19820506 Narasiṁha Caturdaśī Evening Darśana

The following is a class given by His Holiness, Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on May 6th, 1982 in St. Louis.

oṁ ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā 
cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ

śrī-caitanya-mano-’bhīṣṭaṁ sthāpitaṁ yena bhū-tale 
svayaṁ rūpaḥ kadā mahyaṁ dadāti sva-padāntikam

nama om viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāyabhūtale 
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine

namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe 
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe

namo mahā-vadānyāya kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāya te 
kṛṣṇāya kṛṣṇa-caitanya- nāmne gaura-tviṣe namo namaḥ

he kṛṣṇa karuṇā-sindho dīna-bandho jagat-pate
gopeśa gopikā-kānta rādhā-kānta namo 'stu te 

tapta-kāñcana-gaurāṅgi rādhe vṛndāvaneśvari
vṛṣabhānu-sute devi praṇamāmi hari-priye

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

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim 
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānanda mādhavam śrī-caitanya īśvaraṁ

Jayapatākā Swami: You know that Murāri Gupta was reading the thousand names of Viṣṇu and then when he got up to the name of Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva, Lord Caitanya became absorbed in the mood of his incarnation of Nṛsiṁhadeva and He… grabbing a club, He started roaring and He ran outside on the street yelling, “I am going to kill all those demons.” Just was running out on the streets and when Lord Caitanya did that, then the people, they became afraid to see Him roaring and running down the street. Then He could see all the people running away and then He came to His external consciousness thinking, “Well, it’s not good to cause fear in the ordinary people. Śrīvāsa and Murāri Gupta, they said, “Well, everyone by simply seeing You, Lord Caitanya, they have all been liberated. They have all been delivered.”

There are several six-handed forms of Lord Caitanya. Of course the main one we know is Lord Caitanya, two arms kamaṇḍalu and daṇḍa, the two arms holding the flute, and two arms: one holding the bow and arrow of Lord Rāmacandra. So, One other six armed form is there some paṇḍitas say sometimes the Lord showed with two arms as Kṛṣṇa, two arms as Caitanya and two arms as Nṛsiṁha. In the Nṛsiṁha the two hands, one is this way and one is this way. One is up and one is down. Does anyone know why the difference?

Devotee: One is for ripping apart. The other is for holding the entrails.

Jayapatākā Swami: (Laughing) No.

Devotee: One is for killing. One is for offering benediction?

Jayapatākā Swami: (Inaudible) One is for blessing Prahlāda on the head. And the other one is ripping apart. ? You got one hand right. So, Lord Caitanya is the ocean of mercy and within Him all the different avatāras are there. Sometimes when Śrīla Prabhupāda observed these appearance days of Viṣṇu-avatāras, he would mention a little about the ten avatāras or about a number of the avatāras because they are all coming from Kṛṣṇa. But we worship Them in that relationship, not that specifically we set up different temples for each Deity.

I haven’t been to Andhra Pradesh to see all the Andhra Pradesh temples, maybe Vaiśeṣika has been there, but I understand that there is one special Nṛsiṁha deity that devotees come from thousands of miles to see and the deity is offered a mix of water and gur made into like a guraide (Devotees laugh) And one whole glass is given by the devotee and they offer it with the tulasī down the throat of the Deity. His mouth is open and they put it down and apparently it makes a gurgle sound and then the Deity spits out half a cup of the gur drink and that is given back as the prasāda. Did you see that? Maybe you can give us more detail.

Vaiśeṣika Prabhu: I went there with Bhakti Svarūpa Mahārāja, and we brought a big bowl of this gur water, we bought it for eight rupees, and then you take it in. The pujārī does a special pūjā for you and you know, says your name and Deity and things, asks for a special benediction (devotees laughing) and then we…

Devotee: You can buy different (inaudible)

Jayapatākā Swami: Did you put in a good word there for Sura Dāsa? (Devotees laughing)

Vaiśeṣika Prabhu: So, what he does is… no matter what size the bowl is… you can buy different sizes, so he offers them in conch shells. He fills up the conch shell once and he pours it down Nṛsiṁhadeva’s mouth, and then he pours another one, and pours another, but when it gets halfway down, no matter what size there is, He stops. He doesn’t take any more, and He leaves the rest. He just… He won't drink any more. It just won’t go down, after half. And if the container’s small, He’ll drink half the small container, and leave the rest, then they give you that as prasāda.

Jaya Nṛsiṁhadeva!

Jayapatākā Swami: Nṛsiṁha Bhagavān kī...!

Devotees: Jaya!

Jayapatākā Swami: Then there is another temple that He’s in His ferocious mood. So I understand the whole year they keep Him covered with a thick coating of sandalwood, its in Visakhapatnam, you probably saw it (inaudible) and to keep Him cool, they cover Him with sandalwood. And once a year, I think maybe today, Nṛsiṁha Caturdaśī or, once a year they take off the sandalwood and then again put… one day you can see the actual Deity and then they cover up again with sandalwood to keep Him cool.

Is that how it…

Vaiśeṣika Prabhu: Yeah.

Jayapatākā Swami: Details?

Vaiśeṣika Prabhu: Well, Viskahapatnam is a beautiful temple. It’s… there’s huge steps going from about half a mile, all the way up: granite steps. They’ve built all the way up on the top of the hill, and there’s waterfalls coming down and everything, a very beautiful setting. Andhra-pradesh is like… real tropical, and then when you get to the top there’s a main temple and inside… there’s many other temples. The main temple’s Nṛsiṁhadeva, and it’s a huge… all you can see when you go in for darśana, is a huge lump of candana. And it’s like… you know, looks like a liṅgam almost… a śiva-liṅgam, just like, candana, you know? And then the... you know once a year, for candana-yātrā, they go and they take all the candana off. Thousands of people come and they see it’s Varāha-nṛsimha… a form of Varāha-nṛsiṁha. As they say that form of Nṛsiṁhadeva was the one that caught Prahlada Mahārāja when he jumped off the cliff… or when he was thrown off the cliff by Hiraṇyakaśipu, and he was caught by Varāha-nṛsiṁha. That’s what they say and if they don’t keep Him covered with candana, then any demon or sinful person who sees Him, He’ll just burn ‘em to ashes.

Jayapatākā Swami: Gotta be very careful. (laughter) Then of course after Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva performed the pastime of killing Hiraṇyakaśipu, and then He washed His hands in a lake (inaudible) and then He traversed over the… and He went to Navadvīpa and rested there. So there, all the demigods, they took the form as villagers and there were different hills, like Indratila, Arkatila, different hills that… They had seven hills and they all came and were worshiping Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva like menial servants.

This year, during the parikramā, ISKCON devotees had the great fortune of visiting and when they went there, there was the lake where the present Deity was recovered in the (inaudible) hills. So the devotees when they find a nice lake in the hot weather they know how to take advantage, so, taking the dips in the holy dhāma. So Lord Nṛsiṁha, and all the different incarnations, they always go to Navadvīpa-dhāma. Navadvīpa-dhāma is eternal dhāma. Just like Ayodhyā, Mathurā.

It is not just that when Lord Rāmacandra came, Ayodhyā became pure. Ayodhyā was always a holy dhāma because that is the eternal dhāma of Rāmacandra. Every time He comes, He comes there. Just like recently the Secretary of State went running here and there, went back and forth between Britain and Argentina. So when he would go to Britain he would stop in the embassy and when he went to Argentina he would stop in the embassy because that’s like his home away from home, that is the American property. So like that similar to some degree, the Supreme Lord, when He comes to the material world, He has got His particular dhāmas which are directly under His personal, internal potency, His protection. So naturally, He will prefer to rest or to have any pastime in His dhāma.

So like when Lord Nṛsiṁha comes He knows that “This is the place where I have My līlās in the Kali-yuga. This is the holy-dhāma.” It doesn’t mean that just because the līlās are done there in Kali-yuga, in the other yugas They cannot recognize that this is Their eternal place. Even for instance, there was a king called Suvarṇa and he was a very materialistic king. He was always worshipping different demigods and trying to get opulence, material fame and power. Name, fame and glory, it is the same old story! It is a new song by Śrīla Viṣṇupāda – didn’t hear it? Name, fame and glory, it is the same old story! So that is what he wanted. Name, fame and glory, he wanted money, he wanted profit and he was doing so much giving charity, worshipping the brāhmaṇas and so many different things.

One day Nārada Muni came and told him that “You are wasting your time. Why are you simply wasting all your energy for this material world? The things of this material world will not last. You will not be satisfied. You don’t know that you are living in the holy place of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. You should worship Caitanya Mahāprabhu here and you will get the complete fulfilment of all your desire.” He explained to him who Lord Caitanya was and how He was so merciful.

So Suvarṇa, the king, even though it was before the Kali-yuga, other yugas, he was worshipping and Lord Caitanya appeared to him and he was just completely overwhelmed to have the holy darśana of Lord Caitanya even it wasn’t in the Kali-yuga, but Lord Caitanya is always in His holy dhāma. He bowed down to… the king, to Lord Caitanya, paid his obeisances and he jumped up and down and was almost fainting and getting up and finally he prayed to the Lord that “Please don’t forget me. How can I… When will I be able to participate in Your transcendental pastimes?” So then Lord Caitanya said that “Don’t worry, you will take birth as Buddhimanta Khan during My pastimes.”

So like this there are so many different pastimes in the holy dhāma over the ages. So similarly all the different avatāras visit the holy dhāma and have Their pastimes. Just like in the Dvāpara-yuga, Balarāma, He visited the holy dhāma of Māyāpur and He killed the Mayāsura demon and still there is the field where He killed him, known as the Mayāmarī-maṭha or the place where the Māyā demon was killed.

When Bhīma took the Rājasūya horse and he came up to Māyāpur, at that time, there was a king there called King Samudra. So he knew that Bhīma was a great devotee of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa and then he decided that “I am going to attack Bhīma.” You know that how they send the horse, Rājasūya-yajña horse, they send off the horse in a different direction. And if the horse goes into the kingdom without being obstructed, then that kingdom is considered to be under the domain of the king who is doing this Rājasūya sacrifice. If they obstruct the horse or if they catch it, that is war.

So the king Samudra tried to capture the horse and he attacked Bhīma and he fought so furiously that Bhīma was put into a very very difficult situation. So much so that he thought it was going to be the end. So at that time, Kṛṣṇa immediately appeared and saved Bhīma. Which was all that that king Samudra wanted. So he immediately paid his obeisances to Kṛṣṇa and said “I just wanted to get Your darśana.” And kṣatriyas, you know that’s how… the way they do things. (laughter)

So in that way Kṛṣṇa also He came to the holy dhāma of Navadvīpa. So like that when Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva appeared, He also came into Navadvīpa and He was there worshipped by the different demigods and devotees in a very intimate way.

Jayadeva who wrote the song that we sing to Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva

tava kara-kamala-vare nakham adbhuta-śṛṅgaṁ
dalita-hiraṇyakaśipu-tanu-bhṛṅgam 
keśava dhṛta-narahari-rūpa jaya jagadīśa hare
jaya jagadīśa hare
jaya jagadīśa hare
jaya jagadīśa hare 

Was written in Jagannātha Purī on Lord Jagannātha I believe. But he also actually lived in Māyāpur before he went to Jagannātha Purī. There is a place not too far from the birthplace of Lord Caitanya known as Jayadeva-pāṭha. We also went by the Jayadeva-pātḥa this year on our parikramā.

Here is the birthplace of Lord Caitanya, devotees. Here is the parikramā going out unlimited lengths heading toward the Jayadeva-pāṭha. Here are some local villagers offering pūjā to our Nitāi-Gaura. Can I have one picture of the Jayadeva-pāṭha? Don’t have it. That was the day they went… Anyway here is looking over the Long Building. So Jayadeva-pāṭha is just over here. Just opposite the birthplace of Lord Caitanya. Out in the field there.

So what happened was that Lakṣmaṇa Sena was a great devotee and he sent a message that he would like to see Jayadeva and make him like his guru because of his poetry. When Jayadeva heard that this king wanted to see him, he said, “No, I am leaving Navadvīpa, I won’t associate with any king or worldly people.” He was a pure brāhmaṇa. He said, “Now I am leaving Navadvīpa, I can’t stay.”

So then Lakṣmaṇa Sena, he came disguised as an ordinary person and he fell down at the feet of Jayadeva and he paid his obeisances and he begged him that “You have said you are going to leave Navadvīpa but I want to beg you not to completely leave Navadvīpa.” That, “I may be a king but nonetheless I need the association of devotees, so if you could only just go to the other side of the river and live there, then in that way, we would not be completely bereft from your association.” Some appeal he made for him to stay in any case.

Jayadeva said, “I will stay on the other side of the river, I was testing you by saying you are a worldly person, you are a king therefore I won’t associate with you but I see that you are actually a Vaiṣṇava. So you can come and see me but you have to come in disguise. But because I said I was leaving Navadvīpa, I won’t go back on my word, I am going over to the other side and I will stay there.” So that was Caṁpāhāti. You went to see Campahāṭi? Gaura-Gadādhara temple. Here in the Gaura-Gadādhara temple, all the devotees have seen. And that was the big big Gaura-Gadādhara temple by Vāṇīnātha I believe… Vāṇīnātha , or… not Vāṇīnātha by another devotee… associate of Lord Caitanya had those Deities carved. And nearby there was where our respected Jayadeva lived.

And the reason that’s called Campahāṭi is because the campa flowers, there are so many orchards there of these campa flowers. Goloka-campa, have you ever smelled Goloka-campa? It is just a very sweet flower. So sweet, so nectarine that it is just like the… like a spiritual fragrance. Apparently these… Campa is mentioned in the Bhāgavatam as one of the pious, auspicious flowers. So this flower is especially used to worship Kṛṣṇa.

The gopīs used to come all the way from Vṛndāvana and pick flowers… these campa flowers and bring them back for the rāsa-līlā. Some of the gopīs had the special power to be able to do this. So all the orchards were there but then as Kali-yuga came, then the local people started taking the flowers and selling them. So 'hāṭi' means, like Nāmahaṭṭa, hāṭi, Campahāṭi means the market place of campa flowers. So today there are not so many campa flowers, you can still see many trees but the name is still there, Campahāṭi. So that was where Jayadeva was living in that forest of campa flowers, Goloka-campa and he was writing some poetry.

At that time Kṛṣṇa appeared to him… Caitanya Mahāprabhu appeared to him when he requested he wanted to see Him in His two handed form as Kṛṣṇa. So then He appeared as Kṛṣṇa. Then Jayadeva was satisfied that he wanted to see Kṛṣṇa in Navadvīpa. But the Lord then commanded him that he should go to Jagannātha Purī and that there he had important service that he had to do, that Lord Jagannātha wanted him. So like that there are so many unlimited pastimes that are going on in the holy dhāma. So also when Nṛsiṁhadeva appeared, He went to the holy dhāma of Navadvīpa Māyāpur.

So we take the opportunity of visiting the holy dhāma to become purified from offences and to become fixed up in devotional service to:

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

This was the order of Śrīla Prabhupāda. Actually our Prahlāda Mahārāja, he was always remembering Kṛṣṇa. This is his special quality that Prahlāda, he always remembers Kṛṣṇa, he doesn’t forget. When he was thrown into difficulties, thrown off the cliff and different difficulties, he would never forget Kṛṣṇa. Actually he was the prince. He had unlimited opportunity to enjoy. His father had defeated even Indra, every material opulence was at his disposal. But instead he was always focused on becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious. So this irritated his father to no end, that is why his son could not be the standard, materialistic demon, and maintain the family tradition. Why Prahlada had to be a devotee?

When Prahlāda was telling his father that you should not… he said, “You’re working for the enemy.” He said “Where is the question of the enemy? One who controls his senses has no enemies and no friends, like that, he’s equal to everyone.”

And then his father got angry and said “You think you are better in controlling your senses than me? Well, I’ll show you, I will kill you, you puffed up brat! Why don’t you be a demon like I tell you?”

Of course even in modern day society one can find some little bit partly perverted and partly similar reflections. [Break] Said,“I am only hoping to be purified from that and born in the family of demons naturally. I am attached to material enjoyment but I do not want it, I simply want to be a pure devotee and serve Your lotus feet.”

So we advise on this auspicious day to take shelter of Prahlada Mahārāja, pray for his…  [break] we can follow his footsteps by our desire for pure devotional service. na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati (Bg. 9.31) – Lord Caitanya, Kṛṣṇa, promises “My devotee shall never perish.”

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

Any questions?

Devotee: It’s not really on the subject we’re on, I thought you might not mind if I asked you if you could describe something about Gaṅgāmātā Gosvāmī… [break] I was just reading in the Ādi-līlā, Volume Two if I’m correct.

Jayapatākā Swami: I don’t know but I’m just asking (inaudible) She is one of the great female preachers in the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, you see. She gets a special blessing from her father who was Lord Nityānanda. She and Vīrabhadra Prabhu, Vīracandra, are born at Kharada from Vasudhā. Two wives of Lord Nityānanda – Jāhnavā and Vasudhā. Jāhnavā is Revatī and Vasudhā is Vāruṇī, Lord Balarāma’s two consorts. And still today there is a shrine built for the samādhi of the umbilical cord of Gaṅgāmātā Gosvāmīnī and Vīrabhadra prabhu. Of course there is much more known about Vīrabhadra prabhu. There is a whole book on it that gives the details of Gaṅgā-devī and Vīrabhadra. I know some of the pastimes of Vīrabhadra but very few of Gaṅgā-devī. I have… doing some research now on Gaṅgā-devī. She married Madhavācārya Dāsa. Śrī Madhavācārya. (different from Madhvā) First, they were living in the district of Burdwan near Kṛṣṇadas Kaviraj’s birthplace. At one time they were also living in the district of Hooghly. So in the district of Burdwan near Jamatpur where that shrine was destroyed in a flood and we are trying to procure the land and rebuild this small shrine there to commemorate that place. And the temple for Gaṅgā-devī Gosvāminī in Hooghly district, we have just contributed ten thousand rupees to fix it up. But I haven’t gone there myself. I was hoping that when I go there we will find out more details about her pastimes. But I understand that she also did some considerable preaching.

Jahnavā Devī of course had thousands of disciples and followers. And she did a whole – she attended the first Gaura Pūrṇimā festival held by… sponsored by Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura at Kheturi and Śrinivāsa Ācārya, Vīrabhadra prabhu, Acyutānanda and many, many other second generation associates of Lord Caitanya, they were there. Because by that time already Nityānanda, Advaita, the Pañca Tattva, they had all disappeared but Rāmāi, the younger brother of Śrīvāsa went there, the two younger brothers went. And Raghunandana Ṭhākura from Śrīhaṭṭa… Śrīkhaṇḍa and many other devotees, literally a thousand principal remaining associates went and thousands of their disciples, like Rāmacandra Kavirāja, Śyāmānanda Paṇḍita I believe, also went with his followers. And then from there Jāhnavā Devī went to see the birthplace of Nityānanda, her husband. And from there she went to Vṛndāvana and then she had some pastimes in Vṛndāvana. Somehow I believe that in some of these pastimes she is reflecting the personality of Anaṅga-mañjari. There’s the two… but I don’t… I haven’t understood it exactly and I haven’t read any commentary by the ācāryas except that the Gaura-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā mentions Prabhupāda… that she’s both like when she is in Vṛndāvana and other places.

She’s… in Vṛndāvana there was a very special pastime in Rādhā-Kuṇḍa but I don’t remember it just now. There was a special pastime in Rādhā-Kuṇḍa – either she got the Rādhā-Kuṇḍa excavated in a big way or something happened in Rādhā-Kuṇḍa, I just can’t remember it just now. But Jāhnavā-devī was very active. She went to Vṛndāvana and again she came back. I believe she went twice to Vṛndāvana . So for a lady, for a woman, to walk to Vṛndāvana… she would always have… like when she went to Kheturi then she had Mīnaketana Rāmadāsa, Vṛndāvana Dāsa Ṭhākura, so many different Nityānanda pārṣada: Abhirāma Dāsa Ṭhākura and many others.

I believe that Gaṅgādevī Gosvāmīni is an incarnation of Mother Ganges. And Madhavācārya must be Mahārāja Śāntanu. She always lives in the Ganges.

Vaiśeṣika Prabhu: Is it also true that Jagāi and Mādhāi were incarnations of Jaya and Vijaya? The reason I ask is because I was… because they were supposed to take three births, right? But I thought that that would be their fourth birth because…

Jayapatākā Swami: They took birth in Caitanya-līlā because three births was, they were killed by the Lord but the fourth birth they were given Kṛṣṇa-prema. You see because they said that Chand Kazi was the Kaṁsa of the Caitanya-līlā. So, he’s the Kaṁsa of the Caitanya-līlā. That was my conclusion that they would put him as one of Jaya and Vijaya because they came as Kaṁsa and Śiśupāla. Isn’t that how it works?

Vaiśeṣika Prabhu: It’s Śiśupāla and Dantavakra, in Kṛṣṇa…

Jayapatākā Swami: Is that it? Well then, Dantavakra and Śiśupāla, and Kaṁsa just another. So Chand Kazi is Kaṁsa.

Vaiśeṣika Prabhu: I was just recently reading the Kṛṣṇa book again. I thought that there was something that I didn’t understand all this time, that Śrīla Prabhupāda explains in the third canto about how His devotees will take birth as demons you know, to assist Him in His pastimes, and sometimes He likes to fight so He wants to fight with devotees. So I just wondered that, it seems like, when you read Kṛṣṇa Book sometimes you’ll see that it just seems that it’s an ordinary demon or it’s not explained so much, but then in another place Śrīla Prabhupāda said that when Kṛṣṇa fights, He just wants to fight with His devotees, that it’s more fun than just anybody.

Jayapatākā Swami: Then in another place Śrīla Prabhupāda said that we should not think that every time Kṛṣṇa wants to fight a demon a devotee has to fall down from the spiritual world so that He can do it.

Vaiśeṣika Prabhu: That may just be demons in the material world, or something.

Jayapatākā Swami: I thought I saw your hand. That’s what happens when you have a late prasādam. All the blood has gone out of your head. (laughter) How did you like the preaching in South India?

Vaiśeṣika Prabhu: It was ecstatic. It’s really expanding.

Jayapatākā Swami: Tell them about the cards. (inaudible)

Vaiśeṣika Prabhu: Oh, the cards. When there’s a large function, Śrīla Pra… Ācāryapāda has these special cards that are like… kind of a little contract that he passes out through all the crowds there. The Indians really love it. It says that they vow to chant one round of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra on the beads every day, at least one time a day. So he gets the people to agree in the crowd that they’ll chant one round of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, so is there anybody that doesn’t object to doing this? And many people raise their hand, and he says, “Okay come up and get your card.” And then they come and get their card and they all fill it out, that they agree: “I such and such, agree to chant one round of Hare Kṛṣṇa.” Then they bring it back and Śrīla Pra… Ācārypāda signs it and it’s serrated so they get to keep one part.

Jayapatākā Swami: They keep the certificates. That part has a picture… Lord Caitanya’s picture, certifying that he promised with Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, Pañca-tattva-mantra. We get whatever has the name and address and everything. (laughter)

Devotee: Do they keep their vows?

Jayapatākā Swami: People are serious, very serious. They take it. I met one person, he started off that way. What happened, there was this guy called Mr. Poddar who came to see me and… there were so many people. It was we were give a darśana of some Indian people and some devotees in Bangalore. (laughter)

We were preaching and then he came up and he was asking so many questions and he kept challenging the Personality of Kṛṣṇa and I was trying to present that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Then he said that… to make a long story short, he kept insisting in different ways… about impersonality, real Māyāvādī. So then he said something that “We want to merge.” and something like that.

I became very impatient and I said that “You take your lunch and you have your capātī, you have your rice, you have your dal, take it and merge it. Merge and then eat! We are disgusted by this merging. We want vicitra, a variety of Kṛṣṇa’s personality, Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes, Kṛṣṇa… everything it is all transcendental.” So then in the end I gave the same appeal to him that you should chant 108 times. So then I told him that “This is the order of Lord Caitanya that I have to beg you to please chant. So I am begging you to please take up this chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.” And he was so startled that after the whole hour discussion he agreed. He signed up.

So that night we had a pandal program outside. I went outside to do a pandal program, had a 103 fever, and came back in. Then this one Mr. Agarwal came, he is a real friendly life member that always hangs around there. He came back and said that “I am the director… you did not know who Mr. Poddar was, he owns 43 companies, he is worth something like Rs. 500 crores, half a billion dollars. He never ever bows down to a Kṛṣṇa deity, he is an Arya Samaji, they don’t believe in worshiping a Deity and he has never agreed to do anything. But he said because no sādhu ever begged him to do anything before and that somehow he took it up seriously that, when I was driving him home, he said ‘I promise to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and I am going to chant starting tonight!’”

He had his beads and he went to his home and started chanting his Hare Kṛṣṇa that night. So Agarwal was one of the directors of this company. He said “This is the biggest thing that ever happened. This guy never did anything, you know of this type ever before. So this is a big breakthrough.” So in response, people do it, obviously some people forget but in general many people take it seriously, that is why we take their name and address to send them reminders, to keep the contact otherwise, surely, they will forget. But in general they do take it very seriously.

They have that tradition you know that if they promise, especially they make it a whole ritual, they come up and bow down before the Deity, they offer a flower, we give them a flower. We pssst, put the seal on it. They take it and touch it to their heads and then they come out. Sometimes we make them chant Hare Kṛṣṇa over the microphone and someone announces, “This is…” You know “Gopālācārya.” You know, “Mr. Raṅgabhatti Gopalācārya” So by the time come out…

I remember this getting people to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. I found it to be a very inspiring thing. I had a big fight with… on this issue with Gokulacandra… no. Who is the big… He’s in Korea right now, used to be a big book distributor?

Anyway, that we had given two million books out in Bengal and people were coming up, they read the book, they’d come up to the devotees and they’d say that “I agree with your philosophy, now tell me what to do, I want to become Kṛṣṇa conscious.” So then we would… you know the distributor naturally would say, “Well, buy another book!”

So either he buys a book or he does not have enough money, “So what next?”

So then we say “Why don’t you move in to Māyāpur?”