20220808 Initiation Address Day 3

The following is an initiation address given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on August 8th,2022 at Puṇḍarīka Dhāma, Bangladesh.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Jayapatākā Swami: Hare Kṛṣṇa! This third day in Puṇḍarīka dhāma initiation program is going on. How many are there? 450. Who have taken oath? Many think that once initiation is over then it is all guru’s work. Guru definitely connects – with the guru-paramparā. My guru, Śrīla Prabhupāda, then his guru, Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, this way the guru-paramparā goes to Lord Brahmā through Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Then to Kṛṣṇa. This is the paramparā system. Whatever he hears from the guru hears he says, he does not speculate or imagine anything. Now, whatever oath you have taken to observe, you should follow all your life. There are four that should not be done and two to be done. Sixteen rounds chanting and helping me in fulfilling the instructions of Śrīla Prabhupāda. The four regulative principles that should not be done – illicit sex, intoxication, gambling, and non vegetarian food.

Today is Hari-vāsara, Ekādaśī. Whatever spiritual things you do you get a 100 times benefit. Those who are taking initiation, and surrendering to Lord Kṛṣṇa, their benefit is a 100-times more! But this oath that you are taking is not an ordinary thing, it is a very determined and firm oath. If I say, I will go at 4pm and came at 5 pm, my promise is broken. Not this way. The promise I make today for initiation are firm. In English it is called vow. I will do and follow strictly the four regulative principles. If we do this guru is happy and so is Kṛṣṇa. Whatever promise you made, I had made the same promise to my guru and he had made the promise to his gurudeva. So this way, this procedure is to be followed by all the disciples.

I had gone to Comilla by helicopter from Sylhet. But it was the time of kāl-vaiśākhi and there was heavy rain. So we could only go in the direction of north west as other three directions there was heavy rain. I got off and there were so many people in the village who collected. One person laid a carpet and asked me to walk. How many villages do helicopters land? One lady in the group said, oh, this is my guru. Then I got off and went to her house. There was a throne on which my photo was placed. And there was another guru’s photo also. Then I asked her about it. She said, you are my guru, and my husband’s guru is our kula-guru. You eat vegetarian and he eats fish. He is a fish guru and you are vegetarian guru! Then I learnt that in the village what they call gurus! Whatever is written in our scriptures, what Kṛṣṇa has said in the Bhagavad-gītā, we offer everything to the Lord and eat. Bhagavān eats sāttvika food. No non-veg, fish, egg, onion etc. We offer to the Lord and eat His prasāda. This way, bhakti-yoga is not any difficult. But we have to follow what is given in the scriptures. That way, the Lord will be happy. The Lord has everything. We have come empty handed and will go back empty handed. In the middle we say we are this body, this is my property. This way we declare, and we think we are the owner. Whatever we see, we are the owner. But actually, nothing is ours. Everything is the Lord’s property. There is nothing to be called ours. Bhagavān has given us, that is why we have. But property if we say, all this belongs to the Lord. This way, if we understand this then we will be successful in life. Now, Lord Caitanya said, gṛhe thāko vane thāko sadā hari bole ḍāko. We have the right to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, do Hare Kṛṣṇa kīrtana. If we do this, the Lord will be happy. saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam. If we are able to please the Lord then we will achieve perfection. Our path of devotion is whatever we have we offer in favor of the Lord. That way the Lord declares: na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati (Bg. 9.31) – the devotee of the Lord will not perish. We offer to the Lord and He accepts it. There are nine processes of devotional service. The first two are śravaṇam, kīrtanam – hear the names of the Lord and do kīrtana. There is the name of the Lord in kīrtana and also about Him. Kṛṣṇa-kathā means Bhagavad-gītā is spoken by the Lord Himself, and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is about the Lord. Both these are kṛṣṇa-kathā. The living entities can do kīrtana and can eat – we eat kṛṣṇa-prasāda. How many of you like kṛṣṇa-prasāda? In Bangladesh there are many types of vegetables. Here vegetarian food is eaten and 56 chappana-bhoga is offered to Lord Jagannātha. At least 108 items are offered in festivals. This way, beautiful bhoga is offered to Lord Kṛṣṇa. I saw a beautiful bhoga was offered to Śrī Śrī Rādhā Kṛṣṇa. This way, whatever we do, we do with love, prema, the strength of the Lord. That way there is nothing that the Lord wants. He is not asking, give Me fruits, give Me water, give Me milk! He only wants our love, prema. If we offer to the Lord with love and sincerity, then He accepts it. That way, the ladies can speak lovingly to the Lord. Whether man or woman, all can offer everything to the Lord with devotion. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that the ladies of our movement are not ordinary, they are Vaiṣṇavīs and through them we get devotees.

In this initiation ceremony, everyone takes an oath that they will follow the Lord’s instructions. Now if anyone feels they will not be able to follow the guru’s order, then it is better they do not take initiation. If they think they can, they should practice for six months after taking shelter to try and see if they are able to do it. And since they felt they could, the opportunity has now been given to them to take initiation. If that happens, then chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and following the promises all through the life has to be maintained.

Nārada Muni one time saw that Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa combined to take the form of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu and incarnated. Seeing this he got so emotional that he fell back sometime, fell in front sometime. He had never seen such a beautiful form and seeing this form His love evolved. We want that with the mercy of Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi and other great devotees, all the devotees have kṛṣṇa-prema awakened in their hearts. It will take time. After initiation, māyā will test you. May give you some happiness, some distress, this way make you greedy and test you in many ways. If you pass these tests, then māyā will fold her hands and say you can go back to Godhead. Never think that you will not have to face these tests, that is why always be alert. māyā is very strong. But Kṛṣṇa’s strength is greater than that of māyā’s. If you always stay under the protection of the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, then māyā will not be able to influence her strength on you. Many think that once initiation is over my work is over. Actually, initiation means beginning of your work. Earlier what you did was practice, now is the actual work. Now this is the final path by which you can go back to Godhead. But māyā will test you definitely – will you earnestly serve the Lord or cheat? What will you do? Will you serve the Lord? Who will cheat? If you try and make some mistake, then pray to the Lord for forgiveness and try not to make mistakes. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Śrīla A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda went to the West following the orders of his spiritual master.That is why now there is Kṛṣṇa consciousness preaching all over the world. I am seeing that people are taking pictures and I hope that seeing these devotees who are taking initiation, in the future more people will be inspired to become devotees.

The Lord came in the form of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, literary incarnation. I had said that kṛṣṇa-kathā is of two types – now Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is about the Lord. Now, a previous ācārya said there is no scarcity of anything in this world, only one thing is not there that is the Lord’s consciousness. There is so much scarcity of this. You should all read and study the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and remain Bhāgavatam conscious and Kṛṣṇa conscious. Haribol!

Some of you have mobile phones and some have downloaded the Jayapatākā Swami App and those who have not downloaded? Every day what I do is uploaded on this app. I give all the information myself and sitting at home you can get all the information. Without any charges! I write in English then it is translated into Bengali, Hindi, Tamil and many other languages. You all know Bengali and you can download it in Bengali and see everything. Who will download today? I will see if your names are there are not. After initiation, it is a rule that at least from 5 people you should beg for donation. If you get more no problem. This is for the guru-dakṣiṇā. This is for teaching us humility. If you go begging some may give you distress or be rude, this is to make you humble.