20040311 Safari Lecture in Siṁhācalam Temple

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on March 11^th, 2004 during the South India Safari in Siṁhācalam Śrī Varāha Narasiṁhadeva Temple, in Vishakhapatnam, India.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-gurun dina tāriṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram

 Everybody had a darśana of Lord Varāha Narasiṁhadeva? [Yes! Haribol!] Did you saw the sandalwood… Bhū-devī, Śrī-devī on the two sides both Lakṣmis. In all these temples, the worship is being performed by the Śrī-sampadāya, which is coming from Lakṣmī Devī through Rāmānujācārya. A thousand years ago, he was preaching Vaiṣṇava dharma. Before that, at different periods in the universe, there were other great Vaiṣṇavas like Āṇḍāl, Garuḍa, Nīla (Nammālvār), some were just before Rāmānuja, somewhere even thousands and millions of years ago. So in these temples, they have like a guru-paramparā room, where they mainly show Rāmānujācārya, their founder-ācārya, the prominent ācārya. And they show the other former Ālvārs or great saints, who formed the basis of their...

(He is giving out buttermilk. It’s very good for the stomach. Buttermilk – Śrī Viṣṇu! Śrī Viṣṇu! Śrī Viṣṇu! So they have a free queue. 30-rupee queue, 100-rupee queue. If it was a busy day and you were in a hurry, then you can pay and go on the fast track. You have to spend extra money. If you got the time to spend waiting in queue, you still go in free. Same system they have at Tirupati, Tirumala. They have a fast track and they got the free. They also have special pūjās in Tirupati. Early in the morning, you can see them do Deity worship. They are going to pay 1 or 200 Rupees for that. So that’s why... But then the priests, they are all on a salary. See here, when I was before the Deity, they wouldn’t accept any donation. They just put it in the huṇḍī for the Deity. But at the end, and may they say with the tray, I think that was their, they were accepting the donation. They gave pūrṇa-kumbha a reception, when they had a full kumbha. They were chanting the sannyāsa-sūkta. Special reception for important people. They touch the kumbha, respect it. Then they took me on a circumambulation in the outside of the back of the temple, they have a Ugra-Narasiṁha Deity on the wall, where He bifurcating by for eating Hiraṇyakaśipu; right in the very back of the beam. It’s not. It’s like carved in the wall. In this hall, there’s supposed to be 64 similar columns. All of them are similar. Can you find any two exactly the same? If you can find the two exactly the same, we will give you a special prize.

Devotee: Are there any?

Jayapatākā Swami: Well, you have to study and see.

Devotee: These two.

Jayapatākā Swami: Who built this? Who built this hall? Can somebody ask the local who built the hall?

So what we remember here is how they were telling… They said this was Prahlāda Mahārāja’s Gurukula area. This hall was built at the time of Lord Caitanya, 500 years ago by the ruler Kṛṣṇadeva Rāya. Kṛṣṇadeva Rāya was the ruler of South India while Pratāparudra was ruling Orissa. So when Lord Caitanya came to the South of India, He was going through the kingdom of Kṛṣṇadeva Rāya. At that time, there was no Islamic or Mughal influence in South India. Only 400... Until 400 years ago, there was Kṛṣṇadeva Rāya kept it out. He was a very great emperor. I wanted to take all of you to his capital kingdom, Hampi. But Marīci said the logistics were really complicated. It’s halfway between Hyderabad and Bangalore, and it’s in Karnataka, and it’s like, there is no... It was just that it was not. That place is. Maybe, sometime we can go there, but we have to spend more time in Karnataka; because this is mainly under… there is actually the whole capital city. Most of the buildings are still intact. It’s like seeing the… I mean, they’re ruins, but they’re intact. You can see the carvings. You can see the temples. You can see. Because 400 years ago, when the Mughals took over, they didn’t destroy it so much. People just ran away, and they didn’t bother with destroying it. They have some old temples in there, and they have a history that just like when Marco Polo came. He is from Spain or Portugal. Croatia. (laughter)

Īśvara Purī Mahārāja Dāsa: The Russia... No, no, the Colombia… Colombia.

Jayapatākā Swami: Anyway, there was another famous traveler, and he also came and he visited Hampi, the capital city, and he wrote, what he saw. So that descriptions are there in one book; you can get, one tourist book. It’s amazing to hear the descriptions from a western voyant. He said, this is like amazing. He said, everywhere the rooftops have gold, the streets are, you know, colored stone. He was just describing one of the most like, when we read descriptions of Dvārakā, something almost, almost reminiscent of that, at least something. So he, that emperor donated this. He is also the emperor, who built the Tirupati temple, Kṛṣṇadeva Rāya. It’s the Kṛṣṇa devotion.

So here we remember, how Varāhadeva is very heavy with the non-devotee demons, who are disturbing the devotees, and how he is very merciful with the devotees. Can everybody have an opportunity to make their prayers? [Yes!] to remove obstacles in your Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Who completed their prayers? They allowed me to make two circumambulations around, inside, inside the inner sanctum. They really feel the presence of Narasiṁhadeva. I don’t know if you feel outside… but inside…

Devotee: [in Spanish inaudible]

Jayapatākā Swami: Oh, that’s a trick. Who else went in? They have a śālagrāma-śilā necklaces like in Māyāpur. [Yes! Three!]

The Mahā-Lakṣmī appears as one of the Ālvārs called Āṇḍāl. And she was… when we went to Śrīraṅgam and saw the Jīyar there, he asked us to do kīrtana. We all did kīrtana for him. Then afterwards he said that you are all the representatives of Āṇḍāl Devī. Because this Āṇḍāl, she preached to everybody that they should go on the streets and chant the Harināma. So they accepted that it’s part of their tradition. But only we do it to the extent and to that extent. So they really appreciate that. If you remind them that we are carrying out Āṇḍāl’s instructions, then they get respectful.

They said that Deities uncovered, as we said earlier in the morning, Akṣaya-tṛtīyā—3^rd day in the lunar calendar, in the month of Vaiśākha, which is a little over one month from now. They said that time the whole state comes here to see the Deity. That’s only one day, you can see the Deity without sandalwood. But they said they would give sannyāsīs let us get in VIP. Otherwise, they said that they have a special 500-rupee queue. He is saying even the 500-rupee queue is very big. The other queues maybe 5000 people in it. And the 500-rupee queue is 500 people.

Devotee: [in audible]

Jayapatākā Swami: That is the utsava-mūrti.

Devotee: [in audible]

Jayapatākā Swami: They have a drawing. They have, I’ve seen it; but I don’t know if they have. With the Varāha head facing up and then like a torso, like the big like Narasiṁhadeva and then Narasiṁhadeva tail.

Devotee: [in audible]

Jayapatākā Swami: But the head is Varāhadeva.

Devotee: [in audible]

Jayapatākā Swami: No! Stone. The actual Deity is so millions of years old. It’s not so much detail.

Devotee: Human placed it?

Jayapatākā Swami: Human torso. So life is very short and, more we can be absorbed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That’s what makes our life valuable. Otherwise, everybody is born, they get old. They go through the six changes of life and they die and repeat like that without any end in sight. But the more we are absorbed in serving Kṛṣṇa, you can see this Deity worship was especially the process for Dvāpara-yuga. And the opportunity to see ancient Deities like this is very wonderful. At the same time, the kīrtana is what makes everything very accessible to all the people. How many people come here to see the big day, they will be packed, but not every day. So that’s why we have… the temple worship is actually supported and promoted by our kīrtanas. Because the more we do our harināma pracāra, the more that people become devotees. And everyone also go and see the temples. Then when you are in the temple, if you can chant the mantras and chant the kīrtana, then you can focus your mind. You just without doing something to engage your mind and it’s very easy for it to go wonder off. So we can, I was very happy. I didn’t realize that they said you can embrace that... Remember you read in the morning about the pillar that all the blessings…

Devotee: [in audible]

Jayapatākā Swami: I wasn’t embracing the children… I am carrying out Śrīla Prabhupāda’s instructions.

Devotee: [in audible]

Jayapatākā Swami: So you all did too?

Devotee: Yeah! [In audible]

Jayapatākā Swami: Anybody has any question? I have a question. I mean, you all like the devotees would rather go straight to the Harināma and then go back to the āśrama for prasāda and not have to leave after that? Or you want to go for prasāda and then go for Harināma later?

Devotees: Harināma!

Jayapatākā Swami: How many went Harināma first? How many?

Devotee: Yeah! [In audible]

Jayapatākā Swami: Well, it’s going to take an hour to get there anyway. How many want prasāda first? So it seems that Harināma has it...

Devotee: Harināma! Beach! Prasāda! Haribol!

Jayapatākā Swami: After Harināma then then you can take your bath.

Devotee: Yeah! Haribol!

Jayapatākā Swami: But if you wait too long…

Devotee: Yeah!

Jayapatākā Swami: Prasāda might get cold. Tonight as I mentioned, we are going to have a big public program. Lots of VIP’s and everything. And tomorrow it will be also a public program, but it will be more of an in house. I mean, no big VIP’s. We can also take it as an opportunity to get to know each other.

Sarva-sakti devī dāsī: We want some cultural program tonight, right? Singing…

Jayapatākā Swami: We like some cultural program tonight, some bhajana, group in this...

Sarva-sakti devī dāsī: [inaudible]

Jayapatākā Swami: We have a dance, Marīci, Jvālini, she can dance after the talks. Peter got some drama organized. So some Narasiṁha drama.

Sarva-sakti devī dāsī: Peter!

- End of recording -