20181030 Evening Talk

The following is an evening talk given by His Holiness Jayapātākā Swami Mahārāja on October 30, 2018 in Chennai, India.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim

yat-kṛpāṁ tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam

paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī-caitanya-īśvaram

hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Jayapātākā Swami: So, yesterday I saw the doctor at the RIMS Hospital and he said I was making good progress! But it would take two or three months to normalize, but he said I could see him every two weeks. Previously it was twice a week, then once a week, and now once in two weeks. So the less I go to the hospital the better!

In 1967 Prabhupāda had a stroke and he was taken to a nearby hospital. Brahmānanda Prabhu, he told this pastime. That how he pulled all the lines and tubes out of his body and told Brahmānanda, take me to the temple. The doctor said you are going to kill yourself. But Prabhupāda said, go on! Apparently Prabhupāda was paralysed from the neck down. So he was in the basement of the Matchless Gifts āśrama and devotees would sponge bathe him. And he couldn’t move but with his mouth he was constantly instructing them on bhakti-yoga. He was so intense, he wanted to carry out the instruction of his spiritual master. So even though he was in this paralyzed condition, he continued to preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

So that is one of the reasons why we should be indebted to Śrīla Prabhupāda. He left his comfort zone of being in Vṛndāvana and took up the difficult service of crossing the Atlantic Ocean, arriving in the United States and in New York spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness. He asked for help but got no helper. He asked to be sent a mṛdaṅga so that he could have mṛdaṅga played during kīrtana, but no one agreed to send him a mṛdaṅga. He asked for a pair of karatālas. What does a pair of karatālas cost? But they did not even send him a pair of karatālas. So he got a broken bongo drum and tapped away on it. By Kṛṣṇa’s mercy he spread the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement all over the world.

When I heard this pastime when I joined in 1968—this happened in ’67 I was overwhelmed. In ’68 Prabhupāda was walking so fast that other devotees had difficulty keeping up with him, in 1968. So Prabhupāda taught us in the Bhagavad-gītā that one should take the order of the spiritual master as more dear than one’s life. So Prabhupāda is the living example of that.

So I am trying to fulfill some of the instructions that Prabhupāda gave and I am so happy that the nāma-haṭṭas and bhakti-vṛkṣas have taken it up and that the Dāmodara month lamp offering is increasing more and more. In this way, the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement can reach everyone all over the world.

I think that tomorrow I will try to do the Caitanya Book again. I left off when Lord Caitanya was in Gayā and there He met Īśvara Purī, the favorite disciple of Mādhavendra Purī.

I just got news that in Bangladesh ISKCON had obtained the land at Kheturi-dhām, the place where Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura had his āśrama. The next place they are trying for is the birthplace of Mādhavendra Purī. Although Bangladesh is a poor country, somehow the associates of Lord Caitanya are inspiring them to raise funds.

So our roots are very deep but the branches that have to reach all over the world are very long and were extended by Bhaktivedānta Swami. He said that he has made the structure but his followers had to fill in the building.

We see that Kṛṣṇa made the varṇāśrama system. He never said by janma. He said guṇa karma vibhāgaśaḥ. Generally you have the brāhmaṇas who are into simple living and high thinking. They are more interested in knowledge and spiritual things. Then you have the kṣatriyas, they were great warriors and managers and heads of government. They should know the śāstra and also be willing to enforce it. They are called the rāja-ṛṣis. These people would generally know the śāstras. Kṛṣṇa spoke the Bhagavad-gītā and the Purāṇas are there for the rest of the society plus for the brāhmaṇas and kṣatriyas.

So He said, striyo vaiśyās tathā śūdrās te ’pi yānti parāṁ gatim (Bhagavad-gītā 9.32). Ladies, the vaiśyas who are businessmen and bankers, farmers and dairy people—they protect the cows, they don’t slaughter them and eat the meat. They are not śūdras. Then there are the śūdras. Most of the people in the world today are śūdras. Some make big salaries, some have minimum wage, but anyone who is working for a salary is a śūdra. So you may have rich śūdras, poor śūdrasall kinds. Śūdras are also considered cultured people. People lower than śūdras are uncultured. So they are considered born in a sinful birth.

But Kṛṣṇa says that even those people can get Kṛṣṇa consciousness. te ’pi yānti parāṁ gatim. So Kṛṣṇa gave us the Bhagavad-gītā, Purāṇas to help everybody achieve spiritual consciousness.

So in that way, Kṛṣṇa came as His own devotee in the form of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya and He taught by His own example how to love Kṛṣṇa.

So it is predicted in the Brahma-vaivarta Purāṇa that there will be a golden age in this Kali yuga lasting ten thousand years where people would become Kṛṣṇa conscious. That requires that we all have to be very active to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And some people will be sākāma devotees  they will want Kṛṣṇa to bless them with some material facilities and some will be niṣkāma devotees, they will serve Kṛṣṇa because they have developed their love, their affection for Kṛṣṇa.

So whether they are niṣkāma or sarva-kāma or whether they want impersonal liberation, everyone should be engaged in devotional service. So this Dāmodara month is a way to introduce people to this sublime way of life. So in addition to whatever they are doing in material life, they add Kṛṣṇa. So in that way they establish their eternal relationship with Kṛṣṇa.

So we Indians have this natural ability to love Kṛṣṇa either as Kṛṣṇa or one of His avatāras. Some love Him in His pastimes as Lord Rāma, some like His pastime as Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva, some like His pastime as Lord Jagannātha, or some like His pastime as Nārāyaṇa. So He is one Lord but He has many different forms and in each form He reciprocates with His devotees according to His mood.

So we hope that all of you will send forth your preaching abilities just like the clouds of thunder. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Question: Hare Kṛṣṇa dear Guru Mahārāja. PAMHO. It so happens that sometimes when trying to connect with devotees on a deeper personal level, or develop a meaningful friendship with them by sincerely trying to serve and please them, we do not often get reciprocation from their side. My question to you is: should we look for some faults on our side and try harder, or rather take it as our karma, take it and be patient about it? 

Your spiritual son,  Gaurāṅga-karuṇā-sindhu dāsa, Bulgaria.

Jayapātākā Swami: I thank you for your question. It seems like you are expecting something in return for your service. Kṛṣṇa says in the Śikṣāṣṭakam that we should offer our respect and not expect anything in return. And it is not that everybody can reciprocate like Kṛṣṇa or His representative, the spiritual master. Some people they frankly don’t know what to say or what to do. And if you are expecting something from them, they may not give it. So then you feel frustrated.

But in the Śikṣāṣṭakam Kṛṣṇa says that we should just give and not expect anything in return. When you give to Kṛṣṇa, once you develop a personal relationship, then He reciprocates. And He says in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam how He mirrors the mood of the worshipper and reciprocates. If someone gives himself fully to Kṛṣṇa, then He gives Himself fully to that devotee.

We may like to find that kind of reciprocation in the material world, but it is very rare to find it. And if we found it, we will feel that this material world is a nice place to stay rather than go back to Kṛṣṇa.

It may be also you are approaching the person in a way in which they cannot reciprocate. They may think you have some motive, because in the material world people don’t give themselves unless they get something in return. People sometimes doubt why is this person so friendly, what does he want?

There is a saying in Bengali: ati bhakti corera lakṣaṇa. If the person shows too much devotion or affection, it is a sign of a thief. Usually this type of affection is developed over a period of time. If someone immediately shows submission and appreciation, it could be they want to cheat you somehow. So how does a person know you are honest, even though you say you are not a cheater? So time will tell.

I have many experiences where people cheated me. I was a new devotee and I just came to stay at the Gauḍīya Maṭha and was waiting for an order from Prabhupāda what to do. So on the tram a man saw me and said, I see you are a saint and I think I want to take dīkṣā from you. At that point I was not on the dīkṣā path. So I forget the details but somehow he was in my room and I was sharing it with Acyutānanda, and he said, Oh Gurudeva, can I have a flower from the Deities? I want to keep it to remember you always. So I was on the fourth floor and it takes some time to go down the stairs, get a flower, and go up the stairs. So I was coming up with the flower. He said, Oh Gurudeva, being with you I lost all consciousness of time, I am late for some other program. So he took the flower and said, Thank you so much! And then he went.

I went back to the room thinking, what a nice devotee and in the room everything was turned upside down. He stole my money, papers, everything. So this ati bhakti corera lakṣaṇa too much devotion, too quick is the sign of a thief. I can tell you half a dozen examples, but you get the idea.

So like that, how you approach the people you do not expect anything in return. You are there to please guru and Kṛṣṇa, and if you can help a person in their Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that will be pleasing to Kṛṣṇa. That is the only thing we are worried about. That is the only reward we want: to please guru, to please Kṛṣṇa.

Hare Kṛṣṇa!