19900307 Addressing Namahatta Preachers

The following is the Addressing Namahatta Preachers Lecture By His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on March 7th 1990 ,at Sri Mayapur Dham, India.

vande 'ham sri-guroh sri-yuta-pada-kamalam sri-gurun vaishnavas ca

                 sri-rupam sagrajatam saha-gana-raghunathan tam tam sa-jivam

sadvaitam savadhutam parijana-sahitam Kṛṣṇa-caitanya-devam

sri-radha-Kṛṣṇa-padan saha-gana-lalita-sri-visakhanvitams ca

Guru Mahārāja:

The college teachers to the high school teachers to student teachers to village leaders, it’s not that the, when you say village. Village doesn’t mean that to be only the farmers are, chanting. Some farmers are chanting with the ability to have school teachers. Like in Mayapur we have half a dozen primary schools. Many times the school teachers are  the ones who became the namahatta leaders. Those who are a little more educated , they can read the books. Sometimes it’s the businessman, sometimes it's the local political leader. All different kinds of people are there, especially the small junior colleges and the small colleges that are scattered throughout the states. The students , they are very right, they go on to big universities , Sometimes they are really really proud hard to catch them. But in the smaller colleges that are open, but they are also good candidates. So we don’t say that we shouldn’t preach in university, we also have preaching. Yeah, we definitely need foreigners to preach to attract the university students but we preach to all of the thousands of colleges and high schools and people are becoming more and more receptive. 

One preacher who is a book distributor had mentioned he has gone and got hundreds of religion appreciations of Prabhupāda books, even from Mohammadin professor and they read Prabhupāda books and they went on, appreciation it’s very good. So he goes to everyone and this is university you have to read it. doesn't matter if  I am a Muslim! So what! Look at this, this is gone all over the whole world, people doesn’t , there is no bar you can still read it and this way he convinces them of anyone who purchases the book and later he comes back with a wide variety of appreciation. You’re college teacher you're respectfully mayor he’s  got the whole book of this big appreciations of people have given, so in this way our aim is that the sixty thousand villages in bengal so we are hoping they are pleased and most of the villages we should have and all of the villages that become jadwa nagaridigam, we should one Hare Kṛṣṇa namahatta center also  in all of the states in India, we started in bengal and Orissa now it’s gone into Assam also it’s Nepal, Bihar especially eastern India and now in south India we have namahatta, but it’s just started more recently, since the puri ghat went there. 

Apart from outside India we are having a separate seminar Sacinandana Swami and some Malaysian preachers and different devotees from different parts of the world are coming when they come and speak, but this gives the great overview of some of the things we are doing. When we got to Namahatta tour this is the special combination with some of the some of the very enthusiastic namahatta groups they were personally organized everything, they dwell the pandal, they dwell the stage, they invite the people and they organize the prasādam and usually is the way to some initiated devotees they organize the program, we simply have to transport the devotees and throughout than the  different equipment were there to put out under preaching and usually get somewhere between five thousand to twenty thousand people. They give a very small program will be three thousand usually goes up to five and twelve, and one of the programs is about to deliver a whole area of about several hundred villages for few  years. Especially they never offered the whole life so convincing so well all the devotees preach for about fifteen to twenty minutes in shifts.

Men and women especially we find in a village that most of the even we can say that fifty percent of people are women.  Men and we asked the society women are the main thing. They are the mothers of children, they are the queen of the household. And In India there is a separation, they don’t want to, they don’t approach a man who are not their relative, they are very shy. So they want to hear from the women preachers. Sometimes on these big programs they are very interested to hear from the matajis who are talking.so those, we do this towards every year and also gives us opportunities to meet more and more of the namahatta groups. 

At that time, maybe twenty or thirty groups gathered at that time. Like a whole district, whole block sub district suburbs We did similar tour in Bangladesh where also there’s several hundred namahatta groups, that’s a different country and they were doing a tour after the Vṛndāvan festival from 25th of March until the 3rd of April. Purushatrya Swami from Brazil went on the last tour we had in November. He liked it so much and for in December he liked it so much that he didn’t come back he just stayed for almost an extra month. Also he go we can’t, it’s very, the people are hungry for Kṛṣṇa consciousness nobody is preaching this become that background ,people are criticizing ISKCON why you only preach in the  big cities? you just want to get money from the millionaires, what about why don’t somebody come and preach to us and give to common people and ask about anything. We don’t know we were born in this country we don’t know! we don’t know  who is Kṛṣṇa!  we don’t know who is God! We don't know!!  who is Caitanya Mahāprabhu! because every millions of gurus are here and they all are telling something different. You are the only people who are giving the pure message, so you don’t preach to us how we are going to know?

 Kali Yuga there are so many kali chalices gone everywhere. We want so many common teachers, What is the proper way?  But you only resident teaching in Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta big big cities big big money, we have no money to offer you. We can offer you some eggplant, some rice and some nice place to sit. We want to hear you.When we gone to the village that’s what they offer, very nice prasad actually. You will be surprised if you go into a grass hut  you want and you think this is such a simple house and they will have a plenty of preparation feast, because  all the initiated  devotees are waiting for five years for this chance to cook for the devotees from all over the world. So they give everything and this about there is vegetables so many vegetables which is very inexpensive in the village but they give their devotion so there is no hardship for prasādam, sometimes hardship is thinking in it. (laughing) 

Then other problem we got is, we distribute the books widely and people will read the books. Sometimes if you sell a person the book he will read the book right there on the spot and instead of volume distributing he stood on the side there for five hours and read the book. He come back and I read the book. I accept, I surrender, what you want me to do? Great! Join our temple! Alright I am 60 years old, I am 55 years old, I have 4 more years in what I anticipate I will be retire, I working for 33 years for the railways but I can give up my pension if you like, and that my mother, my invalid father, my wife, my four daughters, my seven sons, my third house, my 18 acres of land and my house and my this and my that, so once that, I should sell that and move in. What should I do? What should I ? Wait Wait a minute we don’t even have a room here in ISKCON gṛhastha ashram. (laughing) Would you like to join as a life member sir ? Well only it’s 2,222 rupees and 3000 and 4000 rupees.well I am just a service holder, I can give you by partain, I can give one time, I can do it anything you want. I believe you for. I accept you for ? Please tell me what I have to do? well you know that we are not ready to move into the temple we don’t have the infrastructure you need for a huge 20 member family to move in right now, and  maybe they are not ready yet. they have like outsource just you know come up to that level to just  move right  into the temple  for, alright then you like some time to get back together alright. 

I mean, We need a program for these people. We are selling so many books. I went to one big Hindu sammelan and they gave a VIP treatment, and they put me in the VIP tent so all around was all the big Hindu leaders of India. And I overheard them talking in one of the tents they say you saying these Hare Kṛṣṇa chants are active now. They plough the field, they plant the seed, they water the seed, the plant grows, the seed flowers, the grain comes and they leave the house for us. We take the orders they all become our disciples, they all become our followers after they get them into. So they will plead the people so we shouldn’t complain.  I heard that, I don't think that's not what I want to offer to Prabhupāda. This is all the work and all the bhogi yogis taken away and we should offer them all the work to Prabhupāda, to Caitanya Mahāprabhu, but it’s a fact we do the big programs, we do the big Ratha Yatras, we do all the big preaching but then  when it comes to followers we got the zero.

 I am talking about 10, 15 years ago I mean that’s a feeling that I was. That’s when I went to Prabhupāda , what should I do? Yes, you must have a cultivation program bring them to the temple, change them up, organize them, send them back, let them preach in their own village and appear high. And so that is basically why we are doing Hare Kṛṣṇa namahatta to create constant whatever we are preaching; whatever the books we give that  the maximum effect is received  from it, achieved by it. So if they are convinced by Prabhupāda philosophy we have a program yes! You can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa in your home or you can join the Hare Kṛṣṇa namahatta, we have more advanced devotees that are responsible to cultivate them. people will iron them to encourage them, to train them, to teach them. And then we have,  we know where they are, we can register, we can go to their village and do more programs and they can get more association,  otherwise we had no contact with these people and so that  actually they are going here and there we are getting them fired up.

 They become awaken to the Hindu dharma and we they become you know  the perfect Hindus and the mad followers of Caitanya Mahāprabhu in the real sense but now with the Hare Kṛṣṇa namahatta center in India,  I can say this is the most important preaching. For actually having the effect of Prabhupāda books distribution in our temples and in our festivals and preaching. Really we deserve of real life and Bhaktivinoda Thakur said he predicted that of all the forms of preaching in the Vaishnava world the namahatta congregational preaching is going to have the most massive effect in delivering the entire world. 

Hare Kṛṣṇa namahatta ki.. Jai !

For now we think that I mentioned you as so aspiring, the namahatta devotees and are become very enthusiastic for distributing books and this is the great army of book distributors tends up arms thousands of people who are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa if they all become book distributors and then we all see a tremendous renaissance of we can see a great flood of Prabhupāda books going everywhere. So this is the objective is to get them they become more and more they become older they become Kṛṣṇa consciousnesses become more enthusiastic to preach and to distribute books.

So we see this as a great hope in a very enlightening devotees are interested to hear about it and I hope sometimes if you have a day or two or a week or two or more probably visit some of the, go with the, one of the beaches and they achieve one of the bus and become one of the big programs and see the first hand. Some of the guys should preach. I know it’s different to the age group that namahatta congregational preaching in America and in South America, I visited some programs and in other countries as well. It's basically the different people you have to deal with but it’s surprisingly, it’s not that different in many ways everybody goes, people have doubts and people had interests. We have to validate their doubts and kindle their interests and then you have to cultivate them in positive way, engage them in devotional service and as you do that they gradually start to increase more and more in their interest of Kṛṣṇa consciousness until eventually they do get already unaltered and they do become fixed in devotional service and then they become very effective preachers of Kṛṣṇa consciousnesses themself. 

(aside:) So thank you very much! Are there any questions on this aspect of Indian namahatta preachers? Yes ! About What ? 

(devotee:) (Inaudible 14:39) 

Guru Mahārāja:

I was speaking from the first person putting myself say 12 years ago, at that time we were in all book marathons. We sell so many books, then I started in real life. We distribute so many books and people were becoming and in India people are pious. They need a book they will convince easily, they are not lenders covered up. We don’t have a program to occupy those people. We needed a program, you just surrender in a temple or become a life member either or something in between to see. We needed a program to be able to engage all the people awaited by books and got convinced by Prabhupāda's philosophy and that there is no infrastructure but now we do have a basic infrastructure and we are regularly enthusiastic all the time. 

(aside:) Any other questions? 

(devotee:) (Inaudible 15:35)

Guru Mahārāja:

They have world wide namahatta seminar with the fulltime book distributors come and they will come and speak about few minutes of theirs experiences of distributing books and behalf of namahatta and how Prabhupāda’s books have having effect and what they realize by distributing books and they get the idea of how namahatta devotees can also teach you. 

Hare Kṛṣṇa! Thank you 

Jayapataka Maharaj ki Jai! Haribol!

Transcribed By: Sravanti Eamani

Transcribed On: 26 May, 2020

Proofreading By: Amrita Padma Devi Dasi On 09/10/2020

Proofreading By: Revathi Mtji on 29/11/2020