19830925 Śrīmad-Bhagvatam 3.14.16

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on September 25, 1983 in New York. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, 3rd Canto, Chapter 14, Verse 16.

iti tāṁ vīra mārīcaḥ
kṛpaṇāṁ bahu-bhāṣiṇīm
pratyāhānunayan vācā
pravṛddhānaṅga-kaśmalām
[ŚB 3.14.16]

Translation: O hero [Vidura], Diti, being thus afflicted by the contamination of lust, and therefore poor and talkative, was pacified by the son of Marīci in suitable words.

(Translation with repetition)

Purport: When a man or woman is afflicted by the lust of sex desire, it is to be understood as sinful contamination. Kaśyapa was engaged in his spiritual activities, but he did not have sufficient strength to refuse his wife, who was thus afflicted. He could have refused her with strong words expressing impossibility, but he was not as spiritually strong as Vidura. Vidura is addressed here as a hero because no one is stronger in self-control than a devotee of the Lord. It appears that Kaśyapa was already inclined to have sexual enjoyment with his wife, and because he was not a strong man he tried to dissuade her only with pacifying words. and because he was not a strong man he tried to dissuade her only with pacifying words.

Thus ends the purport by His Divine Grace Śrīla Abhaya Carana Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Canto 3, Chapter 14, Text 16 in the matter of “The Pregnancy of Diti in the Evening”.

Jayapatākā Swami: O hero [Vidura], Diti, being thus afflicted by the contamination of lust, and therefore poor and talkative, was pacified by the son of Marīci in suitable words.

The seeds of desire are lying dormant in the heart, and gradually they come out, become manifest, then they start to sprout and come into complete presence. complete intense manifestation. So, when somebody is inflicted by lust, by very strong desires, that means that the desire seeds have come up to a. manifested state. At that time if one is able to tolerate. the influence of those sinful contamination, then one can avoid fall down.

But normally. a person’s austerity or renunciation will be gauged about to what extent they can avoid falling down, or they can tolerate the influence of the senses. But actually, even the great yogīs, or a great paṇḍita and a brāhmaṇa like Kaśyapa, who also was the father of the personality of Godhead [different from Diti, Aditi], the. influence of the senses is so strong. That like Saubhari Muni was sitting and meditating under water for 10,000 years, but when he saw two fish having sexual intercourse, he became agitated and he fell down. Because he had committed vaiṣṇava-aparādha against Garuḍadeva, he fell down to this material contamination. So. even great sages, sometimes they get agitated.

On the other hand, Haridāsa Ṭhākura, other great devotees, they have been able to tolerate, because actually they have developed already a higher taste, and therefore when a material opportunities to enjoy present themselves, they're already completely full with the spiritual happiness of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, therefore they are protected.

If you have a glass filled with water, then you cannot add more, anymore you add it flows over. It’s already full, you can’t add more. So, if we fill ourselves with Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then there is nothing more to add. That’s the only protection. So, it is only Kṛṣṇa who can actually fill completely our consciousness with transcendental bliss.

In the material world, no matter how much sense gratification a person may try to achieve, it will never fill. the material cup completely and permanently. And the other processes of yoga, they also do not give one practical ānanda, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha. When we actually realize Kṛṣṇa consciousness that is when we actually get the ānanda of life. Other processes of yoga, jñāna, they will give us sad-cit, they will give us knowledge, and they will give us realization of the eternal aspect.

In the pastime of Lord Caitanya His devotees, we find that how Lord Caitanya engaged His devotees constantly in performing the saṅkīrtana-yajña. Actually, devotees should take the humble position according to Lord Caitanya.

tṛṇād api sunīcena
taror iva sahiṣṇunā
amāninā mānadena
kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ
[Śikṣāṣṭaka]

That being more humble than a blade of glass, and being more tolerant than a tree. But actually, in humility, the devotee never feels. himself. to be so strong he doesn’t You need constantly the mercy of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Therefore, the devotee is always chanting

hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare
hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare

So, someone might feel that was a devotee in a very dependent situation, but being dependent upon Kṛṣṇa, the supreme personality of Godhead is the most secure position. The connection with Kṛṣṇa cannot be severed by any time, place, circumstance. It cannot be… no material thing can stand in the way of a devotee’s relationship with Him. Therefore, by chanting and remembering Kṛṣṇa one is constantly in connection with Kṛṣṇa, and one is therefore protected and secure. So So actually, every devotee, they can follow in the footsteps of Prahlāda Mahārāja, who showed by his constant remembrance of Lord Kṛṣṇa, that in spite his so many material obstacles, he was always delivered. He never forgot Kṛṣṇa at any moment. So, to practice never forgetting Kṛṣṇa at any moment, to purify the consciousness, to think about Kṛṣṇa in the proper devotional attitude, we always chant

hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare
hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare

Because we are contaminated, so when we try to think about Kṛṣṇa in the material life, alternatively sometimes the material desires pop up. And therefore, by intelligence, the vaidhī-bhakti, in the beginning stages, we remove those thoughts, and again bring the mind back to Kṛṣṇa. This way we keep our meditation or concentration fixed. That is a form of samādhi or complete absorption in the Absolute Truth. This is the real samādhi. So.

One who can keep the mind always fixed in Kṛṣṇa, Prabhupāda gave the example, you keep the heart always flooded with the flood of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, with the ecstasy of the mercy of Lord Caitanya, this is the greatest protection. We pray to Lord Nityānanda, that even with a drop of the nectar of His mercy, we can flood our heart with transcendental ecstasy. So, in that flood, then we see that the material lust doesn’t sprout.

In India, in Māyāpur, we grow rice paddies. There the rice field is always kept in two, three inches of water, which has two functions. One function is that it keeps the weeds down, because it always under water so none of the weed seeds will sprout. As soon as the water goes down and it gets dry then other grass starts to come up. So always have to keep the water in the field. The other is that, if you allow the water to go out, then the field, the mud will dry and crack. When it cracks, if you reflood it again, then the water will seep out through the cracks. Then again you have to go through, and with their hands they will go. now they have got machines to do it. They will take the mud, scrunch it up, make it fluffy again, that way the water cannot percolate or go beneath it; it creates a type of a barrier.

So, by constantly chanting and hearing the holy name of Kṛṣṇa, the messages of Kṛṣṇa, then practically speaking the heart becomes very soft. So, it can also hold the water, the nectar of Lord Caitanya. But if you allow it to dry up by not chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, by not hearing about Kṛṣṇa, by not serving Kṛṣṇa, let the heart dry up. Then that’s a dangerous position. Then if you do give some sporadic irrigation, that may not hold it until you again make the proper consciousness. So, we get out of all of the cracks, all of the offences which allows, which allows. which allow the mercy to avoid us. On the other hand, we see that, for devotees, who are have been very careful in chanting and hearing, the spontaneous attraction to the Lord increases day by day.

Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, when He was staying down in Jagannātha Purī, You knew that all the residents of. Bengal, they go down every year to meet Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. But they went down led by Śivānanda Sena and. Vāsudeva Datta, and other devotees. They were so eager, walking the 500 kilometers, over the rivers, through the jungles, the highways, backways. They were very enthusiastic, although they were going from the kingdom of the Hussain Shah to the kingdom of Mahārāja Pratāparudra, they went without passport, even though they were at war with each other. Those days passports you know, the war will be between the soldiers. If some brāhmaṇas came, regular people came, didn’t have any weapons, that's a side issue. Then they continued down, after passing the border, they continued down and go right to Jagannātha Purī, you see, step by step, literally.

So, they usually would arrive before the ratha-yātrā festival, some days. So, about couple of weeks or so, a few weeks before the ratha-yātrā festival, there is a, a ceremony where Lord Jagannātha is take on the Narendra-sarovara, Narendra Lake. There, on a boat, He is given a special ride, on the lake. So, the devotees were approaching. Even today if you approach from a certain angle, through from Bhubaneswar to Purī, you have to go by the Narendra-sarovara and the… that’s just. that's the route. So, they were going and suddenly, in front of them, on the boat, they saw, they heard a kīrtana party. All the devotees from Bengal, you see, hundred or more devotees, hundreds they are all going, hundreds of devotees, without… so many devotees, they are coming on one, just after days and days and days and weeks of walking. Now finally they are coming to Jagannātha Purī. Their aspirations to see Lord Caitanya at the peak, just at that moment they hear kīrtana.

They hear a kīrtana party, then they see a procession. Lord Caitanya, of Lord Jagannātha and his attendants with cāmaras and gongs, fans and everything, taking Lord Jagannātha vijaya-mūrti on a taking a form of Jagannātha on the procession with palanquin, and then.. The palanquin..

..and Lord Caitanya and His associates, they were chanting in kīrtana, just along falling behind the procession. So then, all of a sudden, all the devotees when they saw Lord Caitanya, immediately, they became filled with ecstatic symptoms, and they fell down just like sticks on the ground. And Lord Caitanya when He saw that, "Oh, here are the devotees from Bengal, they have come!", then He stood there to receive them, and He rushed towards them, then they were getting up, rushing towards Lord Caitanya, and then Lord Caitanya accordingly some He would embrace, others He would bless. And all those are devotees coming, they are paying their obeisances to Lord Caitanya, to the other associates, Svarūpa Dāmodara, Rāmānanda Rāya, Vāṇīnātha, Bhavānanda Rāya and others.

The wives of the associates would also come down in the procession. They were standing beside, and when Lord Caitanya was embracing. their husbands, the different devotees, and paying obeisances, even Lord Caitanya paid His obeisances to some of them as Vaiṣṇavas. Then the women in the back, they were watching, and tears were pouring from their eyes. In their hearts they were embracing Lord Caitanya, offering Him obeisances in pure devotion. Their. everyone was completely overwhelmed, crying and a big kīrtana ensued. And. all of the devotees that many accompanied Lord Jagannātha down to the Narendra-sarovara. And after Lord Jagannātha was uh, appropriately worshiped, there in the Narendra-sarovara, then suddenly Lord Caitanya, after many hours of kīrtana, and then He. told all the associates that, "Let's take a bath." A bath! Suddenly He jumped in the Narendra-sarovara and they are all in there, and so many nice pastimes.

One significant thing about how spontaneous the different associates, immediately upon seeing Lord Caitanya, how immediately their consciousness was. the spontaneous attraction is a. an addiction which a devotee gets from the special favor of the Supreme Lord.

So, in the Kṛṣṇa conscious movement we try to keep the heart flooded, keep the seed of desire flooded. And when that seed of desire, which will cause us to be spontaneously attracted to sense gratification, has been flooded long enough, it will perish. It will just rot. Rice field after they are flooded for a long enough time, the… the weeds die. and that’s why rice fields. normally, you don’t find many weeds there. If you grow another crop, after very easily grow weeds, weeds are a big problem. All those weeds die. Instead of being spontaneously attracted to sense gratification, you become spontaneously attracted to Kṛṣṇa.

When that attraction is so intense that just by thinking about the lotus feet of the Lord, we start to cry. Or that once we are not able to serve, we become intensely eager, enthusiastic to fulfill the desire of the Lord, even forgetting about our own sense gratification, forgetting about material considerations and trying intensely to fulfill the desire of the Lord. That is very good sign of progress. It’s a different standard altogether, but when we are doing service to Kṛṣṇa and we become very impatient because we are not able to eat at the proper time, we're impatient because we are not able to get the sleep at the proper time, we're impatient because of the other material reasons. This is sign that our standard is on the material world, not that we have to neg… we can't neglect. But even a devotee will rest just so he can do the service better or eat just so that they can do the service better. But basically, when there is some intense service, the desire would be to fulfill the service, that’s where the concentration is, that’s where the spontaneous attraction is.

So that happens when a person becomes a devotee of Kṛṣṇa. That’s why we don’t really consider ourselves to be devotees in the purest sense. Out of humility we always consider ourselves to be aspiring devotees. To be a real devotee, that means to have kṛṣṇa-prema, meant to be a completely a pure devotee, that is such an exalted position. There is nothing to do with this material world. Therefore, this material lust, material desire do not affect. Even someone who is on the stage of bhāva, which is considered to be preliminary liberation. Already maybe liberated completely from karmas, but sill 1% uh, tinge is there. We find from the prayers of Yāmunācārya. He prays that “Whenever I think about sex life, my face becomes bitter and I spit.”

Prabhupāda's. two points, one is the spontaneous detachment out of life, other is that even though he was such an exalted ācārya, on the level of bhāva, still the thought came, and he admitted it came in his mind. Now that thought, whenever they come in the mind, it might come. kṛṣṇa-prema means that the connection with the material mind and body is cut, just indirect link is there. Just, basically at that time, no connection. that time of course there is no danger at all of the senses, but even at the stage of bhāva, where one is not attracted to all the sense gratification, one is completely attracted to Kṛṣṇa just because till the material… there is a mind, which has the connection with the body. Sometimes when they come up with some off the wall proposal, which is immediately disgusting, even the thought is rejected. So, such devotees don’t awe with the material desires. So since the thought is there one has to be careful, you see.

Not to think that, “Oh now I am a devotee, even if I think about such things, it’s alright.” Right from the very thought, we cut off. We don’t meditate on the objects of the senses. Rather we meditate on Kṛṣṇa’s service, we meditate on His holy name, meditate on. the instructions of the spiritual master, and thus we keep the heart flooded. Keep the heart flooded with ecstasy.

Just like yesterday, so many hours we were chanting, and then the uh, Jagannātha ratha-yātrā procession. How wonderful! For everyone it was pretty easy to be absorbed, and preparation was such a huge extravaganza festival for the Lord, while participating in that. Still sometimes the mind may wander off: 5th Avenue, Madison Avenue, they are trying to make your mind wander. But with the sound of Hare Kṛṣṇa, so many devotees, it’s very easy to bring them like that. That’s why it is recommended we should have the association of devotees. Constantly we should maintain the association of devotees, you see. It’s very easy to bring the mind back, even if it happens to wander off.

Nowadays we are making this Walkman tape recorders, so that people, they can constantly listen to quack, but even this can be dovetailed, then we constantly listen to the One devotee told me that, "I do saṅkīrtana under street lights." He says it’s really bliss. You just put the Walkman in your pocket and whole day you are listening to lectures, and you go out to people, meet them up at the. preach to them in their cars. He said you can hear three, four lectures in a day; it's great. Because it’s a very quick stop light, you meet as many people as possible. But everything, somehow or other you can dovetail it in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Just I got a phone call from Thailand, that some life members saw the devotee taking beautiful pictures during the functions and said that, "If you take a picture of a business function, I will give you 2000 in donation." This is how much professional photography costs. So then, I did it, got the donation, so gave out, started keeping, distributing our books subsidizing at the Bangkok university. And just outside, and that they never tried this before giving at subsidize. Just you see that they didn’t try the students, still all the students came, and they were flocking around, really appreciating the books that they were published in Thai language, Siamese language. So, sometimes. that person who photographed it, he dovetailed it, used it for book distribution. Whatever he got. he used it for book distribution. So, in Kṛṣṇa consciousness we can use so many different things. There's no limit. I don’t have to tell the American devotees, they know how many things can be dovetailed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

But this way we keep our mind fixed at the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya, Nityānanda, then just like those residents of Bengal, when they saw Lord Caitanya, their mind was spontaneously attracted. That is the proof. When we find that when we come before the deity of Rādhā-Govinda, Jagannātha, Subhadrā, Balarāma; that our mind is spontaneously attracted to the lotus feet. When we come in the Bhāgavatam class, that our mind is spontaneously attracted. That’s a very good sign. Not that a person who is sitting class and we start to doze off. We shouldn’t give up the ship, we shouldn’t give up hope. Prabhupāda said in Māyāpur, “If you're sleeping during class, you should go out and plough the field.” That time there was one sannyāsi, in spite of that he slept. He said, “Now you go out and plough.” Made the sannyāsi plough for five days. Then afterward said, "Alright." You see? If they can’t stay awake in the class, then they should do some work for Kṛṣṇa at least.

So, there is hope anyway. Whether we work for Kṛṣṇa, then eventually you will be. spontaneously attracted to hearing about Kṛṣṇa. That is considered to be a perfection.

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

The reverse way is putting it that that is the actual goal, that we should be spontaneously attracted to hearing about Kṛṣṇa. So. when that happens then when the sense enjoyment proposals come up you will be spontaneously unattracted to that. In the preliminary perfectional stage, and then ultimately, we of course, we will feel no attraction at all, when we will achieve kṛṣṇa-prema, because we won’t be connected in our material body in that way. But even in our conditional state we can be spontaneously detached, by becoming spontaneously attached to hearing about and serving the lotus feet of the Lord.

hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare
hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare

Any question?

*Background conversation*

Any question? No question?

*Background conversation*

So, this is a slide screen. slideshow of our ratha-yātrā festival in Calcutta, which was started about twelve years ago I believe by Śrīla Viṣṇupāda Bhavānanda Goswami. Of course, it was really started by Prabhupāda in 1901. When he… so we celebrated 100th… or practically… the 80th anniversary… 82nd. When he took as a five-year-old… when he took his little ratha-yātrā in the streets of Calcutta, and with a little kīrtana party, and little festival. Even today, you still see many children doing that in North Calcutta, in the area where Śrīla Prabhupāda used to live as a child.

So Prabhupāda requested Viṣṇupāda and other devotees, that we should make the Calcutta ratha-yātrā, the biggest in the world. The original ratha-yātrā, in Purī is just 500 miles away. Maybe a competition, we always hold it on the same day.

(everyone laughs)

So, this is Jagannātha, Subhadrā, Balarāma; They don’t need any introduction.

Outside the Calcutta temple, the fifty-foot ratha is set up and Jagannātha, Subhadrā, Balarāma are taken to their cart procession. You can see the steering wheel of the cart is put on the top, because you have to have a vantage point on the 8-foot wheels. Because you go on steering through the, sometimes narrow up streets of Calcutta. You have to be able to see, because sometimes little old ladies, and young men and all kinds of shapes of people, running towards the wheels of Jagannātha, slip. And so, one has to be constantly aware if there is anybody under the wheel, so to speak, or just before that.

So, there is not only an air brake system, but there is also a… This is Ādidharma Prabhu on the right. He is the temple president of Calcutta, and left is Bhakti Ānanda Swarup Swami, starting the (inaudible) steering. In the back of the ratha-yātrā, there are also big uh, railway brakes taken from the Indian railways, done by manually. So, before had of course, last year the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Calcutta, he swept the road before Lord Jagannātha. This year also he agreed to do the same, but suddenly he felt, “Well, I’ll have to cancel all his court attendance and everything.” So then, the local dignitaries swept the road in front of Lord Jagannātha using the golden broom.

Jagannātha Purī, we saw the king of… the descendant of the King of Orissa. The present King, of course he has no other kingdom, per se, he still goes in procession with bands and on his elephant, and he performs this function, sweeping the roads. Originally, according to the Pandas of in the of Orissa, that Indradyumna Mahārāja, I believe was the original King, he was supposed to marry another neighboring princess. But one day he (her father) saw that he swept the road in front of Lord Jagannātha, the person wearing these…there is a special dignitary cap also to sweep.

When he saw, that this Mahārāja Indradyumna was sweeping the road, then he felt very insulted that, “My daughter is going to marry a street sweeper. No King will sweep.” So, they took this to be a great offence against Lord Jagannātha. Then there are a few other things said also, which made it more offensive, so, Indradyumna declared war against him, and the Mahārāja went out, to attack the kingdom.

On the way, according to the, history handed down by those local priests, that there was one lady selling yogurt, who was carrying a package of yogurt on her head and. when she saw… these two generals came up to her, one on a white horse and one on a black horse, and said, “Give us some yogurt, we are very hungry.” So, she said, “Well, you have to pay me.”

“We don’t have any payment. You get it from the King behind us, you give this ring to him.” And well, the general on the white horse gave a ring, saw it was a very valuable golden ring, so she took it and gave the yogurt, which they drank and. when the King came, then this old village lady came up and said that, “Please pay me for the yogurt.”

“Why? Why?”

After great trouble, the king would… finally she got to the King and said, “Well your two generals took my yogurt, and they didn’t pay. You are supposed to pay me.”

He said, “What two generals?” He said, “My generals are all here.”

“No, there was one on a white horse, one on a black horse.” “What did they look like?”

“One was black colored, and one was white, and they gave me this ring to give you.” And look it was the ring of Jagannātha! From the description, Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma Themselves had come up and taken the yogurt from her. So, then he gave her a whole village, made her a… made her a countess (Laughter) and he knew that now his campaign would be victorious.

Here we are taking the ratha-yātrā out of that narrow road, in front of the Calcutta temple and now going into the main streets. Calcutta, Prabhupāda said, used to be the the jewel of the British Kingdom. Of course, now it’s run down a little bit, but this ratha-yātrā was advertised by billboards all over the town and also by. radio. Three times a day in the national radio which they even heard in the neighboring countries like Tibet, Bangladesh, Nepal, so many people come out. It’s the whole day, it’s a holiday. And the people coming out on this day, are coming specifically to attend the ratha-yātrā ceremony. Otherwise it’s a holiday, specially this year it was a double holiday. [Aside: Focus.] Because it was also a Mohammedan holiday. So nobody was on the street, no traffic, anything. The people were coming simply to attend the ratha-yātrā ceremony.

That's Bhakti Prabhav Mahārāja, he is announcing there on the mic, “Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, stay away from the wheels. Chant hare Kṛṣṇa.” (Laughter) You know, “Move onto the side.” Because we have lot of, so many people, that it’s a constant thing to keep them away from the wheel, and it’s also direct. There is a whole squadron, fleet commander, toll commander, rope… rope liutenant, then we have the rear toll commander, then we have the brake sergeants, we have the whole whatever, we have the whole fleet there. Then we have the. infront we have the Nitāi-Gaura Deities, they have… then we have various things in the procession to go to a mile along.

[Aside: Change the slides there. You see?]

and they cordoned around the whole cart, so that nobody can get within eight feet. And inside the people would uh, who are people trying to break the cordon, to get in to attach to the cart, we push them out. That’s where most of the fights come, if someone wants to come in, wants to get a flower off the cart or touch it, and then the people in the cordon are keeping them out. This is when the cart is stopped, we have an opportunity to do a little kīrtana. At one point there were 200 students who all just started dancing in kīrtana, had their own huge kīrtana.

This is from the side of the cart, as you’re going down the road. You can see that on the side they are, their function is to see if the wheels are clear, and to also collect donations. Sometimes people come in the neighborhood, with offerings of fruits, flowers, with ārati. This is out of place.

In one point on the return ratha, it started pouring rain. It’s not completely in order, you can see that it's going down It is pouring rain, and in spite of getting completely soaking wet, still. the people just continued on.

Here you can see part of Lord Caitanya big Deities. These are little Nitāi-Gaura Deities from the Jolly Boat, the Nitāi Pada Kamala, They’ve come for this function. The ratha cart was constructed by a devotee called Māyeśvara. I think he is originally from New York. We like to have, two more carts, by next year’s festival.

This the government provided this special truck to lift up some of the low-lying wires, that sank down below the limit they were supposed to.

We didn’t miss anything that we didn’t take a picture of there.

This is the cart when it is down. People they periodically they like it if the cart goes up and down. But when it stays down, then they want to go back up again. They thought the cart looks a lot nicer when it’s up. But. in the newspapers they covered that the Calcutta Ratha has become the uh, complete attraction for the whole city. That’s all people talk about. When we come in the airport, they ask… The American ambassador came to Calcutta, and he called up to our temple and he asked, “What is the meaning of ratha-yātrā.” We said why, then he said, “Well, every time I go on to the airport, as I am coming in, they all ask me if I have come for the ratha-yātrā?” (Everyone laughs) “So I wanted… to the Kṛṣṇa ratha-yātrā, so I wanted to know, what it… what it was.” (Laughter) In other words, everybody that comes in, everyone asks if he has come for the ratha-yātrā. (Laughter) We tell him that people are coming from all over the world.

Even the cows they are also very attracted, doing a double take of Lord Jagannātha. (Laughter) About 5,000 bananas were thrown off the cart. This year we tried bananas on the recommendation of one of our ācāryas. See the kīrtana party in front of the cart. We would like to have four kīrtana parties, Prabhupāda said one on each side, we just don’t know how to fit them on the side. Here the roads are a little wider, normally in Calcutta it is difficult.

One place, the person. parked a car in the middle of the road and couldn't find a driver. So, he came up to the car, here is the Nitāi-Gaura. They came up to the car, and police couldn’t find a driver and told the crowd to move it. (Laughter) So they just picked up the car, about 200 people, picked it up and threw it over a fence. (Laughter) Don’t know how the person ever got the car. (Laughter) You can see how enthusiastic they are. Here we got too close to the Deities, suddenly they put up the green flag, “JAYA JAGANNĀTHA!”

Then the people just rush, then you know we have to rush also otherwise, they just pull, you can see it, they just like they hang off the rope, there is not enough room, to get… to touch the rope. If you can touch the rope it’s a major accomplishment, if you can touch it. And practically they fight to hang on, if somebody pulls their spot off the rope, then you have a little fight there, on the side. So whenever the cart stops, then we… we tell let all the ladies come up and touch the rope.

Behind you can see. They call it, in Cal… one of the more cynical papers, this is the annual 8-hour traffic jam. (Laughter) This is a 10-mile route. Takes anything around 6-8 hours depending on things beyond our control. And. this day, of course it was a complete holiday, previous year it was half a holiday, you see, though there is some traffic. But it gets so crowded… that this is the main thoroughfare. So just that means it’s like… there is only three main roads in Calcutta. This is the main one. You can see where the rope starts, where the concentration of black heads. We stop at the main intersection sometimes to do ārati for… Apparently the photographer was amazed that how the cow was completely absorbed in Lord Jagannātha.

So, regarding the progress of our competition with our neighbor. Last year they published in the newspaper that… the. trains… they have special trains that they put on, five special trains to Jagannātha Purī. That the special trains went 30% full, first time in 20 years, which. the only reason is because so many people. coming to the Calcutta ratha-yātrā. In fact, now, the railway put special trains both ways. Some people from Orissa are coming up to Calcutta and they see the ratha-yātrā festival. So recently the Jagannātha Purī temple in Purī, they published this special booklet, and in that they had the picture of Dīnanatha, and Bhanu and must be old pictures from '71 when we went there. They described a picture showing some of the ISKCON devotees, saying that, “Jagannātha Purī ratha-yātrā attended by devotees from all over the world.” (laughter) They are trying to. we can be reminded that, Prabhupāda said that, “We should construct another Jagannātha Purī temple, which is the same size as the existing one, or even a little bigger, and then do kīrtana infront of the Lord Caita… Jagannātha temple, and then Lord Jagannātha will come up to over our temple.”

Jaya!

Śrīla Prabhupāda ki Jaya!

Jagannātha Swami ki, Jaya!

So Jagannātha is so Kind that now He has come all over the world. Here in New York - 5th Avenue, Los Angeles - Venice Beach, Tokyo and… So in Calcutta, there was never a ratha-yātrā before, because there were so many tramlines, thanks to the British.

Nitāi-Gaura Premanande Hari Haribol!

Nitāi-Gaura Premānande Hari Haribol!

But thanks to Jayānanda and the inventors of the convertible top ratha-yātrā, we have been able to negotiate their wires. So, as the result now we can have a big ratha. So everybody is coming out. There used to be fairs in Calcutta like State fairs type, that’s for the ratha-yātrā. But the paper last year said that, “The Calcutta annual ratha-yātrā fairs have been buried under the ground by the ISKCON ratha-yātrā festival, like that.” Nobody goes to the fairs, anymore. Everybody, you know where they are. They are right here.

The pick is… it’s a constantly changing crowd because, that the people are coming… we go on ten miles, so they walk along for miles, then they gradually peel off, and new people come on. So, it’s a constantly changing. So, as you’re seeing a different scene, then it is actually, mainly a different group of people. The whole family comes out, husband, wife, children, have a darshan, wearing their silk saris, women. It’s a very big event, and it is actually a 9 day festival. There is two ratha-yātrās, one going and one coming.

We take Lord Jagannātha. This is on the main Chowringhee Avenue, behind the largest building in Calcutta, but doesn’t match much with the empire state building. Maybe only 21 story, 27 story. But this is the main thoroughfare. This is near the public bus terminal. So, the 7th we go, this is going ratha-yātrā that… The pictures of the coming ratha-yātrā when it was raining a lot. The coming ratha-yātrā is sometime more interesting because it is not a holiday then. They usually only give you one holiday. So that day all the office crowds they come out, then they meet the ratha-yātrā, they usually stay a little later. So, then it’s a very big crowd.

People offering their obeisances to Lord Jagannātha. Behind this the construction of the proposed Calcutta subway. It can’t be… (laughter) Scheduled to be finished in 1981 (Laughter)

Actually, I don’t know how we got back here again, back in front of the Calcutta temple. You can see the lake there of the… this is called Victoria Place. Prabhupāda would like it to be renamed. He liked to rename it as Bhaktivedanta place. But, the government has given us that… that park and the lake for beautification. So, now we have, Viṣṇupāda has organized the whole re-planting there, and they’re putting up some special uh, what you call kiosks. gazebos or something, gazebos and different type of decorations. It’s a beautiful. This road is so narrow that just never...

So actually, we started coming to the end of the ratha-yātrā actually, which is in far North Calcutta, where. the ratha is going to remain for 8 days in addition to the ratha-yātrā day. It’s going to. remain there, and we put on our pandal program. It’s a… it’s a…. everyone is welcome to come around the early part of July, to attend the Calcutta ratha-yātrā.

There’s the red flag. Stop. They must be adjusting the roof, the canopy. It’s getting to be dark, when it gets dark, completely in the night time then then gets a little bit wild, people just they get more excited. and in Calcutta, normally there is load-sheding. That’s the excuse they have for their electricity failures. They say, insufficient load, so they shed the load in some areas. Say they need 500 megawatts, they have 300, so 200, but I never seen the 200 that’s supposed to be lit. But it was a blessing from the skies for the ratha-yātrā because we would have a generator, we have the whole ratha-yātrā car lit up at night. Unfortunately, I don’t think they have a picture of that.

And it’s so beautiful, and there is a completely dark street filled with millions of people to see the ratha cart just like a big transcendental moon coming down with Lord Jagannātha just like jewels, just in the center there with the lights on them. People come out even more in the evening but then it is so crowded, you can’t see them. Then it gets very difficult. Sometimes the people. I mean this big a crowd, even the police they just completely give up. I mean if it was unruly, you would… no hope of controlling it but by Lord Caitanya and Jagannātha’s mercy. people are generally of course going there, for no other purpose but to do our religious austerity, to pull the ratha-yātrā cart, so normally things are very well organized.

Not organized, well, at least pretty peaceful. So, there is always have thousands who come up. So, this is a daytime picture because at the night time the people come, and that time it’s not possible to photograph of the temple. Every year we build it fresh. This is the temple where this year Lord Jagannātha came to. It’s about 80 feet high, 80 or 60 feet high. Different designs every year, this time they made a square temple. And in there Lord Jagannātha, Nitāi-Gaura, Prabhupāda, they remain for the eight days, 9 days of the ratha-yātrā function.

This park was completely taken over. All the big like, this is a wooden camp you make. Because it is the rainy season, it rains, so that people don’t have to walk, they built a walkway out of wood there. You can see that front. Then we connect this temple to the main big top to the whole exhibition.

Here the people are taking Lord Jagannātha from the cart they are proceeding a procession all the students chanting, “Jay Jagannātha, Jay Jagannātha!” That’s the ratha-yātrā cart at night. You will get a picture of it, here you got an idea, because they are unloading now, In the actual stage they are having kīrtana. Prabhupāda’s pictures there in the back, ārati, lecture.

This is Bhakti Caru Mahārāja giving out an award through the books as well as certificates. And the first prize is a free trip, all expenses paid with your two parents or one friend, depending on the age groups to Vṛndāvana for the best artist in Jagannātha ratha-yātrā painting contest. Over 5000 entries sent in this year. The paintings are really beautiful.

Here is the Bhagavad-gītā distribution program. Those who want Bhagavad-gītā, they can get autographed this time. So this lady is presented the Bhagavad-gītā, I am presenting it to her after autographing it. She is already donated the requisite donation on the side. It covers the cost of the competition.

Here is the sense of painting contest. But it is so crowded that the photographer apologized he couldn’t get any close ups. They take it down in the day time, put it up at night. You can just see, through all the people, only half the people see these paintings. in fact, I was thinking that last year’s paintings should be brought over to the West, you could, you know put them up here in America during the ratha-yātrā, they’re brilliant! Inspiring to see, these 6, 7-year-old, 10-year old, 15-year old uh, boys and girls. They’re beautiful. They have to… the only rule is, has to show Jagannātha and show Lord Caitanya. So, you get some beautiful pictures of Lord Caitanya and Jagannātha ratha-yātrā festival.

There are about dozen book tables. This is a book table manned by the bhaktas wearing white. People come up and receive the Gītār Gāna which.. Viṣṇupāda has just published Gītār Gāna recently. Śrīla Ramesvara’s zone helped to publish some books last year. Here is another book table. Yet another book table. They also come up to buy beads. This is in front of the temple. Now you can see in the night time, the people coming to take darśana.

Jaya Jagannātha, Subhadrā, Balarāma ki

Devotees: Jaya!

Jayapatākā Swami: Jay Nitāi-Gaura ki.

Devotees: Jaya!

Jayapatākā Swami: They come up to get caraṇāmṛta. Originally, we have the deities on the main stage, but then the people want to go, they want to have darśana, so we put them on the side. Maybe we could have a lecture because, it all been you know just… complete complete. Maybe, you don’t know But that’s a very different intense situation over there, so we have to separate everything. We have prasādam distribution outside from the special armored vehicle. (Everyone laughs) We bought to serve… we got donated a surplus army vehicle, and that’s been reconditioned into a prasādam distribution. I don’t know.

Here is a special.. exhibition on the worldwide Kṛṣṇa conscious movement, an electrical push button exhibition on the left there. Are you this body?

This is to you give the perspective, the side view of the pandala, the pandala was bigger than a football field. It’s the side view, from the center looking into where the Deities are. During the day, twenty to fifty people always coming and having darśana. They take off the… this is a side view, you will see This is a life membership booth, program.

Then this is a picture from inside the pandala. The pandala holds… a pandala is like a big tent or circus tent, a big top. It’s about 70 feet high, it’s made to hold the rain, and the wind but inside they’ve put a false roof with colored cloth. All the decoration is done by rope and cloth. Nitāi-Gaura Deities are on the left and right. They’re too big to put on the stage.

This is just showing… this is just a very close up shot. It holds about ten to twenty-thousand people. Now, due to the (something about the films), so the picture didn’t come up so good but it get in… it goes back, this is from the center of the… this is not from the stage but this is from the… standing down on the ground in the crowd, it goes back about 300 feet from the stage, and the people are standing on the outside of the pandal there, looking in and there’s about fifty deep all around on the outside looking in, and inside the people, mātājīs, sit on one side and the and the men sit on the other side, and they very quietly listen to the lecture and the program. The amazing thing is that this whole program is going on… there’s nothing else but Kṛṣṇa.

There’s the Jagannātha painting contest, taking darshan of the deities, there is the hearing the lecture on the stage, seeing the exhibits, question and answer booth. Because Śrīla Ramesvara showed his mercy on us, we could have some of these wonderful exhibits that they made in Los Angeles, converted for use in India. But last time I asked it was over $800 but we do our best. And these people though they come and just for this Kṛṣṇa consciousness lectures, dramas, films, there is no other cultural event. There is not even Indian dancing, there is nothing, there is not anything. the only culture presented is the pure culture of Lord Jagannātha and Lord Caitanya. Yet people pack the place.

On the weekends, you get hundred thousand people at night, and on the weekdays because it is a 8 day festival, you get a minimum of 50,000. Even on a raining day, it was practically the same crowd, 40-50,000. On the weekend, one government official was supposed to speak, he came and even with the police help, he couldn’t get in for half an hour. It was so crowded, and outside the ratha-yātrā, we didn’t take pictures, but there is hundreds of popcorn vendors, papadam vendors, pakora vendors, balloon vendors, you name it. The only people that can sneak inside are the life saver vendors, the lozenge vendors, they put their lozenge bottle under their shirt, come in, and they go in the crowd with tapping a spoon on the bottle, hard to get it out selling lozenges to the people while they’re listening to the lecture.

Over 40 tons of prasādam are distributed during the ratha-yātrā. There wasn’t… They don’t take any donations from ISKCON food relief for that, they raise it from the local life members. ISKCON food relief only goes to the rural places and the places in the, you know, the very places like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Vṛndāvana, Māyāpur, Hyderabad farm, Nepal, places like that. Calcutta, Bangladesh collect their own.

So that was the basic going on the, 8 day 9 day festival at the park, which was started, 18 nine, or 1899, 1900 by… 1901 by Śrīla Prabhupāda and rejuvenated by Vishnupāda, and we are trying to to.

It’s actually by the mercy of Prabhupāda, that he said that we make this the biggest ratha-yātrā, so we are trying to fulfill his desire. and it was a hard struggle, the background I am worried they didn’t have time. They said, the last year the communist government said, “You can never have ratha-yātrā again.” We can only hope that by Jagannātha’s mercy… in fact this ratha-yātrā has more or less turned the tide.

Well at the Janmāṣṭami festival, two ministers from the Communist government of West Bengal came up to the Janmāṣṭami festival, and they lectured, and they were praising Prabhupāda and the Kṛṣṇa conscious movement like anything. One of them whose, slightly different party, he criticized the other members of the coalition, and he said that, “This Godless concept will never… Prabhupāda has shown that without Kṛṣṇa, without God there can be no system which will succeed, neither Communism nor any other.” He was yelling out, so it was a big step forward there, in a sense actually. What has won them over I feel to support, more than anything, is the millions of people that have come out. That if you cannot beat them, then join them. They see that, there is no use of trying to tell the people, don’t come to ratha-yātrā, they didn’t give us the permission. What would it mean? They’re going to come anyway.

Devotee: Gonna happen.

Jayapatākā Swami: By Lord Caitanya’s mercy, if they knew that it was going to be that big, 12 years ago, they would have never would never have given us the permission, I’m sure.

Jaya Jagannātha Swami ki..!

Devotees: Jaya!

Jayapatākā Swami: Jaya Rādhā Govinda ki..!

Devotees: Jaya!

Jayapatākā Swami: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda ki..!

Devotees: Jaya!

Jayapatākā Swami: Jaya Śrīla Viṣṇupāda ki..!

Devotees: Jaya!

Jayapatākā Swami: Nitāi-Gaura Premānande..!

Devotees: Hari Haribol!

Devotee: Śrīla Ācāryapada ki..!

Devotees: Jaya!!!