20240915 Initiation Address

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 give my respects to His Holiness Bhakti Vighna Vināśa Narasiṁha Mahārāja. Today we are having an initiation program and already the vows and ten offences against the holy name have been spoken. So I will just give a short talk.

The vows which we take today, they have to be followed the whole life. That is the four things we should avoid and we should chant at least 16 rounds every day. That is 1,728 mantras. Minimum. You can chant more if you want. The point is that Lord Caitanya came and gave the system of chanting. Chanting is to give everyone spiritual emancipation. In every age there is a different yajña. For the Kali-yuga the yajña is chanting the holy names. So we want everyone to continue chanting. Chanting is very important. By chanting, the Supersoul purifies everything. So, chanting is not a material thing. The holy name is non-different from Kṛṣṇa. So by chanting the holy name, one gets the mercy of Kṛṣṇa. So, there are nine practices of devotional service. śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ, etc. Chanting 16 rounds only takes one and half to two hours and rest of the time we can engage in devotional service as much as possible. So those who are working to maintain their family, that work is considered as neutral, and whatever they can do in devotional service, that is positive.

Lord Caitanya is Kṛṣṇa Himself who comes in the mood of His devotee, just find out what is the devotee experiencing. So it is Kṛṣṇa but He combines with Rādhā to take this experiment. Being an initiated devotee, everyone should want to be initiated. So the duty is to help the guru in his devotional service. If a devotee doesn’t follow that causes pain to the spiritual master. If the devotee follows that helps the spiritual master. So, one should take initiation very seriously. But taking initiation means my life will be full of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Śrīla Prabhupāda, he brought this all over the world. He came here personally to Malaysia. And so his mercy is there on all the people of Malaysia! So, I was sent to Malaysia and at that time there was some disturbance. But by the mercy of Lord Caitanya and Śrīla Prabhupāda, things became very normalized. So, in the future I would like all the devotees to become spiritual masters, to be gurus. Right now we have śikṣā-gurus. In the future, also to give dīkṣā, to expand this movement. It is important to study Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books to understand what Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted. I have seen he used to be up by one o clock, two o clock and was translating Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and he gave his purports when he explained from the previous ācāryas and gave his own realization. Śrīla Prabhupāda took great austerity to give you Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So the devotees should also study that and understand what Śrīla Prabhupāda’s desires were.

I wanted go to Penang but I have to go to India, quick. I heard that the devotees from all over Malaysia have come here. So, we are trying to establish Śrīla Prabhupāda’s desires. If a person is taking initiation that means they are dedicated and they would like to follow the guru. I was reading last time how by Lord Caitanya’s mercy, by Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mercy, even people who were not very active in devotional service, who had bad habits before, by Their mercy, they are able to overcome all those bad habits and become Vaiṣṇavas. So that is very surprising, but that was the inconceivable mercy of Lord Caitanya. So we want to see how all the conditioned souls get liberated.

Devotees from Singapore who have come here? They requested that I speak something in Bengali.

So here today we will be having the initiation ceremony. I was saying that how chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa and doing kīrtana is very auspicious. So, this Harināma is the dharma of Kali-yuga. And this is how Kṛṣṇa becomes more affectionate to us. And we can develop more devotion towards Kṛṣṇa. This way, we may face many challenges and obstacles in our life but we will not get distracted and will be focused in our devotion to Kṛṣṇa. His Holiness Bhakti Vighna Vināśa Narasiṁha Mahārāja, we can remember him and go back home back to Kṛṣṇa! There may be many obstacles and difficulties in our lives but if we remember Lord Narasiṁhadeva we can overcome all these difficulties. I spoke in Bengali and now the initiation ceremony will start and somebody will read the names and I will give the devotees the beads.

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