20240822 Addressing Hooghly District Nāmahaṭṭa Sammelan

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: I take this opportunity to welcome all of you to Māyāpur. I hear that you have come from East Hooghly. When Lord Nityānanda came back then Lord Caitanya said that Our work has not finished yet. You go to Bengal again and finish it. And Advaita Gosāñī, when He came from Bengal to Nīlācala, then Lord Caitanya asked Him, “What is the situation of our Bengal preaching?” Then Advaita Gosāñī said that the bazar was full! That means, everyone has bought, nothing was left for purchase! The bazar has been satiated. Now Lord Nityānanda had gone to handle the preaching. Now Hooghly district is where Lord Nityānanda went to. He said that the way preaching was going on in Navadvīpa, the same way preaching is done in Hooghly district. Now Hooghly district better than before, I hope that there is the same kind of preaching is done by all of you. It is required that when you get back, you should preach a lot. Your friends, relatives, neighbors, etc. you should preach to. Now, Lord Caitanya, He desired that all the people should be delivered. He was so merciful, so merciful, we cannot calculate how much! This way, you are on the bank of the Ganges, and you should make all efforts to preach the glories of Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda! Haribol!

Now, any activity or service you do, you get 1000 times the benefit in Māyāpur dhāma! Those who walk here it is said that every step taken they get more than a 100 times benefit of an aśvamedha-yajña. Those who are sleeping here they get the benefit of paying obeisances to the Lord. One person asked Śrīla Prabhupāda, that if sleeping itself you get this benefit then I would rather stay asleep. But Śrīla Prabhupāda answered that if one gets so much benefit just by sleeping, then if you chant, do kīrtana, dance, how much more benefit one would get! Haribol! I want that after coming to Māyāpur dhāma you get immense bliss!

I hear that Bankura district there is a mountain, where people come from Kolkata and have a picnic, eat non-veg, etc. Now so many people in Hooghly district, they are getting the mercy of Lord Caitanya and realizing it. Now, in Hooghly district, Śrī Rāma Paṇḍita had some place in Khānakula. One tantric came and one of his bakula trees was destroyed. Nitāi Prabhu used to sit under this bakula tree. That devotee went to Abhirāma Ṭhākura and said that Lord Nityānanda’s bakula tree has been destroyed. Abhirāma Ṭhākura went to see if really this tantric had destroyed the bakula tree. When he put his hair on the tree, the tree came back to life. It is easy to destroy the tree, but to bring it back to life is very difficult. Then, Abhirāma Ṭhākura, he went to see the tantric. But when the tantric saw that Abhirāma Ṭhākura had revived the tree, then the tantric got scared. He surrendered and expressed his desire to become a follower of Lord Caitanya. Near this temple, another disciple made another temple. There was some competition and people went to the other temple. Then he told his disciple that you make a temple a little far from here. So this way, he was there and showed how preaching should be done in village. In a village there were not many devotees. He did a kīrtana festival near that village. Due to the influence of the kīrtana some villagers came to see the festival. This way his strategy was how to preach Harināma! This way by calculation, in various villages preaching was expanded.

This way, They came from Goloka and were calculating how everyone would get the mercy of Gaura and Nitāi! Haribol! This Harināma preaching is a divine, spiritual affair. We don’t think that there is any inconvenience in preaching Harināma. This is not of the material world. Golokera prema-dana, hari-nāma saṅkīrtana! Haribol!

Now how much happiness can we get by sense gratification? Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda’s glories if we preach we get unlimited happiness. I hear that the devotees from Hooghly can do hari-dhvani very nicely! Haribol! It has been proved now!

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

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

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare!

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

I hear also that the ladies from Hooghly district do very nice ulu-dhvani! The ladies can do two things – hari-dhvani all did and then ladies only did the ulu-dhvani!

You will all see that again there is preaching in Hooghly district like the Nitāicānda, the Moon of Lord Nityānanda!

Now there are many śrīpāṭs in Hooghly district. Śrīpāṭ means the associates of Lord Caitanya had may be appeared there or had their pastimes there. I hope that you will all protect these śrīpāṭs.

In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is said that if one donates one set on Bhādra Pūrṇimā day, they will go back to Godhead. Now, get a set of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and donate on the Bhādra Pūrṇimā day. You can gift to your husbands, your wives, your Nāma-haṭṭa, anyone, it is not specified who you should donate to. The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam may be placed on a golden throne, worshiped and then donated. So we want to see which district donates more Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam sets! I hear that His Holiness Bhakti Cāru Swami had wanted to build a temple in Hooghly district? In Tarakeśvara, Astara. Which direction is this in? Western Hooghly. Ādi-saptagrāma is in Hooghly district right. I hear that Nitāi Prabhu went to Ādi-saptagrāma and did lot of kīrtana and preaching and gave bliss to all! Anyway, you will all continue to preach. You all may try to get this mercy!

If you have any questions?

Question: You said to preach when going back. I am very stupid. Please give mercy that I can preach.

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Caitanya gave mercy to one and all. When He was in South India, travelling around, He gave the order that yāre dekha, tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra’ ei deśa [Cc. Madhya 7.128] So, other than my instruction, Lord Caitanya has given instruction and you can get the mercy of Lord Caitanya and will be able to preach. Haribol! Any question from the ladies?

Devotee: Today those who have taken guru-āsraya, please bless all of you with your divine glance!

Jayapatākā Swami: I bless all you. Kṛṣṇe matir astu!

Question: Should we chant first or do Deity worship first in the morning?

Jayapatākā Swami: Both are good! Now, what time do you wake up? 6 am Deity worship can be done. Earlier than that if you get up, you can chant. There is a time for everything, this thing should be done at this time and this at that time. If you do maṅgala-ārati then before that you can chant the names of Kṛṣṇa. This way, what time you do what, you can decide and schedule. In our temple, 4:15 or 4:30 maṅgala-ārati is done. But congregational devotees are gṛhasthas mostly they can do maṅgala-ārati at 5 am maybe. This way you can calculate what time you do what. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Question: We preach but there are obstacles in the process. How do we overcome these obstacles?

Jayapatākā Swami: Now, maybe some don’t get want to get mercy easily. If you pray and preach for the sake of Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda then you will get more mercy even if there are obstacles. If there are obstacles here, imagine how much more impediments devotees in the other countries would be facing? But still, they do a lot of preaching. Now for getting the mercy of Bhādra Pūrṇimā there is a competing of distribution of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. If it was very easy then what would it be! We have to give the mercy of Lord Caitanya and Nitāi to all in different ways. Those who want to preach, there will be a lot of obstacles. But they should try that all get the mercy of Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda. Hooghly district is aiming to distribute Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 500 sets for Bhādra Pūrṇimā this year. Blessings!