20220827 ISKCON Rajahmundry Initiation Address

The following is an initiation ceremony address given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on August 27th, 2022 in Rajahmundry, 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!

Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Jayapatākā Swami: All glories to Śrī Śrī Gaura Nitāi! All glories to Śrī Rādhā Gopīnatha! All glories to Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā, Sudarśana, All glories to Śrīnivāsa Govinda!

Haribol! ? I will give a short address. 

Today we are having the initiation ceremony.

Also, aspiring and shelter.

In Kali-yuga, the special mercy is that we can achieve shelter of the Lord by chanting His holy names.

The holy name of Kṛṣṇa and the person Kṛṣṇa is non-different.

I see here all the devotees are very enthusiastic, chanting the holy names.

I hope that here in the city of Rajahmundry there will be Bhakti-vṛkṣa groups.

And in the villages around there will be Nāmahaṭṭas.

The idea is to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, read Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, take Kṛṣṇa prasāda and serve the Lord. 

There is preyas and śreyas. People are after preyas.

Preyas means immediate sense gratification.

Śreyas is the future transcendental bliss.

Some things we can do, we get material happiness, which is also giving us spiritual advancement.

Just like if we eat kṛṣṇa-prasāda it tastes good and it also gives us spiritual advancement.

How many of you like kṛṣṇa-prasāda?

You see some people, they just eat any nonsense.

They get some immediate pleasure but actually it is bad karma.

Like that, we don’t take intoxication but if the doctor gives us as medicine, we take that.

We don’t gamble, even if they tempt us to do so with prize.

We don’t have any sex life outside of authorized marriage.

And this morning I was asked to bless a baby.

In the Sat-kriyā-saṁskāra-dīpikā there is a ceremony called garbhādāna-saṁskāra.

If one does garbhādāna-saṁskāra according to the Vedas, Kṛṣṇa says it is non-different from Him.

So, having connection with husband and wife for child through garbhādāna-saṁskāra is devotional service.

Of course, if one has connection with the husband or wife, it is not sinful, not bad karma, but it is not devotional service without garbhādāna-saṁskāra.

So, we can do devotional service in various ways.

Eventually, we can have ecstatic love for Kṛṣṇa.

But it is a gradual process.

We first listen, we believe what Kṛṣṇa said in the Gītā, we believe in Kṛṣṇa, then we have śraddhā.

Because we have śraddhā we associate with the devotees.

Śrīla Prabhupāda said he made the temples of ISKCON so that people could associate with devotees.

When one see how the sādhus live – they take initiation and promise to practice.

In this way, they get rid of all the bad habits.

Anarta-nivṛitti, they become rid of bad habits and become fixed up.

Niṣṭhā. Then they start to develop a taste.

And then they become attached to the sweet taste to the next stage āsakti.

Then after āsakti, they get ecstatic love for Kṛṣṇa.

Then after ecstatic love for Kṛṣṇa, they get pure love.

So it is a gradual process.

By following the principles, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa one advances step by step.

In this way, Śrīla Prabhupāda said, for him to get perfection it took him 20 years.

How long it will take you depends on how serious you are.

Bhakti-yoga, Kṛṣṇa promises He will reciprocate with love.

So if we take one step to Kṛṣṇa, He takes ten steps towards us.

So we are very glad that people are taking many steps today! We are very fortunate that the Godāvarī river is here, which is non-different from the Ganges.

And Lord Caitanya personally visited here.

So you also have the beautiful Deities.

I see that Garuḍa is ready to carry you back to Godhead!

So, we will do the different ceremonies.

And you have to be very careful to follow seriously.

Bāgunnāra? Kṛtagyatālu!