19830328 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.25.23 Gaura-Pūrṇimā

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on March 28, 1983 in Śrīdhāma, Māyāpura. The class begins with a lecture from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 3rd Canto, Chapter 25, Verse 23.

Translation: Engaged constantly in chanting and hearing about Me, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the sādhus do not suffer from material miseries because they are always filled with thoughts of My pastimes and activities

[Translation with repetition]

Purport: There are multifarious miseries in material existence — those pertaining to the body and the mind, those imposed by other living entities and those imposed by natural disturbances. But a sādhu is not disturbed by such miserable conditions because his mind is always filled with Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and thus he does not like to talk about anything but the pastimes of the Lord. Vacāṁsi vaikuṇṭha-guṇānuvarṇane (Bhāg. 9.4.18). He (Maharāja Ambarīṣa), engaged his words only in the glorification of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Sādhus are always interested in hearing about the activities of the Lord or.. His devotees. Since they are filled with Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they are forgetful of the material miseries. Ordinary conditioned souls, being forgetful of the activities of the Lord, are always full of anxieties and material tribulations. On the other hand, since the devotees always engage in the topics of the Lord, they are forgetful of the miseries of material existence.

Thus end the Purport by His Divine Grace Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Jayapatākā Swami: Engaged constantly in chanting and hearing about Me, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the sādhus do not suffer from material miseries because they are always filled with thoughts of My pastimes and activities.

So here is the secret for eradicating all misery in life. There are so many miseries and there are so many cures, but the miseries of life have never been completely cured by anyone in this material world. Just like in modern society they are inventing so many new medicines, but nature is also coming up with so many new diseases that they cannot keep up. But here, an altogether different category of transcending all the sufferings of material miseries is being given. It's very simple, not at all difficult to do; it's simply to fill the mind with thoughts of Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes and activities, with the activities and pastimes of Kṛṣṇa’s pure devotees. Not very difficult, yet, when it comes to reading every day.. one hour, two hours.. it's very difficult. Although it is not difficult still somehow or another it seems difficult to find the time. But if someone shows a Newsweek.. or a daily newspaper on the lap you can.. destroy one hour or half hour without the bat of an eyelash.

Although it is not very difficult to hear about Kṛṣṇa we are not in the habit, we are not in the practice of spontaneously hearing about Kṛṣṇa. When we hear about Kṛṣṇa, we like it. At that moment we think, "I’d rather not think about anything else, why can’t I always be hearing this nectar?" But then some other time, the devotees get into so many other discussions and their minds become.. disturbed. And from that disturbed mind then one can lose the taste, at least temporarily of devotional service, and all trouble begins. Therefore, one has the.. Bhāgavata Himself... advised us nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā, that daily we should be drinking the nectar of the Bhāgavata.

What is Bhāgavata? Prabhupāda describes.. that Bhagavad-gītā means spoken by Kṛṣṇa and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam means spoken about Kṛṣṇa. So, by hearing the glories of Kṛṣṇa, by hearing the Lord's... glories of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, we can actually forget about all the sufferings. Our mind no longer is tuned in to all those sufferings of this material world. Rather it is tuned in directly to that eternal bliss coming from the spiritual world. So.. we simply have to decide where we want to tune in to? And when we see that we are getting static, we are tuned in to the wrong channel, and we see that our mind starts to become.. disturbed, starts to become.. in an impatient, impatient state. If we start to become impatient to again hear some more discussions about Kṛṣṇa, impatient to hear more about devotional service, oh, that's a great good sign. In fact, that is the definition of beginning of spiritual life.

dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhitaḥ puṁsāṁ
viṣvaksena-kathāsu yaḥ
notpādayed yadi ratiṁ
śrama eva hi kevalam
[ŚB 1.2.8]

When we start to become eager to hear about Kṛṣṇa, eager to hear about how we can render devotional service, that means that our spiritual life is in.. proper position. And if we are not eager, if we are not desirous, if that taste is not yet developed, that means that we are still in a most neophyte stage.

So, this is a very good opportunity, this Māyāpura-Vṛndāvana pilgrimage, to hear from so many advanced devotees of the Lord, dedicated servitors of Śrīla Prabhupāda, about devotional service, about the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa, so that we can develop that taste. Yesterday it was mentioned how in parikramā, that although when we are walking to and from the places we are feeling heat, we are feeling difficulties, but when we are hearing about the pastimes of Lord Caitanya, at that moment we forget all about our surroundings, and when we come back we have a smile on our face, because we have tasted some happiness from the transcendental realm.

When Lord Advaita was here in Navadvīpa, He looked around and He saw that the people, they were not getting any juice; their juice was simply based upon sense gratification. They were simply absorbed in religious principles for material elevation, for going to heavenly planet, or for getting some material reciprocation, "Give us this day our daily bread, give us money, give us wealth, give us good education." People were absorbed simply in material wishes, and He saw that they are so unfortunate, they are missing out on the real nectar. And He started to think as a pure devotee, as a goṣṭhy-ānandī does, although He is Mahā-Viṣṇu, He was in that mood, the preaching mood, He was thinking how to bring these people to pure God consciousness, how to bring them to pure bhakti, devotional service?

Although Advaita Gosāñi in His humble state of mind, He came to the conclusion that, "I am inadequate to the job. I cannot bring them to that stage, they are too far gone. But somehow or another if Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself Caitanya comes down, if Gaurāṅga comes down, He can deliver everyone. He can give every last man, woman and child.. pure devotional service." So...

So.. Advaita Gosāñi, you know how He was so much absorbed in this mood to deliver all the fallen souls. He couldn’t tolerate that they were simply religious, that they were doing their worship to God without any desire for actually serving Kṛṣṇa and loving Kṛṣṇa. What to speak of today, people have absolutely forgotten about even worshiping God in many places. His disturbance that they are actually not real devotees of God, they are businessmen in exchange with God trying to get something back from God, not really loving God, not tasting the real nectar. Therefore, He started to do a great tapasya. He started to fast, and He started to cry out, "Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga!"

He was praying for the advent of Lord Caitanya, simultaneously nearby, while He was praying in Śāntipura, nearby Haridāsa Ṭhākura was praying in Phuliyā for the descent of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who alone can give His pure devotional service. So Advaita was fasting, He was crying, crying, CRYING, that these souls to be delivered, crying for the coming of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu and loudly shouting Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Hu hu! Crying, shouting, fasting, and then He took the Ganges water, He took the Ganges water, and He started to offer the tulasī flowers, and He had sālagrāma and He was offering the tulasī flowers. You see now our American BBT has published in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, while He was doing His pūjā, He is offering again and again worship to Lord Caitanya, praying, crying, until finally His loud shouting actually reached Caitanya Mahāprabhu and shook Him that, "I have to come." In fact, Advaita said that, "If My name is Advaita, if I am non-different from the Supreme Lord, if I am Mahā-Viṣṇu, then on My call, HE MUST COME! Otherwise My name is not Advaita, and I am not who I am."

So, because of His intense desire the Lord decided to come. Therefore, every one of us is so much indebted to Advaita Gosāñi for His bringing down Caitanya Mahāprabhu. You can imagine, even Advaita, He heard that the Lord was coming but.. Lord Caitanya, He didn’t reveal Himself. He didn’t reveal Himself that initially that He was the Lord. In fact, He used to go and sit at Advaita Gosāñi’s Bhāgavatam class with His elder brother Viśvarūpa. Whether Advaita knew or not, but He didn't reveal it, neither did Lord Caitanya, Nimāi Paṇḍita reveal it. In fact, as Nimāi Paṇḍita, Lord Caitanya was arguing and defeating so many people on the sastra. He wasn’t revealing... who He was.. until after He came back from Gaya, after Jagannātha Miśra left the world.

When He came back and He was completely in His devotional mood, He made all His students in His class, He made all of them chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. He gave them the choice, "You can go to some other teacher or you can take up the harināma with Me, whatever you like." But all the students, they didn’t want to leave Lord Caitanya. They joined Him but they told Him, "We don’t know how to do saṅkīrtana. You have been teaching us grammar, vyākaraṇa and Sanskrit, everything. You never taught us how to do the chanting. You have to teach us if You want us to do." Then Lord Caitanya called some of the pure devotees from Navadvīpa here, He called them and said, "Now you do kīrtana, I want you to teach all My students." You know the toughest nuts to crack are college students. So, Lord Caitanya was the college professor but He made His whole class surrender, and then all students, they all became great preachers.

Still.. nobody knew who Lord Caitanya was, they thought, well, now He has become a great devotee, until one day Lord Caitanya sat down on the bed of Kṛṣṇa, right on the siṁhāsana.

Everybody is, "What?! Lord Caitanya is a devotee, why is He sitting on the Lord’s bed? Why is He sitting on the Lord's siṁhāsana? Some offense or something, what’s going on?" Then Lord Caitanya, He started to manifest transcendental glories; He called for the brother of Śrīvāsa, Rāmāi. He sent him to go get Advaita Gosāñi. "You bring Him here. You tell Him that that Lord whom He fasted for, who He cried out loudly for, who He worshiped the tulasī... who worshiped śālagrāma for, for whom He... [Aside: Is that all four? Well there is the four things He did. He chanted, He cried] and who He cried for, that that Lord is come, is here in Nadīyā." So Rāmāi, he ran. He ran to Advaita’s house and as he got about half ways, or as he went quite a way, along the way running, he realized that he never asked anybody where Advaita’s house was! (laughter) He had never been there before. (laughter) Then he asked somebody, then suddenly he got little doubtful, "Where is Advaita’s house?" "You're standing in front of it!"

"Right there. Go in."

So, when he came into Advaita’s house, Advaita immediately, before he (Rāmāi) could say anything, chastised him. He was running about just very quickly in a nervous type mood. He chastised, "How is it possible that God can incarnate in the Kali-yuga? You expect me to believe that? And why and what place we think Nadīyā? You expect Me to believe this?" Rāmāi hadn't said a word. He was completely preempted.

Well he knew that Advaita Gosai was.. very eccentric, that He was.. extraordinary, had divine qualities, so he just sat down, little bit bewildered and decided to better wait. Then Advaita, He also sat down with doing some pūjā, suddenly looked at him and said, "What do you want?" Then Rāmāi offered his obeisances and prayed.. that, "My Lord, that Lord for Whom You are waiting for, whom You were crying for, whom You were calling for, that Lord who You were worshiping for, fasting for, He has come! He sends you, He has given this message that He has come, here in Nadīyā district. Here in Nadīyā dhāma, Navadvīpa.”

Advaita Gosai, He became ecstatic, He started jumping up and down. "Haribol! Haribol!" (Devotees chant Haribol!) On My call, the Lord has come, He has come!" He was rejoicing. Like that, we should also be rejoicing today on Gaura-pūrṇimā how Lord Caitanya has come to benedict us. How he has come to give out this rare jewel, this jewel which you cannot get by any amount of tapasya, austerity, by studying the scriptures, you can’t get it by worshiping the forefathers; you can’t get it by following regulative principles. Actually, to get bhakti, to get pure love of Kṛṣṇa, is only possible by the causeless mercy of Kṛṣṇa and His devotee.

In fact, even Kṛṣṇa Himself, He was very tight when it came to giving pure devotion. But Lord Caitanya came and He has given it freely. namo mahā-vadānyāya kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāyate. Giving it freely. How much we should be rejoicing?! And how easily, simply by following Lord Caitanya’s instructions, by following His instructions so easily we can take up, we can get this.. ecstatic symptoms of devotional service, if we throw ourselves into following the footsteps of Lord Caitanya.

It says that, one by worshiping Kṛṣṇa.. it takes a long.. long.. long time.. before one can get pure devotional service. Before one can get kṛṣṇa-prema it takes so long, so many births. But Lord Caitanya is giving it just immediately, very quickly, even in some cases at the same moment, in His association people would get pure devotion, would get kṛṣṇa-prema. So easily He is making it available. And His plan was that the whole world should get pure devotional service.

When we studied history, I think it's much more than a coincidence that Lord Caitanya appeared in 1486, and that in the year 1492 Columbus discovered the Americas. Why should we take it as a coincidence? And that 400 some years later, that Śrīla Prabhupāda would sail to the America, and from America, the land that was discovered during the presence of Lord Caitanya, this saṅkīrtana movement took its first strong foothold outside of Bhārata-varṣa.

Śrīla Prabhupāda ki

Devotees: Jaya!

Jayapatākā Swami: Caitanya Mahāprabhu ki

Devotees: Jaya!

Jayapatākā Swami: In fact, in Lord Caitanya’s time there was Mahārāja Pratāparudra, there was the great King Kṛṣṇa Devaraya in South India, there was also the Hussain Shah who gave the complete, a complete license to Lord Caitanya to go anywhere in his Mohammedan kingdom and preach. So that means during those times Lord Caitanya.. He has put certain great rulers who all were somehow fitting in His master plan to make the whole world Kṛṣṇa conscious. And simultaneously so many things were going on around the world. I don’t know the other things going on otherwise there may be some more. But we can understand that now with this International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness is spreading all over the... it's spread all over the world.

Prabhupāda first went to the Americas, then he went to Europe, to Australasia, to the Hong Kong, to different places all around the world, Africa, Russia, that.. somehow or another this is all in the divine plan by Lord Caitanya. That here in India especially people are into all these karma-kānḍa, they're into getting liberation. You never meet an Indian who says that... hardly you can meet, who is not a devotee of Lord Caitanya. Of course... there are those but apart from them, has anybody experienced that, "My goal in life is to get pure devotional service even birth after birth." Very rare, if any. Off hand, I have never met, and I have lived here for about fourteen years.

So.. this is the special movement of Lord Caitanya that actually the fifth goal of life, the puruṣārtha, parama-puruṣārtha, the Supreme destination, the prayojana of life, the highest necessity, the highest goal is to have pure love for Kṛṣṇa, higher than all the mystic powers, higher than all the impersonal realizations, higher than all... of course insignificant to any material thing... what to speak of material things. That's insignificant. So... this is the... some divine plan we can see that in the West, where people have more or less forgotten about any type of religion and whatever religion they have is so basic that they can purely... when they hear about pure devotional service, they accept. They take it up and then they are preaching here in Asia, in India... pure devotional service without any mix, without any adulteration of desire for liberation, desire for.. elevation. So, we should preserve that purity that Prabhupāda gave us just like a guarded treasure house, the purity of simply serving for the desire of satisfying Kṛṣṇa.

Then we should take out…. Just like I met one devotee, they said, "Well, I may not go back to Godhead but at least I can try to go to the heavenly planets." One Indian devotee is there, he said that, "Well... I don't want to marry any of the women here because they are not so beautiful, but I know that they are very beautiful in America and the heavenly planets. So next life either I can be born in America or heavenly planets. Then I'll fulfill my desire." (laughter) Missed it all time. But the actual thing that Prabhupāda has given us.. is he's given us what the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam are discussing. Ekeha kuru nandana (Bg 2.41) – having a single pointed consciousness, now we have to see that when we expand our different āśramas, as the new gṛhasthas are coming, as the new programs are coming, that we don’t bring into our pure movement... Prabhupāda told us that purity is the force, that we don’t bring in any karma-kānḍa compromises, any compromises with sense gratification, any compromises with liberation.

What is the symptom of someone who wants sense gratification? They are very conditional in their service. They will serve but they have to have so many conditions because their desire is that through their devotional service, they want a better material condition. So, in this lifetime, the devotional service also they put so many conditions. So, therefore we are again and again advised: ahaituki apratihatā (ŚB 1.2.6)– to be unconditional, to accept whatever is favorable for devotional service, to reject whatever is an obstacle, whatever is unfavorable, to preserve the purity of our devotion.

What is the symptom of someone who wants liberation? They are very careful not to take any unnecessary risks. They are very careful that in their devotional service they don’t put themselves in some position where they may lose their sādhanā or something even though the need is there. One has to go in some new place and preach, open up a new field, develop a new preaching. But someone who wants liberation they will think, "Why I have come for peace to this movement, I don’t want to go in such a difficult situation. I have come out of the material world which is so difficult, so filled with miseries, so I could get peace of mind, so I can get liberation. So why do I want to take so much jhanjhat, so much complications so many difficulties, why will I accept, like preaching, like going out on saṅkīrtana, getting pinched, or getting hit, or getting yelled at, or when my temple commander gets on my case to get up for maṅgala-ārati, I didn’t come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness for this. I came for peace. I didn’t come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness so when I eat with my left hand someone barks at me, 'Wrong hand!' I want peace. (laughter) I didn’t come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness that they sprinkle water on you when I am sleeping because I am late. You see, these are when you are coming out knowledge, when you are coming out of some desire for liberation, peace, but that is another danger, it is just another demon to devour us.

What did Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja praying in Caitanya-caritāmṛta? "I am giving up Vedic religion, I am giving up, I am giving up family duties, I am giving up all kinds of attachments, I am giving up even the desire for being materially happy, I am giving up the desire for mental peace, I'm giving up every... I simply want to, goad my mind in the service of Śrī Śrī Rādhā Mādhava, following in Their mercy and getting the mercy of Nitāi-Gaura. It is my only goal in life." So, this is our special opportunity that Prabhupāda has given us Kṛṣṇa consciousness in its pure form.

He didn’t compromise to give a little jñāna-niṣṭhita-bhakti, devotion with knowledge, devotion with speculative knowledge, and devotion with karma, devotion with any material tinge; he gave it pure, simply engage in the saṅkīrtana movement of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. That purity... it is the of course the duty of the GBC to protect.. duty of every other devotee to protect in his own life, to see what is the weed, that’s going to change because if we don’t have that focus on pure devotion, if you are focusing on some kind of peace, focusing on some kind of material comfort, and there are some conditions which is our... focus... then what happens is that we won’t be able to taste that pure nectar and our mind will be disturbed. It will be disturbed; it will be agitated by that very desire for peace. It will be agitated by the very desire for comfort. But by absorbing ourselves, as it's given here, in hearing about Kṛṣṇa, in engaging in devotional service to Kṛṣṇa, we automatically become peaceful, we automatically are comfortable, no matter what condition we are in. That is the real happiness that every one of us is yearning for, every one of us is crying for. So that is the mercy of Advaita Gosāñi that He called Lord Caitanya down. And that is the mercy of Śrīla Prabhupāda that he carried Lord Caitanya.. to us all over the world. He even carried it back to India in its pure form.

If you want to be happy, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa for the pleasure of Kṛṣṇa. It came up one time; they wanted to chant to rain or something. Prabhupāda said, "No, no, we will chant without any conditions." But Prabhupāda’s chanting was so powerful that any way it rained. But that is not our condition, we do not make any conditions to Kṛṣṇa, He is svatantra, He is independent. And we have full faith that by satisfying Him, we will be satisfied. If He is satisfied – mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ (Bg 15.7) – we are His parts, we will be satisfied. There is no independent endeavor required.

So... you know, the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, the more that we can develop our taste for chanting, taste for hearing, naturally we'll be freed from miseries. But how to do that? Sometimes we see that people are really nectar hounds. They want to get so many books and read, and they want to try get the nectar. But then we see that although they are hungry, that their hunger was in their mind, the hunger wasn't in their soul. And when they read so many pastimes of the Lord they couldn’t digest and as a result they had to vomit it out and they left the movement due to food poisoning. If you eat food and it doesn’t digest, then it becomes poison.

How to get an appetite to actually hear the Lord’s pastimes, to understand them? That is through preaching! That is through preaching the message of Caitanya Mahāprabhu as Prabhupāda has brought us, through this book distribution, through preaching harināma-saṅkīrtana, that is how we get the real appetite. To sit and hear for hours and hours on end here in Māyāpur Navadvīpa dhāma, to be awake when our spiritual master gives a lecture in the Bhāgavatam class. That appetite, that ability to digest... Prabhupāda said if you have a strong appetite you can digest a stone. So we also need spiritual appetite, not just a mental desire to know more and then to show off to others or something but the actual appetite, that real eagerness and desire.. to taste.. the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa nectar, to taste the devotional mood of the advanced devotees, how they are expressing themselves in serving their spiritual master through their practical service and surrender.

That eagerness to experience that, comes from our own devotional service, not through some exterior artificial endeavor. So by engaging in the saṅkīrtana movement, by working together with all the devotees around the world to build Śrīla Prabhupāda’s.. dream and Lord Nityānanda’s predicted big Māyāpur temple, by working together to push on book distribution, to expand the movement of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that will give us the realization and the real appetite, the real appreciation of Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes which will end all the miseries of this material world.

There is no other short cut. There is no other way. When Rāmānanda Rāya started giving all the ways, Lord Caitanya rejected varṇāśrama-dharma as being external, He rejected surrendering to Kṛṣṇa as being external, He first of all only agreed that hearing from the lips of pure devotee the science of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that was the first thing He accepted, yes, this is completely transcendental. And from there it took off. Because Prabhupāda would list, would give us Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and then he is engaging us in giving his books out, which are pure Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Therefore, by this purely authorized method given by Caitanya Mahāprabhu, we can actually experience kṛṣṇa-prema, through this saṅkīrtana movement.

So... I am very unqualified to speak especially.. it's very embarrassing in front of so many... advanced and senior Godbrothers and ācāryas. Actually, this lifetime is very short. It is going by so fast. Someone was mentioning how from one year to the next, that means Śrīla Viṣṇupada, it seems like ten thousand years go by. Of course, that's because they are all so advanced that even though the 10,000 years are going by from one year to the next, I could also appreciate but I was thinking at the same time that in these 10,000 years that I haven't.. hardly did anything. The movement's is going on daily, but I could personally hardly could do much as well I wanted to do, or what I should have done for Śrīla Prabhupāda. Somehow the time is going by and it really seems that ISKCON is moving ahead in leaps and bounds. But personally, that how much more I could have done or should have done in that... day of Brahmā that went by in this one year.

How many opportunities slipped through my fingers to preach to someone, to engage in some service, to be more serious? I can’t speak for others but if for myself I can see that there are so many opportunities to increase my service that seemed to just escape. Maybe someone else feels, as Vaiṣṇavas would mention here, by hearing from them about Kṛṣṇa consciousness we forget our miseries. That in this festival whenever I heard from the advanced Vaiṣṇavas I could forget my miseries, but that they somehow or another blessed me and all the other devotees, so that we can be engaged the whole year in pure Kṛṣṇa consciousness so intently, and so enthusiastically that we may maintain that concentration without any deviation, without a chance for māyā.

Like that the same position may be there but they're changing their attitude from sense gratification to devotional service. But those who are living in the temple, the temple is especially for brahminical culture. Śrīla Prabhupāda told me... "I am very much.. enthused about the congregational preaching, Nāmahaṭṭa." because in Los Angeles on the morning walk Śrīla Prabhupāda turned to me and just out of the sky blue he said that, "Don’t think that all these people are going to live in our temple." He said, "There may be so many people who are... our temples are..." It's hard for me to get the... "Our temples are like... like the Christian churches, so many churches have congregations. That in our temple there are pure devotees who will be preaching the other people and they'll be worshiping in their home." But he indicated that the devotees in the temple were the pure devotees, that the community on the temple those who were successful preachers, those were the core to convert the whole rest of the society into devotees.

So, there is definitely different standard of kaniṣṭha-adhikārī, madhyama-adhikārī, he just said in a very brief way. So, someone has already come up to rendering 24 hours a day devotional service to Kṛṣṇa, they shouldn’t be bewildered by some idea of varṇāśrama, or something else as a reason to reduce their service. Rather, someone who's doing nothing, better to do something and like this, we should always take forward steps. Prabhupāda said our purpose is to go step by step. We may not do the jumping process. I just heard a tape. He said these exact words, “We go step by step, not jumping process.” But that means we should also not jump back into the fire of māyā.

If we are already come up to a certain level of devotional service, we should cling to maintain it. And for somebody who is not at all in devotional service, well, they can come up one step higher to disparage their material activity and give something to Kṛṣṇa, and then through it gradually as they increase their devotional activities, doing more regulative principles, chanting more, they gradually come up. But if a full time initiated brāhmaṇa or devotee feels that he has to go back again to that type of stage, obviously it’s a compromise, it is a compromise.

So, we should see the overall picture that everyone has got the individual advancement, that we want to establish daiva-varṇāśrama which is based on pure devotional service and there may be steps that people take but this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is showing what is the ultimate step, what is the highest standard and we cannot compromise that. Rather, now bring up those in māyā and darkness more and more into the light. There may be shades but that cannot, but we cannot compromise what is the pure standard. Without that pure standard, there is no hope. That must be maintained. That is my personal realization in this what I have heard from Śrīla Prabhupāda. I hope that was alright.

All the ācāryas have questions today.

Pañca-draviḍa Swami: Now... you mentioned in... you mentioned in your class that Lord Caitanya, He was born in... 1486, so now 500 years later would be 1986. We are in 1983, but still we don't hear very much about that 500th anniversary of Lord Caitanya coming up. Maybe you could say something about that.

Jayapatākā Swami: Pañca-draviḍa Mahārāja wants me to say something about the 500th anniversary of Lord Caitanya. Because it is only three years from now. Actually, the uh... a couple of years ago, I brought this up, but it was hard to get much enthusiasm, because here in India already they have started, they have already organized committees for the 500th year anniversary. Because in India, everything takes so long that they think that better start five or six years in advance to be able to get it together by that time. But actually, in India, in ISKCON, everything is so fast that when I brought it up, everyone thought that, "Five years ahead of time? Who thinks five years ahead?" You know. "Oh, we'll worry about it a couple months before the festival, and maybe the year before." But, my idea was that you know the 500th year does not come often. We may not be here to see the next 500th year anniversary or the 1000th year, so, it should be done in a way that lasts more than one day. a couple of years ago, I brought this up, but it was hard to get much enthusiasm, because here in India already they've started, they've already organized committees for the 500th year anniversary. Because in India, everything takes so long that they think that better start five or six years in advance to be able to get it together by that time. But actually, in India, in ISKCON, everything is so fast that when I brought it up, everyone thought that, "Five years ahead of time? Who thinks five years ahead?" You know. "Oh, we'll worry about it a couple months before the festival, and maybe the year before." But, my idea was that you know the 500th year does not come often. We may not be here to see the next 500th year anniversary or the 1000th year, so, it should be done in a way that lasts more than one day.

That rather than just have the one-day festival all over the world, that just like in many big festivals in the world they have a whole year as an observation. The whole year is.. with many celebrations and then, if we can get the whole year to be serve, may be even we can just take it off from there. So, my intelligence is limited so I came up with a few ideas that... well, as a preliminary... because in the West people don’t know about Lord Caitanya, we could form various committees, taking the people just like we see in the movies, Harvey Cox, so many big names, in every country they have the theologists, they have the philosophers, they have their favorable educationists, or government people, that we make some type of committees to bring them in and start having informal seminars in different places just as a warm up to let people know a little bit about Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and start to stir up a little bit of... you know, when you try to rev up a car, it's better if you warm up the engine first, rather than try to start from a cold start. So, these are some ideas. I sent out some letters.

We are going to have a meeting in Vṛndāvana for the 500th... or maybe today for the 5.... or the GBC committee on this. But the biggest inspiration I just got was a few days ago when, Śrīla Rāmeśvara, Surabhi Mahārāja, other were talking about making dioramas about Lord Caitanya. That if we could have in every major temple, if not every temple of the world, a whole set of Caitanya Mahāprabhu pastimes. And... here in India also then we either rent a hall, we rent, we go out in the park and we set up and we have a big exhibition. I saw that the exhibition in the West at the LA ratha-yātrā or the Washington ratha-yātrā people are very interested in seeing all the Rajasthani swords, the ashtrays or whatever, hookahs used by the kings, they want to see the whole things. They like to see the dioramas, the movies, that if we had a whole exhibition of Lord Caitanya pastimes, that this would be something that will be very attractive. And I know Śrīla Rāmeśvara discussed with me about making a mass production. But it will take several years to come up. And then we could show through the whole year, we can have different exhibitions on these celebrations of the 500th year anniversary of Lord Caitanya.

Here now in India there is already discussion about following in the footsteps of Lord Caitanya to all the cities from Dvārakā, down South India and back up to Jagannātha Purī here to Māyāpur. Like this we have, now we are still at the planning stage. Because my.. defect is that.. I have lots of enthusiasm, but I am little dependent on the.. reciprocation from my God brothers at this stage, that when they also show some enthusiasm, it gives me a lot of encouragement. So actually, three years is nothing, there is so much to be done, these are just a couple of ideas we came up with.

We hadn't really got into a deep discussion but I feel that three years.. we should use, we should plan out every month, every week coming up to the 500th anniversary and then extending to the whole year, that in all the major cities, with big PR, with press releases starting from here maybe relay, maybe whatever. This has to be discussed what is the best way, we should make a little explosion around the world, a relay of Lord Caitanya exhibition, with so many big authorities also confirming to establish the faith in the people that this Kṛṣṇa conscious movement is a bonafide movement extending from the greatest.. benefactor of the whole human kind, Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu Himself. People should realize that here is a unique contribution and that this contribution.. is the bonafide process for this particular day and age.

So actually, if every temple takes up this little program of trying to organize the local people to form an observance committee for Lord Caitanya at the beginning, and then starting in the colleges for this year, having different seminars, different programs, very good stuff to start to discuss is coming up. There is going to be some big festivals, we are going to give you some big programs and people should know about this great historical person Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who is changing the world. And then if our brains can think of various slogans and various.. ways of attracting the people around the world to Lord Caitanya for this celebration, then we can use this as the send off, because it happens to coincide with Prabhupāda’s 90th anniversary. He was born in 1896. That means that 1986 is his 90th anniversary, birth anniversary. So, we also have to do something very special that year for Śrīla Prabhupāda, who brought Lord Caitanya to the West and all over the world. So right now, we are still on the drawing board, and since we haven't had our meeting yet so, I cannot say any detailed plan and programs. These are just some of the things that we've been discussing. But everybody should start to think about it. Start.. try to get it together.

I wrote many letters to the temple president’s committee on this topic, but I didn't get any reply, frankly. So, I didn’t even repeat back, I can’t say what they thought of it. I gave 26 different ideas how to start now with preparing for the 300, for the 500th anniversary. All I can induce, request everyone to know that time goes so fast, that we have to start thinking now if we want to make it the biggest thing that happens. You want to make it the biggest celebration and follow that over to the opening of our big temple. That enthusiasm should just carry us right over until our big temple is opened and then from there, sky is the limit.

Now what it means that we have to start to get ourselves into that mood of complete dedication to Lord Caitanya’s main temple, and to Lord Caitanya’s... movement as Prabhupāda has given us this blueprint. It can only happen by the total world cooperative spirit, even to serve by doing this 500th year anniversary, if we do it in a worldwide scale, that has already been reported yesterday by the Ānanda Bazar Patrika, the biggest newspaper in India. They said that they had a discussion happened - simultaneously in every city of the world on Gaura Pūrṇimā day, they are going to celebrate the 500th anniversary and that now the world leaders have come to discuss this. So, in India this is very impressive to the people. But I don’t want to make it just a one-day thing, it should be at least one year if not the whole decade, and it's simply a matter of our enthusiasm.

We saw that Śrīla Gurudeva, Hanumān GoSwami, his Kṛṣṇa’s Vyāsa goes on for three months, they're so enthusiastic. So why can't our 500th year anniversary go on for a decade or century?

Jayapatākā Swami: Nitāi-Gaura Premanande Hari Haribol!

Devotees: Hari Haribol!

Jayapatākā Swami: Thank you. Any other questions? We have to go for the initiation in here.

Devotee: Guru Mahārāja, Kṛṣṇas coming as Lord Caitanya is not doubted by the Vaiṣṇavas.

Jayapatākā Swami: Is not what?

Devotee: Is not doubted by the Vaiṣṇava.. Now, talking about the Western world, why is it that Lord Caitanya, He is such a great historical personality that nothing has been written about Him? And two, why is it that many people still doubt Lord Caitanya when you tell them that Lord Caitanya is Kṛṣṇa? They said, "No. We don't know anything about Him." What proof, what is your justification from the scriptures that proves that Lord Caitanya is actually the Supreme Lord? Guru Mahārāja, what you speak to that?

Jayapatākā Swami: There are many proofs. Of course, the most famous that we quote is from the Bhāgavatam:

kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣākṛṣṇaṁ
sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam
yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair
yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ
[ŚB 11.5.32]

So, Prabhupāda has given us several proofs. And actually Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura did a little research on this, so did Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, and they've have come up with about, 50 ślokas from the different purāṇas, upaniṣads, from the Mahābhārata describing that in the Kali-yuga the Lord comes as yellow color, the avatāra in Kali-yuga is known as Mahāprabhu, saying that, the Lord comes, distributes the harināma in the Kali-yuga. He comes as a sannyāsī, comes as a channa-avatāra, there are so many slokas, I did not memorize all of them. Mahāprabhu, ei yuga... So, there are many, many proofs in the.. Vedas that all indicate that Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu Himself is the fulfillment of the prediction that Kṛṣṇa would come as a sannyāsī, as a hidden avatāra, as a person giving out the saṅkīrtana movement. There is no one else who has done that, there is no one else who fulfilled those qualifications. And Lord Caitanya when He was here, He actually did everything that was predicted, and He did things which were extraordinary. Even Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya, he accepted that Lord Caitanya was Kṛṣṇa Himself.

So, the people of the West, they don’t know because the movement just came there, what was it, seventeen years ago. And why they don’t know in India, it is because the followers of Lord Caitanya, several hundred years ago predicted that the movement would become dormant. And that is exactly what happened. Just a very... slim... line of acāryas that were carrying out the doctrines. Therefore, Bhaktisiddhānta Ṭhākura, he was preaching all over India, even his followers they did not work together, everything broke up. Now there is so many Gauḍīya Maṭhas and instead of Caitanya Mahāprabhu being understood, people understanding this Rāma and this Kṛṣṇa and so many others. So, similarly to convince the people.. Its not possible to convince the people that the avatāra of the saṅkīrtana movement is bonafide unless the people who are convincing, actually themselves, are in the mood of saṅkīrtana.

Saṅkīrtana means many doing kīrtana together. Japa is one. Kīrtana is a few. Saṅkīrtana means everyone together. That means that they are all singing the same tune, they are all singing the same mantra. They are clapping and playing their instruments in time. The saṅkīrtana means together. So when, this movement as long as it remains together, as long as everyone keeps a cooperative saṅkīrtana mood, then people will be convinced and wherever you see in history that that mood of working cooperatively together was compromised, then they lose their potency for convincing people about Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Actually, everybody is very easily convinced; it is just that they do not know anything. Because we're very few, we've only reached a few. So, if you go on telling people, if you're convinced, and you tell people, in this same cooperative spirit, they will also be convinced. There is no doubt about it. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotees: Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Devotee: Ācāryapāda ki

Devotees: Jaya!

Jayapatākā Swami: It's going to take about 10-15 minutes to set up the cushion. So, everyone can take this opportunity to wash yourself, face or whatever then assemble in a half hour... fifteen minutes from now. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Devotees: Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Devotee: Ācāryapāda ki

Devotees: Jaya!