20101024 Question and Answer in ISKCON

The following is a “Live “ question & answer session given  by H.H.Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja  on October 24^th 2010 at Juhu Beach

 

♪♪♪ 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 ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ Jaya jaya śrī-caitanya jaya nityānanda ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ Jaya advaita Candra jaya gaura bhakta vrinda ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ Nitāi Gaura-haribol! Haribol! Haribol! Haribol! ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ Jaya Rādhā Rasbihari! Rādhā Rasbihari! Rādhe! ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ Jaya Sita ram lakshman bhakta hanuman sita ram lakshman bhakta hanuman ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ 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 caitanya īśvaram♪♪♪

 

Hari Om Tat Sat !!

Kṛṣṇa says that his appearance and his pastimes are all transcendental

janma karma ca me divyam
evaḿ yo vetti tattvataḥ

Those who know this fact when they give up this body they don’t take birth again.

tyaktvā dehaḿ punar janma
naiti mām eti so ‘rjuna

So when they leave this body they go back to Kṛṣṇa. So we understand although it is not that Kṛṣṇa is in the form of human we rather are in the form of Kṛṣṇa.  So this is a blessing that we have taken birth on this planet where Ram and Kṛṣṇna and Lord Caitanya and many other avatars have appeared. So we can also take advantage of Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes here. If we understand how Kṛṣṇa appears, how his karma, his pastimes are transcendental then we don’t have to stay in this material world. Only the devotees of Kṛṣṇa are able to understand these mysteries of Lord Kṛṣṇa.

So all I was saying that in Māyāpur it is the birthplace of Lord Caitanya. So Lord Caitanya’s birthplace is a holy place. But we are also serious of the place of Lord Caitanya’s work where his karmasthan,   janmasthan and this is karmasthan. So Krishna says ‘Janma Karma ca me Divyam’ both his birth as well as his karma are transcendental. So therefore if we take part in Krishna’s lila or if we are part of his birth both are transcendental. He leaves his birth place like he left Mathura to go to Yasoda, Nanda Mahārāja’s palace. So he left Mathura to go to the he left the birthplace to go to the workplace. So karmasthan.

So like that Lord Caitanya he did many activities. So we will pray to Lord Caitanya that he give us his mercy. The land of Vṛndāvana is made by Kṛṣṇa, by his pastimes and the land of Navadvīpa dhāma is made by Radharani to please Krishna. So both are transcendental.

One time Śrīla Prabhupāda was saying that, “Living or dying in Māyāpur is all the same”. If you live here you’re in the spiritual world and if you die here you will go back to Godhead. So in Vṛndāvana living and dying is the same. If you live in Vṛndāvana you are in the spiritual world and if you die there you will go back to Godhead. When we die if we are to join Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes that place where He’s realizing his pastimes, in that universe we go there and we get trained up either as a friend, a parent, as a lover of Krishna , we get trained up then from there we get chance to do that in the spiritual world.

So this is revealed by Śrīla Prabhupāda in the 10th Canto of Śrīmad Bhāgavatham. I am very happy that all you people are chanting

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

By chanting you can make your life perfect. Once Śrīla Prabhupāda said that chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and be happy, by chanting we can be happy and we can make others also happy. So like this we want everyone to chant, we would like everyone to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and make their life   as perfect.

 Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Now you can have some Questions and Answers.

Question: Not audible  9.42

If your desires are very great, then according to the Bhagavad Gītā you may get promoted to the heavenly planets. But say that even if you have just twenty or thirty percent you will still go back to Godhead. So if you understand how that Lord Caitanya is Kṛṣṇa, if you understand that Navadvīpa dhāma is non-different from Vṛndāvana like this you will go back to Godhead. Those who don’t understand, they are living on the thin crust of the holy dhāma they are don’t actually live in the dhāma they live on top of the dhāma. So there are many others who are not getting the full benefit but I think the devotees they go there because they know that this is the holy dhāma. So therefore they get the mercy of Kṛṣṇa. If they have a lot of bad karma then to lighten the load up they might have to visit the hellish planets and also take for the sins bad karmas. It’s a balance of some good karma and some bad karma. They may be born in this world with some problems, some disease some issues. Real problems , disease, poverty all these are causes are due to bad karma.

Any other question? Ladies, not asking any questions

Question: Not audible 12.05              

Well, Vṛndāvana is protected by Roopeshwara, Shīva and Jatila….12.16  What’s the name of the deity there? You can pray to him for the permission to enter the dhāma because Shiva, as Roopeshwara keeps the guard.

In Mayapur, Shiva is present as Vidhyāshiva and Devi is present as Param Maya. We take their blessings to enter into the dhāma.

Now ISKCON is building  of Lord Caitanya and Devi because of this lila in Simantadvīpa, where Parvati, she was chanting the holy names or rather she was chanting Gaurāṅga’s names

“Gaurāṅga  Gaurāṅga  Gaurāṅga  Gaurāṅga  Gaurāṅga Gaurāṅga Gaurāṅga Gaurāṅga Gaurāṅga !!”

And because of that Lord Caitanya appeared to her and asked What did she want. So she said that she wanted to get the mercy of the Lord. She heard that Lord Caitanya was giving love of Godhead out freely. She didn’t want to be deprived because devotees will say we don’t want any association with Māyā, Māyā the witch. So like that they helped her to get association with the devotees. So she prayed to Lord Caitanya that I want to get also love for Kṛṣṇa. So Lord Caitanya actually blessed her and he said you are actually expansion of Rādhārānī you are the  atmāsakthi and you have come from Rādhā. So in this holy place she realized that she was non-different from Radharani so she got the blessings of love of Krishna. So she took the dust of Lord Caitanya lotus feet put on her parting in the hair that’s called ‘simantha’ so the island is called Simantadvīpa after this pastime. We already constructed the temple in this we have Lord Chaitanya and Parvati praying to him. So when we go to the dhāma we pray for the mercy of the Devi as well as Shiva to enter the dhāma. This is one thing we should do.

Guru Maharaj: Any questions? You can sit down if you want. Ok. Who?

15.38 Not audible

Devotee: Guru Mahārāja, Please accept my humble obeisances. Guru Mahārāja, What is the importance of Kartik vrata and is it ok for someone with material contaminations to take bath in Radha Kund during Kartik time?

Guru Mahārāja: Any Kṛṣṇa conscious activity we perform in the month of Kartik we get hundred plus times, a hundred and more times the benefit. So Kartik month is a very special month as far as well so if we go to the dham that is anyway at least a thousand times. So hundred times thousand is one lakh. Like this if you offer a lamp to the deities again it says sashtras says you can get liberated from thousands of birth karma ZUP…. half a flash of an eye. So Kartik month or Damodar month is a very good month to get a lot of mercy.

Now whether you should bathe in Radha kunda or not that depends really how you are, how your mental status. If you are guided by some advanced devotee then you do achaman then enter in respectfully then maybe it’s alright to take a bath in Radha kunda.  You can also take bath at Jamuna and other holy river, other holy kundas . And if you feel you can enter with great respect, with no offence to the Radha Kund then you enter. If you don’t think that you cannot enter without any offences then take some water and put on your head but don’t enter. Any other questions?

Devotee: Next question is from Slovenia. It’s Madhava Das he’s asking, “Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto me. I shall deliver you from all sinful activities. Do not fear. He’s asking ‘What is me? What is the Supreme means?’

Guru Mahārāja: That’s Kṛṣṇa that’s surrendering to Kṛṣṇa.

īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ

sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ

anādir ādir govindaḥ

sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam

He’s the original person, he’s the cause of all causes. He’s the Supreme Lord īśvaraḥ paramaḥ or Supreme controller. So when he says mām it means Me, he’s talking about himself as a person. Who asked that question?

Devotee: It’s from Slovenia Madhava Das .

Leela mohini mataji from [19.46]  she’s asking What can I do when the karma attack us always?

Guru Mahārāja: Well we don’t recommend any [20.03] new karma.

Devotee: the second question is - How to cut past the actions and the karma which is not enough? Which kind of yajna can we do or tapasya which will cut past that bad karma?

Guru Mahārāja: First of all we think that if Kṛṣṇa saves us and gives us only a very small portion of the bad karma. I used to see ŚrĪla Prabhupāda I used this example, he cut his finger he said, “I lost one drop of blood, I should have lost my head. I lost just one drop.” So like that we think that I did so much bad karma and only taking a little bit because bad karma is after hundred births. Now if you offer a lamp in this month of Damodar you get all kinds of bad karma wiped away,so it is recommended to offer a lamp to the installed deities every day in this month if possible. At least you can offer to the Tulsi plant or some other sacred representation. Also the picture of Yasoda and Damodara you can offer a lamp to them. And at the end of this month from Ekadashi to the full moon day it’s called Bhismha Panchaka. Ekadasi , Dwadasi, Trayodasi, Caturdasi and Pūrnīmā ,five days if you offer worship according to that system those five days you get some very special ‘very special blessings’. So this can cut away all kinds of bad karma. So we recommend you chant, offer lamps in this month and any month and do the Bhisma Vrata.

Any questions? From the ladies here.

Devotee: Which is the quickest way to attain Kṛṣṇa: preaching, chanting or austerity?

Guru Mahārāja: Which one? Why not all three.

 We chant

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

 

every day and like you tell your children, you tell them to chant, you preach and also we don’t do so much austerity. Whatever we do, we that’s why we don’t take meat, fish, egg, onion, garlic. So like this we do some basic austerity. So like this is not so great. Not like the yogis who fast for months, we just restrict our diet, occasionally we have a fasting till afternoon, after sunset we fast that’s only three-four days a year. So we do a little bit of everything. Main thing in Kali yuga is to chant

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

Guru Mahārāja asks, How are you? You got your friend

Devotee speaking  24:30

Guru Mahārāja: How are you? Welcome, sit down

Guru Mahārāja greets a devotee 24:42

Guru Mahārāja: Today I was somehow I got caught in --- I had to do a mental offering. The first day I missed the physical offering, I am going to the altar out here to Radha Kṛṣṇa If someone can get me a lamp. 25:00 Bengali

Devotee: Thank you for the answer that you gave Guru Mahārāja. Thank you so much Guru Mahārāja!!  I will listen to your reply again….25:24

Guru Mahārājā: Any other questions?

Devotee: Some of them they join and they are chanting and they left and again new students come they chant and they left. So is this kind of preaching effective or they will just forget Kṛṣṇa.

Guru Mahārāja: So some students they chanted and they left?

Devotee:  New students they stay for few days, they come….[26.00]

Guru Mahārāja: Same students come occasionally, sporadically they chant?

Devotee : (not audible)26:18

Devotee: They sporadically chant

 

Devotee: Guru Mahārāja what she’s saying is that every now and then there is a batch of students, they come  here she preaches to them they chant and then that batch leaves. Then a new batch they chant for a while and then they leave. She says they may or may not continue chanting they may forget Kṛṣṇa. Is that kind of preaching effective at all? Or should there be any other method that she can adopt to preach?

Guru Mahārāja: I was thinking somehow keep their contact and then follow up sometime, how they are doing and ask if they keep chanting at least if they chant sometimes that helps them to be in the orbit of Lord Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: What Guru Mahārāja is saying is that you can somehow keep their contact and follow up with them that’s how we can keep chanting that is really nice but even if they are chanting once or chanting sometimes that brings  them in the orbit of Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: 27:30

Guru Mahārāja: I got distracted, What did she say?

Devotee: She’s saying what about the students who hope to attend the class in the temple so she told Mataji to go and tell that school there is an emergency and I really need to leave. So what she’s saying that these lies can we tell them whether there is a Krishna conscious end to it. She planned it together so that she can go to school and tell the teacher there is an emergency and this mataji has to go. So is that right?

Guru Mahārāja: It was an emergency, attending the class. A big emergency. It may not be the same emergency that the teacher was thinking. If you get caught then it’s a problem .So we have to see that if you can think that how it’s not really a lie. You can say something that’s not a lie. There is an emergency you have to go. Maybe it’s ok attending a class that’s certainly it’s an emergency.

Devotee:  So should I lie in future? (Devotees laughing) only for preaching because I sometimes lie to some parents of my students. They don’t want them to chant so I just tell them no I tell them some stories that’s all but they don’t want chanting. I lie to them we have a little program and are telling them some stories.

Guru Mahārāja: Start telling them stories

Devotee: You should tell stories that includes chanting.

Guru Mahārāja: And then you won’t be lying.  I just told this story. Like there is a story that  there was a parrot in Navadvīpa and the parrot would chant Gaura Gaura !!Gaura Gaura !!Gaura Gaura ( devotees chanting along) Gaura Gaura!! Lord Caitanya said don’t chant Gaura Gaura ,chant Radha Kṛṣṇa but the parrot again chanted Gaura Gaura!! Gaura Gaura!! Gaura Gaura!! this place Lord Caitanya said that this place is non- different from Vṛndāvana and here you can chant Radha and Kṛṣṇa. And the parrot said that, “Radha has entered into Kṛṣṇa again and I believe that in this Navadvīpa Dham Gaurāṅga has appeared combined with Kṛṣṇa and Radha. So, I want to chant ‘Gaura Gaura’. If you want to chant you can chant your way and I will chant my way, Gaura Gaura!! Gaura Gaura!!Gaura Gaura!!Gaura Gaura!! (All devotees also chant together) Lord Caitanya covered his ears and He ran because he was in the mood of a devotee,so he did not want to hear that. Like that you can tell some stories.

How to tell stories?? Lord Caitanya he went to the brahmanas on the way to Śrīsailaṃ. So the brahmana was chanting Rāma Nāma

Raghupathi Raghava Raja Rāma!!

  Patita pavana Sita Rāma!!

Devotees chanting along

Srīrāma Jaya Rāma Jaya Jaya Rāma!!

  Srīrāma Jaya Rāmā Jaya Jaya Rāma!!

Devotees chanting along

So Lord Caitanya said, “ Why don’t you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa because I know that one name of Rāma is equal to thousand names of Vishnu. Sahastra nama 33:32 eka Rāma nama varanane but I also know that three thousand names of Vishnu is equals to one name of Kṛṣṇa. So I know that itś better to chant Kṛṣṇa.”  But what to do my ishtadevatha is Rāma so I always chant Rāma.

Raghupathi Raghava Raja Rāma !!

Patitapāvana Sita Rāma!!

Devotees chanting

Then Lord Caitanya in Śrīsailaṃ He saw Lord Śhiva 34.12….he talked about Bhakti yoga and he came back. He saw the same brahmana and this time he was chanting

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

But this story goes on, you can teach the kids Rāma nāma and Kṛṣṇa nāma, at the same time you can tell this story, you didn’t lie, you told a story. 35:17

Devotee: How can we approach the karmis, non devotees to invite them to come to temple when they do not know anything about Kṛṣṇa?

Guru Maharaja: That’s a good question. Who asked that question? Ananya Krishna thank you for asking this nice question.

 If you are inviting people to come to the temple then you can see what the person likes. We in South America, we found that people like blessings. So this month we can offer a candle, a lamp to the deities so this blessings ...come, light.  Then downstairs in Ecuador we have the restaurant. Invite them to restaurant then later on invite them upstairs to the temple. You can use various techniques. Whatever works.

 Sometimes you can invite them to some cultural shops. First thing is invite them to some house where they are doing some Nama Hatta or something and then when they are really interested invite them to the temple. Like that you will see each individual. Like in the --- 37.23  Municipal hall we got people in the month of Damodar to offer a lamp to the picture of baby Kṛṣṇa and mother Yasoda. So everybody like that.  So we found in Ecuador, people are good, pious, they like to go to temple.

Last question, you have any sweets any Prasad?

Devotee: There’s a request from Ernesto from Argentina.

Guru Maharaja: Enes? Ernesto

Devotee:  He’s making a movie on Ganges ,Ganges and he’s asking some blessings in Spanish.

Guru Mahārāja talks in Spanish 38.24-38.40

(Guru Maharaja raises his hand for blessing and says Haribol!!)

Guru Maharaja: Let everybody give Ernesto a blessing by chanting Nitai Gaura Haribol !Haribol! Haribol! Haribol!

So today I didn’t have any rest in the afternoon so it’s difficult to speak because there are so many devotees from 30:09 on Sunday. I have to get to rest before ten ‘o’ clock.  39:25

Any questions? Any more questions from the internet?

Devotee: How to chant attentively? Mind is getting disturbed when you start chanting, too many thoughts coming.

Guru Mahārāja: As  a manager, I would get some thoughts so then I found that keeping note of them in a little notebook that I can refer later and put the thoughts on and on in my mind. That was one way. When I was a new devotee I read that how Haridas Thakur he would chant louder and louder so I started chanting very loud. Louder and louder! Hare Kṛṣṇa [Guru Mahārāja chants loudly] on top of my lungs in that I found that very good to keep out all other thoughts but then everybody went to Śrīla Prabhupāda and said that this Bhaktha Jay he’s crazy he shouts Hare Kṛṣṇa as loud as he can and we can’t think, we can’t chant our japa. So Śrīla Prabhupāda called me and asked why you are shouting loudly I explained I read the biography of Haridas Thakur and he would chant very loud on top of his mind. So then Śrīla Prabhupāda said Well ! You chant in Montreal, Montreal is named after this one mountain, Mount Royale chant there. I was sent there and later I found that if I would chant a say few rounds and stop watch and see how long it took it took like some six it helped focus my mind.