20210423 - 72nd Vyāsa-pūjā Evening Address

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

Guru Mahārāja: So this is an auspicious day in the sense that it is Kamada Ekādaśī. And on this is the Ekādaśī you can satisfy all your desires. So I hope that you have spiritual desires. And that you want to awaken your dormant love for Kṛṣṇa. Initiated disciples take a vow at the time of their initiation that they will following the four regulative principles, they will chant 16 rounds minimum per day, and they will help me fulfill Śrīla Prabhupāda’s instructions. Of course, we hope that at least you will observe these vows.

We prescribe that ladies during their childbirth, they can have 15 days’ credit on their japa. Because we know that it is a difficult time. So then that means if they chant 8 rounds a day, they can chant 8 rounds for a month. Anyway, of course, we would like everyone who is first initiated to come up to take the second initiation. To do that at present, they have to read Bhagavad-gītā multiple times, they have to read up to the third canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and they have to get the Bhakti-śāstrī degree. That is the usual standard. There may be some exceptions in rare cases, but we won’t talk about the exceptions. Then, those who have second initiation, we would like them to continue reading Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books, not that they get the second and stop there! You should go on reading and finish the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, finish the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Ideally, get the Bhakti-vaibhava degree, Bhakti-vedānta degree and Bhakti-sārvabhauma degree that would be ideal.

Śrīla Prabhupāda said that if we make more devotees and they don’t get serious in their spiritual life, then it is like adding water to the milk. The more water you add the thinner the milk gets. Then it is no longer milk. It is white water! So Śrīla Prabhupāda said we have to boil down the milk. And like that, devotees should try to advance in their Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That way, they can achieve higher and higher platforms of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is mentioned in the beginning of Nectar of Devotion, that there is vaidhī-bhakti of two types – just following the regulative principles, that is one part. If you are spontaneous in following, you try to follow, you try to improve your quality, just like sweeping the floor – you can do it da da da, take two hours to sweep the floor. Or you will be fired up. Finish up quick i can do something else and clean it properly and finish in half hour. Then next service. But that Śrīla Prabhupāda said, we try to do our service better, that is rāgānugā. So just doing it somehow or another, that is normal. Doing it, trying to improve, trying to do better, that is rāgānugā. And of course, these are very general categories.

We come from that level to bhāva where you are ecstatic, where you are actually ecstatic that your hairs are standing on end, tears are coming from your eyes. That is four stages of that and then prema-bhakti. That is above bhāva. So of course, the stages before bhāva can also be divided into seven steps. Like first, śraddhā, satsaṅga, association with devotees, bhajana-kriyā. Usually in the bhajana-kriyā statge one takes initiation. In ānartha-nivṛtti, they try to throw away all the anarthas, unwanted habits. They are already following the regulative principles, but in a subtle execution of devotional service. Sometimes enthusiastic and sometimes slow. When they become fixed that is niṣṭhā. When you develop taste that is ruci. When you develop attachment that is āsakti.

One time in Montreal, a father and mother they came and were talking to their son. They were trying to grab and take him home. He said no, no I will not go, and held on the door knob. They pulled his foot and he said, “No, no, I don’t want to leave.” Śrīla Prabhupāda said that this means he has developed āsakti, attachment. How one is fighting with his parents. They want to go home and he wants to stay. From that āsakti we develop bhāva, ecstatic symptoms.

When we are chanting Harināma You start laughing you will dance like a wild man, “Haribol! Gaurāṅga”! You shout you raise your hands. We hope that you will all reach the level of bhāva and prema. So, we see that Lord Caitanya, of course He would manifest a higher level of prema. But His associates they were all manifesting ecstatic symptoms. Then Śrīla Prabhupāda said that when we are trying to think how can I spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness, when you think how can I make my neighbors Kṛṣṇa conscious, how can I make my work colleagues Kṛṣṇa consciousness, when we start to think like that that means we are becoming more spontaneous. Of course, I have to complete the orders Śrīla Prabhupāda gave me. Some of the orders are unending. Like Śrīla Prabhupāda said, expand the Kṛṣṇa consciousness propaganda preaching unlimitedly. That is an unlimited order.

Then he would say, ok expand the Gaura-maṇḍala-bhūmi, develop the holy places, develop Navadvīpa dhāma. I was listening to the different offerings, different descriptions. Saṅkarṣaṇa Nitāi dāsa was talking about Navadvīpa dhāma. One thing is to develop the camp sites, another thing is that there are many holy places. Some of them, we don’t know the exact spot. Like Sapta-ṛṣi-ṭilā, over the years the tree in Modadrumadvīpa where Sītā Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa were, we don’t exactly where that is. And we don’t know where Vaikuṇṭhapur is where Lord Nārāyaṇa resides. But there are some places that we found like Mahatpur where the Pāṇḍavas and Draupadī stayed. We found many places but nothing there. We need to get some land build, something there. So Lord Nityānanda He established the Nāmahaṭṭa in Godrumadvīpa. Now there is a Gauḍīya Maṭha in Surabhi-kuñja. So in some places the Gauḍīya Maṭha has done something. Some places were found at the time of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura and some things were previously there. Like Narasiṁha temple in Narasiṁhapallī. Like Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura found the Caṁpahaṭṭi Gaura Gadādhara temple. Also Vidyānagara. It is there from time immemorial. So places have temple, some places we need to build the temple. Some temple or yātrā could sponsor a temple. Then we would put a marble plaque that this temple is sponsored by New Jersey or South England, whatever.

Any way helping me in different works, distributing books, expanding Bhakti-vṛkṣa, so many things. But also, as Revatī Ramaṇa dāsa and different devotees have mentioned, I would like every disciple to boil down their milk, become mature devotees, become ācāryas, practice what they preach and become future initiating gurus. For that, I would like people to take the different degrees like Bhakti-vedānta degree because Śrīla Prabhupāda mentioned that if somebody has the Bhakti-vedānta degree, they can initiate. He also said that to take sannyāsa one should have Bhakti-vaibhava. And to take second initiation, one should take Bhakti-śāstrī. In Māyāpur or Vṛndāvana, they can stay for 3-4 months and get a degree. But many people cannot get out of work for three months. So the board of examinations of the Education Ministry they told me they can test you and you don’t have to take the course. If you know the scriptures, have read Śrīla Prabhupāda books, studied it carefully, then you can take the test. The test is only about 5 dollars which is like 350 Indian rupees. But now there are different online training programs. Whatever it is, we want people to know the scriptures. We would also like them to know about Śrīla Prabhupāda and become ācāryas. Become initiating gurus. I am very pleased with Caitanya Candra Caraṇa, my grand disciples with their inspiring reports. How many hundreds and thousands of books, how many millions of prasāda plates. Like this It would be nice if we could have expansion of preaching by many initiating gurus, but I want people to be qualified. I want them to study Śrīla Prabhupāda books. I want them to be capable of presenting the philosophy without misinterpretation. I am physically crippled. I am very grateful to all the staff who help me every day. I cannot walk on my own. Have many impediments. But I have a tremendous desire to see the people taste the mercy of Lord Caitanya. And if we can spread that message, then we can solve all the problems that people face and people will be very happy and blissful.

I read some quotes where Śrīla Prabhupāda said we should make thousands of gurus. In a class in Māyāpur he said,we need to have ten thousand ācāryas, then to hundred thousand, from hundred thousand to one million, from one million to 10 million. So Śrīla Prabhupāda had this vision. It is not that you have to be a sannyāsī for preaching. Lord Caitanya was travelling in South India, He told the gṛhasthas – yāre dekha, tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa āmāra ājñāya hañā tāra’ ei deśa – by my order be a guru and deliver your country. So now I can see that, that is Śrīla Prabhupāda’s vision. I am trying to get the GBC to accept that. It is not mine, it is Śrīla Prabhupāda. Whether they accept or not, whatever, if I can get my disciples to follow, I can definitely authorize them. Then they have to go through whatever procedures established by the GBC. I would like to see all the devotees develop their taste for Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and in this way spread in every town and village the mercy of Lord Caitanya.

We see that Gaura Kiśora das Bābājī, he had two disciples – one was a bhajanānandī, Vaṁśī dāsa Bābājī, and one was a goṣṭhy-ānandī, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura. From one goṣṭhy-ānandī disciple, he delivered the whole world, because his disciple was Śrīla Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, who travelled all around the world and spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They may have one disciple or five disciples, some may have thousands of disciples, but that depends on Kṛṣṇa’s mercy. We want people to be very serious, very blessed by Lord Caitanya empowered to preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

In Caitanya-caritāmṛta when Lord Caitanya was visiting Vṛndāvana some the brāhmaṇas there said to Lord Caitanya just by seeing you, women, old men, children, Caṇḍālas, everyone, they deliver the whole world. By becoming spiritual master. We saw that Śrīla Prabhupāda being empowered by Lord Caitanya, he did the same thing. We hope that by the mercy of Lord Caitanya our disciples can also achieve very advanced Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And some of them may be also dīkṣā-gurus. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Anyway, hope that you can all be very careful to follow your principle, to do devotional service, trying to help Lord Caitanya, Śrīla Prabhupāda to spread this movement. So I take this opportunity also to ask all of you to pray for Paṅkajāṅghri Prabhu and the other devotees who are affected by COVID. I think we can all chant one mantra together for their welfare. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.

I would like to thank the Sevā Committee, Nāru Gopāla dāsa, Jagannātha Kīrtanānanda dāsa, and others who have MC-d this function. Very interesting, this morning I was watching the YouTube, since midnight people were giving their homages. On YouTube I saw Jayapatākā Swami Vyāsa-pūjā 2021 and the Indian homages, Malaysian homages, Australian homages, Middle East homages, USA homages, Canada homages. I could not see all in the morning due to my physiotherapy, but since it is on YouTube, I will be watching it for some days. I hope all of you also take advantage of the wonderful realizations. This afternoon the presentation by the JPS Office, JPS Care and various jsss and various initiatives. We hope that in this way we can serve the devotees so that they can develop in their Kṛṣṇa consciousness and reach the advanced levels of bhakti, experience the ecstatic devotional service. Thank you very much! Hare Kṛṣṇa!