20101023 Question and Answer Session

Following is a live question and answer session given by H.H. Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on October 23rd 2010 in Mumbai, India.

Jaya Rādhā Rāsa-bihari Rādhā, Rāsa-bihari Rādhe

Sita-rāma lakshman hanumān, Sita-rāma lakshman hanumān

Nitāi Gaura-haribol! Haribol! Haribol! Haribol!

Jaya Prabhupāda Prabhupāda Prabhupāda Jaya Prabhupāda

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ

paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim

yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande

śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam

paramānanda-mādhavam

śrī caitanyam īsvaram

hari oṁ tat sad

Today Lokanath Mahārāja was leading kirtan and also the meeting extended from 7 to 7.30. So I had to rush to take a darshan of Gurudeva and come back and take prasāda. So we got late. But I try to give class here at 8, 8.10 everyday, 8.15 when I am not in the temple. So the system is I will give a short class and then I will open for questions and answers for another about 15 minutes. So do you need any translation into Hindi or Gujarati or Bengali?

One of the last things that they showed at the RGB meeting was a presentation on the hospice in Vṛndāvana.  Also there are some people who left their body in Māyāpur. But we don’t have a devoted hospice there. But we need to have one. I remember how I asked Śrīla Prabhupāda, after all the reception and all the darshan and his talk, he went  to his room. Then he sat down and he said, “Ah! Living and dying in Mayapur it’s all the same.” So that sounded confusing. How is living and dying the same? So he said you are living in the spiritual world and when you are dying you go back to the spiritual world. Like in Vṛndāvana or Māyāpur, you live in the spiritual world and when you leave your body, because you are Kṛṣṇa conscious and you live in the Holy Dhāma, you go back to Godhead. Haribol!

So this is a very auspicious thing. People can come and leave their bodies in a very nice situation and they can chant. So in Māyāpur we have Sankarshan Prabhu and his good wife Sacimata, they are disciples of Srila Prabhupada. They have something like a hospice for the old sadhus which included some from ISKCON and some from the Gaudiya Math. And in Māyāpur we have a senior brahmacāri quarters and  ladies quarters. So some devotees they stay in the hospice or flats or some senior ladies facility and then they left their body there. But the idea is that we should engage in a very Kṛṣṇa conscious situation at the time of death. That is ideal. And now we don’t want that people should feel that they are like neglected or uncared for at that time when one should give them maximum care. So I am very grateful to Giriraj Maharaja and Siddhi dasi, I think her name is Siddhi dasi, who have come up with this concept of hospice in Vṛndāvana.

During the time of Śrīla Prabhupāda, he negotiated with the Government that he wants to bring some of the devotees to Vṛndāvana, Māyāpur, to India to engage in some devotional service. So at that time they said, “How you know that they are not CIA or something?”  He said, “Well, CIA if they want to continue here, they will stay in 5-star hotels. These devotees, they are living in a simple way in some ashram. So we want them to come.”  So the Government of India at that time agreed that ok, for ISKCON we will give the ‘yoga’ visa. So that’s a special visa with which they said they can come and stay. So this is a new concept that some people want to come and leave their body in Vṛndāvana, Māyāpur or some Holy Dhāma. So one thing is they should have a visa from like a week before they leave their body. So we hope that all these kind of details will be worked out.

I was remembering how there was a situation where my disciple she was fast tracked onto the initiation, because she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. There was no hope. They said that maybe she has two or three months to live. But she lived for about six months. Then she went to the hospital since she was feeling very bad and she said what can you do? And they said that, “Nothing we can do, we can just give you some painkillers. So what do you want?” She said, “‘I want an ambulance.” “You are already in the hospital, what do you need an ambulance for?” So she said, “I don’t want an ambulance to the hospital, I want an ambulance to take me to the temple so I can leave my body in a Kṛṣṇa conscious environment.” So there in the Milan temple, I think that’s called Medolago, the ambulance drove up with sirens going up (Guru Maharaja imitates the siren of an ambulance) So the devotees were surprised, what happened! And then she came. She said, “I want to leave my body here.  I just have a few hours to live.” So they gave her a guest room and she stayed. Well she saw the Deities. She lived for about eight days. And on the day that she was leaving her body, she was obviously very sick. So the room filled up with devotees and they were all chanting:

hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare

hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare

So at that time MadhavSevika Prabhu, who is the GBC of Italy, he came driving from Benelux all the way to Italy. Normally he doesn’t drive all the way. He stops in France somewhere. But this time he didn’t know why, he came all the way and just at 10:45 …, he entered the room and there he saw all the devotees chanting and this lady, she had opened her mouth and she said ‘Hare Kṛṣṇa!’ She was gone.

He told me later, “If I could be put down when I leave in this way, surrounded by devotees, in the temple, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, I will be blessed. I will put in my will.” But we know there is no guarantee where or how we will be at the time of death. This lady, this disciple, she was so fortunate, at that time I wrote to her, I told her what she should do at that time. So she like this was surrounded by devotees and she chanted.

So one thing they say is a hundred percent guarantee, anyone who is born has to die. Anyone who dies again is reborn. Of course the devotees, if they die, they can enter, completed their devotional service maybe at least sixty or seventy percent. Again they go back to Kṛṣṇa or they go directly to where Kṛṣṇa is realizing his pastimes. So in this way, for devotees, this could be their last birth, his or her last birth.

Otherwise we are going to die and leave this body somehow or other . Very few I mean maybe someone like Arjuna, they could go back in the same body. But these are rare souls who have come down just to join Kṛṣṇa in His pastimes. So we are very fortunate if we can be Kṛṣṇa conscious at that time. All the devotees they should help, should be prepared to help if someone is leaving the body. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, help that person, give them a garland from the Deities, give them Tulasi offered to Lord Sri Kṛṣṇa, cremate them with a Tulasi twig, write the names of Kṛṣṇa on the body. My mother of my previous ashram, she said that when she dies, she wants to be cremated and wants her ashes to be taken and thrown in the Ganges. So this was an unusual request from a Christian but she said she had a spiritual experience by the side of the Ganges so she wanted her ashes be put in the Ganges. So I fulfilled that desire of hers. I went and took her ashes and, I did the cremation rites. Normally the sannyāsīs don’t do, but I am the only devotee in the family, so I had no one else to do.

So like that this is something maybe you don’t want to talk about too much, but this is a reality. It is a reality of life. Of course everyone thinks that they won’t die. That is the amazing thing. They see their grandfather, father everyone dying. But somehow they don’t think about their own dying. But we all die sooner or later. So we want you all to be Kṛṣṇa conscious at the moment. That is the final exam. So we need to go through various tests throughout our lives but the final test that we want to pass. So that is to be Kṛṣṇa conscious, of course someone asked Prabhupāda that what if we are not Kṛṣṇa conscious, when we can’t remember Kṛṣṇa  at that moment. He said, “Kṛṣṇa will remember you, if you have done His service.” So we are depending on Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

So are there any questions? You have the papers?

Devotee: Guru Mahārāja, from Ananda Kṛṣṇa Mataji

Guru Mahārāja: Ananda Kṛṣṇa? Yes

Devotee: Informing a message that ‘Guru Maharaja, we are having a huge preaching program here in Ecuador. We are going to be on TV for Dāmodara month.’ And a question from Mangala Mathura Devi dasi from Kṛṣṇa-kathadesh.

Guru Mahārāja: We are very happy we have a devotee in Ecuador preaching and they are going to be on the television during the month of Dāmodara. And Mangala-who?

Devotee:  Mangala Mathura Devi dasi. Herself and her husband got initiated last July 26 ,2010 in Kṛṣṇa-kathadesh. They are asking a question, Guru Mahārāja, “Can you please let me know what austerity could I and my husband do for Dāmodara month?” What austerity we have to do in Dāmodara month?

Guru Mahārāja: What we have to do is we should not take, you see in the Dāmodara month, it is prescribed to be a vegetarian. Most of the devotees are vegetarian. For them, we abstain from Urad dal just as a token. North Indians, for them there is no big complication, but for South Indians, their dosas, idli, uttapam, all have urad dal. So it is a big austerity for the South Indians. One day Tamal Kṛṣṇa Maharaja he was traveling in South India in the month of Dāmodara. Nobody would cook him dosas, idli because it was the month of Dāmodara. I was in Malaysia where a lot of our devotees, most of our devotees are Tamils. I asked them try to make dosa, idli with chickpea flour. Now this you can say is unique, but I was thinking that in Gujarat they make dhokla with chickpeas, chickpea and rice so why not try? So they did and it came out alright. I mean the idli and dosas were yellow(laughter). But better than not having, they say nā'i māmāra cēẏē kānā māmā bhāla (laughter), better than no uncle, having a blind uncle is better. So rather than no dosa, no idli having idli, dosa with chickpea is better. There is a whole list of other things you can do. If you do some austerities in the month of Dāmodara then what benefits you get that is also listed. Now we observe the last five days from Ekadasi to the purnima as Bhīṣma Panchaka. There we do either; we fast on fruits or roots, or havisyanna. It is observed for five days. That is said as good as the whole chaturmas. Also you get some special blessings. But it is quite a, you have to take a bath, you have to do the tarpana, you have to offer some foodstuffs to Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, it is in Dāmodara so you have to offer a lamp. There is like a whole series of things to do. Plus you can eat only fruits and roots or havisyanna. In Māyāpur, I hope this year I will be able to do. All the years I do the fruits and roots. But I think this year I will do the havisya-anna because I am not fully strong yet. There is also one alternative, but that is really tough, very few people do that. That is taking the five products of the cow. So one day you can eat only cow dung, next day only cow urine you can drink, so that is two days of fasting, how much can you do,  then only milk, only yoghurt and the fifth day is eating panchagavya. It is tough. Two days is tough because how much cow dung can you take? Tough. So that is almost not an option for most people.

Devotee: Question from Anurādhā -mayi Devi dasi. In the book Topmost Yoga System, page 66, second para, Srila Prabhupāda writes ‘By chanting of this Hare Kṛṣṇa, as introduced by Lord Caitanya—chanting and dancing—you can understand Kṛṣṇa within a very short time.’ Then he writes, ‘Knowledge begins not from Kṛṣṇa, but from things which we are accustomed to see every day.’ Kindly help me understand this Guru Mahārāja.

Guru Mahārāja: You have the book? You can read it?

Devotee: I will read it? ‘Kṛṣṇa says that out of many millions of people, one may understand Him. But, by chanting of this Hare Kṛṣṇa, as introduced by Lord Caitanya—chanting and dancing—you can understand Kṛṣṇa within a very short time.’ After that he writes ‘Knowledge begins not from Kṛṣṇa, but from things which we are accustomed to see every day.’ Then he writes that ‘Land is gross. If you touch it, you can feel its hardness. But, as soon as the land becomes still finer, it is water, and the touch is soft. And then again, from water to fire, still finer. After fire or electricity the air is still finer; and after air, the sky, ether, is still finer.’  He goes on…

Guru Mahārāja: That way Śrīla Prabhupāda said that if we tell people there is God, maybe it is hard to prove it to them. But we all have seen the ātmā is in everyone. So he told the scientists to try to prove the existence of the soul and this will be easier than proving the existence of God. So like this if you try to prove the existence of the different aspects that are told in the Vedas. Then if they accept what they observe, the observable reality is described in the Vedas correctly.  Then for what you cannot observe, why not take the Vedas. In this case, once Prabhupāda said, see the alcoholics, in the Bhagavad-gītā  it says, Kṛṣṇa is the sweet taste in liquid or water. So the alcoholic he likes to drink whiskey or wine. So that liquid has some sweet taste. If they realize that that sweet taste is actually Kṛṣṇa that they are attached to, then they will be Kṛṣṇa conscious. So like that we can see Kṛṣṇa in all the surrounding things. If we see Kṛṣṇa everywhere in His creation that is the first step. Like in the second, third, more or less the second canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, there it talks about the universal form and realizing Kṛṣṇa in the material world. So actually Kṛṣṇa is transcendental, He is sac-cid-ānanda, first we see Him as the, we see the universe, we see the creation, we see the sunrise, the sunset. So through these ordinary things, if we can understand that these are not possible without some intelligence behind, then we can understand Kṛṣṇa like this. Gradually we can understand Him in His transcendental form.