20230108 Gaṅgā-sāgar Melā Message

Gaṅgā-sāgara Melā Message 2023 by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja 8th January 2023 in Śrī Māyāpur dhāma, India

All glories to Gaṅgā-sagāra! Kapila Muni kī jaya! So this Gaṅgā-Sāgara is a holy place. Here the Ganges meets the Bay of Bengal. And King Bhāgīratha, he brought the Ganges down to save his forefathers. His forefathers had offended Kapila Muni. As a result, they were burned to ashes. And the way to save them was to bring the Ganges water down and then the Ganges water will hit the ashes, they will be delivered. Kapila Muni is an avatāra of Nārāyaṇa. And He has His spiritual planet in the Vaikuṇṭhaloka. His Mother Devahūti, at the time of her leaving the body, went back to the spiritual world. And in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam the questions and answers of Mother Devahūti and Kapila Muni are recorded. That gives the essence of the spiritual sāṅkhya philosophy. So, people are coming during the Makara-saṅkrānti to observe this holy day at Gaṅgā-sāgara. And at this sacred place ISKCON has, is constructing a temple. During the annual Makara-saṅkrānti festival, they are distributing prasāda. And they want to let this place be known to the people of the world and glorified. Here Kapila Muni eternally resides. And so in this sacred place, you can get the darśana of Kapila Muni, who is… Devahūti and Kardama Muni are the mother and father of Kapila Muni. And Kapila Muni gave the sāṅkhya philosophy, which tells us, how this material body is created, etc. And He has presented the theistic idea, how there is source is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. We are very happy that ISKCON is having its center place erecting in Gaṅgā-sāgara. We hope that all the people will benefit by this visit to Gaṅgā-sāgara by taking kṛṣṇa-prasāda. This holy place was created many millions of years before. We do hope that people in Kali-yuga would chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. That the mahā-mantra is the special yajña for this Age of Kali. So, while you are taking a bath in the Gaṅgā-sāgara, or while you are observing any activity please chant the holy name of Kṛṣṇa. So by chanting the holy name, all the things become very sacred, purified. So I am very happy that people are taking a pilgrimage and visiting this sacred place. Our human life is successful by visiting holy places and we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. While we visiting the holy places, we try to hear from the devotees. We could understand the purpose of our human life. Human life is meant to be free from the birth, death, old age and disease. People may not try to solve these primary difficulties of human life. They are still taking birth-after-birth again and again. We should surrender at the lotus feet of Kapila Muni, Lord Caitanya. In this way, by paying our obeisances, chanting the holy names, we could achieve all success. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, he made the Ganges renowned all over the whole world. He spread sanātana-dharma and spread it all over the world and with that the process of bhakti-yoga was made popular. Bhagavad-gītā As It Is – is a book which convinced many youths. I think, you can get a copy here (in Gaṅgā-sāgara). Also we would like to thank the State Government because they have invested in making this holy place renowned and they have made various improvements to receive the pilgrims. I would like to thank the State Government for the their vision and sevā-bhāva.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.