20221009 Initiation Address

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

Jayapatākā Swami: All glories to Nitāi Sundara Gaura Hari! All glories to Jagannātha Baladeva Subhadrā! All glories to Rādhā Gokulānanda! All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda! All glories to the assembled devotees! So, today we are having initiations, aspiring and shelter. And we are also having the Sunday Feast. So today is a very auspicious day. We are very grateful that you have come here today. And we heard that His Holiness Bhānu Swami gave a talk on the ten offences and various spiritual topics. So, this ceremony is connecting devotees with the guru-paramparā. Padma Purāṇa says unless one takes initiation from one of the four Vaiṣṇava sampradāyas, their mantra will be niṣphala, fruitless. The four sampradāyas, Lord Brahmā, Lakṣmī Devī, four Kumāras and Lord Śiva. So we are in the Brahmā sampradāya. Brahmā to Nārada, Nārada to Vyāsadeva. Vyāsadeva up to Madhvācārya, and then through the guru-paramaparā down to Mādhavendra Purī. Mādhavendra Purī to Īśvara Purī to Lord Caitanya. From Lord Caitanya to the six Gosvāmīs, His associates. Then to Siddha Jagannātha dāsa Bābājī, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, Gaura Kiśora dāsa Bābājī, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, and Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. I am a humble servant of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Śrīla Prabhupāda. In the future we want all of you to become qualified as spiritual masters. That means you have to read Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books. Take first or second initiation. Get the various degrees – Bhakti-śāstri, Bhakti-vaibhava, Bhakti-vedānta. So today I received a message from my grand disciples in Russia. He and 27 other devotees have got Bhakti-vedānta degree! And 200 are studying the Bhakti-vaibhava! And thousands are doing Bhakti-śāstri! So, we want Malaysia to be very advanced in studying Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books and getting these degrees. Haribol!

So by this Bhāgavatam we get so much wisdom. King Citraketu he was very morose, he did not have any son. He had many wives, but they were all barren. Then he met Aṅgīra Muni and told him his problem. Because you are very humble, give this prasāda to your queen and she will have a child, who will be the cause of your joy and distress. Then the wife got pregnant, and they had a baby boy. The whole kingdom rejoiced, now we have a royal heir to the throne! And Citraketu, he [audio break] because the queen who had the child had all the attention, all the care. King Citraketu has forgotten all of us. All because of this child! So they fed the child poison. The child died. King Citraketu he came very distressed. “Oh my son! Oh! He was crying with his mouth open.” The whole kingdom was sad. Then Aṅgīra Muni and Nārada Muni came in disguise. They told the king some spiritual instruction. This material world we see things like mirage, it seems real but is false. So in this material world we are identifying with the material body that we are the body. So we think that like this is my wife, this is my son, this is my husband, this is my country, this is my society, this is my family. But then it is like a dream, when we wake up we leave the dream behind us. When we die, we leave everything behind us. We may take birth in other planets. We may have another wife another husband. So we should not lament over anything of this material world. But while we are here we should do our duties, but we know that this world is temporary. So we try to awaken our dormant love and relationship with Lord Kṛṣṇa, which is eternal. So, if the husband-and-wife work together as a team and serve Kṛṣṇa, then they can serve Kṛṣṇa eternally. So, then Aṅgīra Muni and Nārada Muni they brought King Citraketu’s son back to life. Look at your mother and father, they are lamenting for your departure. And then the dead son spoke. That in every life I have a mother and father. Which life is this mother and father from? So, like that, Citraketu’s dead son, he spoke. And then Aṅgīra Muni said that this was your enemy. He took birth as your son to cause you more suffering. You will be attached to your son and when he left you will suffer like anything. Then Citraketu and his queen they got completely detached and they left and got peace. The co-queens who had poisoned the child, they felt very ashamed. Then King Citraketu he got God realization and realized the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

So what we see in the material world is not what it is. But while we are here we try to do our duties according to the varṇāśrama and try to serve Kṛṣṇa. Our relationship with Kṛṣṇa is eternal. Normally the gṛhasthas are busy with their family affairs. But that we have to leave completely behind us when we leave this material world. When we leave this body! We leave the world, that is a good thing! Because material life is that we go into another body, another body, another body, like that. Śvetāsvatara Upaniṣad says we are very minute spiritual particles. We are like a tip of a hair divided into a hundred parts. Then that hundred-parts is divided into another hundred parts. One ten thousandth of the tip of the hair is the size of our ātmā. We are the ātmā. We are not the body. Ātmā has a body. So if the ātmā leaves the body, the body is dead. Some scientists speculate that somehow matter can create life. But they have never done it. Bhagavad-gītā says that there is material energy and spiritual energy. Bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca [Bg 7.4]. These are the eight material elements. The spiritual energy is above this. The spiritual energy cannot be killed, cannot be cut, cannot be wet. In Bengali we say, how is your body, tomāra śarīra kemona āche? Say the same thing in Tamil. Uṅgal uḍal eppaḍi irukinḍrathu? Indian bodied understand that we are this soul and not the body. The soul is always good. But the body is sometimes good and sometimes not so good. So we want all of you to practice bhakti-yoga. By Bhakti-yoga if Kṛṣṇa is pleased, Paramātmā is pleased, ātmā is pleased and you are pleased through the ātmā.

Haridāsa Ṭhākura he was chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and he was getting transcendental pleasure. All of you can get transcendental pleasure while chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. If the husband and wife as a team to serve Kṛṣṇa, that is ideal. It is natural to feel affection for your children and spouse. But the greatest gift anyone can give them is spiritual knowledge.

So, in this month of Dāmodara, there is 100 times more fruit of any devotional service offered. So please do as much service as you can in this month. 100 times like – how much does a Proton car cost? The most expensive model. 125,000 dollars. If you can get it for a ringgit and a half, how is that? That is what 100 times means! You do some bhakti-yoga and you get 100 times benefit.

So today, some devotees are doing ātma-nivedanam. They are offering themselves up in Kṛṣṇa’s service. So please bless them. Some are practicing, some are taking shelter, some are taking initiation. I will say the mahā mantra loud and you can hear through the right ear. I will chant the Pañca-tattva mantra first to get Their blessings.

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/
Hare Rāma,Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare!