20110922 Talk at the ISKCON Farmhouse

20110922 Jayapatākā Swāmi gave a talk [360p]

Gurumahārāja: So, I am very happy that you are all studying systematically Śrīla Prabhupāda's books.

He wrote this books so that his devotees would read them. And by distributing his books they are certainly very very dear to him.   

We heard that there are thirty-three million people who come Tirumala and Tirupati as pilgrims every year. That's a 3.3 crores, and about... at the present times 10-20,000 people are close to ISKCON Tirupati... about... every year. So, they get to hear the holy names, they get to see the Deities, they get to taste the prasad. So, we hope that we can also give them a message of Krishna consciousness, and so,like this, through this, you all are helping one way or another.

This is a party of travellers. People come from all over Andhra Pradesh, they come from all over South India, all over India, and from all over the world. So, it is a very strategic place to be sitting, and it is important that you know what is inside Prabhupāda's books. So, we are very grateful, also I want to thank you that you are helping with my therapy. We can all chant the holy names.

Govinda........................................... [Govinda]   

Govinda........................................... [Govinda]

Nityānanda.........................................[Nityānanda]

So, down the road is a Deity of Bālajī. Just as lady soothsayer… this material world is a place for the Lord to realize His pastimes. And it’s a wonderful thing that the Lord has so many nice pastimes. Krishna - He comes once in the day of Brahmā, but every yuga there are some other avatars are coming. They are expansions of Lord Kṛṣṇa, but Kṛṣṇa Himself comes on the 28th Dwapara Yuga of every day of Brahmā, and in the Bhāgavatam, in the Krishna book we hear about Lord Kṛṣṇa's pastimes; his childhood pastimes in Vṛndāvan, His pastimes in Mathurā, and his pastimes in Dwaraka.

So, this places are also existing in the spiritual world. This is also a part of Kṛṣṇaloka from Swetadwipa, which is Lord Caitanya.

So, those who are devotees of Krishna and Caitanya Mahāprabhu, simultaneously are also part of Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes. So, this is a great opportunity that we have Lord Caitanya's mercy in this Kaliyuga.

The Kaliyuga is not a very nice time. People are very materialistic. But there is a good quality - that is chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahāmantra. So, Lord Caitanya, one of His goals was to establish the Yuga dharma which is to chant -

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa

Hare Rāma Hare Rāma

Rāma Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare.....  [Repeated by devotees]

So, I hope that all of you will take the special mercy of Lord Caitanya and Nityānanda.

The mercy is more than you can expect. He gave mercy to even the fallen souls; even the sinful people. pāpī tāpī jata chila harināma nāma uddhārila - even the most

sinful people were also delivered by the holy names.

Tar sakhi jagāi-mādhāi re; the evidence is in the deliverance of Jagāi and Mādhāi. ...11.10-14...they were not even...

nāsty people; very sinful souls, but they got the mercy of Lord Nityānanda. So, this is how great Nitāi and Gaura Chandra's mercy is. So, we hope that all of you will

grab to the lotus feet and not let it go.

Haribol.

Any questions:

Raise your hands.

Question: In Tirumala, Rāmānuja and some devotees like Vadiraja climbed up the hill using their knees. They never touched the Tirumala hill using their feet.

They crawled up. Similarly, in Govardhan Caitanya Mahāprabhu told, but many devotees never go at all to climb the hill. But here we climb the hill with our feet. How

to understand this?

Gurumahārāja: We don't climb the hill. We don't touch the hill with our feet. We go on a car. (laughter)

Devotee: Rubber wheels are touching. You are satisfied.

Gurumahārāja: You see, here there was a temple on the top of the Govardhan, maybe you would go. But since there is no temple, out of respect we don't go.

But on the Tirumala Bālajī is there; pāpa nāśanam. There are many other holy places like the Kunda and also Bhuvaraha. So, to observe those places we go. Even our big acharyas somehow or another they also went because the Deity was there. So, to serve Kṛṣṇa we all have to go for any material reasons, but just to serve the Lord. So, in each holy place there are some special culture to it. So, somehow some of our acharyas, they also climb on their knees. That indicates how sacred they consider these hills. But we didn’t hear that Lord Caitanya did the same. And whenever Prabhupāda came he did the same. But what we do, the more we climb, the more we rise, we chant, and we don’t have any specific instruction not to climb. But we can accept that these hills are very holy. So, people who are there, they should not do any sinful acts. I saw that about thirty years ago they were serving.... in the annadan, and I told them that you should not sit on this.... To this day we dont sit on hills. (applause) They say some sanyasi told us, but they never would know who that sanyasi was. We dont mind as long as...

actually they should offer the anna to Kṛṣṇa, to Bālajī, they should offer it somehow. I heard that someone is thinking that ISKCON should not do the Annadan. I don’t know dont how close that is to bring a decision. But I was saying that ....20.05-09...to have the people to chant and offer to... say a little message to each batch. They would have

Bālajī math. All the people... there are many people there, that are stealing from the ...50.52…, and as a result we don’t like to think, what their destination is. So, ... of

Tirumala, they should avoid doing any sinful acts because it’s not only ascend?, but is also offence. It is like say cheating someone is a sin, but to cheat a person who is a devotee, who is a pilgrim in the holy place, becomes an offence. So, we give that message.

Next question.

Devotee: Gurumahārāj, when we chant on beads we don’t give it to other because we know that Karma would exchange. In the same way when we give our clicker also the karma can exchange?

Gurumahārāja: I could not hear exactly what she said....

(the devotee repeats the question)

You don’t give your bead, you have give what?

That's not really the reason. We don't give our bead’s because our bead’s are... if we give it to others they may commit some offence and ... some beads. But I didn't hear  

they get their karma as such.

If we give beads away free and the people commit some nāma aparadh we are responsible. Therefore the guru gives beads to the disciples, but otherwise we should sell the beads, some even a token, one rupee or one paisa. That doesn't exchange any karma. If we give our beads away, those people may while they are chanting, they may commit some offence ...25.20-25.25...If it was clicker, I don't think there is any śāstra on the counter. So, if we have a ... on a counter, then it could be contaminated, but if it just a counting machine I don't think, I don't know, it's not yet discovered, but since it is just a machine... the idea was, Lord Caitanya, He used to count his japa on the fingers and somehow we have to count how many Hare Kṛṣṇa mantras we chant. If someone has a counting machine, it helps us to keep track, but to understand this counting machines have a spiritual effect, I don't think that it is that clear. We normally advised that people should use the beads wherever possible. There are some situations it is not possible, like if you are going to some Muslim country or... or if you work ... And then when we have counting machine it is the only thing it is the only thing that you can get.

Question: We know that onion and garlic is tamasic. It is not good for spiritual advancement. Then I got explanation on onion and garlic.

Gurumahārāja: This is something that we have some pundits who have researched and read all the scriptures, but I heard that onion and garlic came out of the hooves of the dead cow which was killed by some king in his chariot. So, onion and garlic is considered to have the sin of killing a cow. So, none of the temples - even Śiva, Durgā or Vsnu, none of the temples accept onion and garlic. Also Lord Śiva - Nandi is his mount, is his vahan. So, he respects the cow. So, actually so many Hindus are ... that it is very big negative influence on the spiritual advancement. It will be nice to get the actual śāstra on this, and ... among the Hindus who are vegetarian but take onion.

sakahari... they eat onion

The end of transcription.