20220611 Netronmilana Festival Address

The following is a Netronmilana Festival Address given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on June 11th,2022 in Hosur, 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!

Jayapatākā Swami: Today, you have seen the Netronmilana and the Deities were glancing over you with very auspicious looks. They love you! Haribol! Remember, you are part and parcel of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Today, now we have many important visitors. We have our co-GBC, His Holiness Bhānu Swami Mahārāja, he is currently the Chairman of the GBC. We also have Revatī Ramaṇa dāsa who is GBC Vice Chairman. We have also Śukhadeva Swami, Sāmba dāsa, also Sumitra Kṛṣṇa dāsa and many other temple presidents and others who have come from different parts of South India, because Hosur is a very important place. Because there are so many Vaiṣṇavas here! And Rādhā Kṛṣṇa are coming down from the spiritual world to accept your worship. In this material world there is little enjoyment and lot of suffering. But in worshiping Rādhā Kṛṣṇa, Jagannātha, Nitāi-Gaura, there is unlimited bliss! We want everyone to study His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda’s books. Some of you are very well-read. I heard that some have Bhakti-vaibhava, Bhakti-vedānta. But some are not so well-read. But now that should all be changed, you should all be expert in the Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Caitanya-caritāmṛta. I heard that here also you have Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and English speakers. Also, Bengalis and some other groups. Are there are Bengalis here? So, here this is a very mixed, combined effort.

We heard how many people are preaching, they are listening, they are hearing. There are nine practices of devotional service. I will talk about that later. But now, we have to focus, the Deities will still come out and They will go for śayana-adhivāsa. There is a process given by Bṛhaspati and other experts on how to install and request the Lord to be present in His Deity form. That process may have been somewhat explained by Śītalāṅga Prabhu and Sevatulya Prabhu. The idea is that the Lord is coming, and He will accept your worship. We want you all to concentrate and make a saṅkalpa that you will serve the Lord, that He should please come and you will serve.

Actually, human life is meant for going back to Godhead. Lord Caitanya taught that being born in India is a very special birth. Bhārata-bhūmite haila manuṣya-janma yāra, janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra (Cc. Ādi 9.41). And what is special here is that the Lord came here in various avatāras. Lord Rāmacandra came in the Tretā-yuga. In Dvāpara-yuga came Lord Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma. And in this Kali-yuga came Lord Caitanya, Lord Buddha. And many ācāryas. So these are devotees of the Lord and teaching us how to serve the Lord. Most of the world is not having this spiritual consciousness. You see even if we have economic development, we still have to take birth again. But if we focus our mind on the Lord’s service, then everything is perfect, we go back to Godhead. You are very fortunate that in this place there is a temple, and you get a chance to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. But you can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa everywhere, but it is rare to get so many Vaiṣṇavas. So, we want you all to dedicate yourselves in the service of Lord Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa.

Lord Caitanya came to South India for six years. And when He would see people, He would embrace them. And thus, He gave them love of Kṛṣṇa. Love of Kṛṣṇa is a very great ecstasy. But it is gradually developed. He would cry, hairs would stand on end, His voice would get choked up. Sometimes He would fall on the ground, fainting. He was in extreme ecstasy. But these things are gradually developed unless you get special mercy. So we want to practice the bhakti-yoga. The Śaṅkarācārya said that to get mokṣa you need to be a sannyāsī. But Lord Caitanya said whether you be a gṛhastha or a vairāgī, you just do bhakti-yoga. Gṛhe thāko vane thāko sadā hari bole ḍāko. So, we are recommending the bhakti-yoga process. Bhakti-yoga is the only means to realize the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Śaṅkarācārya was aspiring for his teaching the impersonal realization. So when Lord Caitanya visited Benaras, he was talking to many Śaṅkarācārya sannyāsīs. And he was questioned, why don’t You being a sannyāsī, why are You chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa? Why don’t you study the Vedānta-sutra? And then He taught them that His guru had taught Him to chant the names of Kṛṣṇa. harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā. In the Bṛhan-nāradīya Purāṇa it recommends that the chanting of the names of Hari is the recommended process. I heard you all chanting very loud and clear and it was blissful! You see, by chanting the holy names, there is no difference between Kṛṣṇa and His holy names. And worshiping the Deity is non-different from Kṛṣṇa. Make your home centered around Kṛṣṇa. In this way, as I said yesterday, the Yamadūtas will not touch you. Here we see the new Deities, Rādhā Kṛṣṇa, Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā, Nitāi-Gaura. Śrīla Prabhupāda had brought all these Deities around the world and his representatives have brought Them to Hosur. Keep the Deities in your heart. Actually, already the Paramātmā is in your heart and you decide I want to know about Kṛṣṇa, I want to serve Kṛṣṇa, that is the real purpose of human life. And a couple came to see me from Canada. Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted different temples to educate temples and send some Indians to foreign countries. Now like this, our human life we go through 8 million 4 hundred thousand species before we get the human life. So being a human being we should not waste our time like the animals. For the Deity installation, for chanting, I don’t see any animals here. This is what makes the human life special! That we can understand about God. Now we are told the Deities are ready to go for Their śayana-adhivāsa. The śayana-adhivāsa is very important,and includes many other ceremonies. Thank you all for listening and please invite the Lord to come! Hare Kṛṣṇa! Haribol!