20200425 Zoom Session with Coimbatore Devotees

The following is an address given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on April 25th,2020 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur, India. The address was given to the Coimbatore 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!

So I am very happy to be meeting the devotees from Coimbatore. Here in India we are under the lockdown, and I am in the Māyāpur Candrodaya Mandir and I am communicating through Zoom. And I hope to see many of your houses and visit you! First, I heard that from the 26th Coimbatore, Chennai and various other cities of Tamil Nadu will be under total lockdown! You cannot go out for grocery shopping! Only the drug stores and hospitals will be open. So why is this? Because, we don’t have any cure or vaccine yet, which is guaranteed to work for the corona virus. 80% of those in India who have tested positive are asymptomatic. That means they don’t have any symptoms. Only 20% showed symptoms. Since someone may look healthy but they may be carrying the virus. If an old person like me gets the virus, it may be fatal. But even young people, they have been finding in the West, that some people they get the virus, they get stroke. I just finished a call with Bangladesh. And 37 devotees in the Dhaka temple, are positive for the virus. How they got it is not clear. So one doctor from Russia, he said by using a mixture of turmeric and ginger you can kill the virus. If you have the virus, then you have to change the mix every five hours. If you don’t have it, you can use the same mix as a prevention, and you know you have to change it once in 24 hours. So if anyone is interested, I can have the doctor here, we have an English speaking doctor, he can communicate with you. But the thing is that since the virus stays alive on hard surfaces for up to 3 days, so if you touch it, the hard surface where the virus is, you may get the virus. That is why they say to wash hands, with soap for 20 seconds. And if someone coughs, who has the virus, it may hang in the air for a minute. And then falls down. So if you are walking around and someone in front of you coughs, who has the virus, you may get it! Therefore, they say to wear mask. And if you know of anyone in the family has it, the safest place is stay at home. So this is the material side of the disease.

We know that Śrīla Prabhupāda told us that we should also cure the spiritual disease. Birth, death, old age, disease, I am not a material doctor. But you are all very fortunate, Bhakti Vinoda Swami and others they are spiritual doctors! And it is very important that you should chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and learn Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books very thoroughly. And, we find that devotees, normally, they have to work, but in the lockdown period they have to stay at home. So it is a good opportunity to preach to people you know, chant your japa, to also read Śrīla Prabhupāda books, to make advancement in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. I met some people in Europe, they said that instead of having once a week Bhakti-vṛkṣa group, now they are having every day! Some are having every two days. Because people, they have time because they are at home. So then, I am visiting various yatras all day on Zoom. Some days I have four or five classes, two or three meetings. Last week, Saturday, I had a program in Latin America. Sunday I had North America. Like that every day different places. Now I am meeting with the Coimbatore devotees. Before this I met with Bangladesh leaders. And tonight, I give class every day at 6 on Caitanya Līlā, 6 to 7. And then 8 to 9.30 another class. In between I visit people’s homes by Zoom. Also distributing prasādam, I saw on video that in Coimbatore you are distributing prasādam. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that better than giving out money is giving out prasādam. So, what we want is the people who give out prasādam they should wear gloves and mask. They should take precautions not to get the disease. So on one hand it is a great opportunity, I heard that Bhakti Vinoda Swami is giving class daily. Everyone can participate in the classes. At the same time, in this way, was it yesterday or day before, I visited Kerala, many people from Palaghat, which is very close to Coimbatore. So, I think last night, we went to Kanhaiyadeśa. Like this I keep busy and I hope you all keep busy. Use the internet, use Zoom, use Facebook. I heard that Jio is coming out with a new type of Zoom facility. And in this way, we hope to practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness in a very systematic way.

You see, this virus is not a human virus. This virus came from the animals. By mistreating the animals, and eating the animals, we are getting the animal disease, for which we don’t have any antibodies as yet. This is a good opportunity to encourage people to eat prasādam, give up non veg. Stop mistreating animals. I saw them taking cows from Tamil Nadu into Kerala. And because in Kerala apparently, they have slaughter houses. Because we are breaking the laws of nature, all the human beings have to suffer. So please be very careful. Use this opportunity to preach to people that they should change their diet, they should chant the holy names. In fact, Christians, they can chant the names in the Bible. The Muslims, they can chant in namaz and different names in the Quran. There are 99 names of Allah mentioned in the Quran. Of course, the Kali Santaraṇa Upaniṣad states that by chanting the 16 names of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, one can destroy all the bad effects of Kali yuga. Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare! iti ṣoḍaśakaṁ nāmnāṁ kali-kalmaṣa-nāśanaṁ, nātaḥ parataropāyaḥsarva-vedeṣu dṛśyate. By chanting these 16 names. Please encourage all the people to chant. Write to your Chief Minister, to tell the people to chant the names of God. Since they have to be non-sectarian, tell them they can chant any names mentioned in the scriptures. Followers of the Vedas, they can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise for Christians, Muslims and other religions chant the holy names as per their scriptures. So if you have any questions, I will take a couple of questions, then visit the devotees in their homes. Does Bhakti Vinod mahārāja wish to say anything? Dr. Audārya Dhāma has given us a system for prevention, so devotees who go out to distribute can use this preventative system.