20201112 Nāmahaṭṭa Initiation Ceremony for Nadia and Mursidabad

The following is a Namahatta Initiation Ceremony for Nadia Mursidabad Via Zoom by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on November 12th, 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!

Those who have assembled here for taking dīkṣā they will promise that they will follow the four regulative principles all their lives, 16 rounds chanting, and try to chant more on Ekādaśī and will assist me in fulfilling the instructions of Śrīla Prabhupāda. Those who have assembled here for taking dīkṣā they will promise that they will follow the four regulative principles all their lives, 16 rounds chanting, and try to chant more on Ekādaśī and will assist me in fulfilling the instructions of Śrīla Prabhupāda. Even till now the names of the devotees taking initiation has not been provided to me. When the candidates come for initiation one by one, you will come in front of the camera and request me to give you initiation. Then I will have the japa beads given to you. Those who are taking initiation they are told that they are taking the vows and that for life they will keep their vows, that gets confirmed. This is the procedure. As soon as possible the names of the candidates may please be given to me as I need them to give the names.

By way of the initiation ceremony being conducted now, it means that the initiated devotees will now be connected with the guru-paramparā, the disciplic succession. And our Founder-Ācārya, Śrīla Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, he established Lord Caitanya’s movement all over the world. And he ordered that this paramparā should continue all the time. Bhakti-yoga means that we serve the master of the senses with our senses. And this way if the Lord is satisfied with our service then we achieve perfection of life. We are conditioned souls and decided we would turn away from Kṛṣṇa. Now we are taking initiation to get back to serving Kṛṣṇa. Now the spiritual master is accepting me and this is my special good fortune, the disciple thinks. And the vows that you take are very significant. You have to follow it all your life. One of my disciples wrote to me, I am not able to follow all the principles, please release me from these vows. I don’t know of any program by which the disciples can be absolved of the vows. If you think that you may not be able to follow all the principles throughout your life, you can still not take initiation now. When my women disciples deliver baby then I give them 15 days off from doing all the practices. This way, after 15 days we calculate and see what needs to be done. If someone is unwell or something, they will try their level best to follow the principles. I chant more than 16 rounds every day. But I had operation and could not chant some days, but I made up the chanting later.

That way you should also try and we have to make a resolve that we definitely will go back to Godhead. We will serve Kṛṣṇa and serving Kṛṣṇa, we will perfect our lives. And serving Kṛṣṇa, the kind of bliss we will feel is incomparable. In the adivāsa kīrtana we sing, there is a line that goes – ānander sīmā nāi, ānander sīmā nāi, ānander sīmā nāi, nirānande dūre jāy, nirānanda dūre jāy! Those who are taking initiation, maybe most of them are from Nadia. There is no need to be physically present here. I give initiation to various devotees around the world by Zoom. And the candidate will come before the camera and say, I want to take initiation. Then I will give the spiritual name and Gaurāṅga Prema Swami Mahārāja will give the beads on behalf of me to you. Lord Caitanya said, gṛhe thāko vane thāko sadā hari bole ḍāko. That way, even if you are home, you can take the name of Kṛṣṇa and do devotional service. In the material world people generally think they are the body. But we have to understand that we are ātmā, soul and we have a body. That way, we will serve Kṛṣṇa. And with words, body and mind we will serve Lord Kṛṣṇa. Husband-and-wife, together will remember Kṛṣṇa and do devotional service. I hope that all of you will read the Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, written by Śrīla Prabhupāda. And will also teach others to read. And you will learn the different aspects of bhakti-yoga.

Haribol!