20201030 Zoom Darsana to ISKCON Tirupaalai Madurai

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Jayapatākā Swami: I am very happy to visit Madurai ISKCON temple on the anniversary of their initiation. Again, I saw the abhiṣeka offered at noon by Śaṅkhadhārī dāsa and Balarāma Govinda dāsa (Prabhu). You see the Lord descends as an arcā-avatāra. And we can get the same benefit as we get by serving the Lord, by serving the avatāra, the arcā-vigraha. And we are very happy to see how you are worshiping Kṛṣṇa Balarāma, Nitāi Gaura, Lakṣmī Narasiṁhadeva. Always the two come as brothers. In Dvāpara-yuga They came as Kṛṣṇa Balarāma, in Kali-yuga They came as Nitāi Gaura and in Tretā-yuga They came as Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa. So all the avatāras are coming from Kṛṣṇa and they are non-different from Kṛṣṇa. But come in different forms, for expanding His enjoyment.

We are very small, we are jīva-śakti. Kṛṣṇa has 64 qualities. We only have 50, in minute quantity. The greatest jīva in the universe is Lord Brahmā. He has 50 qualities in a much bigger quantity. But we are jīvas, we can never be Śiva, we can never be Viṣṇu. Our service, our purpose is to serve Him. I am very glad that so many grhasthas are having Deities in their homes. One of the names of the wife is saha-dharminī. Companion in dharma. If the husband and wife serve Kṛṣṇa together everything will be very auspicious. If they are very carefully engaged in devotional service, they can go back to Kṛṣṇa at the end of this life. In this world we have senses, we have the soul and we have a body. Sometimes the senses are happy, sometimes they suffer. Now in this pandemic, many are suffering. Because they have eaten meat or mistreated animals, therefore they are getting the karma. As Kṛṣṇa says in the Gītā, duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam. This world is a place of suffering and temporary. We hope that people will value this human form of life and offer this for devotional service of Kṛṣṇa. So you have brought Kṛṣṇa here to the temple, so therefore we should worship Kṛṣṇa very carefully. And see that He is happy. So in this way, our life will be successful.

So, this Pūrṇimā is coming, some people start the Dāmodara-vrata then. Some on the pratipat. We hope that all devotees will very carefully observe the Dāmodara-vrata. Some scriptures say that we get a thousand times more benefit by simple services in the Dāmodara month. This month, try to eat kṛṣṇa-prasāda. No meat, fish or egg. And of course, for South Indians it is a bit austere as in this month we don’t eat urad-dal. No dosa, idli, murukku. Generally, we don’t take meat, fish or egg. So, as a token we don’t take urad-dal which is high protein. So, we try to offer a lamp to the Deity every day. And during the Bhīṣma-Pañcaka, last five days, we do special pūjā. So, it is a very special time, we remember Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes. And we hope that all the devotees will experience some transcendental ecstasy. Thank you all very much! Haribol!