20080506 Evening Class

The following is an evening lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on May 6, 2008 in Bhaktivedanta Manor, London, United Kingdom.

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

Jayapatākā Swami: When Lord Caitanya left Bengal, after He took sannyāsa, He went to Jagannātha Purī. Then after some time He called Nityānanda Prabhu and said, “I left Bengal. We had done so much preaching there, but now it’s still unfinished. But I can’t go back there now, since I have taken sannyāsa. So You should go back and finish the… unfinished business, and spread the hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana movement there.”

Nityānanda Prabhu said, “Well, I need some men. I need some devotees.”

Lord Caitanya, said “You can take.” It wasn’t exactly clear how many devotees He took. Seems around 15, at least. Mīnaketana Rāmadāsa, Abhirāma Ṭhākura, many of His great associates. And since we’re limited on time, I just kind of condensed it. But They went back, in kīrtana. Normally it would take a month of walking. But took Them three months, because They were so ecstatic that along the way They’d be doing kīrtana and dancing and somebody would be talking about the pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Would act it out, put Their hand on Their shoulder and say, “It’s Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma”, and this thing happened and that. They would be so ecstatic remembering Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes, They would wander off the road and They’d go maybe 10 kilometers on one side. And then They’d, you know, look around, say, “Where are We?” (laughter) They’d ask, “How to get to road to Bengal?

“You see, that’s 10 kilometers back.”

And They went back. But on the way, while They were chanting, They were so ecstatic, that They would cross right over the road and instead of going straight back, They’re going zigzag, back and forth. So, it took about three months (laughter) to get there. Very ecstatic hari-nāma journey. And then They finally, when They reached Pānihāṭi, then Nityānanda walked in. And the kitchen where Rāghava Paṇḍita usually was, that was his special sevā. That is a reincarnation of the cook for Lord Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana. He and his sister, Damayanti. He was preparing for his Rādhā-Madanamohana Deities. He looked and there was Nityānanda. Immediately, he paid his obeisances and he said, “So how many of You are there?”

He said, “I have these many devotees.”

He said, “Okay, I’ll prepare You prasādam.” This is his only first thought. Prasādam. That’s his sevā. “So, go take Your bath in the Ganges and come back. And then, we’ll give You the prasādam.” So, within one hour he cooked a huge feast for the 50 or 100 devotees that were there with Him. And They came back and he served everyone prasādam. Then they took a little rest. Then afterwards They came and they gathered together for kīrtana. So, this kīrtana… Lord Nityānanda was sitting down, looking at all the kīrtana singers. And while they were chanting, everyone was chanting and dancing. Wherever He glanced, they’d become overwhelmed with love of Kṛṣṇa, just by His glance. So, How many would like to get the glance of Lord Nityānanda?

Devotees: Hari bol!!

Jayapatākā Swami: Nitāi!

Devotees: Nitāi!

Jayapatākā Swami: Nitāi!

Devotees: Nitāi!

Jayapatākā Swami: Nitāi!

Devotees: Nitāi!

Jayapatākā Swami: Gaurāṅga!

Devotees: Gaurāṅga!

Jayapatākā Swami: Gaurānga!

Devotees: Gaurāṅga!

Jayapatākā Swami: Gaurānga!

Devotees: Gaurāṅga!

Jayapatākā Swami: So, like this kīrtana was going on very ecstatically. Then when it reached a certain level, then Nityānanda Prabhu Himself entered into the kīrtana, dancing. So, Lord Caitanya said that there’s five places where He is always is present. And one of the five is wherever Lord Nityānanda is dancing. So, when Nityānanda Prabhu started dancing, although Lord Caitanya was (in) South India already by that time but He immediately came there and was watching. Because Nityānanda Prabhu’s dancing is so ecstatic, you don’t want to miss it. How many of you would like to see Lord Nityānanda’s dance?

Devotees: Haribol!!

Jayapatākā Swami: (laughter) Also, Pānihāṭi is one of the places He stays always. So, He’s there twice. Double.

(laughter)

(Aside) Rādhānāth Swāmi is smiling here. (laughter)

So Nityānanda could see Lord Caitanya. And then He told the devotees that, “Lord Caitanya is here again. He’s here watching.” Everyone was looking around, but they couldn’t see Him. He said, “You can’t see Him. I can see Him. You can’t see Him. He’s right now technically in South India, but He’s here watching. But He’s wearing a South Indian flower garland.” Just like here, we have English flowers. (laughter) They have South Indian flowers, different kinds. So, it’s a particular flower that didn’t grow in Bengal. So, you can smell him out.

So, everyone started… (sniffing)

(laughter and applause)

Devotees: Haribol!!

(laughter)

Jayapatākā Swami: But that’s exactly what happened!

Devotees: Haribol!!

(laughter and applause)

Jayapatākā Swami: Anyone who smelled the garland, “Ahh!” they became so ecstatic. They are smelling Lord Caitanya. His garland’s non-different. They became so ecstatic that they fainted on the ground. They were rolling, pulling their hair.

(laughter)

Gaurāṅga!

Devotees: Gaurāṅga!

Gaurānga!

Devotees: Gaurāṅga!

Nityānanda!

Devotees: Nityānanda!

As the flower aroma was going over the devotees, they were becoming like… it’s like a special prema-gas. (laughter) They were getting intoxicated and overwhelmed with spiritual bliss. So, like this, then Nityānanda Prabhu was dancing and He went back and changed His clothes, came up. Then He asked Rāghava Paṇḍita, “Get Me a kadamba garland. I’m a cowherd boy. I like kadamba flowers. So, I want a kadamba garland.” (laughter)

But Rāghava Paṇḍita, he said, “Well, we don’t have any kadamba flowers, no trees here. And this is not the season for kadamba flowers.”

“Don’t give Me all these excuses. Just go in your garden and get Me some kadamba garland.” So, he went back in his house and he had a garden with all different things he needed for his cooking. Lemon trees and mango and different things. So, one of the lemon trees started just popping kadamba flowers. (laughter) So he took the kadamba flowers, made a garland, and came out and gave Lord Nityānanda.

Jayapatākā Swami: Nitāi Prabhu kī…!

Devotees: Jaya!

So like this, so many things happened. Then that kīrtana, it started to go on, day and night. They told me that in Birmingham, they had last night, a 24-hour kīrtana. So, it’s also here in the UK. They fall asleep though, and... worked really hard on that one. So, this kīrtana went on for three months. So, the people would join the kīrtana and they would become, just so ecstatic. They forgot everything. They just stayed in the kīrtana for about two, three days, dancing and chanting, day and night. Then after a while they remembered, “Oh, I have a wife, I have a family, (laughter) I have to go home and do some thing.’ So, they went but they’re like smiling and chanting and someone said, “Where have you been?”

“Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare

Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare”

 

So, like this, there’s kīrtana going on in Pānihāṭi! Raghava Paṇḍita’s house! There the kīrtana! Nityānanda Prabhu! Oh, it’s so wonderful!

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

So the kīrtana was going on day and night for about 3 months. But then in the end, the devotees, after three months of non-stop kīrtana, they started to manifest certain mystical powers, like lifting up 25-30 ton, like how much a mango tree weighs. A huge mango (tree), lifting it up and dancing with it. (laughter) Somebody becomes lighter than a balloon and climb up, just fly up to the top of the trees and jump from one tree to next.

Haribol!

Devotees: Haribol!

Haribol!

Devotees: Haribol!

Haribol!

Devotees: Haribol!

But this tree pulling-up, that was upsetting Rāghava Paṇḍita. He said, “If you pull all the trees, (laughter) how will I offer my Deities any bhoga? So, you better shift the kīrtana, otherwise, no house left, nothing left.” (laughter) So this kīrtana went all over Bengal and they just camped out somewhere for a while. And, there the people would get totally overwhelmed with kīrtana and He’d leave one of his associates there, to be the regional preacher, zonal preacher, whatever, and then go to the next place. And like this He would be going all over Bengal, and just like flooding it wherever He went. And then leaving a kīrtana leader like… in a place called Khanakul, Kṛṣṇa Nagara, he left Abhirāma Ṭhākura.

So sometimes we go on Gaura-Maṇḍala-bhūmi-parikramā in Bengal and you see the different places where the different ācāryas and associates of Lord Caitanya were left for preaching. Some were seen to be traveling and some were preaching. So, like… that was the way that Nityānanda Prabhu started. And then after that we read that… just like we know that Abhirāma Ṭhākura is Śrīdāma from Kṛṣṇa-līla. He’s one of the cowherd boys. Many of His associates were cowherd boys who came down into the Caitanya-līla.

And that’s described in some historical books that He would have meetings with His disciples and preachers and other associates that, how in His area, how is the propagation of Kṛṣṇa-consciousness growing. And they’d even have a map out. And they’d refer to the map. And He’d ask, “what about this village?”

And they’d say, “Well, we don’t have any devotee there.”

He said, “What? So, we have to deliver that village also.” So, then they’d make a plan.

“What about the next village?”

“There we have a Nāmahaṭṭa and here we have many devotees. So, but this village, none.”

“So, let’s have a festival in the village where we have devotees and…”

Like in India, if the neighboring village has a festival, everybody’s going to go. You don’t miss it. Don’t know if it’s like that in Poland. (laughter) We were just in Bangladesh for 21 days on a Bangladesh safari, following in Rādhānatha Swami and Indradyumna Mahārāja’s footsteps. We used to go on a pilgrimage. So we went to all the places that all of them visited. And we had the devotee from the Polish tour who said that in Poland he had to go out and invite everyone to come to the festival. But in Bangladesh you don’t need any invitation. They’d just show up. Thousands of them, tens of thousands. One place, 50,000 people. One place they had a hundred police just to take the devotees to the stage, so that they get through the people because they’re all trying touch their feet. But every place is a little different. Probably in the UK they don’t touch your feet too much. (laughter)

(applause)

So, then here Śrīdāmā, means Abhirāma Ṭhākura, he’s meeting and they make this festival and they invite Lord Nityānanda. They do have a big festival, drama, everything. And so all the people from the next village, they’d come there, they’d take their contacts. There’s a system that we’re promoting in the congregational development ministry called the Vāmana-approach. Vāmanadeva, He took three steps. Right? One, two, three. And that third step was on Bali’s head. So, we also have three steps. One is to make contact with devotees, with new people, with friends and interested people. Then to cultivate them, to just invite them into your home, invite them to the temple, somehow cultivate them that they become interested in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And finally, when they’re fully interested and cultivated, then they become committed. Devotees. So, this is a three-step program. Vāmanadeva. You’ll remember Him. So, they made contacts in the neighboring village. They followed up and visited them in their homes. And then eventually they established a Nāmahaṭṭa there. And like this, the saṅkīrtana movement was spread. And Lord Nityānanda, He established His headquarters for the Nāmahaṭṭa, according to Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, at Surabhī Kuñja in Godrumadvīpa. Navadvīpa, nine dvīpas, nine islands. The second island is Godruma, which is the island of kīrtana.

So like this, what was impressing to me is that this propagation of Kṛṣṇa consciousness was being performed by eternal associates of Lord Kṛṣṇa who came down and joined Kṛṣṇa in His form as Caitanya. Just like Kṛṣṇa had His associates who were helping with herding cows and pastimes in Vṛndāvana. But Lord Caitanya, one of His pastimes is the saṅkīrtana-movement. So, they were engaging in this propagation of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So, it’s not anything mundane, it’s a spiritual activity. It’s so spiritual that you can say it’s a transcendental activity. Even these eternal associates were blissfully engaged. And, there’s pastimes of even how Gadādhara Prabhu, Rādhārāṇī, went to a village and how He preached, gave a class there. And the whole village surrendered to Him. Said, “We want to be your disciple. We want to follow you.” And then he asked his personal servant to stay there and train everybody up. And that’s another… that’s another long story. But, like this, there’s so many different associates for doing, at different times, this kind of preaching. So, we’re very inspired that just like Lord Caitanya and Nityānanda, they had their plan how to spread Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, that how to develop the congregation. Here, I wrote in the Bhaktivedanta Manor Newsletter, if you don’t have your copy, you don’t miss it. They have here, 2008 year of the congregation. So, they have eight different petals: educate, congregate…

1.Educate: every member learning, every member teaching.

2.Congregate: every member that is brought together with others.

3.Publish: every member’s informed and supported with accessible and relevant printed and online materials.

4.Communicate: every member is informed and connected.

5.Care: every member is cared for, and is caring for others.

6.Preach: every member is a messenger.

7.Volunteer: opportunities for every member to serve.

8.Grow: We count all aspects of growth so that we value them more.

And there’s of course much more here written about it. So this initiative to make this the year of the congregation from the Manor it’s of course very inspiring to me. As a minister of congregational development, we’d like every year to be the year of congregation. (laughter) I think in Chowpatty it’s like that. They have a very vibrant congregation and they take nice care of them. We’re studying what they’re doing as a good example for the world. This year the GBC also established a new initiative of taking care of devotees. So that’s something that the GBC is very much concerned about nowadays.

Then of course you know Indradyumna Mahārāja. On the Polish tour He’s making so many contacts. The cultivation that they’re doing on the people as they go round different Nāmahaṭṭas, and groups are forming all over the country, and the huge impact of people getting introduced to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So, not everybody can do such a dynamic program and put so much energy into it. It’s really wonderful.

But one of the things that we’re trying to do with the congregational ministry is like every year we have different focal points. So, a couple of years ago it was groups. Having small groups. I heard the London area has 21 groups. And this really encouraging.  In fact, recently, a couple of years ago Delhi started finally, and they did also the first year, about 27 groups. But now they’re up to almost a hundred groups, in about 2 years.

Devotees: Haribol!

And so, they’re exploding. In books, of course, they were number one. I think, this was a marathon. May be the whole year they were number one. The congregation had distributed over 200,000 Bhagavad-gītās. Chowpatty was also three or four. They’re in the top five. (laughter) We’re number two. Number two. Marathon.

So that’s showing, the congregation, when they get activated for the marathon, they can distribute so many books to their friends, to their work colleagues, to their relatives, to people in general. So, Dīpamaya Prabhu was saying that there’s no reason why London couldn’t have 50 groups. Prabhupāda always said to double it. The idea right now, there’s basically three kinds of groups that are the most prominent. They are all types of Nāmahaṭṭas. One of the groups, the Nāmahaṭṭa, basically the minimum is that they do kīrtana, they have a lecture, they have question-answers and some prasādam. So that, any devotee, an initiated devotee and many even, just kind of well versed in the scripture, they could do this kind of program, outreach programs and reach out to people, go to different places, doing kīrtana, give a lecture. But I heard today there was a problem that in London people have small houses, small flats, so they can’t accommodate big groups. So, we have also a small group program, it’s called the Bhakti-vṛkśa, where you do an ice-breaker, a kīrtana, a discussion rather than a class. Maybe like some places you say, ‘What we will be discussing tonight?’ They may want to discuss the previous Sunday feast lecture, or they may like to read a few pages from Prabhupāda books and then they discuss it. They find out what were the important points and discover the important points with the picture that Prabhupāda mentioned. They try to understand what were the examples he used, illustrate those points and then they see how to apply that knowledge in their own lives, in their realizations, how it affected them. So, by applying the knowledge, it becomes from jñāna to vijñāna. And then they also have a session, 15-minute session of the strategic planning. The strategies for preaching. And then a little simple prasādam at the end. Maybe some pūjā. So that can be held. It’s only 10 or 15 people in groups, can be held in a small flat. When the groups get any bigger than 15-20 people, they multiply into two groups. So, then that way they grow. There’s two ways. Some people, maybe some of you like to form a group, somewhere in your house. Invite people over and just kind of start from the ground level. And then from there, when it grows, then you can multiply and have so many more groups coming. That’s how now it’s multiplying in Delhi. The Delhi temple has almost like 70-80-90 groups now. May not include Noida and all the other satellite temples that are around. There are about six temples in the Delhi area now. Not all of them are under the same. They all have their own management. So Noida told me they have 12 groups. So that’s apart. There’s more than that. They have different groups.

So that was what we were doing a couple years ago. But now this year our focus is also that we want to recognize the... Oh, there’s one more, kind of a… there’s also counselor groups. This is where a very senior devotee counsels and guides the congregation. And the members, the counselees, they review their sādhanā and everything. Take a much more personal interest. Some of the areas have adopted council group method within the Bhakti-vṛkśa and do both, and also for the senior devotees they keep track. They were inspired by the counselor group on Chowpatty and all over, all over many places. There’s about 120 that we have recorded, have reports of. So that’s another way of taking full care of the devotees. And also if they had the preaching strategy, pretty much like the way in Bhakti-vṛkśa. In Pune, for the new students they use Bhakti-vṛkśa. For the older initiated devotees, they use more counselor groups, that’s what I was told. So, we have these three kinds of groups. And, we were... we have… there’s another, apart from the groups, as we find that now there’s a lot of Kṛṣṇa conscious families, where the whole family is favorable to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Maybe they’re all initiated, they’re all chanting. Everybody is… they’re all chanting. And the house is vegetarian and they have an altar. Some may be more into it than others. But basically, the house is a favorable Kṛṣṇa conscious house which takes prasādam and everything like that. So, it’s a central point for Kṛṣṇa consciousness in that area. It’s a little like a molecular unit. So, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura called them śraddhā-kuṭīra or homes of faith. And he said that, that’s part of his Nāmahaṭṭa structure and his whole overall organization. We’re trying to promote that this year.

Last year in Argentina, we gave out 200 certificates to the local temple, gave out to homes that were Kṛṣṇa conscious. And it was a big inspiration for them to be recognized. We have three to five thousand such families recognized in our Māyāpur Nāmahaṭṭa directorate. They say, many places where they don’t have a Nāmahaṭṭa, they have these families and they work as a contact unit where some preacher can go there and visit. Like Dīpamaya Prabhu said, ‘invite a preacher to your house.’ Maybe you can’t head up a Nāmahaṭṭa or a Bhakti-vṛkśa or be a council member, but you could invite one of the preachers to come to your house and give some association, and in this way develop that community that could eventually turn into a Nāmahaṭṭa. Or you get enough of such families, and then they come together and it’s a Nāmahaṭṭa or Bhakti-vṛkśa, or something like that… local small group. So, to recognize that the building blocks are these families. Of course, some places may have all students or other… but generally speaking, it’s the families that are like the building blocks. So, we’re trying to... we’ve come up with some certificates and some emblems they can put on their door in their house, like, ‘This is a Śraddhā-kuṭīra.’ Some people like to call them ‘Bhakti-homes.’ Really easier, kind of hybrid innovation, ‘Bhakti-homes’, ‘Bhakti-buddies.’ (laughter) So that’s one of the programs. So, it would be nice if… I’m sure that in London we have 60,000 people coming for the Janmāṣṭamī. So how many of them must be Kṛṣṇa conscious homes, or could become, just with a little bit of cultivation.

So, then another program that we’re trying to do is promote the Dāmodara month. Now you may wonder what does Dāmodara month have to do with the congregation when it comes to temple and offers a lamp. But it mentions that in other words, you can offer a lamp in your house to Lord Dāmodara and Yaśodā. And it mentions anyone who offers a lamp to Dāmodara, and sings the Dāmodarāṣtakam and does some programs for Dāmodara, there are so many thousands of forefathers get delivered. You awaken your pure bhakti. They have on our website namahatta.org, they have some of these quotes from the different scriptures, how wonderful the Dāmodara is. Of course, bottom line, it’s a hundred times more. But it’s even more than that for new people because they weren’t doing anything. So what they’ve started, we have been promoting this for a few years just as a trial basis. So Kuala Lumpur has taken it up. And about five years ago they had 30 Nāmahaṭṭas and each Nāmahaṭṭa did a Dāmodara program. They had 30. The next year they did 60. Then they decided that they’re going to reach out and do many different programs. So, they did about 300. And then they had a program, 600. The year before last, I came to the temple. They had a big attendance like this. And then they dim the lights. And Kṛṣṇa came in, with some other little Kṛṣṇa carrying a scroll, with some other children dressed up. And they came in with the kīrtana, and throwing flowers, and holding lamps and different items. Then Kṛṣṇa came up and handed me the scroll.  (laughter) “Have you ever been handed a scroll by Kṛṣṇa?” (laughter) I opened it up and then it said ‘This is to inaugurate the preparations for the 2007 Dāmodara pūjā.’ So, what they do is they print it out, a little suitable to put on your altar, picture of Dāmodara-Yaśodā and Prabhupāda…

(Jaya Rādhā-Gokulanandana kī…

Devotees: Jaya!

Gaura-Nitāi kī…

Devotees: Jaya!

Sītā-Rāma, Lakṣmaṇa, Hanumān kī…

Devotees: Jaya!)

And then they… they made that this time they’re going to go out and try to visit as many homes as possible and do a 15–20-minute Dāmodara-program where they put the Dāmodara picture on the altar. They offer an ārati, they tell something about the glories of Dāmodara. They do a little kīrtana, give everybody a little prasādam, some candy or some, you know, little light prasādam, little dry prasādam, something in their hand. And then they go the next. So, what happens is that many families wanted the devotees to come and do this program because it’s so auspicious for your family. How many of you are gṛhasthas here? How many of you would like to have devotees come to your house in Dāmodara month and give you unlimited blessings, and good fortune, and love of Godhead, and all kinds of things?” (laughter) So, then what happens is the neighbors want to know, at least in Malaysia, the neighbors want to know. (laughter) “What’s happening?”

And they say, “we’re doing this pūjā, we’re getting blessings for our house.”

“I want blessings for my house!” So, many people asked to have it in their house. And so, like this, it went up. They did 1500. Then, let’s go ahead, it was 2007, 2006 or 2007, last year then they became even more. They went and again doubled it. So, their goal was 3,000. But this time, one middle-class business man, there was a bazaar that would come in front of a… Murugan, it’s a Kārttikeya temple, every year. So, he rented a stall. Put a huge picture, you know. One of the devotees got these banners printed down of Yaśodā and Dāmodara, and then set up there. And then Prabhāviṣṇu Mahārāja inaugurated the program. 1500 people were there at the inaugural moment. In the middle of a bazaar, he just set up an altar of Yaśodā-Dāmodara, and they started this program. So he had 67,000 people offer lamps…

Devotees: Haribol!

…to Dāmodara, and Yaśodā at his stall, in one month of Dāmodara. He spent you know thousand dollars or something. Many people gave donations but the whole thing was more or less paid for.

Then all the Nāmahaṭṭas, like you said, invite people to your home. This opportunity to give everybody the chance when they come here, that wants you to visit their homes. But so many people, I heard just for the festival that happened Monday, bank holiday, 2,000 people came here. So, giving them an opportunity to invite the devotees to come to their house. So, what this did: the people going to their house during the Dāmodara program, got their contacts. Many of those people became members of the congregation. Many were existing.  And many became new. The neighbors, their friends, their relatives... I get people to recommend, to invite. ‘Who wants to invite the devotees to come to their house?’ And so like this, Kuala-Lumpur, we put them as one of our national, worldwide coordinators for this Dāmodara pūjā. If you have any questions, they’ll send you videos and different things. So, they have a multimedia presentation. Last year 3,870 or so house visits, apart from the 67,000 in the bazaar. So, I don’t know about, next year, they want to double it again so. But it’s a wonderful thing. It’s a very simple thing to come up with. Okay, we find an idea that works. This is the year of the congregation. So, these are two simple things you could do. Inviting the preachers to come to your home. Inviting for the Dāmodara pūjās. I used to do the Dāmodara pūjā in Diwali. It’s the month of Diwali. So everybody visiting people’s homes in Diwali. That’s what it is. Go and visit people’s homes and do some programs. So, this way we can have so many new ‘Bhakti-homes’, śraddhā-kuṭīras. We can try to expand the congregation, try to cultivate the existing ones that were on the map. They cared about us; they came. We did a little Dāmodara pūjā. Sometimes we took Prabhupāda. On the centennial, we took a little deity of Prabhupāda. So, like that.

We hope that you would all… I’d like to see that here, in the Bhaktivedanta Manor, this should be one of the very top congregational developed area. Because we have already developed area. We don’t get the reports in here so much. Also, from Chowpatty we don’t. (laughter followed by applause) Also, I think this year Mahārāja pushed them and they sent in their scores. (laughter) But we have 60,000 people coming for the Janmāṣṭamī. How many temples? There’s no other temple in the world that has so many people coming. Maybe in India they have these big queues of people coming. But definitely overseas, this is the biggest Janmāṣṭamī. So, it’s a huge congregation. Very popular, in fact. So, we’re really happy that this is the year of the congregation and that this way we can take better care of the devotees. We can expand our number of congregation groups. Sometimes devotees don’t know what service they can do is that maybe they’ve got scope for preaching. And this is what even the eternal associates of Lord Caitanya did.

So, thank you very much. I don’t know how I ended up here today—it’s my sukṛti—in the association of Radhānātha Swāmi, and Indradyumna Mahārāja. And I could be at this presentation about congregational development. So, I want to say that the Bhaktivedanta Manor, England, should be number one in the Western world.

Devotees: Hari bol! (applause)