20240218 Sunday Special Love Feast Address

20240218 Sunday Special Love Feast Address

nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine

namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

hari haraye namaḥ kṛṣṇa yādavāya namaḥ
gopāla govinda rāma śrī-madhusūdana

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

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Jayapatākā Swami: Jaya Nitāi Gaura! Rādhā Pārtha-sārathi, Sītā Rāma kī jaya!

Jaya Lakṣmī Narasiṁhadeva kī jaya!

Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jaya!

I know a little Hindi but don’t have much practice.

There are many international devotees here.

So I will speak in English now.

I have more practice of speaking in Bengali.

How many of you know Bengali here?

Not many.

I am staying in a hospital for a checkup.

I am in good health, but my kidney is a little bit downgraded.

So, they are doing some checks.

I got a permission to come to the temple here on Sunday for darśana!

I am very happy to see all of you!

To see all the Deities! I just finished my 12th canto tests for the Bhakti-vedānta course.

They offered to give me an honorary degree, but I said, “No I will take the exam to be a good example.” I hope that you all will study Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books.

Today I was reading, from the 10th canto or 11th I forget, the personified Vedas were saying, actually Kṛṣṇa has no material senses.

In the spiritual world, there the exchange is pure love!

And the Lord comes down in this material world but He doesn’t take material senses.

He shows the love of the spiritual world, here in the material world.

This temple has Sītā, Rāma, Lakṣmaṇa, Hanumān and Ayodhyā the new temple of Lord Rāma’s birthplace has opened.

People, everybody, they had tears in their eyes when they saw Lord Rāma!

I was thinking how Caitanya-caritāmṛta says, if Lord Caitanya gives one drop of kṛṣṇa-prema, the whole universe will be flooded!

So, a small sample of that was seen on the day of the Lord Rāma temple opening.

From different temples all over the world, and from this Delhi temple and Māyāpur, devotees went to distribute books and prasāda in Ayodhyā and they continue to do that.

I get message about distribution of books from Delhi, Māyāpur – one day 5000 or 6000, 7000 or 8000 books were distributed! All year Delhi was beating us in Māyāpur for book distribution.

But somehow it was a miracle, that in the Marathon month we pulled ahead!

We had to use a secret weapon!

While preaching all the gṛhasthas, the ladies, they have to distribute books otherwise Delhi is beating Māyāpur!

But now I have given out the secret, so next year get your mātājīs out there and Māyāpur next year may not stand a chance!!

Because some years ago when I was sick here and in Delhi, and I saw how Mohanarūpa, he went to every Nāmahaṭṭa, every Bhakti-vṛkṣa, every house and asked them, what is your pledge? Since I took that secret, I told Māyāpur to get everyone to take a pledge and beat Delhi!

That is why since I took a secret, I am giving a secret back!

You see, in the 9th canto Urvaśī, the apsara she said many things against women.

But in the purport Śrīla Prabhupāda said, when it comes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, whosoever is Kṛṣṇa conscious, man, woman, śūdra, whatever, they are all equal!

We want everybody to be Kṛṣṇa conscious.

Whatever from birth defect you have, that will be overcome.

I am glad that some of the Armed Forces members have come here.

Haribol! Nitāi Gaura, They came down as devotees, but They are actually Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma.

They are also Lord Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa.

They don’t have material senses.

They are like an actor, imitating having material senses.

But actually Nitāi Gaura, They came down to show the exchange of pure love.

In the Antya-līlā, Madhya-līlā, the pastimes of Lord Caitanya, it said how He was having the mood of Rādhārāṇī.

Because here in India, in Dvarakā Rukmiṇī told Kṛṣṇa, You know everything!

You know what Brahmā is doing in Satya-loka, You know what Lord Śiva is doing in Kailāsa, You know what is going on in the ananta koti brahmāṇḍa.

He is in your heart as Paramātmā.

Anyway, Rukmiṇī told Kṛṣṇa, but there is one thing You don’t know!

No one told Kṛṣṇa there was something He didn’t know!

She said, I know, Rādhārāṇī knows, but You don’t know!

What is that Kṛṣṇa asked?

You don’t know how much Your devotees love You!

And in what way they love You!

Because You are Bhagavān, no one is above You!

Then Lord Kṛṣṇa said, alright, in Kali-yuga I will come as My devotee!

I WILL COME AS MY DEVOTEE!

I WILL COME AS MY DEVOTEE!

Haribol! Haribol! Haribol!

He came as Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu!

And with Him came Balarāma as Lakṣmaṇa as Nitāi. 

The thing is Kṛṣṇa is very merciful!

But to get His mercy you have to surrender to Him.

But Lord Caitanya is more merciful!

He gives the mercy out even if you are not surrendered! And when He would travel in South India if He saw someone on the road, He would go up and embrace him!

Gauuuuranga! Gauuuuranga! Gauuuuranga!

So He told to read the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Śrīla Prabhupāda also said to read Caitanya-caritāmṛta.

I combined all the books that I could find on Caitanya-līlā to make one book.

I finished that, now I have given it for editing and publishing.

Lord Caitanya, He said, read Bhagavad-gītā, read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

In the 12th canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it says kaler doṣa-nidhe rājann, that Kali-yuga is an ocean of defects.

Nobody can say I never did any sin.

This Kali-yuga is a very difficult place.

asti hy eko mahān guṇaḥ, but there is one good quality.

It is an ocean of faults, but one good quality.

You know what that is?

kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya – chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa! One good quality.

By chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet – that one can achieve liberation and go back to the spiritual world. 

In the hospital, everybody I meet I try to encourage them to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Many accept but they don’t take it so serious.

But any way they start.

Śrīla Prabhupāda said in Māyāpur, it took him 20 years to achieve perfection.

I don’t know how many years, how many births it will take for us to achieve this.

But if we are serious, then we can achieve perfection in one birth!

I mean, Markaṇḍeya Ṛṣi, it said he was meditating nonstop over six Manus.

One Manu is for 72 catur-yugas.

Six Manus means, each catur-yuga is for 4 million or some years.

One catur-yuga.

So at the end Kṛṣṇa appeared to him and He was very grateful and asked him what he wanted.

He said, I would like to see Your illusory energy.

He could have asked for anything, he could have asked for kṛṣṇa-prema but he asked for Kṛṣṇa’s illusory energy.

So Kṛṣṇa said, so be it! Then Markaṇḍeya Ṛṣi was put into so much misery.

So this material world is an illusion but we cannot figure it out.

In the spiritual world everything is love.

So they make an imitation here.

Then, the material souls here they get to try to be happy without Kṛṣṇa.

But you cannot!

Because we do things which are sinful or bad karma.

But it is very hard normally to get kṛṣṇa-prema.

There is a verse in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta by Kṛṣṇadasa Kavirāja Dāsa.

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya-dayā karaha vicāra
vicāra karite citte pābe camatkāra
(Cc. Ādi 8.15)

If you analyze, great people give hospital, big places, even some give liberation. Compare that with what Lord Caitanya gives,

you find out it is amazing what Lord Caitanya is giving out, it is AMAZING! AMAZING!

Gauuuuuranga!

You are very fortunate in this the temple if you pray to Nitāi Gaura, you can get the mercy of Śrī Rādhā Parthasārathī.

You can have the mercy of Sītā, Rāma, Lakṣmaṇa, Hanumān.

Lord Rāma, He was trying to find where did Sītā go.

And then He took Jaṭāyu in His lap and Jaṭāyu told Him Rāvaṇa has stolen Your wife.

Imagine, Jaṭāyu was on the lap of Lord Rāma when he was above to leave the body.

So, Lord Rāma, He loved His devotees.

He came down to spread this love as the Lord has for His devotees.

But Kṛṣṇa He was asked by Bhūmī Devī, there are so many soldiers on my service, please reduce some of the military.

But Kṛṣṇa came down, showed the love that He tasted between the Vrajavāsīs and Him.

Pure love!

And then He went with Arjuna, there is one name of Lord Kṛṣṇa which is Pārthasārathī.

Of course, the Kurukṣetra war was something amazing!

Millions of soldiers, and almost all died except the Pāṇḍavas. 

Lord Caitanya had His external reason, He was starting the harināma-saṅkīrtana.

And internal reason was to realize what love His devotees had for Him.

So, Lord Caitanya, when the Cand Kazi broke His kīrtana party mṛdanga, He said no one can stop the saṅkīrtana movement!