20230924 Question and Answer Session

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram
Harihi oṁ tat sat

Question: Can you tell us more about your sannyāsa on Rādhāṣṭamī day and your stay in Māyāpur on all Rādhāṣṭamīs.

Your insignificant servant,

Lalitāṅgī Rādhā Devī Dāsī

Jayapatākā Swami: [Audio break] He gave me in Calcutta, he mentioned that I was the eleventh sannyāsī. So he made it a point that other ten sannyāsīs were before me. His point was you are the eleventh. Actually, in the fifth canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it states that if one has relation only with their wife, that is considered celibacy. So like that Śrīla Prabhupāda was called His grace and I heard Śrīla Prabhupāda raised his voice. I thought he must not be giving sannyāsa. Why Śrīla Prabhupāda raised his voice? Then I could not hear what Śrīla Prabhupāda was saying and then he called for me. This was the day before Rādhāṣṭamī. And he was asking me questions, but I did not know the answers. Śrīla Prabhupāda turned to his secretary and said, he doesn’t know. Next day, he said I was the eleventh! So I was fairly young and I did not know what sannyāsa was really about! But since Śrīla Prabhupāda asked me if I wanted to take it, so I thought it was something very glorious! But actually, it is a very difficult dṛḍha-vrata. And so I was practicing sannyāsa from the age of 20 and so I remember that I came to Māyāpur, I saw the Māyāpur mud. I thought Lord Caitanya used to come to this mud. I was paying my obeisances to this sacred mud.

Question from Parul: I recently heard a senior devotee say that we should not sing any bhajanas about Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī as it is very offensive. Could you please provide me some guidelines regarding the same?

Jayapatākā Swami: Usually, we don’t chant bhajanas meant for a particular associate, except on those days of their appearance. So, we chant rāma-līlā, rādhā-līlā specially for Their appearance.

Question: How much is maṅgala-ārati important?

Jayapatākā Swami: We should try to attend maṅgala-ārati every day. How much maṅgala-ārati is important? It is very important! And it is very nice, we see that in Māyāpur many devotees attend maṅgala-ārati. I don’t know why they did not show the samādhi maṅgala-ārati today.

Question from Kiran: I have Pañca-tattva Deities at home. In what mood should I worship Them?

Jayapatākā Swami: Pañca-tattva are very merciful. So, you could worship the Pañca-tattva in the mood of mercy. Lord Caitanya manifests as Pañca-tattva and with Him there is Lord Nityānanda, Advaita, Gadādhara and Śrīvāsa. And so we worship Them as these are the five forms of Godhead.

Question from Jane Erdyakova: What is the main message you would like to give to your devotees? Very soon I will be receiving initiation from you.

Jayapatākā Swami: We want all the disciples to have the mood of Śrīla Prabhupāda. Śrīla Prabhupāda, he wanted to help the devotees, have the mood of serving the Deities, help people to appreciate the holy dhāma and avoid committing offences to the devotees, to the holy dhāma and to try to bring people closer to Kṛṣṇa. Haribol! Haribol! Haribol!

Question from Ravi: How to be in Kṛṣṇa consciousness even after seven to eight hours being in the office?

Jayapatākā Swami: So, you want to be in Kṛṣṇa consciousness in your office. So this devotee Ravi apparently works in his office seven to eight hours. So, he would like to stay Kṛṣṇa conscious continuously while in the office. So, we would all like to do that. We would like to stay Kṛṣṇa conscious in our office. So, if we think that the work, we are doing is ultimately meant for Kṛṣṇa, then we will naturally be Kṛṣṇa conscious. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Question in Bengali: I am Ambujākṣa Kṛṣṇa dāsa from Bangladesh. How will I move up from the nāma-aparādha stage to śuddha-nāma? Please bless me.

Jayapatākā Swami: Please bless me. So, the way to get free from nāma-aparādha is not to do any! This morning they had the nāma-aparādhas mentioned. Usually every initiation, they have this nāma-aparādha mentioned. So, if you listen carefully, you will learn what the nāma-aparādhas are and you should be very careful not to commit them. Nāma-aparādhas are very detrimental. So we will have the ten aparādhas mentioned tomorrow. Listen carefully, and you will hear them again!

Question in Bengali: In our spiritual life we follow the orders of guru and the temple. But if there are some differences with the temple which affects our spiritual life, then what how do we keep our connect with the temple as well as keep our spiritual life going on smoothly?

Jayapatākā Swami: How to do this? If you live in the temple then how do we balance our life between dīkṣā-guru and the temple authorities. Gurudeva you are very merciful. Please tell me how do I behave in all these situations. So, we try to be respectful to all the devotees and in this way be very kind and nice to all the devotees and they also will be kind and nice to us.

Question from Hemāṅgī Gopī Devī Dāsī, Pune: Gaurāṅga is very merciful. But in many of the pastimes we see that the Lord was very firm, how do we understand this correctly?

Jayapatākā Swami: We don’t take the Lord’s mercy for granted. We should be very careful how we deal with other Vaiṣṇavas. Lord Gaurāṅga sometimes helps us by being firm. And therefore, we should be very careful not to commit any of the Vaiṣṇava aparādhas. Haribol!

Question from Hemāṅga Haladhara dāsa: When Lord Caitanya visited many temples in South India, what mood did He visit them in? Was it for preaching or taking blessings?

Jayapatākā Swami: So, when Lord Caitanya He would respect the devas as Vaiṣṇavas and so the Vaiṣṇavas are also devotees of the Lord. And Lord Caitanya would observe the devas as His devotees. Now, the system is you bow down to the devas with the right side and bow down with your left side to the Lord. Hare Kṛṣṇa!