20220908 Nāmahaṭṭa Sammelan Address

The following is an Nāmahaṭṭa Sammelana Class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on September 8th, 2022 in Śrīdhāma Māyāpur,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: Welcome to Māyāpur, Nāmahaṭṭa devotees from North 24-Parganas! Today is Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s appearance day. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura established the Nāmahaṭṭa. First Lord Nityānanda established the Nāmahaṭṭa about 5 to 600 years ago, then about 150 years ago or so, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura again re-established the Nāmahaṭṭa. And my gurudeva’s guru, my parama-gurudeva, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura spoke about Nāmahaṭṭa. And I got the blessings from His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda to once again establish the Nāmahaṭṭa. Haribol! As a result of that, you are all present here! This is one district and some devotees have come today from one district. Now there are so many districts like this – about 26. Other than Bengal, there are in Odisha, Assam, Jharkhand, Tripura, there are more Nāmahaṭṭas – Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nepal etc. Now Nāmahaṭṭa program is expanding in India and other countries. That you are all serving Kṛṣṇa and are associated with the Nāmahaṭṭa, I am very grateful to all of you. Lord Caitanya says, gṛhe thāko vane thāko sadā hari bole ḍāko. In the 5th Canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, chapter 2, there is Ṛṣabhadeva’s advice to his 100 sons. His sons were all well cultured and well-mannered but he took them as an example and told them. He said, guru, father, demigods, king, then your children, your subjects, your students, etc. only if you can get them out of the cycle of birth and death should you have these relations. The animals only feel, āhāra, nidrā, maithuna, bhaya – eating, sleeping, mating and defending, they are not conscious of God. Human beings are much more advanced than animals. How are they advanced?Eating, sleeping, mating and defending is there in both humans and animals but the main thing is the thought of God or power to think of God is there in human beings. Now we have got the human life because of karma. If we do good karma, then we have to get another body. We should understand that we have this body and because of this body we get happiness and distress, but these are all according to our karma. So Bhagavad-gītā says, we have to face both these equally – when there is winter, we have to endure it. The goal of human life is to serve Kṛṣṇa, to love Kṛṣṇa. If we love God, then we can go back to Godhead. The scriptures say that in young age to observe brahmacarya. There Śrīla Prabhupāda said that gṛhasthas, husband and wife, as per scriptures if they unite then that is also called brahmacarya. But in the West and other countries, there is unity between men and women outside of marriage, that is sin. Anyway, if we chant the holy name of God in this Kali-yuga, we get the opportunity to experience devotion to the Lord and love of God.

nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-prema ’sādhya’ kabhu naya
śravaṇādi-śuddha-citte karaye udaya

(Cc. Madhya 22.107)

In the Nāmahaṭṭa there is regular nāma-saṅkīrtana of the Lord, kīrtana, this way doing this slowly there will be awakening of love of God in your heart. And through the Nāmahaṭṭa, you can be taught and get degrees like Bhakti-śāstrī, etc. This way if there knowledge along with devotion, then there will be no rebirth. I bless all of you – Kṛṣṇe matir astu!