20220617 Arrival Address

The following is an arrival address given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on June 17th, 2022 at ISKCON Nagarbhavi in Bangalore, 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!

Haribol!

Jayapatākā Swami: My obeisances to Guruvāyūr and Nitāi Gaura! Haribol! All glories to the assembled devotees! Haribol! I am happy to visit your center. Haribol! I see devotees are very enthusiastic and even though it is a weekday so many devotees have come here. According to Śaṅkarācārya one should be a sannyāsī to get mokṣa, but according to Caitanya Mahāprabhu, in bhakti-yoga one can be a gṛhastha or a vairāgī and achieve the highest perfection. What is important is to do the nava-vidha-bhakti, the nine processes of bhakti-yoga. The yuga-dharma is hearing and chanting. We hear and chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. And by hearing Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, you are hearing and remembering Kṛṣṇa and His pure devotees. Then doing sevā we offer our obeisances and prayers and worship the Deity. We accept the Lord as our Master. Dāsyam, we accept ourselves as the servant of the Supreme Lord, that He is our best friend and well-wisher. Then as Ambarīṣa Mahārāja did, ātmā-nivedanam. These are the nine processes of bhakti-yoga devotional service and if you do this in your house, you are especially qualified to go back to Godhead.

There was a drama in Chennai by children. Two children played the part of Yamadūtas and one child played the part of Yamarāja. So, the Yamadūtas were complaining to Yamarāja. All these Kṛṣṇa conscious gṛhasthas, they have Deities in their house, they offer food to the Deities, they eat prasāda, they chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Rāma, read Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, we cannot take them to hell. We cannot touch them. What should we do? If people are like this we will not have any job. They will go back to Godhead. We want a different job. Very nice drama!

I would like all of you not to be customers of the Yamadūtas. But the Viṣṇudūtas should take you back to Vaikuṇṭha. Haribol! So I have a meeting in Māyāpur, I will attend virtually. We have heard a lot about your community, your preaching, bhakti-vṛkṣa groups, and sometimes there was some disturbance. Now, I am here for about a week, I hope we can settle all these problems for you to concentrate on your bhakti-yoga. Haribol! So thank you all very much and I am very happy to be here. I am going on 6th to Sesadripuram mandir and I will be there for three days. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Śrīla Gurumahārāja kī jaya!