19840522 Arrival Address

The following is an arrival address given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on May 22^nd 1984, in Atlanta Georgia.

So you are all very fortunate to have the association today of Śrī Viṣṇupāda Harikeśa Swami, we are all fortunate and today in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam you have heard how Lord Brahmā explained to his son Nārada with satisfaction the science of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Bhāgavata-prāha, Brahmā didn’t say something which was concocted by himself, was very satisfied to say exactly what he heard from Lord Viṣṇu Himself. In this way the transcendental science is handed down through the disciplic succession. evaṁ paramparā-prāptam imaṁ (Bg. 4.2) in this way the transcendental science is received from spiritual master to disciple, spiritual master to disciple.

As we have heard that the demons have their satisfaction, we see here what is the satisfaction of the bonafide spiritual master, the satisfaction of the devotees. When they are able to repeat exactly what Kṛṣṇa has said, exactly what the predecessor spiritual masters have said, they’re satisfied. The mental speculators, the atheists, they are very satisfied, when they can present their own personal idea. Even if they get the idea from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam cover, they will be more satisfied if they rob it, what do you call… they plagiarize it and present it as their own idea, that will be their satisfaction. But the devotee knows that all real knowledge ultimately is coming from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And their satisfaction is in presenting that knowledge.

Even when Śrīla Prabhupāda was asked one time in the Tokyo airport by one person, “Where do you get all that knowledge in your books, that wisdom?” Of course, he was so happy because the boy was reading the transcendental literature, the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the Bhagavad-gītā. But the devotees are never shy to give credit to his spiritual master and to Kṛṣṇa. This is the difference, where the materialists are always anxious to personally get the credit. In fact, the devotee is shy when he is given the credit, but Kṛṣṇa arranges it that the devotee for understanding and repeating this science of God perfectly also gets glorified.

Actually, the real intelligence is to understand the truth. If one is very intelligent to come up with very interesting theory which is able to bewilder or convince a great number of people, but if that theory is not correct, if it’s simply based upon one’s own false ego and speculation, then even if so many people think that’s a good idea, what is the use? There is no permanent value or whatsoever. But to understand what is the reality, what is janmādy asya yataḥ. The source, the origin of everything, the way in which everything is created, everything is existent, annihilated or not subject to annihilation that is real intelligence.

So, unfortunately in this present iron age people don’t have much intelligence to understand these things, just like when Śrīla Prabhupāda was told the first time that they are accusing the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement of brainwashing, he laughed, he said “Brainwashing?” He said, “They have no brain to wash. We are giving them brains. They have got no intelligence to understand spiritual matters.” You see Viṣṇupāda has explained from the Bhagavad-gītā, they are simply interested in enjoying the senses, they don’t see anything beyond matter, sex life, they don’t see anything spiritual. So where is the question of the brain, they don’t have any brain or intelligence to understand spiritual matter.

So Śrīla Prabhupāda was so merciful that he gave even to the so called materially intelligent people who were spiritually bankrupt, he gave them spiritual intelligence by giving them this process of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. By chanting

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

Eating kṛṣṇa-prasādam and practicing Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, one gets real intelligence, then one will be able to understand what is the real meaning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, what are all these ten factors of… or characteristics of Bhāgavatam, which take one from before the creation of the universe up to the summum bonum of life. So one should be very diligent in practicing these principles of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness and then one can realize everything, stage by stage from the beginning to the summum bonum of life, to the end.

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

Transcribed by Bhaktin Nivetha
Revised by Jagannātha dāsa brahmacārī
Proofread by Rajeshwari, 11/10/2020, Bangalore