20250703 Ratha-yātra Pandal Day 6 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: Welcome to the festival! Here Lord Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā and Sudarśana cakra have come here and They are our arcā incarnations of the Lord. That means, there are so many incarnations of the Lord. In Dvāpara-yuga He came as His own self. 500 years ago, He came as Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Today He is in a ‘picnic’ veśa! He, along with the cowherd boys, He would celebrate a picnic on the banks of the Yamunā. That festival He did with Lord Nityānanda in Pānihāṭi as the Ciḍā-dadhi festival. All of you please pray to Lord Jagannātha Baladeva, Subhadrā, Sudarśana cakra. Someone asked me what we should pray to Them. You can say that we pray to Lord, “Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā and Sudarśana cakra that I am surrendering unto You.” The primary goal of our lives is to serve Lord Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā and Sudarśana cakra. You should pray that you get the opportunity to serve Them eternally. In Kali-yuga the special sacrifice is chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā mantra:

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

Hare Kṛṣṇa!

You are all doing well? You are happy with this Jagannātha Baladeva Subhadrā Ratha-yātrā Festival? Today Lord Jagannātha is wearing a ‘picnic veśa’, vana-bhojana veśa. Vana-bhojana, He used to celebrate with His cowherd boy friends, on the banks of the Yamunā. When He was in Paugaṇḍa, He would herd the calves along with His cowherd friends. Now when you see Lord Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā, Sudarśana cakra on the altar, you can also see small calves there! When He was in Vṛndāvana, He was a cowherd boy and manifested that mood. When He went to Dvārakā, He took up the mood of a kṣatriya. Now, He says, that He never leaves Vṛndāvana. And from Vṛndāvana He went to meet Vasudeva and Devakī. Now, Kṛṣṇa is in Guṇḍicā, that means He is in Vṛndāvana. Now, in Dvāpara-yuga He came as Himself. Now, we have Lord Jagannātha as arcā-vigraha and we offer worship to Him. Because we do not have the qualification to see the Lord, He mercifully comes in His arcā-vigraha form and gives us the opportunity to serve Him. And there are various moods of Lord Jagannātha and we can serve Him accordingly. We desire that taking this opportunity, we should serve Lord Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā, Sudarśana cakra, in Their Vṛndāvana mood. Now, Kṛṣṇa says that He had lot of bliss in His līlās, but the people of Kali-yuga are devoid of that experience. That is why He said, “I will incarnate as My devotee and will preach the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa.” He came as Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He came 500 odd years ago. His special quality was to distribute kṛṣṇa-prema to all without differentiation. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, he preached the teachings of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu all over the world. His Gurudeva, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda had ordered him that you go to the English-speaking countries and preach. He went to America, Canada, UK and many other countries in the world. He established 108 temples all over the world. Now, we have the opportunity that through His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda we can get the teachings of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Lord Kṛṣṇa.

I am a little sick by way of my material body. But even then I want to preach the teachings of Lord Kṛṣṇa! After this, I will go the Question-and-Answer booth to answer questions. This human life gives us the special opportunity to do worship of Lord Kṛṣṇa and get His association as well. In Kolkata, there is Kālī-ghāṭa where there is Kālī, the goddess. I had gone there. There they have Rādhā Kṛṣṇa mūrtis. And Kālī gets Rādhā Kṛṣṇa prasāda. But people in front of Kālī do animal sacrifice in front of her. The ghosts and hobgoblins who are with Kālī they have this. But Kālī eats her husband, Kṛṣṇa’s prasāda. Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga!

The communists in Europe said that, “You pray to God that you want bread. Will He give? You ask us, give us bread, we will give.” This way, many people became atheists. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu has taught us that we should serve Lord Jagannātha very nicely. This service, when we do there is no limit to the bliss. Ānandera sīmā nāi, ānandera sīmā nāi, nirānanda dūre jāi, nirānanda dūre jāi!

Here in the Ratha-yātrā festival, Lord Jagannātha has come, Lord Kṛṣṇa, has come in the form of Lord Jagannātha. Someone asked me yesterday, what should I pray in front of Lord Jagannātha? I told them the best is that, you pray that I surrender unto to You! Oh Lord. We will not ask for anything from Kṛṣṇa. We will give, we will offer our soul at the lotus feet of Lord Kṛṣṇa! Some want that they be relieved from the material sufferings, but some people merge into the impersonal Brahman. But there is bliss participating in the pastime with Lord Kṛṣṇa and there is no limit to that bliss! That secret, Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu brought out to us! Now when Lord Kṛṣṇa came, He brought prema along with Him. But that was not easy for us to achieve. That is why Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu came and offered the bounty of kṛṣṇa-prema and distributed it to everyone – not seeing who was qualified, and who was not. He gave it to one and all! We desire that from this Lord Jagannātha’s Ratha-yātrā festival, you all take away some kṛṣṇa-prema!

Now our Honorable Chief Minister, Śrīmatī Mamata Banerjee had come to take darśana of the Deities here and left I believe. We are very grateful that Dīdī (HG Mamata Banerjee) has established a temple in Digha of Lord Jagannātha and given the service there to ISKCON! All of you, when you can, please visit Digha. Jagannātha Svāmī kī jaya! Baladeva kī jaya! Subhadrā kī jaya! Sudarśana cakra kī jaya!

Yesterday, I had said that there are different kinds of people in the world. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu had said that one should always remember Kṛṣṇa. If we do this, we will go back to Kṛṣṇa. Here there is Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Bhagavad-gītā and other books are available in the stalls.

gṛhe thāko vane thāko sadā hari bole ḍāko

I hope that all of you will chant Kṛṣṇa’s names and Lord Caitanya will give you mercy and you all get the mercy and darśana of Lord Jagannātha. Lord Jagannātha is coming in a ratha, giving us chance to serve. Some dance, some sing, some pull the ratha. This way Lord Jagannātha is served in various ways. I hope that you will also attend the various cultural programs as well and be happy. One teacher came and he came from the West and learnt Bengali very well. He is His Grace Atula Kṛṣṇa dāsa Mahāśaya!

Now I will go to the sannyāsī booth to answer questions and answers.