20240211 Initiation Address

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-gurun dina tāriṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram
hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Jayapatākā Swami: Who are all aspiring disciples? Who is here as a well-wisher? So what are the rest of you? They are spies!! Today is a very auspicious day. Today we are unifying or connecting between guru and disciple. So it is a very auspicious day. But bhakti-yoga is activity. Nine practices of bhakti-yoga are there, that are very active. Especially the first two – hearing and chanting. Hearing means someone speaks, someone hears! Or maybe reading is also hearing. Then preaching, you bring out the message that is also a kind of kīrtana. Now with the online preaching, you can preach to people all over the world. And kīrtana there is no limit. Also, you distribute books, that is another form of kīrtana. So, we are not a sectarian movement, that means we accept people from all walks of life, all different religions. Taking initiation means that whatever you do, it affects me. Follow the principles, you chant, you preach, it is good for me! And good for you! Everything you do against the regulative principles causes some pain to me. If you follow the principles very carefully, you don’t get any reactions. Except you have to be very careful dealing with the Vaiṣṇavas. The Vaiṣṇavas are very dear to Kṛṣṇa. Vaiṣṇavas, Vaiṣṇavīs, they are very dear. And we should be careful not to do vaiṣṇava-aparādhā.

You have heard the ten offences against the holy name. The first aparādhā is the vaiṣṇava-aparādhā. That means hitting, speaking harsh words, all kinds of things. Bṛghu-muni, he was testing Lord Brahmā, Lord Śiva and Lord Viṣṇu. Brahmā, when Bṛghu Muni walked in, should have stood up but Brahmā did not stand up. And Brahmā became angry. Then he went to Lord Śiva and Bṛghu Muni, he criticized Lord Śiva, and used words saying bad things about Lord Śiva. And Lord Śiva became very angry! Bṛghu muni thought, they both failed. Now I will go and test Lord Viṣṇu. He went and kicked Lord Viṣṇu, kicked Him on the chest. Lord Viṣṇu, He did not get angry. He said, “Oh, My chest is very hard, you would have hurt your foot.” But Lakṣmī Devī was very angry. She said, “Bṛghu Muni kicked Lord Viṣṇu in the chest where I stay!” So she cursed the brāhmaṇas that, “Whoever is a brāhmaṇa will be poor.”

No offence by dealings, by words, by physical means. Maybe Lord Viṣṇu was more tolerant, but we have to be very careful not to do offence to Vaiṣṇavas. So in a Vaiṣṇava society, before we came into bhakti we don’t do any offence, because we don’t mingle with Vaiṣṇavas. Our bad dealings are either puṇya or pāpa. So when we are in a society of devotees, we have to be very careful. So the ladies in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they are not ordinary women, they are Vaiṣṇavīs! So we have to be very careful how we deal with them. Husband and wife, they deal with us as Vaiṣṇavīs and Vaiṣṇavas. Try to treat each other nicely. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness is a science that we learn to deal with devotees, we learn how to deal with people. And sometimes we just don’t treat people close to us very carefully.

But anyway, after you take initiation, after you get connected, you have to be very active in devotional service. Śrīla Prabhupāda was saying how every bird flies its own flight. The lead bird, he is there, actually they say that the lead bird has to take more of the wind. The birds following behind, they get some advantage. But the lead bird does not carry another bird on top of it. Each bird has to fly its own flight. Each devotee has to chant their own japa. I cannot chant for you! I can read the book for, I can do devotional service for you, I can pray for you, prayer to the Lord to bless you all. But you have to chant your own japa. If you have any doubt, you can tell me. And all the devotees should help the younger devotees. I mean, Śrīla Prabhupāda told me as a sannyāsī I should not deal with the gṛhastha problems. So when problems are there I refer them to some senior gṛhasthas.

Devotional service actually is more than we practice. We start to get transcendental bliss, ecstasy. And this is something very special! And it takes some time, it is a gradual process. When you are here in Mumbai or wherever, the temples are places that you can be engaged in sevā. Do devotional service in the temple, clean the temple, distribute caraṇāmṛta, distribute books, do some sevā. Normally, children approach their parents to get some allowance. But here in the temple, you approach the leaders, whoever, the president, or the residents, the outsiders and ask them if there is something I can do? Someone who is more enthusiastic naturally, they can advance quicker! So devotional service is such a thing that we practice and gradually we go from rules and regulations to rāga-mārga.

I am thinking all the time how people can become Kṛṣṇa conscious? How can I fulfill the orders of Śrīla Prabhupāda? Śrīla Prabhupāda was saying that he felt we were all sent by his guru to help him. So I think that you are all sent to help me preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness! Thank you very much!

I will chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, just hear it with your right ear.

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare /
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare!