20230217 Śrī Māyāpur Flag Hoisting Festival Address

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram
Harihi oṁ tat sat

Jayapatākā Swami: My respects to all the devotees who are present. We are observing the Māyāpur Gaura Pūrṇimā Festival on the order of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. He said that we should all come together from different parts of the world, and associate with each other. And this was the United Nations of the spiritual world. So as everything in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is personal, this festival is also something personal, putting everything under the shelter of Garuḍa. So of all the practices of bhakti, the five most important are observed in the holy dhāma. So we get this rare opportunity to associate with devotees from all around the world.

Actually, I am trying to figure out, one time, this dhāma is non-different from Vṛndāvana, so you get thousand times the benefit for every activity. But another śāstra says if you are in a three-mile radius of the Ganges then you get a hundred thousand times of the benefit. A hundred thousand plus a thousand times is like – how much is that? Millions! Anyway, some devotee asked me since being in Māyāpur is so much more, so we can spend it by laying down, you will get credit even laying down. Okay, if that is how you want to spend time in Māyāpur, even then you will get some credit. Laying down is like offering praṇāmas anywhere else. But if you spend your time chanting, hearing, dancing, taking prasāda, walking on parikramā and observing the different Deity festivals, then you multiply that by hundred thousand times a thousand! And our vacation is that we want to accumulate as much spiritual credit as we can. But if you just to do praṇāmas and lay down - obviously we would like to get maximum benefit. Actually, by taking a step in Māyāpur it works more than an aśvamedha-yajña. Of course, I am not able to walk but you are all very fortunate.

So, we are very happy that so many devotees have come here from all over the world. And we want to please Śrīla Prabhupāda. He requested that we associate together. I remember, the first year we had our Bengali party in the parikramā and the international party. And Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura had said a day will come, the devotees from India will meet with the international devotees and they will not have any distinction of caste, creed, color, country or gender. They will come together and chant, “Jaya Śacīnandana! Jaya Śacīnandana!” We did that for a few years and it was very blissful. And now we have so many people, six or seven parties, they will meet here. They will have a grand meeting together. Anyway, this was inconceivable during the British-rāj. But it was predicted by Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura at that time and today by Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mercy we are seeing that is happening. So thank you all very much for being here! All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda! All glories to the Māyāpur festival.