20191015 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

Welcome to all the devotees! And welcome to the viewers on the Jayapatākā Swami Facebook page! So today I was feeling bad, so many GBCs and devotees went to see Bālājī, but I was unable to go being physically challenged! But then the head pūjārī, who does the abhiṣeka and puts on the tilaka on the Lord, he appeared in my room and he said that he was inspired by the Lord to come and see me! So I took it like the Lord Himself, I couldn’t go to see Him, so He came to see me! Get the cadar! And he gave me a prasāda cadar which was worn by Bālājī and he spoke many things. Here is the cadar I got, it was worn by Bālājī! So we got some special mercy from Śrīnivāsa Govinda. Govinda! And this evening, the Dāmodarāṣṭakam was sung by His Holiness Bhakti Cāru Swami in the Rādhā Govinda Aṣṭa-sakhi temple. So today is the first day of the full GBC meetings. Previously, was the Organizational Development meeting with the GBC to discuss ISKCON constitution, and various other things which were on the agenda of the Organizational Development Committee. Today was the first day of the full GBC meeting and it will go on for two more days. Today we discussed the vaiṣṇavī-guru issue and tomorrow we will be discussing the BBT issue? So like this we will be discussing different things on different days. So any questions that you have on your Kṛṣṇa consciousness, I will try to reply. We have set aside about 15 minutes for questions. Yes sir!

Question: How to get Lord Nityānanda’s mercy in our life?

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Nityānanda is represented by the guru. He is the original guru and the guru in the guru-paramparā is His representative. So by pleasing the representative of Lord Nityānanda, you can also please Lord Nitāi. Haribol!

Question: Hare Kṛṣṇa Guru Mahārāja! What is the real equality, real equilibrium? According to devotees what is the major equality between us and non-devotees, what we need to do and what they need to do?

Jayapatākā Swami: What is the main equality? Unity in diversity. You see, everyone, although they know it or not, they are all carrying out the order of the Lord. But the devotees they know it and they desire to increase their service to the Lord. But the non devotees, they don’t know it, and they think they are the doers. Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate [Bg. 3.27] – they are bewildered by the ahaṅkāra, the false ego, and they think they are the doer, but actually the three modes of material nature are forcing them to act in different ways. But these three modes are under the direction of the Supreme Lord. So we surrender to the Lord, so therefore we voluntarily do the service of the Lord. And we are not so much affected by the three modes. We don’t care about the three modes. We want to serve Kṛṣṇa because we love Kṛṣṇa, we have devotion for Kṛṣṇa. The non-devotees are serving the Lord, but they don’t have devotion for the Lord. That is the difference. So we want to teach them to have devotion for the Lord, and then their life will be perfect. So this month is the month of Dāmodara. It is a special month, for people to render some service to the Lord, to offer lamps, to take prasāda, to be vegetarian, and to do service for the Lord. So this way, they can get a taste to serve the Lord voluntarily, is a great mercy. We bow down, face down before the Lord, and the non-devotees, when they die, they bow down face up. Everyone bows down before the Lord. If you want to bow down voluntarily now, bow down, face down. If you bow down involuntarily when you die, you will be face up. What do they say in Andhra Pradesh when they carry the dead body? Govinda! In Hindi what they say, “Rāma-nāma satya hain! Rāma-nāma satya hain!” In Bengali they say, “Bolo Hari, Haribol! Bolo Hari Haribol!” So here in Andhra Pradesh, they say, “Govinda!” Alright?

Question: How to maintain consistency in devotional life?

Jayapatākā Swami: By being consistent. You see we take the initiation from the guru and then we practice devotional service by regulative principles, and then we cross over the stage of anarta-nivṛtti, which is unsteadiness, and we reach the stage of steadiness which is called niṣṭhā. We want to reach the niṣṭhā stage, steadiness, and then we can develop a taste for devotional service, the stage of ruci and when we are attached to that taste it is āsakti. Then the next stage is ecstatic love for Kṛṣṇa, that is called bhāva, and pure love is called Prema. Step by step we progress.

Any questions from Facebook?

Question: In Kṛṣṇa consciousness we see that every process has got benefits, for example when we circumambulate Tulasī Mahārāṇī, all sinful reactions are eradicated, or just by chanting one holy name, śuddha-nāma, we get the highest perfection. But somehow or other in our lives, we are not able to get those results. What is lacking in myself that I am not able to see that result in my life? What should I improve?

Jayapataka Swami: If there is something that we can see, when we go around tulasī we sing:

yāni kāni ca pāpāni brahma-hatyādikāni ca

tāni tāni praṇaśyanti pradakṣiṇaḥ pade pade

So how we should see that, that your karma, what you don’t get, something you don’t get, how you see that? You see that, you are living a peaceful life, you don’t have cancer, you don’t have various problems. So we take that as the Lord’s mercy that. How do you see it? If you don’t do that, you can see that people are suffering so much, litigation, different diseases, so if you don’t get those then you take that as the Lord’s mercy and if you get those, you have your karma still there. So it is very hard to see how you want to see, you want to suffer and be delivered, or you don’t want to suffer at all? If you are complaining that I don’t see, the Lord can make you suffer and then you can be saved from that. I took a lot of disciples, not everyone follows, not everyone tells the truth. I got a letter today, one disciples said the day before initiation, I lied and I took second initiation, but actually I was breaking the principle. So this kind of thing, guru has to suffer. But being a brahmacārī or you have only your own karma to worry about, unless you let people to touch your feet, and you leave remnants on your plate and they eat it, you only have your own karma. So that can be quickly dispersed. But if you have to take other people’s karma it is very difficult. I don’t know exactly how you want to know, how you have been saved by these different things. Just think of that. If you are leading a peaceful life, it is the Lord’s mercy.

Question: Hare Kṛṣṇa Guru Mahārāja! In the present society, youth are getting addicted to bad habits. How to preach to them, they are not interested in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, not chanting and not taking interest. How to give them Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

Jayapatākā Swami: That is what I hear from the IYF preachers. And in Māyāpur we have hundreds of people visiting for maṅgala-ārati every day. And then sometimes 20, 30, 40 youths, they chant one round together, attend maṅgala-ārati. So I said, it is so difficult to preach to the youth in colleges. They don’t care! And here the people are coming, they are chanting, they are actively participating! We should be preaching to them, and they started that preaching. I am sure that in Tirupati there would a lot of youths who come? Do you have any program for those youths? When we go out to the youths, like Śrīla Prabhupāda said, we go out like a salesman goes house to house. So house person may name his price, he will bargain. But if he goes to the shop, it is fixed price. So they are coming to you, they are here! They are coming and seeing the Deities and participating in some program. So have some preaching for them because they are here, they are coming to you. But generally, you know, it is not easy to make a devotee. Preaching to the youths. But that is why Śrīla Prabhupāda said, ‘Purity is the Force’. If you are pure, if you are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, if you are attending the morning program, then by your purity, you may be able to influence some other youths to take up Kṛṣṇa consciousness. At least, they can chant one round a day, two rounds a day, something and gradually, they can increase in their devotional activities. Haribol!

Alright, thank you very much! Who wants blessings?