20190114 Question and Answer Session

Come join us as His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja reads from the new Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Book on January 14th, 2019 in Chennai, India.

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

So since today is the Ratha-yātrā day and basically there is no listeners here. Just my secretaries are running the audio, video cameras to have questions and answers. But then no one else ask questions by yourself. There are some previous day questions.

Vijaya Rādhā devī dāsī! Is she here [online]?

Question: How to develop unflinching faith?

—Vijaya Rādhā devī dāsī

Jayapatākā Swami: To associate with devotees who have unflinching faith. Otherwise the process of bhakti-yoga is to gradually increase your faith, then it becomes unflinching.

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Question: How can we understand that our services are pleasing for guru and Gaurāṅga? If our services are not pleasing does it affect our taste in chanting?

—Rasapriya Gopikā devī dāsī

Jayapatākā Swami: Well there are two parts to your question. One, how do I know if my service is pleasing to guru? If we are doing something which he has asked us to do, then it is usually pleasing to him. If we are doing something which is for our authorities requested us to do and it doesn’t go in contradiction with anything that guru told us; and that something that is completely against our nature, then usually it is very pleasing. If it is something that is against our nature; but it is something that is urgently needed; and sometimes by fulfilling that one gets some special mercy from the guru.

What was the second part? If our services are not pleasing does it affect our taste in chanting? If you do not carry out the order of your guru, then that is the third offence to the holy name and naturally that will be something that hampers our tastes.

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Question: Śrīla Guru Mahārāja! When will you hold the big karatālas?

—Prāṇanātha Prabhu

Jayapatākā Swami: Good question! I think they are in Māyāpur. So when I get back there, I was thinking to practice them again. Would you like that!!?

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Question: So she is asking, “How do we give up our false ego in life particularly in difficult or challenging situations with other devotees?”

—Nandapriyā Premā devī dāsī

Jayapatākā Swami: The false ego is [inaudible word] identify our self as the body. If someone tells us, “Oh, you are ugly!” We are affected that is false ego. If someone tells, “Oh, you are beautiful!” and we are affected—that is false ego. So people can say different things, but we don’t take it so serious. Because we know that, it is temporary. And we want to realize our real ego which is as a servitor of Kṛṣṇa. So false ego is a very subtle thing that ties us to this material world. So Kṛṣṇa, He gives certain instructions to Arjuna in Bhagavad-gītā; so that he can overcome the false ego, and by dovetailing our ego in the service of Kṛṣṇa, that is a positive situation for instance, Arjuna was a father, he was a householder, he was a prince, he was a general, in charge of the army. So Kṛṣṇa did not tell him that you should give up everything and be a sannyāsī, rather He said, you should carry out your duties as what you are; but you should do so as an offering to Me. So Lord Caitanya also said, “gṛhe thāko vane thāko sadā hari bole ḍāko” Whether you are gṛhastha or a mendicant, you should chant Hare Kṛṣṇa loudly and stay fixed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

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Question: Can we read Caitanya-caritāmṛta before reading Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam? Since completing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam would take a long time and I have read somewhere that Caitanya-caritāmṛta should be studied only after reading Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam?

—Cārurūpa Mādhava dāsa: 

Jayapatākā Swami: Generally, we read the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam first and then the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. But we can start reading Bhāgavatam and simultaneously read Caitanya-caritāmṛta. But usually Caitanya-caritāmṛta philosophy is very high and one may not understand it. I am trying to write a Kṛṣṇa type book on Lord Caitanya’s pastimes and keep the philosophy down; so that then, one can go and read the Caitanya-caritāmṛta and get all the philosophy. So it is good we know a little bit of Caitanya-caritāmṛta but it is not that you leave aside Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam totally. You should have a regular routine of reading the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. If you have time, then you can read a little bit of the Caitanya-caritāmṛta as well or the Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Book that I am compiling.

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Question: How do we beg forgiveness for fall downs from guru and continue our devotional service?

—Nandagopīpriyā devī dāsī

Jayapatākā Swami: There is no reason not to reveal your mind to guru. If you have had some trouble with one of the principles, you could get some advice from your spiritual master. But if you have recovered, then all the better to tell him that you had difficulty but now you have come back to the strict standard. And sometimes one is started to difficulty with a principle, but it is not as serious as they think. It is better to reveal to the spiritual master.

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Question: Sometimes because of our family responsibilities we are not able to have personal association with devotees. Although our family is supportive but not so into Kṛṣṇa consciousness, how to keep up our enthusiasm?

—Phaneśvarī Lakṣmī devī dāsī

Jayapatākā Swami: You have not mentioned if you are married and your husband is supportive or not... If of course, nowadays there is an email, Whatsapp, phone call. And you can talk to your friends. In this way somehow have an audio association, or even video with Zoom or Skype or Whatsapp. I don’t really understand when someone says, they lack of association. I heard someone say that, “Some of my friends spend so much time on Facebook.” I asked, “How long?” They said,“Eight hours!” “How long you spend?” “Only three hours!” [Laughter] So they have three hours to spend in Facebook, but they say that they don’t have time for association. And who they associate with on Facebook? So we are on Facebook and this question and answer is being broadcasted on Facebook. So any technology can be used in a positive way or negative way. Sometimes people are giving false news; sometimes getting positive association. When I woke up this morning, I remembered how Lord Caitanya was so merciful! There is a Locana dāsa’s song: dekho ore bhāi, tri-bhuvane nāi, emona doyāla dātā paśu pākhī jhure, pāṣāṇa vidare, śuni'jāṅra guṇa-gāthā - that my dear brothers, look at there is no one in the three worlds as merciful as Nitāi Gaura. Lord Caitanya made the animals chant, dance and cry. He melted the stones, see His fantastic qualities. So I was just remembering how merciful is Lord Caitanya and then Locana dāsa says:

saṁsāre majiyā, rohili poriyā,
se pade nahilo āśa

I am suffering and enjoying in the material ocean of birth and death. I have fallen there hopelessly. I have no hope for getting the shelter of the all merciful Nitāi Gauracandra. I am suffering and enjoying according to my karma. So, this is sung by Locana dāsa.

So Lord Caitanya is so merciful, so merciful, we would have no hope. But Prabhupāda bought Nitāi Gaura to us; and They are giving Their mercy out. And we are thinking, “Oh! How can I get the mercy, this and that; they want to give it… so bad. He wants to give, He didn’t think, this person is qualified, this one is unqualified—He gives freely to everybody. Jagāi Mādhāi were evil people. They committed so many offenses. Yamarāja, he asked, “How many sins they were cleared from?” And his clerk said that, “If we put it all through writing it will fill up warehouse after warehouse after warehouse. We have a team of architects working and design a special hell for them. Nitāi Gaura freed them all. Wiped the slate clean!” Anyone criticized them later on, He said, it is offensive to bring up a person’s past life. He is a devotee; we don’t care what he was before. Lord Caitanya and Nityānanda, They want to give their mercy to you. Please take it.

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Jayapatākā Swami: She lives in Māyāpur now. Her father is one of the greatest book distributors in the world! And her mother worships many, many śālagrāmas. Is that Śaśimukhi? She could be one from Malaysia also.

[Guru Mahārāja was talking about Candramukhī Rādhā.]

Question: Sometimes when I am sick, I find it difficult to chant. How much harder it must be when it is time to leave the body? How to chant or do devotional service when the body is not feeling up for it?

—Śaśimukhi Rādhā devī dāsī 

Jayapatākā Swami: Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, he like to walk when he chanted. He was very active. So he didn’t like sitting and chanting. He would walk, pace back and forth chanting. So as far as leaving our body, Kṛṣṇa helps us then. We should practice chanting in all situations; because the time of death is of course the most difficult time. I went to a dentist, he said, “The greatest suffering is kidney stones, child birth, dying and dental [surgeries]! Welcome to your dentist!!” [laughter] So he said that dying is one of the most difficult times. That is why we need to practice chanting now. So that we can chant at the time when we leave our body. But even if we cannot, if we had remained good and chanted all through our life; at the time of leaving our body, Kṛṣṇa will help us. We could remember Tapta Kāñcana Gaurāṅgī. [Rādhā Ramaṇa Sevaka dāsa: She is one of the devotee attending Guru Mahārāja’s class.) I mean Rādhārāṇī (Tapta Kāñcanī Gaurāṅgī). Of course, Tapta Kāñcanī devī dāsī is here by coincidence!

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Kaivalya Sundarī devī dāsī says “Wow, you came back online!”

Jayapatākā Swami: So we usually have class up to about nine PM. So we started at eight twenty-five PM and went on till after nine PM. Because most of the devotees went to the Ratha-yātrā we had questions and answers tonight. This was my first class in the caravan. Because doctors say, I still have to be careful, for the first year after my liver transplant. Do not get any infection. So that is why I had to give class from within the caravan.