20220713 Question and Answer Session

Priyamvada Gaurāṅgī devī dāsī, [Bangla Page]: What is the perfect need of studying scriptures? Many times, I just read scriptures as a duty. How to relish the real nectar of the scriptures?

Jayapatākā Swami: You should pray to the Lord before reading, that you can go deep into the nectar.

Anuska, [Aspiring disciple]: Vaiṣṇava-nindā is so subtle that when sometimes people blaspheme us, we are unable to stop our minds to think the same way about them as well, even though we don’t want to do. What should we do then? Is it an offence to a Vaiṣṇava then?

Jayapatākā Swami: You see, someone insults you as a Vaiṣṇava, then you don’t take it seriously because you don’t consider yourself a Vaiṣṇava. We don’t consider ourselves as a Vaiṣṇava, we are just aspiring to be one. If they have something critical to say, we would like to hear it and try to amend our activities accordingly.

Ānandinī Sītā devī dāsī: Deviation of my mind during chanting, day by day and the mind getting drowned in various sinful activities, please suggest Guru Mahārāja how can I overcome such circumstances?

Jayapatākā Swami: The mind is thinking of sinful activities during japa? I mean, we should try to take our mind off from sinful activities and think of the lotus feet of Lord Kṛṣṇa or His devotees. And as Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura said, we should beat our mind with shoes in the morning and broom in the evening. We should let the mind know who is the boss? Ātmā is the boss. We are meant to serve Kṛṣṇa and our mind is meant to assist us.

Kavya Patel: There are many devotees who do not have ISKCON temple in their place. What should they do? It is very difficult to practice bhakti without association of devotees. Please bless me to have good association and please bless me to serve you Guru Mahārāja. Happy Guru Pūrṇimā!

Jayapatākā Swami: That is why we have established the CDM, (the Congregational Development Ministry), so that we have Nāmahaṭṭas and Bhakti-vṛkṣa groups, etc. in every town and village.

Keyā Rāṇī: Once in a pastime you mentioned that Śacīmātā’s motherly affection was spiritual because she was attached to the Lord. Then why did Caitanya Mahāprabhu still say that she was in māyā? Wasn’t she in vātsalya-bhāva?

Jayapatākā Swami: I don’t remember where it says that. So, if you have a question on today’s class that is fresh. If you have a very old question, then you should show the quotation there.

Jagat Prāṇa Vāsudeva dāsa, Bangladesh: In today’s chapter it was mentioned that Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī went to Vṛndāvana near Bengal. But Nīlācala is next to Vṛndāvana. Why then did Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī go to Vṛndāvana from Nīlācala via Bengal? Bengal is in the opposite direction to Vṛndāvana from Nīlācala.

Jayapatākā Swami: I don’t know whether you know your geography well. To go from Bengal to Vṛndāvana you have to go, if you by the Ganges, it goes and merges in the Bay of Bengal. Anyway, Odisha is south of Bengal and Vṛndāvana is northwest of Bengal. So you have to either go via Bengal or via Jhārikhaṇḍa.

Question: When we remove unwanted plant from our garden, is it a sinful act?

Jayapatākā Swami: Is it regarding your devotional creeper or is it regarding your mundane garden? Anyway, an interesting question. Regarding your mundane garden, taking the weeds out is a part of gardening. And cut and offer all your vegetables, grains, etc. to Kṛṣṇa. So, by Kṛṣṇa’s mercy you won’t get any karma. If you don’t offer it to Kṛṣṇa, if you are Jain, then when you plant the seed in the ground, you may cut a worm. So there, they don’t eat roots. I don’t know how you can, any plant you have to somehow put them in the ground! This may be part of the ajñāta-pāpā which comes up, the way to get out of that is to offering your grain products to Kṛṣṇa.

Today was the special tirobhāva-tithi of His Holiness Bhakti Cāru Swami and also the tirobhāva-tithi of Sanātana Gosvāmī and the avirabhāva-tithi of Vyāsadeva, and also the sacred Guru Pūrṇimā. I would like to send my best wishes to all of you. Kṛṣṇe matir astu!

Today I released the book ‘Ocean of Mercy’ by His Holiness Bhakti Cāru Swami translated into Tamil. Due to the initiation in the Nāmahaṭṭa I was delayed and was not able to attend the glorification of Bhakti Cāru Swami. This afternoon we had the GBC meeting.