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.

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

Translation
I offer my respectful obeisance unto my spiritual master, who has opened my eyes, which were blinded by the darkness of ignorance, with the torchlight of knowledge.
o? namo bhagavate v?sudev?ya
mantre??nena devasya
kury?d dravyamay?? budha?
sapary?? vividhair dravyair
de?a-k?la-vibh?gavit

Translation
O? namo bhagavate v?sudev?ya. This is the twelve-syllable mantra for worshiping Lord K???a. One should install the physical forms of the Lord, and with the chanting of the mantra one should offer flowers and fruits and other varieties of foodstuffs exactly according to the rules and regulations prescribed by authorities. But this should be done in consideration of place, time, and attendant conveniences and inconveniences.

This is how Bhagavatam begins.All obeisance unto the supreme personality of godhead. But when we say that we should also remember that we are offering obeisance to Bhagavatam itself or Bhagavatam himself. Bhagavatam is not different, it is Supreme Personality of Godhead.

k???e sva-dh?mopagate
dharma-jñ?n?dibhi? saha
kalau na??a-d???m e?a
pur???rko ’dhunodita?

Translation
This Bh?gavata Pur??a is as brilliant as the sun, and it has arisen just after the departure of Lord K???a 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 Pur??a.

Lord was getting ready to return, but then Uddhav said “No, no, I will also come with you, I can’t stay behind also, or without you”. And then Lord said “No, no, I will also stay behind, then in what form I will stay, in form of “Bhagavatam”. So Bhagavatam is itself Krishna, not different from Krishna

k???e sva-dh?mopagate
dharma-jñ?n?dibhi? saha
kalau na??a-d???m e?a
pur???rko ’dhunodita?

Translation
This Bh?gavata Pur??a is as brilliant as the sun, and it has arisen just after the departure of Lord K???a 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 Pur??a.

People are becoming blind, the greed, the lust, the anger is making them blind, they are not able to see, then what happens, then puran ark uditah… Then ShrimadBhagavatam is brilliant as sun, he is Lord himself- “koti Surya samaprabha”, means Lord himself had made available in the form of Bhagavatam, and giving the vision to the whole world, providing vision to the world, and that Bhagavatam, Srila Prabhupaad has given to us to the whole world. We distribute Bhagavata Geeta in Decemberbecause of Geeta Jayanti and that we had been doing from since the very foundation of ISKCON.

Every December – Geeta Marathon ki Jay. And now yet another marathon, we are getting into, settling in with this idea and we are calling it “Bhadra Purnima Campaign” or distributionsets of Bhagavatam, distribution Marathon. So, we do Geeta Marathon because Geeta was spoken in month of December. And we are doing this Bhagavatam distribution campaign/marathon in the month of Bhadrapada, because Srila Sukdev Goswami spoke Bhagavatam. He started recitation of Bhagavatam on Navami and then seventh day was BhadraPurnima,purnahuti. The completion of recitation of Bhagavatam took place on Purnima. So, these are the days of anniversary celebration. We celebrate the ShrimadBhagavatam recitation celebration by distributing Bhagavatam. Now if you want to please me, distribute my books- Prabhupaad said. And I have personally experienced this, I also was a book distributor. “Narad Muni travellingsankirtan party” was my party’s name. And we used to do reporting.

Mahaman Prabhu was talking about reporting, ChaitanyaMahaprabhu associates were doing reporting to Mahaprabhu. So, whenever we reported, I personally report the scores of books and experienced the joy, the happiness, pleasure of Srila Prabhupaad. So, now is the time to distribute Bhagavatam. We never less, we are not known for distributing a smaller number of books, so we always distribute more books. So, we already had distributed certainly more books, 2-3 years ago. Bhima Prabhu said this, Bhampe was the first temple to start, they distributed 35 sets of Bhagavatam, I want to thank and congratulate Bhima Prabhu for inspiration and VaishashikPrabhu also.

They got behind this Bhadra Purnima Campaign and it is going now. And then ICC chairman Prabhu and we have a team and we are pushing year after year, we are organizing Inspirational talks and saying MayapurSankirtan party,there are 50 devotees. And no wonder, why they are distributing they are no. 1 in the world. How keen they are to understand, hear and get further inspired. And I must say book distributing devotees were very dear to SrilaPrabhupaad. So, you all MayapurSankirtan and all the assemble devotees, right now right here, you are very dear to Srila Prabhupaad and because you are dear to Srila Prabhupaad, I would also like to say that, you are dear to me. So, you all assemble devotees, I am happy that youhave assembled and our family business is book printing and book distribution, otherwise we are not businessmen but we do this transcendental business of printing and distributing books. So, I was saying we increase book distribution and I am confident that we are collectively going to distribute more books, I go for it, double it – Prabhupaad used to say this. Devkinandan prabhuji has said that, try for that, but certainly we have to distribute more sets of Bhagavatam compare to the previous years that we have to make refer, I was thinking, how organization is being organized is important.

I was just reminded, during last days of Srila Prabhupaad he was with Giriraj Prabhu that time. Prabhupaad said how this movement will go on after I am gone? And Giriraj Prabhu responded, will chant Hare Krishna, will follow four regulative principles and like that. But Prabhupaad was not impressed and he kept quiet for long pause, and then Prabhupaad said, he just said two things, organization and intelligence. So, when you put this together, Prabhupaad has faith in intelligent organization or intelligently organized. So, for this book distribution purpose marathondistributing sets of Bhagavatam, we are getting organized but if we could get more intelligent organization behind this effort of book distribution and again Prabhupaadhad policy is where 2 heads are better than 1 and 3 are better than 2 and like that, collective effort putting everyone, giving their inputs and ideas, so keep doing this prabhuji, as many prabhujis are behind this effort. So, I also was thinking we need to distribute more Bhagavatam because there is big war going on right now. The Russians and Ukraine is battling. That battle can be counteracted only with the weapon. What could you say, which weapon should counteract with the bombs and missiles are being showered?

Is Bhagavatam. Geeta and Bhagavatam, we always say these are time bombs and you know the Srila Prabhupaad – The Senapati Bhakta, Commander-in-Chief, while he was riding in Jalduta boat and headed towards America and there preaching means fighting. And what was he carrying? He was equipped with Bhagavatam. So, there is something called collective consciousness, individual consciousness gets adds up, adds up, forms the collective consciousness of the world and Prabhupaad,of course said this- “the revolution in consciousness could be brought about by Krishna Consciousness and by Bhagavatam and Bhagavata Gita”. So, this world needs transcendental weapon more than ever before. So, let us make a very special effort and I was thinking it works, the message of Bhagavatam works on the individualconsciousnessandthencollectiveconsciousness.TherearedevoteesofKrishna, thosewho have read Bhagavatam, they are in Russia and they are also in Ukraine, so what about those Russian devotees? And what about those Ukrainian devotees? Are they battling / fighting?No.

Theyareofferingobeisanceandtheyareembracingeachotherandtheyareexchangingpeace, love and all that. So those who have studied Bhagavatam, this is what happens to them. So, we want to increase number of such personalities people on this planet and that is possible by this Bhagavatam. And ofcourse, chanting the Holy name of God and prasadam.

Lord in different form, but here we are talking about Bhagavatam, and I was also thinking other so-called religions- the books of religion – Bible, the Quran, the GuruGranth Sahib. We don’t just have a book, but we have a library of religion, not just one book of religion, and that library is Bhagavatam – the wholesome, complete and very potent. So, let’s go for it and let’s distribute Bhagavatam, and this is the topmost welfare work we could possibly do, the distribution of Bhagavatam. And what is distribution of Bhagavatam, the distribution of Krishna or sharing Krishna or we are sharing Krishna’s name, form, qualities, pastimes, abode. There is so much ignorance in this world, so let us throw some light in the form of Bhagavatam and let people open their eyes andtheirhearts and let there be revolution in their consciousness.

“Sarvesukhinahbhavantu, sarvesantuniramaya,
sarvebhadranipashantu, na kas chiddukhbhagwavet”

Translation
May all sentient beings be at peace,
may no one suffer from illness,
May all see what is auspicious, may no one suffer.

GranthrajSrimadBhagavatam ki jay!Bhagavata distribution ki jay!Srila Prabhupaad ki jayand for sure, all the assembleddevoteeskijay! para?vijayate?r?-k???a-sa?k?rtanam,victoryisguaranteed,let’s gofor it!Gauranga!