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śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare
Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram

Jaya Caitanya prabhu Ki... Jaya. Nityānanda prabhu Ki... Jaya Jagannātha Baladeva Subhadrā Ki... Jaya. Sudarśana cakra Ki... Jaya. Rādhā-Śyāma Ki... Jaya. Śrīla Prabhupāda Ki... Jaya. Nitāi Gaura-premānanda. [Hari-dvani - "Haribol!"]

Reading form Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, chapter-8, verse 7.

tasmāt sarveṣu kāleṣu
mām anusmara yudhya ca
mayy arpita-mano-buddhir
mām evaiṣyasy asaṁśayaḥ

Translation: Therefore, Arjuna, you should always think of Me in the form of Kṛṣṇa and at the same time carry out your prescribed duty of fighting. With your activities dedicated to Me and your mind and intelligence fixed on Me, you will attain Me without doubt.

Purport: This instruction to Arjuna is very important for all men engaged in material activities. The Lord does not say that one should give up his prescribed duties or engagements. One can continue them and at the same time think of Kṛṣṇa by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. This will free one from material contamination and engage the mind and intelligence in Kṛṣṇa. By chanting Kṛṣṇa's names, one will be transferred to the supreme planet, Kṛṣṇaloka, without a doubt. Did you hear that? By chanting Kṛṣṇa’s name you will be transferred to the supreme planet without doubt. [Hari-dvani - "Haribol!"] I saw in this verse if Arjuna can be Kṛṣṇa conscious while he is thinking of people, thinking of Kṛṣṇa in the battlefield, fighting, killing, I mean a battle field is a horrible place actually. Think if a battlefield environment, it is like shouting and screaming aaaa aaahu aahu aaa… you have to be angry; you have to kill. If you can be Kṛṣṇa conscious in that environment, then you can be Kṛṣṇa conscious in any environment, right? Either being a doctor, or a lawyer or a housewife or a …. it is not so like a hellish situation, that’s of being in a war killing. So, Arjuna, he could be Kṛṣṇa conscious even the most difficult situation of fighting in a battlefield, what to speak of anybody else. Simply we have to remember Kṛṣṇa, we have to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare And then Prabhupāda, he assures us, you will go back to the supreme planet in the spiritual sky. Goloka Vṛndāvana ki... Jaya. [Hari-dvani - "Haribol!"] So, we should all be determined that we are going to chant, no matter what may come, and we are going to remember Kṛṣṇa all the time, through all of our activities. This is a real bhakti-yoga. It is not so difficult to remember Kṛṣṇa… Kṛṣṇa as… many aspects which are very easy to think of. Its līlā, its guṇas, its different mediums. So, just like the devotees here doing the Dāmodara Month, they all remember Dāmodara while they were doing their Dāmodara Vratā. I have seen how many people; how many houses are doing. Because of your inspiration the Dāmodara-deśa which is actually in the middle-east… they this year did four thousand houses. So, they were inspired by Kuala Lampur, and we did how many houses right here? and they said, tomorrow they are going to show me the report, but our goal is 18,000. I don’t know what the result was. But you are inspired… the… the…this country in the middle-east – Dāmodara-deśa to do 4000 home visits, 3600-3700 for new houses, and the remaining were houses of the congregation. So, this a very… this shows how your… actually this are inspiring. If in the middle-east where they can’t do harināma, they cannot do a public program, they have everything behind the closed door, if they were able to visit four thousand houses; that’s how much you inspire them. Jaya Kuala Lampur Dāmodara yātrā ki... Jaya samavetā bhakta vṛnda ki... Jaya I am sorry, I get excited when I talk about the preaching, and I speak too fast. I have to speak slowly and I have to articulate what I am saying. Then only I will be understood. This is what my speech therapist tells me, but I get excited. So, if I get too fast slow me down. Say…hold it, hold it. So, this is a… last night they announced that everyone should have their questions ready. Do you have your questions ready? How to get determination in Kṛṣṇa consciousness? Who wants determination? Not many people want. Let’s see hands. Now more people want. In Kṛṣṇa, six things are preferable to Kṛṣṇa consciousness by… what’s that?... Rūpa Gosvāmī in the Upadeśāmṛta include; one is enthusiasm, patience and determination. So, if we follow Rūpa Gosvāmī, we should be determined in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So, this is a very important aspect to be convinced that by practicing Kṛṣṇa bhakti I will be successful. You see, sometimes I am told, devotees have doubts, “Why am I doing this? Why am I in Kṛṣṇa consciousness? Is it where I want to be? Etc. etc. You see. These are all tricks of māyā to bewilder us, whether or not… we shouldn’t have any doubt; we want to be in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Today we read from the Bhagavad-gītā As It Is by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare We are guaranteed… Prabhupāda said, "you will reach the supreme planet of the spiritual world without any doubt". Right? Did you hear correctly? Without any doubt? So, we should all chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, do our devotional service. This determination comes from belief, from śraddhā, from faith, that if we follow, we will be successful. This is the promise of Kṛṣṇa, this is the promise of the śāstras. Hare Kṛṣṇa. The next question comes from Kṛṣṇabhakti Dāsa Prabhu.

Jayapatākā Swami : Kṛṣṇabhakti Dāsa Prabhu.

Question : My humble obeisance’s at your lotus feet Mahārāja. Please share with us the most happiest moment and the most sad moment being with Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Jayapatākā Swami : With Śrīla Prabhupāda I don’t know if there was any sad moments. All the moments were happy. But maybe not in the ordinary sense that people consider happiness. They consider happiness…. You know… ha..ha..ha…ha… something very superficial… it is a laugh or… that was a good joke… ha…ha…ha…ha… not like that. Something very deep. To see Śrīla Prabhupāda… his eyes would be moist with tears, he would be talking about Kṛṣṇa not in any ordinary sense. He would talk about Kṛṣṇa as a deep meditation. Sometimes he would talk and walk, he would sit in some park bench and he would just make a prayer. So… of course I didn’t know what he was praying. Sometimes it seemed that he was praying for us, that we would be Kṛṣṇa conscious. Actually, one time some girl walked up to Prabhupāda, “What do you pray for?” What right we have to ask someone what they are praying for? So, first he looked at her, and he was like startled and he prayed, “I am praying that I don’t fall down from Kṛṣṇa consciousness.” So, whether he was praying that or whether instructing her, what she should pray for, that remains a question, but the moments I was with Prabhupāda, although they were very blissful, very deep, very meaningful, I can’t think of any moment. The only moment which was the saddest was when he would leave, when he would go away, and we left with this empty feeling in our heart, “Prabhupāda had left.” We were always hoping in Māyāpur we will see him soon again, but we knew he will be travelling around the world, and he comes back at Gaura Pūrṇimā, and sometime in the fall, in the month of Dāmodara, or usually before Dāmodara or after Dāmodara. So, Prabhupāda was very special. I always… see, when I joined, Prabhupāda, after two years, he sent me to India. So, I stayed in the Gauḍīya Maṭha. At that time there was no ISKCON center. So, I am considered like a half week, as I spend sometimes in the Gauḍīya Maṭha. But I used to hear the great preachers of the Gauḍīya Maṭha and I thought… some of them got me a little buzz. I felt that this is an empowered preacher, but nothing compared to what I felt or I heard Śrīla Prabhupāda. He was nothing very special. So, but I reflected everybody. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Question: How are we to know by the difficulties in our life is due to bad karma, offences or Kṛṣṇa’s test?

Jayapatākā Swami : Yes. Yes. Yes. Could be any of those. Could be karma, could be offences, or could be tests by māyā or Kṛṣṇa. That’s something you can… like the story of the Padma Purāṇa, that one brāhmaṇa, he had no children and no money, he had a very Kṛṣṇa conscious wife, and he was a brāhmaṇa. So, he went to Vaśiṣṭā Muni who told him that, “Because of your karma you have no children and no money, because in your previous life you were a śūdra who was wealthy, but you didn’t spend any money on your children or your wife. Therefore, in this life you have no money and no children.” So, then he was curious, “Why did I get a good wife, how did I become a brāhmaṇa? So, he said, “Well, during the month of Vaiśākha… this is the second most sacred month. You also get a hundred times the benefit, maybe in the future we should do something for the Vaiśākha month. I am thinking about it. It is like Dāmodara. Dāmodara is considered even a little better. So, he said, you had a Vaiṣṇava visit your house every month of Vaiśākha, and they chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, and for a few days you have some programs in your house. That is the only good karma I see in the whole life. So, because of that you got a good wife and you are born as a brāhmaṇa. So, then he thought, “What do I do to get out of this karma?” He said, “Well, it is the month of Vaiśākha right now, and there is seven days left. So, if you do the seven days, then this will pure up your karma. So… what is the question?

Question : How do we know that whether difficulties is because of karma, offences or Kṛṣṇa ’s test?

Jayapatākā Swami : So, in his case, the difficulties were because of his karma, but the good things are because of his devotional service. You can also say kind of karma. Now in the case of Capala-Gopāla, he got leprosy. So, it is said that his cause of leprosy was an offence against Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita, and Arjuna, he was bewildered what to do, whether to fight or not to fight. He threw down the Gāṇḍīva bow in between of the twin armies. Duryodhana becomes ecstatic because if Arjuna is not fighting, he would think that they don’t have a chance. So, this reason was given that he was tested by Kṛṣṇa, that actually by the will of Kṛṣṇa he got this retarded-ness so that Kṛṣṇa could speak the Bhagavad-gītā, and so… anyway these three things to be the cause… that we can go through our guru, or we can go through our śikṣā-guru. Maybe they know, or if it is Vaśiṣṭā Muni visiting… Nārada Muni or someone, if you go to him, they have a vision of past, present and future. Vaśiṣṭā Muni is a brahmā-ṛṣī, and Nārada Muni is a liberated soul. I don’t claim to have the vision of either of these two great souls. So, but sometimes it is quite obvious what the karma might be or the cause might be. In any case whatever it is, Kṛṣṇa allows it to happen. So, we should try to be as Kṛṣṇa conscious as we can under the circumstances, and we should engage ourselves in chanting:

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

[Hari-dvani - "Haribol!"]

Question : Is service better than sādhana?

Jayapatākā Swami : Is service better than sādhana? This implies either you do service or sādhana, but we should do both if possible, if your health permits. In any case… Prabhupāda… I asked… one time I was busy building the buildings in Māyāpur, and I wanted to read Prabhupāda’s books. Before that I had read the books, but during the time of construction it was not possible. So, I wanted time to read the books, and Prabhupāda emphatically said, “You think there is a difference from reading my books and building my buildings, you think there is difference, you think the building is mundane?” So, “No Prabhupāda, no, of course not.” “Ok. Hear what I am saying. You have to chant your sixteen rounds: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare And then try to attend the guru-pūjā. In this way he gave a priority of chanting our sixteen rounds, and then the service. Now it depends what the service is, whether there is a great priority, then we can have a… see I was in two shifts: 6 am to 2 or 3, 2 O clock till midnight. There were two shifts of the construction I was overseeing. One of the government officers came. He said, “I was three months here. None of this was here. It takes us five years to just to get a planning clearance. How did you do it?” I said, “Well, by the mercy of guru we build everything.” “In three, four months. It is a miracle. I don’t know how you did it.” So, this Indian government is a bit slow. Maybe Malaysian government is not so slow, but they were amazed. Prabhupāda said, “You Americans, you Europeans, you do something worthy of your country where you came from.” So, he had us work double shift. Double shift is to finish his buildings. One time the workers went on strike, “Jindabad, Jindabad …. bad… bad…” You know, in India they use slogan chanting, “We want more money, dite hobe, dite hobe, give us money, give us money, yes, yes, yes, yes.” Like that. So, they stopped working. We are paying them the right amount, but they stopped working. So, the slab was half finished. If you don’t finish the slab it gets a crack, and it is very weak. So, Prabhupāda sent all the sanyāsīs out. I was the only one who had to run the machine, the mixer. So, I was at the mixing machine, and others… Guru Kṛpā Swami and other Swami’s, they all became coolies, and they are carrying the… I don’t know… at that time coolies were there, but they were carrying the… what you call this… kaḍāīs on their head with masālā… masālā means sand sumptuous, cement and water. So, they were carrying on their heads and dumping to finish the slab. So, the workers were amazed because no Indian gentleman do this. But Prabhupāda said, “You are bhakti-yogīs. You do whatever it takes to do Kṛṣṇa’s service.” So, even the sannyāsīs, even we were out there. So, the workers saw… “Ok, ok, ok, ok, you settle.” So, for one day Prabhupāda was standing and watching. He was smiling to see how his devotees from different countries were all carrying the cement mix on their heads for Kṛṣṇa. [Hari-dvani - "Haribol!"] So, sometimes we have to do whatever is needed to be done, and sometimes we have to do our sādhana. If we don’t do any sādhana, no chanting, then there is a risk that we start to see the service as mundane, or start to see how it is some mundane activity. At least we can begin to chant if it is required by the authorities, that this is a marathon, this is a… what you say an emergency. So, then in that situation, sādhana script is minimum and the preaching script the maximum, but generally we do the sādhana and the chanting and the service, all the three… Hare Kṛṣṇa.

How many more questions you have? I will just try to give an answer.

Question: Dear Guru Mahārāja, some devotees… (question not audible)

Jayapatākā Swami : I am trying to think who wrote that book and …. Is there any such question. If the book is like a historical account of Prabhupāda, then …. Books useful. You know like many who wrote the book were sannyāsīs before, and they decided to take gṛhastha-āśrama, and then Prabhupāda said, is there… he can write. He would rather have to do that, and then commit suicide or do something drastic. So, other books… it is good question, if we can center that. At the time when he wrote the book, they were Kṛṣṇa conscious. The book reading is considered a good reference, some kind of reference. Obviously, we will not give it as much weight as the book written by someone in good consciousness.

Next.

Question : Hare Kṛṣṇa Guru Mahārāja. The question comes from Jayati Mātājī… why on Ekādaśī day we cannot conduct wedding or śrāddha ceremony.

Jayapatākā Swami : Ok let’s give Jayati a [Hari-dvani - "Haribol!"] This is… I don’t think Prabhupāda wrote too much about śrāddha ceremony. This is something more of being a Vedic or Hindu tradition. So, whether this apply to Vaiṣṇavas I am not sure, but I don’t think that Prabhupāda said anything specific about śrāddha on Ekādaśī. I know for instance that the… what’s his name? Govinda Ghosh… his śrāddha is performed on Ekādaśī by the Deity in the island of… not Antardvīpa… what is that? Some island near to Māyāpur… I forget the name right now. So, his… we see that his disappearance day appeared on an Ekādaśī. So, generally we offer the śrāddha on the anniversary of the disappearance. So, if someone happens to disappear on an Ekādaśī, then they would observe the śrāddha on the Ekādaśī. So, I am not sure… I don’t know much about this… as far mundane rituals, if there is any restriction on Ekādaśī, but our previous ācāryas, they would observe on Ekādaśī. The other thing… Weddings… well, generally speaking the wedding includes a feast. So, if there is a restriction on Ekādaśī… you are going to have a feast. Acyutānanda … doctor who joined with us, he always observes Nirjalā Ekādaśī. So, for one, he won’t eat anything on Ekādaśī. So, whether there is any… I know there is a restriction on the garbhādhāna-saṁskāra on Ekādaśī’s, on fast days, on aṣṭamī. So, but… as far as the wedding I saw a particular restriction. I don’t know. Maybe there is, but one of the downsides is, your guests would be fed grain, so they won’t accept it as a feast. And my Vyāsa Pūjā in on an Ekādaśī. So, on that day we have just a minimum offering of 250 Ekādaśī preparations, very minimum, and until the next day they offer the actual feast. A thousand one (1001) grains, so on. So, that day the devotees don’t fast, they just feast. But Bengali devotees, they won’t let us get by without having one grain feast on the appearance of the guru. So, we can’t have it on the Ekādaśī. We have it on the next day, on Dvādaśī. Hare Kṛṣṇa. How many are on internet? [108] An auspicious number. So, see all of you… So, how do I see you tomorrow… forty percent… at the… greater number. Who do I see in the new wheel chair? Who? Sulochana Bhakti Devī Dāsī. Let’s give her a blessing. [Hari-dvani - "Haribol!"] By the way, my preaching here was possible by the donation of the Malaysian devotees. There is a list of about twelve or thirteen devotees, but there is a chair for Caitanya, Sevānanda and Lokaswami and Śrīva.. and Nand… you have to …. I don’t remember all the names.. Rādhā-Mādhava … I don’t know about Rādhā-Shyāma. Sevānanda can tell you prabhu. So, they contributed for my… for Mahāvarāha’s ticket because when I'm not going, I can roam around the world tour where I will get a lot of donations for the tickets. Let me kind of upgrade it, but this time he paid the whole ticket because I am going to the therapy in Los Angeles. So, lets give them all blessing that they will very established on Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and we can continue to make a lot’s of… we can continue to make enough…lots money so that they can contribute like this to temple, and also take services of… some of them of the temple construction in Jaya, probably here also. So, lets give them all blessings.

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

So, with these words my praṇāma to His Divine Grace, A.C. Bhaktivendanta Swami Prabhupāda ki... Jaya And glories to the assembled devotees. By the way as much of bhakti … mainly the prasādam … will be appreciated by Harināma Chandra Dāsa. So, I don’t know if he wants to use the wheel chair. … has a better one, but if he wants them it is free for the taking. [Hari-dvani - "Haribol!"] [applause] Its only like… regarding…. Almost new… I have not used it extensively. Announcing our sponsor… the Kuala Lumpur mandir. I thank those on internet who are watching. Tomorrow we will be at the Kuala Lumpur festival, and we will get a lot of devotees there, from the congregation also from the Southern states. So, hope to see you there, and probably in the Saturday morning, or maybe in the morning class… they came to me with the schedule but I didn’t note all the timings. Then on Sunday, one O clock we go the flight, and then we go to Bangkok and then to Hongkong, and then we go to Honolulu, we can return and Los Angeles, and there we got hard work…for the… hope we come back walking…. [Hari-dvani - "Haribol!"]