20210312 49th Śrī Gaura Pūrṇimā Festival Flag Hoisting Address

The following is a Gaura-Pūrṇimā flag-hoisting address by His Holiess Jayapatākā Swami at Śrī Māyāpur, India.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram
Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

So, this hoisting of the flag, inauguration of the festival. This means from now all the festivities are offered for the pleasure of Gaura-Nitāi, Pañca-tattva, Rādhā-Mādhava, Māyāpur Candra, Rādhā-Mādhava aṣṭa-sakhi. To start, today is also the auspicious day of Śiva-rātrī. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it is described as, vaiṣṇavānām yathā śaṁbhuḥ, He is greatest Vaiṣṇava. This festival is of course being observed under some difficult situation, so we want all the devotees, some are attending physically, some are attending virtually. So the system is that we try to engage everything for the pleasure of Deities and Śrīla Prabhupāda. So, this is the ecstasy of our service.

We know that it says that in India right now, they are having the surge of the Corona virus and some of the devotees have been tested positive and they are suffering also. Somehow our devotees take it very lightly, they don’t wear mask. So we hope that everyone stay healthy and wear mask and expand in their devotional service. Normally we would have the GBC’s present for their annual general meeting and because of the travel restrictions they are not able to attend, so they are attending virtually and today there will be a GBC meeting 5pm. I thank all of you for participating in this festival. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Missing I just want to say, normally His Holiness Bhakti Cāru Swami Mahārāja would be present in these functions, so we are all feeling his absence, we know that spiritually he is here. Also new GBC Chairman is His Holiness Bhakti Caitanya Swami, He would normally be present to speak. His Holiness Rāmāi Swami is the outgoing Chairman, I just thought I would mention this because normally they would speak on these occasions.