20120906 Arrival Address

nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine
nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine
namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracārine
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe
namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracārine
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram

Jaya Śrī Śrī Nitāi Gaura Ki!

Jaya Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā, Sudarśana cakra kī!

At first, I offer my respects to the senior Vaiṣṇava, President of ISKCON Malaysia, His Holiness Bhakti Vrajendranandana Swami Mahārāja!

[Devotees: Jaya! Haribol!]

And I would like to offer my obeisances to His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda.

[Devotees: Haribol!]

And to the presiding Deities of Lord Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā, Sudarśana cakra and Nitāi Gaura.

It’s true that I went through some problems but nothing like His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. He endured so many difficulties to spread this Kṛṣṇa Conscious movement all over the world. If I get opportunity tomorrow to present my discourse on the song I wrote to Prabhupāda, I can highlight some of those things. But we are certainly very much indebted to His Divine Grace. And by his desire, we have the multiple guru system in ISKCON. So we want on behalf of all the gurus and all the GBCs to express our pleasure and great satisfaction at the opening of this temple. Rather, we should say, the relocation.

I have been connected since about 1984 with the Bukit Mertajam Branch. Even before, the last place on the rail side, I also came here. I don’t have a clear memory; I need to have my memory reminded. But I remember going to the house of His Grace Jagannātha Vallabha. That time, he was the station master of the Malaysian Railway. And, one of his, I don’t know how many of his sons or daughters are here today? One is here, Loka Pālaka (Loka Bandhu Dāsa). But we know that, if he was physically with us, he will be here tonight. And we are very much grateful by his great dedication to the decades, to the servicing Kṛṣṇa Consciousness in Bukit Mertajam. I remember Mrs. Tan. She was the landlord of the last house and I think later she moved to Australia. But I have so many memories of the Jagannātha Temple there.

But this temple… quite a bit… a bit bigger. Nicer facilities. And it is Lord Jagannātha’s and not Mrs. Tan’s. Although, we are grateful to her for letting us stay. That shows how, we all should think, how to expand the propagation of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness beyond the Tamil population also to the Chinese. So many devotees have been connected with the Bhakti Mandir. But, I am sure that everybody must feel very blissful. I thought expand the facility.

How Jagannātha works miracles it is also surprising to me. He can do so many wonderful things. So, we should all try to serve Him. Bhakti Yoga means that we want to serve the Lord. Usually people practise dharma in order to get something for themselves. Like this smārta system, they want to get good karmas to go to heaven. Finally they want to merge in the brahma-jyoti. But the devotees, even if they are offered, they don’t want to merge in the brahma-jyoti. What to speak of heavenly planets? The heavenly planets, they are simply sense gratification. There is no transcendental bliss. Unless they practise bhakti-yoga.

So Kṛṣṇa is so merciful that He came as Lord Caitanya and Nityānanda. And They have given us a very blissful process. In fact, the verse by Locana Dāsa, he described it as “kevala ānanda kāṇḍa.” Simply blissful. So that’s singing, dancing, hearing a spiritual discourse hearing a spiritual discourse and taking some prasāda. Now, this a big austerity, by having the Jagannātha Deities means. You have to take prasāda. If they don’t take, it is an offense. Now who is ready to take this austerity? I am glad. So our process is like this - very blissful.

And must be, so many devotees who helped to fix this place up. And all their services either directly given or by donations is certainly recognized by Lord Kṛṣṇa. I couldn’t hear everything Mahārāja said, but it is about a bigger temple. Where is the bigger temple? No I thought he said, bigger than that also.

Having a temple is nice. It is a facility we can invite you to. It is a place we can chant, dance without disturbing anybody. Well we (have) seen that in some places, the temples lie empty. So that is not good. If the temple is full with devotees and they are all rendering some type of devotional service, that’s good. So now that you have a new facility, I am also very encouraged to see so many youths. As many have said, Śrīla Prabhupāda said, “The youths are the future.” So to see many youths is encouraging. Also many children. So we should have activities for the youths, for the children, for the kids. Some youths last night did a drama, I couldn’t see it, but I heard it. It was sounded very nice. And I wanted to walk to see it, but they told me that, “You have to take rest early, so you can be on time for the BM (Bukit Mertajam) Program.

I was remembering how there is a story by Gopāla Bhanḍ, he was a kind of person that the King kept to spoof on him. He was the only one, who could also spoof on the King. This was because if the King spoofed on some minister, it would not be good. Keep the respect of all ministers. But all they are dealing with all the heaviest things. So sometimes the King needed a little humorous break.

So one day he told as an example, he told to Gopāla, “Gopāla! You know, you are real ass. You are a donkey.”

And Gopāla said “There is a difference between me and an ass.”

“Now, Gopāla you are a donkey.”

“Now, there is a difference between me and a donkey.”

The King said, “What’s the difference?”

He measured the distance between him and the King, he said, “6 feet!” So that is what Gopāla could do, no one else could do that.

So one day Gopāla saw that, he had no money. So he whispered something in his son’s ear. And the son went to the court of the King. The son looked very sad. He kept his head low. The king said “What’s up?”

“My father has achieved Kṛṣṇa. He got Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa prāpta ho gāya.” Sometimes when someone is dead, we say he got Kṛṣṇa. “Oh!” the King said, (Jayapatākā Swami is showing gestures of shaking his head in regret) “Very sad! He was just here yesterday. Alright 2000 gold coins for his widow.” He gave the son. And then the son left with the money. And he gave it to his father, who paid all his debts. The next day Gopāla appeared at the King’s court with a cādara.

He (King) said, “How are you here? He (Gopāla’s son) said that you have achieved Kṛṣṇa.”

“Yes. I got Kṛṣṇa. See my new Deity.”

So, like that, Prabhupāda advised us, even in the humour in the Vedic time, was based around Kṛṣṇa culture.

And once a news reporter, asked Prabhupāda, “What is the purpose of your mission?”

And Prabhupāda said, “Very simple. I have a very simple purpose. I want to change the way people think. Simple.” That’s the most difficult thing. But somehow we need to always think about Kṛṣṇa. Whether humour, whether… everything we do, we think about Kṛṣṇa. So here we have a centre, where everything is meant to think about Kṛṣṇa.

So I wish all of you a very happy Kṛṣṇa Conscious life and use this facility to worship Lord Kṛṣṇa to spread the mission of Lord Caitanya and think all the time about Kṛṣṇa and don’t forget Kṛṣṇa. Haribol!

His Holiness Bhakti Vrajendranandana Swami

[Devotees: Haribol!]

and all the devotees who have helped Jagannātha for His own facility. And also special mention to the National Council that also helped us in our move, Siṁheśvara, Santi Vardhana and many others from the National Council.

Sometimes people wonder what does the National Community do? They think how to expand Kṛṣṇa Conscious, and worthy causes like Bhakti Mandir, they give some, grand a loan. So, on my next visit I want to see all the new temples, in Taiping, Ipoh, Sungai Siput, Nibong Tebal. So let me say something to all of you, Nandri (thank you in Tamil language). And especially to Lord Jagannātha, Nandri (thank you in Tamil language) Haribol!

We would like to thank His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja for the interesting and meaningful spiritual discourse. Thank you Mahārāja.

Śrīla Guru Mahārāja Ki! [Devotees: Jaya!]

I came to the Bukit Mertajam temple, there was this person - he was the manager of the drug rehabilitation centre. And somehow devotees will go and talk to the drug addicts and get them to chant and he was very interested in Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. And his wife was a super cook. And his kids were also very intelligent. And then he became a devotee and he got initiation. I think his name was Dvija Gaurāṅga dāsa and now he is your President.