20220809 Initiation Address Day 4

The following is a Puṇḍarīka Dhāma initiation address given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on August 09th,2022 in 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: This morning I was hearing His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda’s lecture. He was saying why human life is so important. Human life and animal life – what is the difference. The animals think they are the body. If you tell a dog, you are not a dog! A cat is not a cat and a pig is not a pig! They will not understand anything. But human being can understand that they are eternal spirit souls, not the body. Now the dog, cat, pig, etc. animals, what their senses want they do. The senses want to eat, they eat, when they want to sleep, they search for a place to sleep. When they want to have sex the male and female dogs get together. And if someone attacks, the dog tries to defend himself with his claws. Āhara, nidrā, maithuna, bhaya – Eating, sleeping, mating and defending, these are the four things that the animals are worried about. The animals do not understand that there is God. But the human being has consciousness, and his intelligence is greater. But if we being human beings work to satisfy our senses, then what is the difference between us and the animals? The purpose of human life is to do devotional service to the Lord. Saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam. Our only goal is to satisfy the senses of the Lord. And that way our senses will be satisfied. But anāsaktasya viṣayān – but the goal of our life is not that. Our goal is Hari-toṣaṇam. We want to satisfy the Lord. Hindu, Muslim, etc. whoever, our only goal is to please the Lord and love Him. If any religion does not believe in loving God, that religion has no value. That is why we are not following the religion properly. If we follow it properly, then we would love Īśvara or Bhagavān.

Some people ask, have you seen God? In the Bhagavad-gītā the Lord has said, I am the taste of water. I drink water – how many of you have water? If drinking water, we remember God, then He is the taste in the water. And the Lord says I am the light of the sun. Who all of you have seen the sun? That means you have all seen the Lord. Ha! Seeing the Lord is not anything difficult. We see the Lord in many ways but we do not realize that or value it. That is why we are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa so that we can remember the Lord all the time. Different religions have different kinds of chanting like the Muslims and Christians. But the chanting of the name of the Lord is our main intention. Because we will always think of the Lord with devotion. The Lord says that for non-devotees, I come in the form of death. But devotees, non-devotees all die. This way, those who do not see the Lord when they are alive, at the time of death they see the Lord in the form of death. Therefore, we should all try to remember the Lord all the time. Nārāyaṇe antaḥ smṛti – at the time of death we remember the Lord, and that way we will go back to Godhead.

Devotees are assembled here to take initiation. That means you will now learn everything from the guru. And that way you will lead your life. Here there are many senior disciples who will guide the new initiates how to remember the Lord all the time. That way our human life will be perfected, and we will then try to make other people also devotees. This way, bhakti-yoga is not difficult. But people will not do bhakti-yoga. This bhakti-yoga teaches us we are not this body, we are the eternal, spirit soul, we are the servants of the Lord. The dog does not have spiritual knowledge, it is always in ignorance. Because the dog thinks I am not this body, I am a dog. If we think we are the body, then what is the difference between us and the do. We understand that we are the servant of the Lord. That is why we are taking initiation, so that we can serve the Lord. That is why in every home, deities may be installed. In every home Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam should be kept and studied. And where the names of Kṛṣṇa are chanted and people dance and be happy, that is spiritual. Now generally people drink and think this way I will be happy. What happiness is there in that? They are in materialistic life. They want personal happiness. But naturally, if someone is a devotee, we are very happy. Ānandera sīmā nai, ānandera sīmā nai, ānandera sīmā nai, nirānanda dūre jāi.

We see that many people they do not have any devotion and therefore are in distress. They have lot of money but no peace. Some people who do not have money they think that if they had money,they would be peaceful. But the real peace is when we do devotional service to the Lord. That way, devotion is most useful for us. If the Lord gives us mercy, automatically we will get money. But if we are greedy or attached to material things, then we face sorrow. We want the Lord.

Yesterday I was in a meeting. There, one businessman says make the Lord your partner. Whatever business you do, give 20% to the Lord. Or 50% or any amount to the Lord. This was an example. If I did work and earned 100 rupees, and I told the Lord I would give him eight annas, and then work and earn 1,000 rupees and I would give the Lord more. and then like that if I earned more and more and I would give more to the Lord. That way I will get five times. This way, if we have greed for 100, we will get only 100. But if we want to give all to the Lord, then we will get more mercy from the Lord. But if someone offers with this intention in mind that is not pure devotion. But it is a kind of devotion. You should try to see that husband wife, at home, all blow the conch, do worship of the Lord, eat kṛṣṇa-prasāda. In every home there is cooking done. But in a devotee’s home the cooking is done for Kṛṣṇa. Offer it to the Lord and then eat. We eat the remnants of Kṛṣṇa. This way our life will be pure. This is knowledge and for knowledge we have renunciation or detachment. Our renunciation or detachment is that we get kṛṣṇa-prasāda. There is no difficulty in this. kṛṣṇa-prasāda is a nice thing. Every day, I am getting some mahā-prasāda from Śrī Vāṛṣabhānavī Murāri and Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu Deities. What is the scarcity? Eating kṛṣṇa-prasāda is very good. This way, gṛhasthas in every home can cook and offer bhoga to the Lord and then eat kṛṣṇa-prasāda. This is our path of devotion. Whatever we do, we do it for the Lord’s sake.

Today whoever is taking initiation, is surrendering that I will do everything to please and make the Lord happy. Kṛṣṇa says that that religion in which sex is there, that is Kṛṣṇa. And that way if husband and wife want to have children to serve the Lord, then they will pray to the Lord that they have devotee children with good health. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura and his wife prayed to Lord Jagannātha that we need a pure devotee as a child. And with the mercy of Lord Jagannātha, in Jagannātha Purī, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura took birth. He is my guru’s guru – my parama-guru. Now, my guru-mahārāja’s mother and father they did garbhādāna-saṁskāra. We want that this way the gṛhasthas, husband and wife do the garbhādāna-saṁskāra. Śrīla Anuttama Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī in his Sat-kriyā-saṁskāra-dīpika has given this garbhādhāna-saṁskāra procedure. If one follows this, that is devotional service. How many gṛhasthas have followed this? They don’t know there is such a book called Sat-kriyā-saṁskāra-dīpika. This way, we desire that all the devotees go on the right path of devotion and have children in the right way and have devotee children and the whole world becomes auspicious.

Haribol!

Hare Kṛṣṇa!