20181206 Question-and-Answer Session

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-gurun dina tāriṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram

Jayapatākā Swami: So today since we are late since as we went to the hospital we will not do the Kṛṣṇa Caitanya book, we will have questions and answers. Please put up good questions, think of them. This morning, I did my physical therapy. So after that I went to the Reliance Institute and Medical Center and we talked to the blood sugar doctor and the hepatologist. Both said they could adjust my medications, the blood sugar domain they will give me a new medicine which is favorable to liver and kidney. The hepatologist said that I looked normal and he will also adjust the medication. He said recently that I should take more water and more liquid. I can go back to Mayapur in January, and he goes to Kolkata once a week, I can go and visit him there and get any updates. So then we came back and there was a heavy traffic. So we reached here, took about two hours. Any questions? Over the internet?

Question: How do we balance in our sādhana and services, how much service should we do and how much sādhana?

Jayapatākā Swami: If you have taken a vow of chanting 16 rounds a day and attending temple programs, and you should also do some preaching and service. All the time remember Kṛṣṇa and never forget Him. This way we can achieve the perfection of life. If we can do things in such a way that it is pleasing to Kṛṣṇa, like we have to eat to keep the body alive but we offer our foodstuffs to Kṛṣṇa as bhoga and then accept His remnants as prasāda. So like this any action we try to do it should be in such a way that Kṛṣṇa is pleased.

Question, Gopīkānta Kṛṣṇa dāsa: Will everybody in the womb pray to the Lord in such a pain condition, if the baby dies, where will he be born?

Jayapatākā Swami: it is said a devotee of the Lord he prays that in the womb. But some people are sinful, and they don’t remember the Lord. When you get born and have bad association then you get polluted along this sinful path and glide down to hell. So that is why devotional service is the favorable offering of service. Some people envy Kṛṣṇa and they serve Him out of envy. It is not so useful. But even worshiping the Lord offensively is better than not worshipping Him at all.

Question, Śrīvāsa Prāṇa dāsa: How to avoid Vaiṣṇava offences?

Jayapatākā Swami: Understand the good qualities in others. See one’s own qualities as bad. In this way you can avoid criticizing others.

Question: How Caitanya Mahāprabhu served His mother even after His sannyāsa āśrama?

Jayapatākā Swami: When you take sannyāsa you should not see your wife. There is no such restriction about the mother. So after taking sanyas, He was tricked by Lord Nityānanda Prabhu to go downstream instead of upstream, so He went. So He wanted to go to Vṛndāvana but He was tricked and taken to some place in the South. He went to Kalna and then He went to Śāntipur. Being taken by the Lord Advaita Gosāñī. So He wondered what Advaita is doing in Vṛndāvana? Then He realized He was not in Vṛndāvana, He was in Śāntipur! So Lord Nityānanda brought mother Śacī there and Lord Caitanya had addressed her in great humility. But she also took the opportunity to cook for Lord Caitanya. So she was cooking and telling others about the glories of her Son and Kṛṣṇa. Because she didn’t know that her son was Kṛṣṇa.

Question: Obeisances!

Jayapatākā Swami: So when you are offering obeisances you should offer by keeping the left side to the deities and the spiritual master straight ahead and your stomach to the side. So which side did you offer obeisances on the internet? Online east, west, north south?!! If someone wants to help you could contact JPS Office or CDM and then we could help preach by remote control. We have one Japanese Vaiṣṇavī in Māyāpur. She talks to hundreds and thousands of Japanese over Skype. Similarly, you can have such programs to preach to the people of your particular language group. Russian, Spanish, Mandarin, Italian. Any questions?

Question: Is there any specific rule for finishing one Hare Krishna Maha mantra in one breath or two breaths?

Jayapatākā Swami: There is no hard and fast rule. But if you are chanting in two breaths Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra – Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare uuuuuuuuuuuu Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare uuuuuuuu, then it will take a long time. If you chant in one breath you will save time. There is no rule like that. Prabhupāda said that you should finish your one round in 7 and half minutes. So in order to do that, you should chant in one breath. It will take time but as I said there is no hard and fast rule. So I know one of the devotees who had lost one of his lungs. And he took little longer to chant his rounds.

Question: How can I preach when I am not a pure devotee, and I don’t want to impose other’s beliefs forcefully?

Jayapatākā Swami: Do you want to be a pure devotee? If you want to be a pure devotee then that is good enough. Any way we should say what we heard in the class or what we have read and not speculate. If we speculate and say something else which sounds good, then we will be in trouble. So to preach one should also be reading from Prabhupāda’s books. Prabhupāda said, he didn’t want people to say, “What is in this book?” And the devotee says, “I don’t know! I just sell books. I don’t read them.” We should read the books, we should be convinced, and then we try to tell others. We don’t force. It is not like we are telling them: turn or burn! We have met such people who said: turn or burn in hell! We are trying to make friends with people and explain to them Kṛṣṇa consciousness in a way they can understand. I saw Prabhupāda preaching to my previous āśrama mother. He was leaning and he was saying you are the living force in the body. When you leave the body the body is dead but the living force never dies. So I had never heard this term ‘living force’. But it was just what my mother needed to hear. She immediately understood that there is a living force in the body. So it was not that Prabhupāda tried to convert her, we don’t convert people, we simply convince them. All the main religions tell you things which the Vedas tell us but people don’t understand their own teachings. Like in Christianity Lord Jesus gave the Ten Commandments. The First Commandment is “love thy God with thy heart and soul”. But that is hardly taught in the Christians. I met one brother, one priest in the airplane and I was talking to him about the Ten Commandments. He said I don’t know the first one, I don’t believe in God. But the second one is, “Act to your neighbor as would to yourself”. so I try to do social work. So here was a priest who didn’t believe in God, and this is the state of affairs. But in the end the teaching in bhakti-yoga is we always remember Kṛṣṇa never forget Him. So do your activities in nava-vidha-bhakti – hearing, chanting, remembering, serving, praying, arcana, worship, be a servant, be a friend, offer everything. So Prabhupāda’s teachings fulfilled what different religions said but they don’t do. I went to Canada in Quebec where they had a seminar where they trained people to preach. They were training people to be priests. Then they had a billiards table and then they recommended festival with deities of girl and see if you can be recommended. So they have their own way of doing. We have our way. I think our way is more authentic and more useful. Lord Caitanya’s followers whether gṛhasthas or in renounced order, they should all chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Gṛhe thāko vane thāko sadā hari bole ḍāko. Whether you are renounced or whether you are at home, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

I thank you very much. Are there any other questions? Last chance!