20230406 Question and Answer Session

The following is a Question & Answer Session given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on April 6th, 2023 in Los Angeles, USA 

Question: What is your favorite of Lord Caitanya pastimes?

Jayapatākā Swami: I like all of them. There is this one pastime of Lord Nityānanda and the dacoits. That is quite amazing! It is like when you read some pastime it is so different. It is so unique. At that moment I like that pastime. But I don’t know if there is any pastime that is my favorite. What was unique was Nimāi Paṇḍita, He did not manifest His love of Kṛṣṇa first in Navadvīpa. He manifested it in Gayā, in Bihar, after He got initiated from Īśvara Purī. He started chanting and dancing in ecstasy, crying like anything. And that was the beginning of His ecstasy. Before that, it was interesting, but when He came back from there He was a changed person.

Question: Thank you for the wonderful class - the fire sacrifice we just say they are saṁskāra, chanting of the holy names, that Kṛṣṇa is also known as the most renounced and is most satisfied. Does it mean that all the methods of self realization prescribed in the other yugas were meant for jīvas only? That the fire sacrifice in the Tretā-yuga was just a process of austerity and meditation?

Jayapatākā Swami: In Satya-yuga they were doing meditation, in Tretā-yuga they were doing fire sacrifice. Actually, by the fire sacrifice they could actually have the Personality of Godhead appear, and there are some descriptions of that. That was truly amazing, by fire sacrifice they could take an old cow and make it young, they could do all amazing thing. Now in the Kali-yuga that is forbidden because brāhmaṇas are not so qualified.

Question: After hearing all these pastimes again and again in my life, why is it so difficult to take advantage of Lord Caitanya’s mercy for me?

Jayapatākā Swami: In the eighth canto in the story of Gajendra mokṣa there is a pastime of Gajendra was fighting with a crocodile. They were in a lake. So after a long fight, Someone may be stronger in the renounced order. Gajendra realized that he was losing. Because he was a land animal, and he was stronger in the land. But the crocodile is a water animal, he is in the water, so he is more strong in the water. So then Gajendra remembered some prayers from his previous life and he prayed to the Lord. Anyway, the Lord came and saved him. So both the crocodile and him were there for different reasons. One of them was Huhu, the Gandharva king and the other was Indradyumna, the king who was cursed to become the elephant king and the crocodile king. Śrīla Prabhupāda in the purport he said that just like the crocodile was in his element, the water, he was stronger. So like that, we should be in a position where were are strongest. Someone may be stronger as a gṛhastha, with regulated sex life. Someone may be stronger in the renounced order. But accordingly, where they are stronger they should try to fight māyā, they should try to practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is not that one size fits all! I could not say something like that in India, they may not understand, but here I can say right, everybody knows. So I thought I would give you some American slang! So like that, we should be determined to fight. We should be determined to practice our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Maybe the situation may be different for different people. Śrīla Prabhupāda was giving a lecture in London in 1973 on his Vyāsa-pūjā and he said how his gurudeva had sent some sannyāsīs to preach to London but they failed. One Lord asked a sannyāsī, “Can you make me a brāhmaṇa?” He said, “Sure, you give up illicit sex, gambling, intoxication and meat eating.” “That is impossible, that is my life,” he replied. So Śrīla Prabhupāda said he sent three gṛhasthas couples, they were successful. So he was requesting all his gṛhastha followers to be paramahaṁsas. And he said that Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, was a gṛhastha. He had produced a son, his gurudeva, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura. So we need many such ācāryas to preach. Produce children like that - ācāryas. In India many gṛhasthas they come to me and say we have been married for x years we don’t have children, give a blessing that I should have a child. But actually, that is not a good blessing. Just to have a child. You want to have a Kṛṣṇa conscious long lived, healthy suputra, maybe an ācārya! Śrīla Prabhupāda was giving a lecture like that. In India I am a lone fighter. I am trying to establish how ladies could be Kṛṣṇa conscious and so on. But there is a lot of back pedaling from the Indian leaders. I am Indian. Anyway, don’t be discouraged. Be strong and fight against māyā. Help in distributing books, help the previous ācāryas and so on. Hare Kṛṣṇa!