20241010 Address to ISKCON Nepal Devotees (Day 1)

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: The men can chant hari-dhvani and the women ulu-dhvani. The ladies can do hari-dhvani and ulu-dhvani both. But the men can only do hari-dhvani. I would like to thank His Holiness Mahā Viṣṇu Swami, I don’t know if he is here. I would like to thank Patri Prabhu for coming here. Also, Rūpeśvara Gaura dāsa for coming here. It was very nice to see the drama and dance on the nine islands of Navadvīpa. There is a free ‘Māyāpur App’ for Android and Apple. You can discover the whole Navadvīpa dhāma in that. The name of the app is Māyāpur.

Māyāpur was created by Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī and Kṛṣṇa said, this place will be non-different than Vṛndāvana. Every activity you do here is multiplied 1000 times. In Vṛndāvana any offence you do is also multiplied by 1000. Siddha Jagannātha dāsa Bābājī, he came to Navadvīpa dhāma because here the offences are not multiplied. So this is known as mercy dhāma. The Sanskrit name is audārya-dhāma, means kṛpā or dayā. So even lying down here is like offering your praṇāmas to the Deities. One devotee told Śrīla Prabhupāda, “Can we just lie down?” Śrīla Prabhupāda replied, “If you get so much mercy for lying down, why not do more service?”

We would like to welcome all the devotees from Nepal who have come here! How many of these islands in Māyāpur have they visited? There are nine islands, Navadvīpa. And 500 years ago all the islands were visible, but now they are not so visible. We don’t see the Sapraṛṣi-ṭilā, because ṭilā means hills. All the hills of Navadvīpa, most of the holy places we found. We have some campsites around the nine islands. Some devotees do parikramā using jeep. In Gaura Pūrṇimā time we have some 7 or 8 parikramā parties. Maybe in the future we will have a Nepali party! We have a Hindi party, four Bengali parties, international party, south Indian party, we used to have Russian party, I don’t know if we will have now. We don’t have a Nepali party yet. Who would like to come every year to have a Nepali party?

Lord Caitanya spent 24 years here. Then He went to Jagannātha Purī. Six years He spent travelling around India. And 18 years He spent in Jagannātha Purī. So, He wants to deliver all the fallen souls. He said, His message, His name will be sung in every town and village of the world. So we want the Nepali devotees to spread the holy name in every town and village of Nepal.

We took a safari to Vṛndāvana and established 24 Lord Caitanya’s lotus footprints. How many went to Vṛndāvana safari? Unfortunately, I got sick and I was attending via internet. I was in the hospital in New Delhi. The devotees went on the safari and established 24 Lord Caitanya’s lotus footprints. Next year we hope to go to South India to each place and establish Lord Caitanya’s lotus feet wherever He went. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda, he established about 8 pāda-pīṭhas in India. In East and West India. He wanted to establish many more pāda-pīṭhas wherever Lord Caitanya went in India. So we are trying to finish his desire. Lord Caitanya did He go anywhere in Nepal? (There is a place called Gaura in Nepal bordering India. Lord Nityānanda went to Mithala, Janakpur). We can see the lotus footprints in the Nāma-haṭṭa building.

So the external reason of Lord Caitanya’s coming was to establish the yuga-dharma of Kali-yuga, the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa. And I think Patri Prabhu and His Holiness Mahā Viṣṇu Swami are encouraging everyone to chant. I was staying in a guest house near the ISKCON temple. Patri Prabhu did kīrtana. So, Lord Caitanya, He wants to deliver the whole world, chanting the name of Kṛṣṇa. Haribol!

Normally, in the Hindu Society, the pious society are delivered. Lord Caitanya said,

kibā vipra, kibā nyāsī, śūdra kene naya
yei kṛṣṇa-tattva-vettā, sei ‘guru’ haya
(Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya 8.128)

Śrīla Prabhupāda in the 9^th canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Śrīla Prabhupāda said, that when it comes ot Kṛṣṇa consciousness, man, woman, śūdra, whatever, they are all equal. So, we were born in the western countries so naturally the culture there is yavana and mleccha. But Śrīla Prabhupāda’s he spread Lord Caitanya’s vāṇī and converted all these yavanas to Kṛṣṇa conscious Vaiṣṇavas. Nepal used to be the only Hindu kingdom in the earth. We want you to take the mercy of Lord Caitanya and spread it around.

I think you have to go to take dinner. You can download the ‘Māyāpur App’ and you can get the information of Kṛṣṇa and Navadvīpa dhāma. I was told that I would have to stop by 8.15 pm. As soon as I saw they were doing the nine islands of Navadvīpa I knew the drama would be long. So I would like to welcome all of you! Śusvāgatam. Hare Kṛṣṇa!