19900104 Excerpts from NOD.15 and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.5.18

The following is a lecture given by HH Jayapatākā Swami on January 4^th 1990, at New Tālavana farm in Carrier, Mississippi. The class begins with the reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.5.18. The class is about the qualities of the holy dhāma, with excerpts from the Nectar of Devotion, 15th chapter.

Guru Mahārāja reads out:
Nectar of Devotion — 15. Spontaneous Devotional Service

“Examples of spontaneous devotional service can easily be seen in Kṛṣṇa’s direct associates in Vṛndāvana. The spontaneous dealings of the residents of Vṛndāvana in relationship with Kṛṣṇa are called rāgānugā. These beings don’t have to learn anything about devotional service; they are already perfect in all regulative principles and have achieved the spontaneous loving service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. For example, the cowherd boys who are playing with Kṛṣṇa do not have to learn by austerities or penances or yogic practice how to play with Him. They have passed all tests of regulative principles in their previous lives, and as a result they are now elevated to the position of direct association with Kṛṣṇa as His dear friends. Their spontaneous attitude is called rāgānugā-bhakti.

Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī has defined rāgānugā-bhakti as spontaneous attraction for something while completely absorbed in thoughts of it, with an intense desire of love. Devotional service executed with such feelings of spontaneous love is called rāgānugā-bhakti. Devotional service under the heading of rāgānugā can be further divided into two categories: one category is called “sensual attraction,” and the other is called “relationship.”

In this connection, there is a statement by Nārada Muni to Yudhiṣṭhira in the Seventh Canto, first chapter, verse 30 of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. There Nārada says, “My dear King, there are many devotees who first become attracted to the Personality of Godhead for purposes of sense gratification, from being envious of Him, out of fear of Him or from desiring to associate affectionately with Him. Ultimately these attractions become freed from all material contamination, and gradually the worshiper develops spiritual love and achieves that ultimate goal of life desired by the pure devotee.”

The gopīs may be considered to be examples of spontaneous love in sensual attraction. The gopīs are young girls and Kṛṣṇa is a young boy. Superficially it seems that the gopīs are attracted to Kṛṣṇa on grounds of sex. Similarly, King Kaṁsa was attracted to Kṛṣṇa because of fear. Kaṁsa was always fearful of Kṛṣṇa because it had been foretold that his sister’s son, Kṛṣṇa, would kill him. Śiśupāla was also always envious of Kṛṣṇa. And the descendants of King Yadu, due to their family relationship with Kṛṣṇa, were always thinking of Him as one of their members. All of these different kinds of devotees have a spontaneous attraction for Kṛṣṇa in different categories, and they achieve the same desired goal of life.

The attraction of the gopīs for Kṛṣṇa and the affection of the members of the Yadu dynasty are both accepted as spontaneous, or rāgānugā. The attraction of Kaṁsa to Kṛṣṇa in fear and the attraction of Śiśupāla in envy are not accepted as devotional service, however, because their attitudes are not favorable. Devotional service should be executed only in a favorable frame of mind. Therefore, according to Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, such attractions are not considered to be in devotional service. Again, he analyzes the affection of the Yadus. If it is on the platform of friendship, then it is spontaneous love, but if it is on the platform of regulative principles, then it is not. And only when affection comes to the platform of spontaneous love is it counted in the category of pure devotional service.

There may be some difficulty in understanding that both the gopīs and Kaṁsa achieved the same goal, so this point should be clearly understood, because the attitudes of Kaṁsa and Śiśupāla were different from that of the gopīs. Although in all these cases the focus is on the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and all of the devotees are elevated to the spiritual world, there is still a distinction between these two classes of souls. In the First Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is said that the Absolute Truth is one and that He is manifested as impersonal Brahman, Paramātmā (Supersoul) and Bhagavān (the Supreme Personality of Godhead). Here is a spiritual distinction. Although Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān are the same-and-one Absolute Truth, devotees like Kaṁsa or Śiśupāla could attain only to the Brahman effulgence. They could not have realization of Paramātmā or Bhagavān. That is the distinction.”

Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.5.18

Translation (by Śrīla Prabhupāda): O Mahārāja Parīkṣit, the home of Nanda Mahārāja is eternally the abode of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and His transcendental qualities, and is therefore always naturally endowed with the opulences of all wealth. Yet beginning from Lord Kṛṣṇa’s appearance there, it became the place for the pastimes of the goddess of fortune

Purport: As stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.29), lakṣmī-sahasra-śata-sambhrama-sevyamānaṁ govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi. The abode of Kṛṣṇa is always served by hundreds and thousands of goddesses of fortune. Wherever Kṛṣṇa goes, the goddess of fortune naturally resides with Him. The chief of the goddesses of fortune is Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. Therefore, Kṛṣṇa's appearance in the land of Vraja indicated that the chief goddess of fortune, Rādhārāṇī, would also appear there very soon. Nanda Mahārāja's abode was already opulent, and since Kṛṣṇa had appeared, it would be opulent in all respects.

Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Swami translation and purport to text 18, chapter 5 Canto 10 in the matter of ‘The Meeting of Nanda Maharājā & Vasudeva’.

Jayapatākā Swami: So because Nanda Mahārāja and Vraja-dhāma are eternally connected with Kṛṣṇa, they are always endowed with transcendental qualities, with opulences of all wealth. When Kṛṣṇa is personally present, and the goddess of fortune is also going to be personally serving Kṛṣṇa, then whatever opulence Nanda Mahārāja had, it started to increase even more and more. This is very special situation, which Kṛṣṇa’s and Rādhārāṇī’s presence was creating. This indicates that Vṛndāvana is always filled with transcendental qualities. It is always filled with opulences. Of course when the Lord is personally present, it magnifies more and more. It is said that the Holy-dhāma is only glorious when the Lord is having his pastimes visibly, before the whole world. The Holy-dhāma is always holy, its very sacred. Simply when the Lord’s pastimes are visible, that glory becomes more magnified, it becomes projected. But otherwise, still, it is always glorious. 

So we should know that Holy-dhāmas like Vṛndāvana, Māyāpur, these are filled with the Lord’s personal transcendental qualities. They are not under the domain of external energy, but they are directly under the domain of internal energy. Many times, we find in international dealings, that the diplomatic laws are put in the public view. Just like in the present time, America sent its troops into Panama to capture the previous military dictator or whatever, Noriega I believe? Noriega. But he took asylum in the Vatican embassy. Because according to International Law, the embassy is not under the dominion of Panama, rather it’s directly under the dominion of the country that it represents. So America cannot enter into that without breaking a lot of diplomatic laws. This kind of illustrates how although a country is situated many thousands and thousands of miles away, but it’s embassies are like extensions. So this seems like somewhat of a parallel which we can use as a kind of gross example how although the spiritual world is situated far away, out of the material world, but its extensions are here, kind of like embassies you could say, something like that, which are under the domain of the internal energy, although physically they are situated within the material world. Superficially it appears that they are within the dominion of māyā, but actually they are under yoga-māyā. So this is the nature of the Holy-dhāmas, that they are under the internal energy. Those who have spiritual vision, they can feel the difference. They can feel the spiritual energy manifesting. And there are so many pastimes throughout history of the Holy-dhāmas which reveal that, although the Lord is not obviously manifesting His pastimes, but He is present in His Holy-dhāma, and for the pure devotee, He can reveal Himself even at times when He is not scheduled to be there, because She is always there eternally. There are many examples of this. Rūpa and Sanātana Gosvāmī, when they were worshipping in Vṛndāvana, Rūpa Gosvāmī especially even saw Rādhārāṇī. Rādhārani supplied him so many ingredients to cook a feast for Kṛṣṇa. Mādhavendra Purī was personally able to see Kṛṣṇa while in Vṛndāvana. Kṛṣṇa was coming and bringing him pot of milk. Like this, many of the ācāryas, they had different pastimes with Kṛṣṇa or Rādhārāṇī. Just recently, five hundred years ago, even though the Lord, His visible pastimes have been already wound up five thousand years ago. Similarly, Bhakti Vinoda Ṭhākura had many visions in Māyāpur. That was only a hundred years ago. And of course Lord Caitanya’s pastimes were manifested five hundred years ago, which is very much more recent. But, even when we do the Navadvīpa Parikramā, the pastimes in Navadvīpa are dating since the beginning of the universe.

Varāha has pastimes in Navadvīpa. Varāha was fighting against Hiraṇyākṣa. He touched His lotus foot on the earth, and with the other foot, *pow*! He gave him a good kick. The place where he touched his lotus feet is known as Kolādvīpa, one of the nine islands of Navadvīpa. There’s a Varāha temple there, where Lord Varāha is worshipped. ‘Kola’ is the name for ‘Varāha.

Similarly, after Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva killed Hiraṇyakaśipu, then He went and he settled down in Navadvīpa for some time, and all the devas or demigods, they took the form of villagers and they lived around the place where Nṛsiṁhadeva was, and they were personally serving Nṛsiṁhadeva daily, making offerings to Him and serving Him in a very intimate way. This place is known as Narasiṁhapalli, and although Māyāpur is flat, there are seven hills there, but you don’t find any hills anywhere else. And these are called the deva-ṭīla or the hills of the devas, where seven predominating devas have built hills to worship Nṛsiṁhadeva. So it became the village of Nṛsiṁhadeva.

This pastime, as Rāmacandra left Ayodhyā and headed to Daṇḍakāraṇya, he first visited Navadvīpa-dhāma, and had a pastime there. Before, Kumāras, when they gave instructions to Nimbarkācārya, they met him for the first time in Navadvīpa-dhāma. Balarāma, when he was visiting all the holy places, he visited Navadvīpa-dhāma, and there he killed the demon called Mayāsura. And Mayāmāri-matḥa, the place where He killed that asura, it’s there in Navadvīpa-dhāma.

Say if the POTUS visits some country, he will go and visit it’s embassy. If Kṛṣṇa, or Balarāma, or Nṛsiṁhadeva, or any other Viṣṇu-tattva come to this earth, the main extensions of the spiritual world which are here, They visit. They release any accumulated sinful reactions that are there, they clear those away. They may stay for some time or they may just pass through. But They know that this is Their own place, this is Their eternal abode, extended here. So although amongst the material world is also there, but that’s like an extension, an external energy. But internal potency, which is under the direct control of Lakṣmī, not under the control of Durgā is these holy abodes.

So this verse explains how the transcendental abode of the Lord is always filled with transcendental qualities and opulences of the Lord. So even today, these opulences are still there in Māyāpur and Vṛndāvana. Otherwise why would Śrīla Prabhupāda want us to build the world headquarters in Māyāpur, and our Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma temple in Vṛndāvana if these abodes didn’t have spiritual potency? And the devotees of course, by their presence, they help to magnify the potency of the dhāma. Just as Kṛṣṇa, when he was personally present, that Holy-dhāma’s glories became more magnified. Prabhupāda said, in Māyāpur we should always be chanting the holy name of Kṛṣṇa. If we chant the holy name of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa is personally present. So that magnifies the glories of the dhāma, because of Kṛṣṇa’s personal presence. Similarly, in Vṛndāvana, they are doing, the akhaṇḍa-nāma. And they’re worshiping everyday. So this active worship of the Deities in Vṛndāvana helps to magnify. Like when Lord Caitanya went, He immediately felt ecstasy upon entering Vraja-dhāma. But that time there was no Deity, people were not conscious that this is Vṛndāvana, this is the land of Kṛṣṇa. But Lord Caitanya, He could feel the ecstasy, He could feel the presence of Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana. But then He instructed his followers to construct a temple there and to establish Deities and worship the Lord. So because of the presence of those deities, that has further expanded the opulence of Vṛndāvana, from when it was just, no one knew that it was Vṛndāvana. Although it was still why Lord Caitanya and even Nityānanda Prabhu visited Vṛndāvana. Before Lord Nityānanda met with Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He went to Vṛndāvana. There was no temple there, but He knows this is Vṛndāvana, He knows where, by his time, just a few breaths before - maybe a few seconds, because eternal time is no time at all. He was there as Balarāma. Now he came back, he was there as Nityānanda. So by having these temples, that expands the glories. Because we establish Kṛṣṇa with his energy, and that worship enhances the pastimes of the Lord, makes them more accessible to the people who are coming at the present times.

So this way, now by Lord Caitanya’s mercy, people know about Vṛndāvana. But because Lord Caitanya, who came as a devotee, and He didn’t want to reveal Himself, and that He was Kṛṣṇa Himself, so therefore He never did anything with His own abode. But after He left, Nityānanda Prabhu gave many instructions, that now let the world know that Lord Caitanya was actually Kṛṣṇa. Now don’t interfere with His own mellow of devotional service. Being a devotee, if you call the devotee, God, it’s a contradiction. It’s incompatible with their mood. So once Lord Caitanya was not present, then it was alright to reveal to the world, that actually that person who you know as Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He was actually Kṛṣṇa Himself. Some intimate devotees already knew, but the world didn’t necessarily know it. So, then He said this Māyāpur-dhāma will be developed after many hundreds of years. First, there will be a lot of floods here, and people will gradually shift to other parts. It will become an open land, but then after some time someone will come and construct a very big temple, he said “eka adbhuta mandira haibe prakāśa.” Adbhuta, adbhuta! Mandira you all know. Adbhuta means incomparable. Wonderful. Amazing. Many of our songs have the word adbhuta. We say adbhuta when we sing Narasiṁha Ārati, because when the devas saw Nṛsiṁhadeva, they were just like, “Wow!”. You Adbhuta means there is no word to express it.  This is adbhuta! Like something really out of this world, really wonderful, really indescribable. So there should be one adbhuta-mandira. An exceptional mandira. A mandira which doesn’t have any other parallel or comparison. And he said, he predicted, “eka adbhuta mandira haibe prakāśa”. Prakāśa means it will be manifested, it will come to being. Then this temple, “gaurāṅga nitya-sevā haibe vikāśa”, it will expand the glories of the transcendental worship of Caitanya Mahāprabhu everywhere. So that’s by the presence of Caitanya Mahāprabhu in that temple, that will expand the glories of Māyāpur. So that’s actually what Prabhupāda wanted us to do. He laid the foundation stone in 1977. He originally laid the first foundation stone 1970 or 71 I believe. That’s for the whole project. For the temple he laid in 1977.

So then, now, ISKCON managers and Māyāpur and the whole GBC rather, they last year decided that we should have a special marathon, kind of fifteen year program to complete the big temple for Śrīla Prabhupāda, so that Prabhupāda disciples could see it in their lifetime. Hopefully. We don’t know how long we’ll live, but maybe most of Prabhupāda disciples will still be around after fifteen years. And, thus we could fulfil this instruction of Śrīla Prabhupāda, which was the prediction of Nityānanda Prabhu. Then, of course also Nityānanda Prabhu predicted that there will be a spiritual city which will come to be around this temple. And which will be filled with devotees of Lord Caitanya from all over the world. So all these things are already, you can see in the (tube?). They’re already predicted, and already going to happen by Lord Nityānanda’s desire. But it is an opportunity for the devotees of ISKCON to be the instruments in fulfilling the desire of the Lord. But to do that requires a kind of worldwide co-operation, a worldwide consciousness. So about half a mile from the exact birth place, known as Yogapīṭha. Prabhupāda explained that Kṛṣṇa was born in Mathurā, but he went to Vraja-dhāma, and Vraja is considered more important than Mathurā, because Vraja was the place of Kṛṣṇa’s work, His pastimes were there. Although physically He was born in Mathurā, He went to do his pastimes in Vraja-dhāma. So therefore, in the Gītā (4.9), there is that verse:

janma karma ca me divyaṁ
evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ
tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma
naiti mām eti so ’rjuna

That, “The place of My birth and activities is transcendental and someone who understands this at the time of leaving their body, they return to Me without having to take re-birth again.” So Prabhupāda explained, janma and karma both are transcendental. So the transcendental activities of the Lord are more important than just the birth, although both are transcendental. So he said that our Māyāpur Candrodaya Mandir, the Śrī Māyāpur Candrodaya Mandir, Prabhupāda  sometimes referred to this as Śrī Caitanya  Candrodaya mandir, meaning the place where Lord Caitanya  is rising, should be Kṛṣṇa’s, Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s karma-sthāna. The place of His transcendental activities. By being the place of transcendental activities of the Lord, then the Lord will be present. Wherever His activities are going on, that means he is also present. 

So since the preaching of Lord Caitanya’s Holy Names and chanting in Māyāpur has being going on, you see steadily the opulences are increasing. More and more people are coming. As I was leaving on New Year’s Eve to come here, there were so many buses coming into Māyāpur that we had to pull over every few minutes. At least 20 buses passed us within the 10 minutes it took us to go from Māyāpur to the national highway. There will probably be 50 or 60 buses, tourist buses there just in one day, if not more. Some times in Gaura Pūrṇimā we will get 250 -300 tourist buses coming. But when Prabhupāda first went there in 1971,  he was living in a grass hut when he was preaching to Brahma Tīrtha Prabhu, who at that time was Bob Cohen, Peace Corp worker in India. In the Perfect Questions Perfect Answers book is their conversation. He was living in the grass hut. At that time you didn’t see any body coming into Māyāpur, except for Gaura Pūrṇimā time. That time was mainly windows and very religious people in their old age is coming; who are naturally spiritually minded in India. But rest of the year you will see that in the morning about 20 boys would come on their bicycles and drive by, going on their way to work in their warehouses in Navadvīpa. Jute warehouses. In the afternoon they come by. The whole Māyāpur only had about 5 to 6 rickshaws. That was good facility at that time. One of the advantages of no people coming. But along with progress, you will get more rickshaws, and more traffic, more traffic jams, all kind of other problems. But after Prabhupāda started preaching, you can see now steadily the number of people coming, the prominence of Māyāpur has increased. When Prabhupāda samādhi temple is opened in Māyāpur,  at that time the effect is going to be at least many times, 5 times or more expanded, the amount of people coming. We can predict that.

Now when I was there for Rāsa-pūrṇimā, November, that time over 200,000 people visited Māyāpur in 2 days. But when Prabhupāda samādhi open, for big festivals like that we can probably expect a million people to come through. So even the infrastructure to handle that many people we had to really analyse. All this shows how, just as this verse says, when Kṛṣṇa is present the opulence is also increased. Because this is the pastime place of the Goddess of fortune. So we are seeing how, just even in Māyāpur and in Vṛndāvana also, Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma temple, so many people are coming. Because of the activities of Kṛṣṇa are going on, that means Kṛṣṇa is present. Similarly, like in New Tālavana or other ISKCON projects, although this may not be the birthplace of any of Kṛṣṇa’s avatāras, but it can be place of Kṛṣṇa ’s activity, by having Deity, by worshipping the Deity, by regularly chanting:

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

Also for Gaura-Nitāi:

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya-prabhu-nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

Actually, this also becomes place of Kṛṣṇa’s activities. Of course here, it is like where in the eternal dhāma, the Lord appears. It’s under the yoga-māyā, it says here in the verse that it became more enhanced. The opulence increased more because of Kṛṣṇa’s personal presence. But here, like in Mississipi, there might not have been any spiritual opulences here, but because Prabhupāda came here, because activities are going on, expanding. So by Kṛṣṇa’s presence it becomes transformed, it becomes transcendentalized. But you can say the responsibility or onus is really upon the devotees to go on expanding the activities of Kṛṣṇa. Actually, there are so many festivals to Kṛṣṇa. There is a saying in India ‘12 months, 13 festivals’. Meaning there are more festivals than there are months. So many festivals to Kṛṣṇa. So by various transcendental festivals, just like here we have Dāmodara month. Many different festivities. The more these are cantered under Kṛṣṇa, the more the consciousness of the members of the community, the adults, the children, is focused on Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then by Kṛṣṇa’s personal presence, the spiritual opulence of the community of the whole New Tālavana becomes enhanced. Kṛṣṇa ’s presence means that then it becomes a transcendental place.

Here it’s like, all around it’s the material world. We’re like in Holland. Much of Holland is below the sea level, but they built the dyke and they have elaborate systems of pumping out water with wind mills and other things. So although they are below the sea level, that is the most fertile, opulent place. You know so many tulips, nice cows and things are there in Holland. A very nice fertile land but it is actually below the sea level. So although we are here in the United States of America, where pursuit of sense gratification is one of the basic rights guaranteed in constitution of the nation. The People here are naturally very much focused on sense gratification and devotional service is not always so prominently remembered. Although at the same time, ‘In God We Trust’ is there in the money, so some reference to God is also there. So both sides are in this country. The freedom of religion and freedom for sense gratification in pursuit of happiness. So here we are showing that there is a higher happiness. In the pursuit of happiness that happiness can also be pursued and should be pursued by human beings not in the same way as animals pursue happiness. Animals pursue happiness simply through sense gratification. But human beings should pursue happiness through service to God, through service to Kṛṣṇa. By serving the Lord, we can achieve the real transcendental happiness, and that is actually the purpose of the spiritual communities that Prabhupāda wanted established here in North America. Especially personally established, personally named personally visited. Actually to provide an alternative when people get frustrated from the rat race, frustrated from the difficult material situation. Let them take shelter in a spiritual environment. Let the children grow up in a spiritual community to do that. We are kind of surrounded by māyā on all the sides. So our dyking system is the regular chanting of the Holy Names. Our regular spiritual practices. Sometimes, like in the dykes there is leaks - little water gets in; sometimes due to our previous bad habits we may bring in certain kind of material tendencies or activities. Then we have to pump those out through these festivals or special occasions where we have special classes, and special festivities are there to lift up every one’s consciousness. It is an opportunity for us to focus our minds more clearly on our actual duty here, to create a type of spiritual environment. The place of Kṛṣṇa’s, Rādhā-Rādhākānta’s, Nitāi-Gaura’s, Śrīla Prabhupāda’s transcendental pastimes. So that people, they can actually, by living in this type of spiritual environment, they can experience the contact with the internal potency. This also becomes a type of eternal embassy of the spiritual world. We want it to be upgraded, like consulate to embassy.

This is also there in the Vedas, that it is called Śrīpāṭa. Dhāma means like where the Lord personally appears. But where some great devotee has sat, given his lectures, instructed and assigns devotional service, established some temples, and the temple is being worshipped, the followers are faithfully following that saint - that great devotee - that pure devotee, then that’s called a Śrīpāṭa. There are may Śrīpāṭas. Śrīpāṭa Kheturi etc. In India you find many Śrīpāṭa where some ācārya has established his temple. Even like Remuṇā, some of these places. Sometimes they call them Dhāma, sometime they call them Śrīpāṭa. In Remuṇā Lord Rāmacandra personally went there, so some people might call that a Dhāma. Other places like Śrīpāṭa Haridāsapura, Haridāsa Ṭhākura was there for one day, so they consider that as Śrīpāṭa. He chanted his 300,000 names of Kṛṣṇa  at that place. Since that time they changed the name of the place. Its become Haridaspur. The are local junior high school is Haridaspur high school. The local post office… everything is Haridaspur! Haridāsa Ṭhākura spent 24 hours there. Chanted his 300,000 names and preached to local people, and they became so much dedicated to him that they changed the name of their village to Haridaspur. Everything is cantered around Haridāsa Ṭhakura. Of course, he spent 16 years one mile from there. But that particular place, he stayed one day. So even if anywhere within 3 miles from a place where a devotee has resided, a pure devotee like that, that is considered to be transcendentalized.

So actually, you could say this is also a Śrīpāṭa. In the future you would find new this, new that, people may create. But actually because Prabhupāda was here personally, this could also be called Śrīpāṭa New Tālavana Dhāma. He established his presence here and personally lectured here. So this became a Śrīpāṭa of Śrīla Prabhupāda. This is the eternal shrine where Prabhupāda, the senāpati-bhakta, the commading general devotee Caitanya Mahāprabhu, spread Kṛṣṇa  consciousness all over the world. He personally was here, taught how to cook, taught how to preach, taught how to protect the cows, gave so many instructions, set up a big spiritual community here. And the devotees, in spite of many obstacles, they are maintaining this dedication to Prabhupāda’s instructions, serving his order. So this actually is a very glorious place, and we should try to expand the glory by making the presence of Kṛṣṇa  more and more… making His presence more felt, making Him more present in the sense of the chanting, and the spiritual programs, and festivals, so that everyone can be more conscious of Kṛṣṇa. And by Kṛṣṇa’s presence, this will keep out the māyā which is surrounding in the material world here. And the people who come, they will naturally feel and gain spiritual blessings just by being here. So, this verse specifically glorifying Vraja-dhāma, is important for us because we work to develop the spiritual places of the Lord, and also we are serving the Holy-dhāmas like Vṛndāvana and Māyāpur. And here in New Tālavana where Prabhupāda has given us certain instructions, we are trying to also expand the glories of Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes here and making them present here by the spiritual activities. So this is all very much authorized by the scriptures and this is the way of enhancing and purifying the whole presence of Kṛṣṇa in the world.

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