20220621 Arrival Address (Erode)

The following is an arrival address given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on June 21st,2022 in Erode, 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!

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

Jayapatākā Swami: I am very happy to see how enthusiastic you are. This is my first visit to Erode. But I heard that you had a wonderful Ratha-yātrā festival here. That you are very famous for giving out very special prasāda. Since I was coming by road from Bengaluru to Coimbatore, I was met by a group of devotees from Hosur. Then I visited Salem for the first time. And then Erode! So, we want you all to be very expert in bhakti-yoga. Bhakti-yoga, there are many types of yoga. Jñāna-yoga, karma-yoga, aṣṭāṅga-yoga, bhakti-yoga. And Śaṅkarācārya said that to reach mokṣa in jñāna-yoga you have to be a sannyāsī. Lord Caitanya said whether one is a vairāgī or a gṛhastha, through bhakti-yoga you can achieve mokṣa. Lord Caitanya is saying gṛhe thāko vane thāko sadā hari bole ḍāko. So, the system of Kali-yuga is to chant the holy names. In each yuga there is a different sacrifice. In Kali-yuga the sacrifice is chanting the holy names of Hari. In the Bṛhan-nāradīya Purāṇa it says:

harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam
kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā
(Cc. Ādi 17.21)

So His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, he took this message at the age of 70, 12 or 14 times around the world. And so he established 108 temples himself. And I became his disciple in 1968. And he sent me to India in 1970. So in 1970 he gave me the sannyāsa-āśrama. And I am working in East India, the World Head Quarters of ISKCON at Māyāpur and in South India. Now ISKCON has grown, we have more than 800 centers all over the world. I settled in India, I renounced my American citizenship to take an Indian citizenship.

We want to see people in Erode should and all-over South India, they should get the mercy of Lord Kṛṣṇa to go back to the spiritual world. Lord Caitanya said:

bhārata-bhūmite haila manuṣya-janma yāra
janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra
(Cc. Ādi 9.41)

Those who are born in India are very fortunate. And then He said, perfect your lives and help others. So I am very glad to hear that many of you have studied Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books. And you received the Bhakti-śāstri degree and some of you are studying the Bhakti-vaibhava. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that Bhakti-śāstri is like a Bachelor’s degree. And Bhakti-vaibhava is like a Master’s degree. And the other degree, the Bhakti-vedānta is like a Ph.D. So we hope that all of you will study these transcendental literatures and thus at the time of death, go back to Godhead. I saw in many homes they have the Deities, the Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and they offer the food to Kṛṣṇa.

And in Chennai, the children performed a drama. Two children played the part of Yamadūtas. And one girl, she played the part of Yamarāja, with a mustache on her. And then the Yamadūta children were complaining, “What is this? All these devotees, they are studying like anything! They are chanting the holy names. They are worshiping the deities in their house. After offering the food to the Deities, they are eating prasāda. They are reading Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. If this spreads like this then we won’t be able to take them to hell and torture them. We will have to get a new job!” So it was a very nice drama! That is what we want, you should all be sterilized, Yamadūta free! You think I am kidding but this is the real thing! Yamadūtas are real. All the people that don’t read śāstra, don’t chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, don’t do devotional service, many of them are criminals in the eye of Yamarāja.

I thank His Holiness Bhakti Vinoda Swami for taking Kṛṣṇa consciousness to Erode. The person who is translating, she (Śantirūpa devī dāsī) comes from Tamil Nadu but she stays in Malaysia. And she teaches other devotees Bhakti-śāstri in Malaysia. We want all of you to become very expert in Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. I am very happy to be here in Erode and hope I can come again. I hope you are all happy!

Lord Caitanya spent six years travelling throughout South India. He is Kṛṣṇa but in a disguise of a devotee. Kṛṣṇa heard someone playing on the flute. He came and found that it was Śrīmati Rādhārāṇī playing the flute. She had made the holy dhāma for Lord Kṛṣṇa called Navadvīpa. Kṛṣṇa said, “You made this beautiful dhāma for Me and this will be non-different from Vṛndāvana and all the holy places will come here.” He saw that the devotees felt great happiness, great ānanda in serving Kṛṣṇa. He wanted to find out what happiness they felt in Him. But as Bhagavān He could not do it. So He accepted the heart of Rādhārāṇī and the color of Rādhārāṇī. Thus, He became a devotee and He was tasting this ecstasy. Everyone who becomes a devotee, they can taste this ānanda. This ānanda is from the heart, from the soul. We feel material happiness and distress through the body. Sometimes our body is happy, sometimes it is miserable. Someone has Parkinson’s disease, all kinds of problem and old age, we all grow old. So Lord Kṛṣṇa describes material world in Bhagavad-gītā as duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam. So, we want you to taste eternal happiness and go back to the eternal world. Where there is no death, no birth, no old age, no disease. Hare Kṛṣṇa!