20240727 Addressing Howrah Gītā Course Devotees

Following is an address given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Māhārāja on July 27^th, 2024, in Śrī Dhāmā Māyāpur, India.

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: Is there anybody who does not know Bengali here? This will be a combined English and Bengali class with translation in Chinese going on simultaneously. When I took initiation, Śrīla Prabhupāda told me to read the Bhagavad-gītā ten times. This way I read the Bhagavad-gītā ten times! I did a regular accredited course in two parts in the university in Ohio. Ohio University was a Christian University. I also did class in McGill University. But they did not give me any points. So, studying Bhagavad-gītā is a very important thing. The Bhagavad-gītā has the essence of the Vedas. So it is very important to study the Bhagavad-gītā. If we study the Bhagavad-gītā we get to know many things. So in the Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa tells us what are the qualities of the demons. And He also tells how to be a good devotee. In Bhagavad-gītā, there are many many subjects – Kṛṣṇa shows His Viśvarūpa to Arjuna and then what are the things that a devotee should do, that’s in the twelfth chapter.  How our bodies are created, how the body is a machine of eight material elements – the five gross elements and the three subtle elements and Kṛṣṇa says the ātmā is the higher energy. So, the ātmā has a consciousness.

Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote the book ‘Life Comes from Life’. The material scientists, they say that the soul is made up of chemical combination, matter. But they don’t know. The point is that ātmā is not made of material elements, it is a spiritual thing coming from Kṛṣṇa. When the tip of the hair is cut into 100-pieces, one of the pieces is cut into a hundred parts again. That is the ātmā. So, the size of the soul is one ten-thousandth of the tip of the hair. Therefore within the animals, birds, beasts, humans, the soul is present. When the soul is present, then the body has consciousness. When the ātmā leaves the body, the body is dead.

So, in the temple we are building we have three companies that are competing to do the design. We are building a Museum of the Vedic Planetarium. In that scientific museum, in the West Wing we are going to have a museum. So we have three different companies to see whether they can understand. They all came to Delhi and then they all came here. So one group came upstairs and asked questions to me. You are all very fortunate because you are studying the Bhagavad-gītā. Bhagavad-gītā is the literature in which everything necessary is conveyed. And after you read the Bhagavad-gītā many times, the next book is the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Then there is the Bhādra Pūrṇimā, if you place a Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam on a golden throne and donate it to someone you can go back to Godhead. That is written in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

With regard to the distribution of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, His Holiness Bhakti Vijaya Bhāgavata Swami will explain.

So this is a rare opportunity. How much does the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam cost? Rs. 8,500. 8,500, by donating this amount you will go back home back to Godhead! You can gift it to someone. The father can donate to his grandfather or grandson! So if you want to give it to a distant relative, you can do that. You want to give it to someone near and dear, you can do that too. I read the Bhagavad-gītā ten times and then I gave a course in the college. Śrīla Prabhupāda gives such great purports that just by reading that I became a professor!

Any questions?

Bhakti Vijaya Bhāgavata Swami asked a question. There was a drama in Chennai and there was a girl who acted as Yamarāja and she had put a little mustache on her. Two other children were Yamadūtas. So the Yamadūtas were complaining that these ISKCON devotee families are chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, doing Harināma saṅkīrtana, studying Gītā, Bhāgavatam, and doing Deity worship and eating prasāda and preaching Harināma. How can we bring them to you? So like that the Yamadūtas were asking Yamarāja, “What to do?” Yamarāja told them, “You don’t have to bring those people to me.” One more question.