20230416 Question and Answer Session

The following is a Question & Answer Session given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on April 16th, 2023 in Dallas,Texas, USA.

Hare Kṛṣṇa! Any questions?

Question: Just like the dacoit’s heart was changed because of Lord Nityānanda’s mercy, sometimes we are urged to do because of our past conditioning, something we do not want to do. How can we also get the mercy of Lord Nityānanda, so our hearts are also transformed?

Jayapatākā Swami: There is a poem by Śrīla Narottama dasa Ṭhākura, where he sings śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu dayā kara more – You have come down to deliver the fallen, Patita-pāvana, there is no one more fallen than me. Please have Your mercy on me! Then he prays to Lord Nityānanda, hā hā prabhu nityānanda, premānanda sukhī: You are always filled with spiritual bliss of love of Kṛṣṇa, please have mercy on me I very sad, duḥkhī. You have Nitāi-Gaura here! You pray to them, that I need mercy, I am fallen, I need your mercy more than anyone! Any more questions?

Question: Usually Lord Nityānanda Lord Caitanya are known to not take offence when we chant their names. So how do we not take advantage of that, sometime when we chant we are like, we can make offences. What is the best way to avoid making offences at Their lotus feet?

Jayapatākā Swami: I mean, at the time of initiation, we usually have someone give a class on the ten offences to the holy name and normally Lord Caitanya, He is very tolerant. Of course, one offence sometimes, He takes it. That is offending a devotee. Always we are trying to make ISKCON abuse free, we should not offend anyone. That is very important. The other offences he does not consider so much and He usually forgives someone. There was this Cāpāla Gopāla he had put lot of things, blood and things outside the house of Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura. So, he got leprosy. And at that time he was staying outside the city of Navadvīpa. Lord Caitanya with His kīrtana party happened to go there. He fell at Lord Caitanya’s feet and said, “Please have mercy on me!” He said, “No you cannot have any mercy. I will not give any mercy, you have offended My devotee.” So the devotees went to Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura and said, “You have to forgive this Cāpāla Gopāla. Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura said, “How can I be offended?I am lower than the stool! I am lowest of the low.” They said, “Listen Śrīvāsa, you want someone to suffer because of you?” “No, no, no, no! No one should suffer because of me.” “Whether you think you are a devotee or not, you have to forgive Cāpāla Gopāla. Otherwise, his destiny is very bad.” “Alright, then I will do that.” So then Śrīvāsa went and then Cāpāla Gopāla pleaded, “Please forgive me for my offences.” Then Śrīvāsa said, “Yes, I forgive you.” As soon as he said, Lord Caitanya appeared out of nowhere and He embraced Cāpāla Gopāla. Haribol! Haribol! So we have to be careful of offending devotees. But Lord Caitanya is very merciful. If we get forgiven by the devotee, He will forgive you.

He told Mother Śacī that since she had offended Advaita Gosāñī she will not get love of Godhead. Devotees, were like, “Mother Śacī, she is Your mother, how she cannot love of Kṛṣṇa?” Lord Caitanya said, “When My brother took sannyāsa she said, maybe because of Advaita Ācārya’s preaching. So, in this way she had offended Him.” So He took Mother Śacī over to Advaita Ācārya and Advaita Ācārya asked, “What are all these devotees here about?” “Śacīmātā has offended You and You have to forgive her.” “She cannot offend Me, she is a very good devotee!” He started glorifying Śacīmātā and He became so ecstatic glorifying Śacīmātā that He fainted. Lord Caitanya told Śacīmātā, “He is never going to forgive you. He did not think that you can offend Him. You take the dust from His lotus feet and that way you will be forgiven.” So Śacīmātā took the dust from Advaita Ācārya’s lotus feet and put it on her head and she was forgiven! And after that she got love of Godhead! Any other question.

Question: How do I become a good devotee?

Jayapatākā Swami: The first thing is to desire. And you seem to have that desire. Then you get the mercy from other devotees, from the spiritual master, pray to the Deities and do any kind of devotional service, you can do it like chanting, hearing, serving. There are nine different types of activities you can do, do whatever you can do.

Question: In our Gauḍīya-sampradāya, I am not sure if Lord Nityānanda or Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī would be our original guru? Who would be our original guru?

And second part of the question what is the difference between śrī, śrīla and śrīmān?

Jayapatākā Swami: You see the spiritual maser is supposed to be very dear to Lord Nityānanda. And he gives Lord Nityānanda’s mercy. By Lord Nityānanda Prabhu’s mercy we get the mercy of Rādhārāṇī. And Rādhārāṇī is very hard to approach. But Nitāi-Gaura, They are more easy to approach. The spiritual master is easier. Now śrī śrīla and śrīmān. Śrī, is the goddess of fortune, we put śrī in front of someone’s name it means someone is very auspicious. Śrīman is usually used for someone junior, who is very - sometimes Śrīla Prabhupāda would address with śrīman in the name. I don’t know the actual dictionary meaning, I am not a Sanskrit scholar. Just, I have seen it used, and śrīla is apparently used for someone who is like a guru or a very elevated devotee. Sometimes the guru is called an ācārya like Śrīla Prabhupāda, He is śrī-śrīmad, His Divine Grace. You can ask a Sansrkit scholar, and they can give more of the meaning. But actually, that is how I see it has been used. Hare Kṛṣṇa! Thank you very much! He is saying I should say something about the Dallas congregation and temple. I think the congregation is very nice! We saw the devotees at the Ratha-yātrā yesterday, I was very impressed by their enthusiasm! Something I did not understand, what DIY mean? Someone told me oh, it is Do It Yourself! Anyway, very nice to see the devotees. I know Bengali if someone wants to speak in Bengali, I know a little Hindi and I can speak in Hindi with you. I have been living in India since 1970 and I joined in 1968. I saw every temple in ISKCON in 1968, all three! San Francisco, New York, and Montreal. After that there are so many temples. So now it is not possible to see all the temple. Of course, I have seen quite a few. I have been given a lifetime Gold by United Star Alliance and American and from British Airways, lifetime Emerald. So I visited all the temples around. But I was thinking I have not seen all of them.There are about 800 or a thousand now, it not so easy. But I thought we should call all the temples which were started by by Śrīla Prabhupāda, he did 108, we should call them as śrīpāṭs. Like Dallas, should be śrīpāṭ Dallas. These Deities were worshiped by Śrīla Prabhupāda. They are very special. This temple was established by Śrīla Prabhupāda. There may be about a thousand now and in the future, there may be tens of thousands of temples but there were 108 established by Śrīla Prabhupāda and this is one of them. We would like all the devotees to stay as part of Kṛṣṇa consciousness and take advantage of the mercy of Rādhā-Kālacāndajī and Nitāi-Gaura and Jagannātha Baladeva Subhadrā.

Hare Kṛṣṇa!