord Chaitanya, eternal associate Nithyananda Balaram, he took Janawa and Basuda Devī gradually back and he settled his house in Kur Daha. There, in Khordaha Birbhadra and Gaṅgā Devī, his son and daughter, were born.

Even today people go there and pay obeisances to the samadhi of their umbilical cord, You know? Umbilical cord?

Yes.

This umbilical cord, because they’re Birbhadra, is the Kirudakshaya Vishnu avatar who has come in Caitanya Leela. So his umbilical cord is also divine. So that has been buried there with a temple put over it. And the devotees go there and offer worship to his samadhi of his umbilical cord. Because everything in connection with Kṛṣṇa is transcendental, you see, Just like Lord Caitanya’s hair, which he cut off at Kathwa that has Monday over it, the samadhi is Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s hair in Katwa. Have you seen? And they’re offering daily pūjā to the samadhi of his hair. Because everything in connection with the Lord is transcendental. So when Lord Nithyananda left this planet, then Janawa Devī, she was left behind with Bosuda. So one time she went to Vrindavana with Minikita and Ram Dass Das Brindavana and many other devotees in a procession they went.

And as she went, she was.

What she does is simply by her.

Blessing because she’s greater than the Mahalakshmi, you see, she’s Revati Anangamanjari combination. She would simply by her glance, people.

Would forget all the three miseries of.

The material world and get spontaneous love.

For Kṛṣṇa very easily.

This was her special mercy. So she decided to stop in this one village. And in that village, all the great devotees, the Mahabhgavatas, they came out and offered their obeisances to Jamava Devī and to the other Vaishnavas. And she was giving a Bhāgavatam class, instructing them about Kṛṣṇa consciousness and some demonic type people. They were criticizing that what are they doing bowing down to these devotees, especially what are they doing bowing down to a woman in so many ways. They were criticizing, of course, they were.

Mainly criticizing that why they’re not worshiping Goddess Chandi.

Durga. These people who worship Goddess Chandi are often, you see, actually like atheists. They don’t believe in Kṛṣṇa or the Vishnu worship, and they worship Goddess Chandi. So they decided that we’re going for.

Their offense that they’re not worshiping Mother Durga. Goddess Chandi.

We are going to cut off their heads tonight. We’re going to cut off their heads unless they surrender at the lotus feet of Mother Chandi. So they went to Goddess Chandi and.

They made their prayer that these people are so offensive. They’re not bowing down to you.

They’re not glorifying you.

They’re just chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. They’re just worshiping this Bhāgavatam.

And they’re not worshiping you.

They’re not offering any wine to you. They’re not doing any type of things like this. They’re obviously very offensive.

So we’re going to cut off their heads tonight. Then they went and they took rest after drinking a little bit. And in the middle of the night, they had the plan to get up and cut off their heads. All these devotees.

So the Goddess Chandi, she became so furious. How they are sending pure devotees of Kṛṣṇa, these rascals, these devils, demons. How her eyes became red and in their sleeves.

She appeared to them with her chopper.

In her hand and her eyes raging. And she said, I am going to personally chop all of your heads off right from the root. Why you are offending. Why you are offending the pure Vaishnavas. You do not know who is it Jehovah. She iswari.

She.

She is the most beloved consort of Nithyananda Prabhu. By her mercy, the living entities are being delivered from this material world. She is extremely powerful. I bow down at her feet and.

Take the dust from her feet.

She is My worshipable Devī.

My worshipable Goddess. You see, she is the transcendental internal.

Potency of which I am only the shadow. So if you do not beg them forgiveness, then tomorrow definitely I am coming. And I am cutting off your head. They woke up shaking.

You know this mother Chandi. And they are very ferocious form. One of the forms is called Kapula where she cuts off her own head and the blood spurts out from the neck and she catches it in her mouth with her head like this. And Chandi is another ferocious form, you see. Very expert in killing demons. Another form is Kali Bengalis, they like these forms. But they do not know that she.

Is herself a great devotee of Kṛṣṇa. She is prayed to in their prayers.

As Vaishnavi Devī Narayani. But somehow the demons because when they.

Pray to her, she gives them benediction.

Without considering material benediction without considering whether it’s good or bad. For so they approach her.

But when they go to offend, if.

Pure Vaiava is too much for her.

Then she will not stand silent. Just like we saw how Badr Kali.

Cut off the head of the Pujaris when they went to sacrifice Jorah of Harat. You must have seen that in the fifth Canto Bhāgavatam.

Yes.

So they all they were shaking and.

They fell down at the feet of Janawa Devī.

The lotus feet of Janawa Devī.

And the other Vaishnava says we are great offenders. Please have your mercy.

(Side B of the Cassette)

Nand together even the demoniac people, they became devotees by the mercy of Nithyananda’s Shakti. Nithyananda Shakti Jana Lahadvi. Like this, there are so many pastimes. They stayed there for a few more days and then they proceeded on towards Brindavana, preaching on the way. In every village people would greet them with Hari Nam Sangir and take them into the village and offer them a nice place. Even today when go preaching in Bengal, in Bangladesh, when the party goes in a village, then the women come out and they have scented water which they throw in front of the Sankirtan party on the ground. And sometimes they get so excited that they want to roll in the dust of the feet of the devotees that they jump in that dust and start to roll.

And even their body becomes covered not only with dust, but because they threw water, it becomes covered with mud. But they feel very strongly that the devotee’s lotus foot dust is spiritual and it can purify one and give one spontaneous devotion. Lord Caitanya said in the Caitanya Charit Amita that three things are to be given great importance for one to advance. And one of them is the dust from the feet of the devotee. What are the other two things? What type of prasadam? What does that mean? Mahamad Prasad? Remnants of the devotees, Prasad Uchista, bhakta Pododuli and one more bhakta pado Jal, the water that washes the feet of the devotees. Even today they want they throw the water and they roll.

When Janava Devī was coming from Korda on her way to Vrindavan, she went through Novadip and saw the younger brother of Śrīvas Śrī Nidhi Sipati. When the party left Novodip, when they came in Nabodip, they all rolled in dust. And when they left, they all rolled in the dust and offered their obeisances. You see, this is a system. I was when I first went to Nabuddeep, the first thing I did is someone said, this is my upwork, this is my. I jumped and started rolling in the dust. And then a devotee was with me. Why are you doing that? He said, it says in the Shasta you’re supposed to do that. He says, no, but I mean really. I mean it just says that in the books. I mean, you don’t really have to. I said, I don’t know.

All that says Hajare Vayapur down threw the dust over. You see, sometimes we hear all these things. We don’t take Advantage. Even today, when people are going to Jagannath Purī, there’s a place you can see the temple from a distance. They stop the car and they immediately pay their obeisances. Even as 10 miles away, even today, these things are being done. So no one can offer too much respect or devotion to the Lord and his holy name. Of course, these things, if you do in the west, then people will know for sure. You cracked, you see. But these things can be done even today in the holy dh. There’s one place called Surabhi Kunja where Mother Surabhi used to worship Caitanya Mahprabhu. And that place there are all the devotees of Lord Nithyananda. They had their Namhat.

That was all the devotees would come there and do kīrtana. And then they would roll in the dust of that place in ecstasy. They’d fall and they would sometimes roll in the dust. Even today, devotees go there and roll in the dust. So this Namhat is mentioned by Jīva Goswami in his manifesto for preaching Vaishnav Dharma all over the world. He gave a manifesto how Kṛṣṇa consciousness would be established in every town and village throughout the whole world. And one of the points that he mentioned was Namhat preaching. In addition to writing literature and other different types of programs, establishing temples, the other thing was getting the people to practice in their homes, in their own places and to go out every morning and preach.

One essential part of Namhat is that you organize the people into groups and those groups should go together and they should chant regularly. Hare Kṛṣṇa. And part of their thing is either they should chant publicly or they should in some way preach. The original Namhat would chant every morning. They’d go out and chant for half hour through the village. Wherever they’re living, those who are part of the Namhat group, they would chant. This was Nithyananda Prabhu system. This was Bhakti Vinod Thakwe system. In fact, for those who were the traveling preachers, they would have to go to five people’s house every day and request them to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Knock on the door, please. And if the people argued that you are nonsense, I don’t accept what you’re doing, why you’re doing. If he couldn’t answer, then he wouldn’t argue with them.

If he couldn’t know the answer, then he would say that he take down their name. And he said that I am sending my group commander to see you. And the group commander, if the group commander couldn’t solve the question, Answer the question. Then the circle commander would come. And if he couldn’t, then the district commander. If he couldn’t, then finally the state commander, if not even Bhakti Vinod Pratak would personally come. But usually they would never go that far. You see, one of the lower commanders could do it. So in this way, of course, Namat was originated by Nithyananda Prabhu and it was further re established by Lord, I mean our Prabhu, Bhakti Vinod Thakur. And you see, Bhaktived Thakur had established about 500 Nahat centers so far that I can understand.

And he printed a journal which was called the Godram Kalpatuvi which we have translated into English. I will be sending a copy to you if you want. You wanted one, I will send one. And that gives the basic principles. Bhaktived Notakur then was trying to establish that Grihastas, unless they are completely simply dedicated in preaching that they shouldn’t beg money and simply maintain their grihe, but then they should be responsible and they should work, maintain their own existence. And on top of that, as much as possible, they should also themselves try to preach, at least chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and they can contribute to the renounced people. Because in those days especially there was no system like we have today with ashrams where grihastas would live in it. Now we have that system due to Prabhupāda’s mercy.

And instead there were a bunch of unauthorized type of grihastas that would simply beg and wouldn’t preach and they were causing a bad reputation for Vaishnav religion. So. Exactly. Each of the programs that the different cryas made are suitable for that time and place. But in each new time and place, new circumstances are coming. So we have to see, according to the present time and place how the objectives which they have given us and how the programs which they have started are applicable. It’s not that mechanically everything is done, but the basic mood, purpose, objectives and programs are maintained. But the exact system, just like in those times, they would never wear shoes in Harinam. In fact, our devotees, when they go on Purī that year the Brahmanas were complaining. But in the west, if you go barefoot, then I think you can.

Some places even get arrested. In any case, it’s very dirty and sometimes it’s freezing cold. So not wearing shoes here would give a bad impression upon the people in many places. So in each time and place there’s a slightly different circumstance. Deshgal Patra. But the basic programs and the basic purposes, they’re the same. Just like the Namhat type of preaching. You see, the basis is book distribution. By book distribution, people are made favorable to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The chaining is from the Vaiava community. So that’s the same everywhere. In the beginning, when I was presenting this in Latin America, they were saying that here the people are not so. You know, they’re pious, they’re Roman Catholic. But they are very attached to sense gratification.

But when it was presented to the people that they should chant or that they should participate, many people, even if 1 out of 10 or 1 out of many people would come forward and they would start to chant. So I remember one man, he told me how he had a dream where he was being attacked by snakes. And suddenly the form of one great Vaishnava appeared and saved him from imminent death. And grabbed him and said, you are immortal. You are immortal. He said, ever since then, he’s been remembering this dream. And I said, how many rounds you’re chanting? He said, two rounds. I said, well, and you’re a vegetarian yet? And he said, well, not fully. I said, well, you know what happens? And I explained his dream so that he could understand it.

And just after hearing the explanation, he was very satisfied. He decided that he definitely was going to become a pure vegetarian. Only offer his prasadam. And he would start chanting eight rounds and. And gradually work up to 16. So when he opened up the counseling. So many people have different problems and have different anxieties. And there’s no one to help those people. No one in the world. But Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahā Mantra can help everyone. So by giving them Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahā Mantra, they actually feel relief. They actually feel. And then when they get a little advancement, then you have to bring them gradually to pure devotional service. So in this way, how people may be induced to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa may be different in different places. But the goal of getting everyone to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa that is the same everywhere.

And once they chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, then they can experience the actual purpose of their life unless they chant. Their brains are filled with so much garbage that it’s very difficult for them to understand. But when their brain is clean, when their consciousness is clean by chanting Mahā Mantra, Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa. Hare. Hare. Hare. Ram. Hare Ram. Ram. Ram. Hari. Hari. When they can see their eternal spirit soul, they can see everyone is actually united with them in a spiritual brotherhood. Not a materialistic brotherhood, but a spiritual brotherhood under the one supreme Father, the one supreme Lord. You see? Then Everything becomes correct, everything becomes proper. And they become satisfied. And when someone is satisfied, then he becomes very grateful. He becomes very grateful. And a grateful person always wants to offer service.

So if we can give people Kṛṣṇa, they will no doubt become grateful. Although we are not doing so out of any motivation except to please Kṛṣṇa. If they give something or don’t you see, that is of course to their benefit. But it is a fact that someone who becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious will want to give service. We need four things in any organization Prabhupda has told us. Manpower, finance, land and organization. So of course we have our full time devotees. But we need so many other volunteer workers. Just like you’re having people work in the restaurant. And many of them are doing voluntary work in this way. Our Rathyatra in Calcutta is 80% done by all friends of Kṛṣṇa. They do all the work, they manage the prasadam distribution, everything simply. Our Brahmanas do the cooking, they do the pūjā.

But all the other type of dealing with the police. We have our lawyers who are friends of Kṛṣṇa businessmen. They see the police. They see then those people. When they see the police jump. You see, when you have nice friends of Kṛṣṇa like that, then your stability and your ability to work with all of the authorities is enhanced many times. So similarly, the devotees, they will be freed more and more for doing more direct preaching programs. The more that different friends of Kṛṣṇa make advancement and do different services. I know that in some temples they come and they clean the temple. They clean the temple. We want the right to clean the temple. They clean the temple before they go to their work. Pardon? Wishful thinking. By that time then they’re no longer a friend of Kṛṣṇa. Then they’re already initiated.

So Janava Devī, wherever they went in every village, they induced the people to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That is a devotee. Wherever he goes, he gets people to chant Kṛṣṇa’s name. This is the sign of devotee. So we’re distributing books, we’re building our temples to induce people to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu said when he was asked who is a devotee, he said, anyone who chants Hare Kṛṣṇa is a devotee. Chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. Everyone won’t chant at the beginning. In the future, we hope that almost everyone will. But chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa is something very exalted, something very great. You know that there was, I think there was this one devotee, Buddhimanta Khan. He approached the Chan Kazi. Please chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. He said, I have no time. Please just Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. I won’t chant Hare Kṛṣṇa today, I will chant tomorrow.

I am too busy. Haribo, Haribo, you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Haribo, he chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hariwal, Haribo. Even one time when they chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, how much benefit they’re getting is incalculable. Those people that stand, have you seen the Hare Kṛṣṇa? What are these? Hare Kṛṣṇa? What do you mean by Hare Kṛṣṇa? Why do you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa? I hate Hare Kṛṣṇa. Even no matter how they chant, you see, they’re getting some benefit. There are some demons. They couldn’t say their name, Kṛṣṇa. They can’t say it. They will say something else. They won’t say. They’re so fallen, you see. But other people, even they say Hare Kṛṣṇa. Somehow or another, they’re benefiting. Of course they shouldn’t say offensively. That’s the worst way to chant. But even offensive chanting is better than nothing in one respect. As long as it’s not blasphemous.

If it’s just an ordinary type offensive. Like so like George, Jesus. I heard he said that I like people who are hot or cold. Like I like hot water or cold water, but lukewarm water I spit out. If someone says, why are you doing this? You can tell him. And if someone says, I like what you’re doing. And you can preach to him. But if someone, you approach him, nothing, no response. Like a dead man. And how you can preach to him? Even if someone comes forward, challenging. So that gives a platform for us to preach. It’s the people who are just absorbed in their sense gratification. They don’t want to see. They just, you know, go by. When they hear the Hare Kṛṣṇa, they walk away. Those people, they’re very unfortunate.

If someone comes and asks, challenging, of course, that is the not very good. But at least it gives a platform. There’s a hope, there’s some hope that he could get preached to. But someone who avoids altogether, where is the hope? But those who are favorably coming forward, they should be encouraged more and more. So they can provide land, they can donate land, or they can do some service. In so many ways they can help, they can give donation. And the main thing is that they can themselves become Kṛṣṇa conscious. And Kṛṣṇa consciousness means that they will also encourage other people to be Kṛṣṇa conscious. So many of those people, they will also join the ranks as full time preachers. And even from their own position, they can do a lot to spread the message all around.

Just like rla Prabhupda from his business, he did so Much preaching. He printed it back to Godhead. He did a lot of preaching. Although he was in his business, he was living outside, he did so much. The difference, of course, is that he was Kṛṣṇa conscious. And many times we find that when people live outside, they fall in Māyā. So therefore we have to build up a community of such people. Say that we find that in Quebec, in Halifax, in Barrie, in Hairy, in this and that little place, there may be so many people who are favorable to our movement. But it’s not possible for us to immediately send off so many temples because temple means rent, it means overhead, it means such an advanced devotee who can deal money, then send fundraising deity worship. It’s a big headache, you see.

So the system of having traveling preachers go and you have communities there in their home, they worship, they go in one person’s home and they chant. And occasionally traveling preacher goes there and preaches to them, encourages them, trains them. Even grihasta preachers can do. The wife can go and train how to cook, of course, Brahmacharya, anyone can do this type of preaching. So in that way, they themselves, they’re making their own Kṛṣṇa temple. And as they become more and more advanced, they will become temple president of that temple. They will become the temple president. And that has happened. Basically, that’s what Prabhupāda did in Fiji. He went to Fiji. Vasudeva was there. He told Vasudev, you build a temple in your house and make it the ISKCON temple. And Vasudev is the big businessman in Fiji. He’s still the biggest businessman in Fiji.

He built the Kṛṣṇa Kaliya Mandir there. He did so much preaching, he invited ISKCON gurus and other sannyasis and brahmacharis there. They’re also cooperating with him and preaching. Prabhupāda was so pleased with his effort that he made him a gbc, you see. But he was what he was a businessman who was the devotee. And Prabhupāda convinced him to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, gave him initiation and told him that, do your business and build a temple. So he did his business, and simultaneously he built a temple with the prophets from his business. And then other devotees came there and helped to preach from that temple. So but in a way, he was a friend of Kṛṣṇa in the beginning, and still today he’s doing his business and giving the money. He’s building another temple, no. So Prabhupāda was doing this program first.

We can take no credit. This is his day basic program, how he engaged in the beginning I was working, although I was in the temple, but I was working in outside jobs. But in New York, before they were allowed to live in the temple, many people like Brahmananda and others, they were working as school teachers, as taxicab drivers and coming to the temple and giving some donation. So in the beginning they were friend of Kṛṣṇa, you can say also. So now we have so many nice preachers with such a high standard. But if other people may be there who are not able to immediately join out, still we should encourage them. This is my feeling that if everyone is encouraged more and more then because look at how difficult it is. Look at how these people went down to Old Montreal.

Everybody simply absorbed in sense gratification. They don’t know where they’re going, they don’t know what they’re doing and they’re not happy in spite of trying to enjoy so much with their senses. Nobody. You don’t see one person who is happy. There’s a few crazy people running around and the rest of the people are just standing there trying to enjoy. But no one is actually satisfied. And so they’re going from one enjoyment to the next. Sometimes they feel little good and the next time they feel bad because they feel bad. When they feel better than what they felt before. They think today was pretty good, but nobody’s satisfied. It’s all relative. And they see here are the devotees, they’re smiling and they’re dancing and thousands of people are standing and looking why they’re happy. Why they’re happy. That is their big question in their mind.

And why they’re happy that we want them to know. You can find out why we are happy, simply sing with us. Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Ka Hare. All the points. But I heard that Nalhat was one of them. I wouldn’t like to say, I just. The general points that we’re doing are all on the list. Better to use that mango and energy to cultivate those friends and visions that are already there, plus more. Everything has a balance and a priority. The Prabhupāda said books are a basis and the temples are needed to keep the high purity. When people go out and preach amongst the people, they have to also stay pure. There has to be that Kṛṣṇa conscious standard for them to see somewhere there has to be a temple which is like the nerve center, like the heart.

And from the heart then the blood is going throughout the whole body. Like here in Montreal you have such a beautiful temple. So this can serve as like the spiritual enthusiasm and headquarters for a whole region. For a whole region. And so many small preaching centers. Namhat groups can get their energy from such a temple. But there has to be somewhere where they can sometime close enough that sometime they can go and say, oh, here is deity worship, here is guru pūjā, here are all these things. And that gives a whole, you know, you hear about it. But sometime they have to come and see and to take taste the temple prasadam and see how the devotees are chanting many of them together. That is an experience which simply hearing about it won’t be enough.

Sometime they will want to come and see and get some practical experience. Then from that little experience, they can create the same thing in their own place. So definitely it’s more useful. If one person can make 10 people do that type of preaching, then he’s doing 10 times as much. Or even if they do half as much each, he’s doing five times as much as if he himself were to go and open one sentence. And the thing is that they will take their responsibility when they do it, you see. But otherwise ISKCON has to take directly responsibility. It becomes difficult in a local area, but here you see, the difference is that people don’t know anything. So it may take them some time, a year or two, to come up to the standard where they really understand enough to take such a responsibility.

But somewhere the cultivation has to start. Someone may pick it up real fast, someone may take longer. We find doesn’t take many people, it just takes one or two people. Even if they pursue it, you see, that’s enough to cultivate hundreds of people like this. And then as the program expands, then naturally more people can be put on. It has to start somewhere. If you have the vision, then it becomes very inspiring. I don’t want to, because I don’t. The reason I am stressing is only because I feel that at this time this is the next stage one of the next stages that is there before us also cultural festivals is another area. The Prabhupāda said that would have a great effect in capturing the mind of the Westerners. Just like we see the people, they like the whole colorful show.

The devotees, the mothers and their saris and the devotees playing the instruments, also dancing, drama, these things by culture, the people.