20130315 Śrīla Prabhupāda Kathā

20130315 H.H.Jayapataka Swami gave a talk about his pastimes with Srila Prabhupada on March 15th 2013  , Sridham Mayapur, India

Srila Prabhupad said that the managers in ISKCON should see that the sound of Kirtan , should be  the sound  that should be heard non stop in Mayapur. Between Kirtan Mela there is Harinama ,the harinama and various other kirtans. The sound of kirtan has become the all-pervasive sound in Mayapur. This is what His Divine Grace wanted. At first everyone stayed in this Lotus building, on the third floor of eastern side were the brahmacharis. The brahmacharis would  strung the rope to dry their clothes on the rope and the rope started to blow in wind. And therefore the ropes were rubbing and causing a line into the plaster ,gradually eroding the plaster. And one day Srila Prabhupad came up to see how the brahmacharis were living. He was always caring about his devotees but he saw how these ropes were gradually making holes into the walls. He said “These brahmacharis are ruining my wall they are ruining the building”. He said “Remove all these brahmacharis out” (see action laughter). So all the brahmacharis were moved out and the they were staying in the chakra building which is the long building, I was a sannyasi  devotees laughing) I stayed upstairs in the roof. And one day Srila Prabhupad came and he was walking around on his roof and he looked into my room this room (showing the room)and I had a big picture of Srila Prabhupad walking ,he came with a cane (Srila Prabhupad was laughing) he looked himself with a cane and he walked out. So anyway the brahmacharis were out of the building and at the Gaura Purnima festival one time no brahmachari  came to the programme. So Srila Prabhupad went over to see what happened to the brahmacharis. They all lying down “Bengal belly Bengal belly” Ohhhh. They have eaten so much that they had diarrhea that they call Bengal belly. Srila Prabhupad said that if you work you will get so hungry and you can even digest a stone.  So I said “The cure is to not lie here to be active” then he said “You should  go on a parikrama” which we do tomorrow (and laughed) and then he took out the first parikrama party and he took us to some holy places. We were walking and chanting and naturally they developed a good appetite and they ate a lot of Prasad and they digest it and no Bengal belly. So Srila Prabhupad would watch out how the devotees were doing. He kept the devotees busy with chanting Harinam and type of Kirtan mela and also Parikrama. So like this he had the devotees active. He said how our idea of vacation is not to lie around. But rather we get thousand times of benefit for any service we do. So what is thousand times zero? Do we have any mathematician here? One thousand times zero(people saying zero) how much (zero) one million times zeros, ten million zeros. How it is possible? One billion zeros how much? (zero). What is this?

 So Srila Prabhupad was indicating how we should do more service in the dham and then will get thousand times credit. So walking or chanting, hearing, speaking anything we do that will gets multiplied by one thousand but we do nothing zero it’s always zero. So Srila Prabhupad would have us do more service. He have us to serve prasadam. And in that way the Mayapur residents were very happy you come and we will serve you, we get all the credit (and laughed) a thousand times serving you. So this is a very big mercy to serve the devotees. I tried to tell this to the resident devotees. I don’t know how much they understand but actually this is the way we can advance. So those devotees who come here and chant, dance or do some seva. They also get one thousand time the benefit. So this is our special mercy. So Lord Chaitanya he gives us this mercy. So by engaging our self by normally the pleasing activities chanting, dancing, distributing prasadam doing some deity worship all these things add up and therefore the result is very nice.

 We are going to the parikrama of the nine islands. Srila Prabhupad said some of the islands have similar names. One of the island name is Rudradwip. In one paper of the land records says Rudra parah  Rudradwip and Rudra parah is very similar. Rudra parah ends at the Narasimha temple. So he said the next island is Antardwip .It is the island of Atma nivedanam. So our temple of Pancha tattva temple is in the island of Atma nivedanam total surrender and the Radha Madhav temple is in the island of Rasalila. The Rudradwip which is the mood of friendship of the Lord. In the Navdwip Mahatmya it’s mentioned that the Pandavas they came to Mayapur when they came it is known as Mahatpur , the place of the Mahans or the great souls. So still the land record shows Mahatpur. It is in the Madrumdwip exactly where it says where Pandavas came. So like this we were looking for the clause of the holy places. Between Bhaktivinod Thakur and Om Vishnupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur most of the holy places were located because Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur he used to visit all these places mentioned in the Navadwip Mahatmya. Thirty years ago there were many disciples of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur who were still alive and they would identify to us where the holy places were. Only few we didn’t know so we found most of the holy places now it is just that we have to get some land there otherwise these places will get lost. Like in Vrindavan after 4500 years most of the holy places were lost. Lord Chaitanya he indicated where was Radha kund and Shyama kund where was Govardhan and where were the different places in Vrindavan and he asked the six Goswamis and to locate the remaining places and to develop the Vrindavan holy places. So you could imagine how difficult the service was more than 4500 years ago. Srila Prabhupad had asked us to develop the holy places of Nabadwip after 500 years and which places that we visited 50 years by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur. By Krishna mercy we found out most of the holy places and few we didn’t find like Saptarishi tila the seven tilas of the seven rishis. In Madhya Dwip if anyone sees the seven tilas just tell me. If someone has time to look into the Google or satellite pictures may find the seven tilas. I didn’t try that yet.

 And few millions ago there was a large banyan tree where Ram, Lakshman and Sita came there but now there is no trace of that banyan tree.It is in Madhrumdwip. If you see some vision of the banyan tree of Lord Ram just tell me. Ha Ha Ha (laughing). Like that there are few places which we didn’t find yet. But this year we will point out from Shankarpur, the place where Shankaracharya met Lord Chaitanya. It is in the extreme north of the dham it is Rukunpur where Lord Rama had his pastimes also Balaram also Nityananda. So next year we are thinking to camp out at Rukunpur on the 25th or 26th of the anniversary of the walking parikrama. Somehow every year we go on parikrama, we get some new realizations and we hope you also get new realizations, that the dham can reveal himself to you and you can take the dham with you wherever you go. So you can write in your realizations and you can share what you have experienced while in the dham. 

This year there is a plan to have five parties. I am not sure if I can visit all the five every day. Last year when there were four, last two years somehow we visited. I am thinking to visit most of the parties and spend one night during the darshan time. Because the devotees will come back so I won’t see  I will just see the ones who came out who stay out. Those who come back I won’t see. I will see those who stay out.. I am thinking like that.  Srila Prabhupad would tell us how the dham is an expansion of the spiritual world. One day after the deity greeting on his arrival he came upstairs to his room in the lotus then he sat down and on his golden goblet like a golden glass he drank ‘Ha Mayapur’. Living or dying in Mayapur is all the same. What does that mean?

And heard this story of the butcher that living and dying is the same. Living is in hell he kills animals and when he dies he goes to hell for killing animals. So I asked Prabhupad what does that mean ‘Living and Dying in Mayapur is all the same’. So he said to live in Mayapur is a spiritual world and if you leave your body here you will go back to spiritual world. Haribol Haribol! Haribol!

The devotees of the kirtan mela went to the TOVP temple and chanted there. How many here went there? So I was a little late and I saw Prabhupad and all the devotees leave. Then Pundarik Govind Das he took me to the rear of the building and there was a ramp then we drove up the ramp to the first floor. Then they pushed me up on the wheel chair to the second floor which was the temple floor. I saw the temple and I saw where the exhibits should be build. It was a nice darshan, big area, big area to fill with the kirtan. But we need more area after some time. So I told Sachinandan Maharaj that I like to have an indoor stadium for twenty thousand and an outdoor stadium for fifty or sixty thousand and he said nice to have dreams. I said it’s not dreams we need this. So then he told me that he liked to make in this Kirtan mela a special Mayapur Kirtan Institute, training the devotees in the theology of the holy name and also to train them practically how to play mrindangas, how to play kartals and how to lead various ragas in kirtan. He said that when he was a child he ran away from school because it was so boring. He want this school to be very practical. That devotees they can engage in kirtans, harinam and in this way put to immediate use of what they learn. And then he quoted that it is the virtual temple of the holy name, that this temple can be established anywhere anytime. Simply chant and doesn’t matter of what caste, creed, religion, race. Anyone can participate in this virtual temple of the holy name. So he’s very serious about this. So he wants to make a proposal to the Mayapur GBC. What do you think? How many like the idea? Lots of harinam. So devotees would just learn how to do just harinam and go all over the world and chant. Any questions?

Question: Hare Krishna Guru Maharaj thank you for your wonderful class I want to ask you sometimes when the devotees increase they chant in congregation of the holy name specially all over the world many of the authorities and some devotees complain about the devotees about why are you chanting so much why don’t you better preach or do something for keep money in the temple. We can see that many times it happened that many devotees think that chant Hare Krishna is waste of time. So what we can do in this situation?

Guru Maharaj : Who was asking that question?

Devotee: My name is Haridas Chaitanya Das

Guru Maharaj: By your chanting do you make more devotees?

Devotee: With my experience Guru Maharaj in Harinam I could see more people getting attracted to Holy Name and also I get more realizations and more taste for the holy name.

I remember how in Chile there was a kirtan and the dictator there he had more or less taken away all the registration of ISKCON. But somehow by their constitution the public chanting was not prohibited. So devotees where chanting and there was a dog who followed. So wherever the devotees went the dog came and he also participated.  So at one point the dog started to chant jumping up on two legs barking and put people on one side. Then the dog paid his obeisance and touched the feet of the chanting leader. Haribol! So soon after that things were normalized and the devotees they were registered in Chile. So we should know that Lord Chaitanya is present in the chanting. 

I remember when I was chanting in 1968 in Montreal I was arrested and put in jail. They took off my neck beads they took off the japas. And somehow I had met the chief of police so I told him that somehow they are harassing us for chanting.  Then He had a set free and he said that please get a permit they won’t arrest you. After that we got a permit to chant. Then John Lennon came to Montreal and he did this crazy stunt ‘begging for peace’. Give peace a chance. He was favorable to Prabhupad and Hare Krishna. So He invited me to the hotel room and there we chanted in the next room. And he listened you hear the Hare Krishna chanting of John is in Montreal, Canada doing a demonstration against the Vietnam War. If you listen to us carefully you will hear us chanting when John Lennon is doing his campaign against the Vietnam War.  So Somehow we were able to get the permit to chant Hare Krishna. We were permanent. So this chanting has a very purifying effect. We should not underestimate it. It is one of our yuga dharma. It is the yuga dharma! Any other questions?

I once approached Srila Prabupad in Mayapur and I said that I am engaged in building your building. But I like to sometimes to read and to chant extra. And Srila Prabhupad said “You think there is a difference in building my building and chanting Hare Krishna” We didn’t have that luxury. Srila Prabhupad would not entertain it. He wanted us working sometimes double shifts, 6 in the morning till midnight. There would be two shift of workers. But for us all day long, all night long. But it was very blissful to be doing some special service to Srila Prabhupad. You see some of the babajis and others they just tell us how we should engage in Manjari seva, we should be a gopi. Actually if you study the tenth canto of Krishna book you see that Krishna tests his devotees in so many ways. It’s not easy. It’s not that ‘Oh I just wanted to this service I will do that’.  You have to be fully surrendered to Krishna and he will test you upto the moment. So in this world our connection with Krishna is serving him. In his pastimes it’s our relationship with him. So while we are in this world we have to try to do our service to Krishna. Srila Prabhupad insisted that we chant a number of rounds every day. But we should engage in Lord Krishna’s devotional service. And in this way we can please the Lord and this is also a test and we should try to pass this time. I have an advice from the sky. Please end here.