20110925 a Sunday Feast Lecture

20110925 His. Holiness. Jayapatākā Sw-ami Mahārāja gave a Sunday Feast lecture in Tirupati. [360p]

Gurumaharaj:

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ

paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim

yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande

Śrī gurum dina tarinam

paramānanda-mādhavam

Śrī Caitanya Iswaram

Hari Oṁ Tatsat

Very nice to see all of you tonight…………………… [Haribol]

So, tonight we heard about serving the spiritual master. This is an important aspect. In the Nectar of Devotion or Bhakti Rasāmritasindhu, ten things are most important for the advancement of Kṛṣṇa consciousness… are mentioned. The first one is to take shelter of a Guru. Second one is to take initiation from guru. The third is to take some instruction from the spiritual master. And like this, all the first five or six are connected to the guru. So, it’s very important. We cannot see Kṛṣṇa in our conditioned state. If we want to see Kṛṣṇa, we need to get purified, but we can hear directly from Kṛṣṇa through the guru. The Guru speaks what he heard from his guru, and in this way by guru paramparā, we get the message unbroken. So, our original guru is always Kṛṣṇa, and our disciplic succession, he heard from Brahmadev, who heard from Vṣnu.  From Brahmā it came to Nārada Muni, from Nārada Muni to Vyāsadeva, and from the Vyāsadeva to Madhavāchārya. Like this it came down and reached to Caitanya. So, Lord Caitanya, He is Kṛṣṇa Himself as a devotee. So, He also acted as a guru, and in Andhra Pradesh He gave the order to one Brahman from Kurmadesh, which is near Vishakhapatnam. He said, “jāre dekho tāre kāho Kṛṣṇa upadesh, aamar ajyaya Guru hoiyā taro ei desh.” that whosoever you meet, tell them the message of Lord Kṛṣṇa. In this way, on My order, we are guru, and deliver your country. So, like this Lord Caitanya gave a simple order to people all around South India, all over …10.35… So, our ISKCON was established by His Divine Grace, A.C. Bhaktivedānta Swāmi Prabhupāda. (applause) He was my diksha guru. But he also said, he was not only the diksha guru, but he was also a siksha guru. He gave instruction as well. So, that is the system that our instructing guru, our diksha guru also is a siksha guru; Prabhupāda as the Adi guru of our disciplic succession, our branch of the disciplic succession. He is also considered as a primary siksha guru for everyone. We all studied the books of Śrīla Prabhupāda. One may have many siksha guru’s. So, other devotees also give instructions. So, Kṛṣṇa said… as the supersoul he also accepts one’s service to Guru. So, he sees who is dedicated to serving the guru. Lord Caitanya, His Acharya’s gave the instruction – gṛhe thāko bāṇe thāko sadā Hari bale ḍāko. Whether you are in Brahmachari ashram, or you are in the grihastha ashram, or vānaprastha or sanyasi; everyone… everyone should chant,

Hare Kṛṣṇa

Hare Kṛṣṇa

Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa

Hare Hare

Hare Rāma

Hare Rāma

Rāma Rāma

Hare Hare…………………..(repeated by devotees)

So, in the book called Caitanya Mangal… there Lord Caitanya said, He would preach all over India. But to cover the Western countries He would send a devotee… a senāpati bhakta, a commander or a General devotee. So, I asked Prabhupāda, “What should I do?” He told me, “Join Kṛṣṇa’s army.” ………….[applause]

So, how many here will also like to be a part of Lord Kṛṣṇa’s army? In this army you can be a lady or a man, young or old, there is no bar. Everyone. Because this is not… we don’t use arms or violence. We simply give the Kṛṣṇa mantra, and by chanting the Kṛṣṇa mantra…

Hare Kṛṣṇa

Hare Kṛṣṇa

Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa

Hare Hare

Hare Rāma

Hare Rāma

Rāma Rāma

Hare Hare…………………..(repeated by devotees)

You get personally purified, and you also are purified… all those around you. You can also get some nectar at every step. So, in the Brahmā Vaivarta Purāṇa all of the holy rivers, kundas, they came to see Lord Kṛṣṇa in Dwāraka. They pushed the Deity of the Ganges ahead. So, she was the spokesperson. She said, “On behalf of all the holy rivers, Lord Kṛṣṇa, we see that very soon Your pasties will come to an end. And already the qualities of Kaliyuga are starting to manifest. In previous ages people were naturally inclined to spiritual life, but in the Kali yuga they are more inclined to sense gratification. So, when You will please take us with You? Otherwise all this sinful people will bathe in us, and we will be loaded with sinful reactions.” Lord Kṛṣṇa was smiling at them. He said, “Tolerate five thousand years. Then I will send a devotee. He will go all over the world, and he will spread the chanting of My holy names. And this will begin our golden age for ten thousand years, and there will be one varṇa – Hari Bhakta.” (applause) So, we know that just to see a Vaiṣṇava is purifying, but they will come and bathe in your waters, and you can recognize them. They will be chanting…

Hare Kṛṣṇa

Hare Kṛṣṇa

Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa

Hare Hare

Hare Rāma

Hare Rāma

Rāma Rāma

Hare Hare…………………..(repeated by devotees)

Then after ten thousand years, there will begin ghora kali, very, very bad Kali Yuga. So, who wants to get back to Godhead now before the ghora kali? (all the devotees raise their hands and chant Haribol!)

So, it is very important to help Śrīla Prabhupāda. He came five thousand years after Kṛṣṇa left. He brought the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahāmantra to every continent, and his message was to please chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and make others chant, or at least chant some holy name of the Lord, like

Govinda…………………………………………………….Govinda

Govinda…………………………………………………….Govinda

Govinda…………………………………………………….Govinda

So, dear listeners, it’s very essential that you please help us to bring this golden age. Prabhupāda, when he went to America in 1965, September, he told the Americans, “You are not Americans. I am not Indian. And you are not Chinese or Russian.” They said, “What, what? How is that?”

“Because you are not the body. You are pure spirit soul.”

So, like this Americans… they have one jot, Americans. Russians, they have one – Russians. In Chinese – Chinese. But Indian, they have got all these castes and sub-castes. Lord Kṛṣṇa created Varṇāśrama, but it was based on guṇa and karma. He didn’t say jama, karma. He said, guṇa, karma. So, many of our brāhmaṇas… they are not… in some parts of India are not even vegetarian. At least in South India some are. We like… Kṛṣṇa said, you be one varṇa – Hari Bhakta. Everybody, serve the Lord. If everyone is a servant of Lord Vṣnu, that is very, very auspicious. We also have the ashram: Brahmachāri, Grihastha, Vanaprasta and Sanyās. Now grihastha ashram has a license to have children. Those children should be begotten by Garbodhana saṁskāra. It is not a secret. You can go to days…. days you want to have a child. They pray, “Please give us a nice su-putra, Kṛṣṇa conscious child.” if possible, they can chant some few extra Hare Kṛṣṇa mantras, and they have an auspicious time, and they do the Garbodhāna saṁskāra. So, in this way Kṛṣṇa said, dharma abhirodha pradu.. na haṁ…that sex life according to the religious principles is non-different from the… So, …32.28…. are the natural guru’s. And then one takes diksha guru, and also takes some instructions. Like this they try to understand what is the real purpose of life. So, as a human being we can end this cycle of birth and death, and we can also taste nectar.

Lord Caitanya, He gave out the nectar first. Pratipadaṁ punamrita swadanam, at every step you can taste a bliss. Serving a guru is a very special experience. Prabhupāda… I saw, he was the most profoundly happy person. But if you see his picture, he looks very grave. But if you are sitting next to him, you could see, he had tears in his eyes. He had so much compassion, so much bliss. He wanted to give out to everybody. I never saw anyone like that. So, he also often prayed for his disciples. But serving a guru, it was always something of a surprise, what would happen next. Sometimes he called me at one in the morning. I woke up, I washed my face, I ran down. I bowed down, I asked, “Yes, Śrīla Prabhupada!” And he would tell me something. It did not matter what time. Sometimes he was very profound. One time he arrived in Māyāpur. There was some water… the golden goblet. He drank the water high…. “Ahh…Māyāpur, the holy Dham, living or dying in Māyāpur, it is all the same.” So, I wondered, how is living and dying the same? I didn’t have to say anything… like he can read out mind, he spoke, “Living in the holy Dham is living in the spiritual world. And if you die here, you will go back to the spiritual world.” So, this Tirupati-Tirumala, here also spiritual benefits?39.45 It says… I heard… the śāstra says, “This place is non-different from Vaikuṇṭha.” So, here everybody should try to serve guru and Kṛṣṇa, and you get a lot of extra blessings.

So, sometimes we want to see Prabhupāda, and one day we were serving him hot milk, but he said, “The milk is not hot enough.” So, the cook asked, “How hot do you want it?” He replied, “As hot as possible.” So, he brought back the milk boiling hot. He touched the glass. It was so hot, it burned his hand…. “Ah…” He said, “It is too hot.” He asked, “Prabhupāda, you said you wanted hot as possible.” “Yes, but not impossible.” [Haribol]

So, sometimes, one feels a fool before the guru. That’s our fallen nature. We should always be a fool before our guru, but only sometimes we feel it. Sometimes we saw… Prabupada, he was walking on the roof in Māyāpur. There was a migration of ants. They were carrying the ant eggs on their heads, and there was a big migration… hundreds and thousands of ants were going from one place to next. And we were looking down at them. Prabhupāda said, “Just as you look down on these ants, and you think, how insignificant these ants are! They only live for a few weeks or months.” Similarly, the entities of the higher planets, higher dimensions, they look down on the human beings, and they think, “How insignificant they are.” So, we should understand our position in the universe, how in the Chaudha Bhuvana, fourteen planetary system we are number seven. So, bhūr bhuva swa… the Swarga loka, they look down on human beings… very insignificant. But if you become a devotee of Lord Vṣnu, Lord Kṛṣṇa, even Kṛṣṇa will care for you. There is no more fortunate position that to be a devotee of the Lord. So, we should not lose this opportunity of human birth. We should take shelter of the guru; a bonafide vaiṣṇava guru, and we should serve the supreme personality of Godhead.

Haribol…………………………………………[Haribol]

(chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra by Gurumahārāj followed by the devotees)

So, I don’t want to keep you longer. It is time for your mahaprasād. I thank you for being here tonight. Who sponsored the prasad today?

(applause)

Let’s all chant three times for his blessings.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol………………….. (repeated by devotees)

Question: Tirupati is a spiritual Dham. Here there are so many meat and wine shops. What to do?

Gururmahārāja: You see, the meat, the wine shops have business because people are buying. We want to show the, by taking Kṛṣṇa prasad you need meat, and by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa you will feel such bliss that you don’t want wine anymore. So, everyone blissful devotee, and the wine shops and the meat shops will dry up.

I heard that in Tirumala now it is forbidden. So, if the majority of the people in Tirupati say, we also want this to be forbidden, then such a law can be passed. I heard that in Haridwar, Rishikesh, meat and wine is forbidden. Is Tirupati less of a Dham? So, we should get more people in Tirupati to be devotees, and then we can also extend the Tirumala band in Tirupati.

(applause)