19810614 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.19.37

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on June 14, 1981 in Montreal Canada. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto 4, Chapter 19, Text 37.

Jayapatākā Swami: …but they never become devotees. When I was in Atlanta, I preached to them that, “You should make other people friends of Kṛṣṇa. You should do this. You should make one or two people every month to chant one round, to come to the temple. That’s why you stay outside, you don’t want to come, that’s why you stay outside. But you, you help this movement in preaching.” And because of that, those people have actually become very enthused now.

Because it’s very difficult for everyone also. In India we don’t want everyone to live in our temple. We cannot afford uh, in many places to take on everybody in the temple, unless they have some particular, already a house ready for them. Unless there’s a… Just like now in Mayapur, we don’t have, we have a waiting list to come in for gṛhasthas. Because all the gṛhasthas houses are filled up. Unless there is a particular service that they are going to do, then it is difficult just to increase the community. So, we let them come and then make their villages Kṛṣṇa conscious, and as we build a new house for them, if they want to come in, they can come in.

But in one village I saw, we took the head man, he wanted to become… he was so advanced, he wanted to be a devotee and because he came, the whole village’s Kṛṣṇa consciousness went down. Because that one person, he was pushing everyone to come every day for the kīrtana, to everyday chant. And when he left, then the whole village came down. So now I am thinking even that in such a case he should stay until he can train up someone else to take such an initiative or just come for a short time, when the people are favorable in that place.

Here in the West, in England, the saṅkīrtana devotees whenever they meet a favorable person they collect the name. And then when they have a program like… there are so many cultivation programs – In saṅkīrtana, you get names, people write in, then if you have a restaurant, the people will give names, from Sunday feasts we get names, from different type of programs, you can pick up names of people who are favorable. And so, then you encourage them to study our books, to chant.

Now with this ISKCON World Review, that’s also a nice publication that’s being actually geared for this type of program. They are gradually writing in such a way that it can be given to friends of Kṛṣṇa. Of course, it’s not been translated yet into Spanish or French. There are English devotees, they print up a little magazine every three months.

Rāghava Paṇḍita, he uses a fortnightly; we have our newspaper called “The Hare Kṛṣṇa News,” “Saṅkīrtana news”, “Worldwide news”. And one page is only for Nāmahaṭṭa preaching, one page is world news, one page is editorial on Prabhupāda lecture and different ācārya lecture, and then other pages the other special features for children and other things. And he gives out a private newsletter to his secretaries who are the… he puts in certain areas, who… if anyone makes advancement after some time you get the people who are more advanced, then he puts them in charge of an area. This is Bhaktivinoda’s system– you make a circle. Then in one area, you have so many people, then that’s called the circle. Then there is circle senāpati, circle commander, like temple commander, circle commander. He goes and sees how everyone is doing. He is an outsider but part time he goes and sees.

And then, over the circle commander, he has three teams of two, they go by bicycle. They go by bicycle, put their bicycle on the train and take it to the area and then they go the rest into the villages by bicycle: two… a team of two. So, three team of six devotee, upper Bengal, middle and lower, for Bengal.

And now we have given away Orissa to Tejas Prabhu. In the beginning Rāghava Paṇḍita was doing four states. Now Bihar and Orissa, two states have been separated and Tejas and Gaura Govinda Swami. And so in Orissa they made one man – he was a land owner; he was a son of a king. He had so many properties– hundreds of acres of property. So he and his wife they took initiation, they are chanting, he has got enough money, he bought a house, renting a house rather, just next to the temple in Bhubaneshwar, goes and cultivates his land in harvest time and then he comes and the rest of the time he is organizing in Orissa this Nāmahaṭṭa, he likes it so much that people should chant, that they should become purified.

In London, I saw they have a whole mail order developing– selling beads, pictures, tapes, so many things, developing because of all these Friends of Kṛṣṇa. So, these are some of the things I have seen. So, I feel that in… in America and Canada, the people have got so many literatures, there are so many favorable people.

I met one man yesterday, he was an executive flying with me on the flight, just yesterday flying and he said, “Why you came to Kṛṣṇa consciousness? What are you doing? And then he said, “You have other people?!”

And I said, “Anyone can chant.” I said, “We are simply like a priest; therefore, we wear this, we follow, we shave our head, but we have millions of people in America who are chanting in their home.” I said, “You can also chant.”

He said, “I can also chant?”

And I said, “Yes, you can also chant.”

I gave him a Back to Godhead and he immediately put it in his case (laughter). He did not want anyone to see but he was very interested.

When I was on television…in

I was (Television [crew] came to see me in Latin America) And I told the television lady who was, you know, interviewing me that, “You can also chant. You don’t have to… you can, you can also chant.” She said, “She liked to be a vegetarian if she knew how to cook as well as the Hare Kṛṣṇa devotees, if they would teach her–she liked the cooking.” But I told her, “You can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa in your home and be a Hare Kṛṣṇa devotee in this way”.

And then she said, “Very good, if I can still be a television announcer and also chant, then I will chant.”

And the woman in Chile, who was the… elected by the public as the “Woman of the Year of 1980”. You know they have that “Woman of the Year?” Like… In most countries they have the “Man of the Year”, “Woman of the Year”, she was the “Woman of the Year”. She chants eight rounds a day and she has so many followers, because she is a clairvoyant, you know. And she predicted that the Pope would be shot about… In December, she predicted that. She predicted that Reagan would be shot. She, all these things she predicted. So, she is very popular. She is a personal friend of the President there.

So, she is donating all the wood for the Ratha-yātrā cart spontaneously. She heard about the Ratha-yātrā, said, “I want to give the wood.” It is unlimited you know, we’re doing… I see that the temples they don’t have… once you get the program off the ground, that the people automatically, they, they want to contribute.

I told the same thing to our preachers in Calcutta that, “You are making life members; they give the money one time that’s all right. But the real thing is not just to get their money but to give them Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You give them Kṛṣṇa consciousness and even monetarily they will want to do as much service as they can.” And sure enough, they convinced these people to chant four rounds a day to become vaiśya-ṛṣi.

They say that in the previous times there was rāja-ṛṣi that means the kings were the ṛṣis also or the saintly people. Now there is no more kings, democracy. So now there is only business people. So, the business people, they are leaders of society. So now you have to become a busi-ṛṣi or a vaiśya-ṛṣi. And so, in this way now they have about a hundred vaiśya-ṛṣis, they are vegetarian, chant four rounds similar to the League of Devotees, only it is actually those who are life members and league of devotees, both that is a vaiśya-ṛṣi.

Comment: (Inaudible) śudra-ṛṣi

Jayapatākā Swami: Śudra-ṛṣi, mleccha-ṛṣi, we have all type. (laughter)

Comment: (Inaudible)

Comment: (Inaudible)

Jayapatākā Swami: (Reads Translation of the Verse with devotees’ repetition)

Jayapatākā Swami: …Brahmā is reminding Pṛthu Mahārāja that as an empowered incarnation, he has certain duties and responsibilities to protect religious principles, the devotional service of the Lord. The preaching of the Lord’s devotional service is not an ordinary thing. It is the most difficult and rare thing to achieve. Pure devotional service or bhakti of the Lord is inconceivably rare, you see. Just as Caitanya Mahāprabhu told Rūpa Gosvāmī,

eita brahmāṇḍa bhari’ ananta jīva-gaṇa 
caurāśī-lakṣa yonite karaye bhramaṇa

(Cc Madhya 19.138)

in this material world there are eighty-four lakh that means eight million 400 thousand species of life, you see. So many unlimited living entities.

tāra madhye ‘sthāvara’, ‘jaṅgama’—dui bheda 
jaṅgame tiryak-jala-sthalacara-vibheda

(Cc Madhya 19.144)

Amongst them, there are those creatures which are moving, and those creatures which are non-moving. Moving means animals, that is further divided into jala… tiryak-jala-sthalacara-vibheda, tiryak means birds jala means water or aquatics and the moving on land means animals and humans, you see.

tāra madhye manuṣya-jāti ati alpatara

(Cc Madhya 19.145)

And human beings, they are most rare. Amongst these creatures, human being is very rare, you see.

tāra madhye mleccha, pulinda, bauddha, śabara

(Cc Madhya 19.145)

And amongst the human beings there are so many uncivilized human beings, yavanas. Yavana means those who are violent, addicted to sense gratification, meat eating and intoxication. These are yavanas. śabara means… Pulinda means uncultured, aborigine. Śabara means hunters. And bauddha means those who are impersonalists, who are atheistic, have no faith in the Supreme Personality of Godhead and therefore are unclean in their internal and external thoughts. You see.

So, human species which is actually civilized, it is very rare. Real civilization begins from accepting that satisfying the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the goal of human life and working accordingly. So, amongst people who have accepted this, that Kṛṣṇa and serving Viṣṇu is the supreme goal of life,

veda-niṣṭha-madhye ardheka veda ‘mukhe’ māne 
veda-niṣiddha pāpa kare, dharma nāhi gaṇe

(Cc Madhya 19.146)

that most of them veda ‘mukhe’ māne, they give lip service. Mukhe means mouth, māne means to accept. They accept by word alone. But dharma nāhi gaṇe – they don’t consider what is to be done, what is not to be done according to the religious principles. They are accepting by lip service. “I am Hindu, I am Muslim, I am Christian.” In this way they are professing some dharma, of course Muslim and Christian are technically considered to be the dharmas of the yavanas. But even there we see, they give lip service; but when they are doing their daily life, they don’t consider what is to be done, what is not to done.

Even those who are following the Veda, there are so many who give their lip service. “Yes, I believe in the Vedas and Kṛṣṇa.” But then whey they do their daily life, obviously they are not considering what the Vedas say should be done and what they say should not be done. But still they are fortunate enough that they are accepting the Vedas, you see. So, they are higher than the uncivilized people.

dharmācāri-madhye bahuta ‘karma-niṣṭha’

(Cc Madhya 19.147)

Amongst those who accept religion, service to Kṛṣṇa as the goal, you see, who accept the Vedas, so amongst those religious people, most of the people are karma-niṣṭha. You know the meaning of karma-niṣṭha? Karma-niṣṭha means that they are fruitive workers, they want to work hard from the sweat of their brow and be happy.

You have gone to Vṛndāvana?! In Vṛndāvana you may have seen the donkeys, the burros (Spanish), the asses. There they are used to carry sand, laundry. They will fill up one donkey, one ass with huge pile of laundry, so many, practically it looks like their legs are going to break by overload. How to get them to move? They beat them, they won’t move. So, they tie one stick to their back and in front of one of the donkey, the asses, they tie one carrot, you know carrot? One vegetable. And the ass he thinks that, “Oh, what a nice treat for me! I will just bite it.” But because it is tied to its back as he goes forward, naturally the carrot also is going forward.

So, every step, he thinks, “I am just one step from getting that vegetable. Now I will get it. Now I will get it! Now I will get it! Now, now, now! Now, now, now! Now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now! Next, next, next! Next, next! Here, Here, Here! Next, next, next! Next...” (huffs and puffs) And he is going the whole day trying to get that carrot, whole day, thinking, “The next step, the next step.” He is so stupid that is why he is called an ass, stupid as an ass. The whole day he is going thinking that the next step, the next step, the next step, you see. No brain. Then at the end of the day, take your carrot, eat. “Ah, I got it! I got it! I got it! I got it! Happiness!” (devotees laughing) This is what the material workers… They’re all day they are working.

In England, sometimes they are saving up for two years, so they can go to Miami for two weeks holiday, vacaciones (Spanish), vacation. Two weeks for two years work. They are thinking, “Very soon, just there, almost I have enough money. Almost enough, almost enough, I got it, I got my ticket, I am off! To Miami! Miami! Holiday! Fun! Bliss!” You see. They go down there, and they get beat up by some, you see, a person or they go and sit on the sun and they get all sun-burned. Because people in the cold countries like Montreal, like England, they are more pale-colored. When they go into the hot weather like in Miami, they turn red. You see. So, you see these British people with their red faces, red arms and the white mark from their T-shirt (laughter) and the skin is peeling off and they have got their carrot (laughter), they were enjoying, you see.

So, this type of enjoyment that, “I work hard and with my money I will spend it and enjoy.” This is like, you see, this is the karma workers and their enjoyment is just like enjoying like the ass. It is foolish, they work so hard and not even like one’s work, not even be at all happy doing one’s work and simply thinking that in the end I will get my money and I will enjoy. And what happens when they go to enjoy? Just like the ass, they go to have sex with the female ass and what happens? They get kicked in the face.

This also you can see in India, how they get kicked right in the face. That one accepts a materialistic wife thinking wife will serve me. But instead there are so many difficulties that come up, and vice versa. So, these are called karma-niṣṭhas. They are very addicted to working hard and getting the result of their work. So, if they follow rules and regulations of the Vedas, well, they are at least more advanced than those who are hypocritical or insincere. But this hard work, struggle for existence, there is something higher than that.

koṭi-karma-niṣṭha-madhye eka ‘jñānī’ śreṣṭha

(Cc Madhya 19.147)

Amongst millions of such karma-kāṇḍīs, such hard laborers, one person who knows what is the purpose of life, who knows that we are not this body, that this body cannot give us ultimate happiness or ānanda, he is the jñānī and he is topmost, he is the best of all these karmīs, over millions and millions of such karmīs. But even amongst millions of such jñānīs, there is one person who is best of all.

koṭi-jñāni-madhye haya eka-jana ‘mukta’/ Out of millions of these jñānīs, one liberated soul is rare. One you will find liberated, who really has realized, “Yes, I am not this body, I am eternal,” he is very rare. One out of millions of jñānīs, those who know I am eternal, who factually have realized it, who have seen the light, one you may find.

koṭi-mukta-madhye ‘durlabha’ eka kṛṣṇa-bhakta

(Cc Madhya 19.148)

And out of millions of such liberated souls you will find it rare to find one pure Kṛṣṇa devotee.

kṛṣṇa-bhakta—niṣkāma, ataeva ‘śānta’ 
bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kāmī—sakali ‘aśānta’

(Cc Madhya 19.149)

That Kṛṣṇa devotee, he is desireless, therefore he is peaceful. He is desireless because he is not desiring liberation, neither is he desiring material sense gratification, neither is he desiring mystic powers. The devotee is simply desiring Kṛṣṇa’s sevā, service of Kṛṣṇa.

bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kāmī—sakali ‘aśānta’

(Cc Madhya 19.149)

Those who do desire material happiness through sense gratification even by religious principles, those who desire to enjoy possession of mystic power, siddhi, or those who want liberation, they are all agitated in the mind. None of them are peaceful. Therefore, the devotee is topmost.

muktānām api siddhānāṁ 
nārāyaṇa-parāyaṇaḥ 
praśāntātmā sudurlabhaḥ 
koṭiṣv api mahā-mune

(SB 6.14.5 and Cc Madhya 19.150)

Out of millions and millions of liberated and perfected souls, the devotee is exceptional, rare. He is always satisfied and happy.

So Mahārāja Pṛthu, King Pṛthu, his duty as an incarnation is to bring people to that position as a devotee. You can see it is the most rare thing, it is the topmost thing. Just like a jewelry store, how many customers they are having? Very few. But the customers they have are big customers; they are very good, solid parties. So Śrīla Prabhupāda, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, he has gone over the whole world and given out bhakti, given out the path of devotion to the yavana, pulinda, bauddha, śabara, civilized and uncivilized people, to the karmīs, jñānīs and even liberated souls, he had given Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That means that this is the sure sign for symptom of someone empowered by Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

kali-kālera dharma—kṛṣṇa-nāma-saṅkīrtana kṛṣṇa-śakti vinā nahe tāra pravartana
(Cc Antya 7.11)

In the Kali-yuga the path of harināma-saṅkīrtana is the yuga-dharma or the authorized religious principle for the age. No one can distribute that unless specifically empowered by the Lord. Unless one is empowered, it is not possible to give out such a thing, so rare, so difficult to obtain. Because Śrīla Prabhupāda was empowered by Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he could plant the seeds of this most rare jewel of life in the hearts of unqualified and qualified people alike.

Śrīla Prabhupāda, he advised his disciples similar to what Lord Brahmā has advised here. He said, “Don’t perform any pāpa - don’t perform any sinful reactions, any sinful activities and don’t perform any puṇya – don’t perform any pious activities. No sin, no piety. Simply perform pure devotional service to Śrī Śrī Rādhā Mādhava, simply cling to the lotus feet of Nitāi-Gaura.”

Of course, everyone can understand not to perform sin or bad karma, but not to perform puṇya, not to perform pious activity, Why? Just like here, Mahārāj Pṛthu, he was performing mahā-yajña, Aśvamedha, but as a result of that, Indradeva was spreading irreligious principles.

So, Lord Brahmā said, “The real thing is to establish the devotional service. Enough pious activity, because now this pious activity is not pleasing to Kṛṣṇa anymore. Up to now it was pleasing, but now because Indra is causing irreligious principles, so just simply preach pure devotional service, enough yajña for pious work.”

Someone gives charity and if he gives to unqualified person, he may have to get to return some time from that person itself. That means man gives charity to a beggar, he may have to become the son of that beggar. And the beggar will take him as son and by serving him as son, he will pay off the debt. So, if people give charity to unqualified person then they may have to become the son or daughter of the unqualified person.

The Vedas also say, “If one gives charity even to a half educated brāhmaṇa, he gets double. And if he gives to a fully educated brāhmaṇa, a veda-jña, not even a veda-jña, just someone who is very properly clean brāhmaṇa, qualified, but not well educated but qualified, he gets ten times to a hundred times in return his charity. And if someone gives to a veda-jña, someone who knows the Vedas, he gets hundred times what he gives in charity. And if one gives to a vāsudeva-parāyaṇa, to a fully qualified brāhmaṇa who has understood the purpose of the Vedas and who has surrendered to Vāsudeva, he gets unlimited times the result.”

So, when devotees accept charity on behalf of Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa, and give to Kṛṣṇa, it is giving those people unlimited benefit, even if they want to enjoy material life, no doubt they can enjoy. But the devotee, he only gives to Nārāyaṇa. He doesn’t want any material piety, doesn’t want any material, sinful activity. You see. So, this type of consciousness is very rare.

Everyone is attached to elevation going to heaven. No one wants to go beyond svārga to Vaikuṇṭha, very rare. So Śrīla Prabhupāda, he was giving out this highest jewel, this most rare jewel. That means that he was specifically empowered, practically speaking he was śaktyāveśa, empowered to distribute this message, empowered incarnation of the Lord’s potency and this has been confirmed by all great ācāryas. In India today, they know his history.

So, if someone accepts devotional service or someone is preaching devotional service effectively, this should not be underestimated. You can, in one day, you can spread how to sell hoola hoops. You know hoola hoop? [Aside: What are those plastic hoops, years ago they were popular? Hoola hoops. Yeah.] Like that you can spread so many type of pop song. In one day, there will be a hit all over the world and in five days they will be finished. What is the benefit? The Beatles, where are they today? And so on and so forth. Because these things are temporary. But someone gets devotional service, that benefit is eternal.

That benefit is eternal. That takes one out of this material world, that devotional creeper grows, grows, grows, breaks through the material universal covering and goes beyond the brahma-jyoti, beyond the Vaikuṇṭhalokas and grabs the lotus feet of Śrī Śrī Rādhā Manohāra. This is the divine power, and this potency is being given by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu to His devotees. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is so merciful. We should be very grateful that somehow or another we were pulled by the ear, forced our eyes open by the spiritual master, not take it lightly.

If someone gets this opportunity and then due to bad association fails to perfect himself in this life, he is very unfortunate. So, everyone present should be very careful not to be unfortunate in this life, but to finish up the business in this very life, go back to home, back to Godhead. This jewel of devotional service should be protected. Just like one protects a jewel from thieves, rogues, you should protect the jewel of devotional service.

Just like sometimes the prostitute, they will allure the man, “Come on, come on.” and then when they get him in the room they will pick his pockets, steal his money, take his jewel and flee off. Like that some people are saying, “Come on, criticize, gossip, fault find, listen to me.” They steal away the jewel of bhakti. Then there is that desire for sense gratification. They come like the armed robbers. In Montreal you have many bank robbers, like that desire for sense gratification, fame, distinction, they will come like bank robber and steal your jewel of bhakti.

Like this there are so many dangers. Desire to break the regulative principle, like a lion, like a tiger will come, devour your heart, taking the jewel of bhakti and just drinking the blood, finishing. So, one has to be very careful to protect the jewel. One should not think, “Oh it was so easy, I became a devotee, now I can just practice outside of devotional principles, or I can somehow be happy outside of the shelter of my guru.”

Do not make such a mistake. This is a most rare opportunity; do not let the jewel of your devotional service be stolen by māyā or her agents. 

kṛṣṇa-bahirmukha hañā bhoga-vāñchā kare 
nikaṭa-stha māyā tāre jāpaṭiyā dhare
(Prema-vivarta)

As soon as one turns his face away from Kṛṣṇa, māyā tackles him, picks him up, throws him on the ground. Māyā, she is a very good servant of Kṛṣṇa. You know how when Lord Śiva, when Lord Śiva was worshiping in Kailāśa, suddenly He started to laugh and mother Pārvatī was saying, “What you are laughing about? What you are thinking?” 

He started to jump up and down,

“Jāya Gaurāṅga! Jāya Gaurāṅga! Jāya Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga!”

And Lord Śiva was in ecstasy, jumping and dancing. Seeing Naṭarāja dancing, mother Pārvatī said, “Who is this Gaurāṅga? Simply to hear His name my hairs are standing on end. Who is Gaurāṅga?”

“You don’t know? Gaurāṅga is the golden avatar of Kṛṣṇa. He comes in Kali-yuga and He gives out pure prema to all the qualified and unqualified people. He is the ocean of mercy!”

“Oh!” mother Pārvatī said, “I want to see Gaurāṅga. Where can I go to see Gaurāṅga? I am very anxious to have His holy darśana.”

“Well, if you go to Navadvīpa dhāma you can see Gaurāṅga by worshiping there, although He is not coming for many millions of years.”

Mother Pārvatī immediately took leave from Lord Śiva and went to Navadvīpa. There in the island of Sīmantadvīpa, she began to worship constantly meditating upon Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, chanting His holy name,

“Gaurāṅga, Gaurāṅga Jāya! Gaurāṅga Jāya! Gaurāṅga Jāya! Śacī-suta, Śacīnandana, Jāya Gaurāṅga! Jāya Gaurāṅga!”

chanting His name and meditating upon Him.

Finally, Caitanya Mahāprabhu appeared to her. “Haribol! Haribol!” She fell down on the ground, paid her obeisances. There, the beautiful form of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, His hair tied up in a bunch with a flower and His lotus eyes and a long garland with bumble bees flying all around and His long beautiful arms and thin waist surrounded by His associates, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the ocean of mercy, the embodiment of transcendental beauty and devotion, was present. Mother Pārvatī fell down again and again at His lotus feet.

She said, “He Gaurāṅga! Oh my Lord, Gaurāṅga, the Golden Lord, the Golden incarnation, please have Your mercy upon me. You are giving out Your mercy to all of the fallen souls, You are giving out Your mercy to everyone without considering their qualification, You are so kind, You are so merciful. I am Your eternal maid servant. You have engaged me in the engagement of taking the living entity and keeping them in māyā, keeping them in illusion. The great sages, they say,

kṛṣṇa—sūrya-sama; māyā haya andhakāra 
yāhāṅ kṛṣṇa, tāhāṅ nāhi māyāra adhikāra

(Cc Madhya 22.31)

Wherever there is Kṛṣṇa, there is no māyā. Just like wherever there is sun, there is no darkness. So, does that mean eternally I am kept away from Your devotional service, I am kept away from Your mercy? Oh Lord, please have Your mercy upon me! When will I get pure love for Your lotus feet?”

And she was crying and she fell… and she touched the lotus feet of Caitanya Mahāprabhu and put on her head the dust.

So Caitanya Mahāprabhu blessed her and said, “Do not be agitated; you should know that My internal potency, hlādini-śakti, Rādhā, She is the original cause of your existence. You are the expansion of the expansion of Her only. You are Her external energy. It is necessary that you be present for Me to relish My transcendental pastimes. So, this is also your service. So, you should not be in anxiety. You are non-different energy from Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. So here in Navadvīpa dhāma, you will assume the form of prauḍha-māyā,the Yoga-maya, which protects the holy dhāma from the non-devotees and protects the devotees. And in Vṛndāvana, you will be Paurṇamāsī, My yoga-māyā expansion. So, in this ecstatic service here at the dhāma, you will be able to relish that pure devotional mood.”

In this way, He blessed her, and He disappeared. So, mother Pārvatī was able to understand at that moment, by the mercy of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, what is the mood of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī’s devotion. And she tasted ecstatic love for Godhead. And even today mother Durgā, Pārvatī is in Mayapur dhāma as prauḍha-māyā and she deludes the eyes of the non-devotees and she opens the eyes of the devotees to devotional service to Gaurāṅga.

So mother Pārvati, she is a very good devotee. If someone tries to enjoy this material world, she makes him forget about Kṛṣṇa. But if someone tries to be Kṛṣṇa conscious by the mercy of Śrīla Prabhupāda, His representative, by the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahāprabhu and His empowered devotees, one can have their eyes opened and be free from the illusion spread by mother Pārvatī, by Durgā Devī. Don’t miss this chance to have your eyes opened and keep them open.

Chant always

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

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

and induce others to chant and make their lives perfect. Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jāya!

Jayapatākā Swami: Are there any questions?

Devotee: *Question about vaiṣṇava-aparādha*

Jayapatākā Swami: If one unjustly criticizes the devotee has to get forgiveness from that devotee or touch that devotee’s lotus feet. If he touches his feet, then that can forgive him of all the offence. Apart from that by worshipping Caitanya Mahāprabhu and feeling repentful, repentful or sorry for what he has done, one can also overcome offences. There is no loss or diminution in devotional service. The only way to avoid offences or to overcome offences is by the mercy of Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

If one falls down into other type of offences, the only hope is to serve Kṛṣṇa. Again, restart the service. But for offences, one should try to get forgiveness from those who he has offended; otherwise, touch their feet, otherwise simply pray to Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Tulasī devī and other such great devotees of the Lord for being forgiven from these offences.

other question?

Question: We need to be very fixed in Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. Take shelter of advanced devotees. In what way can we  get that shelter?

Jayapatākā Swami: Association with devotees is very rare. So, whenever it’s available, one should take advantage. That one can only pray to Kṛṣṇa and Lord Caitanya for more association. Even if people try to chase after association, there we see that sometimes they end up committing offences. So, the association of devotees is something which is given by the Lord. It is a rare opportunity.

So, one should take advantage of whatever association one gets and should be always anxious and pray to the Lord for the service and association of His devotees. And by serving the spiritual master, by remembering the words of the pure devotees, that will give one association with them. And that is a higher principle - association through union and association through separation. One should practice both of these programs.

Sometimes someone in separation is more intimately united than someone… Someone who is in real separation is most intimately united. Sometimes people even when they are physically present with a pure devotee, they fall asleep or they think of something else, their mind wanders off. So, in this way instead of being mentally present, they are not present. While the other person may be physically absent, but he is mentally and spiritually present. So, when one has the physical presence of a pure devotee, then he should be very careful to be conscious, to be aware, to take advantage so that when in the physical absence, one can also have the mind, they are fixed in separation. Understood?

Any more questions?

Question: Can there be māyā in the temple/dhāma?

Jayapatākā Swami: Yes. Māyā in the holy dhāma, she covers the dhāma with a thin karpanāya, with a thin coating. And the non-devotees who live in the dhāma but have not accepted their relationship with Lord Caitanya, they are not living actually in the dhāma. So why not in the temple? If someone is in the temple but one’s mind is always outside the temple or if one has not accepted in his heart the spiritual master and Caitanya Mahāprabhu, then actually that person will be covered by māyā. But this is very rare. But one therefore should not be proud; one has to be always humble.

Just because someone is living in the temple does not mean that one is Kṛṣṇa conscious. One is Kṛṣṇa consciousness if one is living in the temple physically, mentally and spiritually. So that is possible by being humble, by respecting other Vaiṣṇavas and not wanting respect for one’s self, by being hay, humble like more than a straw in the street and being more tolerant than the tree, you see.

Someone gets their brāhmaṇa underwear stolen and he thinks, “Oh, all the Vaiṣṇavas are dogs!” Or something like that, you know. Said some offend. Just because of… He may even have misplaced it, you know. But then immediately he will criticize. And even if someone took, all right, so what? Get another one, get a box, lock it up, something.

Someone is serving, may have a bad habit. There is a story about one time, there was so many saints, you probably heard this, so many devotees in the temple. And they’d wake up and every day they would find all their bedding mixed-up. And then they said, “How is this? And so, one time one devotee said, “I was actually a night house-breaker before I became a devotee, a robber. So, this is my habit, in the night to steal something. So, if I don’t steal something I can’t sleep. So, I take all your things and move them from here to there very secretly without waking you up and this is able to, you see get rid of my habit.” You see. So sometimes someone may have even a bad habit, but still we shouldn’t condemn if they are trying to serve Kṛṣṇa, you see. So that means we have to be tolerant.

One has to be tolerant. Of course, one should not try, that doesn’t give excuse, “I had a bad habit before, so let me do it in the temple.” That of course is a temporary status which should be eradicated. But there might be some bad habit, but that should be avoided and if someone sees, we should try to help that person. Or they should just, if they are not in a position to help the person, then they at least should not themselves become agitated or disgusted with devotional service.

They should be disgusted with māyā, that māyā is so strong that if one by being in this material world, even coming to the temple, there might still be some trace. Therefore, one has to be determined to get rid of the māyā, to become pure. So, in living in the temple, one has to also bring in the mind, bring in the consciousness and put those in the temple, then one gets the full benefit. One has to accept the relationship, “I am servant of guru and Gaurāṅga”. With that relationship one lives in the temple, one lives in the dhāma, gets the full effect.

Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Devotees: Hari bol!