20220812 Evening Pandal Address

The following is an Iskcon Sylhet evening Pandal 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: I offer my respects to all the honored guests and thank you for letting us have this program. Sylhet is the maternal and paternal place of Lord Caitanya. Śacīmātā and Jagannātha Miśra and associates of Lord Caitanya appeared in and around Sylhet śrīpāṭs. Not far from here is the birthplace of Advaita Ācārya, Mādhavendra Purī’s birthplace, Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura’s birthplace and Murāri Gupta’s place of birth. Now, followers of Lord Caitanya are all over the world preaching the saṅkīrtana-yajña. He showed everyone how to do this. Sylhet is a very sacred place. Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura appeared in Bangladesh, he said,

gaura-maṇḍala-bhūmi, yeba jāne cintāmaṇi,
tāra haya vraja-bhūmi vāsa

You are all residing in a divine place. Now Lord Caitanya’s lotus feet touched this place and all His followers are all over the world.

Here in ISKCON, Sylhet the temple was established earlier but the Deities of Rādhā-Mādhava got destroyed and now again new Deities have been installed. Here Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā are there. Today is the appearance day of Balarāma – Balarāma Pūrṇimā. The Jhulan-yātrā has been organized in various places. That I was able to come here after the pandemic, I consider myself very fortunate. And I am seeing that there are lots of devotees! Haribol! Now, on this sacred Pūrṇimā, Rākhi Pūrṇimā, many devotees have been able to come. Here the weekly holiday is Friday. Today is very special being Balarāma Pūrṇimā. And after eight days is Janmāṣṭamī. For many reasons they wanted the Deities to be installed today so that during Janmāṣṭamī They would be here. And during Rādhāṣṭamī, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī would be here! Gaurāṅga! I hope that this temple, hostel, and the rest of the facility will develop further. I hear that they want to build a special hospital here.

Generally, in this material world many things can happen, but if we can side by side chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra then your lives will be successful. We are not the body, we are eternal, spirit souls. And jīvera svarūpa haya, kṛṣṇera nitya dāsa. Service to the Lord is the only goal of our life. In the Mahābhārata there are a thousand names – but the Lord has unlimited names. In this way those who chant the holy names of the Lord, get His blessings. I hear that there is going to be an initiation ceremony and they are waiting for that. So I will end this talk now. And will go to the initiation ceremony. Hare Kṛṣṇa! But this help that you all are giving ISKCON to run this temple, we are very grateful, and we hope that the Lord will bless you all!