20200410 Zoom Session with Dāmodara-deśa Devotees

The following is an address given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja,on April 10th,2020 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur, India. The address was given to the Damodara Deśa Devotees via zoom.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

I am very happy to be here tonight in Dāmodaradeśa! So now in India we are under lockdown. I heard that many of you are working from your house. I don’t know what the exact situation is in Dāmodaradeśa. But this corona virus is now here, has no treatment and no cure and no vaccine. All the programs are so that we don’t get the disease. The ideas is that if you touch something which has the virus, so they say, wash your hands frequently, because if you don’t wash your hand and there is virus on your hand, you touch your face, and you get sick. So that is why they are saying keep social distancing, wear face mask, and wash your hand frequently. If you go out, leave your footwear outside your house and wash your feet. You see many people, not devotees, the materialistic people, they wear their shoes in the house. This way their house may be having different kinds of virus. Anyway, I won’t speak too much on this topic. Just mentioned.

They thing we are trying to do, is to get the devotees to utilize the internet - o have classes, somehow use the facilities to engage the people in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So, actually, Śrīla Prabhupāda said, that chanting the name of God is the most effective means, it is a sacrifice recommended in this Kali yuga. So if one does not wish to chant the names in Sanskrit then Śrīla Prabhupāda said they can chant any holy name of God as mentioned in the scriptures of their choice. So people may like to chant in Arabic, or other, Hebrew or may choose to chant in Sanskrit. The Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra is mentioned in in the Kali Santaraṇa Upaniṣad. There it says that these 16 names destroy all the kalmaṣa of the Kali yuga, it is ṣoḍaśakaṁ nāmnāṁ kali-kalmaṣa-nāśanaṁ. So if we can get people all over the world chant to chant the name of Kṛṣṇa, or chant the name of the Supreme Lord, that is the best thing. Recently someone showed me a video that the heads of state of different South American countries, like Brazil, Paraguay, San Salvador, Panama, and even European country, Spain, they were asking their citizens, please pray, please pray and fast. But actually, since this infection, this virus comes from animals, human beings do not have any natural antibodies. This comes because people are eating meat and eating the meat of bats, snakes, wild animals. But the previous pandemics came because of American swine eating, because of mistreatment of the cows in the UK, because of Africans eating chimpanzees, basically people should avoid non veg, and they should chant the name of God. Whether they chant on japa or tasbi or rosary, that is a detail. But at this time we should pray to God to forgive us for our misdeeds and to chant His holy names. That is the sacrifice mentioned in the Vedas for the age of Kali.

Anyway I hope you have been listening to my classes on Caitanya-līlā. We heard that Lord Caitanya was acting in His younger life as Nimāi Paṇḍita. And He was showing how as a gṛhastha, He was leading an ideal life. He was feeding many sannyāsīs and guests, and poor people in His house every day, ten to twenty. Mother Śacī was saying, we don’t have enough food. How do we feed them? Lord Caitanya said, somehow, Kṛṣṇa will provide. And just when They needed it, someone came by and gave Śacī-mātā, a lot of bhoga to cook and offer to the deities and give to the guests. So Lord Caitanya was acting as a gṛhastha very happily. Then He went to Gaya and got initiated from Īśvara Purī mahārāja. And after that He started his devotional career. He saw Kṛṣṇa in Jharkanda, at the place of Kanāināṭaśāla. So Lord Caitanya went back to Navadvīpa. He was chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, He was a devotee, so the Vaiṣṇavas of Navadvīpa, they were amazed at the change in Nimāi Paṇḍita. Before Nimāi Paṇḍita was a leading brāhmaṇa. He was argumentative, and then when He came back, He was crying for Kṛṣṇa, He was devotional. So that was the līlā.

Now we are reading how Śāntipura maṭha, Advaita Gosāñī, He is an avatāra of Sadāśiva and Mahā Viṣṇu. So He is an expansion of Kṛṣṇa and Lord Caitanya is Kṛṣṇa Himself. So, Advaita Gosāñī, He was always respected by Lord Caitanya because He was the brother of his guru, spiritual brother, godbrother. But Advaita felt that He was inferior to Lord Caitanya and in order to get Lord Caitanya to mistreat him, He started preaching Māyāvāda and Vaṣiṣṭha-yoga, just to get Lord Caitanya to show Him anger and treat Him as an inferior. On the way, Lord Caitanya stopped at some dadi sannyāsī’s house, some tantric sannyāsi’s house, and we were discussing those pastimes.

So, Lord Caitanya’s pastimes are very interesting. And you are all very dear to Lord Caitanya, because you are also practicing and spreading. In Some places where they are having the lockdown like in the UK, I don’t know if you have lock down in the UAE, Dāmodaradeśa. Some are having Bhakti-vṛkṣa meetings not once a week, but every day or every other day, three days a week, whatever because people have time on their days. There are some classes you can take in some places they did a japathon, like a marathon, how much japa you can do in one day, from morning till night. Some people did 2 lakhs, some children did 16 rounds, when they usually do only one or two. So using the internet, they have various kinds of programs. I hope that you are also maintaining your Kṛṣṇa consciousness in this difficult period.