20230717 Question And Answer Session With IYF Devotees

The following is a QA session with the IYF Mumbai devotees answered by His Holiness. 

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Jayapatākā Swami: I am very pleased to be addressing all these leaders and training leaders today. This is now very important that we take some responsibility for helping others, which is the way we can especially be engaged in service to Lord Kṛṣṇa. And even the devotees who are in Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes, they all are absorbed in their service. Like Mother Yaśodā, she is cooking the milk, she is absorbed that the milk should not boil over. The devotees are worried about Lord Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet being harmed by the stones. Everyone is absorbed in trying to please Kṛṣṇa. This is a great opportunity for us in the beginning of our devotional service that we are able to also take responsibility. And just as the associates were worrying about Lord Kṛṣṇa we are also worrying that these new devotees under our care are being properly guided in kṛṣṇa-bhakti. So everyone at the different stages, they take some responsibility. Actually, being responsible for Kṛṣṇa’s service is a very elevated state. In the Nectar of Devotion, it is said that if we do things just by rules and regulations that is vidhi-mārga. Then at an advanced stage one does the service like habitually and when one advances to the rāgānuga stage, they are doing the service not because of rules and regulations, but are very sincere about fulfilling their obligations. So this is an opportunity for all to reach the rāgānuga platform quickly. By taking up your service more spontaneously because you are committed. And as a result you get a deeper taste. So Kṛṣṇa also appreciates when you are taking responsibility for someone because He thinks that you are taking responsibility for Him to carry out this service very nicely. So, yesterday, I had to speak for a short time and allow you to ask questions, because you are very good at asking questions! This is the advanced group so you probably have more advanced questions!

Question: In bhakti many times like ups and downs come, what to do at that time?

Jayapatākā Swami: We take initiation that puts us to the bhajana-kriyā stage. And the next stage is to get rid of the anarthas, anartha-nivṛtti. And you are asking how to get through this stage. You see, it is very easy! You learn from your mistakes and if you keep failing, you will be tested again and again and again until you learn to not succumb to the anarthas. And if you learn quick, it is very fast. Then you can become fixed up. But if don’t learn and you keep making the same mistakes again and again, the it is like in college, if you fail, you have to go and start again, until you pass the particular course you have to repeat it. Anartha-nivṛtti is like that. So we learn the hard way and we get pinched every time we succumb to the anarthas. But if you learn you don’t get pinched again. Is it alright? I am just telling you the truth.

Question: How do you see ISKCON in the next 50 years?

Jayapatākā Swami: Interesting question! Since I have been in ISKCON, over 50 years, when I came to Māyāpur there was a grass hut, now there are 7,500 devotees. What will happen in 50 more years? Śrīla Prabhupāda said, we should have 50,000 devotees here! When I joined ISKCON I had visited every temple in ISKCON – all three!! San Francisco, New York and Montreal. But now I don’t think it is possible, there are 600 or 800. I don’t know if they count all the outposts and Nāmahaṭṭas. In India, I know there are 5,000 Nāmahaṭṭas. Because we have over 5000 Nāmahaṭṭas in Eastern India and now we want to expand that to the rest of India. We have Bhakti-vṛkṣa groups – in Chennai I think they have more than 115. Similarly, in Kolkata about 200. In Delhi they have Nāmahaṭṭas for the cities. They are called āśraya group, to have an āśraya group you need to have a hall which would hold at least 100 people. Anyway, they are not counting the Nāmahaṭṭas, Bhakti-vṛkṣas or the āśraya groups. And in Russian speaking countries they have 535 Bhakti-vṛkṣa groups, that was the last time that I heard. Russians are very good for Bhakti-vṛkṣa groups. I don’t know why but if you have two or three Russians, your Bhakti-vṛkṣa group will be very successful! So, I don’t know, it is a purely speculative answer. But Lord Caitanya, He wanted that in every town and village the holy name would be sung.

In the Brahma-vaivarta Purāṇa, Lord Kṛṣṇa told the holy rivers that after 5000 years in Kali-yuga, there would be a 10,000-year golden age and that people would generally be Kṛṣṇa conscious. So, with all these predictions in the Purāṇas and by Lord Caitanya, so we are looking at a very positive period. But I am too busy to speculate on the future, being in the situation that I am confined to. But, we hope that in the next 50 years, we fulfill all these predictions of Śrīla Prabhupāda and Lord Caitanya. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura had predicted during the British Rāj that the Westerners, they would go on Navadvīpa parikramā and they will see their brothers from India and they would be chanting “Jaya Śacīnandana!” together and embrace each other, not thinking about any caste, creed, nationality. Can you imagine in the British Rāj he was saying such a thing! I personally saw it come true. I saw we had a Bengali and Indian party and an International party. They came together and they were chanting together, “Jaya Śacīnandana! Jaya Śacīnandana! Gaurāṅga!” So what happens in the next 50 years is in your hands! What you are going to do to make happen! I am already at the end of my life, you are at the beginning, so you have all the future. You will see the next 50 years, I won’t see it. Not in this body anyway. So that is why we want you to take this up very seriously. We have like 800 temples, thousands of Bhakti-vṛkṣas, thousands of Nāmahaṭṭas. How did this happen? It happened one after another after another. So, Lord Caitanya said that:

bhārata-bhūmite haila manuṣya-janma yāra
janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra
(Cc. Ādi 9.41)

Those who are born in India they have got a special facility to perfect their lives and to help others. So, now we find that many of our Indian brothers and sisters have gone to the West for IT. And we are trying to encourage them to distribute Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books, to be active in their spiritual life. We don’t know what Kṛṣṇa’s plan is but we have some windows to the future. But if you work hard then there is no reason why we cannot achieve those goals. People are seeking for some spiritual purpose of life and they are not getting it, except in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

So, Śrīla Prabhupāda went to the West, he said that people in the West are dying, burning in the modes of passion, and ignorance and he wanted to save them. He made a 108-temples, I think we should have a special status for these 108 temples. Just like in Śrī-sampradāya they have a 108-temples called Divya-deśas. They say that if you can visit all the Divya-deśas, you can go back to Godhead. Now if you can visit all the 108-temples that Śrīla Prabhupāda established, that will be a wonderful thing. The airline companies will like us! Because you will have to go to Fiji, Australia, South America, Europe, America, Japan, all over. Śrīla Prabhupāda established 108 temples, amazing! He left in 1977 and since then now, we have like 600 or 800 temples and thousands of Nāmahaṭṭas and Bhakti-vṛkṣas. What will happen in the next 50 years? Some of you can calculate. I am busy in making it happen!

Question: Thank you for your wonderful example in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is one of the most inspiring things. You have scored half a century, but you have scored a century in the hearts of all the Vaiṣṇavas in ISKCON! Mahārāja, in front of you the devotees who are sitting, many of them have a desire to join ISKCON full time and dedicate their lives for Śrīla Prabhupāda. However, because of the situations in the world or in the family or personal life, they are sometimes on the borderline wondering whether I should or I should not. So what is your message to them Mahārāja so that they can freely develop that faith and courage that if I simply serve Kṛṣṇa and Śrīla Prabhupāda, nothing else is to be taken care, everything Kṛṣṇa will help. Can you give them that courage and help? Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Jayapatākā Swami: As the co-minister for congregational preaching, naturally I would like to see not only the temple devotees but other devotees who are in congregations, that they are all working to help the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. And of course, when I joined there was really only – either you are a temple devotee or you are …! I don’t think it is like that now. You be a temple devotee or a married devotee or whatever, you can still help, you can still be a very significant force. I mean, the person who is repeating me, his name is Acintya Caitanya dāsa, he is a gṛhastha. His wife is very active in preaching. He has two sons. One of them is already very fixed up in book distribution.

In 1973 in the lecture that Śrīla Prabhupāda gave at his Vyāsa-pūjā in London, he said that his guru, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura who was the son of Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, and he wanted all the gṛhastha devotees that you should have ācāryas as your children. You should all become paramahaṁsas. So, rather than thinking this devotee can become a full-timer, others too bad! Use everybody, naturally I was a full-timer and the advantage that I have is can give all my time to Kṛṣṇa. But, there is a lecture by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura where he says that a man should accept a wife who is more spiritual advanced and a woman should accept a husband who is more spiritual advanced. That is not what people look at today. They see if she is a beautiful woman, what education she has and other things. But spiritual advancement, we don’t think about that. But that is the thing that Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura said.

In the 8th canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, there is the fight between Gajendra and the crocodile. Because Gajendra was a land animal, when he was in the water, the crocodile was winning and gradually the elephant was getting weaker. So in the purport, Śrīla Prabhupāda said that Kṛṣṇa consciousness means we are declaring war against material nature and to fight in the war, one needs to be very strong, sensually strong. It is not the same for everyone. Someone may be better as a vairāgī, someone may be stronger as a gṛhastha. The real thing is that we should be fighting to establish Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So, maybe people are sitting on the fence, they should see what is their nature? So they should think whatever it is, if their nature is to be married, or their nature is to be a vairāgī, they should fully engage in Kṛṣṇa’s service. If they are married, their partner should be equally enthusiastic to preach, otherwise what is the use? That is an interesting thing. Of course, if you want your parents and everyone to agree, it may happen.

But in my case it did not happen and I said yesterday in my talk that my father said he would turn me over to the American Army, and let me die in Vietnam. India was not for this war. And so I asked Śrīla Prabhupāda, “What I should do?” He said, “Better you join Kṛṣṇa’s army” and that is what I did. I am still a member of Kṛṣṇa’s army! So here, I have seen many families, where the father and mother are initiated, the children are initiated. But, still I guess they are a minority. But in India some are like that. But generally, it is like one airliner crashed in the Northern Pacific. One who passed, the parents said, “Oh, we spent so much money on our son trying to go to America for education, now who will take care of us in our old age?” That was their concern! You see, it is like a business, they paid for the education of their child, and they want the child to give them money. So some parents are like that. Some parents are very affectionate, I don’t say everyone is like that. I mean, of course, some people would feel very bad. But ultimately, we have to make our own choice. This is like, mother and father of Lord Caitanya, Jagannātha Miśra and Śacī Mātā, the older brother of Lord Caitanya, He took sannyāsa. They were feeling, “Oh!” rejected. “Our son, He left the family and would not get married and all that.” Because of your son taking sannyāsa, unlimited members of your family got liberated. Of course, they were all liberated souls. And they realized that what he did was for their benefit. But then they were worried that their other son would also take sannyāsa. So He promised, “I have no such intention!” Anyway, I hope that everybody in this room, no matter what, are going to preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness fully.

How old are you? 73 years (Ṣaḍbhuja Prabhu) So what do you want to share with all these young leaders? He helped build this Temple of the Vedic Planetarium!

Ṣaḍbhuja Prabhu: Looking around me here seeing all these wonderful, young devotees, fresh looking actually, reminds me when I was young, but not anymore! All I can say to them is that you just practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness to the best of your ability. Some of you will be temple devotees, some of you will be gṛhasthas on the outskirts, but still under one umbrella of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So whichever works for you in the beginning accept it. In the future, you probably will all be in the temples, but for now just don’t let go of Kṛṣṇa consciousness at all. Stick to this wonderful program that you are having and continue preaching and spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness just like Mahārāja said.

Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Jayapatākā Swami: Ṣaḍbhuja Prabhu, he is a gṛhastha, but has dedicated his life for Kṛṣṇa consciousness and you can see what a beautiful building this is. He has done many services. And if you have seen the samādhi temple he has designed some of the artwork of the samādhi temple. He was the builder of the samādhi. So, the question is not if you join full-time or you get married. Even if you are married, you should not give up Kṛṣṇa consciousness and the advantage of course of being a brahmacārī or whatever, is that you don’t have any other thing to think about. But as I said, it depends on what each person’s nature is, it may be different. We should be committed to serving, no matter what. I was told to keep my answers short. From now on I will give short answers as much as possible.

Question: What is the most important thing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness that we should be focused on and what should we be most cautious of?

Jayapatākā Swami: Interesting! We should be very cautious about māyā. Māyā tries to take us away. She is very strict. One devotee when he joined ISKCON, his father offered him a million dollars to leave Kṛṣṇa consciousness. He did not leave! I mean, how many here would be tempted by eight crores? So, sometimes māyā gives one some incentives, sometimes māyā gives one suffering, and so we have to be very cautious. So we should always keep ourselves surrendered at Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet. What we should be conscious about is to do everything for the service of Kṛṣṇa.

Rādhe Śyāma Dāsa: Mahārāja, I have made one observation that all of you disciples of Śrīla Prabhupāda have developed a very staunch love for Śrīla Prabhupāda. Like they say Kṛṣṇa conscious, you all are very Prabhupāda conscious. I have seen you, I have seen Girirāja Mahārāja, in the same manner I have seen many Śrīla Prabhupāda disciples. So, the next generation, I often feel that the kind of affection and loyalty and dedication like a sold-out-servant as all of you are, I feel that is greatly lacking in the next generation, Mahārāja. So, we feel in our generation many people, they get initiated officially and after that they do not feel such a great commitment to Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mission and in expanding the movement the way. I am sure that your expanding the movement has happened because you are strongly rooted in Śrīla Prabhupāda. So how can the grand disciples of Śrīla Prabhupāda have such feelings for him and a sense of belonging with him and thereby a sense of love and dedication for his mission?

Jayapatākā Swami: Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jaya! You see Śrīla Prabhupāda, he gave us the science of bhakti-yoga. So everyone should read Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books, attend the Śrīla Prabhupāda daily guru-pūjā. I mean, what does it take for people to be committed to Śrīla Prabhupāda? When I first came to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we did not have many books. So Śrīla Prabhupāda said we could read Professor Sanyal’s Teachings of Lord Caitanya and there was a section on Haridāsa Ṭhākura. He said that whenever he would think of anything else, he would chant louder. So I was a new bhakta and I had so many thoughts. So I would end up chanting louder and louder! All the devotees, they went to Śrīla Prabhupāda and said, “This Bhakta Jay, he shouts so loudly while chanting and we cannot concentrate!” Śrīla Prabhupāda called me and he asked me, “Why you chant so loud?” I told him, he said, “Hmmm, that is not bad, but you are disturbing all the other devotees. So I give you permission to chant in the park.” That was the pre joggers’ period, now we have many joggers. I saw birds, and squirrels. They all heard the holy name when I was shouting! Anyway, by Kṛṣṇa’s mercy devotional service is so nice that we start experiencing some bliss and I don’t think that is a big secret.

Anyone who does Kṛṣṇa consciousness sincerely, they can also experience bliss! I have seen some new people coming and they are very blissful and very happy. We should be you know, grateful that Śrīla Prabhupāda gave us such a nice process that works. It is not a theory or just a faith, it works! If you do it then you will not regret it and then you feel grateful that Śrīla Prabhupāda gave us such a wonderful thing. If he hadn’t come, he hadn’t preached, where would we be today! I wrote a song yadi prabhupāda nā haita, tabe kī haita. If there was no Śrīla Prabhupāda, what would there be today? It is something terrifying, to think back, what I was and what I am today, what bliss I am experiencing by following Śrīla Prabhupāda’s instructions. I think everybody should realize that what they have is all due to ultimately Śrīla Prabhupāda starting this movement.

Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Question: How to increase our capacity to take pain for the service of guru and Kṛṣṇa as best exemplified by you?

Jayapatākā Swami: You see, I once had a high fever, and my body was feeling all kinds of pain. I am just answering spontaneously. At that time Śrīla Prabhupāda was giving lectures in Vṛndāvana on the Nectar of Devotion, I was listening to those. I felt so much happiness, but my body was on fire! So I could see that my happiness had nothing to do with the pain, it was something different. And Kṛṣṇa consciousness is a science when you reach a stage where there is happiness you don’t bother about some of the pain that comes.

Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Question: How can we overcome material desires, many times we know desire is material but because of weakness of heart we are not able to overcome that. What to do in that situation?

Jayapatākā Swami: The previous answer was that where you are stronger. Some people their weakness is desire for sex life. So, that can be solved by staying in the āśrama where sex life is permitted. But that may also be if you are satisfied and happy anyway then they don’t have any appeal. So the point is if you have weakness of heart, don’t be weak! Be strong, build up your strength. You see, people work out at the gym. That is not the kind of strength we need. If it is for Kṛṣṇa’s service, you can do it. But we need Balarāma’s strength, the strength of spiritual life. That you get by good japa, attending morning program, reading, spiritual things. And one thing is not having weakness of heart, being strong. When we are attracted by certain desires we may be situated in an āśrama appropriate for those desires.

Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Question: I heard when a devotee asked your inspiration to continue Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you said that you got infection from Śrīla Prabhupāda. How can we get a glimpse of that infection?

Jayapatākā Swami: May be good fortune, I don’t know. One of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s servants gave me a set of beads to chant on. I was practicing yoga before that. So I sat in the ardha-padmāsana and started meditating and chanting and I chanted six hours nonstop. I was chanting 32 rounds or something. And I was feeling so much ecstasy, I never felt that in the yoga practice. So I was convinced that Kṛṣṇa consciousness works. The secretary was waiting for me to come back. He asked, “Do you still have those beads?” I said, “Yes!” “Those are Śrīla Prabhupāda’s beads” he said! But he said he was not supposed to give that to anyone, but I did not know it at that time. So he took the beads back from me. Next day was not quite the same! But I had a glimpse!

Hare Kṛṣṇa!