20191014 Evening Question and Answer Session

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

We welcome all the rest of the viewers. So today was the last day of the Organizational Development part of the GBC meeting. Tomorrow starts the GBC preliminary discussions and has various agendas. Here in Tirupati, the place is known as non-different from Vaikuṇṭha. Here the Lord came in the last Kali-yuga as Śrīnivāsa Govinda Bālājī, and He married Padmāvatī, who is the Vedavatī, who took the role as Chāyā-Sītā, when Sītā was kidnapped by Rāvaṇa. The real Sītā was kept by Agnideva and Vedavatī, Chāyā-Sītā, duplicate Sītā was given her place. And she was tortured by the Rākṣasīs and tried to be seduced by Rāvaṇa, but she stayed steadfast, and he was not able to seduce her. Because he had a curse from the same Vedavatī, that if he ever touched a lady again against her will, he would die immediately. So he could not force himself on her, although as a Rākṣasa, it was his normal activity. But instead, he tried to allure her in various ways but she remained steadfast to Lord Rāma. Haribol! Haribol! Haribol! After Rāma defeated Rāvaṇa, then Sītā entered the fire and she was replaced by the real Sītā, who was then carried out of the fire by Agnideva, who then presented her to Rāma who said that she was sinless, she never did anything wrong in thought, word, or what to speak of deed! So are there any questions?

Question: Guru Mahārāja, how can I increase my faith in the holy name more and more?

jayapatākā Swmi: There is the Kṛṣṇa-nāmāṣṭaka by I think, it is by Rūpa Gosvāmī, you chant that, it helps you to overcome obstacles and offences in chanting and helps you increase your faith in the chanting. Hare Kṛṣṇa! Any other questions?

Question: Guru Mahārāja, I am distracted so much by my impressions which makes me distracted in chanting. How can I dive deep into the ocean of the holy names? – Himanshu.

Jayapatākā Swami: Himanshu, just chant loudly and listen to the chanting, my dear mind, focus on the chanting! You can meditate on the Deity, or a picture of Śrīla Prabhupāda, or picture of your Guru Mahārāja, or a picture of Lord Kṛṣṇa, so you can fix your mind, fix your eyes, fix your ears and chant loudly, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.

Question: How to be always Gaurāṅga conscious? How to deal with māyā’s allurements? – Ratipradā Rādhikā devī dāsī.

Jayapatākā Swami: How? Kṛṣṇa consciousness is a gradual process and as you advance naturally you will become more attached to Gaurāṅga and less attached to the material things. Meditating on the Śikṣāṣṭakam can help one to have a proper attitude, proper consciousness. So this Śikṣāṣṭakam takes one through the different stages of chanting and attachment to Kṛṣṇa. Gradually increasing one’s attachment more and more. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Question: Is it an offence that after taking initiation, not chant on our initiated beads, and can we chant on clicker? Guru Mahārāja, due to rotational shifts I am mostly doing my rounds on the clicker. I feel very guilty for that but mostly I try to do it on my beads. – Madhusmitā Indulekhā devī dāsī.

Jayapatākā Swami: We try to chant some rounds on our beads in the morning before your work. And after that if we cannot chant on beads because of the environment, we can chant on our fingers or our counter machine. So the thing is that we should hear the chanting or we should think of the chanting while we are counting. Counting is alright but we should also be thinking and conscious. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Question: How can I know, who is my spiritual master? – Shweta Sharma.

Jayapatākā Swami: Well, one can pray to Śrīla Prabhupāda, who is the spiritual master who will best help you to be Prabhupāda conscious. One may accept if you have a shortlist of people, who you may like as your guru, you may accept them as your śikṣā-gurus and write to each one and see how you are getting a reply and accordingly in due course of time, you may feel who is your spiritual master. Otherwise, prayers to guru and to Śrīla Prabhupāda and to Kṛṣṇa to reveal to you. I had some 15 questions you could ask yourself, but I don’t know where they are right now. Right now, I am in Tirupati and not in Māyāpur. But I can try to send those to you, once I get back to Māyāpur, if you want. Haribol!

Question: Guru Mahārāja, sometimes I am losing my faith and interest in chanting. How to get rid of this? – Venkat.

Jayapatākā Swami: I don’t know why you are losing faith. Are you chanting the Pañca-tattva mantra before chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa? Are you chanting avoiding the ten offences? Why you don’t feel taste for the chanting? In the second verse of the Śikṣāṣṭakam, Lord Caitanya says, how there are no hard and fast rules for chanting the holy names and they are imbibed with all the śakti, potency of the Lord, but still, I have no attachment for chanting them. So although the holy names are not different from Krsna, a neophyte devotee somehow doesn’t have much taste for chanting. So this can be overcome by avoiding the ten offences and by regularly chanting. More one chants, the better, as I was saying the Kṛṣṇa-nāmāṣṭaka is helpful. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, there is a reference to the Kṛṣṇa-nāmāṣṭaka.

Question: Hare Kṛṣṇa Guru Mahārāja! If we commit offence to dhāma, how can we get forgiveness for that?

Jayapatākā Swami: Just like there are ten offences to the holy name, there are ten offences to the holy dhāma. So if you commit some offence to the holy dhāma, you should pray to the holy dhāma to forgive you for your offence. And you should avoid making such offence in the future. Hare Kṛṣṇa! Two more questions.

Question: Which is more important? Vāṇī-sevā or vapu-sevā? – Naṭavara Gaura dāsa.

Jayapatākā Swami: Vāṇī or vapu-sevā? We don’t always get a chance to do vapu-sevā, so if we get the opportunity, then naturally you would like to take it. But then if one serves the guru in separation, does vāṇī-sevā, that is a sign of great advancement. So we should try to do both. When we get a chance do vapu-sevā, otherwise we serve the order of the guru in vāṇī-sevā. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Question: More than Gaurāṅga, I love Nityānanda (Guru Mahārāja said: Nitāi! Nitāi!). I always like to be Nityānanda conscious. So will it be considered as Kṛṣṇa conscious? – Gaurāṅgī, Śrī Narasiṁha Giridhārī Mandir, Bengaluru.

Jayapatākā Swami: See, Lord Nitāi always carries out the order of Lord Caitanya and He is said to be the mercy avatāra. He gives out mercy very freely, carrying out the order of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. So Śrīla Prabhupāda said that depending on whether you have attachment for Lord Caitanya, or Lord Nityānanda or Advaita, that may influence your relationship with Kṛṣṇa. But it is alright to have relationship with Nitāi. He is also the expansion of Kṛṣṇa, Caitanya.

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya, rādha-kṛṣṇa nāhi anya,
balarāma haila nitāi.

So one may have Balarāma consciousness or Nityānanda consciousness, or Gaurāṅga consciousness, that is alright! Haribol!

Thank you very much!