20220819 Śrī Kṛṣṇa Janmāṣṭamī Address

The following is a Janmastami address given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on August 19th,2022 at Iskcon Abids Hyderabad,India.

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: Śrī Śrī Nitāi-Gaura kī jaya! Śrī Śrī Rādhā Madanamohana kī jaya! Śrī Śrī Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā kī jaya! Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jaya! I come many times to this temple. I was present with His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda when the Deities were installed here. Śrīla Prabhupāda, he made a special fund from his guru-dakṣiṇā. He said about Māyāpur, Vṛndāvana, Bombay and Hyderabad. So these Deities, Śrīla Prabhupāda cared about Them. This is a very big responsibility for the local devotees to care for these Deities. I am very glad to see all the devotees here on this holy day of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Janmāṣṭamī. And because I went to see the new temple in Attapur, I could see the wonderful arrangements downstairs of the Kṛṣṇa-melā.

Kṛṣṇa comes once in the Dvāpara-yuga in the day of Brahmā. When Kṛṣṇa went visiting the palace of Rukmiṇī Devī, His first queen, Rukmiṇī was crying. So Kṛṣṇa was saying, why are You crying? I have just arrived! And Kṛṣṇa started to speculate why She was crying. But She said, You know what Brahmā is doing in Satyaloka. You know what Lord Śiva is doing in Kailāsa. You know everything going on in the ananta-koṭi-brahmāṇḍa. But there seems to be one thing, You don’t know! Rādhārāṇī knows, I know, but You don’t know! And Kṛṣṇa was amazed! No one ever accused Him of not knowing something. The thing You don’t know is how much Your devotees love You! Rādhārāṇī knows, I know, You don’t know! And Kṛṣṇa said, alright, I will come in Kali-yuga, I will come! I will come! So, we see so many devotees because of the mercy of Lord Caitanya!

So, Śrīla Prabhupāda was spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness throughout the world. And when he was in Los Angeles, the Deity there spoke to him - You have to also preach in India. So therefore, Śrīla Prabhupāda came back, and he started the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement all over India. He sent me to India and he told me that Indians are like coal burning covered with ash, just fan it and then the burning comes up. Today we also have here, Ānandamaya Prabhu, he is my Godbrother, he is also a disciple of Śrīla Prabhupāda. At first, we only had Western devotees. But now we have so many bhāratīya devotees. Śrīla Prabhupāda told me also to become an Indian citizen. Now I am speaking to me as a fellow-Indian. Kṛṣṇa spoke to us the Bhagavad-gītā, in the battlefield of Kurukṣetra, in India. And the Bhagavad-gītā is now studied all over the world. And I hope that all of you have been reading Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. In the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa admitted that there is no higher truth than Him. You don’t choose your parents. Kṛṣṇa chooses His parents! When He appeared in the prison house in Mathurā, He appeared with His four hands, His helmet, etc. Then He told Vasudeva, take Me to Vṛndāvana to stay in the house of Yaśodā and Nanda Mahārāja. He is known as Devakīnandana, Vasudeva. He is also known as Yaśodānandana and Nandanandana. And here we worship Rādhā and Madanamohana. Also Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā. Kṛṣṇa is completely transcendental. If you know how Kṛṣṇa’s appearance and activities are divya, divine, then you don’t take birth again.

Lord Kṛṣṇa told us in the Bhagavad-gītā that we are not this body. But we are the eternal spirit soul. Lord Caitanya, He taught, jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya-kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa’ (Cc. Madhya 20.108). I told in Attapur that I was seeing a drama in Chennai. Do you do dramas here? We had children playing Yamarāja and Yamadūtas. One girl played the part of Yamarāja, she had a mustache drawn on her face! And the Yamadūtas who are normally the agents that take the ātmā from the body and take them to hell. They were complaining to Yamarāja, these devotees of ISCKCON, they are very dangerous to us. They chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, do kīrtana, japa, they worship deities in their houses and in the temple. They read the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The ladies offer their bhoga to the Deities and everybody in the family takes prasāda. We cannot arrest them, we cannot do anything to them! If this goes on, if this spreads, we will be out of our job! So who of you wants to have some mercy on the, Yamadūtas? Give them some job? Don’t chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Don’t take kṛṣṇa-prasāda. Who would like to give the Yamadūtas a vacation? So we want everyone to take up chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa very seriously. To worship the Deities. Normally, we cannot see Kṛṣṇa with our present eyes. But He is so merciful that He appears in His Deity form so that we can see Him and serve Him.

This temple is very special. I was present when this temple was under construction near G. Pulla Reddy – he gave the land. So now we are seeing so many devotees are coming and worshiping Kṛṣṇa on His appearance day. Vaiṣṇavas, Vaiṣṇavīs, all are coming. We see the crowd of devotees, we see Rādhe Śyāma Prabhu! You see in the normal situation, we take birth after birth after birth. We are eternal, we don’t die. But if we are Kṛṣṇa conscious then we go back home, back to Godhead. So, the animals, have āhara, nidrā, bhayam, maithunya – they eat, sleep, procreate and defend. But human beings are special, they do something more. We see all these laws, at the traffic light – red light, green light, yellow light. Animals they don’t have to pay attention. Rules are made for human beings. Similarly, dharma is made by God for the human beings. If we practice bhakti-yoga, we practice service to Kṛṣṇa, then we transcend this material world. Kṛṣṇa, He comes down, just to give us a chance to understand about Him. He is inviting us, please come home, please don’t stay in this place of death. In Kali-yuga especially, this facility is given. The Śaṅkarācārya says to get mokṣa you have to be a sannyāsī. But Lord Caitanya says whether you are a householder or a vairāgī, everyone can go back to Godhead, if you chant the holy name. So this is a great opportunity for us to serve Rādhā and Madanamohana. I am very glad that so many devotees are serving the Lord. I heard that that there are various groups - Gaurāṅga group, Nityānanda group, other groups and we are very thankful to them. We heard that how many Vaiṣṇavīs are also doing a lot of sevā. This is a great opportunity for everyone to do sevā to Kṛṣṇa on this special day. Hare Kṛṣṇa! Bāgunnāra! Soon we will have the abhiṣeka of the Deities. So I will end here.