20220501 ISKCON Patna Temple Inauguration Evening Address

The following is an evening address given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on May 1st, 2022 at ISKCON Patna, India.

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

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Jayapatākā Swami: I know a little Hindi, Haribol! but as you should all understand well, I will speak in English and that will be translated into Hindi for you. Besides this I know Bengali as well but that won’t work here!

This is a very important ceremony. On Akṣaya-tṛtīyā day, there will be installation of Deities. There will be three altars and Deities. Gaura Nitāi, Rādhā Baṅkebihārī Lalitā Viśākhā, and Sītā Rāma Lakṣmaṇa Hanumān.

In the Śiva Purāṇa, Lord Śiva said, how one name of Lord Rāma is equal to one thousand names of Lord Viṣṇu. And one name of Lord Kṛṣṇa is equal to 3000 names of Lord Viṣṇu. So, you can see how the pūjārīs are preparing the kuṇḍa for the yajña. There are a lot of programs being done for adhivāsa. And then there will be abhiṣeka. And then there will be installation, prāṇa-pratiṣṭha of the Deities. And then there will be a special yajña. So this temple will be inaugurated and we hope all of you will be present for that. We hope that you will all be attending for the next 3-4 days.

Here there is a place where the glories and beauty of Bihar is talked about. Sītā Devī appeared here. Jarāsandha was liberated here in the presence of Kṛṣṇa and Bhīma. Lord Śiva Deity is here. Buddha also had his pastimes here. I did not see Caitanya Mahāprabhu. You see in each yuga the Lord comes. Sambhavāmi yuge yuge. After Kṛṣṇa in Dvāpara-yuga, this Kali-yuga Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu came. It is said that Lord Caitanya is more merciful than Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa would give love if you fully surrendered to Him. But Lord Caitanya did not consider who is qualified who is not qualified, He gave everyone love for Kṛṣṇa. And you see although He appeared in Bengal in Māyāpur, He took dīkṣā in Bihar! Haribol! And here He exhibited love for Kṛṣṇa. For the first time. So, we should know that Lord Caitanya’s love was manifested in Bihar! Haribol! That was in Viṣṇu Gayā and He was going to Vṛndāvana. But a voice came from the sky. Now is not Your time to go to Vṛndāvana. You must go and start the saṅkīrtana movement in Bengal and then You go to Vṛndāvana. Lord Caitanya, He bathed here in Pāṭaliputra. He went from here to Viṣṇu Gayā. Then through Jhārikhaṇḍa He went to Benaras and Vṛndāvana. I think He went back through Bihar. So He should be glorified in Bihar, He gave us the system of chanting the holy names which should awaken our dormant love for Kṛṣṇa. So when you have the Deity here, you pray to Gaura-Nitāi first. To get Their mercy. And then you go to Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa and Sītā-Rāma. You are very fortunate that here Caitanya Mahāprabhu had His līlā. Locana dāsa Ṭhākura he said, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is avatāra śiromaṇi. Kevala ānanda-kanda.

So we saw here how the devotees are dancing ecstatically, this is the process that Lord Caitanya gave. Chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and dancing. And also feasting! So, if someone asks “How was your vacation?” “Oh, I was singing, dancing, I was feasting!” And the friends would say, “Oh, your vacation was very, very successful!” That is our process of self-realization. Because there is no difference between Kṛṣṇa and His name. And if you chant the name of Kṛṣṇa and dance you get His blessings. As Lord Śiva said, how Lord Rāma and Lord Kṛṣṇa’s names are very potent.

I remember we came here some time ago and did the bhūmi-pūjā. And now this temple has come up. Now we have a place to dance and chant. And to take prasāda. So, this is actually the system for this Age of Kali. There is one verse from the Vedas.

kṛte yad dhyāyato viṣṇuṁ
tretāyāṁ yajato makhaiḥ
dvāpare paricaryāyāṁ
kalau tad dhari-kīrtanāt

(ŚB 12.3.52)

In this Age of Kali is the chanting of the holy name. So we should take advantage as this is the authorized system for Kali-yuga. And in previous yugas there was Gajendra-mokṣa, but now if you just chant Hare Kṛṣṇa chant Hare Rāma you get special blessings. So, in Kali-yuga people are generally forgetful about Bhagavān. But if you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Rāma then you get the Lord’s special mercy. And Kṛṣṇa He appears here with Rādhārāṇī, and the principal sakhīs. So this is the very important. And we can get all kinds of blessings very easily. Sītā-Rāma Lakṣmaṇa Hanumān they are the third altar. And there is also the existing Deity of Jagannātha, Baladeva and Subhadrā. There Kṛṣṇa is in His mood as a kṣatriya. And Rādhā-Bāṅkebihārī are in the mood of Vṛndāvana.

So, actually Kṛṣṇa He gives out His mercy to everyone. But we should know what to ask! There is a story that one lady she carried a bundle of sticks. It slipped from her head. She said, “Oh God help me! Help me!” Bhagavān appeared and asked, “What can I do for you?” “Can you please put these sticks on my head?” Bhagavān Himself came, she could have asked for Vaikuṇṭha, Goloka anything. But she asked for the sticks! We don’t understand what we should ask! So actually, we are not the body, we are the eternal spirit soul. And this material world is not our real place. Our real place is in Kṛṣṇaloka, Vaikuṇṭha. So, we should focus on that. Not on sticks, not on temporary things. All these things come and go. But we can ask, “Kṛṣṇa please give me Your eternal service!” So, the human form of life is a special facility so that we can go back to Godhead. But if we don’t use our human life properly, we can go back to the animal species, and gradually we come up to the human body. So now we are human beings, we should take advantage of this special mercy. The human body is a very special blessing but if we use it for temporary things then we may find that some other life some ,other birth, that is suitable.

Like Bharata after which our country was called Bhārata-varṣa. He gave up the whole kingdom, he was the emperor of the world. He gave that up to engage in meditation. But then he became attached to a baby deer. So then in the next birth he took as a deer. But because he was so advanced, he could remember his previous life as an emperor. Next birth he took birth as a brāhmaṇa and he was determined I will go back to Godhead, I won’t talk to anybody, I won’t waste my life.

Some people gave donations to build this temple. They will get special blessings. And this human life is meant for serving Kṛṣṇa, serving Rāma. If we don’t use this life to serve the Lord we are wasting our life. So, chant hare Kṛṣṇa, dance in ecstasy, read Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, take kṛṣṇa-prasāda. Haribol! How many of you like prasāda? This is a tapasya. Eating kṛṣṇa-prasāda! So we should do this tapasya. It says that in North Bihar people like non veg. But if we take kṛṣṇa-prasāda we get special blessings. Anyway, when you come to this temple there will be kṛṣṇa-prasāda. Thank you for cheering! Haribol! So Lord Caitanya will be added to the glory of Bihar! When He went to Jhārikhaṇḍa He got the tigers, deer and other animals to chant. Śrīla Prabhupāda said we may not be able to imitate or do what Lord Caitanya did, but at least we should get the human beings to chant and dance! Haribol! So I was so happy to see everybody chanting and dancing. This is our real success of the human life.

So I am very glad that so many leaders have come from different parts of India. I would like to welcome everybody. I am very happy that they organized this elaborate yajña. And we hope that all of you will participate in the yajña. So human life is meant for this kind of spiritual advancement. We don’t see animals coming. This is for human beings and we are very happy that men and women are participating and doing this sacrifice. Lord Caitanya, He met the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs in Benaras. They were criticizing Him, “Why You don’t study the Vedānta-sūtra?” Then He explained the glories of chanting the holy names. Then He gave the direct interpretation of the Vedānta-sūtra. So then Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī said, “Please forgive me for my offences! You have explained the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam explained the Vedānta-sūtra like nobody else.” Again, Lord Caitanya was chanting and dancing. And all the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs also joined in and chanted with Him.

So we hope that everybody in Pāṭaliputra, in this holy dhāma of Patna will engage in the chanting of the holy name Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Rāma and that this temple will be a shining inspiration for everyone. Hare Kṛṣṇa!