20201201 Zoom Session with Pudiwada Nāmahaṭṭa, Andra Pradesh Devotees

The following is a zoom session with Pudiwada Nāmahaṭṭa Andra Pradesh devotees and His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on December 1st 2020, in Śrīdhāma Māyāpur, India.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Jayapatākā Swami: Today I am very happy to visit Nāmahaṭṭas and Bhakti-vṛkṣas in Andhra Pradesh. I am glad that Gopīkānta Prabhu has been able to enthuse you in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Is the nearest temple is Guntur? Guntur is Andhra, Rajahmundry, right?

Devotee: Yes! It is under Rajahmundry. But our Nāmahaṭṭa is under Tirupati.

Jayapatākā Swami: Alright! Anyway… The program that the husband and wife and make their home as a kind of “Bhakti Home”. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura called them as śraddhā-kuṭīras - as homes of faith. So each home is part of a Nāmahaṭṭa or Bhakti-vṛkṣa group. You try to keep Kṛṣṇa in the center. So if the wife is a devotee of Kṛṣṇa, she is like the goddess of fortune, in that way the whole house become very auspicious. We want husband and wife to be together in dharma and serve Lord Kṛṣṇa. Lord Caitanya visited Guntur, and this area of Andhra Pradesh many times. He taught all the people, that they chant the holy name of Kṛṣṇa, in this Age of Kali, we should chant the name of Kṛṣṇa. There are other processes in other yugas – homa, meditation, and temple worship. We are not so qualified to do these things. Lord came as His holy name. There is no difference from the Lord and His holy name. So, by the mercy of Lord Caitanya we can chant the holy name without offence.

To take shelter and initiation one should chant 16 rounds or 25,000 names of Kṛṣṇa a day. To take aspiring one should chant at least one round a day. Sixteen rounds is one-crore a year. If one does eight rounds a day, it is fifty lakh a year. Four rounds a day is 25 lakhs a year. So everything counts. It is very important that we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Serve and worship Kṛṣṇa, then we study the teachings of Lord Kṛṣṇa. He spoke the Bhagavad-gītā, and the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is spoken about Him. These are the two important teachings. His Divine Grace Abhayacaraṇāravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda spread this message of Lord Caitanya all over the world. Some people went to America, he had a job to get rich. There they met devotees and they became rich in spiritual knowledge. So now they are trying to help to spread back, where it came from. Lord Caitanya said, that one who is born in India as a human being, bhārata-bhūmite haila manuṣya-janma yāra janma sārthaka kari’ kara para-upakāra (Cc. Ādi 9.41) they should perfect their life and help others. Lord Caitanya told in Andhra Pradesh in the Kūrma-deśa, it is about hour and half from Vishakhapatnam. He told, yāre dekha, tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa – whoever you see tell them the message of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra’ ei deśa – by My order be a guru and deliver your country.

Okay!

So, I am very happy to see, so many devotees are dedicated to kṛṣṇa-bhakti. In Andhra Pradesh, there is Bālājī Tirumala Tirupati temple. There are many temples of Lord Narasiṁhadeva. So like that Vaiṣṇava-dharma is very prominent in Andhra Pradesh. So we hope that all of you will engage in special kṛṣṇa-bhakti and achieve your success in your life. We want naturally one be rich and peaceful. We naturally want to be peaceful and happy. But the secret is that along with our material happiness, the real happiness is achieved by serving Kṛṣṇa. So we want all of you to use your situation to serve Kṛṣṇa. Saṅkarācārya said that, to achieve mokṣa one needs to be sannyāsī. Lord Caitanya said, bhakti-yoga, to be a gṛhastha or sannyāsī, either one can achieve success by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa – gṛhe thāko vane thāko sadā hari bole ḍāko. We hope that all of you will keep Kṛṣṇa in the center and by practice this kṛṣṇa-bhakti in your life. So, I thank all of you for participating and chanting. I just speak a short time, since there are many other ceremonies.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.