20221114 Evening Address: ISKCON Bhubaneswar

The following is an evening lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on November 14th,2022 at the Iskcon Bhubaneswar temple, India.

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: I know very little Odia, but I am not able to speak fluently.

I can understand but I will speak in Bengali and someone will repeat in Odia.

I had come in 1976.

Then His Holiness Gaura Govinda Mahārāja was there in a hut and Śrīla Prabhupāda was with him.

Here it was vacant.

There were nothing but insects and mosquitos.

The insects were making holes in my dhoti.

And the whole land was empty.

But Gaura Govinda Mahārāja told Śrīla Prabhupāda that the city will develop till this place. And I now see that.

But in the other side there are houses and houses, but this side there are bazars, etc.

Now, where the samādhi mandir was there, I guess they broke the road.

Now we have to have a new samādhi mandir.

Afterwards in 1977 Śrīla Prabhupāda assigned me duties in Bengal and Odisha.

Then there were different areas assigned – east India, south India, Bangladesh.

North and west India were assigned to His Holiness Gopāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami Mahārāja.

This way the GBC allocated zones.

I did various programs with His Holiness Gaura Govinda Mahārāja in Odisha.

He used to guide me very nicely.

I have stayed in this guest house.

His Holiness Guara Govinda Mahārāja used to stay in the hut.

Many devotees like Tejas dāsa, Bhāgavata dāsa used to assist His Holiness Gaura Govinda Mahārāja.

Śrīla Prabhupāda said that the Deities for this temple would be made here and also installed here.

Nitāi Gaura, Kṛṣṇa Balarāma, Jagannātha Baladeva Subhadrā and Sudarśana cakra.

Here they used to have Harināma saṅkīrtana eight times of the day and His Holiness Gaura Govinda Mahārāja started that.

He taught me what an associate of Lord Caitanya had said.

And together the two of us installed the Deities here.

This way, we had a beautiful relationship.

In the future His Holiness Gaura Govinda Mahārāja became a guru in Odisha.

He translated the Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Caitanya-caritāmṛta in Odia language.

We are very grateful to him for that.

When he was in the GBC meeting in Māyāpur, many devotees would come to meet him there.

Then he spoke about his personal deities, Rādhā-Gopāla Deities.

Speaking about Them, he cried and was unconscious.

I was on top in my room and I heard that His Holiness Gaura Govinda Mahārāja was crying and unconscious.

The meeting was over.

Then His Holiness Kavicandra Swami Mahārāja did Reiki on him.

Then His Holiness Gaura Govinda Mahārāja did not respond.

Talking about Rādhā and Gopāla, he left his body.

Then we understood that he had gone straight back to Kṛṣṇaloka.

Then Bhakti Svarūpa Dāmodara Swami came and he used to serve in BI.

And we are trying to have the BI incorporated in the West Wing of the TOVP Exhibits.

Then he went away.

Then His Holiness Bhakti Cāru Swami came.

He was a very dear friend. He translated the Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, etc., to Bengali.

He got COVID-19 and left his body.

This way, now we are very grateful that there is Deity service being done very nicely.

Now His Grace Devakīnandana Prabhu, His Grace Brajahari Prabhu are assisting here.

This temple is a very important temple. This was the last temple that Śrīla Prabhupāda established. 

And here Lord Caitanya had performed many pastimes in Bhubaneswar. Here the Śivāṣṭaka is here.

Lord Caitanya had gone to the Liṅgarāja temple and also had bath in the Bindu Sarovara.

Śrīla Prabhupāda used to say that every day they should bring water from the Kedāra-Gaurī.

He used to say that the water from Kedāra-Gaurī was very good for his health.

The scriptures say that Bhubaneswar is the second Kāśī.

The Liṅgarāja temple is very important. This comes in the Śrī Kṣetra dhāma.

This way, preaching here is very important.

His Holiness Gaura Govinda Mahārāja established the Rādhā Kṛṣṇa temple.

There is a lot of history here.

We want that in Odisha that there be nice preaching of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya.

There are devotees who have gone from Odisha in the USA, in New Jersey.

And one devotee, Rukmiṇī devī had come here from Muscat.

We are trying that in Odisha the mood of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu spreads.

There are many pastimes of Lord Caitanya in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, etc.

He came from Bengal and He went to Remuṇā and other places.

Lord Caitanya came in the Kali-yuga more than 500 years ago. He incarnated especially, to distribute kṛṣṇa-prema to all.

Now to get kṛṣṇa-prema from Lord Kṛṣṇa, one has to surrender to Him.

But Lord Caitanya, He did not differentiate and gave kṛṣṇa-prema to one and all.

Haribol!

There is no one more merciful than Lord Caitanya in history.

Caitanya-caritāmṛta gives the details of His mercy.

That there be enthusiastic preaching of Kṛṣṇa consciousness in Odisha was desired by His Holiness Gaura Govinda Mahārāja, Śrīla Prabhupāda and Lord Caitanya.

We hope that all of you will try how to expand the mercy of Lord Caitanya all over Odisha.

I pray to His Holiness Gaura Govinda Mahārāja that all over Odisha preaching goes on and Lord Caitanya’s mercy is distributed.

Śrīla Prabhupāda had said that in Kolkata there should be at least 10 temples.

How many temples do you think there should be in Bhubaneswar?

(Planning for 6) 6 really!

This way, generally people think they are the body.

But we are soul and we have the body.

Old age, sickness is a suffering for human beings.

We want that everyone go back to Godhead, Vaikuṇṭha, Goloka.

Just chant Kṛṣṇa’s names, do saṅkīrtana, do devotional service and assist the temples, that is not difficult.

Vairāgya-vidyā means we have to be austere and do sacrifice.

Here we get nice prasāda.

This is sacrifice – do Harināma, kīrtana and get happiness.

We don’t drink wine etc., we get happiness chanting Kṛṣṇa’s name.

The so called happiness we get from drinking wine is not real happiness.

It is flickering and does not last long.

There was a man, I saw when I went to the hospital when I had Hepatitis-C. The man’s liver had got totally damaged because of drinking alcohol.

All these kinds of drugs and drink consumption bring a lot of obstacles.

The way we do austerity, that is not very difficult.

If someone asks you “How was your holiday?” We say, “We sang, we danced.

We feasted and had nice food” This is our sacrifice, our dharma.

Eat prasāda, do Harināma.

I hope that all of you will do this and that way get kṛṣṇa-prema.

Now His Holiness Gaura Govinda Mahārāja with great difficulty has translated the Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, and other books to Odia. All of you should make sure you read them. 

I have an app called Jayapatākā Swami App.

Free of cost you can download this on your phone.

Android and Apple, both are available.

But Bengali, Nepali, Hindi, English are there.

But I heard there is no Odia.

Today one person says that they will have it in Odia too.

Anyway, we will see whether Odia is there or not.

I will end my talk here as we have lot of work tomorrow.

Here I could have darśana of His Holiness Gaura Govinda Mahārāja and His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, I am very happy!

Hare Kṛṣṇa!