20091003 A Talk about the Festivals that Occur in Māyāpur

The following is a talk given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Svāmī Mahārāja on October 3rd 2009 in Malaysia.

The talk was about the festivals that occur in Sridhām Māyapur.

So I heard that you had many different games and quizzes and all kinds of fun time. And 0.54 is being hosted and they are hungry now. But you like me to speak a few words?

Devotees: Yes

Guru Mahārāja: OK. I will try to speak. How many only know Tamil? Two. So then someone can translate for them. This is very close to where I go for the physiotherapy, the speech therapy and the occupational therapy. The Stroke Rehabilitation Center is nearby here 2:11 and the HBOT place in Ampang. I used to go from here to Ampang. But I didn’t know about this park nearby on the way to 2:40 to where I go every day.

So nice that you have so many programs by the families. Because it is important for us that we should do things together as a family. As a family and as a spiritual family. Because this way we get to know each other and build up stronger affinition and ideas. We want to be friends in serving Kṛṣṇa, in serving the Supreme Personality of Godhead. It is not easy to survive in this material world. And if we have friends, having friends makes it that much easier. So when we first join Kṛṣṇa consciousness, there are times we have to give up many of our friends. They have different interests and then they want to so to speak ‘enjoy’ life. But their idea of enjoyment is mainly eating meat or drinking alcohol and so many things. As a devotee we don’t want to eat meat, we don’t want to drink, we don’t want to gamble, we don’t want to have illicit sex. So to have a family where the husband and wife and children and to enjoy household happiness which is not based on these four sinful activities, this is really very important thing to have for the gṛhasthas. The brahmacārīs can organize such events because they know that this is going to bring the community closer together. Sometimes we do this type of 6.09 in the park, other times, like in Māyapur, we have also, for the gṛhasthas they have a weekly picnic where they get together, at least not in the rainy season. And like they also have festivals based on the Deities. Like the candana-yātra. In the hot season, in India we have six seasons. I don’t know in Malaysia; you don’t have so many seasons? It is the same all year round as it is very close to the equator. I think it is three degrees off the equator. Māyapur is just on the Tropic of Cancer, so we have a hot summer and then we have rainy season, then we have fall and then we have winter and then we have foggy season and then the spring. So there are six seasons. So when we have hot weather, the Lord, He gets covered by sandalwood. So all the kids and everyone helps to make the sandalwood. Buckets of sandalwood, literally buckets of sandalwood for the Deities. And the color, certain Deities who are darker use sandalwood, some Deities use golden color, some Deities use blue color. And little sandalwood on each of the gopīs foreheads. For Kṛṣṇa, His head to toe is covered. Nṛsiṁhadeva is covered. We cover also Lord Jagannātha.

For seven days, in Jagannātha Puri it is 21 days, we take Lord Jagannātha in His patita-pāvana form, they take Him out in the Narendra Sarovara, the lake named after Narendra and they take the Lord out in this lake in a boat outing. In this way they observe the candana-yātra with special 9.11 where we have a lot of, a thousand devotees. This kind of festival involves the whole community.

In the days preceding the Balarāma Pūrṇimā, ekādaśī till the pūrṇimā, is the Jhulan yātra. The kids, the youth, they engage in the Jhulan yātra. The youth, they put together the stage, the whole arrangement for the observation. During the gurukul days, in the gurukul āśrama, they put together some Jhulan yātra, I always see a quite attractive arrangement. And I still see that this shared by the youth and boys of Māyapur, they put together this very elaborate arrangement for Jhulan yātra.

So in this way the whole community will stand united. Bigger than Janmāṣṭamī, Janmāṣṭamī is there all over the world, bigger than Janmāṣṭamī is Rādhāṣṭamī. Because Rādhārāṇī is the one who founded the nine islands of Navadvīpa dhām. She named it for the pleasure of Kṛṣṇa. So Kṛṣṇa, He decided that in Navadvīpa, He would reciprocate with Rādhārāṇī and He would take the color of Rādhārāṇī and the mood of Rādhārāṇī. So there He appears as Gauranga!

Devotees: Gauranga!

Guru Mahārāja:  Raises both his hands Gauranga! Gauranga! Gauranga! Gauranga! Gauranga! Gauranga! Gauranga! Gauranga!

So Rādhāṣṭamī is a very big festival for us. I was so fortunate that this year I could go; I didn’t miss any Rādhāṣṭamī. Also I was able to, at least for three days participate in the Gaura Pūrṇimā parikrama. I heard that Air Asia is going to have to flights to Calcutta (Haribol!). If that happens then I guess it will be pretty cheap for you all to attend the 13:00 Gaura Pūrṇimā festival. Because right now I hear there are flights to Trichy, that is far away. 13:10 So if you fly to Calcutta, then it should be pretty easy for all of you to attend Gaura Pūrṇimā festival and some other festivals of Māyapur.

So like this there are different festivals we have around the year and we like when those festivals involve the whole community. In that way they spontaneously get together and observing the different festivals of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Here in the town park of Puchong, Puchong?, this is something wonderful. So we would like everyone to, and we should understand this that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not a dry thing. Kṛṣṇa consciousness is meant to, meant to enjoy. How we enjoy is by serving Kṛṣṇa. We enjoy in thinking of Kṛṣṇa. We enjoy also the happiness in, the gṛhasthas have the license to enjoy their families and their family life. But it is important that they make it enjoyable for the children too, to have some connection with Kṛṣṇa. That will be beneficial, spiritually for them.

So once Śrīla Prabhupāda was asking Mālati, at that time she had a little girl Sarasvatī, “Why do you take care of your child?” She said, “It is my duty, because it is my duty I do it.” Prabhupāda said, “No, you have to love your child. It is essential to love your child. And because you love your child, you have to give the best thing to your child and the best thing is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.” Haribol! So see how, the families be Kṛṣṇa conscious and at the same time make it fun. Because anyway kids, they like being busy, things like that. So make it fun. We also 16:20 devotees came down from 16:30 like volleyball.

16:40 I was a quite accomplished swimmer and I have seen many devotees were drowning in the Ganges. One devotee was drowning on Gaura Pūrṇimā. I had just initiated that devotee and He was drowning. And suddenly he said nobody saw him drowning, even there were devotees left and right and front and back and they were so busy in swimming and they didn’t see him. I saw him and pulled him off. (Guru Maharaja ki Jai!)  So he said, “You saved my life twice today. By initiating and pulling me up from the Ganges” Also I met some devotee a few days ago, now he is a young man, he is like, I don’t know,15 or so, but some years ago he was swimming at the 18:05 beach, somehow or the other we were swimming there, so these two boys got caught outside the rift tide and I was holding them, but I was also, one devotee is easy to save, but two, it was like, I wasn’t strong enough that I could cross the tide, the waves and at the same time I didn’t want to let anyone go, so I was holding and requesting some devotees help, so they each took one. So anyways they brought the boys to me, ‘this is one of the boys you saved.’ So that is our business, we try to save people, not only from the ocean of this material water, the ocean of birth, death, old age and disease, the nitya-samsāra samudra. So we want to save the people from drowning in this ocean of nescience.

Lord Caitanya, when he was a child, he was playing with his friends in the Ganges and sometimes he would play games by taking the men’s’ clothes and mixing with the ladies’ and taking the ladies’ and mixing with the men’s’. So when they came out there was a very embarrassing situation. He was only a little boy, like five or six years old, so he would enjoy this playing games on those people. Sometime he would spit on brāhmaṇas who were saying their Gāyatrī and they would say, “What are you thinking, you naughty boy?” And he would say, “No, no I am the father of the Ganges. I am the Lord of the Ganges!” Of course He is Viṣṇu, Trivikram, Vāmanadeva. And they would say, “Well, why are you offending the Lord? How can you say this?” But they didn’t know that what He was saying was actually the truth but as a child He would get away with it, anytime He was just offensive. So like that Lord Caitanya, he also enjoyed games when he was a boy. He wanted to go to school but his father read in his astrological chart that if he is educated he would become a sannyāsī. He got worried. He said, “Better this boy is not educated, I don’t want him to be a sannyāsī. I want him to stay home with his mother and future wife.” So he would not let Nimāi go to the schools. So Nimāi he wanted to go to school, he wanted to learn, he wanted to be in the association of 21:44. But his father said, “No. No schooling for you. You are not allowed to go to school.” So then he became a very naughty boy. He would go and put water in the ears of babies sleeping. The would start to cry, “Aaah”. He wouldn’t hurt anybody but he was playing mischief.

So one time he was standing on a, in those days, they would cook with the clay pots. Now we think this is primitive. But actually think about it. Disposable pots. Housewives, no more washing of pots! Disposable, it is actually advancement! Now you have to wash the dishes, wash the pots. They would eat on the banana leaves and they would throw away the clay pots. So they had nothing to clean, just clean the place where they were eating. Lord Caitanya, He was standing on the pile of used pots. And His mother said, “What are you doing? You are a brāhmaṇa boy, this is a dirty place. Why are You standing here?” He said, “I don’t know what is dirty or what is clean. 23:25 So what do I know if it is dirty or clean?” Like this, so finally He became so impossible that His parents decided OK, whatever it is, we have to send Him to school. So then He was sent to school. On His first stage day He learnt all His alphabets, a, aa, e, ee, u, uu the Sanskrit alphabets. Bengali and Sanskrit have the same alphabets, just the letters are different. First day He learnt the consonants, second day 24.10, twenty something alphabets and second day He learnt the yukta-akṣara. The yukta-akṣara normally take a bit of time to learn, it is like Kṛṣṇa is K, R, I, S, N, A is six, but in Sanskrit it is two. It is ‘kṛ’ the first letter and ‘ṣṇa’ the second letter. So Kṛ-ṣṇa. That is yukta-akṣara, ‘kṛ’ and ṣṇa. Normally it takes a lot to learn this and He learnt it all in one day. So, by the time He was eleven He was already a master at Sanskrit and at fourteen He was a teacher at His own 25.30 is what you call Sanskrit schools. So like this Lord Caitanya in Navadvīpa dhām, he was observing all these festivities. When He was a little boy, He would play games.

So we hope that all of you enjoyed the games today. I heard that you were playing mimes, and I forget, 26:10. So, Kṛṣṇa also was playing games with His cowherd boyfriends. He would play leap frog and catching, so many games. So children are meant to play games and as adults we also sometimes play games with our children. Sometimes we play games, I have one game we play in the water we call ‘Hari-ball’. Every time we pass the ball, in one hand one name - śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu nityānanda, like this you can cover the whole mantra while protecting the ball 27.02 you win the game. So this way we get people to say Haribol. I never tried to play it on land, but we play in the water, we play in the Jalāngi and the Ganga. Ganga is a little bit fast. So very happy that you are here and we want everyone to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. So 28:25, itself there are lots of austerities and things you can do but that way it makes your heart hard. If one engages in different spiritual activities, in devotional service, it keeps the heart soft. In order to appreciate Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa or the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa and Balarām, we need to have soft heart. 29:20 is not required by the bhakti-yogis, maybe for the jnanis and others they do. So the devotees, they want to engage themselves in some Kṛṣṇa‘s service. In this way, the more that they can think about Kṛṣṇa the more that they can celebrate the Kṛṣṇa conscious way of life. It is something which is very attractive to the heart. So Śrīla Prabhupāda, he wants to see that in ISKCON, is a way to have the association of the devotees and by this we want to show the happiness of being a Kṛṣṇa devotee. So I just wanted to thank all of you for coming and I will be available here and if someone groups wants to take photos or discuss, then you can come up and discuss with me.

Thank you very much.

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare!