20201013 Zoom Session with Bankura Purulia Namahatta

The following is a zoom session with Bankura, Purulia Nāmahaṭṭa devotees by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on October 13th, 2020 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur, India

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

hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Jayapatākā Swami: All glories to the congregation of Purulia and Bankura! Every night around 7 pm I give a class on Caitanya-līlā. This is available on Jayapatākā Swami Bangla Facebook. We are now reading that Lord Caitanya had taken sannyāsa in Katwa. Then He came back to Śāntipur and there He stayed in the house of Advaita Ācārya for about ten days. Every night there was kīrtana and dance there. And Śacīmātā used to cook for Him. And today being Parama Ekādaśī we did a bit of kīrtana. And all the devotees contributed to the kīrtana. On this Parama Ekādaśī it is recommended that we do some kīrtana in the evening or night. And dance with the kīrtana. In the Satya-yuga the mode of devotion was meditation, in the Tretā-yuga was homa or fire sacrifice, in the Dvāpara-yuga it was temple worship. But in this Kali-yuga we are not able to do all this very well. That is why the Lord came Himself in the form of His holy name. If we chant the holy names, then we can get the blessings of Lord Caitanya. There is no difference between Kṛṣṇa and His holy name. If we chant the name of Kṛṣṇa, then we can get the mercy of Kṛṣṇa. This month, Puruṣottama month, if we do the vrata we get special mercy of the Lord. And today being Parama Ekādaśī, especially these last five days, there is a vrata. If we do some special devotional service to the Lord, we get some special blessings. Generally, now most people are busy in different kinds of work. And the remembrance of the Lord does not come in their minds. In case of problem, maybe the pious people think of God. For economic reasons also some people think of God. Some are interested in wealth and think of God. But those who are really intelligent and knowledgeable, they think of God. This way a pure devotee always thinks of the Lord at all times. But ordinarily people don’t think of God. This way in the Nāmahaṭṭa, every week there is a get together. But we chant the names of God every day in our homes. All the time we are surrendered to the Lord’s lotus feet. There is a rule that we should always remember the Lord and never forget Him. This is the foremost rule. This way if we chant the names of God, then we will always think of Him.

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa
Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare 
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma
Rāma Rāma Hare Hare 

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa
Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare 
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma
Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

We hope that all the devotees will take this opportunity in this Kali-yuga and chant the names of Kṛṣṇa. After lot of suffering and many millions of lifetimes, we get the human form of life. And now after getting this human form of life, there is an opportunity for us to worship God, to do devotional service and to chant the name of God, and thereby go back to God. Today many devotees have donated a lot for the service of the Lord. And on this Parama Ekādaśī in Puruṣottama māsā, it is a special rule to do charity. Because a gṛhastha should try to do as much devotional service as possible and give donation as well. The lady is a life partner. Together with the husband they should do devotional service. If they both chant the name of God and study the Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and do service to Kṛṣṇa, worship Kṛṣṇa, this Lord Caitanya’s important instruction – bolo-kṛṣṇa, bhaja-kṛṣṇa, karo-kṛṣṇa-śīkṣā. We hope that all of you will chant the name of Kṛṣṇa and will experience a lot of bliss. If we stay in this material world there will be lot of problems. Ādhyātmika, ādhidaivika, ādhibhautika. Ādhyātmika - we suffer diseases related to our body. Ādhibhautika is suffering received from other living entities. Dog bite, suffering from mosquito bites, suffering given by harmful animals, robbers, rogues. This is Ādhibhautika. Then is ādhidaivika. Pandemic, floods, hurricanes, extreme heat and cold, no rain, excessive rains, on which we have no control. That is the Lord’s desire, nature’s desire. Because we are breaking the laws of the Lord, these ādhidaivika sufferings occur. Now the pandemic is on because we are eating different animals. And the disease comes to us from the animals. If we eat kṛṣṇa-prasāda and be vegetarian, we have not heard there is any disease from tomatoes or potatoes! The bat was being eaten by the Chinese and the disease came from that. On this day of Ekādaśī especially we should have prasāda. We don’t eat any grains, cereals or pulses. Many cannot fast much also. Anyway, this is Parama Ekādaśī and this is the most important of all the Ekādaśīs. I consider myself very fortunate to be amidst the devotees from Purulia and Bankura.

Hare Kṛṣṇa!