20230325 Evening 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: Hare Kṛṣṇa! Vaṇakkam! You are very blessed to have in this temple, the incarnations of Lord Kṛṣṇa, Nitāi Gaura, Rādhā Kṛṣṇa, Lalitā, Viśākhā, Jagannātha Baladeva Subhadrā Sudarśana cakra and Śrīla Prabhupāda. So, They have come here to let you serve Them. We ask the Deity to come, we pray that the Deity will accept our sevā. You are very fortunate to offer sevā to the Deities. We are in this material world because we want to enjoy separate from Kṛṣṇa. And the way to be happy is to actually serve Kṛṣṇa, the master of the Senses with our senses.

sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ
tat-paratvena nirmalam
hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-
sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate
[Cc. Madhya 19.170]

So, we are practicing bhakti-yoga to achieve perfection. Once we offer service to Kṛṣṇa, He never forgets. We were seeing on the newscast, big, big corporations they are laying off tens of thousands of people from their jobs. They just want to make profit. They don’t care about their workers. But you do a little service for Kṛṣṇa, He never forgets! One disciple, Guru Kṛṣṇa dāsa in Chile, he wanted to forget Kṛṣṇa. He tried for 30 years to forget Kṛṣṇa! But he could not forget Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa, He always remembered him. He came back to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and then he was really happy! So, the last two years of his life, he spent in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Sometimes we have families of wife, children, they are all devotees. But the husband, he says, “I have no time.”

I know one such family in Kolkata. And then two black people, Yamadūtas, with fangs in their mouth they came through the wall, with ropes in their hands. They were approaching him, he said, “No, no, no!” But they did not stop, they kept coming. Then he said, “Hare Kṛṣṇa!” Then they disappeared. He called his wife, he said, “Please bring me I want to wear tulasī beads, give me japa-mālā, I want to chant, bring me Bhagavad-gītā, I want to read, quick, quick!” And after that what we tried for a whole life to preach, the Yamadūtas did in a few seconds. Sometimes the husband is Kṛṣṇa conscious but not the wife. We want both the husband and wife to be Kṛṣṇa conscious. We lead this life and go back to Godhead. Śrīla Prabhupāda said, how it took him maybe 20 years to achieve love of Kṛṣṇa. Maybe it will take us a lifetime, I don’t know! But by the mercy of Nitāi Gaura, we can get it very quickly. Nityānanda! Gaurāṅga! Nityānanda! Gaurāṅga! Nitāi Gaura! Nitāi Gaura! Nitāi Gaura!

Lord Caitanya told Lord Nityānanda that, “We have descended from the spiritual world, but mostly in Our other avatāras, We deliver the brāhmaṇas and the kṣatriyas. But in Our present avatāra We promised that We would deliver the four unfortunate types of people: the foolish, the nīca - the lowborn, the patita – the fallen, and the sad – duḥkhitas.” So, normally the foolish people, they think they are the body. They don’t get delivered. But Nitāi Gaura promise to deliver everybody if they simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. When Lord Caitanya came here to South India, He did something He did not do in Navadvīpa. When He would see people on the road, He would sometimes embrace them and give them love of Kṛṣṇa! Haribol! Haribol! Haribol!

We were just talking to devotees by Zoom from Śrīraṅgam. How fortunate they were. Lord Caitanya stayed in Śrīraṅgam for four months of the rainy season. He spent so much time in Tamil Nadu. Haribol! Gaurāṅga!

So you are all very fortunate that Lord Caitanya, Lord Nityānanda, They travelled all over South India. We just took the Safari to Jhārikhaṇḍa and Bihar. In Jhārikhaṇḍa Lord Caitanya got even the lions, deer, tigers, elephants, everyone to chant and dance. The deer and the tigers, they lost their fear, and they chanted in ecstasy! Here I see all human beings! We are not Lord Caitanya; we cannot get the tigers and lions to chant and dance. But if we can get all the human beings to chant and dance that would be very glorious. I heard how you had Kīrtana-melā on the Saṅkrānti, Poṅgal day. It was called Madhuram-mahotsava. So I hope you have every year and all participate. So I am very happy to see all these very wonderful devotees.

Rukmiṇī, she told Kṛṣṇa, “You know everything. You know what Brahmā is doing in Satyaloka, You know what Śiva is doing in Kailāsa, You know everything going on in the ananta-koṭi-brahmāṇḍa. But there is one thing You don’t know. I know, Rādhārāṇī knows, but You don’t know! Because You have nobody above You.”

Kṛṣṇa was surprised, no one ever told Him that there was something He did not know. “What is that? What do I not know?”

You see, she said, “You don’t know, how much Your devotees love You! In what way your devotees love You. Rādhārāṇī knows, I know, but You don’t know.”

Then Kṛṣṇa decided, “I will come in Kali-yuga as My devotee! I WILL COME AS MY DEVOTEE! I WILL COME AS MY DEVOTEE!” That is Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya!

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya rādhā-kṛṣṇa nahi-anya
balarāma haila nitāi!

So the Lord, He came not only to establish the saṅkīrtana movement, He also came to understand the love of His devotee. He told Lord Nityānanda to continue to preach, I have to do some research. Gaurāṅga! Nityānanda!

You are all very, very fortunate, being in the movement of Lord Caitanya! We hope you all read Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books. I heard that you have a study group in Tirupati and Śrīraṅgam, they have here as well right? I heard that they are just celebrating the anniversary of the branch of Māyāpur Institute in Bangladesh. They told me that 1,600 people had received Bhakti-śāstrī! 212 received Bhakti-vaibhava. 20 Many are studying Bhakti-vedānta. Do you have such a program in Chennai?

Raṅga Kṛṣṇa Dāsa: 50 devotees have done Bhakti-śāstrī and Bhakti-vaibhava in the past six months.

Jayapatākā Swami: I heard you have started six months ago in Chennai. 50 devotees have achieved Bhakti-śāstrī and Bhakti-vaibhava in the last six months. I also got Bhakti-vaibhava! They wanted to give it to me honorary! I said, “No, I will study, I will take test!” We are in the Brahma-sampradāya, it is known for knowledge. I would like everyone to study Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books and get the degrees. Haribol! There is so much nectar in Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books. How many of you would like Śrīla Prabhupāda to visit your house? You can have this by having Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books in your house. By having and reading the books you can associate with Śrīla Prabhupāda. And even if you don’t know reading and writing, you can also hear the books. Audio, tape recorder, mobile phones, whatever.

I had a stroke, my right hand does not function properly. So, it is easier for me to hear the books. I had an eye operation recently. So, you don’t have to read and write, you hear the book that is enough. The point is that we want to associate with Śrīla Prabhupāda and read his books very carefully.

In the Brahma-vaivarta Purāṇa it states that after five thousand years, there will be a ten thousand Golden Age. And now we are five thousand years in the beginning of Kali-yuga. Śrīla Prabhupāda brought Kṛṣṇa consciousness, kṛṣṇa-bhakti throughout the whole world. So he personally came here to Chennai. So this is the place we should also study Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa! Haribol!

So what is next?