20221023 Address to JSSS Meet

The following is a talk given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on October 23rd,2022 in Vṛndāvana, India. The talk was given at the weekly JSSS meeting.

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: So I am very overwhelmed by your JSSS Vrindavan reception.

Vṛndāvana is a very special place.

Here all the service we do is multiplied by 1000.

But one should be very careful in Vṛndāvana also.

Any offence done in Vṛndāvana is multiplied 1000 times.

One has to be very careful in Vṛndāvana.

Siddha Jagannātha dāsa Bābājī he found it a bit heavy in Vṛndāvana and for that reason he went to Navadvīpa.

Navadvīpa is non-different from Vṛndāvana and you also get a 1000 times benefit.

But apart from Vaiṣṇava aparādhā, the aparādhās are not so heavy.

Capālā Gopāla, he committed a vaiṣṇava-aparādhā against Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura.

As a result, he got leprosy.

But when Śrīvāsa forgave him, he was set free and was embraced by Lord Caitanya. 

Lord Caitanya came to Vṛndāvana and He was in great ecstasy.

His ecstasy was a lakh times increased.

He started to uncover the lost holy places.

He uncovered the Rādhā-kuṇḍa, Śyāma-kuṇḍa.

There were just some indentations in a paddy field.

So tomorrow we are going to abhiṣeka of the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya at Śyāma-kuṇḍa, Rādhā-kuṇḍa.

I hope I get some help from my disciples and well-wishers to establish the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya wherever He went.

Like this, we want to let people know who are Lord Caitanya and His followers who have revealed the holy places in Vṛndāvana.

Followers of Lord Caitanya are really blessed!

So, I am glad that many disciples are taking advantage of this holy place Vṛndāvana.

One thing is that as I said before, you have to be very careful.

This morning I heard a lecture Śrīla Prabhupāda gave in Vṛndāvana.

He said that we have to do tapasyā.

But our tapasya is not like in the previous ages.

In the previous ages people would go to the jungle and live the animals and eat roots and fruits of the jungle.

But today, there are hardly any trees left.

And it is not expected that people can do that type of tapasya now.

But we live in āśrama, we take prasāda, we avoid doing sinful activities.

And we tell people the glories of Kṛṣṇa.

We preach.

In this way, we try to help people to overcome the real problems of life.

Śrīla Prabhupāda was explaining how before birth it is very painful, we are stuck in the mother’s womb for about ten months.

Then when we die at the end of life, there is also a lot of pain.

I was in the ICU in Delhi in the hospital.

I was seeing, around me people were dying.

On my one side, one person was saying, “Bāp-re-bāp, oh bāp-re-bāp!” On the other said, one person was saying, “Oh māgo, māgo! Mā!” During the night, both died.

It is not funny. It is horrible!

From that I can understand how painful is death.

And between birth and death, there is old age and disease.

I used to take a lot of mahā-prasāda.

Sweets, things.

Now I have diabetes.

So as a result, I cannot take any sugar!

And I cannot take potatoes, I cannot take so many things.

That is a kind of tapasyā but that you do not get any credit for it.

But we do divya-tapasyā.

We do something to overcome life and death.

Koshish kareṅge janma mṛtyu jarā vyādhi se bāhar chale jāyen – we will try to see that we get out of this birth, death, old age and disease.

We overcome birth, death, old age and disease. 

Śrīla Prabhupāda was saying how important this human life is.

All the people do is, try to make their life comfortable by working very hard.

We do some austerity to realize our eternal relationship with Lord Kṛṣṇa.

To realize a higher level of happiness.

We have to be happy.

If there is no happiness, there is no use of living.

In this material world the happiness is very insignificant.

Tuccha!

So then, if we serve Kṛṣṇa, then we get spiritual happiness.

In Kali-yuga it is especially recommended, to be gṛhasthas and to serve Kṛṣṇa.

I was listening to Śrīla Prabhupāda’s lecture where he said he wanted his gṛhastha followers to be paramahaṁsas.

Of course, in India we have many brahmacārīs, sannyāsīs, compared to the other parts of the world.

So brahmacārīs, they have an easy life and serve Kṛṣṇa.

But if they are thinking of other things, there is no use.

So it is very important to be completely absorbed in Kṛṣṇa’s thoughts.

That way, whether you are a householder or renounced, to always think how to spread this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

That way, Śrīla Prabhupāda was very happy that his gṛhastha couples were able to do such wonderful work in London.

Normally, gṛhasthas think only about their material comforts.

But Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted that his vairāgīs and gṛhasthas all think about Kṛṣṇa, and try to help serve Kṛṣṇa. 

Lord Caitanya has made it very easy for the human beings in Kali-yuga.

Chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, dancing in ecstasy, taking some kṛṣṇa-prasāda, distributing kṛṣṇa-prasāda, worshiping the Deities.

If we go around doing the Vraja-maṇḍala parikramā, it is not that we just want to visit the places, we want to hear what pastimes Lord Kṛṣṇa did there.

We want to hear Kṛṣṇa consciousness from the sannyāsīs or other advanced devotees.

In this way, our pilgrimage will be successful. 

I have been very busy on this tour recently.

In Māyāpur, every night I give caitanya-līlā class.

And people all over the world, all over India, listen.

Some on Zoom, some on YouTube or Facebook.

I hope that all of you are listening to the classes.

How many of you have mobile phones?

We have a Jayapatākā Swami App.

Who has that?

Who doesn’t have it?

So, I paid for the App!

You can have it free!

This morning, I put out on the App Deities in Māyāpur darśana and the Deities in Vṛndāvana.

Several Deities I see physically on Zoom I put on the App.

If you have Android phone, then you can download the App from Google Play Store – Jayapatākā Swami.

You see I am not the only sannyāsī with an App.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja and some other sannyāsīs have apps.

So before you leave, you can look on Apple or Android to get your App.

And there are many features.

You can do ārati to the Deities.

Śrīla Prabhupāda gave me various orders, so what orders they are you can see and select one which you would like to help with.

You can also go to the various social media – Facebook, Twitter.

I have also on Instagram, but I did not see it there. What we want to do is to keep in touch with all the devotees.

We have some local care coordinators.

If you would like to do that sevā, you can call up.

Send your application.

So like this we want to keep in touch with the devotees.

I saw that Śrīla Prabhupāda instructed me to make many disciples.

But making disciples is the biggest responsibility, how are we going to get all to Godhead?

So I am very concerned about that.

And I would like to keep in touch with all of you.

Every day I try to pray for my initiated, sheltered, aspiring and śikṣā disciples and grand disciples.

And also the disciples of other dear gurus who have passed away.

Śrīla Prabhupāda in his lecture, he was saying, how human beings should not just think that, “Oh, I am living in a nice building, I am so comfortable.” We should be very serious about practicing our Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

So I am taking time to communicate, write every month some letter to the disciples.

And Śrīla Prabhupāda, I mentioned in the class, how every night he would get up at midnight and translate till 3 or 4 in the morning.

He said that writing his books was his personal ecstasy.

And reading his books is our tapasya.

Here in Vṛndāvana you have the VIHE and in Māyāpur we have MI and here it is VI.

Now they have various institutes all over the world.

But here in Vṛndāvana, is the first one.

They are first in the Bhakti-vedānta course and now others are also doing Bhakti-vedānta course.

Here they have already started Bhakti-Sārvabhauma.

I don’t know if they have started anywhere else.

So this is our tapasyā, to read Śrīla Prabhupāda books and then utilize our human life to become Kṛṣṇa conscious.

Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Of course, Lord Caitanya has given special mercy.

He is mahā-vadanyāya avatāra and He is patita-pāvana, deliverer of the fallen souls.

So we want to make Him famous, popular.

So that everyone would take up His process of bhakti-yoga and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa!

For that reason, our previous ācāryas, Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted that we make a Temple of Vedic Planetarium.

And I want to see the temple come up, but side by side as part of the temple, the West Wing, is a special exhibition, how Kṛṣṇa consciousness is a very effective science.

Ambarīṣa Prabhu is the chairman of the whole TOVP.

I am under him, the chairman of the West Wing Museum.

So we are trying to, as Śrīla Prabhupāda said, reach the innocent people.

They have been brainwashed to see things from the modern ascending process.

But through the descending process we know there is a spiritual world and ananta-koṭi brahmāṇḍas, so many things.

So, my disciples who give donations to the TOVP, 50% goes to the West Wing Museum and 50% for the construction.

Vraja-vilāsa dāsa is the Vice President, are you ready? So we would like to invite Vraja-vilāsa dāsa to give to those who are present the possibility to help if they want, building of the TOVP.