20240128 Sunday Love Feast Address

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-gurun dina tāriṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram
hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Jayapatākā Swami: [Streaming started abruptly] He struck one leg on the earth and struck Hiraṇyākṣa with the other foot. Have any of you devotees seen that place where this pastime took place? The place is in Navadvīpa. You should go there and see. Lord Rāma He came as an ideal king. Kṛṣṇa came as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as a person. When in Vṛndāvana He was a vaiśya. In Gujarat He was a king. Lord Rāma, He had taken the one wife vow. Only one wife. But Kṛṣṇa did not take such a vow. He had 16,108 wives in Dvārakā. So, normally if a man goes to one wife a day it would take many, many, days to be with so many wives! But Kṛṣṇa He manifested Himself into 16,108 forms! When He used to come back from the Vṛṣni-sabhā then there used to be one Kṛṣṇa each with each of the wives! Nārada Muni, he went to see what Kṛṣṇa was doing, and he saw in one palace Kṛṣṇa was playing with His children. In another talking with His wife. Normally a yogī, he can manifest nine forms. But they all have the same consciousness. Just like you have one chip in all your minds but you expand into different forms. So the yogī if they expand into nine forms but they will have one chip and that will be share by all the forms. Not that one will be happy, one will be distressed, no. But Kṛṣṇa can do anything. He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

But Rukmiṇī in Dvārakā told Him, “You know everything, YOU KNOW EVERYTHING! You know what Lord Brahmā is doing in Satyaloka. You know what Lord Śiva is doing in Kailāsa. But there is one thing You don’t know. I know, Rādhārāṇī knows, but You don’t know!” Kṛṣṇa was astonished! “What is it I don’t know?” Because He is Bhagavān, He should know everything. Rukmiṇī told Him, “The thing that You don’t know, I know and Rādhārāṇī knows is You don’t know how much Your devotees love You. And You don’t know in what way we love You.” Kṛṣṇa said, “Alright, I declare here today, I will come back in Kali-yuga as My devotee. I WILL COME BACK AS MY DEVOTEE! I WILL COME BACK AS MY DEVOTEE!”

Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He is the form of Lord Kṛṣṇa as His devotee. Lord Nityānanda is Lakṣmaṇa. Every avatāra has a particular sevā, particular mood. So Nitāi Gaura’s mood is to give out mercy! In Kali-yuga who is there who can say I have not committed any sin till now? How many devotees here can say this? Raise your hand. Lord Kṛṣṇa He had no use of weapons in Kali-yuga. When Lord Caitanya came He did not have any weapons of destruction. If He did then He would have to kill everybody. Because everyone in Kali-yuga is a sinner. So His incarnation as Lord Caitanya was for three reasons – one was to deliver the sinners, one was to come as His devotee and the secret reason as a devotee, He wanted to understand why the devotees love Him and how much they love Him.

When Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda incarnated, Nitāi went to preach. And in Navadvīpa dhāma there were two rascals who were drunkards, and did every possible sin named Jagāi and Mādhāi. Lord Nityānanda, He saw them and He thought they should be delivered by Lord Caitanya. But they were becoming violent and were in an intoxicated state and started Nitāi and Haridāsa Ṭhākura. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu told them there was no need for them to take such a risk. Later, Nitāi again went to meet Jagāi and Mādhāi and preached to them. He preached chant the holy name and get love of kṛṣṇa-prema. Mādhāi attacked Lord Nityānanda and hit Him with his pot of wine. And Lord Nityānanda started to bleed. When Lord Caitanya heard, although He had decided that He would not use any weapons of destruction, He still invoked the Sudarśana cakra. Lord Nityānanda told Jagāi and Mādhāi that, “Just because you hit Me and caused Me to bleed, I will not give you love of Kṛṣṇa?” Jagāi, he told his brother, “Listen, you caused him to bleed and even then He is talking about giving you kṛṣṇa-prema, He is no ordinary person.” So Nitāi Gaura came here to liberate all of you!

Mādhāi went to Lord Caitanya and begged for forgiveness. Lord Caitanya then gave him a tulasī leaf. And this way He absorbed all the sins Mādhāi had committed. Mādhāi went to Lord Nityānanda and begged for forgiveness. But Nitāi said, “As a mother takes care of her children, maybe an infant child could kick her but she does not stop taking care.” Lord Nityānanda told Madhai that, “You are like the child of the mother. You hit me on the head, but I don’t consider this as an offence.” Mādhāi had offended many dhāma-vāsīs, “How do I get forgiven for that?” He asked. Then Nitāi thought for some time and said, “If you construct a ghāṭa where people can bathe in the Ganges, by their bathing in the ghāṭa, you will get absolved of your sins.”

Few days ago, I saw the inauguration of the Rāma Mandir in Ayodhyā. You are all very fortunate that you have Lord Sītā Rāma Lakṣmaṇa here in the temple. I saw how all the devotees there were in bliss! I was remembering the Caitanya-caritāmṛta there is a verse which says if Lord Caitanya says if He gets one drop, one drop of kṛṣṇa-prema that would flood the whole world! Seeing those people in bliss then I was thinking how Lord Caitanya could bring about a flood in the whole universe by just one drop of kṛṣṇa-prema! There are many histories where Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu gave kṛṣṇa-prema. Also, He empowered Lord Nityānanda to also give kṛṣṇa-prema. If we could understand one drop of that kṛṣṇa-prema then we will have a flood of kṛṣṇa-prema in our lives.

It is said that if one comes to the temple of Viṣṇu for darśana he goes back to Vaikuṇṭha. So all of you are all set to go to Vaikuṇṭha! Kṛṣṇa in the form of Lord Caitanya, He was thinking how to liberate all the living entities. He did not have any weapons. You are the weapons of Lord Caitanya, you have to tell the people how wonderful Lord Caitanya is and His mercy. How much bliss there is service to Lord Kṛṣṇa. Maybe the temple president engages devotees in the service of the Lord. But we have to all think if by any way we can somehow get the service of Gaura Nitāi, Rādhā Govinda, Sītā Rāma Lakṣmaṇa Hanumān, that will be a blessing. This way we will taste a bit of the kṛṣṇa-prema. You are all quite fortunate that every day, every week you can come here and take darsana of the Lord. Any questions?

Question: In the śāstra we learn about mercy given to Ajāmila, Jagāi Mādhāi, etc. Among those which one is the most fallen and got most mercy?

Jayapatākā Swami: This is a very difficult question. I feel I am the most fallen! I have no qualification, only Śrīla Prabhupāda gave me mercy! If we do even a little service to the Lord, He reciprocates. If someone is doing ārati, and devotees are dancing, clapping, singing in the temple, the Lord considers all this as a very great sevā. If we have even a little faith in Lord, the Lord is very happy. Jagāi and Mādhāi were brāhmaṇas by birth. But their interest was in reading scriptures which talked about the worst demoniac kind of activities that one can perform and followed that. When they were liberated by Nitāi Gaura, when Yamarāja heard about this incident, he heard some commotion and asked what it was. People said that just now Nitāi Gaura have liberated, Jagāi Mādhāi of all their sins. Yamarāja said they had committed a lot of sins. He asked, “How many sins had they committed?” The people were saying if we make a list of their sins that would fill many go-downs! So Nitāi Gaura liberated them. So whoever has committed sins will get the list of that from Yamarāja, who has all those in record. But there is no decision here as to who has committed the maximum sins. Nitāi Gaura Haribol!

Question: Rāma, Kṛṣṇa, Hari, who is the Complete Lord?

Jayapatākā Swami: You see in the month of Kārtika we sing the kīrtana that Lord Viṣṇu has unlimited forms, and He comes as Rāma, different forms but He is the same Kṛṣṇa, the same Person. Since they are all equal, who is the Supreme? You are not the first person who asked this question. Parāśara Muni the father of Vyāsadeva he did a study. He found that Brahmā has 50 qualities, Śiva has 55. He has more qualities than Brahmā. Then he found that Viṣṇu had 60 qualities, 5 more than Śiva. And all the qualities were viṣṇu-tattvas. Kṛṣṇa has 64 qualities. So, you are all in Kṛṣṇa’s dhāma. You are all glorious! You are very special!

Question: How is anartha-nivṛtti possible fast?

Jayapatākā Swami: In the book Nectar of Devotion there is a whole section about anartha-nivṛtti. But the best way is to chant. First stage we do offensive chanting. Next stage is clearing stage when offences are actually, reducing. Then it is offenseless chanting. There are eight stages leading up to bhāva. This is a way of anartha-nivṛtti. The stage before this is bhajana-kriyā when you take initiation. After initiation, we give up all unwanted qualities. Then we come to the stage of niṣṭhā and then we come to the stage of ruci and then attraction. Then we come to the stage of bhāva. After that there is prema. Prema also has eight steps. So, we will talk about that later.

Question: How to make people chant and do Harināma when they say that they are already doing some kind of chanting and bhakti and do not want to follow what we say?

Jayapatākā Swami: I thank you for your efforts to spread the holy name. It is not easy to make a devotee. Most of the Gujaratis follow Puṣṭi-mārga. Their mantra is ‘śrī kṛṣṇa śaraṇaṁ mama’ but they don’t chant. Lord Caitanya and our śāstras say that we should chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. When I was admitted in the hospital, I requested many hospital employees and doctors to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and no one said they would not. Some wives says their husbands do not chant what to do? Then you do one drama, Bollywood style! You tell your husband showing him the Bhagavad-gītā and say you do not understand a particular verse, can he help make you understand? So in one way or other try. I don’t know how or what tactics you will use in your preaching. The temple president sent some prasāda and mantra cards and clickers to me in the hospital. I gave them clickers and mantra cards. If you can give the people at least prasāda if they don’t accept anything else so that they can get purified. They may be very proud but by some means, straight away or by other ways you should try to enthuse them to chant. I met a devotee who was preaching distributing books and prasāda. He said that someone had come to him and asked him a question. So people understand if they are really serious to be Kṛṣṇa conscious. So the ordinary people go to the devotees and they feel the devotees will have answers to their questions. To make one devotee, Śrīla Prabhupāda said, it takes buckets, buckets of blood! For a father to make his son a devotee is not easy. It takes buckets of blood! Sacrifice! Every drop of blood you use to make a devotee, Kṛṣṇa never forgets. Haribol! Śrīla Prabhupāda went to the West around 1970 and preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness all over. Hare Kṛṣṇa!