20220415 6th Tribal Convention Address

The following is an address given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on April 15th, 2022 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur, India.

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

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Jayapatākā Swami: I am very grateful to all of you for this program. I am very grateful to His Holiness Bhakti Puruṣottama Swami that this Tribal Care program is going on in Māyāpur. For the tribal people, there is provision for health, welfare, education.

Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu has special quality that He naturally gives out love of Godhead to all and is very merciful to all. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu is so merciful that He like Lord Nityānanda gives out mercy to all. Some may think that if I am very educated or if I have a big house, then I will get the mercy of Lord Caitanya. But Lord Caitanya and Lord Nitāi give mercy to all, they do not differentiate who is qualified or who is unqualified. Every avatāra has His particular mood, like Lord Narasiṁhadeva has an angry mood. The mood of Lord Caitanya is mercy.

So His Holiness Bhakti Puruṣottama Swami is making so many arrangements to try to educate, and give other facilities to the tribal people but we hope that at the end of this life everyone goes back to Godhead. Haribol! The Bhagavad-gītā gives us the teaching that we are eternal souls but our bodies are temporary. You live in natural surroundings and if you read the Bhagavad-gītā and do devotional service then very easily you can return to Godhead. His Holiness Bhakti Puruṣottama Swami is making a list of whoever wants the Bhagavad-gītā and I will arrange for those people to get it. Bhagavad-gītā is a Vedic literature which has lot of knowledge. Bhagavad-gītā is the essence of all the Vedic literatures.

So different avatāras, incarnations, have different work to do. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu incarnated in this Navadvīpa, Māyāpur-dhāma. His birthplace is here. Our Founder-Ācārya, Śrīla Prabhupāda said that that is Lord Caitanya’s birthplace, but we believe this is His place of work, karma-sthāna, and we are following that.

There are many histories about this dhāma And here Rādhārāṇī created this dhāma Herself for the pleasure of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Here there are nine islands, Gaṅgā and many places of pilgrimage have manifested here. Each of the islands represents one form of devotional service. Śravanam, kīrtanam, vandanam, smaraṇam, dāśyam, sakhyam, pada-sevanam, arcanam, ātmā-nivedanam. This is Ṛtudvīpa where we are. Then there are is Jahnudvīpa, Modadrumadvīpa, Rudradvīpa, etc. If we travel around the nine islands, then they get the fruits of travelling to all the places of pilgrimage. And here whatever charity one does, they get a thousand times the benefit.

So this way, Lord Caitanya travelled to Bengal, Odisha, Utkala, etc. When Lord Caitanya was in the forest of Jhārikhaṇḍa He got the tigers, elephants, and other animals to dance and chant the holy name. We are not able to do this, but Lord Caitanya could do this.

I hope that all of you will do harināma-kīrtana and this way your lives will be perfected.

Haribol!