20250112 Zoom Address: Latin American Devotees

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: […] On January 15^th the weather changes. And everybody is participating in the Sāgara-melā. On that day there is going to be an installation of Deities in a temple in Navi Mumbai. The Chief Minister of Maharashtra is going to be in the inauguration of the temple. And there is a one-month festival in Prayāgarāj called the Kumbha-melā. They are expecting 400 million people to attend the festival. This is the biggest festival in the world. Śrīla Prabhupāda in 1971 and 1967 went to the Kumbha-melā. The confluence of three rivers is at Prayāgarāj where the Kumbha-melā is held. ISKCON has a very big camp there. Now the Kumbha-melā is very big but when Śrīla Prabhupāda went there it was small. This year Kumbha-melā starts on January 13, 2025. And it is very auspicious to get into the confluence of the three rivers. There are millions of people expected to go, and they are cooking for millions. Every twelve years there is the Mahā Kumbha-melā. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that devotees did not have much devotional credit, devotees have to pass through different tests. A devotee asked, “Śrīla Prabhupāda that he did not remember having done much good in his life when he looked back, then how was he getting this mercy?” Śrīla Prabhupāda said, “I made your good fortune!” Śrīla Prabhupāda visited Malaysia one year. Today we have a lot of devotees in Malaysia.

Śrīla Prabhupāda said one goes to the Kumbha-melā to get association with advanced devotees. But we know that Śrīla Prabhupāda went there just to give association to everybody. In the presentation there is a Hare Kṛṣṇa video in the Kumbha-melā. There are devotees, there are sādhus, Hare Kṛṣṇas. Devotees are visiting Kumbha-melā. They have the goal to do book distribution. Minimum goal is one lakh Bhagavad-gītās and one lakh small books. First day, they distributed 3,050 Bhagavad-gītās! And 7,000 small books. This festival is in different locations in India. In Māyāpur, we have different devotees coming from Australia.

In the morning Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam class today we were discussing about the different Manus and their service to Lord Brahmā. And Śrīla Prabhupāda said in the purport that this is from the beginning of time, from the time of Lord Brahmā, when then children grow up, they offer service to their parents. One should not be a father, husband, guru, if you cannot liberate your children. In the class on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Śrīla Prabhupāda had said in the purport you serve your father, guru and your superiors. They are very, very practical teachings.

And then here in front of me there are hundreds of devotees come to listen to my classes. Once a month I am trying to give Spanish class online. Every night we listen to the teachings of Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. He explained how gradually a devotee can advance in devotional service. How there are different steps. Bhajana-kriyā, anartha-nivṛtti, niṣṭhā, ruci, āsakti, and in the end rati. Rati is another name for bhāva. There is śuddha-bhāva after that, which is completely spiritual. There are four kinds of bhāva (rati?). In these four kinds of bhāvas there are impurities. There is a bhāva in which one is full of ecstasy. The goal for all the devotees is to experience bhāva, ecstasy. And then there is pure bhāva and pseudo bhāva. There are different kinds of bhāva. Then one can experiment what kind of bhāva you are experiencing. This is what Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura wrote in his book, Caitanya-śikṣāmṛta, and I explain every night here in the class. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains all this in a very specific and detailed way. He says how the devotee has the capacity to give blessings. This includes devotees who have niṣṭhā, devotion. Even those devotees can give blessings. They are in the stage of vaidhi-bhakti. Because, their blessings, they can help others to develop faith. And when one is advancing in this process in bhakti-yoga then their blessings can be more successful.

Any questions?

Question: How can we become strong in our relation with the communities. Sometimes people start coming and we forget the old devotees and concentrate on the new ones. How can we balance our relationship with the old devotees and preaching to the new devotees?

Jayapatākā Swami: The idea is, we associate with new devotees as with the old devotees. And if the old devotees walk away, you can give them more association again. And then they can remember, “Oh, this devotee is giving me association again.”

Question: This material body is full of limitations. Sometimes due to the mind or body or service to Kṛṣṇa is blocked. Is it okay to ask Kṛṣṇa for a spiritual body so that in that way keep serving Kṛṣṇa?

Jayapatākā Swami: Śrīla Prabhupāda said it was more important that the devotees should be healthy and after chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. To have good health is very important. But if somebody doesn’t have good health, it is important to try to offer your material self to serve Kṛṣṇa. Also, we have to understand why we are suffering and having bad health. Also, sometimes devotees pray to Lord Narasiṁhadeva. Normally, we do not pray like this to Lord Narasiṁhadeva, Rādhā Mādhava, Pañca-tattva. Lord Narasiṁhadeva protects devotees and sometimes we request Him for our good health. When I had infection in my body, I had fever 103 C. And I thought the fever was very low, I did not think it was high enough for all of you to pray for me! And sometimes I have to be suffering for the karma of my disciples’ activities. I wanted to go and visit South America to meet the devotees. But I had high fever and was sick I could not visit. So now I am visiting the devotees there virtually and giving darśana. That is why we have this special darśana visit every month.

Kṛṣṇe matir astu!