20120409 Evening Question and Answer Session

20120409 H.H.Jayapatākā Swāmi gave an evening Q & A session in Māyāpur. [360p]

Translation by Sujetendriya Prabhu: Understand that as the mighty wind blowing everywhere rests always in the sky, all created beings rest in me.  

Gurumahārāja: So, Lord Krishna, he is explaining how everything, everyone is resting in him. We are bereft of Krishna. Krishna is our source. So, by understanding our relationship with Krishna we can achieve all the perfection. We should know that we are coming from Krishna and that’s why we are naturally the servitors of Lord Krishna. If we understand this, then we don’t have to take a birth again. But our nature is, we want to speculate, we want to doubt. Lord Caitanya taught, “jīvera swarupa hoya nitya Krishna das. Ekale ishwar Kṛṣṇa, aar sab vṛtā.” 

Iswara parama Kṛṣṇa sachidananada vigraha

Anādir aadir govindam sarva Kāraṇa Kāraṇaṁ 

That Kṛṣṇa is the supreme Godhead. He is the cause of all causes but he has no cause himself. Bhakti yoga means, we are directly engaged in the service of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Even a little service can save us from the greatest danger.  

Swalpamapasya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt

If we perform even a little bit of devotion we will be saved from the greatest dangers. In a few days the Vaisaka month is coming. I don’t know if it has started already. So, by observing this month… it is especially dear to Lord Mādhava. Its mentioned in the Hari Bhakti Vilās by Sanātan Goswāmi that if we do some devotional activities in this month it can give us crores of times of benefit. Some things are over a hundred times and some things are much greater. We should think what we can do in this month. Now those who are living in the temple, are they… are already good customers. They get all the benefits but others, they may not take all the advantages. So, it says that in the month of Viasakh if we get up early or we take a bath in the Ganges or we chant japa or we do homa or we give some charity; then we can please Mādhava. So, those who want, they can go back directly to Mādhava or those who have some desires can stay for a long time in heaven. Then he comes down here as great leaders, kings and in the future, they may go back to Mādhava. So, this month someone picks up three things that are to be done extra; like say that ok… they like to give some charity. So, they can give Deities rice or til or sesame or cloth, or they can give some brahmans… shoes, chata(Umbrella), or they can give even water or gold. So, they can give some charity. Say they chant two rounds, they can chant eight rounds in this month or twelve rounds or sixteen rounds. [Haribol] So, our Namhatta preachers, they can get people in the Vaisakh month to upgrade their bhakti. This month one should take prasad. So, this is a month for doing some extra devotional service. Now the initiated devotees, they are already doing sixteen malas and they have given their lives to Kṛṣṇa. They take Kṛṣṇa prasad. So, this is more for the new people because the old devotees, they get all three benefits anyway. So, I am going take a darshan and you can collect questions.  

Question: Gurumahārāja, we everyday sing in the maṅgala ārati that the spiritual master is always eager to hear and chant about the unlimited conjugal pastimes of Rādhikā and Mādhava and that the spiritual master assists the gopīs to make different tasteful arrangements for the perfection of Rādhā and Krishna’s conjugal loving affairs within the groves of Vṛndāvana. So, that means that our dearest Prabhupāda and all other dear Iskcon gurus are serving Rādhikā and Mādhava in the Mādhurya rasa and is there is any problem if I see you and serve you in that mood?

Gurumahārāja: This question was asked to Śrīla Prabhupāda and his reply was that the author of this song… his guru was a mañjarī and therefore he wrote like that. But the guru maybe also a cowherd boy or a parent or some other… vātsalya… so, we shouldn’t… we cannot say definitely that every guru is on the same rasa, but the idea is that the guru is serving Krishna confidentially in some way. No, he is serving Kṛṣṇa directly in some… in some way. And how that is, that may depend on who is the guru, but anyway we try… our point is that we are not… we don’t feel ourselves to be on that level yet. So, we try to help Lord Caitanya propagate the message. Like, if we see Lord Caitanya’s pastimes, only six devotees were engaged in his confidential discussions and all the others were engaged in propagation. So, although we may know about these ecstatic services, we know that we can render service in propagation right now. So, Prabhupāda advices us that we should work now and samādhi later. Naturally he hoped that the devotees would develop their love of Kṛṣṇa and advance. That they develop their love of Kṛṣṇa. In this regard Śrīla Prabhupāda has said that we should cry for Kṛṣṇa. If we cannot cry for Kṛṣṇa, then we should cry that why we cannot cry for Kṛṣṇa. And if we cannot cry for Kṛṣṇa, then we should cry that we cannot cry to cry why we are not able to cry for Kṛṣṇa. And if we can’t cry that we are not crying, that we are not crying for Kṛṣṇa, we should cry that we are not crying that we are not crying that we are not crying for Kṛṣṇa. And he went on and on. So, we should be crying for Kṛṣṇa. That is called Bhava bhakti. And also, that crying manifests when you have Prema Bhakti. So, we should by serving Lord Caitanya and Prabhupāda,  we should also develop our love of Krishna. [Haribol] 

Gaurāṅga …………………………………………. [Gaurāṅga]

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

Sujetendriya Prabhu: We have about twenty more questions?

Gurumahārāja: Only (laughter)

Question: My dear Gurumahārāja, please accept my humble obeisance’s. I feel extremely fortunate that I have a wonderful and a great spiritual master like your divine grace but my question is, it I said that after travelling throughout the universe a fortunate soul by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa gets this creeper of devotion in his heart and gets a spiritual master. You kindly have given me the seed of devotion in my heart and I have watering it for a long period of time but still it doesn’t sprout. How this seed of devotion will sprout. Please tell me. Your servant, Banamali Guaranga Dās. 

Gurumahārāja: Still he doesn’t cry.

Sometimes the speed sprouts but there are so many weeds that we can’t tell which is the actual seed and which is the weed. Also, if we offend devotees or we commit aparādha’s, then we don’t taste the bhakti. I don’t know how long you have been watering your tree? Twenty years, forty years… how many years?

Sujetendriya Prabhu: Twenty-two years.

You see, we have to also try… with one hand pull out the weeds, we have to abide all offences and we have to take up some service spontaneously. We should try to do some service better. We shouldn’t think why I am not getting ecstasy. Because if we please Krishna we will feel ecstasy. So, we should think, “How can I please guru and Krishna? What am I doing wrong? And like this how can I improve my service?” By thinking in this way Krishna will be pleased and you will feel bliss in your service. 

Haribol………………………….. [Haribol]

Question: If anyone takes shelter of Guru; if he or she dies, then he can go to God. Yes or no? Sujoy Das.

Gurumahārāja: Yes and no.

They can go back to Godhead, but if they have taken shelter and have avoided takings initiation, they may not go back. There are all kinds of practices. Say that one at the time of dying remembers Kṛṣṇa, he goes back. If at the time of dying or after, if someone sprinkles Ganges water he usually goes back. If he burned with a tulsi twig, then he goes back. By the Harihar kṣetra… it is said that Lord Śiva comes just when the devotee is dying, and he says in his ear:

Guarāṅga……………………………………. [Gaurāṅga]

So, there are all kinds of factors. If one takes shelter and is eager to take initiation, usually they can get back.

Question: Gurumahārāja, how can we get interest in chanting? Milan Mādhava Dās.

Gurumahārāja: We hear so many glories of the holy name and that inspires us to chant. Or if someone was a devotee in previous life, and by chanting they get immediate taste; naturally one is very attracted to chanting. If one gets the mercy of the guru or some pure devotee of the Lord, then he naturally gets attraction to chanting. If he or she chants regularly, eventually they get a taste. If they chant the name of Lord Nitāi or Lord Caitanya, they can awaken their dormant love of Kṛṣṇa.

Nitāi……………………………………………….. [Nitāi]

Nitāi……………………………………………….. [Nitāi] Nitāi……………………………………………….. [Nitāi]

Gaurāṅga………………………………………….[Gaurāṅga]

Gaurāṅga………………………………………….[Gaurāṅga]

Etc.

Online question: Is it better to chant twenty-two rounds or just increase the quality of chanting sixteen rounds. Asked by, Maṅgala Mathurā Devī Dāsī from Katar.

Gurumahārāja: In the Calcutta mandir I was chanting 32 rounds.  I thought Prabhupāda would be very pleased, but he asked me what I am doing. I told him, I was chanting 32 rounds. He said, “If you spend half the day here chanting 32 rounds, then who will go out and preach?  You can chant 16 rounds and then go out and preach. So, I chanted 16 rounds in the temple as good as I could, and then I went out. Naturally when I went out I was also chanting. So, maybe 22 or 24 but that was on the move.

Question: Gurumahārāja, that out of the five kinds of devotional services, one of them is to live in the holy place of Mathurā or in the holy Dham. I live in the temple but I don’t live in the holy Dham. For this purpose, what should be my duty?

Gurumahārāja: Living in the temple is like living in the Dham. So, if the guru has given us some… some authority has given us a service to stay in some temple and serve, that is also a holy place like Mathurā etc.  

Question: If anyone do some sinful activities in this month what happens? Giriraj Kripa Dās.

Gurumahārāja: So far, I didn’t hear any special increase during the month (laughter) but it says, if one doesn’t offer this month, then they get some bad result if they don’t do anything, then they have to suffer some negative reactions. So, we should try to do something to observe Vaiśākha month.

Question: Respected Gurumahārāja, please accept my most respectful obeisance’s. We hear in Vrindavan that kartik, one of the months of the year is dearest to Krishna. Please enlighten us how Vaisākh is different from Kartik? Your most lowly daughter, Ramyā Vṛndāvan Devī Dāsī.

Gurumahārāja: There is a verse in the Hari Bhakti Vilās where it says that Kartik month and Mag Mash and Vaisākh are dear to Lord Krishna. We know that in the month of Dāmodara or Kartik there is an offering of lamp to the Lord… is done. In the month of Vaisākh specially this charity, bathing in the Ganges, japa, homa, all these things are recommended. I didn’t read what is the specialty of magh mash but there is some difference. Although in some places it says, Dāmodara is dearest, in some places it says, Vaisākh is the dearest.

Question: How do I know what Krishna wants me to do? How to know the difference between one’s own desire and Krishna’s desire? Yamanuja Dāsī.

Guruamahārāja: Dear Yamanuja Dāsī, that is what the guru is for. If we feel desire for something we check with the guru or the sādhus whether it is a Kṛṣṇa’s desire or our desire.

So, we will give out here… men and this side ladies.