20201202 Zoom Session with Navi Mumbai Devotees

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

Jayapatākā Swami: I am very honored to be here in Navi Mumbai. I visited the temple at least one time and I visited the congregational devotees two or three times. But it has been a long time and I don’t know if the Deities are still open. During this COVID-19 pandemic we are visiting various places via Zoom. This way I visit more places and I am very happy to be here and blessed. We know that there is a great effort to bring up an opulent facility in Navi Mumbai and we are very happy to be participating. We were just reading how Lord Śiva is the protector of all the holy places of Lord Kṛṣṇa.

We heard how during this December marathon, Vaiśeṣika Prabhu has given the goal to distribute two million Bhagavad-gītās. So that is something very wonderful. So as a worldwide team we can try to achieve that goal. In Chennai they were having a Gītā class for 40 people. But they asked everybody to contact their friends, work colleagues, students, relatives, and they got over 9,000 registered. Also, in Mangaluru, I told this story about Chennai to them, and they got about 10 to 11 thousand participants. So we can actually get many people to take Bhagavad-gītā and study in this pandemic time. So we also know how Kṛṣṇa is very merciful, how Lord Caitanya is most merciful and if we distribute His mercy then we get His special mercy. So, also during this time we should encourage the people to chant the holy name. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare!

So, this special month, I also found out due to the Puruṣottama month, the tithi of the lunar and the solar months have somehow become one. Of course, soon that will change but normally the Gītā Jayantī is around mid December. This year it falls on 25^th of December, which is a holiday in India and in Bengal they call it Bodo Din. In the West they call it Christmas. So somehow the Gītā Jayantī is also on the same day, 25^th of December, this year. So that would probably be a holiday, so therefore we can have a special function for Bhagavad-gītā.

Anyway, I am very happy that so many devotees, brahmacārīs, gṛhasthas are engaged in Kṛṣṇa’s service. In this way, Lord Caitanya had instructed whether one is a vairāgī or a gṛhasthā, one should chant the holy names of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Gṛhe thāko vane thāko sadā hari bole ḍāko. So, I am very pleased that husband and wife are working together to serve Kṛṣṇa and distribute books. And we do hope that you are all being blissful in this transcendental service.