20160603 Adhivāsa Ceremony

20160603 Adhivas Ceremony Iskcon Atlanta

Mukam karoti vacalam

Pangum langhyate girim

Yat kripa tamaham vande sri gurum dina tarinam

Paramananda madhavan

Sri Chaitanya ishvaram

Hari Om Tat Sat

Hare Krishna

Am I supposed to speak about the adhibas?

Om namo Bhagavate Vaudevaya

Om namo Bhagavate Vaudevaya (devotees)

Om namo Bhagavate Vaudevaya

Om namo Bhagavate Vaudevaya (devotees)

Om namo Bhagavate Vaudevaya

Om namo Bhagavate Vaudevaya (devotees)

When you have some important spiritual even like Janmasthami or Gaur Purnima or Vyasa Puja or some similar momentous spiritual occasion. Before it starts, its customary to have a adhivas ceremony.

In Mayapur where they have a three to four weeks festival, which includes Kirtan mela, parikrama and festivities in Gaur Purnima and then they have the whole flag hoisting ceremony, where they wear coconuts and have speeches and such things, and then before the appearance of Lord Caitanya they also have an adhibas. So adhivas means a ceremony before the actual event, a preparatory ceremony which gets us in the mood that this is a very spiritual, uplifting thing that we are going to observe, it’s a very important observance that we are going to do, that’s why we have the adhivas ceremony. I don’t know how exacltly they are doing it here.

In Mayapur, when the deities come out then 27 items are offered to the dieties and one by one they are offered to the tuasi, to the earth, to the saligram, to the deity and different brahmanas are invited to participate if they are properly attired.

So the idea is that to stop for a minute and adjust the consciousness but now for the coming period of time we have to get completely absorbed in the spiritual journey, journey of self-discovery, journey of spiritual bliss, and there we be kirtans, there will be pujas, there will be classes, there will be lila smaran of Prabhuapada, there will be offering of chira-doi, this is our 50^th anniversary, so we are offering 50 pots, 20 yogurt, 20 condensed milk and 10 salty salad.

We usually offer 18 but this time 50. (Haribol followed applause)

We need a lot of help for cutting the fruits, for the different devotees in change of decorations, they need help, that will be mainly on Sunday morning. So there is also a ratha yatra here. This adhivas is very significant. Since my stroke half my face doesn’t work, so in case some people have some difficulty in what I am saying, he repeats but casually he makes a mistake (laughter)

May be someone in the audience is better (laughter). I was thinking how in these few days, how merciful Prabhupada was, how he left Vrindavan which is a peaceful spiritual environment to come with only Krishna’s mercy in the West to a strange land with no money, at that time they only allowed one to take eight dollars. How long can you live on eight dollars? Can’t stand in one place.

So how Prabhupada was, when he came to Australia, they said, “You are from a poor country India, we are a rich country Australia, so what have you come to take from us?”

“I didn’t come to take anything from you, I came to save you from a cat and dog’s life” (applause)

“What do you mean by living a cat and dog’s life?”

He told that how your life and cat and dog’s life is only different in it’s sophistication, otherwise it is the same thing, and that a human being should have a spiritual aspect and that’s missing in the modern world and I was remembering how merciful and what is the basis of life in the spiritual world. So here you see there is …14.28-14.35… fear. In the spiritual world it’s love. If you don’t have the love than you are here, and if you develop love you go there.

So the pastimes of Krishna and his expansions in the spiritual world are filled with loving exchanges. All the devotees are filled with love and the Lord is coming down to the material world to give us easy access back to the spiritual world, to go back. It’s because of His love, all the avatars, all the descents, the avatars, Lord Caitanya is the most merciful. He promises he won’t take up any arms of violence. He has weapons, his beautiful features, the mridanga, the kartals, the singing, dancing, the feasting and the festivals, those are his weapons (applause) his love, and so got a taste how love of Lord Krishna is missing in that love.

So anyway we all hope you in this New Panihati festival, and taste some love, and can taste some spiritual bliss. At least you can feast and you can dance and you get sing and can hear some fantastic pastimes of the Lord, Prabhupada and the devotees.

Hare Krishna

Transcribed by:

Sadananda Krishnaprema Das.

Mayapur