8 November 2023

You are far away from the world here at Badrinath. Badrinath dhama ki Jaya!

The five Pandavas had left everything and moved towards Badrinath dhama It’s a beautiful and silent place. Every sanatani wants to go to Badrinath once in his life on Char-dhama Yatra. And above all the dhamas is Vrndavana Dhama. Vrndavana dhama ki Jaya!

It’s beyond all the Tirtha Sthalis. Krsna is the source of all incarnations. Like that the source of all the dhamas is Vrndavana Dhama.

All avatars are in the avatari.

advaitam acyutam anadim ananta-rupam
adyam purana-purusam nava-yauvanam ca
vedesu durlabham adurlabham atma-bhaktau
govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami

Translation:

I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is inaccessible to the Vedas, but obtainable by pure unalloyed devotion of the soul, who is without a second, who is not subject to decay, is without a beginning, whose form is endless, who is the beginning, and the eternal purusa; yet He is a person possessing the beauty of blooming youth. (Sri brahma-samhita 5.33)

We can realise here that all the dhamas are in Vrndavana Dhama. That’s why it’s called Adi-badri.

The source of Badrinath in the North is this Adi-badri. The Badrinath in the Himalayas is an extension of this Adi-badri. Nanda baba and Yasoda Maiya and other Vrajavasis had a desire to go on Badrinath yatra. There is a possibility that they were thinking of going North. This is my thinking. So Nanda baba said to Krsna, Balarama and others, “Let’s go to Badrinath.”

Krsna brought them here and pointed towards the mountains and said, “See the Himalayas.” I also said to my god brother, Gurudev Prabhu to see the Himalayas. Mostly people do not know that these mountains are the Himalayas. Even I did not know.

Sri Krsna finished the pastimes here and wanted to return to His dhama.

krsne sva-dhamopagate
dharma-jnanadibhih saha
kalau nasta-drsam esa
puranarko ‘dhunoditah

Translation:

This Bhagavata Purana is as brilliant as the sun, and it has arisen just after the departure of Lord Krsna to His own abode, accompanied by religion, knowledge, etc. Persons who have lost their vision due to the dense darkness of ignorance in the age of Kali shall get light from this Purana. (SB 1.3.43)

When Uddhava got the news and he said, “I will also go back with you.” But Krsna said, “No, you go to Badrinath. Uddhava followed the order and came to Badrinath. Did you have darshan of Uddhava?

Uddhava is also at Uddhava Baithak at Gulma Lata. In this universe, there are 9 Varsas and 7 Islands.

Bharat Varsha is one of them and every Varsha has their preacher. In Bharat Varsha, Narada Muni is the leading preacher. Vyasa Dev is also there. Ganesh Gufa is also there, but you can’t see it. You listen and see and believe. In Badrikasram there is a cave in which Vyasadev was dictating and Ganesh who was writing like a stenographer. I had gone to Badrinath in 1977 in November. It was very cold. Devotees woke up, but continued sleeping in their sleeping bags. And then we got up and performed kirtana and were warmed up.

There we have Tapta Kunda with boiling water. Here we also have a Tapta Kunda, but there is cold water. In the boiling water in Tapta Kunda people even cook their rice. Who can make such arrangements? Only Lord Krsna can. So it’s very cold there from Diwali to Akshay Tritiya and it’s closed. But the pujari keeps all bhoga there for the closed period. When the gate is opened on Akshaya Tritiya, all the Bhoga is used up. It’s said Narada Muni and demigods worship the Lord in that closed period. The military is there. They say that they hear the sound of the conch shell and bells during that closed period.

Narada Muni keeps travelling all over. Narada Muni once said to the Lord, “Oh Lord, people ask me what the Lord is doing now? So I have to always tell them that the Lord is lying down and Laxmiji is massaging His feet. But that’s not very inspiring. People will say that if the Lord is resting we should also rest.”

The Lord thought, “I will renounce every thing and do tapasya.” Thinking this He came to Badrinath, but it was occupied by Shivji and Parvati Maiya.

The Lord took the form of a Baby and was crying for help. Seeing this Parvati Maiya was filled with compassion, but Shivji said, “No. Don’t go. It may be some Maya.”

But Parvati Maiya could not stop herself and took the Baby and kept Him in her house. Shivji and Parvati went to Gauri Kunda. When they came back and knocked on the door, there was no response from the inside. Shivji understood it was the Lord and He has encroached on their place. Then they moved to Kedarnath.

The Lord stayed here and did tapasya as Nara Narayan.

rsabha uvaca
nayam deho deha-bhajam nrloke
kastan kaman arhate vid-bhujam ye
tapo divyam putraka yena sattvam
suddhyed yasmad brahma-saukhyam tv anantam

Translation:

Lord Rsabhadeva told His sons: My dear boys, of all the living entities who have accepted material bodies in this world, one who has been awarded this human form should not work hard day and night simply for sense gratification, which is available even for dogs and hogs that eat stool. One should engage in penance and austerity to attain the divine position of devotional service. By such activity, one’s heart is purified, and when one attains this position, he attains eternal, blissful life, which is transcendental to material happiness and which continues forever. (SB 5.5.1)

When Brahma appeared, he also heard two words ta… pa and he also did tapasya. The Lord did Tapasya here. Laxmiji comes here and stays in the form of Badri trees. She is serving here as the Badri trees. Badri means Laxmi. Nath is Lord. So it’s Sri Sri Badrinarayan. Sri Sri Laxmi Narayan ki jaya!

From Badrinath yatra in 1977 we returned to Vrndavana. Our party’s name was Narada Muni Sankirtan Travelling Party. Prabhupada had asked us which book was distributed most. He liked book distribution very much.

He has filled his Bhava in his books so he says, “If you want to know me, read my books. I will never die till my books are there.”

We told Prabhupada that we showed his Bhagavad Gita to Vyasadev. Prabhupada was happy to hear this. I also said one more thing to Prabhupada which one of Prabhupada’s disciples did not like.

There is a Bhima Pul in Badrikasrama. And now only Bhima and Yudhishthir were remaining. Once Bhima had an encounter with Hanuman. Hanuman was sitting on the way and his tail was in the way so Bhima thought he is an ordinary monkey. Hanuman said, “Please leave my tail. I am old.” Bhima could not even move his tail an inch. Then Hanuman showed his original form. Bhima and Hanuman both are Vayu Putra.

Hanuman said to Bhima, “If you need me, you can call me.” Hanuman was on the flag of Arjuna’s chariot in the Kurukshetra war. From Bhima Pul in Badrikasrama Bhima had gone to the Lord’s abode. I told this to Prabhupada, but my god brother did not like it. He felt I am reminding Prabhupada of going back to the Lord’s abode.

Badri Narayan darshan is a very special Abhishek. There are very few temples where we can have darsana of the Abhishek of the Lord – Pandharpur, Badrinath, Kshir chora Gopinath. We can see Their Abhishek.

All of have reached Badrikasrama. You are fortunate. Is the Yatra going on wonderfully?

Madhuvan is Tapo Stali of Dhruva Maharaja and here the Lord did tapasya. Caitanya Mahaprabhu also came here. Also at Tapta Kunda, water has washed His lotus feet. The birds are also sleeping now. This is very normal. The sun is up means the light is on. Night is for sleeping and the night light is the moon.

Vrindadevi is like a temple commander. She makes all arrangements for The Lord’s pastime.

Kakati is a monkey who wakes up Radha and Krsna as they are resting after Rasa lila and tells them to go home before all at home wake up. There is a place named Sanket where Krsna and Radha make gestures and give their message to each other as to where they will meet. Yasoda Maiya puts Krsna to sleep and leaves, but Krsna gets up and goes to the forest for Rasa lila. Krsna plays His flute and only the Gopis can hear the flute and they leave home and go to the forest for Rasa dance. Then is it is jaya radha madhava kunja bihari. They also have snacks and they dance together and then they rest.

I wanted to tell you that we should go to bed early, but we do night duty and we are busy. So tomorrow via Kedarnath, you will be going to Kamyavan. There are many places of darsana in Kamyavan. Many Kundas and temples like, Sri Lanka and Ashok vatika. There are many monkeys. Ram setu made by monkeys, is there. Gopis said to Krsna, “You just keep talking.” So the Lord showed the Gopis how He made Ram Setu. Krsna became Rama and the monkeys came and the construction of Ram Setu began.

Topic : SB 1.15.06
Place: Iskcon Chowpatty
Date 20th November 2022

means is equal to all glories to assembled devotees “samaveta yuyutsavah mamakah pandvas caiva “(BG 1.1.) assembled to fight but here they are not come to fight. I had not prepared my talk for big gathering like this, I wasn’t expecting, anyway you are welcome thank you.

I heard there is no Sunday festival, so I thought during temple the devotees, mostly anyway, I am happy more devotees, happier devotees and our movement is that of congregation because some kirtan, Sankirtan and movement congregation more the merrier, Hari Hari and this is not a crowd, this is, this is assembly the gathering of devotees, crowd is not good, or this is sabha, in sabha they only allow sabhya here or those who are sabhya they are allowed in sabha. “sabhya means gentlemen”. We don’t even know, it has to be gentle, gentlemen, not ruffian gentle. Hari Hari. So we are reading from canto 1 chapter 15 text number six. Is it somewhere, could you see although in the back board there so try to repeat.

yasya ksana-viyogena
loko hy apriya-darsanah
ukthena rahito hy esa
mrtakah procyate yatha

Synonyms
yasya — whose; ksana — a moment; viyogena — by separation; lokah — all the universes; hi — certainly; apriya-darsanah — everything appears unfavorable; ukthena — by life; rahitah — being devoid of; hi — certainly; esah — all these bodies; mrtakah — dead bodies; procyate — are designated; yatha — as it were.

Translation
I have just lost Him whose separation for a moment would render all the universes unfavorable and void, like bodies without life.

Purport
Factually for a living being there is no one dearer than the Lord. The Lord expands Himself by innumerable parts and parcels as svamsa and vibhinnamsa. Paramatma is the svamsa part of the Lord, whereas the vibhinnamsa parts are the living beings. As the living being is the important factor in the material body, for without the living being the material body has no value, similarly without Paramatma the living being has no status quo. Similarly, Brahman or Paramatma has no locus standi without the Supreme Lord Krsna. This is thoroughly explained in the Bhagavad-gita. They are all interlinked with one another, or interdependent factors; thus in the ultimate issue the Lord is the summum bonum and therefore the vital principle of everything.

Srila Prabhupad ki Jai.

I have just lost Him whose separation for a moment would render all the universes unfavorable and void, like bodies without life.

Factually for a living being there is no one dearer than the Lord. right , it has to be right. The Lord expands Himself by innumerable parts and parcels as sv???a and vibhinnamsa. Paramatma is the svamsa part of the Lord, whereas the vibhinnamsa parts are the living beings. As the living being is the important factor in the material body, for without the living being the material body has no value, similarly without Paramatma the living being has no status quo. Similarly, Brahman or Paramatma has no locus standi without the Supreme Lord Krsna. This is thoroughly explained in the Bhagavad-gita. They are all interlinked with one another, or interdependent factors; thus in the ultimate issue the Lord is the summum bonum and therefore the vital principle of everything.
Cool air is coming from somewhere like I said give me the scarf, could this be dirested to you all right or share or share that with me.

yasya ksana-viyogena
loko hy apriya-darsanah
ukthena rahito hy esa
mrtakah procyate yatha

I have just lost Him whose separation for a moment would render all the universes unfavorable and void, like bodies without life.

So this is the chapter “Pandavas retire timely” and timely means on time. What is their time, they are chosen to retire they have lost their Lord, Lord of their life.

shyam tayktva svapadam gatah
taddinat kali ayata
sarva sadhana badhaka

This is a statement in shastra’ws purana’s that says, Lord departed “shyam tayktva” the other part is also “yada mukundo Bhagwan” “shyam tayktva svapadam gatah” and when is the general one but a particular day , that day as Lord departed for his own abode, tad dinat from that day, kalir ayata, Kaliyug began. The day Lord departed , the last day of the Lord on the planet becomes the first day of the age of kali, and what is Kali “sarva sadhana badhaka” our sadhana is tough and turby all daha’s in our sadhana.

That is , those are the Pandav’s and those are all kinds of devotees “Yasya ksana viyogena”yog- viyog, Yog is linking, communicating, establishing relationship, communicating that’s Yog and this is viyog “yasya ksana viyogena”, we have no experience of all this, we had one but we have forgotten, we are covered over, “sunyayitam jagat sarvam Govinda virahena me”.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is talking without Krishna this whole world is void, sunya, then Prabhupad of course says sunya has value when there is one in the front, otherwise one zero and then another zero and another zero and then big zero without that one, that one is the Lord and we are, ya, Srila Prabhupad is talking about that in purport, we are his parts and parcels, lucky we are in fact. We are his , we are his, whose, Lords ya Krishna’s then we have some value otherwise dead body “mrtakah procyate yatha” forget us the parts and parcel of the Lord.

mamaivamso jiva loka
jivabhutah sanatnah (BG 15.7)

not only Lord has said that they are “mam-aivansh”. Lord didn’t say “mam-ansh.” What did Lord say “eva” has to be underlined and understood of course, they are only certainly and only my parts and parcels not of anyone else not

yam brahma varunendra rudra marutah
stunvanti divyaih stavair
(SB 12.12.1)

We are not , we are not parts and parcels of at least we could devta’s because devta’s themselves are parts and parcels of the same Lord, so we are not part and parcels of the same Lord, so we are not part and parcels , we are directly parts and parcels of the Supreme Personality of the Godhead “mam eva ansh” mam eva, ya this way some more intimate connection or relationship is emphasised.

mamaivamso jiva loka
jivabhutah sanatnah (BG 15.7)

means forever, not that you are part and parcel of Lord for some time and then he become part and parcel of someone else, of allah, allah is okay, not this one, forever we are parts and parcels of the Lord forever, for all the time to come, of course Lord is Sanatan and sat-chit-anand, sat means eternal, Lord is eternal and we are the parts and parcels of the Lord are also eternal. The ansh, Krishna said, we are ansh, we are ansh and who is Lord what is that term anshi, ansh anshi one who is whole.

om purnam adah purnam idam (ISO Invocation)

that purn is called anshi and parts and parcels are called ansh, we are ansh and Lord is anshi. So ansh has to become part of anshi, he is , there is also explanation here vibhinash and svansh even

ramadi murtishu kala niyamena tisthan
nanavataram akarod bhuvaneshu kintu

even there ansh’s but that svanah and hence they are all achuta, achuta means not falliable, they don’t fall. Lord takes avatar, many avatars, they don’t fall down but we fall down vibhinansh fall svansh never fall, so vibhinansh are chute and svansh are achute, okay you are all with us, in the back there, the back benchers. Now want to make some statements or some observations, see how things work. Any object fan or ball anything that you throw up and which is part and parcel of earth, all these objects make up this gross earth, all these made up this gross earth, Prithavi. Where will they end, they come back to the earth, they always try to settle on the earth that’s one thing. What about different water bodies well specially say rivers water bodies, rivers are also part and parcel of what ocean, yes so where the rivers are always running to, to the ocean, hence the rivers are also called

nimna ganam yatha ganga
vaisnavanam yath (12.13.16)

that is another statement from Bhagwatam. “nimna means down”, “ga means goes”, river goes down right, also the time is there source is at the top of the mountain or at foot hill of the mountain, at higher level compare to the ocean level, so that water is always running and trying to, always anxious to become part of the whole ocean. So river and other water bodies are ansh’s, part and parcel and ocean is anshi, complete whole. What about the fire , fire is always trying to go there, upward, even if you havev a mashal or torh, try to do this way they goes up, why up, where to, to the sun which is the source of all fire and light. So like wise, right, I think, where as, where as, therefore, de resolve, we could say when they have meeting, they could say where as , where as this, therefore, so we gave a few examples for quick observation then therefore the living entities which are part and parcel of the Lord, living entities are ansh and the Lord is anshi, so they are always anxious to go back, return to the Lord they are settled.

hitvanyatha rupam sva rupena vyavasthitih (SB 2.10.6)

Sukhdev Goswami said, this is in 2nd canto Srimad Bhagwatam, living entities are always trying to “sva rupena vyavasthitih” as they say on this point, swasth ho, swasth ho, you understand hindi na, of course as soon as this question is raised, my health is Okay, swasth ho but one time, one time those who really understood the purport or deeper meaning of swasth ho, it has to be. They have something else on their mind while asking this question and also replying those days, good old days, before the age of kal, sva is who, us living entity, sva and sth means situated swasth, Lord is also swa there is a talk here, living entities and paramatma or the Lord, So Swasth means, “are you situated in Krishna Consciousness properly?”

krsna tvadiya padapankajaranta
madyaiva me visatu manasarajahamsah (from Mukund Mala strotram)

Kulshekar’s Lord, oh Lord what that day would be mine, “manasarajahamsah” “manasarajahamsah”, his mind he is addressing designated as “hamsah-rajanahamsah” and Lord, your lotus, I already said, your feet are lotus like, “Krsna tvadiya pada pankajarantam”. My mind is raja-hamsah, when will my mind which is like a hamsah, will hang around, It even says enter, enter your lotus feet, be next to your lotus feet or attached to your lotus feet of think of your lotus feet or serve your lotus feet. So, as one does that, that person is “swasath”, I am “swasath”just body, mind, soul, wellbeing is complete when soul is also “swasath”, not just body, mind, soul also mainly soul ???? ????? ?? ?????? ??,?? ???? ????? ?? ????????? ??, ?????? ?????? ??????, you heard it of that , shastra says, shastra says, because this is a fact, ?????? ?????? ??????, okk have it, you get the body and before you get the body, the pran prathistha of vyadhi is already done, temple has been inaugurated, deity of vyadhi is installed, okay have this , have fun.

Body is given, we think to enjoy but also to suffer, I am changing topic or to enjoy you have to pay for, you go to the shop or the mall these days, the malls, malls, because the more products are being sold produced and transported and promoted and courier service and there is some survey where the people have become more happy because of more products produced of all sorts of products material nature is exploded and mining and this and that, has this made the world happier, what do you think? What is your experience, has you look around, has this made the world happy? But not now, but in future, we will make you happy but then this Prabhupad use to say, this is a post dated cheque from a bankrupt. Someone is a bankrupt and he will give a post dated cheque. Noway, No way they did another survey in the America. Which country’s citizen are more sick? They did the Global Survey and the conclusion was America. Number one the most sick nation in the world. “America”. I was not surprised to hear that because America, the Land of opportunities, they say sometime, even some Hare Krishna devotees.

more ehi abhilash
Americaa deshe diyo vass

So , dreamland, heaven on earth. Hari Hari. The enjoyment and suffering, do you think there is some relationship , yes or no. “Yes”, it is a package, you don’t get only enjoyment not possible, if you want enjoy be prepare to suffer, you like it or not, don’t like Krishna has said long time and this is internal truth in fact

ye he samsparsa ja bhoga
duhkha yonaya eva te
adyantavantah kaunteya
na tesy ramte budhah
(BG 5.22)

Krishna has warned this, who is going to read Bhagwat Gita, Marathon has come, it is time to distribute Gita and encourage everybody to read or hear the Lord. He is our well wisher and friend and what not, he says

ye he samsparsa ja bhoga

I am getting into this , so as our senses come in contact with sense objects “ye he samsparsa ja bhoga” our sense coming in with the sense objects and what happens “samsparsa ja” Ja means taking birth, uttapan hona, what takes birth “bhoga” Bhoga is enjoyment, sense and sense object coming in contact with each other nicely, samsparsaja, sama means samya prekaren, complter contact bhoga, enjoyment is the outcome, but it doesn’t stop there, Krishna says ”duhkhe yonaya eva te” the verse begins, Lord statement begins with “Ye” and ends with “te”, Ye- te, “ye he samsparsa ja bhoga”by doing this, “te” happens that happens what is that “duhkhe yonaya eva te”the very source or reason cause for enjoyment becomes cause of “what”suffering.

Hari Hari, anyway, sometimes someone hates you who hates you most, one who loved you most one time, people in general will not hate you or but those who loved you so called love, so called love which is I love you, actually people should be saying I am lusty after you, not that I love you, I am lusty after you I am gone exploit you, I am gone take advantage of you, such people end up hating us and killing us or I am just making the connection those who love us they hate, something that gives us joy, will give us suffering and as we go for shopping, buying, to buy something which we wish to enjoy, you have to pay for it. Right, but the suffering comes free. “Buy one get two”, “buy one get two”, you bought one item and soon you will have another one, suffering. So we are being fooled because we are in illusion, ignorance etc, that is why Krishna has kindly, he kindly appears down here, speaking to Arjun, but is he speaking to Arjun only, No, he is addressing all of us, making Arjun the medium or Nimit, Lord is addressing all of us and then on Lord’s behalf devotees, acharya’s also do their part.

om ajnana timirandhasya jnananjana salakaya
caksur unmilitaam yena tasmai sri gurave namah

Srila Prabhupad ki Jai

Srila Prabhupad did that and of course we have to continue to do so, “you do as I did” that is something else but Prabhupad said “you do as I did” so what Prabhupad did, we have to follow in his footsteps and talk on behalf of Prabhupad, entire Parampara “evem Parampara praptam” what Krishna spoke in Bhagavat Gita and other scriptures, we have to share that with rest of the world and as we are becoming gradually, bit by bit free from illusion that statement said

ady antavatah kauntaya
na tesu ramate budhah

O Arjun, in fact this is kind of definition of who is buddhiman, who is intelligent , those who indulge , get involved become part of something that has beginning and soon has ending ady antavatah” ady-adi- beginning, antavatah, so beginning with joy and happiness, it is nice , its nice and then you get a slap, we are not expecting, we are fools, we thought this would never happen, it does happen, it must happen, slap is nothing, hang him, just kill him, as it happens, so many times ??? ?????? ??? ?????? ??? ??? ????????? suffering of all sorts adi-davik, adi bhoutik adhyatamik. So ady antavatah kauntaya, na atesu, no tesu, tesu meaning something that had beginning, there is happiness, there is joy…

So, World is designed like this. The world is programmed like this and theirs is no way, we could interfere not even superpowers. Be that America or now china and next one is going to be India in the line. The world is …

Ye hi Samsparsa-ja bhoga,
Duhkha-yonaya evat e
Ady-antavantah kaunteya
Na tesu ramate budhah
(BG. 5.22)

Budhimaan (Intelligent) person does not indulge in such things he stay alone for Sadhna.
Krishna said Indriyani niyamado begins with sense control. your enemy is lust.

kama esha krodha esha
rajo-guna-samudbhavah
mahashano maha-papma
viddhyenam iha vairinam
(BG 3.37)

Viddhi, please take notes, “viddhyenam iha vairinam” this is your vairi. This is your enemy no. One, Mr. Lust. Prabhupada said, Mr. lust. And then Kamath

dhyayato vishayan pumsah
sangas teshupajayate
sangat sanjayate kamah
kamat krodho ’bhijayate
(BG 2.62)

Lust is eldest brother and who is younger one. Krodh. Kamat krodho bhijayate. And like that four others chandal Chokdi. The whole team is there and they have a strategy to get us, to grab us, to fool us. So the Lord said, anyway originally because Arjun had asked this question. Third chapter. The bhagavad Gita towards the end at…
yam kem papam charyati purush. And then annich varshapi balat yojita.

Arjuna uvacha
atha kena prayukto’ yam
papam charati purushah
anichchhann api varshneya
balad iva niyojitah
(BG.3.36)

This is a question. We donot even how to ask questions or write questions. Arjun has asked questions on our behalf and Bhagavad-Gita is perfect question, Perfect answer. Presentation. so annichapi, Sometimes I donot know this is not good. No, I Should not do know I know this, balad iva niyojitah. But someone is dragging us forcing us. Who is it, What is it, that gets me to do something even anichchhann api varshneya balad iva niyojita?. Answer to that question krsna says kama esha krodha esha . that’s first only two parties are mentioned whether shad repoos are theirs and this world is full of repoos. Pakistan is not your repoos. Hari Hari. Ravan is inside us

Hiranyakashpu inside us. We are small small hiranyakashapoos. There is to be time. This there is to be time which is a fact. Demons were smaller in number but bigs in size. Giant Size. What has happened now. Number has multiplied. Size has produced. So is my enemy? This one or this one, this one. So while we are pointing to someone one finger. Three fingers no no.. someone else you are .. you are.. you.. yourselves are our enemies. Hari Hari. Krishna as third chapter, you should study this towards the end of the third chapter. The question of Arjun and krishna is talking. Not only he has said, the lust is your enemy but where does lust reside in the bodies.

indriyani mano buddhir,
asyadhishthanam uchyate
etair vimohayatyesha
jnanam avritya dehinam
(BG 3.40)

Lust is sitting. Lust has a base in the body where indriyani all the senses. Mind and intelligence. If intelligence is taken over by enemy. Then finished right. Hari Hari. So we pray.

tesham satata-yuktanam
bhajatam priti-purvakam
dadami buddhi-yogam tam
yena mam upayaanti te
(BG 10.10)

Lord may give us buddhi to make money. Right? Listen to say what Lord says “dadami buddhi-yogam tam yena mam upayanti te” I give intelligence. I kindly give intelligence to somebody and why and what for does he would or should or could use that intelligence. yena mam upayanti te” He should use that intelligence for Aina so that Mam unto me.upayanti. up means near. Yanti means to go, to go or to come near me , come towards me. He should use the intelligence. Otherwise you are less intelligent. Fool number.one. Scientists are .. Prabhupada did not spare. So scientists are fool number one. We never heared anyone, scientists called fool, what? this was unheared of, I dreamed of. Prabhupada, first one. He never spared one. and that way. Prabhupada, this is Prabhupada Bhagvad Gita as it is.

na mam dushkritino mudhah
prapadyante naradhamah
mayayapahrita-jnana
asuram bhavam ashritah
(BG 7.15)

Four kinds of people never surrender to me. They are the rascals, they are demons. They are this, they are that. So this is bhagavad-gita as it is. In good old days and (reminded us- till 10 right?) In Juhu temple had just started and Juhu being Prabhupada’s office. “ Bombay is my office. Srila Prabhupada spend lots of time and there’s a Kurukshetra war also you know. This is a battle between Mr. Anne and Iskcon and foreigner. Prabhupada spending lots of time in Juhu. And good fortunate, we were brahmachari in Bombay beginning with 1971-72. So what am I… Okey Okey.. so this is a nice Sunday, I guess used to come from downtown with their cars and with their wives well dressed and themselves also with them ties and this three-piece suit and they’re all sitting. Prabhupada talk of rascals and demons, fool number ones and so I was just a new devotee. I had a little difficulty digesting, what prabhupada had to say but nice people, gentleman and rich their wives are sitting next to them as rascals, fools. Could not he use some better terms. Gradually I realised, this is Bhagwad Gita as it is.

avajananti mam mudha
manusim tanum asritam
param bhavam ajananto
mama bhuta-mahesvaram
(BG 9.11)

Gradually, I trained up. Also started to call… you fool, you rascals, you this…. Somethings, somethings that we cannot say much as Prabhupada. Hari Hari.

So going back to our living entities parts and parcels which are anshs of anshi Lord. He is anshi, We are ansha. So this is what natural. This is our goal of life in fact. Reunite with lord. That’s why he says yogi Bhava. Yogi Bhava

yoginam api sarvesam
mad-gatenantar-atmana
sraddhavan bhajate yo mam
sa me yuktatamo matah
(BG 6.47)

Yogi bhava. Ofcourse these days Prachaar is bhogi bhava. Day and night breaking the news. Commercial and electronic media, this media, that media.. bhogi bhava, bhogi bhava. Just opposite of.. So Kali, Maya is doing this Prachaar. Bhogi Bhava Prachaar. We, the members of International society for Krishna Consciousness, We have to do Prachaar of Yogi Bhava and so that ultimatelty, all the living entities, go back to Krishna that comes around, goes around to… so we have come, where we have come from where we have to go back. You could see the world go back. what did I say? go back. What did I say? what does that imply, what does that mean? Go back, we were there. That’s why go back. Not only go, what we say- go back or back to home, back to godhead. So that would be the perfection. In year 1971, Cross Maidan festival, you heard about that one, which myself and Radhanath Maharaja amongst 10,000 to 20,000 folks of Bombay were also joining but two of us also were there.

Anyway during that festival Girga Chowpatty. from Girga chowpatty to cross Maidain, there’s processi or Shobhayatra started here. I attended this one. I was at girga Chawpaty. May be March, April 71. Whenever I come this side or like I came, I was driving quite girgao chawpatty yesterday. Not only I was reminded of Prabhupada was there. He spoke, he addressed, but reminded me. Of course, I never forget so, when you forget something then just talk out then we said reminder, but I had never forget, so I would not say it was a reminder, Just maybe clicked again. And that Prabhupada was talking of going back to godhead. Prabhupada was talking about Vailkuntha Right? At Girgao Chawpaty. The goal of life is to return home, back to godhead. Back to home. Who was making this point. I want to just say that as much as prabhupada talked about spiritual sky, which others also may be talking but we have to go back to home, back to godhead. That’s the goal, others don’t seem to be not talking much or not emphasizing not repeating going back to godhead and how many times if we do counting in with the base. You’ll find thousands up to thousands of times, thousands of times practically every talk, every lecture you will hear, going back to home going back to home… going back to home… back to godhead. And of course he’s doing this on behalf of Sri Krishna Chaitnaya Mahaprabhu. Sri Krishna Chaitnay Mahaprabhu ki jai.

This is Gaudiya Vaishnavs, more than other vaishnavs. And of course only vaishnavas would talk of spiritual sky, Vaikuntha even Vishnu and Vishnu Lok and all the residents of Vaikunth are called vaishnavas or those who accept Vishnu as a supreme personality of godhead.

bahunam janmanam ante
jnanavan mam prapadyate
vasudevah sarvam iti
sa mahatma su-durlabhah

(BG. 7.19)

Who surrender into me, jnanavan mam prapadyate. jnanavan mam prapadyate. What does his gyan. How much does he know? vasudevah sarvam.finished. All that they know is. Prabhupada translates. Vasudev is all in all. Vasudeva is all in all.

vasudevah sarvam iti. Iti means this much. How much? vasudevah sarvam. Jnanavan those who know this much. They surrender unto mam, unto the Lord and they are Mahatma’s. sa mahatma su-durlabha?. Not only durlabh. Su-durlabhah. Very very rare. So amongst all those who talk of why could not and of course about krishna Vishnu vaikunth. And something we know, we a little more than other vaishnavas also. You know golok av nisvati akhilatmbhutk.. tele.. hari dham cha Meshesh teshu teshu all this cosmology. Astronomy. You see through the eyes of brahma and he will you see Shashra-Chakshu. You donot need telescopes. And how much telescopes are showing you, not much. They haven’t even seen the end of one universe. Have they reached now? That’s somewhere in the middle.

These days they are talking, as we are sending signals to other planets all around. Folks they are also sending their signals. They are capturing, they are registering. They are saying, they are 36. Civilization out there, I donot know what is reason to say. They are 36 civilzation out there, out there. This is big progress one time. There’s no… that life is only on the earth but now that there civilzations out there. intelligent. Anyway but still what they are captured all knowledge they have gathered information gathering they’re doing with their telescopes. They are called Pratyakshavadies. We are Prokshwadi and they are pratyakshvadies. Prati-Aksh. Whatever they could see or whatever they could smell, whatever they could hear or touch or test there is all that exists but our understanding is all that is said by the Lord, all that is in the scriptures. That is all truth, all that exists.
Acharyavan purusho veda

Upanishads says. All that they are there is do is acharyavan. Become acharayan. One who has Dhan,he is Dhanwaan. like that.. many words are formed like that. So one who has acharye or accepted acharya in his life is Acharyavan. Then what happens. Acharyavan Purusho. That person who has accepted acharya veda he gets to know. He becomes knowledgeable or Acharyavan Purusho veda. Or the other term very famous one is Shastra chakshusha, seeing through the eyes of the scriptures. (removing glasses…. Now I donot see much, Now I see.) so the scripture has two pairs of glasses also right one and two. As we see through, read through, then we get to know get to see in fact including the Lord

premanjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena
santah sadaiva hrdayesu vilokayanti
yam syamasundaram acintya-guna-svarupam
govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami
(BS 5.38)

With the help of Sadhu-Shashtra acharye.. we get to know, get to see and touch, smell, realised.. so that arrangement is there and we should be taking full advantage of this. Lord has very kindly brought us, all of us in contact with Srila Prabhupada.

International Society for Krishna Consciousness ki Jai.
Srila Prabhupada ki Jai.
Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu ki jai.

Of course this movement is Chaitanya Mahaprabhu movement. He is original founder.

ajanu-lambita-bhujau kanakavadatau
sankirtanaika-pitarau kamalayataksau
visvambharau dvija-varau yuga-dharma-palau
vande jagat priya-karau karunavatarau || 1 ||
Gauranga Nityanand! Gauranga Nityanand!

Let it go more to my effort. So that’s Gauranga, Nityanand. This is their movement

Vande Sri-Krsna-Caitanya-
Nityanandu Sahoditau
Gaudodaye pushavantu
Citrau sandau tamo-nudau
(CC Adi lila 1.2)

This is a prayer at the Lotus feet of Gauranga and Nityanand. They have given us this movement. Srila Prabhupada then established this moment founded in 1966. I do not have time but I want to say that Prabhupada said- the books are the basis. He said the other things also. Purity is force. Utilities is the Principle and remaining Preaching is essense. So I think the Preaching is these essense and book are the basis. So this is something we are. We should be right now. Get more serious about. This is Marathon time. Right? Gita Jayanti Mahostav ki Jai.

In ISKCON there is always a Marathon. Every day is Marathon. but occasionally, there’s more emphasize. Emphasis on and then we call that as Marathons also Bhagavad-Gita distribution Marathon has already begun right? I think used to be one month nowadays, double it. This time their Marathon is going to be lasting for at least two months. So please get into action. Is anything that you could give in Charity to others to you near dear ones or love the neighbour as thyself Bible Says to love the neighbour as thyself but do not just keep saying I love you, I love you. Do something , You know, I love you. This could be just lip service. So do not just do lips service. Do something Practical, tangible. So give them Prabhupada’s books which are Krishna’s books. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s books. We call them Prabhupada books. Prabhupada has translated and presented and packaged. So, we Call Prabhupada’s books. I thought so. The Shashtras are most essential. There’s lots of lots of ignorance around, lots of ignorance. So,

Tamso Ma Jyotirgamaya
We want to bring people to the light and the source of light is Krishna, I want to bring us everyone back to Krishna and doing this is the topmost Welfare activity. We are all Human beings. Yes we are. We look like and we should prove that we are. They’re saying that. Propkarya idm shareem. Manushya shareeram Propkarya. This human form of life is for Propakaraya like

Paropakaraya Falanti Vrksah
Paropakaraya Vahanti Nadyah.
Paropakaraya Duhanti Gavah
Paropakarartth Midam Sarira,.

Reverse Flow or Share Water and this is their Propakaar They do not drink themselves but they share with others then Propakaraya Falanti Vrksah. Fruits trees are giving in Charity. Take Fruits, Take Fruits. Take Fruits and Propakaraya Duhanti Gavah.. So this Trees, cows, rivers do, we are in the list. then conclusion Propakaraya idim… this one.. Shareram for Proakaraya, so please distribute books.. distribute books.. distribute books.. Read books.. Read books. Read books. And more you read, mor will you like to distribute also. you will Krishna on the pages. Basically, distributing books is distributing Krishna, sharing Krishna. So you all have Krishna, You all have Krishna in different forms and form of the holy name, We have Krishna Radha.. Radha Gopinath ki Jai.

You have Krishna in the form of Radha Gopinath. Srila Prabhupada’s books, you have Krishna in form of Prabhupada’s books. you have Mahaprasade Govinde.. that is also Krishna’s form. Annapara Brahma says not only Arjuna said Param Brahma Param Dhama to Krishna. Anna when it is offered to Krishna, it becomes Param Brahma, So you have all this. You have all this… So don’t be miserly. The Maganimous.. as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Srila Prabhupada ki Jai. So, each one you should all take your quotas, five, ten and twenty thousands, five thousands and distribut flood Mumbai with Srila Prabhupada’s books. Gehe Gehe Jane Jane. This was also Narad Muni’s Strategies, I want to bring bhakti to every home, Jane Jane means every person. So we are in that Parampara of Narada Muni also. Srila Prabhupada ki Jai, and it is said this book printing and book distribution is our transcendental business, is the only business that we do or we emphasize on their business. Okay,
Thank you.

Why do we need more Temples?
By H.H. Lokanath Swami Maharaja

paritranayasadhunam
vinasaya ca duskrtam
dharma-samsthapanarthaya
sambhavamiyugeyuge

Translation
To deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I Myself appear, millennium after millennium (BG 4.8)

Lord has appeared as Sri Sri Radha Damadara today. The name is also very excellent, as H.H. Gopal Krsna Gosvami Maharaja has mentioned that there are many names of the Lord but amongst all, Damadara is one of the most special names of the Lord. Purohit asked why are you giving the name Radha Damadara to the deities? I said, well there may be many reasons for that however, when I first went to Vrndavan in the month of Kartik, when Srila Prabhupada had invited me, the first deity darshan that I’ve ever taken in Vrndavan was’ Radha Damadara‘. (Hari Hari). And this month is also called as Damadara Masa.

Well, today is also the most auspicious day since after the rest for four months sri sri Radha Damadara has appeared in front of us, in Solapur. Sri Sri Radha Damadaraki -(Jaya!!) So, when Srila Prabhupada was born and when his horoscope was read, at that time it was announced that whenever this child will grow, he’ll build hundred and eight temples all around the world. Well, Srila Prabhupada has already build many temples, and he still is building many temples, even at present, on his behalf this temple was also built. The founder acharya of International Society for Krsna Consciousness Srila Prabhupadaki -Jaya!!!

So, well I don’t know, maybe, I think we are close to one thousand and eight, I think we are getting there. So, once upon a time at kumbhamela somebody asked Srila Prabhupada, even I was there in 1977, whatever Srila Prabhupada said, well, I have forgotten, but few years ago when I have heard in details from HH Bhakti Charu swami maharaja, Mahaman Prabhu was telling us yesterday, I was able to recollect the memories, so I thought I should also share the same with you.

So, somebody asked Srila Prabhupada: There are already so many temples in India everywhere what is the need of constructing more temples?

Srila Prabhupada replied to this question in a different way. He said, “The lady who is sitting next to you who is she? The person replied that she’s my wife. We are husband and wife. Srila Prabhupada asked, “Who is this child?” Person replied, “Well, it’s our son.” Srila Prabhupada replied, “Well, there are so many sons and daughters in this world what was the need of having one more son?” The person replied, “Well there must be so many sons but this particular child is my son.” After listening to this, srila Prabhupada said, “Okay, there maybe so many temples but these are my temples.”

(4.23 onwards till 5.23 there’s no sound in the video)

What have you said? 5 times? 5 times more. So,H.H. Gopal Krsna Gosvami Maharaja was giving us an inspiration. Well, H.H. Gopal Krsna Gosvami Maharaja he himself is the Acharya of temple construction. (Applause)
Only in Delhi which is also known as NCR – National Capital Region.20 temples are already there in Delhi either they are already been constructed or are in under the construction process. The entire credit of this goes to HH Gopal Krsna Gosvami Maharaja.

He is dedicating more temples to the lotus hands of Srila Prabhupada. Well in our India, we usually hear that people say this temple is Birla’s temple, this is Birla’s temple, so people go to visit such temples as a tourist, they do not have such a feeling or Bhava that this is my temple, this is my God, they do not share such a relationship neither with the temple nor with the deities. They’ll develop a particular personal relationship or feeling with temple or with the deities whenever they’ll do something for the temple by rendering loving devotional services with their body, mind and wealth.(Hari Hari)Well, Anantasesha prabhu was asking you – are you all ready for it? You all joined ‘yes’. You all fidgeted like a bull. Yeah! yeah!!But as H.H. Gopal Krsna Gosvami Maharaja said that those who have raised their hands their video has been recorded and in future it’ll be checked whether those raised hands have done anything for this temple or not.

So, In upcoming few years we would like to prepare this temple for the pleasure of Sri sri Radha Damadara , for the pleasure of Srila Prabhupada, For the pleasure of our previous Acharyas. Srila Prabhupada had written me a letter. And he mentioned: This Maharashtra is the Tukaram’s country. And further srila Prabhupada wrote: But the politicians are spoiling it,the bad politicians are spoiling it Because of that a decline in religious practices happened.

yadayada hi dharmasya
glanirbhavatibharata
abhyutthanamadharmasya
tadatmanamsrjamyaham

Translation
Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion – at that time I descend Myself (BG 4.7)

Because of the politicians, not only cause of politicians but also cause of the actor and actresses, Bollywood and so many other departments such as scientists, Social reformers altogether they’re destroying righteousness. Unrighteousness is spreading all over the society. Instead of the Ram Rajya establishment Ravanarajya is being re-established. During the times of Corona virus everything was locked down only the most essential items were available.

Are you aware? Even though everything was closed still few people were thinking and demanding that the most essential item is alcohol. What a useless life it would be without alcohol. So on the public demand, what did the government do? Even though everything was closed including temples but they re-opened the most essential item the wine /liquor shops were open. People were gathered in mass numbers to collect the liquor and while standing in the queue they started fighting-

ahampurvamahampurvam
yadiduramgatahkrsno
vana-sobheksanaya tam
ahampurvamahampurvam
itisamsprsyaremire

Translation
Sometimes Krsna would go to a somewhat distant place to see the beauty of the forest. Then all the other boys would run to accompany Him, each one saying, “I shall be the first to run and touch Krsna! I shall touch Krsna first!” In this way they enjoyed life by repeatedly touching Krsna (SB 10.12.6)

I shall be the first to run and touch liquor. So, to overcome the hassle and fights what did the government do? The government started home deliveries of Liquor. (Hari Hari). So, this country in which milk and curd were the flowing river, the pious rivers such as Ganges, Yamuna and Chandrabhaga is flowing, it is also seen that other obnoxious things such as alcohol and many other things are also flowing and spreading, so these are the unrighteousness. So Lord Himself appears for what?

paritranayasadhunam
vinasaya ca duskrtam
dharma-samsthapanarthaya
sambhavamiyugeyuge

Translation
To deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to re-establish the principles of religion, I Myself appear, millennium after millennium (BG 4.8)

The lover of the devotee Sri Sri Radha Damadara has appeared here for all of you. vinasaya ca duskrtam. He will kill the miscreants. ‘Adharma’, and according to Prabhupada and according to Bhagavat, what is adharma? ‘Yatraadharma Chaturvida’, where four types of non-religious activities happen, oh Kali you stay there.

‘Dyutam Panam Suna Striyah’. So Srila Prabhuapada has given us and devotees all around the world, his disciples the four regulative principles and those are: no meat eating number one, no intoxication number two, no illicit sex number three and no gambling number four and following these four regulative principles we actually establish dharma and kills adharma, adharma should be abolished. Dharma should be spread all around, dharma should flourish all around, anyways I will tell you what dharma is ‘ Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare

Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare’, this is dharma or foundation of Dharma. So I was telling, Prabhupada wrote to me, politicians are spoiling so further he wrote to me in letter: through the process of Sankirtana movement you revive their Krsna Consciousness. So through the process of this Krsna Consciousness movement, making this as the medium revive Krsna consciousness in the hearts of the People in the country of Tukarama. So I take this as one of the instructions of Srila prabhupada. Politicians are spoiling, you revive their Krsna Consciousness, so those efforts only are going on and insight those efforts we are trying to establish Brajendranandan Braja Dham. So this Krsna Consciousness has been explained in brief by Catainya Mahaprabhu, He has said

‘Aradhyo Bhagwaan Vrajesa-tanayas tad-dhamavrndavanam
Ramyakachidupasanavrajavadhuvargenavakalpita
srimadbhagavatampramanamamalampremapum-arthomahan
srichaitanyamahaprabhormatamidamtatradarahnaparah’

Translation
The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Krishna, the son of Nanda Maharaja, is worshipped along with His transcendental abode Vrndavana. The most pleasing form of worship for the Lord is that which was performed by the gopis of Vrndavana. Srimad Bhagavatam is the spotless authority on everything and pure love of Godhead is the ultimate goal of life for all men. These statements, for which we have the highest regard, are the opinion of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. (Caitanya-matta-manjusa by Srila Viswanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

So through the process of Sankirtana revive their Krsna Consciousness. So this one process. One should worship Lord Krsna, who is Lord? Krsnastubhagvansvayam. Damodara is Lord. At the same time’ Aradhyo Bhagwaan Vrajesa – tanayas tad- dhamavrndavanam. He is worship able deity in Vrndavan, Ramyakachidupasanavrajavadhuvargenavakalpita. Lord Krsna should be worshipped by human beings. If we are human beings, then to state it as true that we are human beings we have to worship Lord. How to worship? Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu has said

chaitanya mahaprabhormatamidam. Worship Lord as Radha has worshipped, Aaradhna word and process is also formed by the word Radha. Due to Radha there is Aaradhna. Do worship with the bhava as Radha or Gopi or Vrajavasis are doing. Srila Prabhupada has shown and taught the same to us. Okay so let’s move forward, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has said ‘Srimad Bhagavatam Praman Amalam’ and Reading, Hearing and recitation of Srimad Bhagavatam should happen and Tukaram Maharaj has also said

‘ Gita Bhagvat Kariti Sravan, Akhand Cintan Vithobache’ Tukaram Maharaj said, Tukaramuvaca, he said in one abhang: ‘Gita Bhagavat Kariti Sravan’ Hearing Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam, ‘Akhanda Chintan Vithobache’, he will always remember Vithoba, Krsna.

So according to Caitanya Mahaprabhu, this is Bhagavat Vidhi Listen to Bhagavat. So Srila Prabhupada wrote books He translated Bhagvad Gita, Bhagvatam, wrote commentaries So we should read books. Shrila Prabhupada told to distribute the books, distribute my books but he also said read my books, read my books. Prabhupada would have not said together like this. So Prabhupada’s books are not only for distribution but also for reading, for study. And it’s gets stated Bhagwat distribution and also Study of Bhagvata. Devakinandan Prabhu had announced in Vrindavan on the occasion of Prabhupada Disappearance Day festival, He told this, I don’t know whether it is right or finalised? In India there will be a marathon for a month, which marathon? Reading Prabhupada’s Book Marathon. And in December we will distribute Bhagvata Gita and in January we will distribute Srila Prabhupada’s holly books. And along with the distribution of Gita, Bhagvata is also being distributed. Sets of Bhagvatam. That day, on the occasion on Disappearance Day, Gopal Krsna Maharajahad announced books score, Bhagvata set distribution score. It’s a 27000. So it was Bhadra Pournima. And this year is special too. 125 year of birth anniversary. And we are happy that in the same year Radha Damodaraji is coming here in Solapur.

And this year 27000 Bhagvata Sets get distributed for the pleasure of Prabhupada and also for your pleasure. So we should do this in Solapur area and all over Maharashtra. We are talking about Tukaram’s country. Do preach and spread. Srimad-bhagavatamis puranamamalam and premapumarthomahan Chaitanya Mahaprabhu told that the goal of life should be achieve love of Lord Krsna. To achieve love of Lord Krsna should be Purusharth. Purusharth of religion is frivolous.

Na moksegraho me ‘stidamodareha. I don’t want Moksha. Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksa. I don’t want all this.

Kuveratmajaubaddha-murtyaivayadvat
Tvayamocitau bhakti-bhajaukrtau ca
Tathaprema-bhaktimsvakam me prayaccha
Na moksegraho me ‘stidamodareha

Translation
O, Lord Damodara! When you were tied up with grinding stone by Mother Yashoda, you gave salvation to sons of Kubera (Manigreeva and Nalakuvara) from the banishment of Narad muni. They become freed from the curse of being a tree and came to your shelter for your loving devotion. As you blessed the Kubera’s sons, please shower your grace upon me. I have no desire for any liberation Damodarastaka verse 7

We should do this prayer. And we are doing because it is Damodar Mass. So these four Purusharthas are frivolous. Caitanya Mahaprabhu told that the goal of life should be love.

Prem Pumartho Mahan, Caitanyamahaprabhu said. Hari Hari. So all these things to do. Principles of Chaitanya mahaprabhuand this is Sankirtan Process. And Srila Prabhupada said to me in letter that through this process, awaken the Krsna consciousness of the people of Tukaram’s country. So keep trying. Today we have taken further steps. We brought Lord Radha Damodara. Serve them now. When Prabhupada himself took the deities to Sydney and established there. And said that Lord give good wisdom to these people, our prayer is the same. give them good thoughts so that they will, I don’t remember their name, Radha deities of Sidney were praying to give wisdom to all of them, give them strength. Or Krishner Matirastu this blessing.

May everyone’s mind be engaged in Krsna and your deities. So today we present such a prayer to you. Praying to Radha Damodar, give wisdom to all of you, give devotion, give right opinion. It is said that Yamatisagati. And you all take the name of Lord. Say Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. Nama Se Dham Tak. So this name will take you to Dham, till Braj Dham and ultimately back to home back to Godhead. Srila Prabhupada ki jai! Radha Damodar ki jai! Gaur Bhakt Vrndaki jai! Nitai Gaur Premanande Hari Hari Bol.

Radha Madhav Golden Jubilee festival
Mayapur
March 3, 2022

Sri Sri Radha Madhav ki jai
Mayapur dham ki jai
Srila Prabhupada ki jai
All glories to assemble devotees.

We are celebrating here 50th anniversary of this and 50 th anniversary of that of course those historical facts are of course there but what we are also celebrating is 50 years ago Srila Prabhupad revealed Mayapur Dham to the whole world and he also made those prediction come true of Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur had predicted one mahatama will gather those bhaktas from all over the world they will come to Mayapur and they will chant.

What will they chant ?
jai sachi nanda jai sachi nandan jai sachi nandan gaura hari
So 50 years ago, we are going in to the past 50 years ago. All that you see around wasn’t there. It was a very humble beginning just a little piece of land and small festivals. Only 70 devotees attended and the festival lasted for five days. Ofcourse a lot of very significant things happened during those five days. I was thinking, Prabhupada also was must have checked here is a vaisnav from Germany, devotees from here there, they all have come here they have received the Holy name of Lord, they are all chanting,
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare
Mahaprabhu’s prediction has come true,

p?thiv?te ?che yata nagar?di gr?ma
sarvatra prac?ra haibe mora n?ma

"In every town and village, the chanting of My name will be heard." My name will be chanted in every town, every village all over the world all over the planet. So by holding that festival 50 years ago and bringing
vaisnavas from all over the world, American sadhus, European sadhus. This is how I was introduced in 71 when I was a college student and Prabhupada was holding a festival In Mumbai and it was advertised the promotion was American sadhus are here and European sadhus are here.

We all Mumbaikar’s were thinking what American scientist is ok but Americans sadhu? Forget it, but here they. Prabhupada infact was traveling all over India for almost one year holding festival here festival there beginning with Amritsar and then many places.

I went back on the track, Prabhupada was once in the ardha Kumbha mela 71 holding Hare Krishna festival there and Radha Madhav deities Chota Radha Madhav ki jai. They were worshipped during that Kumbha mela ardha Kumbha mela at Prayagraj. Then Prabhupada travelled to Gorakpur probably you know not far from Prayag in Uttar Pradesh held another festival and the presiding deities were Chota Radha Madhav and for the first time there Srila Prabhupada sang this Bhakti Vinod Thakur’s song "jai Radha Madhav.”

Ofcourse he sang differently difficult to follow the same tune and well but more difficult of course is to his bhava and his emotions those who were present in festival at Gorakhpur they all witnessed as Srila Prabhupada sang this "jai radha madhav" song Srila Prabhupada was emotionally surcharged. His emotions stirred up and he was unable to sing this song. Tears gliding down his cheeks and then and there he named these deities as we called them as Radha Madhav.

Announced in our vaisnava parampara as Srila Jaidev Goswami prana dhan hye. Jaidev Goswami worshipped Radha Madhav. Be seated Maharaja is His holiness jayapataka Swami Maharaja ki jai.

He was the first one Prabhupad sent him to Mayapur. Maharaja is now worshiping Radha Madhava, he is entering in to the pastimes of Radha Madhav by swinging there cradle their swing they were seated in this swing. So those deities then. I don’t know all the details I think Jannivas and others Jaipataka Maharaja could tell they were in Kolkata and then Srila Prabhupada send Jaypataka Maharaja and Jannivas, go bring these deities to Mayapur. They were kind of packed not to be worshipped every day. And then worship of Radha Madhav began in Kutir Prabhupada Kutir 50 years ago. That is also celebration. I think I could just go back and so I was also saying let me finish that
Prabhupada was or what we are celebrating is Srila Prabhupada made Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s prediction come true by bringing vaisnavas from all over the world to Mayapur earlier we know Gaura Nityananda they had liberated Jagai and Madhai.

dina-hina jata chilo
hari-name uddharilo
tara sakshi jagai madhai

The holy name delivered all those souls who were lowly and wretched. Gauranga and Nityananda They liberated Jagai and Madhai and then by bringing devotees from all over the planet to Mayapur 50 years ago.

Prabhupada was proving the potency of the Holy Name. American Jagai and Madhai, European and Australian, Canadian and African Jagai andMadhai.

Jayapataka Swami Maharaja ki Jay. He is the man of the show also here. He is the doer. Prabhpada handed over this dhama unto him. I am giving you kingdom of God or Gauranga. Develop this so that Jayapataka Maharaja gets credit for lots of things or most of things that has taken place we are witnessing around us here any way I just want
to say one more thing so the deities were worshipped began at Kutir.

1972 that festival I had missed but I didn’t missed in sense because after here, after Mayapur Gaura Purnima which was on 29 th February 1972 Srila Prabhupada in month of March beginning he had traveled to Vrndavan and conducted another bhumi Puja or groundbreaking ceremony in Vrndavan for Krishna Balarama Temple and in middle of March Prabhupada traveled to Mumbai Hare Krishna Land and there was Hare Krishna Festival was going on. I did miss 72 festival in Mayapur but Srila Prabhupada was so magnanimous, so kind, he brought the festival wherever I was or all the Bombay folks were and Hare Krishna Festival was held there and I was able to participate in the festival as well as I witnessed the groundbreaking ceremony of Radha Rasbihari Temple.

Radha Rasbihari ki jai
Krishna Balarama ki jai
So three ground breaking ceremonies in one month like a marathon. So I was able to witness one in Mumbai and so I did not miss 72 festival in one sense. So 72 at Kutir then well Prabhupada also and the deities were shifted to lotus building in 73 the first festival I attended ,I just want to say that Radha Madhava were on the ground floor here where the exhibition is now and of course Jananivas Prabhu was the pujari, head pujari and you know I was also pujari. Prabhupada had made me pujari of Radha Rasbihari in Mumbai so when I pujari from Mumbai had arrived Jananivas was very kind to invite me also me to worship Radha Madhav and during early morning hours after Mangal arti he used to take care of Madhav, he is to hand Radharani to my side and so he was very kind. Jananivas Prabhu to giving me opportunity to serve Radha Madhav especially Radha that time and so while we were busy doing that I know we were so much Prabhupada conscious while worshiping Radha Madhav I also think a Prabhupada.

Prabhupada is on the Bhaktivedant Swami Road now, he must have reached the Yogapitha now, he must be coming back and finally I would know ,yes Prabhupada is back because in front of Radha Madhava temple, devotees would begin kirtan as Prabhupada is back. Then both of us used to rush and try to finish of the remaining task to get deities
ready for Shringar darsana and Prabhupada finally coming into the temple and Jananivas Prabhu blowing conch shell curtains open and Prabhupada offering flat dandavats and standing with folded hands listening to Govindam that prayer and circumambulation of the deities and kirtans and ringing the bell.

So we are being reminded of all that those good old days or beginning days 50 years ago during this 50th Radha Madhav Golden Festival days these days so we are. This is the time to get inspired to carry forward mission of Srila Prabhupad and we all have our instructions and Prabhupada desires and of course Mayapur has a lot more to be done and remaining and as I said yesterday Radha Madhav's palace, Prabhupada got Radha Rasbihari’s palace ready the palace of Radha Madhav is just now coming. Just two more or two years to go and we'll be here two years later the festival will be held in Panchattava Temple, Radha Madhav Temple, Prahlad Narsimha Temple, Parampara Temple.

Srila Prabhupada ki jai
TOVP temple, we are looking forward to that occasion event and of course we have to prepare for that not just leave it up to Ambarish and Vrajavilas Prabhu and Jayapataka Maharaja. We all have to get right behind them facilitate their service of completion of TOVP

Are you thinking , are ready to do that?
Thank you.
Srila Prabhupada ki jay,
Radha Madhav ki jay.
Gaur Premanande.

Handling reversals in individual and institutional life

18th May 2022
Iskcon Noida

It is Srimad Bhagavatam class time but it is not a Srimad Bhagavatam class today. Is English okay, yes no? I don’t know how many yes’s and how many no’s. Today’s verse or the theme is “Handling reversals in individual and institutional life.” Did you here this? So this is today’s slokas. Handling reversals, setbacks in how to overcome stumbling blocks in individual and organisational life. So do you understand the topic? I am ordered to talk on this topic and I was just told this yesterday late in the evening.

So of course this is a very relevant and significant concern and so this is the topic. I think this is the reason that this topic has been picked and amongst the many other topics this is just one. You do experience this right, reversal, no? How many of you? I was expecting everyone to raise their hands but some of them are okay and they are not.. Lucky you if you are.

The day the Lord departed for His own abode, tad dina kali ayat, kali arrived. And what is the business or job description of this kali?

sarva sadhana badhaka

To create the badha in the life of sadhakas. That is what we all are we are sadhakas and this kali business is busy creating problems and stumbling blocks and reversals in our life, in the life of individual’s life and the life of organisation. I must talk about reversals in the life of organisation. While talking about organisation or organising the individual’s life in the life of organisation, In the last days of Srila Prabhupada, that was
in Vrndavan and Srila Prabhupada was with Giriraj Dasa brahmachari.

He was not swami or sannyasi at that time and Prabhupada asked, ‘After I am gone how will this movement go on?’ And Giriraj Prabhu quickly reacted, I will say reacted not responded but reacted. That meant that he did not think deeper but just said it, ‘oh we will continue Hare Krishna Srila Prabhupada and we will follow the four regulative
principles Srila Prabhupada.

And like that, that type of response he was giving and Prabhupada was listening. It seemed that he was not much impressed, so Prabhupada paused and he said ‘organisation,’ and then ‘intelligence.’ So this was the answer that Prabhupada was expecting and then he personally gave this answer. ‘In order for this organisation to go and, this institution to go on, we have to be organised.’

And he had added this ‘intelligence’ which meant intelligently organised or intelligent organisation. The GBC’s from time to time remember the statement of Prabhupada and then they discussed this further. During Prabhupada’s centennial days, the days when you were not even born physically or spiritually, we used to have a lot if discussions on this organisation.

I was appointed as the centennial minister so we also had to come up with organisation for the ministry’s work. So when we talk of organisation there are five principles or five steps to take. Or you could call them five phases of organisation. The first thing you work on is the vision for the organisation, vision or the goal. Then right after you have worked out your vision, the next thing you do is list all the possible or potential stumbling
blocks or set backs or reversals you could possibly come across.

You make a list of such items in advance so right there are the reversals or set backs, stumbling blocks. This is an important item to take note of, acknowledge it and then of course work on it. And the third thing is, first the vision, obstacles, list and then the strategy. Strategies to overcome the obstacles or strategies to just push through and spread to achieve your vision, realise the vision and achieve your goal.

You must have a strategy so thats the third thing and the fourth thing is to make a list of resources. Mainly there are two types of resources, one is a human resource and the other is the funds, Lakshmi. As they say, ‘money talks then everything walks.’ So money power, manpower and money power for the resources. And the fifth is a timeline, time factor.

Prabhupada said ‘you better be Krishna conscious within this lifetime.’ So if that is the vision, that is the goal to become Krishna conscious within this lifetime, then what is the timeline? Till you die and of course you do not know when that day will come and in this case it may be a little difficult to estimate but in general you have to have a timeline or idea.

‘I want to accomplish this within such and such time period of so many years or so many months.’ Okay so our focus is on the reversals, the set backs and stumbling blocks which are bound to come. They will come and the reasons why they come is the sins committed in the past and the offences being committed on a daily basis.

Then commencing our coming to Krishna consciousness, we kind of stop sinning – kind of stop sinning but then we get into this offensive mode that becomes our job. We keep committing offences and as a result in due course of time, as these sinful or offensive activities are performed, they leave impressions upon us. They leave the seeds or behind, bija.

And in due course of time they are just sitting doing nothing, it looks like they’re doing nothing and just sitting there. The seeds are just dormant or inert but they take their time and then the time comes and they pop up, they fructify. That is when we get the reaction and that’s when we begin getting stumbling blocks or reversals.

So having understood that much, what we should be doing because we have committed sins and we have committed offences, so it’s already too late but what we could do is prevent. Prevention is better than cure. Okay there is some disease or some outcome, some fruit, maybe a bitter fruit or sweet fruit we don’t know whether it’s of happiness and distress.

So if we could prevent this happening before the seed fructifies, if we could prevent from fructification then your job is done. So this is where our sadhana comes into the picture, right? This is where namasraya kori' jatane tumi,?thakaha apana kaje (Arunodaya Kirtana 6)

Translation
This temporary life is full of various miseries. Take shelter of the holy name as your only business Taking shelter of the holy names comes into the picture. This is where doing nityam bhagavata sevaya comes into the picture and in that way we are taking shelter of the lord or taking shelter of bhagavatam or taking shelter of the holy name. And what does Krishna say?

sarva dharman parityajya mam ekam sharanam vraja?
aham tvam sarva papebhyo mokshayishyami ma shuchah (BG 18.66)

Translation
Abandon all varieties of dharmas and simply surrender unto Me alone. I shall liberate you from all sinful reactions; do not fear There are little little big and small stumbling blocks within this lifetime but there are so many more lives in which those obstacles and stumbling blocks are awaiting us beyond this life. What are these? Birth death old age disease, birth death old age disease, birth death old age disease. Janma mrtyu jara vyadhi and so Krishna says ‘surrender unto me and if you do your part then I will take care of my job.

So what will I do? If you surrender onto me then aham tvam sarva papebhyo mokshayishyami. Pay attention to what Krishna is saying here, each word in each letter should be heard and understood. We are not going to spend time on each letter and each word right now but that is what we should be doing so that Krishna makes us free from the reactions, awaited reactions or the potential fruit of whatever sin that we committed.

nasta prayesv abhadresu
nityam bhagavata sevaya

bhagavaty uttama sloke
bhaktir bhavati naisthiki
(SB 1.2.18)

Translation
By regular attendance in classes of the bhagavatam and by rendering of service to the pure devotee, all that is troublesome to the heart is almost completely destroyed, and loving service unto the Personality of Godhead, who is praised with transcendental songs, is established as an irrevocable fact Naisthiki, you listen to bhagavatam, you listen to bhagavatam, you study bhagavatam.

Srila Prabhupada gave us this program. To be free from or at least minimise these stumbling blocks and these setbacks and reversals, this minimisation could be achieved by our attending morning program. Temples having a strong morning program and everyone participating in a strong morning program from 4.30 to 9.30.

You’ll then have a solution to the setback problem or reversal problem and if one recites bhagavatam everyday then what is the promise? Nityam bhagavata sevaya bhagavaty uttama sloke bhaktir bhavati. You will have bhakti at the lotus feet of the lord.

And what kind of bhakti will you achieve? Bhaktir bhavati naisthiki, you will become naisthiki and brahmachari also (laughter).

Naisthiki bhakta. You will become nisthavan in other words, (faithful devotee). Srila Prabhupada translates this naisthiki or nistha which we are talking about as handling reversals. So bhagavatam says ‘read me, study me, contemplate upon. sravanam kirtana? visnoh smaranam and there’s also mananam.

Then no more turning back, no more U-turn and no more reverses. So just before nistha is what? How can this reversal become no more reversals and no more stoppages or stumbling blocks where there’s nistha? What do you have to do to get there? Well you have to have sadhu sanga, or you may say ‘okay we have to become free from anartha’s. In order to become nisthavan or achieve the status of no more reversals, prior to that is becoming free from anartha’s.

Okay how to become free from anartha’s? Bhajana kriya. How to perform bhajan kriya or keep performing bhajana kriya? Sadhu sanga. How to achieve sadhu sanga? Adau shraddha, so like that shraddha, sadhu sanga, bhajana kriya, anartha nivrtti then nistha and no more reverses. Hari Hari. So this is principally the explanation or understanding, how one becomes free from reverses in individual life.

Then Prabhupada used to say about.. ‘you are a rat so become a rat again!’ Big reverse huh? A U-turn and you are back to square one, as they say. That also we have seen happening and so Prabhupada used to tell this story but we don’t have time to tell you the story right now. There was a mouse and he always used to get into trouble so he
went to a sage, a yogi.’

‘Yogiji, I am always in trouble because of the cat around me so could you make me a cat?’ ‘Okay here you go.’ So he becomes a cat and now the cat is in trouble because of a dog so he goes back and says ‘the dog is troubling me. Could you make me a dog?’ ‘Yes okay here you go.’ So he becomes a dog and as he is a dog now the lion and
tigers are chasing and harassing him.

So he goes back and asks ‘oh, could you make me a tiger?’ ‘Okay you’re a tiger.’ And once he’s a tiger oh! Then he’s trying to make the sage his first prey or first target. And as the sage noticed that what did the sage day? ‘Oh! Become mouse again!’ So this is called droha, betrayal. He betrayed that Sage, so that could happen to us if we betray our authority that empowered us.

The vaishnava that empowered us, or the guru that empowered us. Instead of doing guru seva or becoming guru sevi, we become guru bhogi one, guru drohi two, and finally guru tyagi. Here you go. And then comes what? Again become a mouse and so you are disempowered. We know the example, we have a few notes here. There is Saubhari Muni who performed his meditation in kaliya daha and by practicing he had almost attained perfection.

But then he committed offence at the lotus legd of Garuda, he doesn’t have feet so lotus legs. And as a result what happened? He had kind of controlled or subdued his desires but everything aroused again. The whole agitation and especially the sex desire for agitation aroused and then he ended up getting married and change of ashram
happened. And he did not just marry one wife but how many?

Fifty of them! So this happened to that Prabhu, that Muni because of the offences, the vaishnava apradha that he committed. As we already said, sins committed in the past and we may still be continuing on. So if we stop this sinning and offending then it is like you turning off the switch and you are not supplying the current to the fan anymore. So it will still spin round for a minute or two and then stop. So you’re winding up but if you switch on when it was about to wind up and stop and then you switch off and switch on again. Then this will go on and on and on beyond this lifetime. So this has to be stopped and tolerance is also there. ‘Okay I am getting a reaction so I think I should stop at this point.’ Where is the srimad bhagavatam?

We should just make reference, I was told by the organisers IIYC to make a mention and they wanted me to do a whole presentation and for this purport I said to make a reference only.

tat te ’nukampam su samiksamano, you know that famous verse and statement of lord Brahma in the tenth canto chapter fourteen text number eight. Remember this as it is very, very useful and a very beneficial statement for the sadhaka’s. I’m looking at the watch and time and tide waits for not even Lokanath Swami (laughter). I’ll just read the translation, Jiveta yo mukti pade sa daya bhak.

Please listen with attention as this purport is in Hindi and so is srimad Bhagavatam.
Jiveta yo mukti pade sa daya bhak

Translation
SB 10.14.8
My dear Lord, one who earnestly waits for You to bestow Your causeless mercy upon him, all the while patiently suffering the reactions of his past misdeeds and offering You respectful obeisances with his heart, words and body, is surely eligible for liberation, for it has become his rightful claim.

So this is the translation and I am also not going to say much now. Some adverse reaction or fruit of action has to be tolerated and wait, just keep living and you will get your share or inheritance. You will get your share so like that keep practicing Krishna consciousness and lead a life of Krishna consciousness. Don’t die like when we sleep also or when we leave the Hare Krishna movement and devotee association then we are good as dead.
So don’t die like that, don’t die. Keep living, keep living till the last breath and remember itna to karna swami jab pran tan se nikle govinda nama leke

Translation
Oh lord just let me remember your name when my life is leaving this body So then what happens? tyaktva deham punar janma naiti mam eti. So no more punar janma which means that you will become free from the setbacks or reversals. No more janma and metyu and jara and vyadhi, and them what happens? ‘You will come to me!’

That is your right, it’s our birth right to go back to home back to godhead. So will achieve that, there’s advise also

matra sparsas tu kaunteya
sitosna sukha duhkha dah
agamapayino 'nityas
tams titiksasva bharata
(Bg 2.14)

Translation
O son of Kunti, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed Just like we say that this world is a place of happiness and distress and so happiness will cone and distress will come but you have to tolerate both in fact. You have to tolerate happiness and tolerate distress and then transcend the happiness and also transcend the distress. By tolerating, tam all the happiness and distress, titiksasva, tolerate.

So try to prevent and whatever you could not prevent, when you get the reactions, tolerate them and don’t give up. Become tough, when the going gets tough the tough get going as they say. I think so much more could be said, I am just touching a few drops on the surface. These are our individual meeting reversals in this life and then we
have to talk about the organisation.

I have been given this homework and for us organisation is important right?
Organisational is giving us life in fact and organisation also has to be maintained and kept in a healthy state. And we have to be organised in organisation so how to avoid stumbling blocks or reversals within the organisation, the international society. The international society of Krishna consciousness. Okay so Prabhupada gave this job to the GBC, the governing body commission of this organisation and he did not appoint one successor. Or he kind of appointed this GBC body as the successor. One team was the successor and his way or belief was that, he used to say that two heads are better than one and three heads are better than two. In the same way thirty are better than twenty nine or one two three.

So he had more faith in team efforts, a body and an organised effort. So how to overcome these stumbling blocks or reversals? So the GBC is at the top level and the temple level also, the bodies are there even IIYC is an organisation and it also has a head and the legs and belly and arms. So how to avoid setbacks and reversals within
IIYC, I’m not going to speak on that (laughter).

In the 80s, this is much before most of you were born or had joined Hare Krishna movement, the movement was facing a bog turbulence. Ups and downs and.. This is because of the zonal acharya business which had cropped up and was being practiced. And in that way the acarya’s and guru’s, the eleven gurus, they became powerful in the Hare Krishna movement and they became the centre of powers. They together were even controlling the GBC’s.

So as a result the society was about to become just a zonal society for Krishna consciousness. One zone, one acharya and one organisation like that. There is no time also to explain the whole episode and the whole thing that the movement we t through.

Then ISKCON adopted lots of resolutions so that we don’t go through the same thing in the future. So then the GBC’s again took charge of the movement and we were united again! Haribol!

So this zonal acharya or guru groupism, probably from time to time you hear this. This is a very dangerous cancer and it can cause or rather it had caused a big setback so be aware because and avoid this from happening again. Never again. So GBC is the ultimate authority. Now unity in diversity. So in those days there was also some
misunderstanding amongst the leaders and as a result there was competition instead of co operation or complimenting each other.

The leaders were trying to compete and as a result conflicts were there so then Prabhupada did what he had to do while he was with us. He said ’every time you come to Mayapur you should discuss this one agenda,’ he said. Unity and diversity where each one has his strength and that should be acknowledged and appreciated and encouraged, not that you try to discourage or create a conflict.

So unity in diversity, this is a very important principle that we should all understand because to keep the movement united, this is a very significant thing that we wish to achieve. Otherwise united we stand and divided? We fall. So we can exhibit our strength if we are united. Unity in diversity should be understood and applied so that we do not experience setbacks for the organisation.

Boiling down the milk. Even during Prabhupada days the leaders were competing to have more quantity of number of devotees or properties and this and that. But Prabhupada also said that we have to preach to our inmates of the ashram first and make them strong and not try to reach out to more and more. As a result he said ‘we will dilute the whole thing.’

He said ‘milk should be concentrated by boiling down the milk, boiling down which means get rid of the water content and the what remains is the milk, the substance like rabri (sweet). Otherwise he said it will become a show bottle religion. This Hare Krishna movement will be a show bottle religion. The doctors when they sell the medicines, the bottles are kept there and sometimes they display the bottles and there are different colours also.

But they’re not actually medicine they’re just different colours or they are different diluted solution. And the label is there. International society for Krishna consciousness or whatever label is there. But the contents are diluted and say Srila Prabhupada said ‘the Hare Krishna movement will become a show bottle religion.’ Like this show bottle of the doctors where they sell their medical items, the drug stores.

I was told when they go to Tirupati and they have to shave up and surrender their hair unto Balaji. So a lot of people want to get shaved up and they’re only limited barbers so what they do is shave a little bit and okay ‘next one.’ And then they shave him up a little bit also and then okay line him up. ‘He is our customer now so he cannot go away.’ Instead of shaving one up fully and properly ‘next one’ then ‘next one.’

They just try to get the business and you could make a list of a lot of people now who are their customers. So Prabhupada said that the duty of our leaders is to preach and first preach to those who have joined, those who have moved in or have become initiated. And of course try to simultaneously reach out more and recruit more. So this is the boiling down milk concept that Prabhupada talked about.

This was his vision for the GBC leaders and he said ‘think of the world first and the zone next.’ So think globally, act locally. Otherwise you will isolate yourself from the rest of the world or you will not care for the rest of the world and you may end up becoming self-centred or selfish and that could cause conflict. So Prabhupada’s vision he shared with the leaders, we are sharing with you so you could also think of you, or you could think of at least zone first and temple next.

Or you could think of the temple first and your department next. This is also big thinking and this is also high thinking, this is high thinking, being broad minded. Thinking that the whole world is our family and Prabhupada built the house wherein the whole world could reside. So we should not try to create these compartments and these divisions, that’s the idea.

Of course the one of the famous statement that Prabhupada made and one of the last statement that he made ‘your love for me will be seen as you cooperate with each other. To keep this institution together after I am gone.’ So love trust cooperation these are not just big, big words but a lot goes with it and a lot depends on these words and these concepts, thoughts.

Especially co-operation. So we want our goal for our international society for Krishna consciousness, thinking about how long this institution is lasting or how long we are expecting it to last. Ten thousand years, we were talking about that timeline earlier, so ten thousand years. And what is the vision?

prthivite ache yata nagaradi grama
sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama
(Chaitanya Charitamrita Madhya 25.264)

In every town and village, the chanting of My name will be heard. So in order to achieve that lofty goal, a lot of things have to be in place including or especially the spirit of cooperation. Well like that and not just work hard but smart. Don’t just work hard but work smart. That is why we could make that connection because Prabhupada said organisation and what else? Intelligence, organisation and intelligence, to know how to intelligently organise.

That also meant not just work hard but work smart, work intelligently to keep This institution together after Prabhupada has, well… But he also sometimes would say that the international society for Krishna consciousness is his body, it’s like a universal form of Prabhupada. So Prabhupada is here in the form of the international society for Krishna consciousness.

And he gave the instruction, ‘maintain what I have created.’ And he created the international society for Krishna consciousness so we have to maintain. So the maintenance job is of Vishnu and the Vaishnava’s so we should remain followers of Vishnu and not become followers of Siva. His job is destruction and when we ignore things, that ignorance causes the destruction, disunity and setbacks.

Hari Hari. Gaura prem anande hari haribol. If there is time, I don’t know for questions comments?
We did not read the purport of this tenth canto fourteenth chapter text number eight. If you read, Prabhupada explains These so-called reaction, setbacks reversals in the life of devotees, especially devotees like Prabhupada- they are not reactions. They are not the karma phala. Like the Pandavas, Prabhupada explains elsewhere that the kind of reversals the Pandavas met with, it’s a big long list.

Is that because of the sinful sin in the past? Do you think that would commit sin? Do you think they would commit sin? Did Yudhishtir Maharaja commit sin ever in that life or a previous life? So when these difficulties come, there’s a prayer of Kunti Maharani also. ‘Please send, please send some reversals. Then what will happen? We will come to you!

Whenever there are difficulties, well they were difficulties for Draupadi. What did she do? Krishna! Govinda! And Krishna was there so Kunti is very smart. ‘Please send us some reversals, some difficulties, stumbling blocks then we will remember you we will run to you. And the result of all this is no more birth, no more death. She’s pretty smart, no? Kunti Maharani or the Pandavas.

Or when such difficulties do arise, the lord is trying to show the rest of the world ‘look at the pandavas, look at Prabhupada, look at Kunti Maharani, what do they do? They do not run to or rely upon their bodily strength or their relatives or they don’t run to the doctor or the lawyer. No, they run to me! They come to my shelter.’ So the Lord is also trying to get that point across by using the devotees as an example. ‘In difficulty see what they do so the rest of the world, look what the devotees do, so you also call out for Krishna.’

Amogha lila says because of our expirations, this causes frustration. You are making that point, I heard you say we always have these high expectations and when these expectations are not met there is frustration. So we should except what sastra is saying, The Lord is coming to us. Instead of cutting our arm only the finger is cut or instead of cutting our throat only an arm is cut.

So we should take that as the kindness of the lord, we deserve much more, I mean what we deserve is already what we had been getting. ‘Hang him!’ And that is what happens right? We did this sin, that sin and we were being punished and what was that punishment? Capital punishment, ‘hang him, kill him.’ So how many times have we been killed and killed? I mean could there be a worst punishment than being killed?

‘Kill him! I don’t even want to see him existing, kill him!’ That has already happened and that could again happen and that’s what we deserve, to be killed. So the lord is kind and I mean the lord is really kind.

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva
guru krsna prasade paya bhakti lata bija
(Chaitanya Charitamrita Madhya 19.151)

Translation
According to their karma, all living entities are wandering throughout the entire universe. Some of them are being elevated to the upper planetary systems, and some are going down into the lower planetary systems. Out of many millions of wandering living entities, one who is very fortunate gets an opportunity to associate with a bona fide spiritual master by the grace of Krsna. By the mercy of both Krsna and the spiritual master, such a person receives the seed of the creeper of devotional service This is kindness, when we don’t know and that is why we say cause less mercy because maybe we did not even deserve this but put of the causeless mercy of the lord we have been picked up and brought in contact with.. ‘Prabhu here is a bhagavad gita for you. Gita for you. Oh there is a Rathayatra in town today.’ ‘Oh where?’ ‘At such and such place.’ So a lot of people end up meeting these Hare krishna devotees and these Hare Krishna devotees become the vartma pradarsaka guru’s. Your good fortune has descended right there and then more good things happen to you, more good things happen to you. Siksa gurus and diksa gurus and this and that, they are all like a battalion and they all surround you and it’s difficult to get out and leave. So that’s also a merciful arrangement where there so many of us, the more the merrier.

Especially in this kali yuga, the sankirtan movement. It’s good to be part of congregation and a big number, and then we have so many other relationships also. So many spiritual fathers and spiritual uncles, spiritual god brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews and this and that. We really get bound and then it’s difficult to give up this network or jala, Hare Krishna jala, entrapment.

So this is the magnanimity of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, what could we say? We deserve be killed and killed over and over again but god is mercifully glancing upon us.
Hari Hari.
Anything else?
Otherwise, huh?
Something else Devakinandan Prabhu wants to say?
Alright thank you.

Srila Prabhupada gave us everything

S. B 1.15.33

prthapy anusrutya dhanañjayoditam
nasam yadunam bhagavad-gatim ca tam
ekanta-bhaktya bhagavaty adhoksaje
nivesitatmopararama samseteh

Translation
Kunti, after overhearing Arjuna’s telling of the end of the Yadu dynasty and disappearance of Lord Krsna, engaged in the devotional service of the transcendental Personality of Godhead with full attention and thus gained release from the course of material existence.

The setting of the sun does not mean the end of the sun, right. Only right things have written here. It means that the sun is out of our sight. Right, that’s all. Similarly, the end of the mission of the Lord on a particular planet or universe only means that He is out of our sight. It’s clear. The end of the Yadu dynasty also does not mean that it is annihilated. It disappears, along with the Lord, out of our sight. As Maharaja Yudhisthira decided to prepare to go back to Godhead, so also Kunti decided, and thus she fully engaged herself in the transcendental devotional service of the Lord which guarantees one a passport for going back to Godhead after quitting this present material body.The beginning of devotional service to the Lord is the beginning of spiritualizing the present body, and thus an unalloyed devotee of the Lord loses all material contact in the present body.The abode of the Lord is not a myth, take note of this. From myth comes mythology and all that. As is thought by the unbelievers or ignorant people, but one cannot reach there by any material means like a sputnik or space capsule. But one can certainly reach there after leaving this present body, and one must prepare himself to go back to Godhead by practicing devotional service. That guarantees a passport for going back to Godhead, and Kunti adopted it.

Haribol!! And are you ready also to adopt? So wonderful verse and amazing purport by Srila Prabhupada. Well, ‘The Pandavas retire timely’ is the title of this chapter. So, things are getting unfolded. I don’t want to do the recapping as they say. I think some of you had been attending these classes regularly and many of you are. It’s a good chance that you are visitors. Regardless, I’m not going to summarize, just going to make some point that attracted my attention. And, I’m impressed with, also as I read this verse and the purport and that is: going back to Godhead.

That is what the Pandavas are going to be doing as they have retired timely. These days no one retires. So, there is also a message. The Pandavas retired and as soon as they had news that their Lord is no more on the planet, then what is the use of you and that planet where the Lord is not performing his pastimes anymore. So, better go wherever he is now and where he is certainly at home, back home. Prabhupada always says, back to godhead! back to godhead! not only god but godhead. Who is a godhead? Who is a head of all the gods? Krishna. Prabhupada always emphasizes Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna. Even today, we read that. Such a clarity and perfection.

As the news was received, well everyone including Kunti is mentioned, took to the devotional service maybe even more seriously not that she was not performing devotional service. And, the Pandavas also were going to be retiring and they were going to do tivrena bhakti-yogena, tivrena- they are going to intensify, amplify and going to increase the frequency frequently. Like some people say,‘You know I’m visiting the temple, I’m pretty regular every Janmashtami’. That’s also frequency, once a year, that’s a frequency. And, I go to Sunday festival or ISKCON Sunday festival, that’s also a frequency. And then, everyday that’s even more frequent and like that if we keepgoing, the Sastras say, ‘anukshan’, how frequently one should practice Krsna consciousness. ‘Shan’ means moment, one moment. ‘Anu’ means the next one, the following one also and in between the ‘Shanas’, if there is some space in between, so that is tivrena bhakti-yogena.

Anyway, I want to get to the point, these are side points for me. So Kunti, was in fact the first one to leave the body. She left her body right there and then we hear as she heard maybe sometimes after because this talked here her practicing of devotional service. So, soon after she heard the news of the Lord’s departure, she also departed. The Pandavas are retiring and they are now heading towards the North. The rest of the world or India is behind, right, when you head towards the North Himalayas and the top of Himalayas is Badrika Ashrama. So, there’s a concept of heading North. It means going to the Lord with your back towards the rest of the world. So, that’s what the Pandavas were doing and, on the way, Draupadi also had joined this pilgrimage or the travelling, destination is back to Godhead. On the way, Draupadi was the first one to leave the body. Then, down the road, up the hill, the Himalayan Mountain, Sahadeva was the next one and then Nakula was the next one after five, ten, twenty, fifty kilometres. The end was Arjuna and Bheema.

In 1977, some time before Prabhupada’s departure, I was with my Narada muni travelling party distributing Srila Prabhupada books. We were in Badrika Ashrama and had visited that very spot which is known as ‘Bhima ka Pul’, Pul means bridge. On the way, there was a Sarasvati, this is even a little beyond Badrika Ashrama. He built a bridge; he did cross and he left the body. Then we had to come back to Vrindavan to see Srila Prabhupada, our party, to see how he’s doing. Those days there were no SMS and this and that. We had to personally come. Prabhupada was very kind to permit us to have his audience Darshana and during that Darshana we talked about Badrika Ashrama visit.

Well, also I had mentioned: ‘Srila Prabhupada! We showed your Bhagavad Gita to Srila Vyasadeva’, because we visited the cave of Vyasa and we were carrying Bhagavad Gita and we thought we did not see Vyasadeva but for sure he resides there, he must have seen us and also the Bhagavad Gita that we were carrying. So, I reported to Prabhupada that we showed your Bhagavad Gita, Prabhupada had a smile on his face. Then, I had also mentioned about his spot from where Bheema departed and then our Darshana time was over. Then, Bhavanand Maharaja at that time, he rebuked me, rebuked means mild chastisement, and he said: ‘Why, why did you tell Prabhupada about your visit to this Bheema Ka Pul spot from where Bheema departed?’ He took serious objection to this and he gave the reason, ‘You want to give hint to Srila Prabhupada, what hint? also of leaving. Are you reminding Srila Prabhupada…’? That was of course not my intention or it was not in my mind but this was the reading of this Maharaja. Hari! Hari!

Anyway, I just want to make a connection with going back to Godhead. Someone else went back to Godhead and I talked about Bheema’s going back to Godhead from such a place as Bheema Ka Pul and as I was sharing, someone got the hint that I was giving some hint about going back to Godhead or Prabhupada going back to Godhead. And as we know, our meeting was just, maybe, five six days before Prabhupada’s departure and so Prabhupada did leave on 14th of November 1977 and he went back to Godhead! Oh, he just entered the pastimes of Krsna and Balarama in Vrindavan. He always called Vrindavan is my home, so he was at home, he entered the home. So, Prabhupada, I think, I don’t know anyone else as far as I know I have read, heard many acharyas. A lot of them don’t even talk of for no, the unbelievers that Prabhupada is talking about the unbelievers or ignorant people. They think this going back to Godhead or even back home Vaikuntha or Goloka is just a myth and going there, forget it! No one talks about but Prabhupada is the one, he talked about so much and over again and again every other purport, every other talk that he delivered, talked about going back to Godhead. We are going back to home, some devotees have even compiled and sung songs, ‘we are going…’ and they play their guitar a little, ‘Srila Prabhupada is the captain of the ship and ISKCON is that ship. Please board the ship, we are going back to home …’. I’m not an English singer.

If you ever get money, what you should do? Print books. What was the first book of publication that Prabhupada …? Back to Godhead 1944. He gave a title to his first publication, periodical they called them. It was a pakshika, by monthly and then became monthly called Back to Godhead the title, BACK TO GODHEAD! Prabhupada really highlighted this Back to Godhead, going back to home, Back to Godhead. Then Srila Prabhupada, he wrote a letter to the first President of India Dr Rajendra Prasada, he was from Bihar and that was appeal to the President of India that he wanted assistance for publication of his Back to Godhead or promotion of his back to Godhead. In that letter which is available, Prabhupada’s letter to the President, Prabhupada writes, says,‘I have got a hint’ and Prabhupada says,the hint is: ‘When I leave my body, I’ll be going Back to Godhead’ and he also says HARE KRSNA, I think. My attention goes to you know who? Those with eyes closed but I think its not because of rapt attention. So, some of my time is invested and energy also. Hari! Hari! I think our going Back to Godhead would be delayed or we may miss the bus as they say, because we are late or spend some time sleeping.

Then Prabhupada writes in the same letter, he says,‘I would like to bring all my fellow human beings with me, bring them to home Back to Godhead’. This is Prabhupada’s vision. The Back to Godhead exists, right? Yes? back home exists? Why can’t Goloka exist or okay if it exists let it exists, you know, what does it matter for me it exists. That’s the kind of stand, I think because a lot of the people don’t even know that it exists and there are others they know or they may accept that it exists, but it doesn’t really, they don’t care. Prabhupada is the one who talked about going, going, going there! Physically going, of course. Going there couldn’t be physical, spiritually going, actually going there, going Back to Godhead, from somewhere you are from there you go elsewhere, go back to home, Back to Godhead. Whenever a devotee in ISKCON, leaves the body, we always talk about or we even hope and pray that he went…where did he go? BACK TO GODHEAD. Happy birthday to you and what? You may never take birth again and then what happens? you may never take birth again and what? Go back to home.
The Sastras talk of this everywhere. I was just thinking, the Bhagavad Gita is like an invitation, extended by Lord himself to all those listeners and readers of Bhagavad Gita. Invitation where? invitation for what? Going Back to Godhead.

janma karma ca me divyam
evam yo vetti tattvatah
tyaktva deham punar janma
naiti mam eti so ’rjuna

And after you give up your body,tyaktva deham punar janma
,naiti, no more birth death and what happens instead? mam eti. There are two eti: punar janmanaiti and mam eti. That person doesn’t go to another birth ,punar janmanaiti, instead mam eti, he comes to me.

dadami buddhi-yogam tam
yena mam upayanti te

Is that 10th chapter of Bhagavad Gita? That I give intelligence to that person, of course, one who is practicing devotional service, and he is utilizing that intelligence for what?mam upayanti, upayanti means go again. Mam: to go to me and Lord is using ‘upa’ means comes close to me, meaning close, he comes closer to me.
He didn’t have much time while he was talking to Arjuna. He has mentioned about his abort.

na tad bhasayate suryo na shashanko na pavakah
yad gatva na nivartante tad dhama paramam mama

So how many times, one time is enough. Your Lord mentions one time about his Dhama, isn’t that sufficient? Because he only speaks what? The truth, Lord only speaks the truth and nothing but the truth.It is talking about his Dhama and talking about going and those who go do not come back. In conclusion also, there are many other mentions of back to home, Back to Godhead and going back home but in conclusion man-man? bhava mad-bhakto mad-yaji mamnamaskuru ,now the Lord is going to say, ‘You know I had spoken about some confidential subject matters Guhyam, then I spoke about some Guhyatara more confidential but now I’m going to talk to Guhyatamam most confidential. Please pay attention. If confidential thing you ignored, most confidential, ATTENTION! Having said that, I’m going to talk of something most confidential than what a person is really focused on his attentive. I’m trying to do that but some of you don’t care. Hari! Hari!

There is man-man? bhava mad-bhakto mad-yaji mamnamaskuru, you know this, do these four things. Srila Prabhupada once time said, ‘We follow four regulative principles’ and as soon as Prabhupada says we follow four regulative principles devotees were thinking he is going to mention : no intoxication, no meat-eating and like that but then having said we follow four regulative principles ,they said man-man?, one principle :remember me, bhava mad-bhakto :become my devotee, mad-yaji: worship me and mamnamaskuru : offer your obeisances unto me. Prabhupada called these and we follow four regulative principles and if you did this, then what does Krsna say? Now, he’s going to close his dialogue with Arjuna with this statement. If you do these four things, then what happens? Then mam evaisyasi, again,mam evaisyasi, mam eva: me only, esyasi: you will come to me. You are dear to him or he loves you, he is dear to you, you are dear to him. Whether you are dear to him, yeah you are dear to him whether he is dear to you or not or temporarily he’s not dear to you, Maya is dearer and then you say I love you and all that. All this love is transferred and focused on someone else, something else other than the Lord or the demigods with a little demigod, they love this and Aham Brahmasmiand I am Brahman, I love Brahman.

But here the Lord is saying because I love you. So, we could very easily put ourselves in the seat or in a position of Arjuna. In fact, Lord is addressing through Bhagavad Gita, who is He addressing? Only Arjuna? No! He is addressing you, each one of you, me included. When Lord says priyah asi, Ishtadeva , priyah asi. The Lord is speaking in Sanskrit, you are very dear to me and could say all the names. Radharaman Maharaj,priyah asi: you are very dear. Lord is addressing, it’s good to know that the Lord likes and loves you. I think we always like to know who likes us and we love to know who likes us. What if one day, we come to know that the Lord likes me, Lord loves me and isn’t that good enough? Of course, if the devotees also like you, devotees, other souls like you and they do like pure devotees, like all the devotees. All those devotees in Goloka, everybody in Goloka loves you. So, it is not only the Lord who loves and likes you but all the devotees love and like you.

So, one should go to that place where everyone likes you. For sure, that place is back home, Goloka, that place is Mayapur Dhama Ki jai! Non-different from Goloka, sri-gauda-mandala-bhumi, jeba jane cintamani,tara hoy braja-bhume bas,those who would realise this sri-gauda-mandala-bhumi,in cintamani dhama, they will also go Back to Godhead, Back to Vrindavan Dhama ki jai! Anyway, some may stay here also, continue to stay because this is a part of Vrindavan. Hari! Hari!

Srila Prabhupada, on behalf of Sri Krsna or Sri Krsna Chaitanya gave us a lot of things including Mayapur festival 50 years ago. This is a year of celebration 50th anniversary, Golden Jubilee of Mayapur festival and a lot of other items also. He gave us Radha Madhava and gave us,

HARE KRSNA HARE KRSNA KRSNA KRSNA HARE HARE HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE,

He gave us Chaitanya Caritamrta. Of course, he gave Mahaprasade Govinde and each one of this is Lord, Dhama is Lord, his holy name is Lord, Caitanya Caritamrta, his Lila is Lord. What else? His form is Lord, non-different kali-kale nama-rupe krsna-avatara, his gunas are Lord, prasadam is also Lord. Srila Prabhupada, On behalf of Parampara, acharyas, he gave us all these gifts including or at the center also we could say there’s a Dhama, he gave us Dhama and gave us the idea of going back to home. Although, it is not a new idea, so it is an eternal idea but Prabhupada threw light on it. He emphasized this fact and as I said earlier more than anyone else amongst you and acharyas. Is it a good idea going Back to Godhead? Are you getting that idea? Are you making up your mind? Are you preparing as Kunti Maharani prepared and Pandavas prepared? They retired also from worldly, well for them not worldly, so-called worldly for us they are really worldly things. When did the Lord disappear for us? For them, as soon as they heard the Lord disappeared immediately, they took to Krsna consciousness devotional service very seriously. For us, what was the last time that we were with the Lord or we forgot or he disappeared? Time immemorial cannot be encountered or calculated even with the present electronic calculators cannot calculate number of years ago that we left, we became outgoing or going outward. We have become dancing dogs in the hands of maya and the mind, senses. Such a long time ago, the Lord did not leave us but we left him or we were trying to leave him. The Lord has kindly caught up with us and by the merciful arrangement of Sri Krsna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, his Senapati bhakta Srila Prabhupada ki jai!

He founded this International Society for Krsna Consciousness and all the arrangements are made for us to get a passport. A lot of time, we say ISKCON temples are like embassies. ISKCON is Goloka embassy and an embassy what do you get? Prabhupada is mentioning passport but passport is not enough. Just because your passport cannot go to America, what do you need? A visa. So, in an embassy you get the visa. Then, the spiritual masters, on behalf of the founder acharya and ultimately Lord. They put a stamp of approval, visa approval. He gets only one-way ticket and visa for how long? Otherwise, you get one year of a five-year student visa. Hahahaa. This is a wonderful arrangement and it is here at the disposal of anybody, everybody on this planet.

Radhastami class
14th September 2021

Nanda ke ghar ananda bhayo- there is a great occasion of joy in the house of Nanda Maharaja. In the same way today there is joy in Icchakaranji. So there was joy in the house of Nanda and this Katha of what occurred many years ago. Sri Krishna Janmasthami Mahotsava ki jai! And today there is joy in the home of king Vrishabhanu.

You have all heard the name of Nanda Baba and Nanda Nandan and you must have heard of Yashoda also. Who is talking, making noise? So we know less about Radharani and we could say that may be because talks in relation to her are confidential. So king Vrishabhanu was a king and Kirtida was the mother of Radharani.

So five thousand two hundred and forty seven years ago – if I say it in English you will remember it better. So that is when Radharani appeared here on this day! (Shouts of Haribol)! And to celebrate the appearance of Radharani all the people of Vraj went running to that place. The whole of Vraj- you understand Vraj, yes? Vrindavan Dham ki jai! Vrindavan is also called Vraj so Vraja Mandal or when we say Vraja Mandala Parikrama.

Vraja or Braja, Vrindavan and so the whole of Vrindavan- do you know Gokul? How many of you have been to Gokul? If you have been then you can put your hand up otherwise do not put it up. I do know that you you have hands so.. (laughter). Okay so this is nice, many of you have been to Gokul. So just a little away from Gokul there is another village which is called Rawal. In the village of Rawal on the banks of the river Yamuna Radharani appeared.

So Radharani appeared and just like Krishna, Radharani’s birth is not like my or your birth.

janma karma ca me divyam
evam yo vetti tattvatah
tyaktva deham punar janma
naiti mam eti so ‘rjuna

Translation
One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.

Krishna is saying to Arjuna that ‘my birth and also Radharani’s birth, how is that birth? Janma karma ca me divyam.’ Radharani and Krishna’s birth is Divya, transcendental. Hari Hari. In actual fact Radharani is never born, she is a-janma. When we are born what happens? We take a new body which is not actually our own. There are many births that one takes.

punarapi jananam punarapi maranam punarapi janani jathare sayanam,?iha samsare bahudusare krpaya’pare pahi murare
(Bhaja govindam verse 21 Adi Shankara)

Translation
So you have had many births and each time we stay in the womb of a mother who may be a woman or a female dog or otherwise a female donkey. You may also get a mosquito mother and so in every life we get a mother and father. So every time we get a new birth we have a new body, a new form. But the form of Radharani when she appears is the same as it is before her appearance.

That is why she appears or you may say she incarnates in this world rather than being born like an embodied living entity. So Vrindavan is the abode of the lord so Vrindavan Dham ki jai! It is also called Goloka.

goloka namni nija dhamni tale ca tasya devi mahesa hari dhamasu tesu tesu te te prabhava nicaya vigitas ca yena govindam adi purusam tam aham bhajami
(BS 5.43

Translation

Lowest of all is located Dev?-dh?ma [mundane world], next above it is Mahe?a-dh?ma [abode of Mahe?a]; above Mahe?a-dh?ma is placed Hari-dh?ma [abode of Hari] and above them all is located K???a’s own realm named Goloka. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda, who has allotted their respective authorities to the rulers of those graded realms.

So the abode is called Goloka. So one you know is Gokul where Rawal is situated just close by as I was saying. So Radharani comes and appears in Goloka Dham. So in the same way Lord Krishna also comes down to this earth planet and whenever he does he brings Radharani with him. She stands behind him when they appear.

tapta kanchana gaurangi
radhe vrindavaneshvari
vrishabhanu-sute devi
pranamami hari-priye

Translation
O Srimati Radharani, I offer my respects to You whose bodily complexion is like molten gold.
O Goddess, You are the queen of Vrindavana. You are the daughter of King Vrishabhanu, and are very dear to Lord Krishna.

Radharani’s name is fixed up and she also has many other names apart from Radharani, she has a thousand names. Vishnu or Krishna have a thousand names and so Radharani has a thousand names as well and all these names are eternally there. In the same way Radharani’s form is eternally the same and her form is always the colour of Tapta kanchana gaurangi- she is the colour of gold.

We are sometimes black or white or blue or yellow or whatever else but Radharani’s form is the same one form forever. Tapta kanchana gaurangi radhe vrindavaneshvari. So from Goloka Radharani appeared on the auspicious day of today in Rawal which in close vicinity to Gokul. How many years ago was this? Five thousand, two hundred and forty seven years ago!

So the day was today and it was during the midday period Radharani appeared. So it was the month of Bhadra and it was the light fortnight. Krishna was born in the dark fortnight and that is why there is that saying ‘why are you dark and I am white?’ Or ‘you are dark and I am white.’ So Radha is light skinned and Krishna is dark skinned because Krishna was born in the dark fortnight he is dark.

Radha was born in the light fortnight, Shukla – do you understand Shukla Paksha? So in this fortnight Radha had appeared so she is light, or the colour of molten gold because this colour is even more beautiful than the white complexion. Yamuna Maiya ki jai and so king Vrishabhanu was on the banks of the Yamuna and he saw a lotus flower in the waters.

From that lotus flower there was radiating bright golden light and therefore great inquisitiveness arose in the king’s mind. ‘What is this wonderful glow which is coming out from this lotus flower?’ So he went forward and looked inside and there he saw in the lotus a small baby girl. At that very moment he heard a voice from the sky which thundered ‘oh king, accept this girl as she is your daughter.’

Haribol! The king thereafter took the small baby girl in his arms and ran back to his palace where he put this baby girl in front of his queen, Kirtida. Jai Radhe jai Radhe! There was no limit to their joy upon seeing the baby girl and therefore they were swimming in an ocean of happiness, having attained Radharani as their daughter.

So this news was spread all over Vraja ‘jai Radhe jai Radhe! Radha has appeared so please come, you all come, come!’ Everyone was sent an invitation and great big groups of people came to take darshan of her on the same day she was born. She was born and instantly on the same day each and every household in Vraja got the news of her birth. Every person in Vraja got the news that Radharani had taken her birth.

This news they received even faster than an SMS which is the thing these days, you all know SMS? So there must have been such wonderful communication that the whole of Vraja heard the news and all the people of Vraja dressed up in their best clothes and ornaments and proceeded hurriedly towards Rawal with many gifts for the baby girl.

In these great groups of people were present Nanda baba from Gokul along with Yashoda and Rohini and they had also bought along with them Krishna and Balaram. So at Radharani’s first birthday party Krishna Balaram were present there also. Sri Krishna Balaram ki jai! The king and queen had put the baby girl in a beautiful decorated cot and everyone used to go to that cot and have a look inside to see the baby girl.

All the people would bless the baby in auspicious ways, wishing her a long life and like this. So there was a big queue to see her just like there was here today when you were all waiting to bathe Radharani. In the same way there must have been a bathing ceremony for Radharani that day in Rawal. So here in Icchakaranji you were bathing the deity form of Radharani a while ago today and the experience the residents of Rawal and the Vrijavasi’s experienced back then is the same experience we tried to have today when we were bathing the deity form of Radharani.

Have you ever seen such a vision which the residents of the village Rawal and the Vrijavasi’s experienced? Has there ever been a bathing like that? Here people are done with bathing in thirty seconds then finished. With much difficulty you get a little bit of water to take bath and sometimes there is much shortage of water as well and so where is the question of bathing?

Just like Radharani herself is transcendental and very special, in the same way her Abhishek is also of the same nature and this was performed by Kirtida and king Vrishabhanu along with the Vrijavasi’s. And on this day you all residents of Icchakaranji have performed this Abhishek in the same way. (Shouts of Haribol)!

So that same Radharani is present here in the form of her deity and the deity is also called an incarnation of the lord or his potency. The lord appears or incarnates in the form of his deity and in this way he gives us all an opportunity to serve him in various ways.

sri vigraharadhana nitya nana
srngaira tan mandira marjanadau
yuktasya bhaktams ca niyunjato pi
vande guroh sri caranaravindam
(Guru Astaka 3)

TRANSLATION
The spiritual master is always engaged in the temple worship of Sri Sri Radha and Krishna. He also engages his disciples in such worship. They dress the Deities in beautiful clothes and ornaments, clean Their temple, and perform other similar worship of the Lord. I offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of such a spiritual master.

So the spiritual master arranges in such a way- Srila Prabhupada ki jai! Being Iskcon’s founder Acharya, he has made arrangements for us in such great ways and he has given us Radha Shyamasundara. He has done this in more than one hundred countries. Just like we have celebrated Sri Krishna Janmasthami
and now today Radhasthami is being celebrated in one hundred and fifty countries! Shouts of Haribol!

This I have told you to give you this information that Radharani has reached so many countries. She has reached Burma? Yes she has reached there. And China? Yes she has reached China and today we have devotees present here from China. You can stand up Chinese devotees, and so this Mataji has come from China, Haribol!

Where is our Maharaja, Sri Krishna Chaitanya? He has come from New York and Gaura Krishna Prabhu has come from Denmark and so this shows you that the lord has reached so many countries. The people of these countries had never before even heard the name of Radha or Vrindavan and today in these very same countries Radhasthami is being celebrated! Shouts of Haribol!

So her birthday party being celebrated today is not just here in Icchakaranji but actually it is being celebrated all over the universe. So the lord appears in his deity form, Vigraha, which you understand? It means the deity form which is called Vigraha. In the deity form the lord incarnates and this very deity form we worship. This worship is called Aradhana, do you understand this word?

Radha is always performing Aradhana, worship and therefore her name is Radha which is derived from the word Aradhana. Krishna and Radha also appear in the form of their names.

kali kale nama rupe krsna avatara
(CC Adi-lila 17.22)

Translation
Krsna descends in this Kali yuga in the form of His holy name

So what Yuga, age are we living in now? Kali yuga. So the lord appears in this age in the form of his holy name and what name is that? In fact there are many names but what are the the foremost names?

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

There is one God and Hare Krishna means Radha and Krishna. You all are continually hearing ‘Hare Krishna Hare Krishna’ and so this Hare is Radharani. So the word is actually Hara and Hare is the vocative case of Hara. When you call out to Hara that is a call out to Radha just like when you call out to Sita the vocative would be Site. If you call out to Gita it becomes Gite. In the same way to call Hara we must call out ‘oh Hare, oh Radhe.’

Krishna Krishna Radha Radha
Radha Raman Radha Raman
Raman Raman Radha Radha.

So these are all names of Radha and Krishna. There are sixteen names in the Maha Mantra with thirty two syllables but the names are only two, one name is Radha’s and the other is Krishna’s.

(Maharaja sings Kirtan of Radha Radha Krishna Radha).

We have left Radharani over in Rawal in the Katha we were speaking. And so all the people have gathered and Krishna Balaram have also reached there and they are now walking towards the cot to see the baby girl and they want to congratulate the baby girl. They were about one years old and so were not even walking properly yet. They were learning how to walk, so the lord is learning how to walk!

So as the lord reaches the cot he is trying to hold onto it and in doing so he falls over but then finally he catches hold of the cot and holding onto it he goes to take a look inside. There he sees the baby girl and at that same moment the baby girl also looks at Krishna. Shouts of Haribol! So this was the first meeting of Radha and Krishna.

There’s one more thing which I can also tell you now and that is that when king Vrishabhanu found the baby girl on the banks of the Yamuna in the lotus, upon seeing her he found that her eyes were closed. Then after taking the baby girl back to his palace he still found that her eyes remained closed.

So with great pleasure he was thinking that ‘my daughter is so very beautiful but she is blind. She is not opening her eyes.’ So because of this both the mother and father of the baby girl were very sorrowful but she was not blind at all. She had purposely kept her eyes shut as she was thinking ‘I will use my eyes in the first instance by taking darshan of Krishna. I do not want to see the faces of any others.

I would like to see Krishna.’ So as Krishna was looking upon Radharani’s face, she immediately knew that it was the lord because she is all-knowing just like Krishna is. So Krishna didn’t have to touch her or say ‘hey Radhe! I have come so open your eyes.’ So Radharani knew instantly that ‘the lord of my life has arrived.’

They both are the life of each other, Radharani’s life is Krishna and Krishna’s life is likewise, well who is it? It is Radha. So Radha opened her eyes and took darshan of Krishna and therefore as she opened both her eyes to take darshan, it could be seen that she had great big eyes. Hari Hari. Jai Radhe.

(Maharaja sings Kirtan of jai Radhe).

Preach more and more
Islamabad Karachi
4th July 2021

Should I speak in English or Hindi? Okay, I do not know Urdu but thank you Shyamanand Krishna Prabhu and Rama Yajna Prabhu who have always been in my association from the beginning and I also remember one time that I had addressed the devotees of Pakistan.

Ram Yajna Prabhu has remembered me again and so by his endeavour and request I am today meeting you all in Iskcon Pakistan and I am meeting the devotees of Gaura-Gaura Bhaktas. It is a meeting which is quite difficult as we do not meet often and have not met much before. We may have met a few of us before, either at Mayapur or Vraja Mandala.

Do you come to Mayapur or Vrindavan or Jagannatha Puri Dham ki jai! Some are saying that they come to the holy places from Karachi so there is a possibility that we have met. Anyway whatever it may be, we are meeting now and I am very happy to be meeting you all. You are all spirit souls and now you are a part of Gaudiya Vaisnavism by the mercy of Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

You are becoming Gaudiya Vaisnavas. You are either becoming Gaudiya Vaisnavas or have become Gaudiya Vaisnavas. So therefore it is natural that when one Gaudiya Vaishnava meets another Gaudiya Vaishnava – we are constantly meeting other people in this world. There are so many different types of people all belonging to different religions.

There are people with different Karma, different situations and they have so many different problems but out of all these people are Vaishnava- actually Vaisnavas are from different Sampradaya’s, sects but to be a Gaudiya Vaishnava is the greatest thing. It is better than any other thing, the topmost thing and Gaudiya Vaisnavas will be found in Vaikuntha as well. Hindu, Muslim, Christian and whatever else is of this material world.

These labels are binding and they are false designations, but to be a Vaishnava is not just another designation. This is the actual recognition of the living entity, to be a Vaishnava. Those who worship Lord Vishnu are called Vaisnavas and these Vaisnavas you will find in Vaikuntha. There are also the Lord’s abodes like Ayodhya and Saket where you will find Vaisnavas.

Then there is Goloka where you will also find the Vaisnavas and these Vaisnavas in Goloka will be called ‘Gaudiya Vaisnavas.’ So amongst the Vaisnavas also, the best of Vaisnavas are Gaudiya Vaisnavas, the followers of Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

So I am meeting today the topmost of all Vaisnavas and we are meeting just now and so it is natural that because we are meeting, this has become a festival. This can be am called a ‘Milan Uttsava’ as we are meeting one another and so yes, it is a festival.

satam prasangan mama virya samvido (SB 3.25.25)

Translation
In the association of pure devotees, discussion of the pastimes and activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is very pleasing and satisfying to the ear and the heart.

So this then becomes a festival. Sat Sanga, a meeting of Sadhu’s becomes a festival and ‘mama virya samvida. This is where they remember or speak of my activities, pastimes and my beauty.’ So some of you are in Karachi or some are in Rawalpindi, then some of you are in Hyderabad. There may be other places as well where some of you are from but anyway I cannot remember any other names of places.

So many places, towns and villages were put together and it was all named Pakistan but actually all living entities are brothers. ‘Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai.’ In saying this I have remembered that when I was young, yes when I was young and was studying in school – this is in around 1962 or 1963.

At that time China and Bharat, India were at war with each other and Bharat is always dedicated to the motherland but there is the feeling of brotherhood with everyone. This is the specialty of India and Indians. So at that time they were teaching the children throughout India a poem. What was this? ‘Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai. Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai.’

Maybe you have heard it or read it somewhere or probably you were not even alive at that time so you wouldn’t know but I was there and I was so small. And as you heard they would say this and in one village which is not so far from here in Pandharpura I was born and we would all shout this ‘Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai.’ We were saying this, all us children but we understood that Hindi is a language and Chini means sugar in Hindi language.

But it was said ‘Bhai Bhai’ brothers, so it wasn’t making any sense. How could sugar and the language of Hindi be brothers? But as we got older we began to understand that Hindi meant the people of Hindustan and Chini meant the people of China. So we understood this much and so we put together that these two kinds of people are brothers.

But I was thinking at that time and anybody else would think as well that when can these two kinds of people actually become brothers? What should be the common factor? The father should be the same, one common father and then they will be brothers. So I could not understand how the people of Hindustan and the people of China could be brothers and have one common father.

How could we have one common father and if we did then who was that personality? Was it Modi or some president, the president of China? ‘Is he the father of the Hindustani and Chinese people?’ So I was not getting the answer to this question but when I joined the Hare Krishna movement and reached the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada and he was reading Bhagavad Gita then I understood.

aham bija pradah pita (BG 14.4)

Translation
I am the seed giving father.

Krishna has said that ‘I am the seed giving father of all the living entities.’ This is the translation in English. I am the father, mother, grandsire.’

tvam eva maataa ca pitaa tvam eva
tvam eva bandhush-ca sakhaa tvam eva (saranagati gadyam)

Translation
You truly are my mother and you truly are my father.
You truly are my relative and you truly are my friend.

The Lord is the mother and father and all of us Hindu’s and all of the Chinese people. Their father is one and that is the supreme Lord and so we Hindu’s and Chinese become brothers in this way. So I was saying as a boy that we are all brothers, Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai, but we have to understand that it is not just us Hindu’s and Chinese that are brothers.

Actually the people of Hindustan are brothers with the people of Pakistan or Balochistan or Afghanistan or Khalistan (laughter). As many ‘stan’s’ there may be like America-stan or Autrailia-stan, all the people of all these places have one common father. For this reason we must know this and understand that we are all brothers and sisters.

We can say that this knowledge is derived from Bhagavad Gita or in Gaudiya Vaishnavism and we can say that this knowledge is of the religion of God. This is knowledge of Sanatan Dharma, or it is knowledge we attain as Indians and in the same Indian culture we hear:

ayam nijah paro veti gananaa laghuchetasam
udaar charitaanam to vasudhaiwa kutumbakam (Maha Upanisad ch.6)

Translation

Only narrow minded persons have two different outlooks towards common matters relating to themselves and others, whereas for noble and broad minded persons the entire world is like their own family.

So in this verse we see that some people say ‘these people are my own! These Pakistani people are my own people, long live Pakistan! And these people of Hindustan, they are outsiders- death to Hindustan!’

So these feelings of ‘my own and outsiders, ayam nijah, these are my people and these are outsiders’ gananaa laghuchetasam, these thoughts and outlooks are of those who are laghuchetasam, these are people whose thoughts are narrow minded. People who think like this have a small heart as well as narrow-minded thoughts. So this verse is speaking about these sort of narrow minded people.

Udar charitanam vasudhaiwa kutumbakam

But those who have good character are ‘Guru’ which means heavy- laghu means light and Guru is heavy. So those who are ‘Guru’ have high thoughts and are noble hearted and they see things from far. Udaar charitaanam to vasudhaiwa kutumbakam. Their thoughts are ‘as many people there are on this whole planet, they are all my family members.’

Of course that means the that they feel that not only humans but other living entities such as animals and birds and all living beings and a part of their family. Vasudhaiwa means the earth and ‘so all the living beings of this earth planet are my family. This is my family and each family has a head of the family and so the head of this family is Lord Krishna or Allah.’

Allah means god is great and how to say this in one word? Allah. God is great, why not? So we say ‘Krishna’ and we say ‘Allah’ as well, but our Muslim brothers will never say ‘Krishna.’ We will say ‘Allah’ but they will never say ‘Krishna.’ This is of course their misunderstanding and Krishna means Ya karhati sa Krishna. So one who attracts everyone is Krishna and so this is the supreme Lord.

So everyone will have to accept-all Muslims and Christians and actually they do accept that the Lord is all attractive. Everyone will accept this but we will not call the all attractive Lord ‘Krishna.’ We will accept for sure that the Lord is Lord of all the foundational knowledge which this world has of religion but this has now been distorted and there are deviations.

Aside from this the world has become divided in the form of different countries and partitions and also therefore in the form of different religions. The other partition is of those who say ‘we are religious’ and those who claim ‘we are atheist.’ The other partition is ‘we are Hindu and we are Muslim!’

‘You are Hindustani’s and we are Pakistani’s! We are black and you are white people.’ If someone is a woman then someone a man. If someone is poor then someone is wealthy and we are being crushed by these dualities. Okay so your problem here is that these Hindu’s and Muslims who are actually brothers are fighting at present. We have forgotten and so we are not Krishna conscious at the moment.

We are not even Allah conscious and there is no love of god. When we are truly Allah or Krishna conscious we will embrace one another. We are ignorant and have forgotten the Lord and we have forgotten each other. We are brothers and eternal friends but here in this material world we become the greatest enemies of each other and in Kali Yuga this is happening more and more.

Kali Yuga means the Yuga, the time of Kali and the two characteristics of this are one, hypocrisy which is so prominent and the other is quarrel in which there is constant fighting. These two activities are happening all over the world. So wherever you are there will be present these dualities. Krishna has said

yadrccha labha santusto
dvandvatito vimatsarah (BG 4.22)

Translation
He who is satisfied with gain which comes of its own accord, who is free from duality and does not envy, who is steady both in success and failure, is never entangled, although performing actions.

So to be free from dualities one has to rise above that duality. This means black and white and actually the world is full of dualities. Between woman and man, poor and rich, East and West, Hindu and Muslim, communism and capitalism and this and that. There are thousands of different dualities, mine and yours, countrymen and foreigners, insiders and outsiders and high class people and low class people.

So the situation you are in, wherever you may be there will be a type of duality. So you are trapped in these dualities and there are definitely problems due to this. Just like you can understand that there is communism which is there in Russian and the devotees there face so much pain and trouble due to this. They have had to go to jail and they have been arrested and beaten.

In Africa black people are being beaten up and so this discrimination is continuing in each part, each corner of this world. There is always some turmoil, some problem due to religion and problems in other places due to money or because of being black or white. Women say that ‘we are women and we want equality’ and in this way women are fighting.

So in all places to more or less degrees there is this discrimination. And the more we perform devotional service to Lord Krishna and preach devotional service in the most quarrelsome places and most difficult situations, as we are doing now, these tough situations propose to us a preaching opportunity.

The Lord becomes happy to see a devotee performing devotional service in normal conditions when they are in a happy situation and there are no political restrictions to performing that service and sadhana. So this is good and the Lord is happy to see this naturally, but devotees like yourselves in your situation which is not very favourable and you don’t have freedom, the Lord has made your circumstances a little difficult to perform devotional service so he is more happy to see you perform devotional service in your situation.

I am sure that you all have so many challenges and so you should
all stay united and be together. United we stand and divided we fall. In this way we can face any challenge just like you are doing. In doing this, please understand that you are not alone because the Lord is with you! The devotees are with you as is Shyamanand Prabhu who is always standing behind you.

Gopal Krishna Maharaja is there for you and I am here. I may not be there physically but my blessings and thoughts are always with you. All desires that we have in devotional service are there by the blessings of Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and this mission is that of Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

ajanu-lambita bhujau kanakavadhatau
sankirtanaika pitarau kamalayataksau
visvambharau dvija varau yuga dharma palau
vande jagat priyakaro karunavatarau (Caitanya bhagavata 1.1.1)

I offer my respects unto Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Sri Nityananda Prabhu, whose arms extend down to Their knees, who have golden yellow complexions, and who inaugurated the congregational chanting of the Holy Names. Their eyes resemble the petals of a lotus; They are the maintainers of all living entities; They are the best of brahmanas, the protectors of religious principles for this age, the benefactors of the universe, and the most merciful of all incarnations.

This Karuna Avatar, merciful incarnation is Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and sankirtanaika pitarau, the founding fathers of the Sankirtan movement are Gauranga and Nityananda Prabhu. They are the ones who are reestablishing the principles of religion. Guru Gauranga Jayataha, we say.

There is the pradarsaka guru, then siksha guru and diksha guru and then there is the Chaitya Guru which is Krishna in your heart. So in this way they all support you and are with you and the situation you are currently in over here at the moment is the same situation they previously had in Mayapur and Navadwipa, Bengal. The Muslims had reached over there and they are there even now and that is where Chand Kazi was also.

When Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s kirtan party would start Sankirtan over there –

udilo aruna puraba bhage?
dwija mani gora amani jage,?
bhakata samuha loiya sathe,?
gela nagara braje (Arunodaya Kirtana 1)

When the rising sun appeared in the East, the jewel of the twice-born, Lord Gaurasundara, awakened, and, taking His devotees with Him, He went all over the countryside towns and villages

When the Lord at sunrise would take many devotees with him and would come out,
then:

‘tathai tathai bajalo khol,?ghana ghana tahe jhajera rol

The mrdangas (khol) resounded “tathai, tathai,” and the jhanjha (large metal karatalas that look like small cymbals) in that kirtana played in time

mukunda madhava yadava hari,?bolena bolo re vadana bhori

All the devotees chanted the names Mukunda, Madhava, Yadava and Hari, their mouths being filled with the vibrations.

The devotees are singing mukunda madhava yadava hari and they are chanting

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Just as they were chanting like this the agents of Chand Kazi came and stopped the kirtan, broke the Mrdangas and they had no problem in breaking the devotees’ bones. This is right there at the time of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Not only this but if you see the history of this and what was happening five hundred years back in Bengal, in Navadwipa, in Mayapur you will find that despite all this, Sankirtan never stopped.

So go on chanting and go on practicing Krishna consciousness and carry on celebrating the festivals like Jagannatha Rathayatra Mahotsava and Janmastami. So you know very well, what a state those bad, sinful people made of Haridas Thakur. They dragged Haridas Thakur through twenty two market places.

But he told them that ‘you can break my body into pieces but I will keep chanting the holy name wholly and fully.’ And indeed he did just this and he did not leave the chanting of the holy name. So once Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu gave a special darshan to the residents of Mayapur, Navadwipa.

He gave darshan for twenty one hours to different devotees and it was a very special darshan in which everyone was getting different realisations of the Lord. So when the Lord met Haridas Thakur at this time, Haridas Thakur noticed that on the Lord’s back there were many marks and indents of being hit by a stick.

So Namacarya Haridas Thakur asked the Lord, ‘what is this? What kind of marks are these?’ So Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu answered, ‘do you remember when the agents of Chand Kazi were beating you mercilessly? I could not tolerate this and so I took all that beating on my back.’

So in this way the Lord helps his devotee. He promises to always protect his devotee and the Lord is true to his promise. So go on practicing and preaching, the Lord is with you and so are the Vaisnavas. Also expand your preaching and stay in each other’s association and come together for Sat Sanga, stay in touch.

dadati pratigrihnati
guhyam akhyati pricchati
bhunkte bhojayate caiva
shad vidham priti lakshanam (Upadesamrita 4)

Offering gifts in charity, accepting charitable gifts, revealing one’s mind in confidence, inquiring confidentially, accepting prasadam and offering prasadam are the six symptoms of love shared by one devotee and another.

Rupa Goswami Prabhupada has said ‘dadati pratigrihnati’ offer gifts in charity and accept gifts. And if there is anything a devotee has on his mind then he should reveal his mind and you can help them. You can also be that devotee who needs to reveal their mind and in this way you can take help.

guhyam akhyati pricchati, if there is something close to or pleasing to the heart or something confidential you may inquire about it confidentially, guhyam akhyati pricchati – inquire and reveal your mind. Bhunkte bhojayate caiva, feed Prashad and take Prashad yourselves. Not just that you go to others’ homes to take Prashad yourselves.

You can also call those Vaisnavas to your homes and you can offer them Prashad and by taking Prashad together and performing devotional service together, doing Kirtan together and having Sanga’s together and giving Prashad, by doing all these things our relationship with each other will become stronger, solid relationships.

And this is what is needed and then when you come together you will be able to do many more amazing, magical things. In the jungle if a buffalo is attacked by a tiger, if it is alone then it will be a little difficult for the buffalo but one more buffalo comes and then another. When three or four buffaloes come then even the tiger will run away.

It’s the same thing with us so you all to have to be united and be together to support one another and to have common vision. The goal is obviously the same, to attain the lotus feet of Lord Krishna and to serve the Lord’s lotus feet. Do this in support of one another and expand the preaching. At least those who are Hindu, you can bring them back to the path of Krishna consciousness.

They are Hindu by birth and by their Karma and activities only, but this is not the way to attain devotional service so engage these people and attach them to the activities of Iskcon and to the movement. Because we are talking about Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu I will say that he had said before he departed that he was the only gardener.

‘How many fruits can I pluck alone and being all alone how many fruits can I gather? How many can I distribute alone?’ So Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is saying ‘distributers wanted! Come and take the fruits of Krishna Prem.’ just like you would fill baskets with fruits in the same way come and fill your book bags with books and go out and distribute them!

Otherwise fill your baskets with prashad and distribute it! ‘How much can I distribute alone?! You all come and bring more. Distribute this all!’ So this is Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ki jai! This is his movement and his order. So this is how he is thinking and this is his strategy.

This is the strategy that Srila Prabhupada has implemented throughout the whole world. So the world has made this distinction that ‘these are people from Hindustan and these are from Pakistan.’ This is all that has been done now but at one time the whole earth was under one banner called ‘Bharat.’

The emperors were those such as Raja Parikshit and King Yudhushtira and grandfather Bhishma. Their kingdom was Hastinapura, the headquarters of the whole world, Bharat, but it became partitioned slowly more and more and now we have a UNO in New York, United Nation of organisations.

Whenever Prabhupada would go to New York and pass this UNO building in the car- he was not driving the car himself but when he would pass in the car he would say ‘hey! One more flag and another one! What kind of United Nations is this?! It is the disunited nations!’ At one time there was just one flag, one Bharat and everybody was under that one nation, and mthey were known as Bharatiyas.

Every human being and every citizen was from the same one country and Bharat was the name of that country of which we all belonged. But in this Kali Yuga the policy is that of divide and rule and so the time factor is dividing the people under different banners, countries and under different religions, different this and different that.

So before sixty, seventy years ago India and Pakistan were one country and it could be that at that time the people of Afghanistan must have been saying ‘oh those people who are on the other side of the river Sindhu.’ Do you know the river Sindhu?

gange ca yamune caiva godavari sarasvati
narmade sindhu kaaveri jale asmin sannidhim kuru

Translation
Oh Holy Rivers Ganga and Yamuna, and also Godavari and Saraswati,
Oh Holy Rivers Narmada, Sindhu and Kaveri; Please be Present in this Water (and make it holy).

So the seven most pure rivers in Bharata Varsa are remembered even today and amongst them is Sindhu Maiya ki jai! So there is Ganaga Maiya and Sindhu river where the kingdom of Sindh is where Gandhar was. Where Gandhari was from and in Mahabharata there is description of this. So everything was under one flag and then we all divided it and split it all up.

Just like when the children of the family are small and all living together but when they become older what happens? They become separated and then they stop meeting one another. They do not even look upon each others’ faces. Once a man asked his friend, ‘do you ever meet your brother of not?’

The friend answered ‘yes, sometimes we meet. Whenever we have a court case to attend or a settlement we see each other there’ (laughter). Do you all understand? Those who used to meet at their home and play in the garden and embrace each other, without whom life became difficult to live and therefore they used to be together and live together always. And now, ‘yes, we meet.’

‘Where do you meet?’ ‘In court.’ So this is Kali Yuga. So wherever you may be in this situation, just expand your preaching

yare dekha, tare kaha ‘krsna’ upadesa (CC Madhya lila 07.128)

Translation
Instruct everyone to follow the orders of Lord Sri Krsna

Preach to as many people as you can. I keep getting reports of rathayatra in Karachi and in Pakistan and here and there. This news is then printed in Indian newspapers and with great pride the Indians read this and talk of this to others. ‘There was Jagannatha Rathayatra in Pakistan! In Pakistan this and in Pakistan that.’

So think and see how you can use ideas and leadership management to preach in this way. The leaders and organisers there like Shyamanand Krishna, you are a zonal supervisor or something, yes? So there are these managers of the temples and you must have so many festival committees.

I’m not sure but do you organise Padayatra or not? Actually this is a different thing. Bangladesh at one point was the same as Pakistan. There was West Pakistan and East Pakistan and Bangladesh was East Pakistan but Bangladesh was the popular part of Pakistan which has now become Bangladesh.

And actually there is so much Iskcon preaching in Bangladesh, have you heard or read about this or not? So there are thousands of devotees there and I myself have gone many times there and when there was rathayatra in Dhaka I attended. This was five, ten years ago and I saw that there were so many followers of Iskcon, Gaudiya Vaishnavism.

There were so many people in that rathayatra of a Muslim country-Bangladesh, Dhaka and as you may or may not know, I travel the whole world and I perform so many padayatra’s and am a part of so many rathayatra’s but the rathayatra I saw in Bangladesh, in Dhaka, I have not seen anywhere else outside India.

In India in Jagannatha Puri and Calcutta many people come together and my experience was that there were so many people in Dhaka also that the police who were all Muslims were controlling the crowd. There is also Padayatra happening there and I think we have over one hundred centres over there with many Namahatta’s in Bangladesh.

There is so much youth preaching and festival celebrations with book distribution happening and this was where the popular part of Pakistan, Bangladesh is. There is so much preaching over there and maybe this much preaching is not happening even in West Bengal. In India, as much Iskcon preaching as there isn’t even in West Bengal there is in India’s East Bengal, in Bangladesh.

So in this way you can see how you can take inspiration from all this and from these devotees. At one time they were also part of Pakistan and you are also Pakistani’s here. Actually you are all Vaikuntha Vasi’s, residents of Vaikuntha, not Pakistani’s and you know that the spirit soul has no connection with Pakistan or Baluchistan or Afghanistan.

But as I was saying that the people of Afghanistan may have been saying previously, ‘do you know those people, those on the other side of the river Sindhu? They are in Hindustan.’ So where they were pointing towards, the people of Afghanistan, that was also Pakistan because that was a part of Hindustan at the time. And Nepal was there as well as Lanka and Burma, all a part of Hindustan.

So get a little organised and increase your preaching online. Due to the coronavirus, all travelling and preaching has stopped and I am in Pandharpura for the last one and a half years. In my whole life I have never been in one place for such a long time and actually just maximum three days I have stayed in one place since taking Sannyasa.

Then next, next, next. So I have been stopped here and not only me but the whole world has stopped and there’s no movement. But along with this a good thing has happened and the government is also encouraging this working from home. So there is no need to go to office from home and we can stay there and so all your office work you do at home.

E-commerce and E-that and online this and online that but this was all happening. Now at least in India they are slowly opening things up again and so there was a demand in India. ‘We want wine! We want wine! What kind of life is it without alcohol?’

So what is the first thing that the Indian government did? They opened all the liquor shops. The thing which is most needed, the most essential thing, if we start contemplating on all such essential things then the first thing will be the liquor shops. So everything is happening online and the whole world is online so along with the world the Hare Krishna people are doing their preaching work online.

Just like you can see with Shyamanand Krishna and everybody else, we are in business right now, we are in business. Our preaching is happening although there is a lockdown. So as much as I have been stuck here now in Pandharpura, I have never stayed anywhere else before but as much preaching I have done in the previous one and half years or two years, I have never done before.

At the moment I am preaching here in Pakistan and in the afternoon I will be addressing another country at addressing another temple, another state in India and there are different meetings also. Today we have a meeting of Indian bureau in the evening but there is nowhere to come and go. We are stationed in one place and the social media such as zoom is the medium through which we can reach very far.

So at one time we were saying that the whole world has become one global village and that this internet has made the whole earth one village. Just like how we can easily go from one village to another and talk with the villagers there, in the same way we can do that now and we are doing that through the internet. So in the same way all you followers and organisers of Iskcon Pakistan use this internet as a medium and increase your preaching, communication and community.

You can even use Amazon to increase book distribution and in this way, preach. Ram Yagna Prabhu was saying to me that nobody comes to Pakistan to preach. Sarvabhauma Prabhu used to come but now since three, four years he hasn’t come.

Shyamanand Krishna who I was speaking about comes for half the year. So I was thinking that online Sanga and addresses or whatever else we can do, take advantage of this and you can invite senior devotees from all over the world and all over India who can address you all and you can have Sat-Sanga.

This could happen and by this happening you will get more inspiration and knowledge as well as devotion through preaching. Then you can preach more and this will definitely happen if you have more interaction with senior devotees from different parts of the world and from India.

Okay so like that keep performing kirtan

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

Chant your prescribed number of sixteen rounds daily with attention and follow the four regulative principles strictly. What else will you do? Read Srila Prabhupada’s books and distribute Prabhupada’s books. Honour Prashad, distribute prashad and go to Iskcon temples. First you make your own homes a temple and in this way reside in Vaikuntha.

There must be an altar and I am sure that you have one and Tulsi Maharani can be placed there. Can you also keep a cow, yes? Do you keep a dog? You can keep a dog but you cannot keep a cow, this is the problem (laughter). So give your full support to Iskcon, to Iskcon means give support to the supreme Lord and his service.

So whatever is happening, this Harinama is happening in the whole of Pakistan, this is the prediction of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

prithvite ache yata nagaradi grama sarvatra prachara haibe mora nama.

Translation
In as many towns and villages as there are on the surface of the earth my holy name will be preached.

So just as Mahaprabhu said, this is happening and will continued to happen. This Harinama preaching will spread and it will expand. It seems very difficult, ‘how is it possible? What?! In Pakistan and in Russia?’ Why not? Mahaprabhu has said ‘sarvatra prachara haibe mora nama’ and so this will definitely happen.

So there is no doubt about it. So I should stop now? Okay I can take some questions.

So wherever there is a temple you can have a Sunday school for the children like a Prahlad school and just like I said, make your homes a temple and the parents can put that example before their children. So by seeing this the children will become good-mannered and good children.

Prabhupada used to tell us that when he was a child he used to be sleeping and his father Gaur Mohan De would perform mangal arati and there would be the sound of ringing the bell and blowing of conch. So with these sounds small Abhay would awake and he would listen to mangal arati and watch the arati. So from his childhood Abhay had this spiritual training.

So you can do something like this maybe in the future when circumstances become favourable. You can run a farmhouse or something and have a farm community. There you can have Gurukula and Goshala. I don’t know if you have anyone here who can organise this or not. So you can think about this okay? Next question.

So you have worries that when we go to Vaikuntha will you have small children or not? Will you have your wife or not? ‘If this is the case then I will not go to Vaikuntha!’ You do not have worries like this, I hope? Okay so over there our soul is the one residing there in the spiritual world and the soul has a form and the soul has a name and a certain duty to fulfill.

The soul is a personality and it is not just a lump of mud , no the soul is
solid and has a form. So when we get liberated and we reach Vaikuntha or Goloka, whatever paintings we see of the Lord with his friends in the spiritual world, we see the devotees in the paintings, all these are the pure spirit souls, not the body.

There is no material body there, just spirit which is the body. The material body of five elements stays here and finishes here and the pure spiritual body is left which is the spirit soul and that spirit soul is what the Lord brings back to Vaikuntha loka and the soul stays there. Each spirit soul has a relationship with the Lord and each has a different Rasa, mellow with the Lord.

There are Santa rasa, Dasya rasa, Sakya rasa, Vatsalya rasa and Madhurya rasa which are the five prominent mellows and Rasa’s and then there are seven indirect Rasa’s. So all these different mellows have different flavours and that’s why they are called Rasa’s (juice). So each and every living entity has a relationship in a certain Rasa with the Lord.

In this way each Jiva stays with the Lord and the Lord plays with a particular devotee in a certain mellow or Rasa. In pastimes the Lord also needs the devotee, right? So along with the soul there is the supersoul, the supreme Lord and the Lord enjoys his pastimes in the spiritual world with his devotees. Over there all the relationships exist and there are the families of all the Jiva’s.

End.

Nityananda Katha

25th February 2021

Nityananda trayodasi ki jai!

This trayodasi is important because of it’s having been joined to the name of Lord Nityananda. Today is a very auspicious day, is it not? So because you know what day it is, you can say whether it is an auspicious day or not. So Balaram hoila Nitai, Balaram became Nityananda Prabhu and today is his appearance day.

So this is the reason why it is an auspicious day.

vande sri krsna caitanya
nityanandau sahoditau
gaudodaye puspavantau
citrau sandau tamo nudau (CC Adi lila chapter 1 text 2)

Translation
I offer my respectful obeisances unto ?r? Krsna Caitanya and Lord Nity?nanda, who are like the sun and moon. They have arisen simultaneously on the horizon of Gauda to dissipate the darkness of ignorance and thus wonderfully bestow benediction upon all.

So who is it that is being offered obeisances? Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu. Gaudodaye puspavantau, in Gaudadesh the two Lords have arisen on this day. Gaudodaye puspavantau- just like the sun and moon arise in the sky, in the same way the two Lords have appeared in the horizon of Gauda.

Citrau sandau tamo nudau.

They are unique and will always be unique. So Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was always there and Nityananda Prabhu was always there and now they are not here. This is never the case with the Lord. But we are here today and gone tomorrow, so what faith can you keep in this life?

Just think that the Lord is eternal and his pastimes are eternal as well, and in being so they are also unique. So Nityananda Prabhu is also amazing, unique. Citrau sandau, Sa means peace. Do you want peace? So Nityananda Prabhu gives one this peace, sandau. To give us peace the Lord appeared on this day.

citrau sandau tamo nudau. Tam means darkness or the mode of ignorance from which darkness appears. Tamo nudau. To the Lord who gets rid of this darkness, ignorance, to that Nityananda Prabhu we offer our obeisances.

tamaso ma jyotir gamaya

Translation
From darkness, lead me to light. (Shanthi Mantra from The Brhadara?yaka Upanishad)

‘Leaving the darkness, go towards the light’ and so Nityananda Prabhu appeared to take all us, conditioned souls towards the light. He has come to guide those who are going towards the light and also those who are in the opposite direction of the light. In the form of Guru, the spiritual master, he is the original spiritual master.

So in this way we can say

om ajnana timirandhasya jnananjana salakaya
cakshur unmilitam yena tasmai sri gurave namah

So Nitynanda Prabhu being the Adi Guru, first spiritual master means that this prayer should be put at his lotus feet. It is a prayer.

ajanu lambita bhujau kanakavadhatau
sankirtanaika pitarau kamalayataksau
visvambharau dvija varau yuga dharma palau
vande jagat priyakaro karunavatarau

Translation
I offer my respects unto Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Sri Nityananda Prabhu, whose arms extend down to Their knees, who have golden yellow complexions, and who inaugurated the congregational chanting of the Holy Names. Their eyes resemble the petals of a lotus; They are the maintainers of all living entities; They are the best of brahmanas, the protectors of religious principles for this age, the benefactors of the universe, and the most merciful of all incarnations. (Caitanya-bhagavata 1.1.1)

Are you all listening? Even if you are listening, it is difficult to understand what language this prayer is in. So the prayer I have just recited is a Stuti. Do you understand what Stuti is? We do not perform Stuti (praise) so how will one understand what that is? Because we are so egoistic why should we offer praise to others?

So Vrndavan das thakur was always ready to praise others and Vrndavan das thakur was himself Vyasadeva. Krishna has become Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Balaram has become Nityananda Prabhu. Balaram hoila Nitai. We must understand this once and for all and so please understand who Nityananda Prabhu is. Who is he? Balarama.

So Balarama has become Lord Nityananda and so to speak of the glories and pastimes of Gaura Nitai, Srila Vyasadeva has appeared. He appeared once before to write the glories of Bhagavatam. This is Srila Vyasadeva who has written the Vedas and Puranas and he appeared again five hundred years ago. He then wrote another Bhagavat, first he had written Srimad Bhagavad and then he wrote the Chaitanya Bhagavad. What is the name, please say! Chaitanya Bhagavad. Words like this do not even come out of our mouths and we don’t even listen or think these wonderful, auspicious thoughts. So we should practice these things.

So the first thing written in Chaitanya Bhagavad is this, ajanu lambita bhujau.
Two personalities whose arms are long. How long are these arms? Ajanu where the a means extending. Extending up to where? The knees, and so like this, ajanu lambita bhujau.

There are two personalities, Gauranga and the other is Nityananda Prabhu. Ajanu lambita bhujau kanakavadhatau. And both have been described as being golden in complexion. Krishna varna, the complexion of Krishna was Krishna, dark. But when he becomes Gaura Nityananda, they are both golden in complexion.

Balarama was Shukla Varna, white in complexion and so the complexions of both personalities have been described. But the clothes are the same colour, yellow. Lord Vitthal also wears yellow clothes because he is Krishna and so Krishna has become Chaitanya Mahaprabhu so Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is like the rising sun.

Krishna wears yellow cloth and therefore Chaitanya Mahaprabhu wears yellow coloured cloth. Balaram and therefore Nitynanda Prabhu too, what colour clothes do they wear? Blue, Nilambar. So Pitambar and Nilambar. Kanakavadhatau sankirtanaika pitarau. They have both appeared to propagate the holy names of the Lord.

So they initiated this Sankirtan movement and they stated ‘Param Vijayate Sri Krishna Sankirtanam.’ All glories to the process of Sankirtan ki jai! Sankirtanaika pitarau.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

The procession of sankirtan that takes place is flooded by the holy name. Just like the waves in the ocean which come in big ways and go up to the sky, then falling down. In this way we are called a movement, the Hare Krishna movement in which movement means to move or sway and dance.

Sankirtanaika pitarau kamalayataksau

Both Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu are being described here and both of them are lotus-eyed, not like us who have eyes like monkeys. And what kind of eyes they have? Lotus eyes and karana pariyantam, their eyes are blossomed like a blossomed flower where the petals have opened up.

So their eyes are so beautiful and blossoming that they look like they are looking behind and sideways as well. So the Lord’s eyes are like this and if you really want to know the Lord, you have come here to learn about the Lord. Then consider that this whole life has been awarded to you to understand the Lord.

So to know the Lord means to learn about his form. Does he have a form or not? Yes! So where should we start looking and learning about the form of the Lord? One is ajanu lambita bhujau. This is a description of how his long arms reach his knees. The Lord is Vishal, great and Prafulit, always joyful. He has lotus eyes with a lotus glance, this is a description of his eyes.

Dvija varau, they are the best of Brahmanas because Dvija means Brahmana. Dvija means twice because a Brahmana is he who has taken birth twice.

janmana jayate sudrah samskarad bhaved dvijah (Skanda Purana 239.31)

This is a second birth, Dvijah. Also the teeth are called dvija due to the fact that teeth are also born twice. Birds are also called Dvijah because they are born twice. So Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is the son of a Brahmana and also the best of Brahmanas. The Lord’s father’s name was what? Yes, Jagannatha Mishra. So who was the father of Lord Nityananda?

Yes, Hadai Pandit, so both these personalities were Pandits, scholars and Brahmanas as well. So Gauranga and Nityananda Prabhu were the sons of the best of Brahmanas. This is why it is said dvija varau yuga dharma palau. Understand this, yuga dharma palau. What is this current Yuga? Kali Yuga, yes.

And what is the process of attaining devotional service in this Yuga? We have to find out, but the Lord of course knows what Yuga is coming.

dharma sansthapanarthaya
sambhavami yuge yuge (BG 4.8)

Translation
To protect the righteous, to annihilate the wicked, and to reestablish the principles of dharma I appear on this earth, age after age.

So the Lord appears even in Kali Yuga and in this Kali Yuga the Lord himself has appeared but in other Kali Yuga’s Gaura Narayana comes and makes his appearance, not necessarily the supreme Lord himself. He is Gaura, golden in complexion and he is Narayana or Vishnu, Vishnu Tattva. But actually in this particular Kali Yuga the Lord himself has appeared. Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ki jai! He is actually the supreme Lord.

ete camsa kalah pumsah
krsnas tu bhagavan svayam

Translation
All of the above-mentioned incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord ?r? K???a is the original Personality of Godhead.

So ‘ete’ means all of these mentioned incarnations that Suta Goswami has mentioned in the first canto of Srimad Bhagavatam in the third chapter. Twenty four incarnations were supposed to be described but there is mention of only twenty two incarnations. So after counting the twenty two incarnations Suta Goswami says ‘ete camsa kalah.

All of the above-mentioned incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Sti Krsna is the original Personality of Godhead. Krsnas tu bhagavan svayam.’ So Krishna is the original personality of godhead and so who is Balaram?

Balarama is Svayam prakash, the first manifestation of Krishna and so Krishna and Balaram are both the original supreme Lord. So both Krishna and Balaram appeared at the end of Dvapara Yuga and in fact we should say that they appear Kalpe Kalpe, not Yuge Yuge. Because in each Kalpa there is an appearance of Krishna and Balaram who are the source of all other incarnations.

So these very same Krishna Balaram appeared in the beginning of Kali Yuga, five hundred years ago. Gaura Nityananda ki jai! In the form of Gaura Nityananda these two Lords appear and what is their message?

dharma samsthapanarthaya (BG 4.8)

Translation
In order to deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I advent Myself millennium after millennium.

It is said in the Stutis

sankirtanaika pitarau kamalayataksau
visvambharau dvija varau yuga dharma palau (Chaitanya Bhagavad 1.1.1)

Translation
I offer my respects unto Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Sri Nityananda Prabhu, whose arms extend down to Their knees, who have golden yellow complexions, and who inaugurated the congregational chanting of the Holy Names. Their eyes resemble the petals of a lotus; They are the maintainers of all living entities. They are the best of brahmanas, the protectors of religious principles for this age, the benefactors of the universe, and the most merciful of all incarnations.

It says herein sankirtanaika pitarau kamalayataksau. Both of these Lords have appeared as protectors of the religious principles of this age and they have also established these principles. So now let’s just say what these principles are.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

This is the dharma, the true religion, to chant Hare Krishna and to hear the Mantra as well. By hearing and chanting what will happen? Smaranam, remembrance and to do all this is the true Dharma, religion. When you were just dancing and chanting the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra, you became the best of religionists.

You performed Dharma, duty of religion and so by doing this you are the protectors of religion and the inaugurators of religion as well. This is what we become on behalf of Gaura Nitai. It is also said

dharma sthapana hetu sadhura vyavahara (Chaitanya Caritamrta Madhya 17.185)

Translation
A devotee’s behavior establishes the true purpose of religious principles.

A saintly person’s each action should be in connection to what? To establish the principles of religion. So all of the actions of Gauranga Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu – actually the Lord does not act or rather the Lord’s actions are called ‘lila’ pastimes. The Lord performs pastimes.

gaurangera madhura lila jar karne pravesila hridoya nirmala bhelo tar
(The Glories of Sri Gauranga from Prarthana verse 1)

Translation
If anyone gives submissive aural reception to the pleasing and sweet pastimes of
Lord Caitanya, then immediately his heart becomes cleansed of all material contamination.

Whatever the Lord does, each of his actions becomes a pastime. When we hear these pastimes our heart, which is so dirty becomes cleansed. Just like you wash your clothes with soap.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

So they gave this Dharma, religion of chanting the holy names and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu both together established this principle of religion of chanting the holy names of the Lord.

jagat priyakaro karunavatarau

Translation
They are the best of brahmanas, the protectors of religious principles for this age, the benefactors of the universe, and the most merciful of all incarnations. (Caitanya-bhagavata 1.1.1)

Whatever Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu have done is for the welfare of the whole universe.

golokam ca parityajya
lokanam trana karanat
kalau gauranga rupena
lila lavanya vigrahah
(Markandeya Purana)

In the Kali-yuga, I will leave Goloka and, to save the people of the world, I will become the handsome and playful Lord Gauranga.

Which place are Gauranga and Nityananda Prabhu from? Goloka. Goloka namni nija dhamni. And in Goloka there is Navadwipa, Mayapur and in Goloka there is Swetadvipa which is also known as Navadwipa, Mayapur. From there Gauranga Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu have descended.

Golokam ca parityajya, he has left Goloka behind, he has renounced Goloka and today, on this day Lord Nityananda has reached here. For what reason he has done this? Golokam ca parityajya lokanam trana karanat. So Nityananda Prabhu has appeared on this day in Ekachakra Dham as the son of Hadai Pandit and Padmavati, he has become their son.

Nityananda Prabhu was very beautiful, and should he be so or not? He is the actual ornament of all beauty and original beauty is his only. The Lord is the one who steals our consciousness, this is what type of form he has and this is exactly what was happening in Ekachakra Gram. In Ekachakra Gram everybody, all the residents’ beloved, star of their eyes was Lord Nityananda.

When people would look towards the Lord they would look at him wide-eyes. They would just continue to stare with wide open eyes and their eyes would not even blink. They would then drink in the beauty of Lord Nityananda. They were not understanding why this was happening as they probably were not understanding that this is the supreme Lord.

But at the same time they were thinking ‘there is something special about this child. He is amazing and he is a such beautiful child.’ Just like we were saying the other day, they must have got some clues because just like children continuously play, in the same way Nityananda Prabhu would go to school, Gurukula.

Just as children in school play, just like here they are currently making a playground for children and the children become happy. Children by nature like to play and Nityananda Prabhu was a child as well and so he played almost all the time with his friends. But all their playtime would be the enacting of the different pastimes of Krishna in Vrindavan.

So in the mood of Balaram, Lord Nityananda played his pastimes and Nityananda Prabhu would also become Balaram. Balaram is there as Nityananda as Dhenukasura is being killed and Pralambasura is being killed in his childhood play. So Lord Balaram was very fond of honey and he would get some honey and he would drink to his satisfaction.

He would become intoxicated after drinking the honey and would then reach the banks of the Yamuna and he would be remembering his Rasa dancing and then on the banks of the Yamuna Lord Balaram would perform his Rasa dance. In Vrindavan there is a place called Ram Ghat where Balaram would perform his Rasa dancing pastimes.

So in Ekachakra Gram there would be many pastimes that Nityananda Prabhu would perform all the time. So many pastimes they would enact, just like the pastimes in Sri Lanka. So Rama and Lakshman have reached Lanka. Yes, Lakshman has reached. And who is Lakshman?

Nityananda Prabhu has become Lakshman. In Rama lila, who was Lakshman? Nityananda Balaram was Lakshman in Treta Yuga. In Dwapar Yuga he is Balaram and in Kali Yuga he is the one and only Lord Nityananda. So all this play was going on and then one day a Mahatma, a great saint reached the home of the Lord’s father.

So atithi devo bhava. What is the meaning of this? So a guest must be welcomed in one’s home because a guest is meant to be understood as being a demigod. So the saint stayed for some time and when it was time for his departure he said ‘give me this child, could you do so please?’

So his father said ‘yes, you can take him.’ He did not want to give his son and be apart from him but a sage was asking for his son and so how was he to refuse? One cannot refuse a saintly person so when the Lord was still only a child, the saintly person took him away with him.

Lord Nityananda did yatra, pilgrimage with that saintly person through the whole of India, Bharat (India) darsana. Would you like to do like this? (Shouts of Haribol)! Then you have to leave your homes. You have done your Haribols but think again. ‘Hey we have to leave our homes?!’ But leaving one’s home to perform Yatra is a very joyful experience.

Just to perform yatra, pilgrimage is such a joyful experience. This joy is much greater than the joy of household life at home. So in this way Lord Nityananda Prabhu was always in a joyful mood. Once a pilgrim was coming from Pune to Dindi and he stayed some days in Pandharpura and he was interviewed about his experience.

So he was asked ‘how is your pilgrimage going in Dindi, is everything well?’ So this Warkari, devotee was from Puri and so he said ‘well there is no peace here as there is always a storm or some other reason for concern, so no peace here but there is happiness!’ (Shouts of Haribol)!

He also said ‘in Pune there is a peaceful, comfortable life but there is no happiness over there.’ So in Pune there was comfortable life but no happiness and in Dindi there is no peace but there is happiness. This shows that happiness is not dependent upon peaceful situations. So the means of attaining peace is there in

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

So in whatever situation, peaceful or not, just perform devotional service. Hari Hari. Take the Lord’s darsana and take prasadam as your diet. In doing this you will find only happiness. So Nityananda Prabhu was acting in the exact mood of Lord Balarama and acting in the same way as Balarama.

At the time of the Kuruksetra war, Lord Balarama was around. He was not participating in the war but he was somewhere at the time. And Lord Balarama was not happy at the prospect of there being a war and so he didn’t want to take any part in it. Therefore whilst the war was going on, Lord Balarama set off on a tour of pilgrimage to all the holy places in the whole of Bharat, India.

So this very Balarama has come as Nityananda Prabhu and so in the same way that Lord Balarama performed pilgrimage, Lord Nityananda is performing Yatra as well. So Lord Balarama during his travels whilst on pilgrimage came to Pandharpura. (Shouts of Haribol)!

This is the information we have and so if Balarama Prabhu came then Nityananda Prabhu would have come as well. So Nityananda Prabhu reached Pandharpura and he stayed in Pandharpura for some time. He became a resident of Pandharpura for some days, you can say.

Jagannatha Snana Yatra
Iskcon Mauritius
26th June 2021
Hare Krishna. Jagannatha Baladeva Subhadra ki jai.

Srila Prabhupada ki jai.

Okay so I see some devotees some Mataji’s, Prabhu’s and Maharaja, there is Sri Krishna Chaitanya Swami Maharaja and I think there are so many more that I cannot see. I think you are most probably seeing me but it is also important that we also see the devotees.

Then I was thinking that it is more important just to see the Lord otherwise what good are these eyes if they do not show us the Lord and we don’t use the eyes to see the Lord? English is okay right, I think, yes? There is no-one to tell me yes or no. I think yes.

Jagannatha Swami nayana patha gami bhava tume
(Jagannatha Astaka)

This prayer is part of Jagannathastaka. And He will be there, nayana patha gami. Nayana are the eyes and patha is the path so eyes on the path. In Sanskrit it is Patha so they have just borrowed this word patha from the mother language Sanskrit.

‘May you be on the path of my eyes or be there wherever I turn. Please give me darasana.’

So that is the prayer and so that Jagannatha Swami is giving is darsana in the form of the deity. Kindly He is giving darsana in the form of deity and He gives us an opportunity to not only see but serve also. And today is that opportunity of seeing and serving Jagannatha on His snana yatra day.

Jagannatha Snana Yatra Mahotsava ki jai!

So this is one of the great festivals of Jagannatha Puri and of Jagannatha.

Jagannatha Puri is known for its festivals, a series of festival after festival and it is full of festivities. Jagannatha Puri is known for its festivals but today is a very special festival and of course in Jagannatha Puri it was held a few days ago, precisely on Jyestha Purnima day. Chitra, Vaishakh, Jyestha. This is the third month and then a full moon. Jyestha Purnima day is the day of snana yatra in Jagannatha Puri.

So a long, long time ago, don’t ask me how long ago (laughter). Probably no one knows or no one could say exactly how long ago. On that day of Jyestha Purnima, King Indradyumna also did snana (bathing) of Lord Jagannatha. In fact that was the first ever snana of Jagannatha and that first snana yatra day is considered the birthday of Jagannatha Baladeva Subhadra.

On that day they officially appeared as Jagannatha Baladeva and Subhadra. So what we do every year is celebrate the birth anniversary of Jagannatha on snana yatra day, Jyestha Purnima day. And there’s a whole process that is followed since long, long time ago in Jagannatha Puri. A process which is there in the scriptures, on snana yatra day.

Snana yatra day is one of the two days, two times where He comes out of his mandir, Jagannatha Mandir (temple). And then the rathayatra day. So that is the second time and so there is only two times He comes out. So Jagannatha, He doesn’t come, He is brought, He doesn’t have legs to walk so devotees pick Him up.

I was just remembering your Jagannatha in Mauritius, your Jagannatha is a huge Jagannatha, you have a big Jagannatha, I haven’t seen any big size Jagannatha like your Jagannatha in Mauritius which is right behind the screen curtain there. but of course Jagannatha Puri’s Jagannatha is the biggest deity in the world.

Otherwise also He is Jagannatha, so he has to be the biggest one and the heaviest one and that Jagannatha, the Panda’s they carry Him to the altar outside in the courtyard of Jagannatha Puri temple. I don’t know, probably you have enjoyed Jagannatha’s prasadam in Jagannatha Puri temple. There is a whole ananda bazaar, they call it.

Tons of prasad is sold, distributed and many buy and they just sit down there and they just relish Jagannatha prasadam. So in that area, the ananda bazar area, there is a special altar and it is always there. And only once on that day, once in that week and once in a year they have snana yatra day and at that time it is very well, beautifully decorated and the deities preside over on that alter.

And then exactly like rathayatra day, that kind of crowd gathers in Jagannatha Puri. Probably this is the next big crowd in Puri, Snana Yatra day. Thousands in attendance to witness, today of course only ten, fifteen devotees have come. Of course more could have come but because of this pandemic I could see you all with a mask on.

But in Puri a big gathering comes to attend this festival and to witness this festival. The bathing of Jagannatha Baladeva Subhadra happens only once in a year on Snana Yatra day. On ofher days they do Abhishek of Uttsava Murti but on Snana Yatra day they directly pour water on Jagannatha Baladeva Subhadra and this water is not from anywhere and everywhere, it is not tap water or well water, no.

In Jagannatha Puri temple in the courtyard next to Jagannatha’s kitchen- Jagannatha has a huge kitchen, a big kitchen. I had an opportunity to visit the kitchen. Of course we saw it from outside through the windows and doors and it is like a small, quite small but good sized factory and so next to the kitchen there is a well. So they draw the water from that separate well in either golden or silver or they may sometimes use copper pots.

This is part of the process which they follow and which is being followed for a long, long time. It is said that Brahma was the one who was presiding over the function of temple opening and deity installation of Jagannatha Puri temple. Brahma! Brahma personally was present!

arati karena brahma adi deva gane

As we sing everyday in sandhya arati that Brahma offers arati of Gauranga and Jagannatha is Gauranga, He is Krishna.

jei gaura sei krishna sei jagannatha.

So Brahma was present and he is worshiping Jagannatha including the snana yatra process. So they follow that and it is all written and they follow that. So water is then bought in a procession and there are special pujaris, daitas, and only they can carry those pots. Then with mantras and singing with playing instruments, water pots are bought to the altar and the grand abhishek, the auspicious ceremony of bathing Jagannatha Baladeva and Subhadra, this snana yatra takes place.

There are thousands who come to witness the snana yatra of Jagannatha Swami.

Jagannatha’s Swami ki jai!

The different bhoga offerings go on and the offering of flowers and prayers happen and this is the day where in the evening or during the day there is a very special dressing. The Lord is dressed like a Gaja. Gaja vesha, like an elephant with a trunk and big ears and he looks exactly like an elephant, all the three deities Jagannatha Baladeva Subhadra, on this day of snana yatra day.

I don’t know whether you were here but that is what you should be also doing, offering obeisances to this Hathi vesha to Jagannatha. There was some time in the past when a devotee of Ganesh was visiting Jagannatha Puri temple on snana yatra day. Of course his Istha Deva (worshipable Lord) was Ganesh and so he was expecting Jagannatha to also look like Ganesh.

As He had come and seen Jagannatha but there was no resemblance the Lord was not looking like Ganesh so this devotee was disappointed and he was going away. So Jagannatha realized the disappointment and then the Lord prompted one of the Pujari’s. ‘Hey go call that particular person and ask him to come back.’

So that is what the pujari did and the Ganesh bhakta was back in front of Jagannatha and the Lord was dressed, or rather the Lord had dressed Himself and He gave darsana looking like Ganesh, looking like an elephant as you know. Ganesh’s half elephant head part and the rest is human like. So that is another speciality and so from that time Lord Jagannatha displayed that pastime of looking like and dressing like Jagannatha.

So from that day onwards or that year onwards on snana yatra day that is the dress Jagannatha wears. So as you know I don’t know what season you have in Mauritius but the rainy season is here in India at that time and in Jagannatha Puri also. So while bathing Jagannatha the cool wind is blowing and this caused the sickness, Jagannatha becomes sick and feverish so the day after snana yatra is another utsava, another festival if you want to call it a festival.

They call it Annavasara Utsava, festival and this lasts for two weeks and the speciality of this festival is that the Lord is playing the pastime of a sick person. He is sick and he is not well! The doctor comes and the diagnosis is done and the prescription is bed rest for the Lord. No visitors. So from the day after snana yatra all the doors are completely closed shut and not a single visitor is allowed inside.

And Jagannatha Swami is on a diet. There is no deity in the world who enjoys as much quantity of bhoga, the amount of bhoga offerings that Jagannatha has. The Lord enjoys so much rice and other preparations. We have seen and I have seen that six times a day, as I told you that the factory, the kitchen of Jagannatha has one thousand cooks! How many people do you have in Mauritius? There are one thousand cooks cooking for Jagannatha and he enjoys big meals six times a day!

So the Lord is known for His dancing in Rasa Lila in Vrndavan and like that in different places He is known for different things and in Jagannatha Puri the Lord is known for His big bhoga.

bhoktaram yajna tapasam
(B.G 5.29)

Translation
‘I am the enjoyer of all sacrifices.

So He is a big bhogi, big bhokta, big enjoyer but during this time He drinks some juices with some herbs and therefore this is quite a austere program for Jagannatha as He is not well. The doctors and Laksmi personally is looking after the Lord and of course this is a lila, a pastime of the Lord. The snana yatra abhishek is a pastime and in getting sick, that is a pastime also.

Our getting sick, could that be called a pastime? ‘You know I have coronavirus – I am a positive case and this is my pastime. I am playing a pastime.’ We can’t say that so that’s the big difference between us and the Lord or our bodies and Jagannatha’s body. In fact Jagannatha does not have body but Jagannatha is the body.

We have a body and we think we are that body. This ‘we are’ is our illusion. We are the soul and we have a body. So there are two things but in the case of Jagannatha, He is the body, He is the form. When we get sick and this happens to us and that happens to us and so much suffering, the reactions of this karma and that karma. Karma catches up with us we are inconvenience and we have to suffer.

After all this we still have to take another birth but that does not apply to the Lord, does He have to take another birth? No, He is getting sick and these are His pastimes, this is not bad Karma.

na mam karmani limpanti
na me karma-phale sprha
(BG 4.14)

Translation
There is no work that affects Me; nor do I aspire for the fruits of action

The Lord has already declared in the Bhagavad gita that karma cannot entangle or bind the Lord. So during his Annavasara, snana yatra this is another festival of the Lord getting sick, but does He really get sick and does He really have fever? One year there were some Iskcon devotees, Yatri’s in Jagannatha Puri and they were talking amongst each other and some were saying ‘Hey does He really get sick? I don’t think so, I don’t believe it.’

So some talk was going on and then this reached some Panda’s ears and then that Panda said, ‘Are any of you doctors here?’ There were some doctors so he asked them ‘Do you have a thermometer?’ They said ‘Yes we do’ so that pujari, the Panda brought that thermometer and touched the place under the arms, the arm pit.

After some time the reading was measured, 104 fever! The pujari showed that to the Hare Krishna walas, just see. And the devotees were convinced, ‘Yes yes the Lord is sick, Lord is sick.’ So in Jagannatha Puri you will not get darsana of Jagannatha during that period. If you really want to have darsana of Jagannatha at that time you will have to travel some twenty or thirty kilometres away from Jagannatha Puri.

What is that place? It is called Alarnath. Lord Jagannatha gives darsana in Alarnath where He is a deity and He doesn’t look like Jagannatha. It’s a Vishnu form and the Alwar’s from South India have been serving this deity. So from Alwar it became Alarnath, the Nath (Lord) of the Alwar’s.

The Alwar’s are special vaisnava poets and they are great devotees of the Lord, always glorifying the Lord. So they have been taking care of this deity near Jagannatha Puri, so the name is Alarnath. In Jagannatha Puri He is Jagannatha and over there He is Alarnath. So that used to be Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s program, during this Annavasara period Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would go to Alarnath and take darsana.

At one time He was taking darsana and He fell flat on the ground and in fact He fell on a rock and by the touch of Gauranga Mahaprabhu’s Gaura Anga, His golden form, His ecstatic and trembling form, as this form touched that Sila, that rock, it melted! After dandavat pranam, offering of obeisances like a stick, as Mahaprabhu stood up He left an impression of His form on that stone.

And if you ever go to Alarnath, we have been there a number of times and we have seen the Sila. It is there and you can take darsana of that Sila and it will remind you ‘Yes, Mahaprabhu was certainly here taking darsana.’ So in Jagannatha Puri there is festival after festival and a series of festivals beginning with snana yatra and then Netra utsav and Gundicha marjana and then rathayatra and Hera Panchami and Ulta ratha.

Okay Sri Ksetra Jagannatha Puri Dham ki jai!

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare