19860114 Pongal Festival in Rām Kalyāna Maṇḍapam

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on January 14, 1986 at Madras, India. 

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram

Jayapatākā Swami: So on the last day of our auspicious transcendental festival of Śrī Śrī Jagannātha-Subhadrā-Balarāma Ratha-yātrā here in Madras, it’s a very joyful occasion, very auspicious occasion that we are able to observe fire sacrifice at which time the persons will be accepting pre-initiation, initiation blessings, which briefly His Holiness Bhānu Swami Mahārāja has explained. The Vedic literatures have given us various paths and various means, various angles of vision to understand what is this world, what is beyond this world. Four Vedas primarily tell us what are the various rituals we can perform to elevate ourselves to the higher planetary systems or Svargalokas. The Upaniṣads of which the Gītopaniṣad or Bhagavad-gītā is considered the cream, they tell us about the higher spiritual objective of life which is to achieve liberation, and in the Bhagavad-gītā there is also the message that of all forms of liberation, the achievement of the devotional service, or bhakti-yoga is considered to be the most sublime method. So it is further expanded in the Purāṇas where the practice of devotional service is explained, and that is explained in great detail especially in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa where the science of devotional service to Kṛṣṇa, and the glories of Kṛṣṇa, are very elaborately explained right from the very beginning stages to the transcendental pastimes in the 10th skanda and to the other evaluations of devotional service in the 11th and 12th skandas. So in the Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa advises us we should not become enamored by the flowery words of the Vedas, which tell us by doing certain rituals we will get so many nice cows, we will get so many various types of benefits. We should rather fix our mind on the higher purpose of life. So in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.3), Kṛṣṇa says:

manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu
kaścid yatati siddhaye
yatatām api siddhānāṁ
kaścin māṁ vetti tattvataḥ

That out of a thousand people, one person is interested in knowing what is the purpose of life, and out of thousands of such persons, interested parties, one person is able to understand what is the purpose of life. In out of such knowing persons, out of a thousand of them, one is actually able to achieve the Absolute Truth or to achieve liberation, or the realization of the self, and out of such self-realized souls it is very rare to find a pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa. So yesterday, the World Congress for the Synthesis of Science and Religion, they gave a report in which the Vice President of the World Council of Churches, he mentioned that some of the spiritual organizations are only concerned with that one of the thousand people who are interested in spiritual life. What about the other people who are not interested? And it implied that Christianity was concerned with those who are not interested in spiritual life. So that is correct, we are interested in those people who are interested in spiritual life, but we are also interested in those who are not interested, to interest them. Not to let them remain in the animalistic level of life, but to uplift them. So although Kṛṣṇa said that one of a thousand is interested, and out of one of those thousand, someone is actually able to understand. We are in possession of a secret which can break this bias. We have got a secret weapon. That is the mercy of Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu. That Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He predicted that by this chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa, you can deliver all of the people. Especially those people who normally would not get the opportunity, they get the opportunity by chanting, 

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

The one of thousand, those are regular customers. So to get the new customers, some special facility is given by Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Just like now during Pongal we are seeing on the newspapers, on the streets, special advertisement: ‘Rebates - 40%, 20%, 30% discount!’ This is not to attract the regular customers, regular customers are regular, you don’t have to attract them, they are coming anyway. This is just to attract the new customers. So in this age of Kali, Lord Caitanya is offering a special bonus, special discount. Normally you have to do so much meditation, so much austerity and tapasyā, so many yajñas, and so many saṁskāras and so many different kinds of rituals and penances in order to achieve spiritual advancement. But in this age of Kali, where it is not practically possible to do the Karma-kāṇḍa rules properly, so the route to svarga is practically not open to begin with, and people are not so austere to achieve the mokṣa which requires a tremendous amount of sannyāsī type of attitude. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu has given the opportunity to directly achieve Kṛṣṇa-bhakti which automatically includes all other lower stages, that automatically gives one all the options. This is confirmed in the Bhagavata Purāṇa (2.3.10) which states:

akāmaḥ sarva-kāmo vā
mokṣa-kāma udāra-dhīḥ
tīvreṇa bhakti-yogena
yajeta puruṣaṁ param

That if one has got akāmaḥ - no desire. No desire doesn’t mean literally no desire, because nobody can have no desire. Then if we had no desire, we would not be people, we would be stone. No desire means no independent desire from Kṛṣṇa. Akāma means that you are desiring only the things which Kṛṣṇa desires. This is the perfectional stage. Just like Arjuna, he had a separate desire to leave the battlefield, and to become a beggar, and to do so many things. Then he presented his desire to Kṛṣṇa that, “I don’t want to fight, I don’t like this fighting, I don’t like this violence, I don’t want to see the loved ones of mine being killed, on their blood of them if I achieve this kingdom there will be no happiness at all for me. Better that I leave the battlefield and don’t have to see this unnecessary shed of blood. So I am very confused about all these things, what I should do, what I shouldn’t do, I am bewildered about my duty, I surrender myself to you Kṛṣṇa. As your disciple, you are now my guru, now please tell me what I should do?”

At that time then Kṛṣṇa advised him that, “You can fight or you can not fight, and what will be the result, that this is the puṇya, this is the pāpa; this is what you should do according to the material standard.” Then He said, “But higher than that, if you fight on behalf of Me as a devotee, because it is My desire, then I will directly give you protection and I will make sure that you come to me.” So that means that Arjuna, he had got desire. But then his desire, when it became one with Kṛṣṇa’s desire, that was considered akāma. Not that to fight in the battlefield, he definitely had a desire but his desire became how to please Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa wants me to fight, I will fight for that. For his own sake he didn’t care to fight, but when he understood this is Kṛṣṇa’s desire, and my duty is to please Kṛṣṇa, then he became akāma. Not that his desire was not to desire. So when someone says to be a devotee one has to give up all material desires, this doesn’t mean that we no longer desire anything. Desires are there but they are purified. That purification happens over a period of time. Just like Arjuna, his grandson was Parīkṣit, to whom the Bhāgavata Purāṇa was spoken. So he had desire for children, he had desire for so many things, but because he had his desires purified, his child was a great devotee, his grandson was a great devotee. Grandson only came from the children, and so on. So in this way the devotee has desires. We have desires to achieve certain objectives, but gradually by taking advice from Spiritual Master and taking association from more advanced devotees and Vaiṣṇavas, those desires become purified so that whether one is the gṛhastha life, or whether one is in the renounced stage of life, or whatever stage one may be in, gradually the desires become in harmony with Kṛṣṇa’s own version. Then that person becomes akāma. Not that desireless means one has to leave the material world. One leaves the material world in another higher subtle sense. Not visibly but in a higher sense of karma, responsibility. That Kṛṣṇa takes charge of such a person who only acts on His behalf. So that’s one category – akāma.

The other category is sarva-kāma. If someone maybe be having all material desires, may want to be a great movie star, or a big politician, or Prime Minister, may not have such big desire but he may desire just to have so many material comforts and material things, because that is also one type of person that you find in this material world in great abundance.

So third category is called mokṣa-kāmī. That means he is desiring to achieve liberation from the material world. There is a difference between a mokṣa-kāmī and akāmī. Mokṣa-kāmī is not technically a devotee in the purest sense because that mokṣa-kāmī also wants liberation, independent liberation. That’s not devotional desire. They want liberation for themselves. So this means they want to end all sufferings of the material world, and experience the joy of ending this material suffering and merging into the existence of the Lord, something like that.

There are three categories of persons. Desireless, desire full and desiring to end it all by achieving liberation. So you might think that there should be three different activities for three different persons, but not according to this authoritative statement of Vyāsadeva. He said:

akāmaḥ sarva-kāmo vā
mokṣa-kāma udāra-dhīḥ
tīvreṇa bhakti-yogena
yajeta puruṣaṁ param

That all of these three, they should all engage in devotional service. They should all engage in devotional service and they will achieve all the desired results, and they will achieve the highest perfection in the end. The method is universal. Sometimes you find someone advertise medicine, “If you take this medicine, it will cure your cancer, TB, skin disease, hair falling out, teeth cavities and so on, so forth.” But no one believes in such universal cure, but such cures are often presented in the public. But this is actually the universal cure for all various stages of people, just to render devotional service. Without putting any condition on that service, you render that service, and whatever you desire that will be given. Just like Dhruva Mahārāja, he was not a pure devotee. He was a devotee with some desire in his heart but he was seeking out Nārāyaṇa. Finally, when he found Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa knew what he wanted. He wanted to achieve a kingdom greater than Indra, greater than Brahmā. So in this way Nārāyaṇa said that, “Now I will give you your own planet and there you can be the absolute ruler, and that planet will never perish even when the universe is finished. So your planet will be greater than Indra’s or anyone else’s in this universe.”

But then Dhruva Mahārāja said that, “I wanted this things before but now that I have seen you I realize that my desires were very insignificant, very petty, very small. That I was desiring a broken glass, instead I got the Kohinoor diamond, I got the greatest diamond. So what will I do with this broken glass, now that I have the diamond, now that I have you I want to simply engage in your service, and to have your satsaṅga always.” So this way the devotee always gets.

But that time Nārāyaṇa said, “No, you have this desire, so for 36,000 years you have uninterrupted absolute rule, and after that you can come to Me, and I will live with you on your planet.” So that time Dhruva was resenting that, ‘Because I desired like that, I got it.’ And certainly, he got everything he desired, but that time he was hoping that he could get back to Kṛṣṇa earlier. So those who have desire they will definitely get their desires satisfied but that time, then if they get purified, they may be thinking that this desire that I had was very insignificant, and if only I can get to Kṛṣṇa sooner that will be better. So that way they get their material desires satisfied. At the same time their consciousness is fixed in going back to Kṛṣṇa. So there is very little danger of them falling down again into the material repetition of birth and death. So this is the only safe method for achieving one’s desires, and at the same time going back to the ultimate safety of the paraṁ-padam, or the supreme destination in the spiritual world. So this process of devotional service therefore is for everyone. Whether one still feels that well I have some desire, whether someone feels that I don’t have any other desire, simply I want to serve Kṛṣṇa, or whether someone thinks that I want to simply achieve liberation and stop the suffering in the material world. Whatever may be their attitude, they should all engage in this process of bhakti, devotional service.

But as Bhānu Swami has mentioned, the process of engaging in devotional service is that one should surrender to Kṛṣṇa not simply in some imaginary way, but through authorized process. That means we approach a bona-fide spiritual master and become surrendered to that spiritual master, following the instructions of the spiritual master, and finally taking from him a complete shelter. Just as Arjuna, as I mentioned, he went to Kṛṣṇa and said, “You are the Guru now. I am Your disciple. Now You give me guidance!” So this is the duty of a person aspiring to advance in spiritual life, that they should approach the spiritual master, and place themselves before the spiritual master as a student, as a disciple, and request the spiritual master to give them guidance. Otherwise, you know how it is in the material world. If someone is going around giving other people advice, that may not be appreciated. Someone may say that, “Who is this person? Why is he always telling me what to do? My life is my business…”, and so on and so forth. This is the modern attitude, you see. So we don’t generally go around and give people advice. If they ask us, then we tell them. So this process of Kṛṣṇa-sevaka is if someone is formally saying, “No, I want your advice, I want your guidance. I am your disciple; I am your student. I accept you as my spiritual guide and instructing spiritual master. Please give me guidance so that I can make further advancement, because I am in need of such blessings and guidance, and because I believe in Kṛṣṇa, I believe in this process of devotional service, and therefore I want to advance in it as best I can, and for that I need the guidance of a spiritual master. So please give me this guidance.” Taking of the Harināma initiation is not the end of the line. That is another stage. That stage is when one person, after going through the other preliminary stages becomes firmly convinced that, “Yes, I want to do this in a full way for the rest of my life, and forever. And I feel confident that I can follow all the instructions of the spiritual master, as he gives them.” When that type of commitment is there, then one takes the Harināma-dīkṣā, and after taking Harināma-dīkṣā, then there are further stages like the brahminical or the Pañcarātrikī-dīkṣā, and finally the ultimate objective is that we reach the paramahaṁsa stage, or the stage of pure bhakti which goes beyond all formal saṁskāras, but which is the fruit of surrendering to guru and to Kṛṣṇa. So, until we reach the stage of that complete pure devotion, we should never become complacent or think that, “Now because I have undergone so many saṁskāras, so now I have got the qualification that now I don’t have to try anymore.” Rather the saṁskāras are to give us more strength to go on and to reach the higher stages. They are also to protect us from going down lower into degrading situations. They are a type of protection for us, but we have to never become lazy or complacent and stop to try making progress. We should rather be always enthusiastic and patient, being very convinced that if I follow this process, I will definitely become successful and be able to achieve the highest goal of life. So Kṛṣṇa-sevaka means one has this conviction that Kṛṣṇa is the Īśvaraḥ parama Kṛṣṇa, that he is the Eternal Lord, He is the Absolute Truth, and that His devotional service is the highest of all religious practices. This is mentioned in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, mentioned in the Vedas. In the Bhāgavata (1.2.6) it says:

sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo
yato bhaktir adhokṣaje
ahaituky apratihatā
yayātmā suprasīdati

That of all the religious principles of the human beings, the process of pure devotion to Adhokṣaja, to Viṣṇu, to Kṛṣṇa which should be free from any material condition, and which is uninterrupted. And that pure devotional service is completely satisfying to the self. So, this pure devotion is glorified as the highest form of the spiritual practice, the perfection of life. So when one has the conviction that I can understand that Kṛṣṇa-bhakti is the highest perfection, I want to achieve that, then they go to the spiritual master for guidance, and then they prepare themselves to gradually achieve that objective. We should always try to make steps forward, not try to make steps backwards. Sometimes we may not be able to go forward as quickly as we would like, but we should at least maintain whatever level we achieve and from there we should go. You see, the difference between pre-initiation and initiation is only this, that in initiation if someone follows all of the requirements, we make a guarantee that they will not take a birth again in the material world. That the spiritual master is obligated to somehow or another get them to Kṛṣṇa, and he has to take all of the responsibility for all of their karmas so long as they follow the instructions. The pre-initiations, that’s to whatever extent, because pre-initiation means that there may not be a full involvement, there is a partial involvement. To whatever extent you follow, to that extent you will get the shelter of Kṛṣṇa, and be able to advance. It is the guarantee, and you will be protected from going downwards in your spiritual life if you follow the principles. You will be able to progress and go higher. So the Harināma is the type of oasis, where just as when people are running in cricket, the crease. You have to get to the crease, otherwise you can be called ‘out’. So, if you get the full shelter, then you are in the crease, you are safe. You have to stay there of course. Otherwise, while you are still running in the material world you can at any moment, when death comes, that time you can get called ‘out’, unless at that time if you are able to remember Kṛṣṇa then you are alright, you got back in the crease. If you don’t remember Kṛṣṇa at that time, well for your service you are guaranteed that you get another chance in the future, you see. It’s not that the game is over. You can still get a second inning, you see. For those who don’t want a second inning in the material world, they want in the first inning to win the game and go back to Godhead, then you can gradually come to that platform, and that is our ultimate objective. So anyway it’s a bit privileged example, but since this is cricket season and people maybe knowing about cricket, so we should communicate to those forms that people can relate to. So I’m just giving that example.

The Kṛṣṇa-sādhaka is the person who has already been practicing the devotional service and becoming regular in the practice of it. So they are in the home stretch. They are getting very regulated, and they are almost qualified for initiation, for the Harināma, if they can go on. It’s something like this that we are trying to be 100% God conscious, but when we start we may be 10%, we become 20%. And even when we achieve 100%, we find that Rādhārāṇī, or the greatest of the consorts of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme of all the Goddesses of fortunes or Lakṣmīs, that although She is 100% Kṛṣṇa conscious, but She considers Herself to be less than 100%. So the devotee is always thinking that I am not 100%, I have still some more percent to go. So in this way, the devotee is always refining, 99, 99.9, 99.99, and the actually after a certain point they are 100%. But from their viewpoint they are always trying to increase the purity. So even if we get to be 70%, that is enough that we can go back to Godhead, but then we always try for 100%, then maybe we can reach 70-80. Just like someone, if they try to get 100% in their exam, then they may at least get pass/fail. But if they think let me just get pass/fail, they may also fail. We shouldn’t try for pass/fail, we should try for 100%, then gradually come up to that mark. Then at least if we get pass/fail, then after that, by Kṛṣṇa’s mercy, we can automatically come up to the full perfectional stage. So all of the ceremonies are completely voluntary, and the commitments which are made are totally up to the individual person. No one should feel any obligation, either spoken or implied, that they have to take any of these ceremonies. This is totally up to one’s own individual desire for advancing higher in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and for achieving real happiness in life. So if there is anyone that feels that this type of spiritual commitment is too difficult or one is not ready then there is no need of being ashamed or being anything else, one doesn’t have to participate at all, it's totally voluntary. If there is anyone that has any doubt or any questions if anyone has.

Many of the Kṛṣṇa-sādhakas live in the temple. The one’s who live outside, they are actually dedicated to worship Kṛṣṇa. The sādhakas. The sevakas and sādhakas are two levels. The sādhakas means that they are already dedicated to worshipping Kṛṣṇa. So when they are not able to attend Kṛṣṇa in the temple, then they will try to worship Kṛṣṇa in their homes, or in their hostel or wherever they are. So that means that as far as possible, whenever they get the opportunity, they should naturally go to temple and associate with the other devotees. There is no fixed rule that every third day, or every week. We haven’t made it a mechanical rule because there may be so many individual cases where someone may be living in a college far from the city or maybe husband or family maybe living off in some different place. There may be no temple you can attend like that. But they are chanting in their home and practicing, and worshipping Kṛṣṇa in their house, and offering prasādam to their picture of Kṛṣṇa. These techniques they should learn how to worship Kṛṣṇa in their home after living outside, and they should make their home into a temple. But then they should also take the strength from the more advanced devotees, and as much as possible, I would just recommend that if they are living, at least once in a week they should come, if they are living nearby the temple. And if possible, they can even come daily and even come as far as possible. You see, that would depend upon the communication and other factors. In other words, a person should never avoid going to the temple if they have the opportunity to do so. Just like if someone is living next door to the temple, and if they don’t have to go to work at 8:30, there is no reason they couldn’t attend the maṅgala-ārati in the temple every day, you see. We should take advantage as much as possible of the Kṛṣṇa conscious association we can get. We should always try to take the positive alternatives. If we have two alternatives, whether I should get up in the morning early or whether I should sleep. Then we should take the positive alternative and get up early, if otherwise we have sufficient rest. We shouldn’t just, “Let me sleep just two hours longer”, when it is not necessary. Let me to go to temple if I am able.

Verified by your humble ever Servant 
Vinoda Gopīkeśa Dāsa
24-01-2025
Māyāpur India