20260606 Initiation Lecture

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

Jayapatākā Swami: So, I had a fever this morning and I could not attend the Ratha Yātrā. Now my fever has broken and I am trying to speak now. When, I joined ISKCON in 1968, I went to Montreal to see Śrīla Prabhupāda. And Śrīla Prabhupāda thought my parents would be happy and I wrote my parents that I had become a devotee! But my father said, you come back right away! Otherwise I will send you to the Vietnam army. At that time there was a draft in the USA. I asked Śrīla Prabhupāda what should I do? He said, better to be in Kṛṣṇa’s army! So I joined Kṛṣṇa’s army. Ever since then I have been in Kṛṣṇa’s army. There is no retirement! I have taken initiation in Kṛṣṇa’s army and we are at war with Māyā devī! We protect ourselves from the influence of Kali-yuga through chanting:

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

This is the only way. Chant the names of God. We should chant 16 rounds a day. It is very important. Śrīla Prabhupāda gave us this program. So, we chant every day, minimum 16 rounds. Like this we can counter the effect of Kali-yuga all around us. We see that the people are under the influence of ignorance and passion. Even Lord Caitanya gave us the process for Vaiṣṇavas and Vaiṣṇavīs. That is our only hope. We want you to be very strict and serve Śrīla Prabhupāda. So, we also have the four regulative principles to avoid sinful activities. You have heard these before. Today, His Holiness Bhakti Puruṣottama Swami gave a lecture. Also, the holy name is our best friend. So, we want to avoid all the ten offences to the holy name. To be inattentive actually we break many principles and make many offences to the holy name and gradually we can become more attentive. Then we can chant the holy name, the clearing stage and finally reach the offenseless stage. But even Ajamila, he was only calling his son Nārāyaṇa. But somehow the name is non-different from the Lord. So, he chanted the name Nārāyaṇa, he thought he was meaning the son. Anyway, he got purified by that chanting and the Viṣṇudūtas came to save him. So you always chant:

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

I have been told by Marīci dāsa how Kṛṣṇa’s flute is so wonderful! The gopīs ear holes are filled with the sound of Kṛṣṇa’s flute. And that Kṛṣṇa’s flute is represented by the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. So, sometimes disciples ask me, can I chant less rounds? I mean, do you want to be more accessible to Kali-yuga’s influence? I chant one round while taking a bath! I chant more than 16 rounds. But when I cannot, like when I had the stroke my right side had paresis, similar to paralysis and I could not chant. So I count with my counter, 1728, minimum. I chant all the time!

In my recent Vyāsa-pūjā lecture I gave some ideas how devotees could advance in their Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Like, organizing Harināma, for those who do not chant the Gāyatrī yet. They could chant one round each sandhyā and different scriptures glorify this. Before I took first initiation, Śrīla Prabhupāda asked me to read the Bhagavad-gītā ten times. Ten times! Since then, I have read the Bhagavad-gītā 10 or 20 times. I was trying to figure out from the Bhagavad-gītā the varṇāśrama system. Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted to establish the varṇāśrama system. The varṇāśrama system, we combine it with Lord Caitanya’s movement. Varṇāśrama is a gradual process, takes many lives. We cannot wait. It is Kali-yuga! We don’t know what the next birth is. So we want to get back to Godhead in this life! Our guṇas are not sattva, rajas and tamas. We are Vaiṣṇavas or Vaiṣṇavīs. If we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa we can go back to Godhead in this lifetime. At the same time, the work you are doing, that work is for Kṛṣṇa and you should think like that. We have gender equality, equalitarian, various problems in Kali-yuga. We cannot change it. But what we can do is make the people Kṛṣṇa conscious. They can do their work for Kṛṣṇa, for God. We work for God, you should work for God. Whether they accept Jesus or Allah or whatever, we accept Kṛṣṇa. So, many people when they retire, like Śrīla Rūpa and Sanātana, when they retired, they have 50% of their savings to Kṛṣṇa. But many people are not retiring. Although Śrīla Rūpa and Sanātana were also giving out profuse charity when they were gṛhasthas, and people lined up to get charity from them. I recommend that people give a minimum of 11% from their salary. If they are into business then from 11 to 50 per cent. Anyway, I was asked to speak a little. I think I over exceeded! (laughter)

So, this is Kali-yuga, we have taken vows. Who has taken vows here? Who is taking intiation that did not take their vows? So these commitments are for your whole life. And I give mātājīs when they have a child, I give some discretion. When I was in coma having my stroke, obviously, I could not chant, but when I woke up I started chanting again. So, Kali-yuga is continuing. It is a brief influence. Now I mentioned before Nārada Muni asked Lord Brahmā, “How will I be free from the influence of Kali-yuga?” Lord Brahmā said, “There is a confidential mantra.” So Nārada Muni asked, “What is that?”

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

iti ṣoḍaśakaṁ nāmnāṁ - these 16 names. kali-kalmaṣa-nāśanam – these free us from one from the influence of Kali-yuga, sarva-vedeṣu dṛśyate – no better system found in all the Vedas.

So, Śrīla Prabhupāda came to the West and gave us this mantra. So we are chanting that and the more we chant, the more taste we get. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī said that he should have millions of ears and millions of tongues to chant and hear the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. He was complaining that Lord Brahmā did not give him enough ears to hear Hare Kṛṣṇa. We don’t want to hear prajalpa, we want to hear.

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

Someone will read the names.

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

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

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