20230310 SAFARI Evening Pandala Address

The following is a talk given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on May 10th, 2023 at Iskcon Durgapur, 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: A few words I will speak in English. I would like to welcome all the Safari devotees. They are from 30 different countries. I would like to thank all the Mahārājas. Bhakti Vighna-vinaśana Narasiṁha Swami, Bhakti Dhīra Dāmodara Swami, Bhakti Vāsudeva Swami, Śrīvāsa dāsa from Ghana, Bhakti Narasiṁha Mahārāja. In this temple you can see very many active devotees. I told them that I will bring the Safari here. I wanted to come here earlier but the doctor came and did a procedure in my eye. Like that there are many things that happened. But I finally made it! During the Ratha-yātrā they had one day 1500 or so pineapples in a decoration. I will now speak in Bengali.

I was saying that I had told them I will come again. And the Safari devotees have come with me now. I thought that the Safari devotees from 30 countries will be enthused to see you all here. You are all studying Bhakti-śāstrī, Bhakti-vaibhava, I am very grateful for that. Śrīla Prabhupāda took great effort to translate the Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Caitanya-caritāmṛta and write the purports as well. You are all studying Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books and doing the degrees and teaching people, so I am very happy. Definitely, you have the opportunity to get some books from His Holiness Bhakti Vijaya Bhāgavata Swami. You can have your books signed by devotees from 30 different countries. You can give a special message to the Safari devotees.

Now I am making the Caitanya book combining various books of Lord Caitanya. In the Caitanya-Bhāgavata there is a līlā wherein Lord Caitanya is telling Lord Nityānanda. Here there are two flags - one is Gaurāṅga and one is Nityānanda. Gaurāṅga told Nityānanda that We have descended from Goloka on a specific mission. That We will deliver the foolish, lowborn, fallen and distressed, the sad. Any of you before you came to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, did you qualify for any of these? Then you are qualified to get delivered first by Lord Nityānanda and Lord Caitanya.

The problem is that we consider we are the body and are distressed. Sanātana Gosvāmī was the Prime Minister. People used to call him a paṇḍita. But he said, he was a fool because he said I don’t know who I am? who I am? Lord Caitanya said, jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya-kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa’ [Cc. Madhya 20.108]. This is our constitutional position. Who are we? We are servants of Lord Kṛṣṇa. The so called educated paṇḍitas even don’t know that.

Śrīla Prabhupāda when he visited Moscow there was a PhD doctor. He said, after this life, everything ends, nothing is left of us. Yesterday, one of my dear friends Kadamba Kānana Swami left his body. He said, there is no need to fear death. We do service in this lifetime and after death we will have another service. Haribol! Gaurāṅga! Nityānanda! Haribol! This way, Lord Nityānanda is actually Baladeva. Lord Caitanya is Rādhā Kṛṣṇa – śrī kṛṣṇa caitanya rādhā kṛṣṇa nāhi anya.

In Dvārakā, Rukmiṇī devī told Lord Kṛṣṇa, “You know everything. What Lord Brahmā is doing in Satyaloka, what Lord Śiva doing in Kailāsa, what is happening in all the unlimited universes You know. But one thing You do not know. Rādhārāṇī knows, I know, You don’t know.”

Lord Kṛṣṇa was wondering no one ever told Me that there is something I don’t know. Lord Kṛṣṇa said, “I will come in Kali-yuga, as a devotee! I will come in Kali-yuga as a devotee! I WILL COME IN KALI-YUGA AS A DEVOTEE!” That is Lord Caitanya. When He came, His brother Balarāma also came. When Lord Nityānanda did kīrtana in Pānihāṭi, He was sitting in a yoga posture. One after another devotee, danced in front of Him. Whoever He glanced at the devotees got kṛṣṇa-prema! This way, Lord Nityānanda went to Ādi Saptagrāma and there he preached to the bankers, vaiśyas. He went from house to house and did kīrtana. And that way, the whole of Ādi Saptagrāma became devotees. I see Durgapur is becoming like that! So here we hope Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda will give you special mercy and you will all be ecstatic in kṛṣṇa-prema.

Anyway, it is getting late in the night. Now, the devotees have travelled a long way and tomorrow there are lots of services. Coming here also, devotees would be tired. So, I will end here.