20260320 Evening Address

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-gurun dina tāriṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram
Harihi oṁ tat sat

Jayapataka Swami: I know a little little Odiya. I know a little Hindi. And I know Bengali. Since there is a mixed crowd they are requesting that I speak in English. So, I am very happy seeing so many devotees here. Śrīla Prabhupāda translated the 9^th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam here! I was here at that time. His Holiness Gaura Govinda Mahārāja was staying in the bhajana-kuṭīra then. At that time, this place was not so developed but now how much it has! Now we have many devotees but before we did not have so many devotees. Śrīla Prabhupāda, he was very enthusiastic and this temple land was donated by the daughter-in-law of the Governor. His Holiness Gaura Govinda Swami was so kind that he allowed me to install the Deities along with him! And he was very kind to me! So, we are missing his association. We all know how in his lectures, Mahārāja explains the philosophy so well! Now, we are developing the places where Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu visited. He spent 24-years in Navadvīpa and 18 years in Jagannātha Purī. And 6 years travelling around India. And how everyone came to know that Lord Caitanya is an incarnation of Lord Kṛṣṇa. But in Kali-yuga He does not incarnate as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but He was a hidden, channa-avatāra. But we understand from the scriptures and His activities that He is actually Bhagavān. So He came down to this Kali-yuga which is an ocean of faults. But there is one good quality. That is if you chant Hare Krsna mahā-mantra and go back to Godhead. But some people, they don’t chant! So we want to encourage everyone to chant.

One time Nārada Muni went to Lord Brahmā and said, I travel all over the universe, how will I be protected from the effects of Kali-yuga? Lord Brahmā revealed the Kali-santaraṇa Upaniṣad and said there is this mantra, you chant this and you will be freed from the effects of Kali-yuga. That mahā-mantra is:

Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare!

Chanting this mahā-mantra constantly and at the same time, do your work for Krsna. In this way you will be constantly thinking about Krsna. Now this was like you may have heard in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta there was this Kholaveca Śrīdhara who was a banana products’ seller. And whatever he earned, he kept aside 50% for the service of the Lord. In Kali-yuga most people work for salaries. Doctors, lawyers, professors, teachers, - all get monthly salaries. So, my suggestion is that husband and wife who work for salaries, can discuss and give about 11% if not 50% towards serving the Lord. In this human life, we desire that all of you become bhakti-yogīs or yoginīs! That means, we can protect ourselves from this Kali-yuga, we can also advance in our spiritual life, and by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. We are very grateful that Lord Caitanya has given this mercy to us! That is why we chant the Pañca-tattva mantra before chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra:

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

Like this we can stay under the shelter of Kṛṣṇa by constantly chanting His holy name! So, how many of you are regularly chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa? Thank you! Dhanyavād! So, those who are not yet chanting, you can also participate in the regular chanting. So this human life is shorter than in the Satya-yuga or Tretā-yuga or Dvāpara-yuga. Normally, 80 or 90, very rarely we see people living to a 100 years. But in Satya-yuga they lived for a hundred thousand years, in Tretā-yuga they lived ten thousand years and Dvāpara-yuga, they lived for a thousand years. But in Kali-yuga, we live less. But if we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa then we can achieve the spiritual world! Our scriptures say that even if one is a qualified brāhmaṇa, if he is not a Vaiṣṇava, then he cannot be a guru.

And even if one is born in a family of dog eaters, he can be a guru if he is a Vaiṣṇava. So, Śrīla Prabhupāda, his followers, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, and his followers would award the Gāyatrī mantra, upanayanam, second initiation to even non-brāhmaṇas. And around the world, we have about a thousand temples now and all the pujas are done by people who are second initiated Vaiṣṇavas or Vaiṣṇavīs. We respect the brāhmaṇas, but we want everybody to be a Vaiṣṇava! So, Kṛṣṇa is very merciful. In the Brahma-vaivarta Purāṇa it says that after five thousand years of Kali-yuga, there will be a Golden Age of ten thousand years. So we need you all the bring that in! Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa! In this way, make the world pure!

Alright, any questions?

Question: You made us understand how chanting the holy name is so important for us for deliverance. But my question is that if somebody is doing vaiṣṇava-sevā but not chanting the holy name, how will it help him?

Jayapataka Swami: If we do vaiṣṇava-sevā it is very nice. If they don’t chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, how long can he do vaiṣṇava-sevā? We should do both. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and serve the Vaiṣṇavas.

Question: I am seventh month pregnant and am reading Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam consistently. Have come up to the 10^th canto. How can I keep my spiritual life going and seek your blessings.

Jayapataka Swami: You can pray to the Deities that you want a Kṛṣṇa conscious child. The child should be long lived, happy and suputra or suputrī! We should want to do all our service, we want to bring up our children to be Kṛṣṇaconscious. And it says in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that one should not be a mother, father, guru, king etc. if they cannot deliver their dependents from birth and death cycle. So, may you be blessed to have a Kṛṣṇa conscious, suputra, suputrī.

Kṛṣṇe matir astu! Blessings to everyone!