20220930 Addressing the Congregation

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Jayapatākā Swami: Amazing! Never saw so many fruits! On Rādhāṣṭamī in 1970 Śrīla Prabhupāda gave me sannyāsa initiation. And with that came the responsibility of travelling around the world. The tridaṇḍa he gave me as three sticks, mana, kāya, vākya and one stick represents the ātmā. At the top of the daṇḍa there is a small curved stick which is the intelligence. So using our intelligence we engage our words, our activities and our thoughts in Kṛṣṇa’s service. But we see that Śrīla Prabhupāda, he wanted all his followers, all his gṛhasthas also to be paramahaṁsas. I mean gṛhasthas also have to maintain their families, but all the time thinking how to expand Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Husband and wife are helping each other in their devotional service. In that way, they are doing a wonderful service. And bhakti-yoga in this Kali-yuga can be performed by both the gṛhasthas and the vairāgīs. Being a sannyāsī, I can travel, I don’t have to maintain a family. I came here to Malaysia and did my service.

Lord Caitanya, He ordered every gṛhastha to also become a guru and spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness. His instruction was yāre dekha, tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa. Whoever you meet tell them the message of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Āmāra ājñāya hañā tāra’ ei deśa. On my order be a guru and deliver your country. Some may think, I don’t need to be a guru. But Śrīla Prabhupāda said you should want to spread the movement. Dvija Gaurāṅga dāsa, he was taking care of a rehabilitation center, and I went there to see him, it is a very tough job! So he had a lot of mercy, lot of compassion to help these people. I am seeing now, Bhakti Mandir has become very large. We want to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness to every house. In this way we can help people to have peace, happiness and go back to Godhead. The idea is to have this Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in your house, to eat kṛṣṇa-prasāda, to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Rāma. Like this to spread the holy message around. Like this the Yamadūtas they don’t enter the house. So please be paramahaṁsas and always think of Kṛṣṇa.

You see normally, people they are only thinking they are the body. But we are the soul and we have the body. So in this way, we want to cultivate our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Always thinking about Kṛṣṇa, glorifying Kṛṣṇa, we are experts in bhakti-yoga. I am very glad to see so many Nāmahaṭṭas and so many programs. We started the Nāmahaṭṭa in 1976. Now it is spread all over the world. And Malaysia is also the number one for the Dāmodara lamp offering. Think how you can help the Bhakti Mandir. Every service you do for Kṛṣṇa, that stays with you forever. So, I never knew there were so many fruits in Malaysia! Any questions?