20201218 Zoom Initiation Ceremony Address

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

Jayapatākā Swami: This morning all of you have assembled for the initiation ceremony. Now I am giving initiation virtually. Now via Zoom we are giving initiation to many disciples. I will give a spiritual name, and someone will hand over the japa-mālā to you on my behalf. Lord Caitanya said that gṛhe thāko vane thāko sadā hari bole ḍāko. Those who are renunciants and those who are gṛhasthas, everyone will do Harināma. Now the purpose of gṛhastha life is to keep Kṛṣṇa in the center and serve Him. Husband and wife together should try to serve Kṛṣṇa. So that when they have children, they beget Kṛṣṇa conscious children. And they should try to also serve in the temple. Saṅkarācārya said that to merge in the impersonal Brahman one has to become a sannyāsī. But we devotees of Kṛṣṇa want to serve Kṛṣṇa. We don’t want to merge in the impersonal Brahman. That way, we see that the Pāṇḍavas, Prahlāda Mahārāja, they were devotees of Kṛṣṇa and they served Kṛṣṇa. That way, being a gṛhastha Draupadī was a devotee of Kṛṣṇa. Kuntī devī, Devahūti, Devakī, Yaśodā, Śrīmati Rādhārāṇī. This way, husband or wife, their only objective should be to serve Kṛṣṇa. That way, under different situations, we should serve Kṛṣṇa.

Before this initiation you were aspiring and sheltered, and now this is an exercise. Now after initiation, you take the vows to serve Kṛṣṇa. That service you offer to the guru-paramparā. I will try to keep in touch with everyone personally. In this modern world, there are various social media, like Facebook, Instagram, and there is the Jayapatākā Swami App, and those who have mobile phones can download this app. Every day, what I do, I give some details. Yesterday, I opened an office called Disciple Care. Now to take care of my men and women disciples, I have deputed some people. To help me, I have some of my senior disciples, who will guide you. This way I am trying that all of you stay in Kṛṣṇa’s service. But Śrīla Prabhupāda gave an example that in the winter, the birds fly from north to south, and then from south to north in the summer. That is we see in the sky. But each bird has to fly itself. We see that one leader bird is there and others follow one behind the other. But we hear from the scientists that the leader bird is big and behind it the wind speed goes down by 30% for the others to follow. But the leader is big and heavy. Whatever, we have to get everyone to fly in the service of Kṛṣṇa. That I cannot do. 16 rounds chant, service to Kṛṣṇa, service in the temple, etc. you have to do. But I will always be there to guide and direct you.

I will pray for you every day, but you have the responsibility that you will serve Kṛṣṇa, have kṛṣṇa-prasāda, and follow the regulative principles. If you do not do this, that is not my fault, but I will suffer, and you will also suffer. After initiation, we think this is not the learning, we have to do the real thing. Bound by the vows, serve Kṛṣṇa. And this way, serving Kṛṣṇa, we can go back home back to Godhead, that should be our goal of life. And this way, there is no limit to our happiness in serving Kṛṣṇa. In the adhivāsa kīrtana we sing – ānander sīmā nai, ānander sīmā nai, nirānanda dūre jāi, nirānanda dūre jāi. What bliss we experience in service to Kṛṣṇa, there is no limit to that. And generally, living in the material world there is suffering. But when we are serving Kṛṣṇa, then all the suffering goes away. This way we hope that you will all very enthusiastically serve Kṛṣṇa and will surrender whole heartedly to Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa will then protect you from all sins. You should make efforts to follow all the regulative principles and rules. If you make mistakes you have to try again to make amends. There is no better way of atonement.

Now, the name change will take care and all of you will get spiritual names. Those who have spiritual names from birth, we will change the same a little, those who want to keep the spiritual name. I hope that all of you will be very happy in Kṛṣṇa’s service. Haribol!