20231121 Question and Answer Session

Question: My parents are not devotees. I have been trying to get them to understand but they don’t seem to understand and it gets a bit tough and is a tussle. So what should I do under the circumstances?

Jayapatākā Swami: Some saṅkīrtana leader, he brought about hundred devotees. Half ladies and half men. They said that they take books and distribute them for the saṅkīrtana. I wish I could ask them what they do with their parents if their parents are foolish. But you could tell the boy that he can give some book to the mother and father and maybe by reading the book they may be convinced. Generally, parents don’t like to be instructed by their children, they think that they know better. Nanda Mahārāja, he is very special, he liked to be instructed by Kṛṣṇa. But some parents, they are not so fortunate. So, if you get them to read the books or get someone of their age to talk to them, it may have some result.

Question: Some people have the fortune of staying here and leaving their body here and some people do not have that good fortune. If someone stays here, chants Hare Kṛṣṇa and leaves the body here, can he go home back to Godhead? Or what should he do to go back home back to Godhead?

Jayapatākā Swami: In the Bhagavad-gītā it says that if you understand the appearance and karma of Kṛṣṇa you can go back to Kṛṣṇa. You can talk to Acintya Caitanya dāsa, he has some amazing story about his father. His father, he was mainly a devotee of Durgā but he would chant 8 rounds and he lived in Māyāpur. But he had cancer. And some Viṣṇudūtas appeared to his wife, put some tulasī on her forehead. She did not know, she never saw such beautiful people. She wasn’t sure whether they were men or women, more likely men, but very beautiful. And then afterwards they found that the father had passed away. And when you hear from Acintya Caitanya dāsa, it seems that his father went back to Godhead. So the fact that someone lives here, that itself has some special mercy.

One of my disciples, the wife, children were all my disciples. But the husband he was not favorable. He had third level cancer or something. So then, he saw some hairy muscular guys coming out through the wall, they had a rope in their hands and they started heading towards him. He said, “No, no, no, no, not me! Not me! No, no, no, no!” and then they disappeared through the wall. He called his wife, “I want neck beads, I want Gītā.” “We preached the whole life, nothing. But the Yamadūtas in one minute they converted him.” So he is reading Gītā, chanting japa. So we should try to please Kṛṣṇa. Actually, Lord Caitanya what He is giving is much greater than liberation. He is giving pure love. But anyway, if one wants liberation, it seems they can get that fairly easily. But if one doesn’t do anything, I don’t know what happens. These people, they all change at the last.

Kṛṣṇe matir astu!