20200605 Zoom Session with Patna Devotees

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-gurun dina tāriṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram

Jayapatākā Swami: I am very happy that I have come to Patna in Bihar and taking darśana of the devotees here. Kṛṣṇe matir astu! I am offering my blessings to you! I don’t have so much practice to speak Hindi so I will speak in English and Rādhāramaṇa Sevaka dāsa will translate in Hindi.

I was supposed to go to participate in the inauguration of the temple in Patna. But due to the 72 days of lockdown I could not go. But Patna is blessed by the Bhāgīrathī, Ganges, flowing. And there, Lord Caitanya visited, and it is very close to the birthplace of Mother Sītā. We are pleased that devotees there are also participating in this class today.

We know that this corona virus pandemic is because human beings have misbehaved. We have done various things against the laws of nature, against the laws of Kṛṣṇa. And as a result, this infection, this virus came from the animals to the human beings. So, although devotees are vegetarian, once it has come into the human species, we are all affected. Since we always pray to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, we should chant His holy names. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare! Before we chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, the Kali-santaraṇa Upaniṣad says, this is kali-kalmaṣa nāśanam – we first chant the name of Lord Caitanya. We can either chant the Pañca-tattva mantra –

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

Or we can chant the short version. Nitāi Gaurāṅga, Nitāi Gaurāṅga, Nitāi Gaurāṅga, Nitāi Gaurāṅga! Bhagavān came down 500 years ago to give us all a chance to join Lord Kṛṣṇa’s Vraja-līlā. By chanting the name of Kṛṣṇa. There is no difference in Kṛṣṇa’s name and Kṛṣṇa. So, we hope that everyone in this lockdown, you can chant more rounds and study Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books and attend more classes, and also preach on the internet.

We heard how recently in Chennai they advertised a class for beginners on Bhagavad-gītā. They expected maybe 100 people would join. You know how many joined? 9000! The people are very much eager to find out what is the real purpose of life. Previously may be they were thinking that this material world is a nice place or that way. Now that the corona virus is there, they realize that the doctors, scientists, and the government have a limit to what they can do. We heard that the president of Sri Lanka, he called all the representatives of the religions to talk to him. What does your śāstra say is the cause of such a pandemic? And what is the solution according to your śāstra? Actually, every leader should think in this way. I am very glad that at least the Sri Lankan leader is thinking like this.

Like this, we want to give the people Kṛṣṇa consciousness in this time of anxiety and fear. If they chant Hare Kṛṣṇa they will lose their fear. Apparently, the Supreme Court of India said that more people may die of anxiety and fear than from the actual disease. And they recommended bhajana, kīrtana, namaz should be increased. So this is a good time for us to help people chant the holy name. Bihar is a very holy place. You have the Gayās – Bodha Gayā and Viṣṇu Gayā, you have various holy places. Like Sitamarhi and Patna is an ancient place which was called Pataliputra. Lord Caitanya went alongside the Ganges on the way to Vṛndāvana via Banaras.

So, we are very happy that you are all in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Hare Kṛṣṇa!