20210608 Question and Answer Session

The following is a Question and Answer Session given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on June 8th, 2021 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur, India.

Question: Dearest Gurumahārāja, please accept my humble obeisances. Why did Lord Caitanya say that Gadādhara Paṇḍita wanting to go with Him was simply sense gratification? This is a question based on yesterday's topic.

Jayapatākā Swami: That was Lord Caitanya’s statement. It was said that inside He was feeling satisfied, but externally out of love, He rebuked Gadādhara Prabhu. So, it means that, it is something very confidential. Actually, we know that Gadādhara cannot think of sense gratification, everything is based on his love for Lord Caitanya. But Lord Caitanya was rebuking him in love - you want to follow Me just for sense gratification! But we know that actually that is His loving exchange.

Lakṣmī Rādhā Devī Dāsī: Devotees know that Lord Caitanya is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. Why do they fear that the Lord may be harmed by unfavorable persons like the Muslim governor, and asked Him to stay?

Jayapatākā Swami: Not that every government officer working for King Pratāparudra, knew that Lord Caitanya was Kṛṣṇa Himself. And naturally, they wanted to see that His travel would be peaceful. At the present time, the border of Odisha is a little north of Remuṇā, and there up to the Rūpa Nārāyaṇa river, it is part of what is known as Midnapore. So Rūpa Narayan river is very broad, but very calm and it merges into the Ganges. So He had to cross over the Rūpa Nārāyaṇa river, so they were saying stay for some days, we will make a peaceful arrangement, that is natural. They were thinning how to have the Lord peacefully cross. Otherwise, the Muslim governor was having all the passengers looted, who were traversing in his sub kingdom.

Hare Kṛṣṇa this is a question from Soumya Lalitā from facebook.

Question: Śrīla Guru mahārāja, why Yājapura is known as Virajā-kṣetra?

Jayapatākā Swami: Because it is on the southern bank of Vaitarini river which is also known as Virajā river.

This is a question from mother jalāṇgī. (My dear Śikṣā daughter, Jalāṅgī devī dāsī)

Jalāṅgī devī dāsī: Why Lord Caitanya showed separation from Rāmānanda Rāya instead of Gadādhara?

Jayapatākā Swami: It is a hard question to answer. This was the nature of the pastime of Lord Caitanya. That He would reciprocate with different devotees. I can think that if He would go back to Gadādhara Prabhu, He cannot leave - the relationship with Gadādhara is such that He cannot leave. And then Rāmānanda Rāya is also like non-different from Viśākhā. He was reciprocating and why He dealt with different devotees differently, it is between them and the Lord - what can I say?

Question: Gurudeva, can any vows like staying in dhāma can be taken without guru’s permission? Will it be offensive if one takes a vow without the guru’s permission? Kindly enlighten Gurudeva.

Jayapatākā Swami: I think you should take a vow only with guru’s permission, because sometimes you may sentimentally take a vow, and then it is something that is hard to keep. So that way, we should take the permission of the guru and he will protect us from breaking a vow which you cannot keep, which is not important. I was chanting 32 rounds, I did not take a vow, but I thought about it. But Śrīla Prabhupāda told me you should chant 16 rounds, and go out and preach.