20240104 Address in Harināma Festival

The following is an address given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on January 4th,2024 at Harināma Festival in Agartala, India.

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 happy that I have been able to come to Agartala.

I feel that the devotees here are very enthusiastic.

When Kṛṣṇa was in Dvārakā, Rukmiṇī had told said something.

You are the Supreme Lord, You know everything.

You know what Lord Brahmā is doing in Brahmaloka, what Lord Mahādeva is doing in Kailāsa, what is happening in all the unlimited brahmāṇḍas, You know everything.

But there is one thing You don’t know.

Kṛṣṇa was surprised and asked, “What do I not know?” She said, “There is no one above You, that is why You don’t know – I know, Rādhārāṇī knows, but You don’t know!” He asked, “What is it, what is it I don’t know?” The Rukmiṇī Devī said, “You don’t know how much Your devotees love you, and in what way they love You.

Rādhārāṇī knows how Your devotees love You.

But You don’t know that.” Then Kṛṣṇa said that, “I will do one thing – I will come as My devotee in Kali-yuga.

When I come as My devotee then I will understand how My devotees love Me.” 

Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu was that avatāra who was Kṛṣṇa, but came as His devotee.

He took the heart and the color of Rādhārāṇī.

He established the saṅkīrtana movement.

This way He started the first saṅkīrtana pastime.

At the end He expressed the mood of separation of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī.

Caitanyadeva said that if we serve in the mood of separation, then we can be with Kṛṣṇa.

Because Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and He is the Absolute Truth.

So if we think of Him in the mood of separation then we can attain Kṛṣṇa.

Lord Caitanya performed various pastimes. 

Kṛṣṇa in the Dvāpara-yuga had His Sudarśana cakra with Him.

But in the Kali-yuga, when Lord Caitanya came, He did not come with any weapons like Sudarśana cakra, mace, etc.

In Kali-yuga everyone commits sins and dies.

So they anyway die.

He desired that everyone should be liberated.

The devotees and His associates were the weapons of Lord Caitanya.

All of you can be the associates of Lord Caitanya by surrendering to Him!

In this way being associated with Lord Caitanya you will attain success.

Like Hanumān and his soldiers served Lord Rāma, that way, they killed Rāvaṇa.

So this way being devotees of Lord Caitanya, we don’t kill the people but kill the demoniac nature in them.

Lord Caitanya came to distribute love of Godhead to all the people.

When He was in saṅkīrtana going to the Chand Kazi, there were lakhs and lakhs of people and there were four saṅkīrtana parties.

But some atheist people were looking at them and laughing and making fun of them.

But when they saw Lord Caitanya, how He was manifesting the aṣṭa-sāttvikā-bhāva and was in bliss.

Seeing this, their hearts softened.

The atheists then started dancing and chanting in kīrtana. From the Svargaloka, Lord Indra and Vāyudeva came down.

They saw how the Supreme Personality of Godhead was dancing in bliss!

They were amazed and fainted.

When they regained consciousness, they assumed the form of devotees and participated in the kīrtana.

This way Lord Caitanya came to give kṛṣṇa-prema to all.

I saw here that the people here are simple and they are following and preaching the teachings of Lord Caitanya.

Lord Caitanya came this way, to give kṛṣṇa-prema to all.

In the Brahma-vaivarta Purāṇa it is written that there will be a ten thousand period Kṛṣṇa consciousness called the Golden Age.

This would come up 5000 years after the Kali-yuga starts.

Now it is 5000 years, a little over that of Kali-yuga.

Oṁ Viṣṇupāda Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura had appeared and he had instructed my Gurudeva His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda to go and preach in the Western countries.

He tried that at the age of 70 and he went 14 times around the world.

Through him, the instructions of Lord Caitanya were fulfilled and now we have about 800 temples around the world. 

Agartala has the mercy of Lord Caitanya.

I hope that all you will be enthusiastic in serving Lord Caitanya.

In 1930 I saw a photo of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda with the Rāja of Tripura.

And that Rāja was a Trustee or something. Anyway, our Parama Gurudeva, grand Gurudeva, desired that the teachings of Lord Caitanya should be expanded.

Lord Caitanya had said,

pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma
sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma
(Cb. Antya-khaṇḍa 4.126) 

To make that successful, my Gurudeva had instructed all his disciples and granddisciples that His instruction be made possible.

We hope that Lord Caitanya’s instructions should be spread all over Tripura.

Now this is happening all over the world.

Even though I was born in a foreign country, but keeping with my gurudeva’s order, took Indian citizenship.

I hope that Lord Caitanya’s teachings will spread to all.

Lord Caitanya, He was a gṛhastha for 24 years and 24 years a sannyāsī.

His desire was to give kṛṣṇa-prema to all.

He spent six years travelling to Vṛndāvana and South India.

When He met anyone on the road, He would hug the people.

This way, He awarded kṛṣṇa-prema to all.

Generally, only serious devotees can get devotion to Lord Kṛṣṇa.

People like Jagāi and Mādhāi were very sinful people but Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Lord Nityānanda, They give them mercy.

Mādhāi had hit Lord Nitāi with a broken wine bottle and He started bleeding and there was blood shed.

But Lord Nityānanda said, just because you made Me soak in blood, I will not give you love of Godhead? Then Jagāi told Mādhāi, you had hit him and still He is talking to you with love.

They are not ordinary people.

We should ask pardon for all our wrong doings.

This Nitāi Gaura were so merciful that even though They were harmed still they gave out kṛṣṇa-prema. 

I hope that all of you will do devotional service to Kṛṣṇa, chant the names of Lord Caitanya and get kṛṣṇa-bhakti.

In this Kali-yuga no one can say that they had not done any sin.

Kali-yuga is the age of sin.

But the people of the other yugas are praying that they want to take birth in Kali-yuga and that way they could get the mercy of Lord Caitanya.

Gaurāṅga!

Nityānanda! 

This is an opportunity to get the special mercy of Lord Caitanya.

Some devotees have come from the Gauḍīya Maṭha.

My grand gurudeva had established the Gauḍīya Maṭha here in Tripura.

This way, our godbrother, disciple of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura established ISKCON here.

I hope that everyone will get the mercy of Lord Caitanya. Haribol! 

Lord Caitanya, He came to liberate us.

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda said how if someone took up to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then they would have studied all the śāstras.

But then one devotee asked him a question.

In my life, I am American Australian, I have not done any good karma, then how have I attained Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

All the things in my life were bad karma.

How did I get kṛṣṇa-bhakti?

Then my gurudeva said I created your good fortune!

This way my grand-gurudeva, my gurudeva the previous ācāryas came to give us good fortune.

This way we can achieve success in our life by following the teachings of Lord Caitanya.

In Kali-yuga, both here and abroad people are busy doing bad karma.

They think by doing this bad karma they will be happy and peaceful.

But we cannot be happy this way.

We can be satisfied only by being Kṛṣṇa conscious.

The Western world is slowly understanding this.

They are understanding that there is no happiness other than in kṛṣṇa-bhakti, kṛṣṇa-kīrtana.

In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta it is written:

bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kāmī—sakali ‘aśānta’
kṛṣṇa-bhakta—niṣkāma, ataeva ‘śānta’
(Cc. Madhya 19.149)

This life has not been peaceful but we hope the next will be and so they take birth again and again.

Those who are Kṛṣṇa conscious will in reality be really happy.

kṛṣṇa-bhakta—niṣkāma, ataeva ‘śānta’.

I hope that all of you will take advantage of this human life and attain kṛṣṇa-bhakti.

It is my good fortune that my gurudeva asked me to stay in Māyāpur.

There Lord Caitanya incarnated.

Rādhārāṇī manifested Navadvīpa-dhāma and there are 9 islands.

That is why it is called Navadvīpa.

Each of the islands is associated with the nine practices of devotional service.

Śravaṇam, kīrtanam, smaraṇam, etc.

But wherever we live, if we think of the Lord, if we do devotional service, hear about the Lord, then we can be with the Lord always.

There is a teaching in the Bhagavad-gītā that we are eternal.

We are the soul, but the body dies.

And we take birth again and again.

But if we understand that all the activities of Kṛṣṇa are divine then we will not have any rebirth in this material world.

Many learned people think they are the body.

But if they understand that we are not the body but the soul, then they will be the most fortunate of all. 

Of all the people assembled here, how many of you would like to get the mercy of Caitanyadeva? Raise your hands. Haribol! Where there are Vaiṣṇava temples and association of Vaiṣṇavas, there, there is the opportunity to get kṛṣṇa-bhakti. 

Is there time for question-and-answer?

Question: If a disciple does some offence to the guru then what should he do?

Jayapatākā Swami: He should seek pardon from gurudeva and there is no other way to be in kṛṣṇa-bhakti other than by this way.

He should take the instructions from his gurudeva and do devotional service again.

Haribol!

Jayapatākā Swami Gurumahārāja Ki ! Jaya !