20201011 Zoom Session With Singapore Bengali Devotees

The following is a zoom session with Singapore Bengali devotees by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on October 11th, 2020 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur, India.

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

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Jayapatākā Swami: I am extending my good wishes and congratulations to all the devotees. Now the transcendental body of Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Cāru Mahārāja has arrived in Māyāpur. We are waiting to see what decision the GBC takes. How big his samādhi will be, the samādhi park will be arranged, all this will be decided. Our ISKCON temple was closed in Māyāpur in the month of September and now it is opening gradually. And everyone has to follow the social distancing of six feet and wear proper masks here.

In this month of Puruṣottama every day we have been worshiping the Lord daily with 16 upacāras. And the lamp is being offered to Lord Rādhā Kṛṣṇa. And almost all the devotees are chanting this mantra:

govardhana dharam vande 
gopālam gopa rūpiṇam 
gokulotsavam īśanam 
govindam gopikā priyam

You can go on www.purusottamamonth.com where all the programs going on here are given. Now the virtual Navadvīpa-maṇḍala parikramā is going on. Today is the second day and they will go to Godrumadvīpa. This way, many programs going on in Māyāpur dhāma.

This human form of life is very rare. If one observes this Puruṣottama month in the human form of life properly, then they can get back to the spiritual world at the end of this life. I don’t know what is going on Singapore now. I hope that all of you will serve the Lord cooperatively. His Holiness Bhakti Cāru Swami had desired that everyone should serve with Prabhupāda consciousness. Śrīla Prabhupāda propagated this movement all over the world and thus he preached the name of Lord Caitanya. Therefore, you all please try to follow Śrīla Prabhupāda’s instructions, be exemplary followers of Śrīla Prabhupāda and thus try to fulfill Śrīla Prabhupāda’s desire. In this material world most of the people they do not think about Kṛṣṇa, they do not know about Kṛṣṇa. There are a lot of opportunities for those follow bhakti-yoga. Śrīla Prabhupāda, he wanted to change the way that people think. The people think that they are the body and so do all the activities in that consciousness. Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted that we understand that we are not this body, we are the soul and this body is like a dress which we are wearing. This way, there is a relation between soul and Supersoul. If one follows the special instructions of Lord Caitanya, he can achieve kṛṣṇa-prema. Ordinarily, it is very difficult and rare to achieve kṛṣṇa-prema. But due to Lord Caitanya and Nitāi Gaura’s mercy, we can get this prema very easily. Every night, we are having daily Śrī Caitanya-līlā kathā, but it may be a bit late in Singapore as we have the kathā around 7 pm IST. When Lord Caitanya went to Katwa to take sannyāsa, all the residents of Navadvīpa dhāma were in the mood of separation from Lord Caitanya. Śacīmātā, she did not eat anything for twelve days. Only because of Lord Caitanya’s mercy, she was surviving. Everyone went to Śāntipura and met Lord Caitanya. So many people came to Śāntipura to take darśana of Lord Caitanya. Advaita Ācārya, having Lord Caitanya in his house, for one prahara, three hours, he danced because he was very much happy to have Lord Caitanya in his house. And along with him Lord Nityānanda danced and behind them Haridāsa Ṭhākura also danced. Suddenly in separation from Lord Kṛṣṇa, He fell unconscious. Advaita Gosāñi tried to wake Lord Caitanya up. At the same time Mukunda Datta understood the mood of Lord Caitanya and started to sing a beautiful song. In this way, Lord Caitanya became all the more in trance and could not come back. All the devotees were worried as it seemed like He almost had no breath. Suddenly, Lord Caitanya jumped up. Haribol! Haribol! This way, He jumped and chanting Haribol! This way Lord Caitanya had a beautiful pastime. So thus we can hear and see His pastimes and become very happy. Now taking this opportunity of the pandemic, there are ten to eleven thousand students from Mangaluru, Trivandrum, Chennai, they are participating. Those who want are taking this opportunity in Bangladesh. This way, we should have the desire to serve Lord Caitanya and Śrīla Prabhupāda everywhere and all the time. If you have any questions, I can answer some questions. You can write your questions in the chat box.

Question: Guru Mahārāja, we promised you during initiation that we will help you in spreading Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mission but now during this lockdown period, we are not able to help in preaching. What should we do Guru Mahārāja?

Jayapatākā Swami: If you can, you can help me in this period of lockdown. We change the way we help, using the internet.

Question: When I am able to understand that I am not able to do devotional service like before, for example, I cannot read books now as I was doing before, what should I do in such a situation? Maybe I have offended a Vaiṣṇava.

Jayapatākā Swami: Why were you able to read more earlier and not now? Please try that you do not commit any Vaiṣṇava-aparādhā amongst each other and forgive each other. You can chant the Pañca-tattva mantra and Nitāi-Gaura names and thus make advancement in spiritual life. Haribol!

Question: How can I make advancement in devotional life? I try to chant 16 rounds, but I don’t get time to read books. How can I improve in all aspects of spiritual life?

Jayapatākā Swami: If you fix a specific time to read books daily then your reading habit will grow and if two persons can sit and read, that way your reading habit will increase. There are some books which are in audio version which you can hear while cooking or doing some work.

Question: How can we have a blissful and cooperative family and do devotional service?

Jayapatākā Swami: If husband and wife, both are devotees then there are many opportunities. If between the two if one of them is little behind, the other person should be affectionate to him or her and inspire them. There is no use of using any bad words or being angry, it will simply increase the distance between them. There are some strategies and techniques where they can get together and read books or chant together.