20080424 Śmṛti Vyāsa-pūjā

The following is a talk given by His Holiness Jayapatāka Swāmi Mahārāja on April 24^th, 2008 in Sebrang Jaya, Malaysia. The talk was given on a Vyāsa-pūja Smriti.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ, paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande, śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāriṇam
paramānanda-mādhavaṁ, śrī-caitanya-īśvaram
hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Jayapatākā Swami: We had the Gaura-Pūrṇimā festival. Right after Gaura-Pūrṇimā, I went to Bangladesh with one hundred twenty devotees from twenty-five, thirty countries, and we were there for twenty days with every night (having) late programs. When we came back to Māyāpur, they had Vyāsa-pūjā. I was doing the ārati for the Deities, and we had the Indian Continental Community Meetings and Regional Governing Body Community Meetings. So, for about two months, it is been non-stop, and then last night I got the flight at midnight and flew here, so I am not recuperated yet. Forgive me, I was listening, but few times I dozed. This is a very moving exchange of the devotees expressing their realizations and appreciations, and we do this every year at the Vyāsa-pūjā, but there is no . . . Once I was told by some GBC member, “There is no rule against glorifying the guru, appreciating the guru, but it can be done anytime.” We must do it at Vyāsa-pūjā, we can do it other times also. I have been coming to Malaysia since about 1984, or before that . . .?

Devotee: Before that – 1982.

Jayapatākā Swami: 1982 and at that time there was a crisis here. I spent twenty-one days in Malaysia – a record. (laughter) And it was over the year we started; that time we just had the Kuala Lumpur Temple, maybe there in other places, there was something, not too many places, many small Nāma-haṭṭas and things. Over the years, ISKCON Malaysia has grown, and I do not know how many devotees do we have now in Malaysia. (laughter)

Devotee: Uncountable (laughter)

Jayapatākā Swami: We should figure out how to count. Now we are doing a program called Śraddhā-kuṭīras as Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura advised to do ‘Bhakti Homes’, the homes where people are vegetarian and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and are devotees; we recognize them as ‘Bhakti Homes’ or ‘Śraddhā-kuṭīras’. It means houses of faith, and it would be nice to see how many houses we can open. This human form of life is very valuable, durlabha mānava-janama – a rare human life, because by this human life we can get sat-saṅga and we can also cross over the ocean of birth and death. Prabhupāda was encouraging that people should serve Kṛṣṇa, should serve God, but instead they are serving so many other things.

That a human form of life we got after going through 8,400,000 species of life, and it is an opportunity, an open door to go back to Kṛṣṇa. How many would like to go back to Kṛṣṇa in this life, back to Godhead, back to the spiritual world? (Haribol!) A few months ago, I was in Hong Kong talking with one wealthy businessman, and he told me, “You know, I do not want to go back to Godhead. What will I do there? Sit all day long chanting japa? I like it here.” So, Kṛṣṇa said [Bg 7.15] there are different kinds of people that do not get His mercy – mūḍhas, foolish like asses; māyayāpahṛta-jñānās, people who have knowledge, but it is stolen by material energy; and then there is the āsurās, the atheists—so which one is the fourth one? Māyayāpahṛta-jñānāḥ, mūḍhāḥ, āsurās. Yeah, lowest of mankind, narādhama. Thank you. The narādhamas . . .

But his wife said, “No, I want to go back.” Sometimes women are more intelligent, more spiritual, more religious, but we are taking birth again and again and again,

brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva
guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja
[Cc. Madhya 19.151]

We are wandering from birth to birth, and finally by Kṛṣṇa’s mercy we get a spiritual master, and from that spiritual master we get the seed of bhakti, and we water that seed of bhakti and it grows and grows until it penetrates the fourteen planetary systems, penetrates the material limits, goes to the brahma-jyoti, the spiritual light, and then to the spiritual planet, to the highest planet of Goloka Vṛndāvana, and the plant wraps around the lotus feet of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet, and then the plant produces fruits and flowers—the flowers are ecstatic love for Kṛṣṇa and the fruit is pure kṛṣṇa-prema.

So, by Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s mercy, we know that actually in the spiritual world you are not sitting somewhere just doing japa, although doing japa can also be very blissful, but there you are engaging in pastimes with Kṛṣṇa—in Vṛndāvana with the cowherd boys, in Mathurā with Ugrasena and others, and in Dvārakā and in Navadvīpa. The pastimes are so beautiful, so we want to develop a taste to have pastimes with the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

The spiritual master comes as a representative, and although we may not yet be fully tuned in to Kṛṣṇa, but we can serve His devotee, we offer our service to Kṛṣṇa through the guru and the guru-paramparā. So, I pray that whenever any appreciation is offered to me, that it should all be received by Kṛṣṇa, I am offering it all to Him. If I have any good qualities, they are by the blessing of my spiritual master Bhakti-vedānta Swami Prabhupāda, and if someone praises me and says, “The beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” it is because you are beautiful that you are seeing something good even in someone as insignificant as me—that is how I feel, and you are all very beautiful people, which is why you are seeing good even in someone as insignificant as I am.

We want to utilize this human form of life to develop a higher taste for spiritual life, but mostly people are using their valuable human life by spending their time on so many hobbies and diversions or watching television. They hear the devotees chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, and next door they are playing with remote-controlled cars. When I was seven or eight years old, I had a remote-controlled car, but now they are still twenty or thirty years old and playing.

So, one-time Prabhupāda was walking in Los Angeles by a golf course, and he said, “What is this?” and they said, “It is a golf course, Prabhupāda.” He asked, “What is golf?” and they explained, “They have a white ball, they take a stick with metal on the end and hit the ball, and try to get it into a hole a few hundred meters away,” and like this, and Prabhupāda said, “They will do so many things simply to waste the valuable human form of life. Waste of valuable time because people they do not understand the priority of life, so we have sat-saṅga, this good association, to remind us of the transcendental purpose to life, and actually Kṛṣṇa consciousness is blissfully performed, like in Bhagavad-gītā (9.2), su-sukhaṁ kartum avyayam It is imperishable.

rāja-vidyā rāja-guhyaṁ
pavitram idam uttamam
pratyakṣāvagamaṁ dharmyaṁ
su-sukhaṁ kartum avyayam
[Bg. 9.2]

So, sukha means happiness, and su-sukha means super happiness, and Prabhupāda translated it as “super happiness.” How many would like to be super happy? That is what Kṛṣṇa consciousness gives—how to become truly, deeply happy. The happiest person I have ever met in my life is His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedānta Swami Prabhupāda. Sometimes you may see his picture, and he looks very grave, but if you are near or next to him you see his eyes filled with tears of love. It is not light happiness, not like other happiness which rises and falls like waves on the ocean—his happiness is deep like a tsunami going to the bottom of the ocean.

One time he was describing in Gorakhpur, how Lord Caitanya met Sanātana Gosvāmi and how they embraced – He took him up – Sanātana and He gave him a hug and then Sanātana Gosvāmi was crying and Lord Caitanya was crying. Prabhupāda said this is almost like – something like when the gopīs and Kṛṣṇa will meet together. Such a profound meaning. Both are crying in ecstasy. Then Prabhupāda got choked up, he couldn’t speak. He was stunned, motionless, tears of love were pouring down his cheeks down his face he could not speak, he could not move. These are not tears of sadness but tears of ecstasy. Finally, after some time, he could speak a few words and said, “Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa!”, and everyone started to chant. Generally, Prabhupāda, he tried to hide his emotions, sometimes it became revealed, and everyone could see.

I am very grateful to all the devotees that are helping to develop this temple in Sebrang Jaya and the temples around. In Taiping, congratulations on acquiring new land, and in Sungai Siput also we have land, and we will have to be united for a couple of years to build the temple here. They have shown to me the plans upstairs, a beautiful octagonal temple design – Gaura-Nitāi Deities, Rādha-Krsna and they are trying to decide the third, but they were discussing how many want to have Sītā-Rāma-Lakṣmaṇa-Hanumān and if you have ideas, you can suggest them. Already plans are being made in a number of Chinese Bhakti-vṛkṣa groups, and Citrā-līlā? Līlā Citrā. Līlā Citrā is helping also in this regard. We want as many people as possible, should get the mercy that should all experience transcendental bliss.

So, like this human form of life is valuable. What you want to achieve with your life? We work hard, we go to school, we get some education. We get a job, get married, have some children. Children grow up, they get married, we get old, we get sick, we die. Take birth again. Is that all? Or you develop your real understanding of who you are. To get the rāja-guhyaṁ and the su-sukhaṁ. We want to have all the devotees achieve this perfection side by side. Lord Caitanya’s followers taught, gṛhe thāko, vane thāko, sadā ‘hari’ bole ḍāko – Whether you are gṛhastha or whether you are in the renounced order, everyone should chant,

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

Lord Caitanya taught that this process is joyfully performed. We hope here in . . . Malaysia, is a very happy place actually, people here are nice. But there is a, more happiness, we get absolute happiness when we are Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So please everyone work together cooperatively, and try to something wonderful for the glory of Kṛṣṇa.

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare