20230413 Question and Answer Session

The following is a Question & Answer Session given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on April 13th, 2023 in Dallas, Texas, USA.

Any questions?

Question: Which one do you recommend first – Caitanya-bhāgavata or Caitanya-caritāmṛta?

Jayapatākā Swami: Since Caitanya-caritāmṛta has the purports of Śrīla Prabhupāda, it would be better to read its purports first. Although in my compilation, I have going chronologically about the life of Lord Caitanya. So, the Caitanya-bhāgavata comes first because that is dealing with His early life. And then there are other books and then the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. But this is at the end of the book and here we have some of the pastimes of Lord Nityānanda and His associates. This book, I am not putting in the Bengali, I am just telling the translation and purport. Like the Kṛṣṇa Book.

Question: You have given your heart and soul to this movement and expanding this movement, how can we also be sincere to expand this movement?

Jayapatākā Swami: That is why I am saying that Śrīla Prabhupāda’s teachings and I am hoping - the GBC said we have expanded our movement exponentially. But the number of gurus has not expanded very much. We had 100 when they made this decision, and now maybe we have 180 or so. But we need many, many more. And we can see that many of the associates were gṛhasthas, some were brahmacārīs and some were gṛhasthas. We are hoping that as you all get older, many of you will be qualified to be spiritual masters. Anyway, dīkṣā-guru or śikṣā-guru, you should try to make people Kṛṣṇa conscious. If you know the philosophy naturally you can explain it. Today went to see a plastic surgeon. He is a kind of a Christian missionary. I told him that Śrīla Prabhupāda said all the religions we do are like the primary school, secondary school, and Kṛṣṇa consciousness tells us how to actually love Lord Kṛṣṇa. Lord Jesus said that we should love God. But how to love Him? That is the process of bhakti-yoga. So, we should become expert to explain this philosophy to anyone.

Question: You were saying how all these great devotees of the Lord are helping Lord Nityānanda and Lord Caitanya in preaching. So do you have any general answer to devotees who ask you like, Guru Mahārāja, I don’t know, you have not given me any instruction, please tell me an instruction. Is there a general answer that you would give to devotees, if they don’t have any specific service given? 

Jayapatākā Swami: You see, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda he gave me many instructions. I mean, at least 30 things to do, at least. And maybe more. And what I have done in my Jayapatākā Swami App, I have listed all of those. And of course, some of those things are instructions that Śrīla Prabhupāda gave to everybody, and some things he gave specifically to me, or to a few others. I asked any disciples, śikṣā disciples, well-wishers if they can you help me to fulfill these instructions. And you may help in one or help in five or many more. So I gave all these instructions that Śrīla Prabhupāda gave me and requested the people to help me. So, I give them a free will to choose from any of those instructions. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Question: Sometimes we are born in a family who are surrendered to many gurus or Mahārājas, right! Like we are born in families where they have kula-gurus and we have been raised and brought up praying to many devatas like Durgā Mā, Gaṇesajī, Kṛṣṇa, etc. We also feel that God is one, ultimately one energy. But I feel that God is above all this, right? How do we surrender, what is the best way to surrender?

Jayapatākā Swami: You see that in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it states vaiṣṇavānāṁ yathā śambhuḥ: Lord Śiva, Maheśa, is the greatest of all the Vaiṣṇavas. and similarly, we have Kārttikeya, we have Gaṇeśa, they are great Vaiṣṇavas. Durgā is known as Bhagavatī, Vaiṣṇavī. We should know that Kṛṣṇa, He is the ultimate Personality of Godhead. But Kṛṣṇa has unlimited forms, ananta-rūpam. So, every form is equal. That doesn’t mean that we are equal. We are very small. Lord Brahmā, Lord Maheśa are greater. But they are still depending on Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa they are all equal, simultaneously one and different for Kṛṣṇa. The father of Vyāsadeva, Parāsara Muni analyzed, he found that 50 of the qualities are in Lord Brahmā, Five more with Lord Śiva, he had 55. Lord Viṣṇu, Nārāyaṇa had five more than Lord Śiva. He had 60. And then Kṛṣṇa, He had four more even than Lord Nārāyaṇa. He had 64. Kṛṣṇa and Nārāyaṇa are both considered viṣṇu-tattva and they are all the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Other devas, either Maheśa or Brahmā, they are not as great. So the kula-gurus sometimes they say everybody is the same, that means they are impersonalists. Because it says, if one thinks Lord Śiva or Lord Brahmā are the same they are pāṣaṇḍīs. So we find Hiraṇyakaśipu, in this day of Brahmā līlā, he worship Lord Brahmā receive powers. He asked Brahmā first to give him immortality. Brahmā said, “I am not immortal, how can I give something which I don’t have?” So then he said, “I should not be killed in day or night, in the house or out of the house, and all those conditions. Not man, or animal, or a demon or deva.” Narasiṁhadeva came, half man and half lion! Hiraṇyakaśipu was confused, “Is He a man or an animal?” So Lord Śiva, in some yugas, in some days of Brahmā when Hiraṇyakaśipu comes he gets the blessing from Lord Śiva. Śiva, he has his weapon, śiva-jvara, it produces the maximum heat! But Lord Kṛṣṇa has the nārāyaṇa-jvara, it produced unlimited cold. Hardly you can survive in a cold day, you need a jacket and other things. Any śiva-jvara produced heat and nārāyaṇa-jvara came and sucked up all the heat and created unlimited cold, and then śiva-jvara surrendered. So Śiva is greater than jīvas, we are jīvas. He is very great. But still he is not as great as Viṣṇu or Kṛṣṇa. So we worship Śiva, Durgā, Gaṇeśa, Kārttikeya, all the Vaiṣṇavas as Vaiṣṇavas. And if in your house you worship Viṣṇu and Kṛṣṇa first offer bhoga to Them and then Their prasāda to the devas. In South India like in Mahābalipuram, that is one of the Divya-deśams, they worship the Nārāyaṇa form first and then they take the prasāda and offer to Śiva and Durgā and others. If the kula-guru gives you transcendental knowledge, it is very nice. But if he is not able to give transcendental knowledge, he is just like a vyavahāri-guru, he acts like a guru but he cannot give transcendental knowledge, then the śāstra says it is alright if we take a sad-guru, someone who gives transcendental knowledge.

Hare Kṛṣṇa!

So now tomorrow we have a whole new chapter!