19970112 Arrival Address

The following is an arrival address given by His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Maharaja on January 12th 1997 in Madras, India.

Arrival Address Lecture By His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja in Madras, India

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

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

sadvaitam savadhutam parijana-sahitam Kṛṣṇa-caitanya-devam

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

Today is Ekadasi. Ekadasi is the day we don’t, we avoid taking grains, pulses, dal, sambar, this type of things and this is the day when everyone should chant hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare.

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu he encouraged his mother and everyone to observe the Ekadasi vrata very carefully. On this day anyone who chants the Hare Kṛṣṇa Maha mantra and does seva they can get multiple blessings from the Lord. It is the great blessing that by taking the great blessing that by observing the Ekadasi, people’s devotion for the Lord comes very easily.

In fact that Yamaraj he was very upset that, sorry, everybody was getting moksha, everyone was going back to the spiritual world because of Ekadasi and nobody was giving any sins, so naraka was empty so they say therefore they made this special arrangement that all the sin goes in the grains on Ekadasi day, so if you eat grains then you don’t get the effect of Ekadasi because all the sins are in the grains this way, that way although Ekadasi is such a special blessing people don’t get the advantage of it when they take the grains.

In the Padma Purana it explains the glories about Ekadasi. Satyabhama the queen of Kṛṣṇa, asked Kṛṣṇa, one day they were discussing she said what was I in my previous life, how could I get the blessing to be your queen and your maidservant, I must have done some great pious activity.

Then Lord Kṛṣṇa told her that a story that once there was a Brahmana Satyadeva I believe that was his name and he was a very good Brahmana devotee of the Lord he would worship the Vishnu deity. He had a beautiful daughter and he had one disciple, one brahmachari disciple so in this way they were going on with their service and the disciple would go and get the flowers and things and bring and give to the Guru he would do the pujas.

At a certain age in a brahmachari’s life the Guru could understand that he needed to enter into the gṛhasta asraṁ so then he thought that since I have a daughter who needs to be married [Unclear] the disciple can marry the daughter and so the disciple and daughter got married. They continued the disciple and the wife of the disciple continued to serve the Guru.

One day the Guru and his disciple the husband of the beautiful girl, they went out into the forest to get firewood and fruits and things to offer to Kṛṣṇa deity. So they have, meanwhile the daughter was cooking the offering for the Lord. So they had gone deep into the forest and they came to one place where it was very dark [Side conversation] very dark and it was very silent. HAH!!!! Out jumped one asura rakshasa and killed both of them, ate their flesh because both of them were doing Kṛṣṇa seva they were going out to get flowers even though they were suddenly killed Kṛṣṇa promises “na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati”, my devotee never perishes, immediately Kṛṣṇa sends his spiritual airplane to get them and brought them back to the spiritual world. Nitai Gaura Sitanandi Premanandee Hari Hari Hari Bol!

But the wife, she’s back there cooking waiting, what’s happening that they were getting late and she got worried. They didn’t come back and it is getting late afternoon she send the villagers, they went out and they found the sad news that they had been killed. So she, you can imagine being widowed like that she was not very old, she was very heartbroken losing her father, losing she felt very much alone in the world. She performed all the final rites and shraddh and everything but she was very much alone. She was crying but then she got hold of herself and she realized I have to carry on the Guru’s orders to me. I have to keep on with my Kṛṣṇa seva. So she especially observed Ekadashi vrata very carefully. And in the month of Damodara she observed the Damodara vrata.

This is now the month of Magh which is also known as Magha Maasa. This is a special month also. Damodara is the most dear month to the Lord and the Vaisha Thirtha is considered to be the best. But Magha in some opinion is also very very dear to the Lord and this is very important month. This month is especially for offering flowers to the Lord, for worshipping the Lord, for giving charity for the Lord and who are doing taking early bath magha snana like Kumbh Mela they hold at this time in Allahabad, Magha Mela this is a time for early morning bath, bathing in the month of Magha and to always while bathing we should chant the names of hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare, Achyutha, Hari, Govinda, Madhava, Madhusudana and so on Govinda.

So she led her life, doing Ekadasi doing this bhakta Damodara and then at she became very old eventually and she was living in a holy place Mayapura by the side of the Bhaghirathi in the month of Magha she went to Bhaghirathi to take her bath so this month.

That time now the Ganga is very cold. I was just coming from Mayapur and took my bath in the Ganges in it the Ganga is very cold, so she is this very old frail lady is taking bath in the cold Ganga she started shaking like anything her body was just shaking and she could see the personified death come coming she became very frightened she was chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. She just remembered Kṛṣṇa she thought what is going suddenly she left her body and immediately she got a beautiful spiritual form sat cit ananda vigraha. Spiritual airplane came from the spiritual world and took her back to the spiritual world. So Lord Kṛṣṇa told Satyabhama that you are that, because you observed the Ekadasi vrata and Damodara vrata and you were chanting my names therefore you became who you are today.

She thought wasn’t she have to climb the Himalayas or dive into some deep ocean or anything but by doing these what we think are very simple things but these are very dear to the Lord and they win the heart of the Lord, to chant and to serve the Lord every day, every week, every month, every year so these are very important, observance [10:27 although] is not very difficult to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare it is not difficult but it requires some will power that we should do it.

One person told me that I started chanting one round and for the first four five days I found it very difficult but gradually then I could chant one round and not difficult. Then I chanted five rounds of Hare Kṛṣṇa 108 times 5 and I found for four five days it was difficult but then I got used to it and I could chant, then I one day I decided let me chant 16 rounds times 108 and then I found that I got a very deep Jai Nitai Gaur ki jai, Shri Shri Radha Madana Mohana ki jai, Jaganath Baladev Shubadra Ki jai.So this is, then he said by chanting 16 rounds made me feel great happiness now I’m chanting every day 16 rounds.

That’s why we want husband and wife they should chant Hare Kṛṣṇa together in the home. Parents and children should chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, friends everyone should chant, by chanting they can get the special mercy of the Lord Jai Jaganath Baladev Shubadra Ki.

So what special about Ekadasi is when you chant on Ekadasi you get more attraction for the Lord more taste once we have the taste for chanting then it is very easy to chant. When the ananda is coming from the heart then what is the difficulty in chanting but to get to that point we may have to chant for some time and we need to also chant the names of Lord Caitanya to get his blessing so we can get the taste for chanting. So we pray first (jaya) śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu nityānanda śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda, in this way by Lord Caitanya’s mercy you get the feeling of Kṛṣṇa bhakti very quickly. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hari Om Tat Sat.

So Prabhupada he also kindly gave us this message from Bhagavad Gita, from Srimad Bhagavatam we see that by chanting whether one has no desire they can get the love of Kṛṣṇa, if someone have all desires they can get the desires fulfilled, if someone has desire for moksha they can also achieve that simply by chanting the holy name so the pure devotees they want only Kṛṣṇa prema but whatever one wants they should chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

So if anyone has some questions this is the time you can ask any doubts, questions you can ask, you want pieces of paper to write the questions down.

Who is the guru of Sandipani Muni?

The param guru of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa’s grandfather guru, Kṛṣṇa is the disciple of Sandipani Muni. His grandfather guru is the guru of Sandipani Muni …. You want to know his name his name, name I don’t know ….. we know that Guru we know that father of Vyasadeva is Parasara Muni. You know who the guru of Vyasadeva is? Who is that? Narada Muni. That is great. And guru of Narada Muni? Lord Brahma yes. Brahma’s guru very good.

Who was the godbrother of Lord Kṛṣṇa? He had a brahmana godbrother who was that? Sudhama, Sudhama Vipra. Later what did Sudhama do, with Kṛṣṇa? Any one remembers? What did Sudhama Vipra do later when he grew up and was a married man in relation to Kṛṣṇa? [Not clear]

On the request of his wife, [audience speaks]he went on the request of his wife “Sri Kṛṣṇa,  your friend is so rich we are very poor so you should go and see him and you can ask him for a little money.” Sudhama went and he wanted to give something to his friend Kṛṣṇa he had nothing of his own to give so he begged some flat rice chura from his neighbor’s.

When he finally got to Dwaraka Kṛṣṇa living in the opulent palaces he could go right to Kṛṣṇa and when Kṛṣṇa saw his friend, he immediately ran and embraced him. He said, “You are a brahmana who has come to the house of a Ksatriya we have to bathe your feet.” He had him sit down and bathing his feet. “You must be tired. You walked all the way just to see me, you remembered me, you are so kind.” And Rukmini was also helping in bathing the feet of Sudhama Vipra.

Then they were sitting and talking then Kṛṣṇa asked, “Did you bring anything for me?”, and Sudhama Vipra he had that chura tied in his cloth but he saw Kṛṣṇa has got everything, what is this thing, that is useful to give not appropriate to give to Kṛṣṇa it is an ordinary thing. “No, no, I don’t have anything?” “What is this? Did you bring this for me?” “No but I brought for you but it is not good enough to give to you.” “Well if it is good enough for my devotee it is good enough for me and then he forcibly opened up and he took one flat rice. “Oh this is so nice!”, took another, he was going to take the third, Rukmini held her hand. She said, “Kṛṣṇa please two is enough.” “so why what is wrong?” “You are taking from your devotee, I have to bless your devotee, according to what they give to you.This devotee had nothing, he begged from his neighbors, so that means he gave you beyond his own capacity you say “ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham”, I reciprocate. So he had nothing he begged from outside beyond his capacity he is giving. So you take one bite which means I have to give him all the opulence of the world. You took two means I have to give him the whole opulence of the universe, something equal with you. But if you take three times which means I have to give him more, he gave you more than what he had, I have to give him the blessings more than what you have and this is not possible because you have everything, you have all the opulence. So how can I, I won’t be able to bless him. So two is enough.”

So Sudhama Vipra he never asked Kṛṣṇa for anything he couldn’t ask, he had a different relationship with Kṛṣṇa, he wanted to serve Kṛṣṇa. Of course when he got back to his house Lakshmi had blessed him instead of an ordinary house he had a beautiful palace now, his wife was having many servants and dressed very opulently, then he thought this is what Kṛṣṇa has sent so let me use this for Kṛṣṇa. So Kṛṣṇa gives us any opulence, if we gives us good fortune we should use it for him, even if we don’t have anything very much, whatever we have we should think then how to use this for Kṛṣṇa. That is the lesson.

Any other questions? From Sukandrabad please tell us some questions. Even if you don’t have any you can always ask something to get an answer (audience speaks). A student here you have any question, yes (audience speaks).

How to avoid sinful activities on the strength of chanting?

We should not do it. (Audience speaks) You see the point is that we should avoid sin. Isn’t it? According to Chaitanya Caraṇāmṛta, we should avoid doing pious activity, punya, and we should avoid doing impious activity, paapa.

What should we do? What type of activity should we do? Can you say? [Audience speaks] To avoid punya and to avoid paapa, what are we supposed to do then? (Audience speaks) We have to offer our seva to Kṛṣṇa.

In devotional service, if we worship Kṛṣṇa in devotional service, that means there is no sin and there is no punya, it is something transcendental. Now that doesn’t break any principles. Now if somehow when we are trying to serve Kṛṣṇa because of some accident or some bad association or something, if we do something we shouldn’t do, than later we realize I shouldn’t do this we stop doing and we pray to Kṛṣṇa please forgive me and help me that I don’t do this again. Alright so we are taking whatever Karmas are there from that and we are just trying to avoid it, so that doesn’t break the seventh offence to sin under the strength of chanting.

But if someone, what we call adhibuddhi ….. if somebody is too intelligent will end up with a hangman noose around the neck. Someone thinks that ahaa yeh bahut achaa hai Hare Kṛṣṇa Jap ke dura sab paap dur hoga tho main Hare Kṛṣṇa Jap karunga main paap karunga eska ke baad mein Hari naam karunga aisa paap mochan hoga. (Audience speaks)

You see, so then what happens Kṛṣṇa is no fool, you are trying to make Kṛṣṇa a fool. He is saying if you are trying to be a good person, I will free you from the sin, you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, but if a person is trying to be a sinful person, I can do more sin then I will chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and get free, so then the reaction for that is that Kṛṣṇa the holy name does not free the person from the sin, [22:04: not sure] leaves/whisks away the mercy. That’s why it is a very dangerous offence because we are trying to misuse the holy name. From our part we should how we can avoid this by try to avoid doing sin and avoid this type of mentality that I can sin and then chant, we should try to avoid, someone said I am very weak I am not able to avoid, then we don’t think that we take it, let me take it I have to take the karmas. We want to get rid of that tendency by chanting. We don’t think that by chanting I can go on sinning because we don’t want to commit that offence.

If we think we can cheat Kṛṣṇa it’s like cheating. Kṛṣṇa is offering you nectar but instead of taking the nectar of eternal life you are trying to use the nectar to do more demoniac thing.So that is against Kṛṣṇa’s purpose. Just like Duryodhana wanted to outsmart Kṛṣṇa, can anybody outsmart Kṛṣṇa, what do you think? When we deal with Kṛṣṇa we have to play by is His rules, nobody can outsmart Him. He is the smartest so that is how we can avoid. We know that it won’t work so why should we do it? Foolish people they think that they can do that but the person who knows that Kṛṣṇa won’t free us from the sin if I do premeditated, it just happens ok but if I’m planning, planning it I am going to do all this sin and then I am going to chant Haribol and I will be free then I will go do more sin Haribol more sin that is  very wrong you cannot cheat Kṛṣṇa like that. We have to try to avoid and avoid materialistic activity, Kṛṣṇa will help us. 

Transcribed By: Parmeshwar Prem Das

Transcribed On: 7-Sep-2020

Proof Reading By: Amrita Padma Devi Dasi

On 03/10/2020

Proofreading by: Enbarani Ramasamy on 14 Dec 2020