20250506 Initiation Address

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram
hariḥ oṁ tat sa

Jayapatākā Swami: I offer my prostrate obeisances to Śrīla Prabhupāda. I heard that devotees from West Medinipur, East Medinipur, Jhargram and Kolkata have come here today.

Śrīla Prabhupāda heard that those who were not born in Hindu families, but became devotees of Lord Caitanya, even then they were not allowed to enter the Jagannātha Purī temple. Then Śrīla Prabhupāda, because of this, he did not enter the Jagannātha Purī temple. He instructed me that we should try to get permission to allow the Western devotees, etc. to enter the Jagannātha Purī. We have been trying for the past 50 years but the Śaṅkarācārya of Purī is persistent that the Westerners will not enter. The Gajapati Mahārāja or someone said that in their scripture it is mentioned, that if Western devotees get in then Lord Jagannātha will leave with them! Now we are still trying, but have not been able to get permission.

Now our West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, has constructed duplicate Jagannātha Purī Mandir in Digha, West Bengal. The architect said that many university experts and scholars have seen that there is maximum 15 mm difference in the architecture of Jagannātha Purī temple and the Digha Jagannātha temple! That means 1.5 cm! Less than one inch! There are three Deities there, one is the big Jagannātha, one small Jagannātha and Rādhā Madana-mohana. They say that the small Jagannātha Deities were made from the left over nava-kalevaram wood in Purī. The panda who had come, to keep him happy, we allowed him to do the prāṇa-pratiṣṭha for the small Jagannātha Deities. The rest of the Deities, I did the prāṇa-pratiṣṭha ceremony. So, the prāṇa-pratiṣṭha has been performed for the small Jagannātha Deities as well as the other big Jagannātha and Rādhā Madana-mohana Deities. In the Jagannātha Purī there is an eagle that tore a part of the flag on the tower of the temple and circled the flag three times. After that the eagle threw the piece of the flag on the terrace of the residence of the Gajapati Mahārāja. Then the Gajapati Mahārāja took the piece of flag and brought it to Digha and that has been hoisted up in the Digha temple! I could not imagine that Lord Jagannātha would be so merciful! In Purī, there are thousands and thousands of pandas. But we need devotees from Medinpur, Jhargram, etc. to go to Digha now and then to do some kīrtana and seva for Lord Jagannātha. Jaya Jagannātha!

Now, the scriptures there say that Lord Jagannātha will leave with the Western devotees. But there is an irrevocable agreement that the government has made with ISKCON that we will have the rights for worship in this temple. Some people say that this is a government temple but the Chief Minister, she had the temple constructed and gave the right to do the worship in the temple to ISKCON! That is why I am saying that all of you should now and then go and help with the service. I told Padmanetra dāsa that at least for one or two days, one cakra – cakra comprises of twelve Nāma-haṭṭa saṅghas – at least two devotees from one saṅgha go, of course, if more want to go, there is no problem, go to the Digha temple. If you have to do this, what will you need? Then I will say that way. Now we have an agreement as per the government that whatever way we do the worship they will accept that. I think that in Purī, there is no kīrtana done. But in Digha, we need kīrtana and in keeping with Lord Caitanya’s Maṭha, we will have kīrtana there! Now, Digha is in the Gaura-maṇḍala Bhūmi and Jagannātha Purī is in the Śrī-kṣetra. Anyway, we desire that all of you come to Digha and do worship. So those who will go there and do kīrtana and service, they will be provided a place to stay and prasāda. Anyway, I have taken up a responsibility.

Now, taking initiation means surrendering to Kṛṣṇa. And our body belongs to Kṛṣṇa! Who of you believe this? Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī, when he was travelling through the forest of Jhārikhaṇḍa, contracted some skin disease. He thought that during Ratha-yātrā, he would commit suicide by falling under the wheels of Lord Jagannātha’s cart! But when Lord Caitanya embraced him, he contaminated Lord Caitanya’s body. And he thought he had committed an offence. But Lord Caitanya said, that Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī was going to destroy the property of someone else. Because he had taken initiation from Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu, his body belonged to Him, that is why he was trying to destroy the property of Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu! Anyway, this way, Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī was not allowed to commit suicide by Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Now and then people have a lot of distress in this material world. And that is why they want to commit suicide. But once you are a devotee, this is forbidden. This is a bad karma generally. We have the gross body and the subtle body. Suicide means destroying the gross body. But the subtle body does not get destroyed. The soul does not get destroyed. That is why they take up ghostly forms.

Śrīla Prabhupāda gave many instructions. But I am not able to implement them. One of the instructions was that I should preach unlimitedly, but I am not able to do that. I need your help! All of you, like Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, yāre dekha, tāre kaha ’kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa [Cc. Madhya 7.128] – whoever you see you will talk to them the teachings of Lord Caitanya. Who all of you are interested in helping me?

I should not talk more and will therefore chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra now:

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