20230318 Initiation 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: Today, is the Pāpamocani Ekādaśī. I heard the glories of Pāpamocani Ekādaśī today which has a lot of significance. Every Ekādaśī, we should hear the glories of that particular Ekādaśī. By observing this Ekādaśī whatever sins one may have done, all of the sins can be erased. This Ekādaśī is very dear to Lord Kṛṣṇa. Today, initiation ceremony is going to be held. Along with that there will also be shelter and aspiring disciples’ ceremony as well. Whatever the requirements for taking initiation, you can go on my website JPS Office and look it up. That is why for initiation you have to get ready in advance. It is not that I will enjoy now and after initiation will do whatever is required, that is not right. You have to prepare yourself in advance. When I am here whoever is ready for initiation can present yourself. Śrīla Prabhupāda, for my first initiation, said I had to read the Bhagavad-gītā ten times. But when I give first initiation, I only ask the disciples to read it twice. But if you have to read it twice, you have to get organized earlier. Many people are there who don’t read Bhagavad-gītā, they don’t know how to offer bhoga and honor prasāda, they don’t know that. And don’t know the mantra to apply tilaka. So the tilaka we apply on twelve parts of the body. So at least we should memorize the names of the Lord where we apply tilaka on the body. After having both, every day at least twice, we should apply tilaka on 12 parts of our body. Whatever the mantras – Oṁ Keśavāya namaḥ, Oṁ Nārāyaṇāya Namaḥ, Oṁ Govindāya Namaḥ – we should remember all these mantras. All the devotees should also carefully do their daily sādhanas. Whatever we eat, we first offer to the Lord as bhoga and then honor the prasāda. And we should also learn the bhoga offering mantra. Guru, Gaurāṅga, Kṛṣṇa. Whatever is required for us to know, we should learn. I hope that all of you will at least learn all these mantras I just told you. Guru-praṇāma mantra, ācārya-praṇāma mantra, all of you should learn that. Guru’s praṇāma mantra, Parama-guru’s praṇāma mantra, these are ordinary things. In the altar what all of the Lord’s Deities are there, arcā-vigrahas are there, guru-paramparā, and whatever the guru-praṇāma mantra, you have to learn. The temple authorities should make sure that all the would be disciples be taught all these mantras. They will decide who are ready for taking initiation. They will teach the mantras themselves or they will delegate some other devotees to teach. There are nine ways of devotional practice. Śravaṇam, kīrtanam, smaraṇam. These are the first three. After this pāda-sevanam, vandanam, arcanam. Then dāsyam, sakhyam, ātma-nivedanam. These are the nine practices of devotion. In Kali-yuga, the most important practices are śravaṇam and kīrtanam. Worship of the Lord in the temple is arcanam. When we go near the Lord and we pray and offer obeisances, that is vandanam. When we do service to the Lord, that is called pāda-sevanam. Example of dāsyam is Hanumānjī. He is the foremost devotee of the Lord. Arjuna was the friend of Lord Kṛṣṇa, so that is sakhyam. And when we surrender everything to the Lord, that is called ātma-nivedanam. So these are the nine practices of devotion. The yogīs they do aṣṭāṅga-yoga. First there is Brahman, then Paramātmā and then Bhagavān. Our path is how to understand Bhagavān, how to serve the Lord. So knowing the Lord is our primary goal of life. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Today many disciples will take blessings. Some will take initiation, some shelter and some aspiring. There are some disciples who will also be given the Gāyatrī mantra. This Gāyatrī mantra is required when we do Deity worship especially. We should serve the Lord and study the scriptures about the Lord. Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Caitanya-caritāmṛta and others. You should study all these scriptures. The Bhakti-śāstrī degree is mostly based on the Bhagavad-gītā. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam has been divided into two parts – the first part up to the 6^th canto are for Bhakti-vaibhava degree and the other part from 7^th to 12^th canto is the Bhakti-vedānta degree. And the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, the teachings of Lord Caitanya is Bhakti-Sārvabhauma degree. I hope that all of you will study Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

I will chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra once and all of you can hear with your right ear. You can repeat after.

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