20221001 52nd Sannyāsa Anniversary Address

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

Jayapatākā Swami: My respects to all the illustrious men and women who are present, the various officials of different communities, and my thanks to all the ladies and gentlemen and devotees who are present. On the day of Rādhāṣṭamī, 1970, my spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda gave me sannyāsa. And by his mercy I was able to pass these 52 years, fully engaged in devotional service or bhakti-yoga. We take vows when we accept initiation. We accept vows when we get married. And we accept vows when we take sannyāsa! It is very important to follow our vows. Today many people accepted initiation, and we promise not to do sinful activities and to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. When we get married then we accept one husband, or one wife and we promise to stay loyal to that connection. When we take sannyāsa we take the vow that we will use our thoughts, words and deeds in Kṛṣṇa’s service. We would like to follow in the footsteps of the vraja-vāsīs. We do everything in devotional service. Taking sannyāsa means we take the vow of brahmacarya for life. So devotional service is called vairagya-vidyā. Those who are gṛhasthas they have to remain loyal in their relationship and in sannyāsa is to stay loyal to Kṛṣṇa. Of course, we want to see our gṛhastha couples are paramahaṁsas.

In this material world there is suffering and enjoyment. No one wants suffering, everyone wants enjoyment. But this material world is arranged in such a way that we naturally suffer. So if we are Kṛṣṇa conscious then we naturally become fearless to the suffering and enjoyment of this material world. Nitāi and Gaurāṅga, They came to give this Harināma saṅkīrtana. But there were two rascals born in a brāhmaṇa family but they were very evil. They were Jagāi and Mādhāi. And then Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda and His associates were doing Harināma saṅkīrtana, Jagāi and Mādhāi they were angry, why They are chanting! Although Lord Kṛṣṇa Caitanya promised He would not take any weapons of violence, when He saw Mādhāi hit Lord Nityānanda on the head and bleed, then He called for His Sudarśana cakra, “CAKRA!” But then Lord Nityānanda said to Mādhāi, “Just because you made Me to bleed, it doesn’t mean I will not give you love of Godhead.” Jagāi, he told Mādhāi, “You beat Him and He is bleeding, He still wants to give you love of Godhead, He is not ordinary, bow down!” So Caitanya Mahāprabhu was ready with His cakra to kill Mādhāi. Then Lord Nityānanda told Lord Caitanya, “Please Lord Caitanya spare them, they don’t know what they do.” Lord Caitanya said, “If they promise not to do any sins any more then I will initiate them and forgive them.” Jagāi and Mādhāi went to the Ganges and took a bath. They came back and they got initiated by Lord Caitanya. In this way, they promised not to do sin anymore. They would regularly chant Hare Kṛṣṇa! Like this Lord Caitanya He told all His followers, “Do not refer to Jagāi and Mādhāi’s previous sinful activities, now they are Vaiṣṇavas, respect them.”

So 24-years Lord Caitanya served as a gṛhastha. And 24 years He served as a sannyāsī. So, His pastimes are very ecstatic. I have been writing the compilation of Lord Caitanya’s histories and got up to His final pastimes. He united all the Hindus. And that time in India if a non-Hindu sprinkles water on a Hindu, he is converted. There was one royal was training his son prince in military ways. But the prince he was playing around and he kicked him once. Later he was the king and the queen saw the mark on his side. This king was training me and he kicked me. I deserved it. But the queen said, no, my king was kicked, he should be killed. He said I cannot kill him, he was my teacher. Then she said, alright, take his Hindu dharma and japa. I have to do this. [22:26] Literally that was all it took to make someone a non-Hindu. He went to the brāhmaṇa and said, “What can I do, this happened to me. He said take a kilo of ghee, boil it and drink it!” “If I do that I will die!” He said, “Then next birth you will take birth as a Hindu.” Such was the policy of the brāhmaṇas 500 years ago. But then he went to Lord Caitanya and asked Him, “What should I do?” Lord Caitanya said, “Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa three times! Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare! Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare! Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare!” He was free! So Lord Caitanya He united all the religions.

When Lord Caitanya went to South India, He not only went to the Viṣṇu temples, He went to the Śiva temples, He went to the Devī temples. He went to the Murugan and Gaṇeśa temples, to the Rāma temple, Hanumān temple. He united all the Hindus. Lord Caitanya He brought everyone together to love.

Śrīla Prabhupāda appeared in 1896, and then in 1965 he went to the West. In 1971 he came to Malaysia. This is how many years? 51 years. I came to Malaysia in 1981 ten years after. I am very happy to see this temple come up so nice. Lord Caitanya, He came 500 years to bring love of the spiritual world to this world. Golokera prema-dhana harināma saṅkīrtana! He wanted to see all the devotees united to spread the message of the Bhagavad-gītā. Śrīla Prabhupāda he wrote, he translated Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, into English. Then from English it has been translated into Tamil, Chinese and many other languages. We hope everybody will study these books and become very proficient in spreading Lord Kṛṣṇa’s message. Bhagavad-gītā is spoken by Lord Kṛṣṇa and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is spoken about Lord Kṛṣṇa. So, Lord Caitanya said we should hear and speak kṛṣṇa-kathā. So, these two books are kṛṣṇa-kathā and also, we should know the activities and teachings of Lord Caitanya. We also have the works of the six Gosvāmīs like Nectar of Devotion and Nectar of Instruction.

Thank you very much and I hope you have a very successful life in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.