19950407 SAFARI - Guwahati, Assam

The following is a talk given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on April 7, 1995 at Guwahati, Assam, India. The talk was given during the safari.

His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami:

namo mahā-vadānyāya kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāya te

kṛṣṇāya kṛṣṇa-caitanya-nāmne gaura-tviṣe namaḥ

Very grateful that on this auspicious occasion, we have invited our devotees to come here and we could meet with so many nice members and friends of the society. You have heard from different delegates that have come here on this occasion. Actually, although they are into this thing what country they are coming from, but all of them have understood the message of Bhagavad-gītā, that we are not the body but we are the ātma. 'Ahaṁ brahmāsmi' that we are the spirit. This is Bhagavad-gītā explains

kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarātathā dehāntara-prāptirdhīras tatra na muhyati

We are always changing our bodies but the intelligent people they are not bewildered by this change of bodies. So, Chaitanya, Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu he taught, jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya — ‘nitya- kṛṣṇera dāsa’.

So, his teaching was that we should actually have our introduction, or parichay as jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya — kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa’. āmāra ‘svarūpa’ haya — kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa’ I am the eternal servitor of Lord Kṛṣṇa. E āmāra parichay, jīvera Kṛṣṇa nitya dāsa, e āmāra parichay   immediately

[Not Clear – 00:02:57] everybody stood up and said I am the eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa. I am the eternal servant then you might use though as where was your body born. That's why everyone stood and said I am coming from Macedonia and Poland and chile and so on [Not Clear – 00:03:01]. Because they know that the actual person is not the body the body was born in these different countries but the person is ātma and ātma is transcendental to all the countries.

In Bhagavad- gītā Lord Kṛṣṇa explains

mamaivāṁśo jīva-lokejīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ

that all living entities are My part and parcel. This is the great mystery of life that has been revealed in Bhagavad-gītā.

People all over the world should know this science. That is something which India can provide to the whole world ātma-vigyan, science of the self. But now a days even in India our youth is not being trained in this science of the self and they are suffering so much because of it. They are suffering the same anxieties as the people the youth in the western countries. But being born in India the youth shouldn't have to suffer that type of anxiety. They should have the peace of the mind that the sanātana dharma is offering. Every day when I read the newspaper its very disturbing to me to see how some students here in India is committing suicide because they failed their examination or because they were feeling frustration for various or because of they were doing some demonstration for mandal, mandal commission or they are doing some political demonstration or sacrifice.

The true revolution in this age is to create a God centred society. That is what Sankar did this 500 years ago. He made this entire Eastern North Eastern area God conscious, Kṛṣṇa conscious. For us the achievement of Sankardev is a great inspiration that we pray at his lotus feet for his blessings to be able to also do the same thing in a bigger scale all over the world. It's more difficult in many ways to preach to the foreign people because they know nothing about Kṛṣṇa. Of course, in some ways that's also a blessing in disguise because whatever they do learn they learn it clearly from the beginning without so many different ideas, but the initial difficulty is to get them into sit even to learn. So, I understood that Sankardev he was also at that time preaching here in Assam and people were not very educated so he would preach by using drama, music and he wrote the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in very simple language.

[Not Clear – 00:07:15] language. In other words, Bhāgavat says that preaching should be done by kāla, deśa and pātra, time, place and circumstance and that was what he did.

Our Founder-Ācārya His Divine Grace Abhay Charan Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, he told us we should respect great devotees like Sankardev and offer them our sincere obeisance’s. He also is the pioneer in the preaching of Vaiṣṇavism. He passed this Vaiṣṇavism to the west to the far east

[Not Clear – 00:07:56] to Africa, to Australia all over the world outside India and he presented the Kṛṣṇa Consciousness movement in a very logical rational way. He presented the sanātana dharma as a universal religion. He taught people that every human being is already a member of sanātana dharma. Everyone is born in sanātana dharma only some people realised and some people have not yet realised it. That the real universal religion in the whole world is the sanātana dharma.

Sanātana means universal means no beginning, no end, eternal. We are talking about universal principles or religion which are applicable for people of all creeds, of all countries, of all places in the world. Every religion says God is great. Allah-u-akbar but how is God great?

In the bible it says that God is our father, He lives in heaven, He is very merciful, He is fair but He is strict. In the Quran, it says Allah He also living in heaven, He sits on a throne. Allah put his hand on the shoulder of Mohammed. Mohammed saw the thumb of God and said that Allah is very beautiful but doesn't give so many details about Allah. Like that little bit is given in all religion how God is great. People in the western world they want to know more, they want to know how GOD is great and that Knowledge we find in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

We find that knowledge in Bhagavad-gītā, where knowledge is given about the ātma, the self. Knowledge is given about the viswarūpaṁ the universal form, Knowledge is given about GOD, the Bhagavān.

Lord śrī Kṛṣṇa says ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ, everything is coming from Me and in the Bhāgavat detailed information is given about Kṛṣṇa, what is vaikuṇṭa, what is the spiritual world, that here in this material world there is srushti creation, sthithi maintenance and pralaya destruction. But in the spiritual world vaikuṇṭa, there is no creation and destruction, there is no past and future, there is the eternal proktavān or the eternal present, nitya proktavān and there, all living entities are happy because they are all God conscious. There is no disharmony. That this material world is just a very small portion small corner of the vast spiritual sky.

That this material world is the prison house of the GOD. Myself, yourself, and all we all are prisoners in jail. This world is a jail. It’s a nice jail. It’s got trees and sunset and rivers these all facilities but it’s a jail. You cannot leave this world if you want to. You are here bound by karma. You have to take the reactions of karma for everything you do. we all do. So, that's why the Durgā she is the prison house care taker. She is the superintendent IG of prison. she is in charge of the whole prison. 'Dur' means difficult, and 'ga’ means prison, so 'Durgā' means a prison which is very difficult to get out. When we go to Kamakhya mandir.

Today we went to Umananda mandir they have us offer the prayer and they say punarjanma na vidyate. you won’t have to take birth again. Lord Śiva he said that in order to be free from punarjanma, the reincarnation, we have to get the blessing of Mukunda. Mukunda is the giver of mukti and Mukunda is Viṣṇu. so, we can easily get freed from this material prison house by following the process of Bhakti.

This Bhakti has been given in all the Vedas but especially has been explained in Bhāgavat. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu he taught that we should read the Bhāgavatam every day. Sankardev in Assam, he also taught that we should worship and read the Bhāgavat. ISKCON society is based on Bhāgavat Dharma. Our Society is dedicated to spread the knowledge of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavat in every corner of the world, in every country, in every language to every tribe eventually here all the Assam tribes, all the hill tribes pahadis we will also publish Bhāgavat in their language if they have a written language. we are already publishing Gītā and Bhāgavat in the language of Borneo, in language, of papanugini.

In papaunugini they have money but most people they use pigs to buy things. If you want to buy a car, you give 200 pigs.  people there, are very much for them the most important animal is the pig. But in that country, we are spreading we are giving Bhagavad-gītā. But we are not accepting pig for the Gītā. (devotees laughing and clapping). you see of course the Christian missionaries they are doing very good work in spreading the message of Jesus Christ in the form of the Bible in many countries and many languages. They have been having a head start of 2000 years, whereas our society is 25 years.

Before this sanātana dharma was not preached outside of India in a very big way. Now it’s been very aggressively very enthusiastically propagated as a universal religion, as a solution for the world's problems. But very respectable gentleman and gentle ladies like yourself who are educated who are well situated in society we need your help. or If we get your help that will mean that we can spread this message faster.

The youth today they are very worried about political liberation. But they don't realise that ultimately, we all have to leave this body and the real liberation to achieve is not only the political liberation but we really need to achieve the real liberation from birth and death and old age and disease. we need to create a world which is better which is got a spiritual objective. you see that no matter what leaders come in power we can always find so many faults with the leadership. This is because the best

[Not Clear – 00:17:47] leadership is based on principles or religiosity principles of spirituality. naturally there gonna be so many difficulties so therefore what is needed today is the spiritual revolution, unify all the Vaiṣṇavas, unify all the religious people in the world, all the people who love and fear God in a world-wide effort to establish GOD Consciousness as the basis of all human activities. So, we specially see that the clue to do that the only shastra which can give us so much of religion or direction in this is especially the Vedas and in Vedas especially the Gītā, Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

So, and how many of you have read the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam?

One here...one or two... two mātājī’s. You see even although this is Assam this is place of Sankardev, he has written Bhāgavat into this language in a condensed form. Now we have may be

[Not Clear – 00:19:16] not clear give unabridged Bhāgavat in the future. Now we have already in Hindi and English Bengali and many other languages. In future we will also have in as same.

Lord Caitanya, He said that there are many people who believe in religion but there are few people who practise it in a full way. If we fully practice it, we get really such a happiness, such a peace of mind which is uncompilable especially when we practise this Bhakti Yoga. That’s why all the people here from around the world is so happy because they all are practising daily sādhana. They are chanting everyday 25,000 names of Kṛṣṇa on their Japa māla beads. They are rising at 3 or 4 in the morning and attending maṅgala ārati and having joint prayers. All the food they eat they offer to the deities first, Kṛṣṇa prasādam. They every day read Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Many of them are doctors as you heard and some are teachers and house wives. So, they have to take care of their children, they have to do their occupation. So, during the day they are all active in different types of work. some are preachers they simply go out and preach the message. So, our society now is trying to involve more people to practice Kṛṣṇa Consciousness in their homes. Those who are not inclined to practice in their home at least if they support and promote Kṛṣṇa Consciousness and support those who are practicing. so, in this way gradually the effect will spread throughout the society more and more. Along with the modern technology the modern affluence which is coming we have to preserve our own culture. I became an Indian citizen. I am dedicated to trying to preserve the culture here in India of India and to spread it to the west.

Prabhupāda he was preaching all over the world for twenty for twelve years when he came back to India he was crying. He said in big cities of India people are becoming westernised. They are forgetting their own culture in many places;

Assam is not critical place. Bombay may be little bit Delhi these are more critical. Still in Assam lot of culture is being preserved. That you can say better than me. I have not spend enough time in Guwahati to do analysis. But we know that even here in the North-east there is more drug use than other parts of India more is especially in Manipur. So, we want to try to prevent the society from going in these directions by a positive spiritual promotion. If people are God conscious then they won’t take shelter of such things. Very grateful that you are helping our society in so many ways. we are very glad that we could chant Hare Kṛṣṇa with all of you to night. we like to get your suggestion how we can better serve the community.

Here in Guwahati, the children, the ladies, we want to have sankirtan, mandalis and house programmes all over the city so that all over the state so that we want to cooperate very deeply with all the Vaiṣṇavas of the state. But we have already ambitious agenda that we want to revive the Bhāgavat Dharma in all the places of India where it was practiced and where it was not known we want to spread it. So basically, we are trying to follow in the footsteps of Sankardev to spread the Bhāgavat Dharma those who already in that culture all they have to do is become a little more active again or help us in various ways and we want to help all those who are already doing it. So anyways this is a brief explanation about our goals and our purposes here.

These devotees they are going to be leaving tomorrow back to the.... back to well first they will go to Māyāpur and from Māyāpur they will be going back to the west to their different countries taking all these memories with them and everyone I ask I said how did they like the programmes they had gone to Orissa they had gone through out Bengal now they came to Guwahati and they told me that they liked the Guwahati best of all.

Haribol!

(devotees chanting Haribol and clapping).

Of course, here there's more difficulty for foreigners to visit they had to go get permits and everything. Very difficult. But they did not know what to expect. They heard that if they swam in the Brahmaputra they may get caught even by crocodile. They heard that if they came to Guwahati they might be kidnapped. we said nothing like that. People are friendly even the revolutionaries are religious here; no problem and the crocodiles are not living here in Guwahati. They have gone for a while.

So, everything happened very nice. They had very good darshan of kamakhya, of Aswaklanta of the umakantha umananda and various other holy places of Vaśiṣṭā. They are very sad to see that in Vaśiṣṭā, all the trees were cut down. It was said that the Vaśiṣṭā came because it was a very beautiful natural place filled with trees and streams. Now they cut all the trees down. people are washing their laundry in the holy stream.

So, like that consciousness is decreased. People are not protecting that great heritage that has been given. So, we like people and society become more conscious about these things then we can preserve it for the future generations and we can have it preserve for people from all over the world they can come here to Guwahati and visit Pragjyothispur, see the land where Kṛṣṇa came, where great histories happened thousands of years ago, where great ṛṣis like vashista were meditating and were still today very important temples are being worshipped.

Hare Kṛṣṇa! (devotees clapping)