20230407 Evening Address

Mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāriṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī-caitanya-īśvaram
Hari oṁ tat sat

Jayapatākā Swami:  Please help Braja-vilāsa Prabhu to complete the Temple. You can mention whether you are my dīkṣā, aspiring, sheltered or śikṣā disciples, then half goes to the West Wing of the TOVP. We are trying to make all the visitors understand Śrīla Prabhupāda’s teachings that Life comes from Life and the Big Bang Theory and Darwin’s theory of evolution, all atheistic ideas, they do not stand, they are just speculation. Anyway, that is my humble request, that we can serve Śrīla Prabhupāda, he would like to have this Temple of the Vedic Planetarium completed. Lord Nityānanda said:

eka adbhuta-mandir haibe prakāśa
gaurāṅga-nitya-sevā haibe vikāśa

So we hope that this temple is considered the adhbhuta-mandira, it is the largest Vedic temple in the world. This year we had our ILS on the pūjārīs floor. It was very nice to hear different presentations. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

In 1968, I joined. I visited every temple in ISKCON - all three! San Francisco, New York and Montreal.  That time I heard that there was someone going to open a temple in LA. Then in 1970 Śrīla Prabhupāda called me to Los Angeles. He wanted to send me to India. But then he heard that Acyutānanda did not have his own place yet. So he sent me to Chicago to help Bhagavān. Then anyways I told you what happened in Bolder, Colorado.  Then I went to Chicago, then got a call from Śrīla Prabhupāda to go to India. Actually, Garga Muni called me. I said, “I want money.” He said, “Bring your own!”

When I was in Los Angeles, I would go with Jayānanda Prabhu, he would go to Beverley Hills to get some flowers, but someone shot at us and Śrīla Prabhupāda said don’t go there anymore. We just went to pick some flowers. Then, they did not have the big Deities, I think they had Rukmiṇī Dvārakānātha and Śrīla Prabhupāda had every week, that we would give our report to the Deities I don’t know if you do that anymore? But we had to give our report, what service we did, and that was a very wow, that was a very special thing. To stand in front of the Deities and telling your report and asking for blessings. For a while I had established that in Māyāpur, being inspired from here.

Then I have been in India, and I travelled around the world. I had got my Indian Citizenship and that time there were 11 ācāryas and so I was asked to go to South America, to go to South-East USA and I would travel around the world. So, I travelled so much around the world that I got a million miles on United Airlines! A lifetime Gold on Star Alliance. And then full-on British Airways, lifetime Emerald. I asked my secretary whether or not I qualified on Delta Airlines. Anyway, 2008 I had a stroke and then I came to Los Angeles for six months. I stayed in the Bhaktivedanta Manor for two months. Every time I go there the temple president would tell me, “Welcome home! This is your second home!” I spent 2 months there, but I spent 6 months here. (His Grace Svāvasa Prabhu: I thought Los Angeles is your second home) Yes! that’s why I don’t know. They were trying to claim but I spent more time in Los Angeles. Anyway, I had the beautiful darśana of Rukmiṇī Dvārakādīśa, Nitāi Gaura, Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā, and in front they made this plastic swimming pool and they had the Deities going around various festivals, Ratha-yātrās. So I am very grateful to Los Angeles, my home away from Māyāpur home!

So now it is not only my disciples cook for me, she also cooks arepas, she is a disciple of Vīrabāhu Prabhu. I have one problem, wherever I am I like to see people become devotees. And I carry clickers with me, when I go to the hospital, and I ask the nurses, the doctors if they can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and I give them a clicker. Śrīla Prabhupāda said if you give the beads you have to take the karma. So they can chant when they were on duty and put the clicker in their pocket and chant. So like this many doctors and nurses, they chant rounds. And in Kolkata airport if you go there, I give out a lot of prasāda. So if you go there, they may ask you do you have prasāda? So like this I am trying to give the mercy around. I am just following the example of Girirāja Mahārāja!

Girirāja Mahārāja: I am trying to follow your example!

Jayapatākā Swami: I haven’t been able to come here for a while. So, I am glad to be back to my home.  

Actually, at the ILS Svāsa Prabhu told me I had to come to Los Angeles this time. I am just carrying out his order.

Svāsa Prabhu:  Let us make that a standing order!

Jayapatākā Swami: And one of the devotees from Laguna Beach, she is offering me prasāda, Amṛtāñjalī. I am very grateful. I told her, I complained I did not get the arepas this time. There is a big competition, the Colombians they say their arepas are the best and the Venezuelans, they say theirs is the best.

As Girirāja Mahārāja said, it is a real family feeling, we are one family in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And I would like to see all the disciples of Śrīla Prabhupāda and the spiritual masters and all the grand-disciples of Śrīla Prabhupāda under the spiritual masters.

Śrīla Prabhupāda in 1975 in Māyāpur he said, now we need ten thousand ācāryas, then hundred thousand, then one million, then 10 million, in this way we will have every town and village have an ācārya, and fulfill Lord Caitanya’s prediction. They offered me a free, honorary degree but I said no, I will take the rest, I will study the books again although I have read them earlier six or times. I will take it and this time they gave me my Bhakti-vaibhava. And I got A+ on all my exams. Now I have started Bhakti-vedānta, I finished the 7^th canto, A plus. I hope everybody reads Śrīla Prabhupāda books and that is how to get his association now. And the proof is to get the degree. Hare Kṛṣṇa! Thank you very much!