20220812 ISKCON Sylhet Deity Installation Morning Address

The following is an Iskcon Sylhet Deity Installation Morning address given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on August 12th,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 temple has been called Rādhā Mādhava Mandir.

But Rādhā Mādhava Deities got destroyed.

But today we got the Rādhā Mādhava Deities installed again.

So now we can get darśana of Them.

Now there will be śṛṅgāra, dressing of the Deities, then offering of bhoga and then you can get darśana of the Deities.

The Lord comes from the spiritual world, Goloka Vṛndāvana and comes to this material world.

The scriptures call this arcā-avatāra.

The Lord has many types of incarnations.

One of the incarnations is the arcā-avatāra.

One is the divine incarnation, which we cannot see with these material eyes.

That is why He comes in the arca vigraha form so that we can all see the Lord.

That arcā-avatāra has come now.

That is why we prayed to the Lord to come and that we can offer our service.

And because of our prayers and call, He has come.

Unlimited universes are manifest by Lord Kṛṣṇa and He is the light of all the material universes.

One name of the material world is Devī dhāma.

There are unlimited universes.

This material world is one fourth of those.

The spiritual world, Vaikuṇṭha, Goloka, they are three fourths.

We are prisoners in this material world. Like in the jail there are prisoners, we are prisoners in this material world.

To get us liberated, to go to the spiritual world, the Lord comes.

He comes in many forms.

He came as Kapila Muni, Balarāma, Varāhadeva, Matsya, Narasiṁha, many forms.

And another form is the arcā-avatāra.

He comes in this vigraha form so that we can do devotional service. 

Sanātana Gosvāmī was the prime minister, and he was very able.

But he said, people call me paṇḍita, but I am not a paṇḍita.

I don’t know an ordinary thing.

Who am I?

I don’t know that.

Kindly tell me what is my actual position?

Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, you are kṛṣṇera nitya-dāsa – jīvera svarūpa haya kṛṣṇera nitya-dāsa.

If we do devotional service, then our life will be successful.

But we have some attraction or the other.

Sometimes we love our country, sometimes our society, our clan, our family, relatives, and others but do not love God!

The Lord is outside our consciousness.

He is outside of our thinking.

Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu came so that we can remember the Lord and do so service to Him.

My gurudeva, he went to the West, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda.

He was asked what is your reason for coming here? What do you want?

He said, I don’t want anything, I only want only to change the way the human beings think.

That they would think of the Lord and become devotee of the Lord.

This is my only reason.

Haribol! 

Brahmadeva came to Navadvīpa-dhāma before the arrival of Lord Caitanya. He called for the Lord. 

Gaurāṅga!

Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Now the Lord said He will come in Kali-yuga to distribute kṛṣṇa-prema.

Brahmadeva then said, I need Your mercy!

Most of my life is over but still I commit offences.

Please bless me that I do not commit offences.

That I also get kṛṣṇa-prema and my heart becomes purified.

Then Lord Caitanya said okay, tathāstu!

Your desire will be fulfilled.

So that your heart gets purified, you will chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra 3,00,000 times a day.

And so that there is no offence, you will take birth in the family of a non-Hindu family and because you will chant 3,00,000 times the Harināma, you will awaken prema-bhakti, love of God in your heart and you will come as My devotee.

Then your name will be Haridāsa!

Haridāsa appeared in Bangladesh.

Benapole is his birthplace.

And he chanted the Harināma in various ways and his name is Brahma-Haridāsa.

Haridāsa, this way chanted 300,000 times the holy name but we cannot chant this way.

But A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda said that we should chant 25,000 times every day and Kṛṣṇa will be happy – this is the minimum we chant in ISKCON.

25,000 Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra chanting is done every day to get initiation in ISKCON.

Many try to take initiation but could not chant 25,000 times.

These are 16 rounds of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra.

We have to chant daily 16 rounds.

Maximum it would take two hours to chant 16 rounds and with practice you can chant in lesser time.

I hope that your Nāmahaṭṭa leaders will see that the shelter devotees are chanting properly.

If the Harināma is chanted nicely then naturally the aṣṭa-sāttvikā-bhāva, the eight forms of involuntary bodily transformations from spiritual emotions – are manifest.

Hare Kṛṣṇa!

And the Hare Kṛṣṇa chanting, reading the scriptures Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, worshiping the Deities, you can make your lives successful.

It is not difficult, but one has to dedicatedly try and practice.

The path leading to bhakti-yoga are jñāna and vairāgya – knowledge and renunciation.

When knowledge is there, there will be renunciation, and when renunciation is there, there will be knowledge.

If there is no knowledge, then it will be difficult to do devotional service.

If they have no knowledge, how will they understand their relationship with the Lord, that who am I?

With knowledge we understand our relationship with the Lord. 

Anyway, I hope that all of you are enjoying this festival?

At 2 pm you can all take darśana of the Deities, Rādhā Mādhava.