20220618 Evening Darśana to ISKCON Koramaṅgala Devotees

The following is an address given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on June 18th, 2022 .

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: Since half of my face is frozen, I may need a repetition. So I am very glad to meet all the devotees of the Koramaṅgala Center. How many Bhakti-vṛkṣas do you have?

Prema Padminī devī dāsī: About 25.

Jayapatākā Swami: So you have, who are the Bhakti-vṛkṣa group leaders? Sector leaders? Circle leader? (Prema Padminī devī dāsī). Oh! She is a Mahā-cakrapati! Not just a Cakrapati!

We want everybody become very expert in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They should be expert at bhakti-yoga. Make the house centered around Kṛṣṇa. Have Deities in the house, offer your food to Kṛṣṇa, read Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, and raise your children to be Kṛṣṇa conscious. So we want to do the things we do in a Kṛṣṇa conscious way. We want to please Kṛṣṇa. In the material world, people are interested to please their senses. But we want to please Kṛṣṇa’s senses. And naturally because we are part of Kṛṣṇa, we become satisfied. So it is natural for us to love Kṛṣṇa. But we are in the material world because we chose to be here. And we have forgotten our relationship with Kṛṣṇa. Bhakti-yoga means to awaken our dormant Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And in that way, life becomes very pleasant. We sing in the morning, saṁsāra-dāvānala-līḍha-loka. This material world is like a forest fire, dāvānala. And by the mercy of the guru, mercy of Lord Caitanya, mercy of Lord Kṛṣṇa, the rain comes and puts the fire off. Now we see there are a lot of wildfires in the USA and Europe, in Australia and they have planes that try to spray water down. But many millions of acres of land are burnt up. So this is the situation and to be saved from this forest fire means to be Kṛṣṇa conscious.

Naturally, there is some happiness in the material world and there is some suffering. Like, people get diseases and fight between family members. Like now Russia and Ukraine are at war. Russia said we wont attack Ukraine, so much for that! Anyway, this world means eating, sleeping, mating and defending. So, animals like wolves and dogs, they defend with their claws and fangs. The bulls with their horns. So human beings we may use machine guns and rockets and nuclear weapons. But defense is there. So it is not that we are meant to be bigger animals. We are meant to be God conscious. Just like here I don’t see any animals. And the animals, they only know worried how to eat, how to sleep, to mate and defend. The human beings do that also. But human beings can inquire athāto brahma jijñāsā, search for the Absolute Truth. So, the Māyāvādīs, followers of Śaṅkarācārya they say to get mokṣa they have to be a sannyāsī. Lord Caitanya said that whether you are a gṛhastha or a sannyāsī, you can achieve liberation through bhakti-yoga. So, that is why we want you all to take advantage of this human life.

Being born in India is a very special blessing. Lord Caitanya taught – bhārata-bhūmite haila manuṣya janma yāra/ janma sārthaka kari’ kara para-upakāra. Perfect yourself and help others. Now in the West, with the IT and other things, many Indians have gone to America and Europe. And they are joining our Kṛṣṇa conscious communities, and they are helping to spread this Kṛṣṇa consciousness to other people. Indians are very fortunate because in India, Lord Rāma, Lord Kṛṣṇa, many avatāras have appeared, Lord Caitanya. Lord Caitanya is Kṛṣṇa who assumed the color and mood of Rādhārāṇī. And Lord Nityānanda is Balarāma.

śrī kṛṣṇa caitanya rādhā kṛṣṇa nahi anya, balarāma hoilo nitāi

So, Kṛṣṇa realizes that His devotees headed by Rādhārāṇī have great transcendental happiness. So in order to understand that He had to accept the mood of a devotee and therefore He combined with Rādhārāṇī and Caitanya Mahāprabhu. And He gives out freely love for Kṛṣṇa. How many of you would like to have love for Kṛṣṇa? Haribol! Thank you very much!

Haribol! Srila Gurumaharaja Ki! Jay! In South India all the ācāryas have appeared. Madhvācārya, Rāmānujācārya, Viṣṇu Svāmī, Nimbārka. So South India is also a very special place. I hope that you all will perfect your lives and help others. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī was saying that his family originally came from Karnataka and for many generations they settled in Bengal. Sanātana Gosvāmī became the Prime Minister and Rūpa Gosvāmī was the Finance Ministers in the government at that time. So later Rūpa Gosvāmī became the chief disciple of Lord Caitanya. And he glorified the holy name. How much happiness is in the two syllable ‘kṛṣ’ ‘ṇa’. To chant the name of Kṛṣṇa we will to have millions of mouths. To hear the name of Kṛṣṇa we want to have millions of ears. So he was experiencing this transcendental bliss. Now we would like all of you to experience that transcendental bliss.

Haribol!