20200126 Initiation Lecture, Day- 2 program

Mukham karoti vacalam pangum langayate girim

Yat kripa tam aham vande sri gurum dina tarinam

Paramananda Madhavam Sri Caitanya Isvaram

Earlier I had a stroke, that is why now and then my speech is not clear. So in case anyone of you find it difficult to understand me, please raise your hand and that will be repeated. I am giving a very concise, well-wishing lecture now. Before you all did Tulasi circumambulation, right? Did you do Tulasi parikrama earlier? The temple is close, so you can participate in the arati and do Tulasi puja in the temple. If not, every home should have a Tulasi plant, which is easy to acquire here in Bangladesh. And every day, you should do Tulasi puja, circumambulation and obeisances. And this will be very conducive to advancing in the path of devotion, bhakti. If you do four parikramas every day, that will be very nice! If you wish, you could do four more and offer the results of that parikrama to me! 

This way, giving initiation to so many devotees, so much of my karma is going. Now you will try to make sure that all the regulative principles are observed successfully. Also, this way, all of you do Radha Krsna, Nitai Gaura and Tulasi puja every day. Tulasi puja, everyone can do. There is no difficulty in this. I saw in Holland, Russia, these countries where it is very cold in winter, minus 15 minus 30 C, so much ice, snow. But there however they do puja for Tulasi. They keep her in a special room with ultraviolet light, and this way they do Tulasi puja. You don’t need all this, Tulasi is ordinarily available here! But many people don’t do Tulasi puja and Hare Krsna chanting. There are many advantages of doing this. Tulasi devi has appeared here for your good. And in Vrndavan, Vrnda devi is Tulasi. She organizes all the paraphernalia for Lord Krsna’s pastimes there. This is why it is called Vrndavan, Tulasivan. Vrnda devi. 

Whatever, initiation means spiritual birth. After this birth, we have to do a lot. Do not think that I have taken initiation, all work is over! Work begins now! Prior to this was practice. Now starts the real work! Haribol! Service to Krsna, going back to Krsna, now our work is to get linked with the guru parampara. And imbibe the teachings of Srila Abhaycaran Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. I am your diksa guru and siksa guru, same person. You can have other siksa gurus, no limit. Siksa guru is of two types – one who is on the same level as the diksa guru, and the other who helps in working and teaches, what sadhanas, practices we should do, gives that advice. Now, taking diksa and siksa, you have to advance further. I am grateful that so many devotees are giving you siksa. You should try to see that the vows you have taken today; you follow them all your life. In the 8th Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam is the description of Gajendra Moksha. Gajendra was the king of all the elephants. And he was having a bath in the river. But one crocodile came and attacked him – the crocodile was the king of the crocodiles. Then for a long number of days, there was a fight between them. The crocodile was holding on to the elephant’s leg and the elephant was unable to get back on the land, out of the water. The crocodile is a water animal. And therefore it was strong in the water. But the elephant is a land animal. So he was not comfortable to stay long in the water. Year after year, the battle went on. Gajendra saw that slowly, he was losing the battle with the crocodile. At that time, he took a lotus from the river and started offering prayers to Lord Visnu, which he remembered from his previous life. And Lord Visnu came on the Garuda and He killed the crocodile, and saved the elephant. The crocodile was liberated and out came a king from that body. He was in the previous life a king but because of a curse, he had taken the body of a crocodile now. Lot of history there. But, Gajendra understood that he was losing, and in that verse purport, Srila Prabhupada says, our work is to fight with maya. And we should by doing service to Krsna, get the advantage of devotion to Krsna. Like Gajendra was a land animal and the crocodile a water animal, this way, we have to realize what situation, what is our constitutional position in which we should act. Some could be vairagis, renunciants, but mostly they are grihasthas. Now, if someone is a brahmacari, he sees that he is not able to follow the brahmacari ashram regulations. So in that case, instead of sinning, it is better they become a grihastha. Caitanyadev says, grihe thako, bone thako, sada Hari bole dako. Many come to me seeking blessings that they want to become grihastas. If someone becomes a grihasta, it is good, but it would be good that both husband and wife be devotees. One brahmacari married a girl who ate meat. But she said, I will not eat. After they had a child, one and a half years later, she started eating chicken. She said, do you know which family I come from? I tried to become vegetarian. I did it for about one and a half to two years, but I am not able to stay that way now. Now I will eat fish and meat. The boy came to me and said, gurudev, what should I do? I am disappointed. My wife, my child, they eat non veg. I told him, you did not come to me before you go married, but now you are coming to me, what can be done now?  I see so many girls and boys get initiated. It should be seen that initiated girls get married to initiated boys. If they are not initiated and say now that they will not eat non veg, what guarantee is there that they will not eat later? But if they are initiated, they have over the years eaten vegetarian food and observed the regulative principles, then it is possible they will observe. I wish that if someone gets married, as husband and wife, they serve Krsna. Haribol! Do Uludhwani! Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur, who is our grand, grand guru, he was a grihasta, householder. He had such a son, Srila Bhaktisiddanta Saraswati Thakur. The husband and wife prayed to Lord Jagannath, Baladeva and Subadra, that they should have a son who is a devotee of Lord Visnu. So this way, there is a ritual, samskara to do garbodana. This way husband and wife, will pray and try to have a devotee child. They pray that the child should be Krsna conscious, healthy, long living and good. This way, the child in future would be able to preach Krsna consciousness. And those of you who have got initiation today, please try to preach to your friends, extended family, coworkers, co students, about Krsna consciousness. This way, try to spread and preach the message of Caitanyadev. I travel within the country and abroad and preach. Even if you don’t travel to other countries, you can still preach in your own country, community, in your village, in your town. This way Caitanyadev gave the instruction – bolo Krsna, bhajo Krsna, koro Krsna sika. There is a song in our namahatta. Whatever, I will not talk long. You have heard a lot of lecture. The main goal of human life is that Krsna Prema rises in our heart! Hare Krsna!