20200322 Zoom Class Addressing Australia Yātrā

The following is an address given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on March 22nd,2020 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur, India. The Address was given to the Australian Yatra Devotees via zoom.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

I heard that Australia may shut its doors to foreigners for six months.

I was planning to go to Australia, but I don’t know now!

So I thought well, I could try to give a class today.

Sometimes, I don’t know do you need someone to repeat what I say? Or do understand me?

Do you want repetition?

Raise your hand if you want repetition.

I see about 60% on the video.

30-40% I only see your names.

Every night I give a class, now we moved it to 6 pm.

Maybe accessible to some of you.

When it is at 8 or 8.30 pm IST, it is a bit late for Australia.

India time 8.30 means 10 pm in Perth and midnight in Adelaide and so on.

So now we moved it up to 6.

So maybe 8.30 in Perth and you can hear. 

Last couple of days, we were having classes on Lord Caitanya and two pastimes.

One was that Capala Gopāla offended Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura, and he put in front of his door some implements for worshipping Goddess Kālī or Bhavānī.

Then Śrīvāsa, he invited all the neighboring brāhmaṇas to come and they said, who did this, chi, chi!

It is horrible!

He said, I have been worshipping Bhavānī all night.

This is the fruit.

No one believed it!

They knew that Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura was a pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa.

So then, after three days, Capala Gopāla, he got leprosy.

And he was suffering like anything.

After some years, because leprosy is a contagious disease, he went and lived as an outcaste near the Ganges.

One day, Lord Caitanya came by and he said, Lord Caitanya, Gaurahari, You are Patīta Pāvana!

I am suffering like anything, so please have Your mercy on me!

But Lord Gauranga said, I will not, because you have offended My devotee!

I will not forgive you!

You have to be for ten million births in hellish existence.

Lice biting on your body and everything.

Then some devotees went to Śrīvāsa and said, Śrīvāsa, you have to forgive this Capala Gopāla.

But Śrīvāsa said, I am not a Vaiṣṇava, I am not a devotee.

No one can offend me, I am lower than an insect!

And the devotees said, listen, you may not think that you are a devotee, but Lord Caitanya does.

Because of you, if you don’t forgive this Capala Gopāla, he will have to suffer one crore, ten million births!

Do you want him to suffer for you?

No, no, no, no! I don’t want anybody to suffer for me!

So then he went and saw Capala Gopāla.

(I am taking some plants? and that makes me cough up mucus.) Anyway, then Śrīvāsa went to Capala Gopāla and forgave him, after he begged for forgiveness.

Immediately as Śrīvāsa forgave him, Lord Caitanya came and embraced Capala Gopāla.

So that was one pastime.

There was another pastime.

One brāhmaṇa came and he wanted to go into to see the dancing of Lord Caitanya.

But, he was stopped at the door and he became very angry.

So, the next day the brāhmaṇa saw Lord Caitanya on the Ganges bank.

Therefore, with his face angry, he said, I WANTED TO SEE YOUR KĪRTANA, I WANTED TO SEE YOU DANCE!

BUT THAT SINFUL GATEKEEPER, HE KEPT ME OUTSIDE!

SO I CURSE YOU! I CURSE YOU!

JUST AS I HAVE BEEN FORCED OUT OF THE HOUSE, YOU WILL NOT HAVE MATERIAL HAPPINESS!

YOUR MATERIAL HAPPINESS WILL BE RUINED! He broke his brāhmaṇa thread.

Lord Caitanya said, thank you, thank you so much!

That is what I wanted!!

Then the brāhmaṇa said, oh no, no, what did I do! You will deliver the whole world except me!

You are the Antaryāmī, You are the Supersoul.

Somehow You made me speak these foolish things!

Then he fainted.

Lord Caitanya picked him up and embraced him.

Your curse was a blessing for Me!

And so when he lifted up the brāhmaṇa, the brāhmaṇa got love of Kṛṣṇa!

It is said that anyone who hears this pastime, will be freed from any curses of brāhmaṇas!

Haribol!

How Lord Caitanya, He was cursed, but He did not take any offence.

Rather, when His devotee was offended, He took that very seriously! But anyway, how Lord Caitanya is so merciful is beyond explanation!

So, now in India we are having a practice lockdown.

From 7 am till 9 pm nobody can leave their house.

But we can give you class by Zoom.

So I thank you for being present.

I made two videos, one for devotees and one for non-devotees, they are on Youtube.

Jānakī Rāmacandra will share in the chat here. 

But one thing I didn’t talk about too much.

You could use this corona virus pandemic as a preaching tool!

Śrīla Prabhupāda had mentioned that at the end of the 1800s, there was a plague in Kolkata, and that thousands of people were dying.

Then some bābājī or some Vaiṣṇava, went from house to house, and begged the people to chant the holy names.

Śrīla Prabhupāda said that it is a historical fact that once the people started chanting, the plague went away!

So we should get all the people to chant.

At least we can get the Indians to chant.

Some Australians if they are not devotees or they are Christians, they can chant the name of Jehovah or something.

Try to make everybody, make them God conscious, make them Kṛṣṇa conscious, so that they chant the holy name of the Lord! And also, where does this disease come from?

It comes from the animals.

People are eating animals.

In Wuhan they ate bats, snakes, all kinds of wild creatures.

The virus came from the animals to the human beings.

That is why we don’t have any immunity.

Because it is not a human virus, it is an animal virus!

But people are still eating meat.

And they should stop eating it at least as long as this pandemic is there!

So, all these preaching possibilities are there.

And we hope that of course, you all have good health and be happy in Kṛṣṇa conscious!

So I will leave some time for questions.

You can write the questions on the chat.

You have two options, either you can write on the chat or you can raise your hand.

Janaki Rāmacandra prabhu will see your hand and unmute your mike.

 

Question: Should we still carry on Harināma, while this COVID is going on?

Jayapatākā Swami: Why not? Of course! You see, Capala Gopāla, he was asking that his suffering due to his body be settled. That is not the purpose of Lord Caitanya.

Lord Caitanya wanted to give bhakti-yoga to all the conditioned souls.

And that way, of course, naturally, if one has bhakti they are forgiven of all their sins, and naturally their material disease gets settled.

And as a result, their physical suffering will also be ended.

But that is a side benefit. The real purpose is to get love of Kṛṣṇa.

Don’t stop chanting!

♦♦♦

Question: Most of our activities are personal like books, kīrtana and studying. With government limiting association, how do we keep preaching? Should we instead use this for self-studying?

Jayapatākā Swami: In one sense, we can also use this time for studying, for chanting.

But also we can use this opportunity to preach through the internet.

Now, there are like 3 million people at any time on Skype.

So you can preach to those people.

You can use Facebook or Instagram and preach.

BBT should actually come up with a system, how people can download books, as this is a good time to study spiritual books.

And, Vaiśeṣika had sent out some people to distribute books, and he said that all the people were very anxious, and they said, we don’t know what to do with our time!

But some people said, leave the book at the porch, because they didn’t want any personal interaction.

They left a donation in an envelope.

But Vaiśeṣika prabhu said that maybe it is too dangerous for the devotees.

But people want books, they want something to do!

So you can figure out how to do it in a safe way.

People, they need to understand, that this material world will always have problems.

If they engage in bhakti-yoga, they can solve the problems.

In the Kali Santaraṇa Upaniṣad, there is a verse which says the Mahā Mantra –

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare,
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare.

Iti ṣoḍaśakaṁ nāmnāṁ, these 16 names kali-kalmaṣa-nāśanam, they destroy all the evil effects of Kali-yuga. nātaḥ parataropāyaḥ sarva-vedeṣu dṛśyate.There is no better alternative in all the Vedas! So give people something to do!

Have them chant!

Listen to the kīrtana-yoga!

That way, purify the atmosphere.

This is an air borne disease, so purify the air! Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Haribol!

♦♦♦

Question: As a student, what is the best way to preach and remain in Kṛṣṇa consciousness? How to remain focused while chanting? 

Jayapatākā Swami: If one is preaching, why can one then one not remain fixed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness? If we understand, just like this pandemic is going on.

That, the material nature gives us the promise that we will be happy.

But we always end up getting kicked! Lord Caitanya taught that we should tolerate, be tolerant of the happiness,be tolerant of the suffering.

And to develop our natural affection for Kṛṣṇa.

So, by having good association, you will be better equipped in preaching in the college.

The second question?

Before I met the devotees, I had this problem.

My mind was going here and there and everywhere.

Once I had the process of bhakti-yoga, it was so nice that I didn’t want to go anywhere else!

So I don’t really understand this question! If you practice bhakti-yoga, if you read the books, then naturally, you will be fixed!

Hare Kṛṣṇa!

At least we can regulate our material life so that we have Kṛṣṇa in the center.

I am very happy that we have many gṛhasthas here.

Śrīla Bhakti Vinoda Ṭhākura, he was gṛhastha-guru.

So in his song, about Godrumadvīpa in Nāmahaṭṭa, he says, Kṛṣṇera samsāra kara, chāri anācāra.

He said, make a Kṛṣṇa conscious family.

Give up the unauthorized activities.

So like eating these creatures and doing different kinds of prohibited things like drinking or taking narcotics, naturally that makes one mentally disturbed.

So, he was stating that make a Kṛṣṇa conscious family, and give up the unauthorized things. 

One more question? Tell me whether you would like more darśanas like this?

How often I should have it?

Thank you very much!

Hare Kṛṣṇa