19820904 New Vṛndāvana Festival

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on September 4th, 1982 at New Vṛndāvana farm community in West Virginia. The class is given on the occasion of the New Vṛndāvana festival.

Jayapatākā Swami: Today devotees are coming from all over North America and different parts of the world to participate in this wonderful New Māyāpur…. New Vṛndāvana (devotees laugh) festival. I was thinking how the only way to approach Vṛndāvana is that one has to go through Lord Caitanya. That’s why there was a little slip. (devotees laugh) It’s not that I say you have to go through New Māyāpur to go to New Vṛndāvana, but actually when we worship Vṛndāvana and Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa and Their transcendental pastimes in Vṛndāvana, we should also remember that… how we came to know about these transcendental pastimes is of course Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa combined together… out of Their causeless mercy to share Their pastimes, They have combined together as Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has brought that pure realization and pure love of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, of Vṛndāvana-Dhāma so that the fallen souls of this Kali-yuga can get the opportunity. But whereas respectable… of course there’s plenty of feasts and festivities and I was just reminded how Śrīla Prabhupāda, he used to give the example that in a feast, you feed sometimes the children all the sweets first because they’re getting impatient. They can’t go through all the vegetables. They want to go right to the sweet. Then they’re quiet, but actually this is what Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa have done when They have combined as Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and come down in this age as Lord Caitanya in the mood of a devotee. It’s that they gave us first, the sweets. This was the example Prabhupāda gave: because we’re so disturbed in our mind in this Kali-yuga that Kṛṣṇa’s given us first the dessert.

What normally yogīs, jñānīs, transcendentalists would go on trying to realize after so many ages, after so many births, after rigorous realization, finally when one comes to the topmost level, one can understand what is Vṛndāvana, what is Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, but by Lord Caitanya’s mercy, that is given first. So, Prabhupāda said this is giving us first the dessert. First He’s giving us the ecstasy or the bliss of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that actually we are attached to Kṛṣṇa, then we go into refining our devotional service, practicing avoiding offenses and breaking of principles. But immediately anyone, if they come, they can taste this happiness in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And naturally, once one receives that happiness, automatically everything else is achieved. One becomes fixed in devotional service to Kṛṣṇa.

So, just as Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmī directly tried to approach Lord Caitanya and was refused by Lord Caitanya, instead he was told that, “No you just practice in your home, devotional service. You don’t have to join Me.” Then after about one year, Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmī, he was feeling an intense separation from Lord Caitanya. He followed His orders, everything had worked out quite alright, but he was feeling that, “Somehow I have not been accepted by Lord Caitanya because I did not approach Him in a proper mood.” So, that time, Nityānanda prabhu was there at Pānihāṭi and he approached Lord Nityānanda. He fell down at His lotus feet and said, “Please forgive me. I’ve committed so many offenses.” And then Nityānanda said, “Yes. You tried to directly approach Lord Caitanya, avoiding Me. You tried to directly approach the Supreme Lord, avoiding the guru.” Nityānanda is ādi-guru. He’s the first spiritual master, you see. So, to approach… just as we have to approach Lord Caitanya through Nityānanda, to approach Kṛṣṇa, we have to go through the guru.

To get to Nityānanda, you go through guru who is the original… he’s the representative of Lord Nityānanda, and by Nityānanda… guru’s mercy, we get Nitāi’s mercy. By Nitāi’s mercy we get Lord Caitanya’s mercy. By Lord Caitanya’s mercy we get the mercy of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. Of course, then you know that Lord Nityānanda, He then told Raghunātha Dāsa that, “Now I’m going to punish you for your offence.” And that punishment was that he had to feed everyone with cīrā and doi, with chipped rice and yogurt, fruits. So, being the son of a zamindar, type of king, Raghunatha Dāsa, he took it as a great punishment as well as a great mercy. So, he arranged prasāda for all of the devotees.

So, here it’s very nice that in New Vṛndāvana, that the very first temple… of course is Prabhupāda’s palace, teaching that to enter Vṛndāvana, first we have to go through the mercy of guru. By the mercy of guru, we get the mercy of Nitāi-Gaura. By his mercy, then we can really understand Rādhā-Vṛndāvanacandra, Rādhā-Madhava, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. We can understand the true glories of Vṛndāvana-Dhāma.

We may commit so many offenses in Vṛndāvana, but by the mercy of guru and Lord Caitanya, these offenses can be quickly absolved. Therefore, we need their mercy before we can grow and worship properly in Vṛndāvana. Otherwise, directly it’s very difficult to actually properly perform our devotional service in Vṛndāvana. Vṛndāvana is on the level of pure love, but the guru and Nitāi-Gaura, they are all-merciful. So, they can absolve us of any mistakes that we make, making it actually possible for us to properly serve, for our service to be accepted while we serve in Vṛndāvana.

The holy dhāma, is not limited. We have to see the holy dhāma as being beyond time and place. In the spiritual world, Kṛṣṇa’s eternally existing in His eternal dhāma and that eternal dhāma, He manifests in the material world in Vṛndāvana, in Navadvīpa, where he appears and performs His pastimes, but the Bhāgavatam also describes that where all the devotees are gathered together and glorifying Him, there the Lord is present.

The dhāma also means the heart of the devotees. So, when all the devotees are coming together, when they’re chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, when they’re performing devotional service, glorifying the Lord, the Lord becomes fixed up in their heart, and that place becomes the residence of the Lord. It becomes the holy dhāma. As long as the devotees are chanting and serving and keeping Kṛṣṇa in the center, then anyone who comes to that dhāma, that sacred place of pilgrimage, they will actually feel the transcendental effect.

Just as recently, we heard that in the television, the announcer said, after touring New Vṛndāvana, he said, “Now we are leaving the spiritual world and going into the material world.” (laughter) So, they could accept that Śrīla Prabhupāda’s temple, it was a different atmosphere. It was the spiritual world. That effect is there because of the devotees worshiping the Lord. The Lord personally resides there. So, thats Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mercy that he didn’t want to limit the holy dhāma in any way, rather… nor did he want to glorify the original holy dhāmas in Māyāpura and Vṛndāvana, but wanted that the holy dhāmas should be manifested all over the universe in different temples. Each temple is like a śrīpāṭha. It’s also a residence of the Lord where people can go and gain spiritual shelter.

Of course, purity is the force. As much as we can maintain the purity in those temples, so shall the Lord manifest His transcendental presence. Of course, He can always exceptionally manifest out of His own free will.

So, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is meant for everyone. Man, woman child, young, old. All the races of the world, Kṛṣṇa consciousness is meant for everyone. We are born in this world. Everyone is searching happiness, but what is the real purpose of life? That of course, human beings, we can ask. Athāto brahma jijñāsā (Vs. 1.1.1). If we don’t ask, then what type of human being are we? Human being is meant to ask, “Where have I come from? Where am I going? What is the cause of the universe? What is beyond this planet? Are there creatures on other planets?” Like we are intelligent, “Are we to think that all the other planets, there’s no intelligent beings there? How is it possible? So what are on these other planets?” These are all the questions of human beings, so the Kṛṣṇa conscious movement is not a sectarian practice that is meant just for people who like Indian culture, or people who are fed up with the Christianity or Islam or Judiasm or whatever, no. People of all these faiths of the world, all different shades of agnosticism or whatever they may be, for everyone, these principles of Kṛṣṇa consciousness that serve in finding or realizing one’s relationship with God and acting in that relationship, these are applicable for everyone.

Just a simple example: When Prabhupāda described the Bhagavad-Gītā śloka (2.13), kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati. That dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati - just as they’re growing from kaumāra, childhood to yauvana, youth, to jarā, to old age, similarly at the time of death we also changing our body just as we’re changing so many bodies from childhood body to youthful body to old age body, so Prabhupāda said that what is sectarian about that statement? Only the Hindus are going from childhood to youth to old age? Not the Christians? Not the Jews? Not the Muslims? Not the atheists? Not the dogs? Everyone is going from childhood to youth to old age.

The Bhagavad-gītā was not spoken with the idea that, “This is only for one section of the human beings.” It was spoken for the entire human race, without any exception. In fact, it was even spoken for the benefit of demigods who were present. Everything about Kṛṣṇa consciousness is universal. It is meant for everyone. Therefore, people who come here, they don’t have to feel that, “Well is there anything wrong if I chant? Or if I participate, or if I start to feel happy?” There’s nothing at all wrong. You just let yourself be happy chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, feasting on the prasādam. Don’t at all feel self-conscious. Here, no one is looking that, “Oh, that person is chanting.” Rather they are looking, “Oh, he’s not chanting.” (laughter) “Why he is, or she is not chanting?” You see.

Here, everyone can feel very much at ease for chanting and for just becoming happy in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We come into this world. We want to find out what are the answers, but actually that’s a very long path, the path of self-realization. At the end of that path, there’s pure nectar, pure bliss. So this Kṛṣṇa conscious movement is so wonderful that first you’re getting the nectar, so why should you complain? First you get the nectar, the pure bliss. Even in the beginning, simply by chanting:

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

You see. And by chanting the consciousness is purified. All the answers are revealed very easily. Our consciousness requires to be purified to understand philosophical concepts. We have to open our vision. That is automatically done by cleansing away… Actually, we are all Kṛṣṇa conscious. It’s not the people become Kṛṣṇa conscious. Everybody already is Kṛṣṇa conscious. It’s just that that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is covered up. Simply we have to remove the dirts and the Kṛṣṇa consciousness is there. Every day we go out in the street. We get our clothes dirty. We don’t think twice to wash our cloth, but we don’t realize every day we go out, in our car with our family and our friends in our society, our consciousness is being soiled with lust, anger, greed, with illusion, with intoxication, with envy. And we’ve built up a coating of karmas, a coating of contaminations over our original pure Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and we’re seeing everything through that colored glass of those coverings. Therefore, we see ourselves as being, young or old, as American, as a Chinese or as an Indian. As a Catholic or as a Protestant or whatever. As a Capitalist, or a Communist. These are all superficial coverings. And by chanting

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare 

Those artificial coverings, those dirts get cleansed away. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpanaṁ. As soon as they’re cleansed away, the first symptom is you feel transcendental happiness. You feel the miseries going away. Bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpanaṁ the forest fire of miseries are given away.

So we thank the organizers of the festival for making this program for us to come together and chant. In the Upadeśāmṛta, Śrīla Prabhupāda, in translating the six exchanges of loving relationships of devotees, namely offering of foodstuff, accepting foodstuff, offering of a gift and accepting a gift in return, offering of some… one’s mind and accepting one’s confidential talks: these six exchanges, in the purport, Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that the whole International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness has been made so the devotees can exchange loving relations and loving feelings between each other.

Śrīla Prabhupāda kī...!

Devotees: Jaya!

Jayapatākā Swami: So, that we can come together and we can discuss Kṛṣṇa and we can exchange His intimate spiritual loving exchanges and increase our closeness, bring us together and to uplift the consciousness… a festival in Sanskrit is called utsava. The ut means transcendental, means to uplift. The utsava means that time when everyone’s spirit, everyone’s transcendental mood is uplifted. Normally, in the modern day, we find festival, everyone goes and gets drunk and then they go to sleep. Where’s the questions of uplifting? They go under the table. You see. But here, we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Actually, people forget about sleeping and forget about so many bodily considerations. Even they live in crowded conditions, or they accept sometimes so many physically what might seem to be inconveniences, but because their consciousness is being uplifted in the association of so many devotees, and the loving exchanges with so many devotees, that these things are completely considered insignificant. There’s actually an upliftment of consciosuness. Then, many devotees come together, that’s called mahā-utsava, or mahotsava, a great upliftment of consciuosness. So everyone should see while they’re here that they keep their consciousness in the transcendental platform by always exchanging in these loving exchanges, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, keeping the mind focused on Kṛṣṇa. This is our secret of success. Then we’ll always be tasting nectar at every step. Purṇa… prati-padaṁ pūrṇāmṛtāsvādanaṁ sarvātma-snapanaṁ paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam (Śikṣāṣṭakam 1)

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 

Are there any questions?

Yes?

Devotee: Yes I was wondering how important is faith in chanting? Like one goes on (inaudible) consciousness, devotional service. So I was reading the ninth chapter, and Prabhupāda says that faith is the most important thing, so I was just wondering if keeping faith is the most important part of chanting, then you’ll actually… the process really works, and you become purified and self-realized.

Jayapatākā Swami: In the same Upadeśāmṛta, Sanātana Gosvāmī described the first thing is enthusiasm. Utsāhān niścayād dhairyāt (NOI. 3). Then next is the… being convinced, being determined. And confident. That, “By chanting, we will achieve the desired result.” Of course, then the third is patience. That, “Even if it takes little longer than what we may have expected or hoped, we should be patient. We shouldn’t lose our faith. So, these three aspects, you can see how they are fitting with each other.

The faith is something that cannot just be manufactured. It comes naturally. Initially we place some faith. Just like, nowadays in America, they use a similar system for building up credit. They give you a little loan. You pay it back. They give you a little bigger loan, you pay it back. As you keep on paying back your loans, you get more and more credit. So, in the same way, as you put your faith in Kṛṣṇa, or if at first you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, that’s also faith. You chant and then you start to get some reciprocation. Then, you start giving some service. You start doing some more. And as you’re doing more and more, putting more faith in Kṛṣṇa, you get more reciprocation.

But, sometimes, a devotee is not very careful and although, apparently they’re putting some faith in Kṛṣṇa, they may be committing some offenses, or may actually, only be externally putting faith in Kṛṣṇa, internally, they may have differnet plans, so they don’t get that complete reciprocation. Then they start to apparently lose faith. It's not losing faith. That meant they didn’t give their faith to begin with. Therefore we’re advised by Lord Caitanya, in the Madhya-līlā of the Caitanya-caritāmṛta that we have to… first of all, to develop this high level of faith, we have to pull out the weed, the anarthas, the upaśākhās. He names six main ones, but there are many. He mentions jīva-hiṁsa, the first one is...

'niṣiddhācāra', 'kuṭīnāṭī', 'jīva-hiṁsana' 
'lābha', 'pūjā', 'pratiṣṭhādi' yata upaśākhā-gaṇa
(Cc. Madhya 19.159)

That first one is the forbidden activities. Like breaking regulative principles. Second one is kuṭīnāṭī. Diplomatic behavior, being unstraightforward when dealing with Vaiṣṇavas, being motivated but trying to appear unmotivated, all those things. Then, jīva-hiṁsā, unneccesary violence, cruelty, dealing harshly with others, or killing animals. Then lābha, pūjā, pratiṣṭhādi: Profit - lābha, pūjā - worship and pratiṣṭhā - importance, position. All these type of desire or practicing activities which fall under these categories and other similar categories, they’re weeds. So, the weeds, you know that if you water your field, you go through the labor of watering, fertilizing, but if you have weeds in the field, the weeds may outgrow your standing crop of sorghum or maize or whatever you’re growing.

In fact, in Murāri I just saw one field like that. I just came from Murāri Sevaka (our farm community like New Vṛndāvana in Tennessee). They had one field where the weeds have outdone the other crops. So, because they didn’t properly take out the weeds, they allowed the seeds to go there, they grew up, they did it in what they called (inaudible) or something, and so therefore, the field became overrun with weeds. So, you could only see smothered amongst all those weeds was some stunted plant of corn or something. That wasn’t… just one field was like that. Otherwise, they’re doing alright.

So this is the same thing can happen to our devotional creeper. We may put on this show of cultivation, of putting our faith, but if we these weeds there, then instead of actually our devotional creeper growing, these weeds may grow, and then it smothers our enthusiasm. It smothers our determination. It smothers our original devotional creeper. So, that’s why we also have to have the humility that if we’re not getting the reciprocation, not to think that, “Well” doubt Kṛṣṇa, or doubt the guru. Rather we should approach the spiritual master, senior Vaiṣṇavas, see that “What is the weed that I must be… must be growing. Some offenses, some weed must be growing. Otherwise, certainly I would be getting more Kṛṣṇa conscious happiness by my devotional service.”

So in this way, we put our faith in Kṛṣṇa. More and more, He will reciprocate, and as… even He may make it difficult for us sometimes, or māyā will make it difficult, and then again we have to learn to rely on Kṛṣṇa and He helps us. And this is what… again this is like increasing your credit rating, increases your faith rating. Even in difficulty you didn’t fold. You didn’t look to someone else to help you; you looked to Kṛṣṇa.

What was the greatness of the Pāṇḍavas? In every difficulty, who did they look to as their only helper, as their only shelter? Simply Kṛṣṇa. Therefore, they’re glorified. Duryodhana, he depended on his intelligence, on his strength, on his diplomacy, on his military allies, on his political intrigues, this is what Duryodhana armed himself with. And the Pāṇḍavas, they armed themselves with Kṛṣṇa’s mercy. So Arjuna, he won the battlefield. He achieved Kṛṣṇa’s eternal mercy. And Duryodhana with all his family members were all killed. So you decide whether one should follow the footsteps of Arjuna, placing faith in Kṛṣṇa, or placing rather, like Duryodhana’s, faith in ones own limited materialistic sense activities. What do you think is the best course of action?

Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Devotees: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Yes?

Devotee: Śrīla Prabhupāda… So Kṛṣṇa consciousness is like a festival, even saṅkīrtana, but sometimes if one gets a little bit too much of an enjoying mood, sometimes maybe he loses an interest to study, or maybe he just isn’t… he’s not in a mood to read the books. He doesn’t see that also as… It seems there's a different mood. If he fixes his mind, or there’s someone to do it, is there anything wrong with that?

Jayapatākā Swami: Could be. Every devotee is different. Of course we have devotees in India who don’t know how to read and write, frankly. But the do saṅkīrtana and they do service, but they have to… some of them, they know only enough to read the title of the book. They can’t read what’s in the book. Because they’re farmer boys, something. They joined. Only 29% of the population of India is literate. So, there you have a unique situation where you can hardly tell them that you have to read the books everyday. Somehow or another, they maintain, but in the Western countries, we’re very habituated to thinking, to speculating, to trying to philosophize in different ways, and its more essential, the more that one has already become habituated to reading, and thinking in that way, the more complex one becomes, it’s more essential that we keep our mind purified and stop from speculating.

So whether you’re illiterate, you have to hear the class every day for two hours, or whether you’re literate then you have to hear the class, plus read something, we have to keep the mind filled with Kṛṣṇa, somehow or another. And we may have a temporary… we may have some enthusiasm, but if we don’t regularly hear the Bhāgavatam, either by personal reading and classes, or by classes, then gradually our mind can start to become contaminated by material speculations. Therefore, we advise, bhāgavata nitya sevayā, that daily we should read the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. That’s our nitya-sevā, our daily service, eternally. So, if we’re not attending the two hours class a day, we should be reading two hours a day. We should be filling our mind with the Bhāgavatam. Gītā, Bhāgavata; that will help us to control the mind and to remain enthusiastic to remain in the full taste of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

In this Kali-yuga, that is like charging our battery, hearing the Bhāgavatam, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. Simply serving without hearing Bhāgavatam, without chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, one cannot maintain indefinately. The material energy of Kali-yuga is very powerful; it will draw the mind away. Śrīla Prabhupāda has given us a perfect system of having regular classes twice in a day, reading his transcendental books, chanting every day at least sixteen rounds for initiated disciples. If we follow, then we can remain very safe. We can actually keep that taste for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If we start to neglect, then our mind and senses will gradually become stronger, and it will become harder and harder for the soul, spiritually directed intelligence to control the mind and senses. They will leap out at one point or another and embarrass us.

Is that alright?

He had a…

Devotee: We had the instruction… the general instruction to depend on Kṛṣṇa and offer His Mūrti. Like you were speaking…

Jayapatākā Swami: Mano-vrata, the six parts of surrender.

Devotee: Then you were speaking in the beginning of getting the mercy of Lord Caitanya by approaching through Lord Nityānanda, but then we also have the general understanding that the spiritual master is the transparent media for these exchanges. So to actually call out to Lord Nityānanda, is that bypassing your spiritual master? Is that an acceptable, direct to identify…?

Jayapatākā Swami: Well, if one… when Lord Caitanya was personally present, then Nityānanda was representing that guru-tattva, you see. Now, Nityānanda is personally present in the form of… is representated by the guru, so we serve Nityānanda through the spiritual master. Spiritual master is considered to be the most confidential servitor of Lord Nityānanda. So, if one tries to directly approach Nitāi-Gaura without a spiritual master, that will also be a… considered jumping over. But with the blessing… Prabhupāda said, “You try to cling at the lotus feet of Nitāi-Gaura.” So, that’s his order, so following his order, you’re not bypassing, or jumping over him. You’re just carrying out his instruction. He said, “Cling to Their lotus feet.”

Because, you see it’s a practically established fact that in Kali-yuga we are going to commit, or we have already committed so many offenses or mistakes, before we even came, and we are liable to at any moment develop some offensive mentality. But Nitāi-Gaura’s mercy is that They can forgive one of all these offenses so we can actually worship Kṛṣṇa properly. The example is given that in Vṛndāvana, the demons came and Kṛṣṇa killed them and gave them liberation. But in Navadvīpa, the demons came and Nitāi-Gaura… just like Jagāi and Mādhāi, They didn’t kill them. Instead they delivered them and gave them pure devotion, you see.

If we approach Kṛṣṇa with an offensive mentality, His Vṛndāvana-līlā would call for Him to (laughter) you see, but Lord Caitanya’s mercy is that even we come with an offensive mentality, once we determine… we actually become determined to give up our offensive mentality,to correct ourself, well He has the mercy and the special quality of giving previously offensive people that mercy that they can give up their offenses and they can approach Kṛṣṇa in the pure mentality.

So that we… we’re doing it automatically through the spiritual master, when we are engaging in the saṅkīrtana-yajña, that’s on the order of Lord Caitanya. We’re… We are approaching Vṛndāvana through saṅkīrtana, through preaching. While we’re preaching, then we can experience Vṛndāvana. While we’re engaging in saṅkīrtana, that moment we’ll be able to experience our intimate relationship with Vṛndāvana… the most intense. Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, in his poem 'duṣṭa mana! tumi kisera vaiṣṇava?' (Vaiṣṇava Ke?), Prabhupāda in his poem Vṛndāvane Bhajana, meaning… those two poems, “Materialistic Mind, What Kind of Vaiṣṇava Are You?” And “Worshipping Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana.” By Prabhupāda. First one was by Bhaktisiddhānta, and both of the… the ultimate conclusion was that while one with so many devotees engaged cooperatively in the saṅkīrtana movement, in glorifying the Lord, following in the ste… footsteps of the gopīs: They’re always glorifying Kṛṣṇa.

Following in the footsteps of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, at that moment, you can actually understand Vṛndāvana. You can actually understand your intimate relationship with Kṛṣṇa. Not by imitating so-called, imi… misimitating, misinterpreting what were the lives of the gosvāmīs and going and just staying in the holy place and not engaging in the preaching work, in the saṅkīrtana movement. That won’t bring the desired result, but engaging in the saṅkīrtana movement means very quickly that realization of our intimate eternal relationship with Kṛṣṇa, in His holy dhāma of Vṛndāvana. Therefore, even in Māyāpur, Prabhupāda said that “This Māyāpur Candrodaya Mandir is Lord Caitanya’s karma-sthāna.” He (Kṛṣṇa) said in Bhagavad-Gītā (4.9),

janma karma ca me divyam
evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ 
tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma
naiti mām eti so 'rjuna

One who knows the transcendental nature of My birth and My activities, does not have to take again, rebirth in this material world, but comes back to Me.

So Prabhupāda said, janma and karma, these two things are there: birth and activities. So Kṛṣṇa was born in Mathura, he went to Vṛndāvana. Similarly, Lord Caitanya… birth is just a short… “What is more important” he asked us. “Birth? Just His birth? Or the activities for the rest of His life?” So the activities are more important, not that… birth is also transcendental, that appearance is transcendental, not ordinary, but His activities, they’re more important, so Śrīla Prabhupāda is saying, “This is the karma-sthāna. This is the place of Kṛṣṇa-Caitanya’s activities. Similarly all over the world, we are manifesting the activities of Lord Caitanya’s saṅkīrtana movement.” So that is more important.

So this way, how we can engage in these activities, that we do by the mercy of guru. He’s the one who instructs us how to perform these activities and the activities he instructs us are the activities which are authorized by Nitāi… [audio interrupted]… mercy of guru, taking his permission, then we approach Nitāi-Gaura to give us Their mercy that we can then also understand what is the real meaning of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa worship.

Is that alright?

He had his hand up.

Devotee: So Śrīla Prabhupāda, he had published first the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, the seventh chapter of volume two of Caitanya-caritāmṛta and in this section of Caitanya-caritāmṛta, he preached very much about the chanting of śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda, like that, so after that… before the devotees didn’t chant so much śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya. We chanted Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa, but we didn’t chant this other mantra so much, and after doing that, I was wondering if there was some special recommendation for many chanting… chanting say a whole mantra… a whole 108 mantras of this name, or is it sufficient do you think just to chant once, or do you think… I would like to know if there’s some special recommendation to chant the pañca-tattva mantra.

Jayapatākā Swami: Śrīla Prabhupāda said that before we chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, we should chant the pañca-tattva mantra, but he didn’t give any number. I remember that my... in the beginning of the movement, sometimes he would have whole kīrtanas of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya going on for half hour or one hour and then in the end, Hare Kṛṣṇa. Recently Brahmānanda Mahārāja said that Prabhupāda told him that for Africa, you should especially concentrate on the pañca-tattva mantra. (laughter) because if people are very fallen, then Lord Caitanya’s mercy is more. But Lord Caitanya ordered us that we have to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, therefore, we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Were there any questions from the mothers?

Yes?

Jayapatākā Swami: You all heard the question? The question was “If Kṛṣṇa’s equal to everyone, then why He gives some people mercy, or what is the idea behind… about mercy?” Am I correct?

So the mercy comes that first the equality is that Kṛṣṇa gives everyone the opportunity to get whatever they want, and the demons want to forget about Kṛṣṇa, the atheists, so He also allows them to forget. The devotees want to know Kṛṣṇa, so He gives them the opportunity to know. Now, accordingly to the law of karma in the material world one works and he gets the result, but Kṛṣṇa sanctions every result. But when one will get, that’s also His mercy, so Prabhupāda took it down right to the final last denominator that actually we can do nothing. All we can do is desire. “I wish to do this.” Icchā.

We desire to do something, we desire to speak. Kṛṣṇa gives us the ability to speak. Because we want to speak, the athlete wants to run. He has no… if… in one second he can just become paralyzed. Why a rock cannot speak and we can speak? The body is running automatically. The person doesn’t think, now I’m going to move my jaw and there are 37 muscles in the face, or 58 and they’re all moving this way. It’s just happening automatically. That also is through the mercy of Kṛṣṇa, that He’s working through His material energy. So in the terms of devotional service, actually speaking we may want to achieve Kṛṣṇa but we… if it was purely a question of equality, then we should be 100%, cent percent fixed in Kṛṣṇa, and then we could expect that we could get Kṛṣṇa. But practically speaking even when Kṛṣṇa told Arjuna that, “You should think of Me 100% of the time.” He said that, “It’s not at all possible. It’s easier to control the hurricane, than to control one’s mind. I cannot guarantee that 100% of the time, I’ll only think of You.” But then Kṛṣṇa said, “You practice thinking about Me, then still you will come to Me.”

So, actually to achieve Kṛṣṇa is such a great thing that there’s no amount of work you could do to actually deserve it. If it was just a question of equality, there’s actually no amount of work that one could do to actually deserve to get Kṛṣṇa, but when a soul is desiring to have Kṛṣṇa and that soul is also trying to do something pleasing to Kṛṣṇa in that direction, so then Kṛṣṇa out of His own mercy, He accepts that devotee, even before that devotee deserves to actually be brought back to Kṛṣṇa. So, because the devotee is desiring to reach Kṛṣṇa another is desiring to forget Kṛṣṇa and someone is desiring to become the President, and Kṛṣṇa’s giving them the opportunity to go off to their desires, but that He gives people their desire, especially the desire to return back to Him, even before they should get it, even before technically they’re 100% ready for it, but He just speeds up the process. That’s His mercy.

Is that clear?

Devotee: When Jagāi and Mādhāi got special mercy from Gaura-Nitāi, they never engaged anymore in abominable way, in a sinful way. So what would happen to a person who accepts a spiritual master, but somehow or another, by misfortune or by some kind of contamination, he again falls in… falls down? But if it’s possible to gain the shelter of the spiritual master? Is there a way for him to become again, accepted by the Lord.

Jayapatākā Swami: You’re saying that Jagāi and Mādhāi , once they surrendered to Lord Caitanya, that they promised never to break the principles again, and they kept their vow. What happens if someone who has made similar vows to their spiritual master, breaks them subsequently falls down, falls away and then he comes back. You’re asking if he can come back, or no?

Devotee: No. If he comes back, will he be again accepted by the Lord… Oh, by his spiritual master…

Jayapatākā Swami: If the spiritual master accepts him…

Devotee: Yeah, again.

Jayapatākā Swami: If the spiritual master accepts him, then why the Lord will not accept? The spiritual master is not independent. He’s acting on behalf of the Lord, so if the person falls down, again comes back, surrenders to their spiritual master and again takes up devotional service, then again that person can be reinstated in his relationship, in his devotional service. Whether or not he’ll be able, since he’s lost that time, to finish up in this one birth, that’s another question that can only be answered by Kṛṣṇa, but no matter how… if a person falls away, he can always come back to Kṛṣṇa. We’re eternally related to Kṛṣṇa.

Our falling away is a temporary thing. Even we fall away, and we commit offenses and we lose the association of guru, even we commit guru-aparādha, for one million lifetimes of Brahmā we may not get a guru, but then after that, we may again get guru sometime. And then again we may go back to Kṛṣṇa. So, even a million lifetimes of Brahmā in eternity is only a drop, but at this point, we don’t want to delay our going back to Kṛṣṇa by one million lifetimes of Brahmā, so we avoid committing offenses to the guru. (devotees laughing) And somehow or another if we make any mistake and we come to our senses to realize that we’re making mistake, that we’ve become mislead, then as quickly as possible, we should run back and cling to the lotus feet of our spiritual master and beg his forgiveness and somehow or another be reinstated in the service of Kṛṣṇa and try to our utmost never to become mislead like that by māyā again. And then there’s still the hope that we can get back to Kṛṣṇa, even in this life. And even if we can’t get in this life, at least we will be so much closer to Kṛṣṇa, and we’ll be given every opportunity to get back in our next life.

But if we leave… if we come back and surrender to the spiritual master, we (unclear) in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, there’s every assurance that we won’t have to again come back to material consciousness. After all yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvet tyajaty ante kalevaram it’s how we end the game, especially that’s the most important, you see. If at the very end of life, you’re able to fully concentrate on Kṛṣṇa, then also that’s enough. Ajāmila, his whole life, he was… he fell away from guru. The last moment he chanted the name of Nārāyaṇa. Because of that one last moment he remembered Kṛṣṇa. He was delivered, but that’s cutting it very close. (Devotees laughing) So, if you can come back with more time than that, then it’s much better. If you don’t take it to the last breath, if you choke up, then it may be too late.

Yes?

Devotee: (inaudible) I don’t know anything about Kṛṣṇa. I don’t know what is the truth.

Jayapatākā Swami: So that same question was asked by Mahārāja Nimi to the Nava-yogendras in the twel… eleventh canto, Bhāgavatam, and they described what are the qualities of a spiritual master, of a pure devotee. Similarly in the Bhāgavatam… in the scriptures you’ll find the qualities of a bona fide spiritual master, of a devotee who is a bona fide devotee, a mahā-bhāgavata.

So, according to the qualifications given in the scripture, a person who wants to find a bona fide spiritual master, he has to see the scripture, hear from other devotees, who is a bona fide spiritual master, then he can approach different spiritual masters, he can test them. He can test them by asking questions, by applying those questions and answers in his life, seeing if they’re effective, and then when one is fully confident, that the person is in a bona fide disciplic succession, that the person is following the instructions of the scriptures, he has the basic qualities that are mentioned in the scriptures, then one should immediately surrender unto that person and accept him as a spiritual master.

So there’s no alternative… you have to… you may say, “There are many spiritual masters around. What to be done?” Every day you’re going out to buy a car. There are many car dealers around. Some of them are selling lemons. Some of them are selling good cars. So there may be spiritual masters; some may be bogus and some may be real. So you have to know what is the real spiritual master and you have to go and you have to test. As soon as you find the real one, then you should go and you should take shelter.

If you say that “Because they seem to be contradictions, or their seem to be false spiritual masters, I become angry. I don’t want to take any spiritual master.” then you won’t make any progress. Kṛṣṇa says that if one doesn’t put his faith in anyone, then he can neither be happy in this life, or in the next. So, ultimately you have to put your faith. That way… Kṛṣṇa’s in the heart. If you want to approach Kṛṣṇa, if you want to actually reach Kṛṣṇa, if you want to achieve the Supreme Absolute Truth, if you’re desiring in that way, Kṛṣṇa will lead you to a bona fide spiritual master. And even if one, by some mistake gets a false spiritual master, but if he’s sincere, that will also be revealed to him, at that time, that false spiritual master, (inaudible) “Actually he’s not bona fide.” Then in that case he has to be given up, he’s not a he’s not a spiritual master. So we have to try according to the scriptures, according to the sādhūs, the other advanced devotees, you have to find out who’s the bona fide spiritual master, then you take shelter, you put some faith and you depend on Kṛṣṇa, and then if you’re sincere, Kṛṣṇa will always help you. Prabhupāda gave the example, cheaters and the cheated. That in India, in some of the holy places, sometimes women with loose morals, they would go there because they wanted to seduce a sannyāsī, because their whole life they’re brahmacārīs, they thought that would be some special conquest, so… some of them are also successful, but so what happened is some debauchee men, they saw this, that women are going to the holy places trying to get sādhūs, so they came and they dressed like sādhūs to go there and get the women. So, Prabhupāda said, “This is cheaters and the cheated.” (Devotees laughing) You see.

So that is happening that pure spiritual master is giving absolute truth. He’s giving, “This is what you have to do. This is good for you. This is bad.” But then someone’s thinking, “Well, I have this idea. Can I find someone who gives according to my idea?” They’re not thinking, “What is the truth?” But they have some preconceived notion. They want that packaged ready solution. So, just to suit those type of not real seekers of the truth, the cheaters, so similarly some people are coming ready made to cheat them. One has to become detached from sense gratification, regulate ones material life and become transcendental to material desire by developing a higher spiritual taste, but there are people, they want to have their cake and eat it too. They want to think that they’re very spiritually advanced and just be swimming in the ocean of sense gratification, you see. So there are some bogus gurus that they teach them how to swim in the ocean of sense gratification and tell them, “This is very spiritual.” But they’re all simply going deeper and deeper into darkest regions of materialistic existence. They’re not going any closer to Kṛṣṇa.

So therefore, one has to actually be sincere, and actually take that determination, “Whatever it is, I want to know what is the truth. What is ultimately the end of all existence, what is the origin, what is the goal? If it’s difficult to achieve, or easy to achieve, that’s a separate issue. First, let me see what is the supreme destination then let me try for it.” Don’t compromise on absolute truth; you’ll get something else. So, that way, requires also some mercy.

brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva
guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja
(Cc. Madhya 19.151)

We wander throughout the universe, birth after birth. Somehow we get the desire to return back to Kṛṣṇa, back to the Supreme Lord, back to Godhead. Then, by Kṛṣṇa’s mercy, he leads us to the bona fide spiritual master, and that spiritual master then advises, how to go back to Kṛṣṇa. So, that mercy of guru and Kṛṣṇa, that cooperation is there. The person is sincere, he’ll be lead to a bona fide guru.

Mother? Yes. 

Devotee: (inaudible)

? Jayapatākā Swami: When this question was asked to Śrīla Prabhupāda, he would reply that when the spiritual master is satisfied that means that Kṛṣṇa is satisfied. Devotee may get an idea how to serve Kṛṣṇa, but then that should be confirmed.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

(*darśana opens*)

Devotee: Rādhā-Vṛndāvana-naṭabara kī...! Jaya!

Jayapatākā Swami: This is who?

Devotee: Rādhā-Vṛndāvana-naṭabara.

Jayapatākā Swami: Vṛndāvana-naṭabara. Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Vṛndāvana-natabara, kī...!

Devotees: Jaya!

Jayapatākā Swami: That way we have sādhu, śāstra, guru for testing. Whether something is going to be pleasing for Kṛṣṇa, we have our senior devotees, we have our spiritual master’s instructions, we have the scripture, the śāstra, so between these three, we have to do everything authorized. We don’t take any risks. We don’t gamble. If we don’t know that it is authorized, if we’re in doubt, you see, then we shouldn’t take any risk. We shouldn’t gamble. We should not do anything whimsically. That means that everything we do should be authorized by the scripture by the sādhūs, by the spiritual master, by one or all, as many as possible.

Devotee: Is Lord Caitanya merciful upon time, place and circumstance, for example a mleccha like me that joined His saṅkīrtana movement (inaudible) purified, toward like someone who was born in the future genera… will be born in the future generation, when the whole world is Kṛṣṇa conscious…

Jayapatākā Swami: You’re saying is Lord Caitanya merciful according to time place and circumstance. Well because someone fallen in this particular age, will He give the mercy to in other times, other mercy? Well, we find practical example of Lord Caitanya is that His devotee Junior Haridāsa, was in the renounced order. He behaved irresponsibly, associating improperly with women and he was rejected by Lord Caitanya, on the one hand. But on the other hand, other gṛhastha devotees who were actually married, had children, they would come with the newborn babies. He would name the babies sometimes, would bless them. So, we can see that Lord Caitanya would deal with different people, differently. Wouldn’t deal with everyone the same, so we can expect that to continue. Especially Lord Caitanya is more merciful, the more fallen that one is, if one is very humble. The more proud one is, the more difficult to get the mercy of Lord Caitanya. The more humble one is, the easier to get the mercy of Lord Caitanya.

Question?

Devotee: In the beginning of that process, sometime we… we see lots of impurity coming out from them. We see all the impurity of the mind, the way of thinking and all that, but it’s good to see it, you know, to get away from that, but in the same time, it’s not very ecstatic to feel all this impurity going out. What should be the mood of the devotee during this… this experience.

Jayapatākā Swami: I couldn’t understand, exactly.

Devotee: He would like to know what should the mood of the devotee be, while he’s experiencing…

Devotee: How should he take it?

Devotee: … the impurities due to his previous contamination whilst undergoing the process of sādhana-bhakti? How should… 

Jayapatākā Swami: He should feel lower than the straw in the street. You should feel actually repentant, that how fallen you were. How you had been so mislead. How you committed so many activities which were simply detrimental to your spiritual advancement, offensive to Kṛṣṇa, then while one is being purified, then naturally one will uh, by actually being repentant or being uh, humbled by that, that will bring one closer and actually attract the mercy of the Lord more intensely.

? Devotee: So it’s mercy to see exactly how fallen we are.

Jayapatākā Swami: Yes. I mean, the exact psychology that you’re representing, I don’t think that I perfectly… it’s appropriate. I don’t perfectly… maybe I don’t understand, but in becoming purified, one doesn’t... it’s not a painful situation when one is advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, it’s rather relieving situation.

Because one needs purification, that one feels in anxiety. Once you’re getting purified, then it’s already beyond that. Now there is… if you’re feeling anxiety because of so many attachments, that’s Kṛṣṇa’s way of showing you, through His material energy, māyā, what are the obstacles standing between you and Him. So, by seeing those things, if one takes the proper attitude, and starts to follow the instructions of the spiritual master and surrender, and actually feels humble and feels sorry or repentant that he’s done so many different things, that these, so many contaminations are there, and then in this way, allows the mind to become more intensely surrendered and cling to the lotus feet of Nitāi-Gaura, then actually it brings one quicker to Kṛṣṇa. But if one looks at those things with attachment, that, “Oh, what I am missing…” And feeling that pain, pain of sepāration from sense gratification, then of course, there’s going to be difficulty because the person is in illusion because… as still identifying with the body, rather than identifying with Kṛṣṇa and one’s eternal self. One is misidentifying with the sense gratification of the body, therefore feeling anxiety. So, one has to adjust that mentality by chanting, and gradually by chanting one will be able to see that one is not this material body, but is a pure spirit soul.