20220705 Ratha-yātrā Pandal Address

The following is a Ratha Yātrā pandal address on day 4 given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on July 5th, 2022 ISKCON Kolkata, India.

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

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Jayapatākā Swami: You had listened till now the kīrtana by the international party.

Now, where are they from?

They from Russia and Ukraine and Kazakhstan, an Islamic country.

War is going on between Russia and Ukraine.

But here the devotees are lovingly doing kīrtana!

They did very beautiful kīrtana and dance.

In Māyāpur, there are about 60 different countries’ devotees and about 50 are my disciples.

Śrīla Prabhupāda said that ISKCON is the United Nations of the spiritual world! Haribol!

Now, Śrīla Prabhupāda in 1965 he left from Kolkata on the Jaladūta cargo ship.

Then the ship stopped at Colombo in Śrī Lanka, then it stopped in Kochi, in Kerala in India.

Then via the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean Sea, and across the Atlantic Ocean.

He first reached Boston and then went to New York.

Yesterday was the Independence Day of the USA.

August 15 is the Independence Day of India.They are July 4th. 

Everyone is searching for happiness.

Who all of you want to be happy?

Śrīla Prabhupāda said that one person may be got 200 dollars or 4000 or 5000 a month.

But this is not enough and have lot of difficulties.

And try to earn 500 dollars or 10,000 rupees more, that is not enough.

And they want more, 50,000, then one lakh, then one crore!

But they are not satisfied even then.

This way in this material world through sense gratification there is no happiness and satisfaction.

The senses want more and more, how will we be happy?

We want to be happy!

The actual path is by service to the Lord.

Here I asked who has a smiling face?

And there Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā have the most smiling faces.

We are part of the Lord and if we serve the Lord, then we get happiness, that gives satisfaction.

The devotees who do this festival, they are doing service, not working, but day and night busy with various services.

Why are they doing?

We don’t pay them money.

They are doing this because they are getting happiness.

Because serving the Lord we get happiness.

Four types of people approach the Lord.

Those who are pious.

One want money, O Lord please give me some money.

And another type is who has many problems and prays, O Lord please save us from these difficulties.

Like on the road, the beggar says, please give me something!

Another is the inquisitive type want to know who is God, how is He?

And some are scholars, they know that God is everything and they do service to the Lord.

The two types of men one who are after money, when they get money and the other type who have problems, when their problems are solved, they could forget God.

The inquisitive and the scholars do not leave the Lord easily. 

The people of the Western world think that they are the body.

Most of the people in this world believe they are this body.

They say I am Chinese, I am Pakistani, I am Russian, I am Indian.

Their bodies have appeared in a particular country but their soul are eternal.

Maybe they are born in one country, but after death, they may be born in another country.

Some go to heaven and some go to hell. 

kabhu svarge uṭhāya, kabhu narake ḍubāya
daṇḍya-jane rājā yena nadīte cubāya
(Cc. Madhya 20.118)

We on this earth have distress.

Why the Lord has a smiling face? Because He is experiencing His pastimes.

He desires, why are you all wanting to rot in this cycle of birth, death, old age, and disease? Why are you here? Come to My eternal abode.

One’s grandfather passed away.

But who passed away.

His forehead, hair, dress, body are all there.

But he is saying, grandfather, has gone has gone!

What has gone?

The body is there!

The scientists say that life comes from chemicals combined together.

Alright, the grandfather’s body is there. If life comes from these chemicals, give him that and he should come back to life.

But that is not possible.

One small cell, the scientists are not able to produce.

Because life comes from life.

The soul is part of the Lord and because the soul is there in the body, it works.

When the soul leaves the body, the body dies.

Now, maybe someone may be very beautiful, but if the soul leaves the body, the body is no more beautiful or attractive. You are all eternal spirit souls.

Like the kīrtaniyas who performed now – Russians, Ukranians, Kazakhs devotees, they all did so nice kīrtana and you enjoyed it. 

We desire that all of you should be satisfied.

For this satisfaction, you have to serve the Lord.

Someone said it is difficult to go back to Godhead.

But Kṛṣṇa says: janma karma ca me divyam – those who know the divine nature of the Lord’s appearance, pastimes, if they know this, after death go back to Godhead.

There is nothing difficult in this.

In which family, situation we are born, we have no idea or control, but the Lord says I will appear in the Vṛṣni family and He also asked His associates to also appear there and He picks His mother and father.

Who here want to be the father or mother of the Lord.

After great austerity and bhakti some got this opportunity.

Devakī and Vasudeva.

Then, He went to Vṛndāvana and Nanda and Yaśodā did not know that Kṛṣṇa was Bhagavān.

But they loved Kṛṣṇa, because He was Kṛṣṇa. 

We hope that in this festival, you will get closer to the Lord.

This way you will be satisfied.

This way, staying close to the service of the Lord, your ancestors in India were very happy.

In the West they have a lot of wealth, but they don’t have peace and happiness.

Because India loves the Lord.

Haribol!

I will now answer some questions and there are some other programs here.