20241011 Address to ISKCON Nepal Devotees (Day 2)

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

Jayapatākā Swami: So, I heard that you have three groups. One group saw birthplace of Lord Caitanya and Rājāpur Jagannātha temple. Where did the other groups go? One group was in ISKCON Māyāpur premises. One went to the other side of Jalāṅgī river. In Māyāpur we have many things. Śrīla Prabhupāda told us that we should maintain the grass hut. At one point, that was all there was. Śrīla Prabhupāda was living in the hut. He was sleeping there. And we had a natural well where Śrīla Prabhupāda would go and do his nature’s call. Some local people would deliver date rasa, juice from the date palm. So, the rasa was very fresh and sweet. Some people would ferment it for a few days and that would become alcohol. Of course, he would not take that. Someone took a lot of this date rasa and he had diarrhea. So we had to clean it up. Śrīla Prabhupāda would take the fresh rasa and…

One day His Holiness Śrīdhara Mahārāja, he brought a new machine. The kitchen was behind the grass hut. It so happened that he would press out a purī and throw it in the ghee. And we would eat the purī with the dates rasa. Śrīla Prabhupāda was looking through the window and he asked what we were doing. We explained to him and he told me this is not sannyāsa life. So like that we were living with Śrīla Prabhupāda. One day on Śrīla Prabhupāda’s window there was a beehive. So a cow came over and tried to eat the grass. And he knocked the beehive over. All the bees flew up into Śrīla Prabhupāda’s room. Śrīla Prabhupāda called for me, “Jayapatākā! Jayapatākā!” And the bees were flying around. He said, “Please get the bees out! Don’t harm any beehives’ residence.” So, we had a special dress and we wore that to take the bees out. So like this, different things happened.

One time I sent a photo of the bricks, sand and steel to Śrīla Prabhupāda. And Śrīla Prabhupāda said, “I don’t want to see this, I want to see buildings.” Then we built the Lotus Building. And so there (audio is not clear)

Some of the local villagers would do street fights. They would ask for permission to (audio is not clear).Then (audio is not clear) Śrīla Prabhupāda (audio is not clear) So when we started this Śrīla Prabhupāda was associating with the devotees giving his insights. So, like this we had the Lotus building, the Cakra building, and built a wall (audio is not clear) and a prasāda hall. Now we have many halls. At that time we had just one hall by the Samādhi. (audio is not clear) That was developed during Śrīla Prabhupāda’s presence. Maybe the gośālā was also developed. At that time the gośālā land was Rs. 500 rupees per bhighā. A bhigā is 20 kāṭās. And some of the land (audio is not clear) now one kāṭā is Rs. 10 lacs.

So we have this Nāma-haṭṭa building, many different buildings. We want to open the TOVP in 2026. And we built the Śrīla Prabhupāda samādhi I think we finished before 2000. You can see the TOVP finish in 2026. When I came here in the year 1970 to Calcutta and to Māyāpur in 1972. So Śrīla Prabhupāda, gave instructions how he wanted things to be. And he was instructing us on the importance of Māyāpur dhāma. We used to have the temple in the ground floor of the Lotus building. Now in the Lotus building there is Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mūrti and Lord Caitanya exhibition. There is the temple of Lord Rādhā Mādhava, Pañca-tattva, Narasiṁhadeva, these all came after Śrīla Prabhupāda left.

Now, when I was here there were six devotees. Gradually it grew. Now we have about 7,500 devotees. Śrīla Prabhupāda was telling us that this would eventually be a city of 50,000. So, Śrīla Prabhupāda would circumambulate the Deities and ring the bells. Sometimes people would come here (audio is not clear) Now on a holiday we have 60,000 or more visitors a day. In the maṅgala-ārati they mention how many people visited. Yesterday, I think they said 27,000 visited. On Wednesday last, it was Māhalayā they had 56,000 visitors. So every day they announce the prasāda served. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that the Yoga-pīṭha is the janma-sthāna and this is the karma-sthāna. In the Bhagavad-gītā it says, janma karma ca me divyam [Bg. 4.9]. So the janma-sthāna and karma-sthāna are transcendental. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that according to the map the Rādhā Mādhava temple is in the Rudradvīpa and Pañca-tattva in the Antardvīpa. How many of you have downloaded the ‘Māyāpur app’? How many have smart phones? You should download the ‘Māyāpur app’. I will ask you tomorrow. It is free. So, as you visit all the holy places, you can see that mentioned in the app. Some devotees are working on this very hardly.

Today I was late, this morning was my day of dialysis. I will speak tomorrow about the Antardvīpa and Sīmantadvīpa. So, Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted us to develop Māyāpur. The government gave us a land ceiling of 750 acres of land. Usually the land ceiling was 30 acres. Human life our purpose should be to understand as much as possible about Lord Kṛṣṇa and Lord Caitanya. This purpose of life gives us unlimited ecstasy. And we hope that you will have some transformation when you visit here. I am very glad that you are all here.

So, Māyāpur started in a grass hut and we had been given only Rs. 35 a day to survive. So I grew peanuts, tomatoes and rice. We had so much radish in a small plot. So we only had about six devotees. Everyday, we would have boiled radish, fried radish, etc. In Bengali mūla (audio is not clear) And the devotees would tell me, “Please, no more radish” together. We grew like 5 kāṭās of tomatoes. We had tons of tomatoes. And we were the first in the market. So we got a good price.

One day we were walking with Śrīla Prabhupāda along the Jalāṅgī river. And then a man with a basket vegetables came by. Śrīla Prabhupāda told him, “To sell it in the Navadvīpa market and spend the whole day, would take a long time. Why don’t you sell it all to us?” And he would decide on the price and send the man to the kitchen after he bought the basket.

So, Māyāpur is a bit developed and will get more developed in the future. So we should have a Nepali parikramā party before Gaura Pūrṇimā. Hare Kṛṣṇa!