20220611 Arrival Address

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Jayapatākā Swami: All glories to Nitāi Gaura, Lord Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā! All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda! We are going to install the Rādhā Kṛṣṇa Deities. And so there are many aspects to this installation. So we want you also to take part in this. We want you to pray that Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, the Deities to please come and stay in this place. The Lord is Bhakta-vatsala. He will be pleased to listen to your prayer. So we want you to come and be present so that you can serve Him. Who wants to serve the Lord? So with this enthusiasm please pray that the Lord will come and He will accept your worship. Nitāi Gaura have requested that you all chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and dance in ecstasy! Do you know how to chant? Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare! And you are also able to dance? So, do the ladies know how to do ulu-dhvani? The men can chant Haribol? Ladies can do Haribol too! So it seems you are all very expert!

You see in the pandemic times I visited Hosur several times, virtually but I am not given the credit. Nandri! (thank you) So, we know that in Kali-yuga people are generally not very enthusiastic about spiritual life. Lord Caitanya appeared to give everyone, He wanted to see all the people, even caṇḍālas and low-class birth, all go back to Godhead. And He requested everyone to chant Kṛṣṇa’s holy name. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare! So He told people in South India that yāre dekha, tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa āmāra ājñāya hañā tāra’ ei deśa. Whoever you see preach about Lord Kṛṣṇa. I see that the devotees here are very Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

I saw one drama in Chennai. Three children, one child, a girl, she played Yamarāja, she had a mustache on. And the other two, one boy and one girl, they played Yamadūtas. The Yamadūtas were complaining. These devotees, they are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, they have Deities in their house, they offer their food to Kṛṣṇa, they dance and do spiritual activities. What should we do? We cannot take them to hell! If everyone is like this, we should look for another job! I liked the drama so much. We see that the ladies, they have an important part to play. The house should be centered around Kṛṣṇa. We see here many children, they are also chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and doing devotional service. In Kali-yuga, it is especially recommended to take gṛhastha life. But there are two types of gṛhasthas, gṛhamedhī and gṛhastha. Gṛhamedhīs are interested only in sense gratification and gṛhasthas they are interested in serving Kṛṣṇa. So we have this temple to help you chant and do devotional service. By chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, the Kali-santaraṇa Upaniṣad says:

iti ṣoḍaśakaṁ nāmnāṁ
kali-kalmaṣa-nāśanaṁ
nātaḥ parataropāyaḥ
sarva-vedeṣu dṛśyate

By chanting this Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Rāma, the 16 names, all the disturbances, those aspects of Kali-yuga are destroyed. Kali-kalmaṣa-nāśanam. Lord Caitanya requested everyone to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and make your life perfect. I am very glad that you have all worked so hard to make this temple. Thank you very much! So, I think I will be given some chance to speak some more in the future days. The priests are very dedicated, and they come here to install the Deities. And they have set up the fire sacrifice for the Deities very systematically. So this is an opportunity to have pure consciousness. And we hope that you will be thinking all day, next day that you want the Deities to come and how you will serve Them. We believe that this arcā-avatāra is an avatāra coming from the spiritual world so that we can see Them. So we are not pure enough to see the Lord in His spiritual form. So He appears as the arcā-vigraha and thus we get to serve Him and worship Him. Nanḍri! (Thank you)!