20220708 ISKCON Kalyani Ratha-yātrā Address

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

Jayapatākā Swami: Dear devotees, we have come here and seeing the Mahā Ratha-yātrā am very happy. Can you understand me? Do you need repetition? I heard that His Holiness Bhakti Cāru Swami Mahārāja has many disciples here and I want to gratefully acknowledge that. Kalyani is at the end of Nadia district and Mahāprabhu had appeared in this Nadia district. And Navadvīpa is the center of the Gaura-maṇḍala-bhūmi.

ei śikhā diyā, sab nadīyā phirche nece' gaura-nitāi:

I always pass through, Kalyani but no one has invited me like this before. That is why you all called me, and I came. Lord Caitanya wanted that all should practice bhakti-yoga. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda went to the West to teach bhakti-yoga. Navadvīpa has nine islands and there are nine practices of bhakti. Sīmantadvīpa is śravaṇa. There Sīmantinī Devī there she chanted continuously the name of “Gaurāṅga. Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga!” And then Lord Caitanya appeared in front of her. He asked her, “Pārvatī devī why did you call Me?” Then Pārvatī devī said that, “Devotees call me Māyā, demon, etc. and I don’t get the association of devotees. The people who come to me come to satisfy their material sense desires. But I heard that You give everyone kṛṣṇa-prema. I want kṛṣṇa-prema. How will I be able to get kṛṣṇa-prema?” Saying this she took the dust of the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya and put it on her forehead. The parting on the heads of ladies is called sīmanta. She applied the dust of the lotus feet of the dust of Lord Caitanya on her forehead and therefore the island is called Sīmantadvīpa. Lord Caitanya said that you are my internal potency, and you are taking care of the material world; but you are my potency and in one way, you and Rādhārāṇī are non-different. Here you will experience the non-difference between you and Rādhārāṇī. All the people pray to Durgā Devī for satisfying their material needs, but Durgā Devī goes to Lord Caitanya asking for kṛṣṇa-prema. And that is what Durgā Devī got in Navadvīpa. So one of the islands in Navadvīpa has been named after Durgā Devī, Sīmantadvīpa. Then there is Godrumadvīpa, there Surabhi cow is there and lot of grass. That is called Godrumadvīpa, a part of kīrtana. Narasiṁhadeva had come to Narasiṁhapallī. Every island has its own pastime. Many pastimes. About two weeks before Gaura Pūrṇimā, there is Gaura-maṇḍala parikramā performed. If you wish, you could all join. You can coordinate with the temple president here and we can make arrangements. Nearby is the Ganges. Gaṅgā Devī is going close. There are many pastimes of Gaṅgā in Navadvīpa. You are very fortunate, you residents that Kalyani is on the bank of the Ganges. Nadia district and bank of the Ganges, here there is lot of importance.

There is a lot to speak about the importance of bhakti-yoga but in a short time will say, in bhakti-yoga, the gṛhasthas, husband and wife can together practice it at home. Gṛhe thāko vane thāko sadā hari bole ḍāko, all of you can chant the names of Kṛṣṇa. You do not have to give up whatever you are doing. Staying in the material world you can chant the name of Kṛṣṇa, read Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, worship the Deities. I heard that here in Kalyani, you want to build a big temple? As of now you can keep Nitāi Gaura and Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā, Sudarśana cakra Deities and worship Them. This is called arcana. Praying to the Lord to get devotion, that is vandanam. Various services that you do in the temple is called pāda-sevanam. There is dāsyam, sakhyam, ātmā-nivedanam. You should keep busy in different practices. That way your life will be perfected. Lord Caitanya said that after that you should help the others also to achieve perfection.

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

This is for human beings, not for cats and dogs. Human life is a very special birth. Only in human life can we understand who is God, and what our relationship is with God. This way, easily if we achieve God, your life will be successful. Now most of the people in the material world think that they are the body. In Bengali they ask, how is your body? And we answer, it is alright. We are eternal spirit souls. We have a body. We are not the body. We have a body. That is why in Bengali we ask, how is your body? The spirit soul is eternal and cannot be cut, burnt eternal. But the body grows old, gets sick, meets with accident. I heard today that a 20-year-old boy today died in a car accident. Parents think that now the children should study and when they are old they should do Harināma. But we don’t know when anyone will die, so why wait till we get old to do Harināma? If we do Harināma from youth itself then we will be with Harināma all our lives. I hope that all of you here, youths, old, all will do Harināma together and perfect your human life.

I have to speak a lot because I have to go now. I believe there are devotees here who have to take aspiring and also want to take blessings. You can ask spiritual questions. No political or other questions.