20200828 Zoom Session with Mathurādeśa Devotees

The following is a Zoom meeting with His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on August 28th,2020 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur, India. Zoom meeting with held Mathurādeśa Devotees.

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 is my voice understandable or you also need repetition. So I will speak in English and he will translate in Hindi. Is that alright? We know that the world is right now under extreme difficulty. There is corona virus pandemic, some places there is cyclones, hurricanes, some places floods, some places forest fires, and like this there are many difficulties, some places wars. Not far from you in Yemen and Saudi Arabia there is some situation. So Śrīla Prabhupāda has said that these natural calamities, pandemic, war, floods etc. are due to our breaking the laws of God, the laws of nature. And this is bad that people may understand that this is not a place for us to stay. So the devotees by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, by chanting the name of God, they can go back to the spiritual world. In different scriptures of the world, they glorify the name of the Lord. So, whichever name you have faith in – some bona fide name of God, should be chanted. We have names in Sanskrit, names of the Lord. We have faith in those. Like, Kṛṣṇa, Govinda, Nārāyaṇa, Viṣṇu. The Lord and His names are not different. Previously, people are more pious in Satya they did meditation, Treta they did homa-yajña, in Dvāpara they did temple worship. But now the people in Kali-yuga are most fallen. So the Lord, He came as His holy name. So that people could chant the holy name and achieve all success. And there is no hard fast rule for chanting the name. Whether one chants attentively with devotion, whether one chants it accidentally or meaning something. Ajāmila, he was calling his son, he gave his son the name Nārāyaṇa. He kept calling him Nārāyaṇa, come here! Nārāyaṇa walk with me! Nārāyaṇa eat your meal! So like this he was chanting the name Nārāyaṇa. So when the Yamadūtas came at his death, he also called his son. Nārāyaṇa! NĀRĀYAṆA! And then he remembered the original Nārāyaṇa. The Viṣṇudūtas came and saved him. So this name of the Lord is so powerful that it can solve all the problems of the Kali-yuga. So that is why we are trying to encourage all the people to chant the holy names. Even if people chant one round, they can gradually see a change in their consciousness. If anyone chants 16 rounds, then they can see extreme benefit. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it states that we should not make our goal in life sense gratification. We are spirit souls; we have material bodies. Bodies need a certain amount of sense gratification. So, at the same time we should make our goal to serve Kṛṣṇa, to love Kṛṣṇa. And dharmāviruddho bhūteṣu kāmo ’smi (Bg. 7.11) Kṛṣṇa says that He is the sex life which is not against the scriptures. We can see that the same senses sometimes give us happiness and sometimes sorrow. So, we want to focus our attention on pleasing Kṛṣṇa. Our goal in life is Lord Kṛṣṇa. Meanwhile we may have sometimes pleasure from the senses and sometimes suffering. This material world is a place of suffering. Anyway also some people are giving us short videos for the Bhakti-vṛkṣa modules. They are very interesting. I am still waiting for the videos from Mathurādeśa! If you have made any sort videos? I don’t know if you have any video I will see you. (We will send one sample to Vraja Prāṇa prabhu to make the video). We are very happy that you are using your energy to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness preaching. This way everyone can perfect their lives. Those who are going back to India, we have been discussing that please tell us when you go and we will try to engage them. Association in the gulf is very friendly, very nice and something that devotees miss when they go back to India. So we will try to make their experience as favorable as possible. And we were discussing that we should welcome the devotees, who are coming from the Middle East. You were saying that some devotees lost their jobs. But if they go back to India, please let us know. We will try to engage them in some service. In India rules are a little different than in the Middle East. So it will take some time for them to adapt. I have great interest to facilitate the devotees that come back. In Māyāpur we have many devotees who are either MAC members or divsional heads. So we hope that devotees who come back from the Middle East, they will have a lot of opportunities for service. Anyway, since we have home visits, I will not speak too much. One thing is that we have the Jayapatākā Swami App made for Android and IOS. And I put in messages. Rādhāṣṭamī I sent 21 messages! But at least four or five messages every day, I send. Devotees have seen that there is a new app but have not downloaded. It is also in about ten different languages. So it is a great opportunity and we hope everyone downloads the app, and give us feedback how you liked the app. Did you download it? I am very happy to see that how husband and wife together are serving Lord Kṛṣṇa in devotional service. It is very exemplary. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that there is no reason to think about taking sannyāsa if your wife is cooperating well in devotional service. Of course, in ISKCON unless the wife gives a written permission, no one is given sannyāsa. Since I am observing my 50th anniversary of sannyāsa, maybe some devotees are a bit scared that it is 50 years. But nothing to worry about. You just unitedly serve the Lord. And I hope that the husband and wife treat each other very nice. They are Vaiṣṇava and Vaiṣṇavī, so we shouldn’t commit any offence or aparādha.

Haribol!