19940706 Arrival Darshan

The following is a darshan arrival address given by His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Maharaj on

July 6, 1994 in Brisbane, Australia.

 

Raghunandan Thakur took the laddu plate and offered to the Lord. When, the

Lord didn't eat the laddus, he started to cry. He felt very upset, that, the Lord wasn't eating them,

accepting the offering and the Lord said, why you're crying? He said, my father told me to

offer You the laddu and You'll accept the offering, but, you're not eating the laddu. So, then,

Lord said, if, I eat the laddus, you'll stop crying? He said, yes. So, then, He ate half of the

laddus. The deity picked up the laddus, started eating and the boy came back with a plate

half eaten. Mother asked, what happened to the laddu prasadam. He saw that, about half is

missing, the Lord ate the other half. So, normally, what happens, the Lord eats everything

and then, by glancing, He puts it back, right away, at the same time. So, we see, like, it's actually, already eaten by the Lord, in that place. Here, because the Lord

was actually, physically eating that, to satisfy the desire of a small child devotee. So, He

was only leaving half. When, the father came back, he heard the story and he wanted to

know what happened. So, he hid and was watching and he found, that, the deity was

eating and when, the the deity understood, that, he was watching, He stopped eating, but,

he still caught Him red-handed because He had a half-eaten laddu in His hand. Since, that

time, they offer, they keep half a laddu, in the hand of the deity, remembering that past

time. Well!, the fame of Raghunandan Thakur, spread around, that, he was such a great

devotee of the Lord. He was taking right from his hand and eating. So, Abhiram Thakur,

one of the Lord Nityananda's very dear associates, he wanted to meet Raghunandan

Thakur. So, Abhiram Thakur was such a powerful devotee that,when, Lord Nityananda had

his first children, every time, he had offered obeisances to the children, it showed the little bit,

after the birth of a new baby to Nityananda and Vasudha, the baby would die.

So, the baby couldn’t take, couldn't tolerate the obeisance offered by Abhiram Thakur. He

said, I wasn't worthy of being a child of Lord Nityananda. So, like this, about six children died.. six

or seven, i forget, that, exactly, until, finally Bir chandra prabhu and Ganga Goswamini were born as

Nityananda children. They could take the obeisances offered by Abhiram Thakur. It's said,

that, some people, they put, just, a black stone on the altar, that, wasn’t a real

shaligram, if, he offered obeisancese, it would just crumble, explode. So, he wanted to see

Raghunandan. But, when, the parents, they were just frightened, even though, Raghunandan

was a bonafied devotee, they were frightened, just, because of, you know, parental affection. Who knows,

what will happen. Abhiram offers him obeisances. So, when, Abhiram came, they hid the

child. They wouldn't let him come out. At that time, maybe, he was already 12 years old or

something. I don't know the exact age but he was a little grown. But, somehow, Abhiram was

very upset. He went off, about a kilometre away, in one forest, he was chanting his Japa

there. Raghunandan heard that Abhiram has come. Somehow, he got the news. So, he

snugged away from his parents. He went out and then immediately offered his obeisances

to Abhiram Thakur. Abhiram, he was so happy to see Raghunandan. But, the two of

them, they started to dance. So, they were dancing for hours and hours and hours in

ecstasy chanting Hare Krishna. It was so ecstatic, Raghunandan Thakur, he kicked so.  hard, that, he

had silver ankle bells on and the silver ankle bells flew 12 kilometres and landed in

one devotee's pond. They still kept those ankle bells there. So, you can imagine, that

would, i think beat any Olympic record. So, that place, where, they met, it's the commemorated,

then, they built a temple there and every year there's a big gathering of, maybe a few

hundred thousand people at that festival. There is a kirtan, just, went on for day and night, so,

they commemerate the kirtan of this festival. The deity comes out, Gauranga

Mahaprabhu and stays in that orchard for about 3-4 days. Behind the house of

Raghunandan Thakur, one time, Nityananda came there and He was in the

mood of Balarama and He was saying, give Me madhu. give Me honey. i want honey and so, immediately,

the devotee went to the pond and took out a pot of water to bring to Lord

Nityananda. So, when, he did that, then, the whole pond and the water, that, he took out,

turned into honey and he went and brought to Nityananda and He drank the honey, just

like, Balaram was drinking honey. So,in the the whole pukur, that time, honey, give me more

honey. So, in the mood of Balaram, Nityananda was accepting so much honey. So, that pukur

became known as madhu pukur. Madhu means honey, honey pukur. Pukur

means little man-made lake. You dig a pond, then, they call that a pukur. the tank, i guess,

here, they take swimming pools, they don't take pukurs. Then, another interesting

pastime. Abhiram Thakur was very amazing personality. Sridama, of Krishna lila, he came

with Lord Nityananda and joined Caitanya lila So, he had outside his temple, that, Khanukul

Krishnanagar, one bhakul tree. Do they have bakul trees in Australia? small flowers like

a jasmine, but, more, when, they are dry, they keep their fragrance, for years together. So, they

have a little fruit, that's kind of, like a small crab apple, it's kind of sour. Kids like to eat

them a little bit. They're not a commercial fruit, but, they give very nice small flowers. This is a

very big tree. they take a long time to grow. Big trees means maybe, a hundred years old...

very big tree and Lord Nityananda prabhu used to go and sit underneath that tree and He

would go there with the sankirtana party. So, it's a favourite by cool shade So, one

yogi, he heard about Abhiram Thakur, being a great Vaishnava. You know, what is the use

of these Vaishnavas, they don't have any, you know, they don’t have any potency. So, he went and showing

off his mystic power, he zapped that tree and burnt it to a crisp. Abhiram Thakur came

out and he said, my tree. Nityananda prabhu's tree and He was very angry. So, then, using

his potency, he recreated the tree and he gave the tree a blessing, that, 12months, a year,

you'll give flowers, for the deity, but, no fruits. So, it's a resurrected tree. Sometime, in the

history of humankind, write about, people have died and come back from the death. But,

this is the first, you know, one of the few, of any history of a resurrected tree. It was killed

and came back from the dead. So, it's called siddha bakul also. It's a resurrected tree

and it's still living, even, today, after 500 years. Now, it's nice and 12 months a year, it gives

flowers.  Normally, they only give flowers for one month a year. But, this tree gives 12

months a year, but, never any fruits and it's used for the deities. So, after that, the

yogi surrendered to Abhiram Thakur and became a Vaishnava and giving up his false pride over mystic powers. Abhiram

Thakur, he was, just, always considering, how to deliver the local villagers, how, they could

see a pocket of people in maya, he would try and make plans, to have a festival there, used to

distribute prasad.  It was like, actively, always meditating on the preaching. He is

one of the eternal associates of the Lord and there are 12 cowherd boys of Krishna and

he's totally absorbed in, how, to bring people to the lotus feet of Gaura Nitai, showing, how,

preaching Krishna consciousness is a transcendental activity, which, even the liberated

souls, who, come down from the spiritual world, they relish performing that activity. How

many of you went on Navadwip mandal parikrama this year? How did you like it? last

three years, good customers. So, the Gaura mandala, its a round of Navadwip mandal. It  spreads out, for about 168 miles. So, we are trying to get. This year, one sadhu he

came to mayapur and he was sitting outside my office. He's very old man, must be

in 80s, lock sitting in the hallway. I came out and i asked him. He got a name. 11:38

So, here's, like, a vaishnava. We feed for so many poor people. Well, here's just some kind

of a devotee, so, I asked him, you want prasad. He said, no, I just eat fruit. Is there some way I can help you 11:50. So, I brought him to the office. Had him sit down. Wait for the temple manager and I went. It turns out, he's a sevaite, he, like, head priest of the

temple at Kanai natashala. You heard the name Kanai natashala? It mentions,

when, Lord Caitanya was going to Vrindavan and Narasimha brahmhacari was meditating and

he was creating like a jeweled pathway for Lord Caitanya and he got up to Kanai

natashala and that's, as far as He went. So, Lord Chaitanya's just going to go there.

Lord Caitanya went there on three different occasions. Others see the Lord Krishna

there, this self-manifested diety. It’s a very beautiful place, right on the Ganges, just opposite,

from Bengal. It's the only place of Gaur mandal bhumi, that's in the state of Bihar. He said,

that, he wanted to give that to Iskcon and to take, he's very old, he's not capable of running anymore,

of 45 acres of land, beautiful temple, right on the bank ganges. There's many obstacles

between someone offering land, that, has actually been registered. Maybe, with the

prayers of all the devotees, we can get a very nice place, one of the places that

Gaura mandala bhumi. Like that, we're trying to find places or someone offers to take

them over.  Otherwise, we, just offer you, prepare the things. So, it's nectarine, because

there's so many pastimes of Lord Caitanya and His associates

Any questions? Yes!

 

Question: not audible

Guru Maharaj: He had a whip. He whipped someone and they would get love of Godhead. So, that would happen. He whipped  Raghunandan, I

think three times. He gave him so much love for Godhead. Someone stopped and take it

easy, work here. [Laughter] In the temple, one day,  Abhiram

Thakur told the associates, that, he'd make deity of himself. He told the associates, that,

today, I'm going to leave the world and then, I enter into this deity and you can worship

the deity and he turned around and walked in and entered into the deity, so that, no

one saw him anymore. Deity is there, sitting in the temple, next to the Krishna deity,

Balaram, beautiful diety. They do all the worship for the deities, with the door open, the bathing,

ornaments or everything, putting the deity to sleep. After diety takes rest and it comes 14:38, all the worship 14:40 , the only temple like that. I think, it's a Gopinath diety, beautiful.

One time,

Prabhupada was walking on the roof of the Lotus building, in Mayapur and on the roof,

there's a roof garden. So, there were some ants moving and then, that time,

Prabhupada looked up and said, that, in the higher planetary systems are living entities,

but, looking down on the human beings the way we look down in the end, i think ants are

so insignificant and looked on human beings civilizations coming out. For them, 200 years

is only less than one of their years. 365 of our years is one of their years. We

live a hundred years, it's a few months, like, some animal going this, there's an animal,

under the few months, you know, like, some kind of rabbit or something. I don't even know

how long a rabbit or a rat, a mouse, human beings are so insignificant for them. Of

course, the human being has advantage. although, we have such a short lifespan, if, we

are Krishna conscious, we can go back to Krishna. For ants, they don't have that

consciousness, but, in the whole universal affair, we're actually very infinitesimal. Sometimes,

Srila Prabhupada arrived in Mayapur and then he went out to the reception, everything, he went

upstairs and he sat in this room. Then, back, in his cushion and then, he asked for a glass

of Mayapur water. He put in his golden goblet. He drank high without touching and he said

living or dying in Mayapur is all the same. If, you're living in Mayapur, you're in the spiritual

world and if, you leave your body here, you go back to Godhead. So, living or dying, one

day, when it was Brahmananda and couple of devotees, they were sitting. You know, Prabhupad was teaching, how to eat without touching. He said, if, you gave them all

a coconut ball, did we eat and then, they'd eat like this. So, then, he'd say, now your

hand is contaminated. You go and wash it from there. So, we had to learn to eat without

touching, so the hand would stay clean. You take note. Then, he'd give them, you know,

your hand, go wash, this is going on they're trying to throw it (laughing) Prabhupada was

getting impatient, hopeless, anyway, he was not touching. I remember one devotee, kept

sending out four or five times, he touched, touched, he touched. They wanted to teach,

how to eat without touching. Sometimes, how to drink, without touching. I don't know, one

time, somebody came knocking at my door. It was 1.30, in the morning. What's going on! Open

the door. I said, anything wrong. What's happening? I thought, maybe, we were being

attacked. Srila Prabhupada wants to see you. I threw some water on my face.

Put on some tilak, went downstairs and Prabhupada, he was translating in his room. He had,

the room was filled with Frankincense smoke, coiled mosquito and they had a special mosquito

net over his desk and he was inside with a Dictaphone translating Srimad Bhagavatam.

I came in, offered my obescinces. I was thinking about the construction, before I forget. So, everybody, was talking about, wanted to know about construction..what you can do tomorrow. So, we were at call 24 hours a day, anything, Prabhupada wanted and he was

concerned about something. So, I had to do my homework, come back in the morning and

give him a report. When I was visiting Srila Prabhupada in Bombay in 1977, he was physically

manifesting some kind of health problems. So, I was asked to stay up with him, on the

night, in the fifth floor 19:26 chanting Japa, Prabhupad

was rescued. Then, he woke up and he sat up. He said, my back is itching. please scratch my

back. I started scratching and he said, no no, use your fingernails. Scratch it hard and it was

like, something residue or something was going on him on scaling or

something, it was itching. I didn't have much fingernails. So, whatever I had, he

wanted me to scratch. You know, that I was scratching

Any other questions?

 

Question: not audible.

Guru Maharaj: I think, I can do without touching. At that time, he was niether trying to teach someone else. But, I was, kind of, observing the whole thing. So, from there, I don't think, he put me in too much of a spot and after that, I went to practice for 21:11. (devotees laugh) I can't remember, at that time. I think, I must have turned right. Otherwise, I would have, I don't remember going out to wash my hand more times. Srila Prabhupad, tender, like, focused on, I got 21:43 One time, Srila Prabhupada, he said, he wanted us to be very

expert in serving the guests. He says, it was very important. He said, in some of the other

temples, they knew really how to serve guests very nicely, make them feel very wealthy

He gave an example of one of his God brothers. He would personally bring some big minister or

VIP. When they came to the temple and he would sit there and he would, like, direct his

servants, an impression, he's a great fighter, there's a Maharaj, acharya, personally taking

interest and then, even, though, everything would be going nice, my kind of person, bring

more water. What’s this! That person aahh!he’s taking so much care. So, they feel very indebted and so,

then, after the person would be like totally stuck with prasadam, then, they would approach him for some help, you know, some 22:50, whatever, whatever might be their technicality, but, help in some way. While eating, Prabhupad says, it should be only light talk. After eating, you can talk to them. So, then, like, just happened, that day, one very big member of the government came. So, then, Prabhupad, he was like, okay, I will show you this, I will show you. So, he went in the veranda. Right behind his room, he had us bring prasad and served. Then, Prabhupad put his chair out and he was sitting and he was telling, he was teaching how to serve the guests. 23:34 Prabhupad would be telling jokes, cutting some spiritual jokes with them. So, this way, he was personally training us, how to serve guests. Then, afterwards, he talked to the person, he wanted to develop the Mayapur city, we need some help. To get the land, more land from the government. He wanted us to be expert, how to serve guests, how to

take care of people. Now, in the 1990s, service oriented groups is the most important.

That's like, really considered important factor, if, you're very expert in serving people.

Someone, one famous lecturer was saying, how, his vision is that, iskcon should

be known as the best service organization in the world. People should get the best

standard of service, when, they come to Iskcon, you know, set up, you know, Singapore

airlines or this thing or that thing, doing great service, Iskcon, best service because

we're all servants. We're all devoted to Krishna service. So, somebody comes in Krishna’s

house and we shouldn't be mad. That's the best standard of service, like, they

really feel welcome and then feel, wow! these people are taking such nice care of me, i'd like to

be a devotee too. Anyway Hare Krishna! Jai!