20220625 Arrival Address

The following is an arrival address given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on Jane 25th,2022 in ISKCON Guruvayur, 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: I am very happy to be in Kerala, the land of Paraśurāma. We arrived here had prasāda and rest and had darśana of Guruvāyūrappan. Then I had my STEP exercise, and I am now talking. Who is here from the Middle East? Who took initiation in the Middle East? Who are my initiated disciples? Who are initiated by other gurus? Who is sheltered? Who is aspiring? Who is not decided yet? So, [break] Kerala is a very auspicious place. We are glad that Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books are translated into Malayalam. I hope everyone has my Jayapatākā Swami App. Who doesn’t have? I will pay full charge because I am not revealing it is free!

We have been discussing how Śrīla Prabhupāda said that this human form of life is very precious. Lord Caitanya said,

bhārata-bhūmite haila manuṣya-janma yāra
janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra
(Cc. Ādi 9.41).

So, that would mean we perfect our lives and then help others. It is very easy to perfect our lives. Simply by chanting the names of Kṛṣṇa because Kṛṣṇa is the Absolute Truth and there is no difference between Kṛṣṇa and His name. Just like we see the Deity of Guruvāyur, that is non-different from Kṛṣṇa. When we were making a parikramā around the Guruvāyur temple we stopped at the corner. They said the Ādi Śaṅkarācārya on seeing the form of the Deity and said this is just a form of māyā. Immediately he crashed to the ground. He had committed an offence against the Supreme Personality of Godhead! Then he composed the Govindāṣṭaka. We should not think that the Deity of Kṛṣṇa is different from Kṛṣṇa. In this Kali-yuga, the yuga-dharma is chanting the holy name. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare! Thank you for chanting in Malayalam, Tamil, English, Chinese. In all the languages the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra is the same. In Malaysia someone asked me, “Does Kṛṣṇa know Tamil?” He not only knows Tamil, He also knows Malayalam and all other languages. And He even also knows the language of the birds and the beasts. When Lord Caitanya was going through the Jhārikhaṇḍa forest He even made the animals to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. All the animals got love of Kṛṣṇa. And the deer and the tigers were embracing each other and dancing without fear! Normally animals feel a lot of fear.

Now we are seeing that there is war all over the world. Of course, we know about the Russia-Ukraine war. But also, in Africa there is some war. We know in India we had some confrontation with China, far away from Kerala! So in this world there is a lot of war that is going on. We have the United Nations to stop the war. But still the wars are going on because every country has their own interest. Śrīla Prabhupāda was saying how in the śāstra it says

sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam
hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate
(Cc. Madhya 19.170)

so we should be free from all upādhis. We have so many material upādhis. I am Indian, I am European, I am American. I am brāhmaṇa, I am kṣatriya, I am vaiśya, śūdra. We have some isms. Like patriotism, communism, humanism, so many isms. Socialism. So, actually, if we take all these isms and all these upādhis, we have spread out our love to all of these. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā (18.66): sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja – give up all religions and just surrender to Me. The point is that we are not claiming to be a sectarian religion, we want people to love God. We worship the name of God as Kṛṣṇa. But He has unlimited names. But actually, the real purpose of human life is to know Him and to love Him. So, Kṛṣṇa appeared here in Mathura. He said for two reasons – paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām (Bg. 4.8) – he has come to save His devotees like Prahlāda and to destroy the demons. Being born in India is very special because so many avatāras have appeared here. If one practices bhakti-yoga he can naturally awaken his dormant love for Kṛṣṇa. Śravaṇam kīrtanam, smaraṇam – Hearing, chanting, remembering. We have pāda-sevanam, vandanam, arcanam. Serving the Lord paying obeisances to the Deity, worshiping the Deity. You see some people pray to get something – give us this day our daily bread. The demons say you don’t have to pray to God for getting your daily bread.We have our factory, we will give you money, you can buy the bread. Actually, the ant gets its food, the elephant gets its food. In the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad it is said – nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām. Of All the eternals, Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme. Of all the conscious entities, He is the Supreme. He is one person, He is above everyone. Guruvāyūrappan kī jaya! So instead of all this, if we concentrate on Kṛṣṇa, then we will love Kṛṣṇa. If you do good karma you can go to the upper planets, born in a rich family, good education. But if you do bad karma, you have the opposite and go to hell. You are eternal, and the repetition of birth and death goes on. So when the soul leaves the body, the body stops moving. We say, oh, grandfather he is gone! Who is gone? Same hair is there, same skin, same body! But if material energy was able to produce consciousness, then we can bring that body back to life. But we cannot. They never have they never will. Because the actual jīvātmā is the spirit soul. If that leaves the body, the body is dead. But it doesn’t die. It cannot be cut, cannot be dried, cannot be made wet. We are alive because of the soul. Usually, if a woman thinks of her husband at the time of her death; she will take birth as a man. If a man thinks of his wife at the time of his death, then he takes birth as a woman. But if you think of Kṛṣṇa at the time of death, you go back to Kṛṣṇa. Nārāyaṇa antaḥ smṛti. The wife’s duty is to help the husband to remember Kṛṣṇa. The husband’s duty is help the wife to remember Kṛṣṇa. Usually, the wife lives longer than the husband. According to the insurance companies! Anyway, we never know when our life will end. In ISKCON Coimbatore there is a family, my disciples, the daughter got COVID-19. And she had just taken initiation. But passed away! So, in this Kali-yuga, you don’t know who will live longer. In the Dvāpara-yuga, one brāhmaṇa went to Arjuna and said you have a bad government, my child died before me! Can we go to the government and complain, “You have bad government, my child died before me?” In Kali-yuga we cannot imagine. But in Dvāpara-yuga it was like that.

Like this, we think we have a great advantage. But we know that the real purpose of human life is to know that we are eternal servants of Kṛṣṇa. Jīvera svarūpa haya kṛṣṇera nitya-dāsa – we are the eternal servants of Lord Kṛṣṇa. And if we achieve that understanding then we will be happy. So, we don’t want to keep you up too long. Tomorrow we are going to inaugurate the Malayalam Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Śrīla Prabhupāda he translated the Caitanya-caritāmṛta in two months. He told them that they have to print as fast as I translated. The BBT editor said that is impossible! Impossible is in a fool’s dictionary said Śrīla Prabhupāda. And they had the artists, the transcribers working round the clock. I don’t think you can read the Caitanya-caritāmṛta in two months! Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote it and gave commentary. And it was printed! In two months! I heard in Vrndavana, they are starting the Bhakti Sārvabhauma study which is the Caitanya-caritāmṛta study. Takes a couple of years! Anyway, I met some devotee, he got his Bhakti-vaibhava and Bhakti-vedānta degrees in three years. We hope that all the Malayalis, since you are the most literate in India, you can study Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books very quickly. Haribol! Śrīla Prabhupāda said there should be ten thousand, lakh, ten lakhs, million, ten million gurus. You start out as a student and at the end you should also be a master for all students. You will always be a student for your guru but for others you will be master. For that you should read, study, know Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Every parent should see that their children go back home back to Godhead. The guru should see that his disciple goes back to Godhead. Some gurus, they give ashes. Other gurus will give you soil! Śrīla Prabhupāda he will send you back to the spiritual world. What is better? Thank you very much! All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda! Don’t forget the nine practices of bhakti-yoga? What is the first one? Second one? Third? Fourth? Fifth? Sixth? Haribol!