1994 Ratha yātrā Addressing With Tamil Translation (Part 1)

Jayapatākā Swami:

Everyone please repeat:

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ
paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande
śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ
śrī caitanya iśvaram

His Holiness  Bhakti Vrajendranandan Swāmī Maharaj, the Chairman of the KIA Thiru Vadamalai, excuse me. Alagusundaram Thiru Alagusundaram the Chairman of the maniman temple Thiru Vadamalai and trustees of the Karu Mariamman temple Raju Naidu and Mayilvaganam, greetings to you, greetings to all of the devotees and pious people present.

We are very happy that Alor Setar has had the first Ratha Yātrā today and that we could participate in this Jagannātha Ratha-Yātrā festival. Jagannātha Swāmī ki jai! So for many of you, this is the first time you have been in a Ratha Yātrā festival. So, I like to introduce you to the deities. This beautiful deity with its beautiful lotus eyes in the blackish face is Lord Kṛṣṇa, Lord Jagannātha. He is having peacock feather in his crown. His elder brother is on the far left that you are looking at Lord Balarāma. And in between Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma is Subhadrā devī. In the Bhāgavatam, it is mentioned that Subhadrā devī is the spiritual form of [amman] and she is known as Yogamaya. She is the sister of Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma. She is the origin of this material energy. So 5000 years ago Lord Kṛṣṇa along with Balarāma and Subhadrā they went from Dvārakā, Hastināpur to Kurukshetra. They were on the chariot. And they went there for bathing in the sacred kuṇḍa. There in Kurukshetra the residence of Vrindavana came Yaśodā, Rādhārāṇī all the vrajavāsīs to meet Lord Kṛṣṇa after long separation. It was a very happy reunion. 

Lord Chaitanya used to participate in this Ratha-Yātrā festival in the mood of bringing Kṛṣṇa back to his old Childhood friend and parents. So we are very happy that today we can also see so many of you united together and so enthusiastically pulling Lord Jagannātha. In the Purāṇas it states that by pulling Lord Jagannātha Ratham, by walking with Ratham one gets unlimited spiritual blessing and eventually can go back to the spiritual world. Beyond this material world there is a spiritual world where Lord Kṛṣṇa and Nārāyaṇa eternally reside. That world is never created, it is never destroyed. It is the eternal abode of the nitya mukta for eternally liberated souls. 

The purpose of this Kṛṣṇa conscious movement is to have people being happy in this life and at the end of life go back to Vaikuṇṭha, back to Goloka, back to the spiritual world. Every one of us is going to leave the present body we are in. We have various possible destinations we could go. In this lifetime we can prepare ourselves for our future lives. Those who have developed devotion of Bhakti for the lord, they will go to the planet of Lord Kṛṣṇa. How many of the people present would like to end the cycle of birth and death and stop coming back to conditioned life. Raise your hands!

How many of you would like to continue coming back into birth and death cycle again and again. Why would anybody want to die again and again. How in this age of kali can we get back, can we get out of this cycle, and achieve liberation. Lord Śiva explains that Lord Viṣṇu is the giver of liberation. In the skanda Purāṇa it mentions that the two syllables Ha - Ri steal away all our sins and give us liberation. So you all very fortunate, everybody in the whole country of Malaysia is already delivered, because you call in Malay bhaasha the word for today or this day is Hari. and that's why I think everybody in Malaysia is so nice, no matter everybody is always chanting Hari Hari. Whether Hari Christmas or Hari Rai or Hari Bol. Everyone is chanting Hari! 

Haribol! 

So Skanda Purāṇa tells us that these two syllables Ha Ri, all our bad qualities are stolen away. And Kṛṣṇa brings us back to him. So, specially in this age of kali it is recommended we should chant the holy names of Hari, we should chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahāmantra. This is recommended in the skanda Purāṇa, in Śiva Purāṇa, it is recommended in padma Purāṇa. It's recommended in all the vedas, that the holy name of Hari is very important. It's the essential way to get free in this age of kali. 

So it is not very difficult here in Alor Setar, everyone could easily chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahāmantra a little bit everyday to get the blessings. 

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

How many of you know this mantra?

How many don't know the mantra very well?

Everyone?

I was explaining yesterday, how the mantras in the vedas are away from us. like through telephone we can get immediately come in contact with Bhagavān. Immediate contact we can have. Hare Kṛṣṇa we repeat the name and Kṛṣṇa is present dancing on our tongue. Hare is the Shakti. We first address the Shakti, because by the blessing of the Shakti, we can get the blessing of Shaktimaan. That's why all these deities are mentioned first. Sītā Rāma, Laxmi Nārāyaṇa, Radheshyam, Gowri Shankar, always they mention the shakti first. So Hare Kṛṣṇa! means Oh energy of the Lord, Hare, engage me in the service of the Lord. Oh Kṛṣṇa, Oh Supreme Lord, engage me in your service. 

Lord Śiva explains in the Śiva Purāṇa, that Rāma is the name for the parabrahman. If we chant the name of Kṛṣṇa and Rāma, we become spiritually purified. Just like if you wash your clothes, you are cleaning the clothes of the dirt. If we chant the mantra we are delivering the mind from contamination of this material condition of life. Now human beings are special. Because human beings are able to engage in this religious ceremony. Animals, they can run and play, but they are not able to understand God. So our founder His Divine Grace, this is our Guru and founder, His Divine Grace Abhay Charan Bhaktivedanta Swāmī Prabhupāda. He came here to Malaysia in 1971. And he established the Kṛṣṇa Conscious movement all over the world. He wanted specially the people of Malaysia, get this mercy because this is a very historical place. There is no reason why the Indians and the Chinese can not get full blessings from Śrīla Prabhupāda. So his request to everyone is, please chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and be happy. He has written many books. Those books are displayed there in the back. We hope that you will please read the books of Bhaktivedanta Swāmī Prabhupāda. They will make your life sublime and perfect. How many of you like this having a Ratha-Yātrā festival here in Alor Setar? Do you like the Ratha-Yātrā here in Alor Setar? So in closing this, i don't think the sound system is so good. I just like to request all of you to please take Kṛṣṇa prasadam. Please take the darshan of Lord Jagannātha and one time at least please chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahāmantra. 

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

Nandri!

I would like to request the president of KIA Alagusundaram to please give us a few of his messages, how he liked the Ratha-Yātrā festival today. 

President: Swami, I was telling them that in all these 11 years, we have seen so many people in this hall. This is the first time I have seen so many enthusiastic people in this hall. Haribol (audience) and we are extremely happy to receive all of you here.