20200129 Initiation Lecture in ISKCON

Mukham karoti vacalam pangum langayate girim

Yat kripa tam aham vande sri gurum dina tarinam

Paramananda Madhavam Sri Caitanya Isvaram

Caitanyadev ordered that bolo Krsna bhajo Krsna koro Krsna sika. Do this chanting of Krsna’s name, do service to Krsna and read the teachings of Krsna. Krsna’s teachings are the Bhagavad-gita which was spoken from the lotus mouth of Lord Krsna. And Srimad Bhagavatam which is about the glories of Sri Krsna. Now, human birth is for serving the Lord. If we do this, we could go back to the Lord. When Sanatana Goswami was a minister in the court of Hussain Shah the king, he told Mahaprabhu that people say I am a pandit, but I don’t know who I am! Maybe I am a fool! You please tell me, who am I? Caitanyadev said, jivera svarupa hoi nitya Krsna das. You are an eternal living entity, and your work is to serve Sri Krsna. Now, there are many people, they think that to gratify the senses is our goal of life. They are called godas – slaves of the senses. Those who discipline their senses, they are called goswami. Whatever, we wish that every one of you will control your senses, and stay in the service of Krsna. 

There is a history of Ajamila in the Bhagavatam. He was born in a good family and good wife, and all was good. But one day, he saw in the forest a prostitute embracing a man. And he was attracted to that. There is a long story. He left his family and wife and started living with the prostitute. And that is why he could not live in a decent society, and therefore he had to rob and do such things to make a living. He was a brahmana family but then he was brought down to a pig’s life. He had a lot of children from the prostitute. He had named his youngest child, Narayana. And, he loved him a lot. The father used to call the son, Narayana, come with me, let us walk around. Narayana, let us eat. Narayana! All through the day, he used to call, Narayana! Narayana! Narayana! When his time of death came, he called his youngest son, Narayana! What did he say? Narayana! When he said Narayana, it seemed like he was calling out to the Adi Narayana. The Yamadutas came to take him. But the Visnudutas said that he called Narayana at the end of his life. Narayana antaha smriti. Whether you call Narayana or Visnu, the Visnudutas would come. This way the Visnudutas came and said that he would go with them. Yamadutas said, no, he is a sinner, a robber! He has lived with a prostitute. We will take him to hell and make him suffer. But the Visnudutas said that whoever takes the name of Narayana at the time of death, we come and take them. How will you take him the Yamadutas said, we are the servitors of Yamaraja! Who are you? They said, we are servants of Visnu. Visnudutas. This way they fought. At the end, the Visnudutas won and Ajamila got saved. 

Today, all of you have got together to chant the names of Krsna. That is why, if all your life you chant the name of Krsna, then at the time of death, chanting the name of Krsna will not be difficult. If there is no practice of this, then what will we chant at the time of death? In America there was a lady who was thinking at the time of death, what will happen to my cat? My cat used to serve me so nicely. She had 45 million dollars then, about 6 or 7 crore rupees. She willed that as long as the cat lived that money would be for the cat. When the cat died, then it would be donated to different organizations. This way at the time of death, she was thinking of her cat, what would happen to the cat. What birth do you think she would get? 

This place we call Bharat loka on this earth. Now it is India, the name of Bharata. Earlier the name of the whole world was Bharata varsha or Bharata loka. Bharata maharaj, was the emperor of this land. He gave up everything, and took vanaprastha and went to the forest. He was meditating. But there was a baby deer to whom he was very attracted to. The next life time he became a deer. But he was ashamed and remembered that in the previous life I was a king and now I am a deer. This way in my next lifetime, I will very careful and not talk to anyone. There is a lot of history. We will chant the names of the Lord all our life and at the time of death, we will chant the Lord’s name and remember the Lord. This way, there is an opportunity we have in this human form of life. That we can in this lifetime go back to the spiritual world, back to the Lord. In this world there are lots of pain, suffering, sickness, etc. Lots of unrest. This is kind of a prison. But when we chant the name of the Lord, we serve the Lord and we read the teachings of the Lord, we would be able to lead our life in a peaceful way. That there will be no suffering, cannot be guaranteed, but to some extent it will be less. If everything is good for us all the time, then we could start thinking, oh everything is good here, good to stay here! Ha! Ha! That is why, it is better we have some suffering! Ha! Ha! But by serving the Lord, our sufferings are much less. By chanting the name of Krsna, by doing service to Krsna, we get happiness. How much happiness we get cannot be calculated! Anander sima nai, anander sima nai, niraananda dure jai! We hope that all of you by chanting the names of Krsna and serving Krsna, you will all get special kind of happiness! 

There was a family in which the wife and children, all were initiated. But the husband, he was not for it. Now the husband was diagnosed with cancer. He was in the fourth stage of cancer, the last stage. He could die any time. One day, through the wall he saw some dark, hairy people walking in with leather ropes and they had fangs, like Yamadutas. He screamed, no, no, no, I will not go, not me, not me! They went away! Then he called his wife. He asked for neck beads, then he said give me japa beads. I want a Bhagavad-gita, please read it to me. What we could not do for so many years, the Yamadutas did that in one second! So that person became a devotee and we hope that he would have gone back to Godhead. 

Whatever, today whoever is taking initiation, many days before you would have taken guru asraya and aspiring. That way, guru asraya, aspiring are all practice sessions. No vows are required to be taken. This is just a test to see whether we can do this our whole life or not. Will we be able to keep our vows. Guru asraya is 16 rounds chanting every day, for six months. Then following the four regulative principles, as much as possible. Then they can take guru asraya. This is the last practice. If they do, then we have a checklist and they can take initiation, minimum after six months. But many are not doing 16 rounds but are doing 8 rounds or 6 round or 4 rounds or even 1 round, but if they want, in the future they can think of taking guru asraya or aspiring. This is all a practice for them. Those who are taking initiation, that is called spiritual birth. From here, the real bhakti yoga begins, this is not a practice session. If you are ready, then you should take initiation. I hope that all of you have taken your vows to follow your whole life. In the world outside, to solemnize something that we promise, we take signature on stamp paper etc. But in the spiritual life, there is sacrifice and we take vows in front of guru and the Lord. This is our eternal religion. That all our lives, we will follow. If we commit some mistake, that is possible. But there is no other way of making amends for the mistake, other than that we make efforts to see that we don’t commit mistakes again. There is no other way. Whatever, I was telling that I want to come to the Siliguri temple twice a year. But I failed! Ha! I had many reasons for this. I was sick and could not come. I had a liver failure, kidney failure. Then I had a big operation and got a new liver and new kidney! Now I am told by my doctors that I can travel and so I have come! I hear that some devotees have come from Nepal, some have come from Malda and from nearby paces around Siliguri. I welcome everyone and convey my good wishes to all. And here I end my concise, and well-wishing lecture. Hare Krsna!