20221110 Addressing Koṭi Dīpotsavam

The following is an address to the Koṭi Dīpotsavaṁ by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on November 10th, 2022 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur, India.

nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine

namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe

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

Jayapatākā Swami: Bāgunnāra? Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu said to be born as a human being in India is a very important thing.

bhārata-bhūmite haila manuṣya-janma yāra
janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra
(Cc. Ādi 9.41)

Lord Kṛṣṇa came as Lord Caitanya, His devotee, 500 years ago. He came here, He appeared in West Bengal, in Navadvīpa but He came to South India for about 6 years. He predicted His chanting of the holy name of Kṛṣṇa would spread all over the world. He predicted that one of His general would come after 500 years. So His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda came and he brought the movement to the West. At the age of 70 he went first to the United States. He told them, you are living in a remote corner of the world! Far away from the holy places of Vṛndāvana, Māyāpur, Jagannātha Purī, Ayodhyā, Dvārakā and Tirupati! You may be a rich country, but you are blind, you don’t have spiritual knowledge. India has spiritual knowledge. So, in this way, Śrīla Prabhupāda established 108 temples around the world. Now we have about a 1000-temples around the world and many thousands of sat-saṅgas known as Bhakti-vṛkṣa.

So we are very thankful for Narendra Choudhry for having this special program, and we understand that we will light one crore of lamps. We have been doing this lamp offering around the world. Originally, the Ayodhyā-vāsīs wanted to light up the night so that Sītā and Rāma could find Ayodhyā. In one way they were opening their hearts, they wanted to receive Lord Rāma. Similarly, on the same tithi, Yaśodā and Dāmodara had Their līlā. Actually, no one can tie up Kṛṣṇa. But because of her love, Kṛṣṇa let Yaśodā tie Him up. And He liberated the two sons of Kuvera. So we observe the Dāmodara-līlā every year, in the month of Kārtika. We don’t know the system of multi-wicks. You have advanced technology! In Malaysia, they had single wicks and they offered 500,000 lamps. Like that all over the world, even in Dubai, they are offering 5,000 wicks. I am very happy that Narendra Choudhry is organizing this in Hyderabad. And I hear that you are offering one crore, ten million lamps and during the offering of these wicks we should all chant

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

In the Kali-santaraṇa Upaniṣad here is the same mahā-mantra,

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

iti ṣoḍaśakaṁ nāmnāṁ kali-kalmaṣa-nāśanaṁ
nātaḥ parataropāyaḥ sarva-vedeṣu dṛśyate

In the entire Vedas, there is no better alternative to chanting the holy name.

Hare Kṛṣṇa!