COME TO PANDHARPUR FOR ASADI EKADASI THIS YEAR

Hare Krishna!

What can be done for those who find it difficult to join us due to the time factor, I was thinking. I forgot to mention that the Mauritian devotees are keeping a Japa sadhana card. Depending on the month’s attendance the best score will be announced. 100% attendance or no attendance at all. We also get scores like that. Mauritius is taking a lead in keeping track of the chanters, filling our Sadhana-card. You can circulate that sadhana card to other countries. We can keep some track. We can announce scores from time to time of the best performer. That is also in the pipeline.

There is festival coming up in Pandharpur in July. You must have received some invitation in that regard. It’s my 70th birthday party. We also have a big undertaking of Srila Prabhupada ghat on the banks of Chandrabhaga and there is a Chandrabhaga temple. There will be and inauguration of both. If you come then I was thinking we could also chant together. This is also chanting together or we can say almost chanting together. At the end of this chanting Japa session we have been distributing prasada. Somethings like that you can’t experience in the conference when you are away. There is no substitute for the personal, spiritual presence and face to face communication. Anyway I am just letting you know that the opportunity is there.

Our festival organising committee or reception committee is trying to reach out to all the devotees, specially disciples, so that we can have a family reunion. Again Mauritius is leading. Fifty devotees have already booked their travels. 25 devotees from South Africa have booked their flights. Krishnabhakta Prabhu is already sitting there in Pandharpur and started his preparations. He is on the ground as festival co-ordinator. Then we could all sit together, do our Japa together, chant and dance together and have prasada together. There will be a Kirtana Mela for 3 days in Pandharpur. You can take part in that. We will like to distribute Srila Prabhupad’s books. 7000 Bhagvad-Gitas are to be distributed. We are looking for sponsors for that. We wish to distribute 70,000 plates of prasada to the pilgrims or Varkaris. Ekalavya Prabhu is one of the festival advisors. He will be going there a month in advance. Sundarlal Prabhu and Ram Govinda Maharaja as well. There is a whole team that is going to arrive in Pandharpur 2 – 3 weeks in advance. So come! We will be there. Be part of this happening. It’s going to be mini Kumbha-mela because this is time we are expecting 2 million pilgrims in Pandharpur. Some of them will join us.

This is Pandharpur Dham’s major festival time. It will be Sayana Ekadasi. It’s the time when the Lord prepares to take rest. He will be sleeping for 4 months. Caturmas is a time when the Lord rests. So pilgrims come to take darsana of Panduranga or Vitthal. Vitthal is the presiding Deity of Pandharpur worshiped by Sant Tukaram and so many saints and it is also my family Deity.

Caitanya Mahaprabhu had come and spent eleven days in Pandharpur. He was a busy person and had lots of things to do. If He could spend eleven days in Pandharpur and stay there, then why not you? Nityananda Prabhu had come to Pandharpur and he was initiated there. Visvarupa left Mayapur and travelled all over India and had then come here to Pandharpur. Visvarupa is also Lord. He is a partial expansion of Balaram. Balaram hoile Nitai and Balaram hoile Visvarupa.(Balaram became Nityanand Prabhu, Balaram became Visvarupa) So that Visvarupa wound up his pastimes in Pandharpur. That’s quite a significant pastime which took place in Pandharpur.

We have a major project there – Sri Sri Radha Pandharinath temple. We have started with a ghat project. We have a big temple project, goshala and we have been doing lots of things in Pandharpur for some years now. We also have Pandharpur ISKCON Jagannatha mandir. So this was a japa talk for today. It became an invitation talk so that we can chant together in person.

I am still here in Mayapur and Parikrama is also on. I was with the international party in Jagannatha mandir yesterday. There were 1100 Hindi speaking devotees. We were also remembering how the Parikrama started. We were 70 devotees in 1990. Now this year there are over 8000 devotees on Parikrama. Initially there used to be only one group. Now there is the Hindi speaking, Russian speaking, three Bengali speaking parties each having 1500 to 2000 devotees. We are happy that more and more devotees are joining Navadvipa mandala Parikrama. Numbers are increasing year after year after year because of all your efforts to spread the holy name every year. Those who receive the holy name wherever in whichever part of the world then immediately they come to know about Mayapur and then they make plans to come to Mayapur , go on Navadvipa mandala Parikrama. Holy name goes out, holy name spreads and connects to the soul and brings those souls to Mayapur. Holy name is Nama Prabhu who actually is Mahaprabhu in the form of Nama Prabhu. It goes to Russia, goes to Mauritius, goes to the East coast, goes to South Africa, Australia. Holy name is going and then souls are connected and then Bhakti-yoga happens. Relations are established with the holy name, the name of the Lord and the form of the Lord. Then that holy name brings them to Mayapur, Navadwip and Vrindavan also. We have been saying from Nama to Dham. Nama brings one to Dham. Krsna in the form of the holy name goes and brings you – ‘Let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go back home! You don’t belong to this place. You don’t belong to that place, you don’t belong to that place. Get out of here.’ So spreading of the holy name has just started. Sri Ganesha has been done as we say. It’s just the beginning. Lots more is about to happen.

Polish Festival is conducted by Indradyumna Maharaja. Sannyasis were talking about it. If you go back to Krsna that will happen. Then one will enter into the pastimes of the Lord at end of this life! It will be fun! It may happen 100 years from now, 500 years from now, Krishna consciousness is spreading far and wide – devotees everywhere, festivals everywhere, kirtanas everywhere. Maybe we should just stay on , stay on longer. Like-

na dhanaṁ na janaṁ na sundarīṁ
kavitāṁ vā jagad-īśa kāmaye
mama janmani janmanīśvare
bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī tvayi ॥4॥

O almighty Lord, I have no desire to accumulate wealth, nor do I desire beautiful women, nor do I want any number of followers. I only want Your causeless devotional service, birth after birth. (4)

Day after tomorrow I will be travelling to Kolkata during japa time. We will see if we can stop somewhere under the tree and if internet is available then we can conduct a session. So we will let you know tomorrow. See you chanting again tomorrow.
Hare Krishna!