20201126 Initiation Ceremony Address to Nāmahaṭṭa Devotees

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

Jayapatākā Swami: There is one initiating guru and there can be many śīkṣā-gurus. I am both your initiating and śikṣā-guru. And maybe the leaders in the Nāmahaṭṭa may also be your śikṣā-gurus. Śrīla Prabhupāda’s place of appearance is Kolkata. And that is why Kolkata is very important for us. He is our Founder-Ācārya and he appeared in Kolkata. And staying in Kolkata he had many pastimes. Anyway, Kolkata, Howrah are significant for us. Many devotees of Lord Caitanya hailed from Howrah. And we hope that the devotees who are present now will correctly associate with Lord Caitanya. Howrah, Kolkata all fall within Gaura-maṇḍala-bhūmi.

gauḍa maṇḍala bhūmi, yeba jane cintāmaṇi
tara hoy vrajabhūme vāsa

Our previous ācāryas have offered us this. Now, if we remember that Lord Caitanya had considered that Kolkata, Howrah are part of Gaura-maṇḍala-bhūmi is like living in Vṛndāvana. But generally, people think that I am this body. In English we say how are you? But In Bengali we say, “How is your body?” We are spirit soul and that has a body. The soul is eternal. We wish that all the devotees will stay in devotional service and that way there is no limit to their happiness. Lord Caitanya told the gṛhastha devotees that they should go home and together, husband and wife, should do devotional service. And we saw that Śrīla Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura he instructed his whole family to chant the holy name of Kṛṣṇa. He said there is no problem if husband and wife they speak to one other closely or touch one another, provided they are doing devotional service to the Lord. Service to Kṛṣṇa where there is advancement.

Now generally, we don’t think of Kṛṣṇa in our lives. But in devotion, we always remember Kṛṣṇa and never forget Kṛṣṇa. And we practice devotional service to Kṛṣṇa and have kṛṣṇa-prasāda and sing the glories of Kṛṣṇa. The devotee has the strength to preach to the ordinary people about Lord Kṛṣṇa. I hope that you will preach the holy name so others can also start taking to chanting. Ordinarily, people are interested in reading the newspaper and seeing what is going on with different people, what is going on in politics, etc. But our previous ācārya, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura he brought a daily newspaper with spiritual news. People asked what news is there daily in your newspaper? He said the spiritual world is ¾^th of the creation and the material world is ¼^th. So the spiritual world has ¾^th more news.

Anyway, after taking initiation you can explain and preach to more people. Your relatives, work colleagues, friends, and students. Your responsibility is to talk to them about Kṛṣṇa, but whether they accept it or not is their decision. Many times, if they pray to the Lord within, He gives them the energy to preach. We will see how to facilitate the Nāmahaṭṭa preaching, and you can also individually see how you can increase the preaching. To practice and preach. Anyway, I will end my talk today and offer all of you my best wishes and blessings!