Question: It is said that at the time of death, one experiences as much as the bit of forty thousand scorpions. Do devotees also face the same pain?
Author: Svarṇa Gopīkā devī dāsī
Date: 2022-01-05
Jayapatākā Swami: One day I went to the dentist’s office. The dentist said the greatest pain is dying, giving childbirth,
the stone in the kidney
and dental office.
So welcome to your dentist’s office.
But apparently the devotees can leave this world very happily,
because for them they are going home back to Godhead.
We heard that His Holiness Bhakti Cāru Swami
left with a smile on his face.
Haribol!
Category: [Material Sufferings / Death]
Related Questions
Questioner: Devotee
Date: 2022-12-02
Jayapatākā Swami: You see in Guruvayūr the head priest or Nambhūthirī is not told if his close relative has passed away.
So he is not affected.
The questions is: if you are affected, if you are lamenting, then it is not good to go before the Deities.
If you are not affected,
then the aśauca period is considered to be less.
I mean like for the brāhmaṇas something like 11 days and śudras 30 days or something.
Vaiṣṇavas are considered to be detached, considered to be on the brahmanical platform.
That you can see your consciousness, how you feel.
Category: [Material Sufferings / Death], [Sādhanā / Philosophical questions], [Sādhanā / Technicalities], [Saṁskāras / Antima-saṁskāras]
Questioner: Dāmodara Dhanañjaya dāsa
Date: 2023-07-07
Jayapatākā Swami: You see the Lord accompanies us in all our births
and therefore, when we enter, He enters.
When we leave, He leaves.
This is described in the Bhagavad-gītā.
Questioner: Devotee
Date: 2022-09-24
Jayapatākā Swami: Prabhupāda said, if a person follows the process of Kṛṣṇa conscious then they can.
If one wants to take birth again in the material world, no.
How free you are from things like offences, may dictate how high you can go in spiritual world.
Whether we get place in Vaikuntha? Whether we get a place in Goloka Vṛndāvana? How I am will able to go?
Or, I mean if a person, I had one person, approached me in India, he was a real strange character.
He said that, “I have been chanting 32 or 20 or 16 rounds for 26 years.
But never gave up eating fish.”
Neutral position that we were discussing today, he reciprocates with the person so perfectly,
that if someone would do something like that because of their offences to chanting, while chanting the holy name,
but they don’t actually make advancement, towards pure love for Kṛṣṇa.
They are getting some benefit from chanting,
but at the same time they are material heart, their material desires aren’t going due to being absorbed in sense gratification like that.
So I advised him that, you should chant the names of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu,
and by His mercy you may be able to overcome this desire of eating fish.
And sure enough after chanting Lord Caitanya’s names for some period of time, he got some spiritual intelligence, and he could stop eating fish.
Even though for 26 years he was on his weird practice, where although chanting he never tried to avoid breaking that,
you know, stopping breaking that regulative principle.
So if a person, I mean if he is determined, you know, alright, I am going to chant 16 rounds and I am going to follow the four principles,
but if they take things in an attitude that I’m determined not to give up my material attachments,
then that’s anachronism, you know.
From our side it should be not just externals, but it should be internal, that we are trying to follow the process.
We are trying from our part to give up our attachments.
If we have the proper attitude, we are trying to give up our attachments, we are trying to avoid, even if we arenot fully successful.
Prabhupāda said, “There is… That Kṛṣṇa is so merciful, that Lord Caitanya is so merciful,
even though we may not at the point of death have been a hundred percent successful.
We can still get delivered.”
[Aside: How long I should go on ?]
I was in Montreal, and Prabhupāda was giving a lecture, that time we had a vyasāsana for him was very high.
I mean, very, it was like, when we would stand up, we would be facing Prabhupāda eye to eye,
or he would still be even higher than that.
It was a very high vyasāsana, and you have to kind of crawl up, steps going up.
[Aside: It was more like a kind of a culpit.
Culpit or something?
Devotee: Pulpit]
Pulpit, Pulpit.
So he would be up there, he would have a seat there and would even have prasādathere.
On a feast they would bring him a big plate of prasāda, we will all be sitting down,
and he would take Prasad from there and sometimes he would give prasāda out from there.
So one day he was giving his lecture from up there naturally,
and on this point he was just preaching very hard, we have to be a 100% Kṛṣṇa conscious,
we have to try, we have to be 100% Kṛṣṇa conscious, we have to try for that,
we have to become, if we are 100% Kṛṣṇa conscious, then we can get pure love for Kṛṣṇa, then our lives will be completely successful.
He was hammering this point.
The devotees you know thinking, 100%! Their heads gradually started to hanging down and they became very thoughtful,
that 100% was like such an objective that never seem that this ever possible, even you know, to get real close to a 100%.
But Prabhupāda was very emphatic on this point.
The devotees were very thoughtful at that time.
Then Prabhupāda, he ended the class, there was just a heavy silence, there was no question,
he ended the class, said become cent percent Kṛṣṇa conscious.
There was just like a death.
I mean there was a silence so thick you could swim through it.
And Prabhupāda was just sitting there on this, that raised
vyasāsana and said that, even if you are 90% Kṛṣṇa conscious, Kṛṣṇa is so kind that you may still be delivered.
Then he started to get down, and he was about halfway down,
just as he was getting off that vyasāsana, he turned to the devotees, said, “Even 90% you can be delivered.”
He started walking off, then he turned and then his cādara fell off.
I remember that it was such a dramatic, almost like you know what you see in those movies;
Julies Caesar his chaddar just blew like that you know.
“Even 70%”, he took his cādara and threw it over his shoulders, raised his head and walked off…
(laughter)
Śrīla Prabhupāda Ki!
Devotees: Jaya!
Jayapataka Swami: But the purport is that try for the 100%.
Category: [Guru (Spiritual Master)], [Kṛṣṇa (Godhead) / Spiritual World / Dhāma], [Material Sufferings / Death], [Mercy], [Sādhanā]
Questioner: Medhāvinī Sakhi devī dāsī
Date: 2022-12-22
Jayapatākā Swami: So, every day if we read some śāstra,
that will help us to always remember Kṛṣṇa!
In the morning I listen to Śrīla Prabhupāda lectures,
in the evening I hear or read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
During the day I give classes.
But we are told that we should always remember Kṛṣṇa and never forget Him.
Category: [Kṛṣṇa (Godhead)], [Material Sufferings / Death], [Sādhanā], [Sādhanā / Philosophical questions]
Questioner: Anon
Date: 2022-08-02
Jayapatākā Swami: The point is that, that will, whole thing will depend on how much amount time the person has, theoretically.
Just like when I came here six months ago, then the Hong Kong Dollar was very strong,
but then after the Prime Minister of England went to Beijing [I don’t know Beijing or Beiking whatever they]
and they told so many things like, “Well, if they are all… that the Chinese government said so many things that we may, we may just throw you out, this or that.”
They were exerting some force, for whatever reason.
Now the Hong Kong Dollar uppsh…(gasps).
Like everybody wants to take the money somewhere else, where it is safe.
They are afraid, “What if they do throw us out, then?
We have to have our money somewhere where it, it won’t, it will be safe.”
Because they are thinking that maybe they won’t have so long after all.
Before that they are thinking, it is going get extend, there is no problem.
So, they won’t worry.
But then they became afraid that, “Well, if we don’t have that much time after all, then we better make some arrangement.”
So, it is like that.
People are thinking, “I am young now, so now I should take care of my material things, when I get old, I will take care of the spiritual matters.”
Well, there are two problems there.
The one problem is that, we do not know how long we are going to live.
Of course, in the normal course of events, we will live to old age.
But that is not that everyone lives to old age.
I do not know the percentage of people who die untimely.
But say at least 25% may die.
Actually, I do not know the exact percent, but a good percentage, not an insignificant number, but a good, significant number die at an age which is young.
So that danger is always there, that if we get suddenly evicted from this body then we will have no alter… then we’ll have no hope.
So that would also make us that we should make some preparation even now.
Just like saving money in the bank.
Therefore, showing to put money now in other accounts overseas, just in case, you see.
That is not for sure.
Hong Kong may be able to make some deal later on and stay here, for some time.
But it is for sure that we have to leave the body That’s for sure! There is no definite… I mean, that is definite, sooner or later.
So that’s the one problem we do not know when.
The other problem is that, even say we live till old age, but to do spiritual practices also is not something that can be just done abruptly.
Naturally, we’ve been practiced… it’s not all the sudden.
If someone can do it immediately, that is also a great, good fortune.
It means some great spiritual asset or blessings have been bestowed on that person.
Prahlāda Mahārāja gave the example that his children friends told him also the same thing, “We don’t want to chant, we don’t want to do this yoga, because we want to play now, we are kids.
When we grow old we will do it.”
He told them, “You play like this for the next ten years as children, then after that you will be busy with your school work and other type of play.
Then you are going to be getting into family life, you are going to have children, you will be working hard to make money to maintain your families, to raise your children, in this way you will be all busy with the family life.
Then in your old age, you will be weak and sick, and you won’t have any energy to travel, or to do anything.
And half your life you are spending sleeping anyway.
So where is the time?
Therefore ‘athāto brahma jijñāsā’ you should inquire now, or uh… uh… uh, ‘kaumāra ācaret prājño’ you should start inquiring and preparing yourself even in the kaumāra, even in the childhood.”
Actually, if a person is already 18 or 20 or 25 years old, that means already 18 years was wasted.
That means one quarter of the life is wasted, because we don’t generally live over 80, maximum is 100.
That means 1/4th of the life or more has already been wasted.
How many? Now you want to waste again how many another quarter?
If you waste another quarter, then you will become so engrossed in family affairs that you won’t be able to stop.
That’s why a person has to start practicing yoga either partially or fully from immediate moment.
Take whatever time is already been wasted, you have to make up for that.
If a person starts up at 75 years, that means he has to make up for 75 years of wasted time.
How is that possible? At that time, you are weaker.
At least if you start at 25, that means 25 years were wasted.
So then, At least you have strength enough to try double speed, to make up for lost time.
So generally, we find that you get people either young or old.
Middle age is very hard because they are already so involved in so many material entanglements.
They don’t find any time.
When they are young, they are just in college, or they are out of high school, or they haven’t yet got married, or got deep into the whole family situation, there is a good chance for them to start the good habits of yoga.
Otherwise, at the end of life we get a few, but usually by the end of life they develop so many bad habits even if they want to practice yoga, they don’t… it is too hard for them to learn at an old age.
It’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks.
So, for these two reasons, one is that we don’t know when we are going to die.
Second is that if we keep delaying it, it becomes harder and harder, and we waste more and more time.
For these 2 reasons we should immediately start the practice of yoga, if at all we want to become free from these material problems and achieve spiritual perfection.
Questioner: Devotee
Date: 2024-05-11
Jayapatākā Swami: There are many ways one remembers Kṛṣṇa.
Ajāmila, remembered his son,
his son’s name was Nārāyaṇa.
So at the time of death, he was chanting the name of his son.
Somehow, he remembered the original Nārāyaṇa.
Like that Kṛṣṇa for His devotee, He also helps.
And if the devotee remembers Kṛṣṇa, then Kṛṣṇa will come
or He may send His devotees.
Questioner: Devotee
Date: 2022-08-30
Jayapatākā Swami: What Prabhupāda said is that, if a person follows the process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness
then he may not have to take birth again in the material world.
Now
how free we are from things like offenses may dictate how I will go up in the spiritual world,
whether we get a place in Vaikuṇṭha, or whether we get a place in Goloka Vṛndāvana, how I am able to go.
Or
I mean, if a person, I had one person who approached me in India, he had a very strange character.
He said, “I have been chanting 32, 20 or 16 rounds for 26 years,
but he never gave up eating fish.” In His neutral position we were discussing today, He simply reciprocates with the person so perfectly.
There is someone who would do something like that because of their offenses while chanting the Holy name,
that they don’t actually make advancement towards pure love for Kṛṣṇa. They are getting some benefit from chanting,
but at the same time, their material desires are not going,
due to being absorbed in sense gratification like that. So I advised him that,
“you should chant the names of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu,
and by His mercy you may be able to overcome this desire of eating fish.”
And sure enough, after chanting Lord Caitanya’s name for some period of time,
he got some spiritual intelligence. He stopped eating fish.
Even though 26 years he was on his weird practice,
where he although chanting he never tried to avoid breaking that, you know, stopping breaking of regulative principle.
So if a person I mean if he is determined, you know although he would have chanted the 16 rounds
and followed the regulative principles, but if they take things in an attitude that I’m determined not to give up my material attachments,
then that is an anachronism. From our side it should be not just externals,
but it should be internal, we are trying to follow the process.
We are trying from our part to give up our attachments.
If we have the proper attitude , we are trying to give up our attachments, we are trying to avoid,
even if we are not fully successful, Prabhupāda said that there is,
that Kṛṣṇa is so merciful, Lord Caitanya is so merciful, even though we may not,
at the point of death, have done it a hundred percent successful,
we can still get delivered.
In fact, I was, (aside - How long should I go on?) I was in Montreal,
and Prabhupāda is giving a lecture. That time we had a Vyasāsana for him, it was very high.
I mean very- it was like when we would stand up we would just be facing Prabhupāda eye to eye,
or he will still be even a little higher than that.
It was a very high Vyasāsana.
You had to kind of crawl up, it had steps going up and it was more or less kind of a pulpit.
So he would be up there, he would sit and he would even take prasāda there.
In a feast, they would bring a big plate of prasāda and we would all be sitting down,
and he would take Prasāda from there, and sometimes he would give prasāda out from there.
So one day he was giving his lecture from up there
actually and at this point he was just preaching very hard,
we have to be a hundred percent Kṛṣṇa conscious.
We have to try; we have to be a hundred percent Kṛṣṇa conscious. We have to try for that.
We have to become. If we are hundred percent Kṛṣṇa conscious, then we can get pure love for Kṛṣṇa,
then our life will be completely successful. He was just hammering this point.
Now the devotees were thinking, a hundred percent, you know, their heads gradually started hanging down,
they became very thoughtful.
The hundred percent was like such an objective that it never seemed that is ever possible;
even you know to get very close to a hundred percent.
But Prabhupāda was very emphatic on this point.
The devotees were very thoughtful at that time. Then Prabhupāda, he ended the class.
There was just a heavy silence. No questions. That is it.
He ended the class and said, “Become cent percent Kṛṣṇa conscious.”
It was just like a death place; I mean, just like… He saw silence that he could swim through it.
Now Prabhupāda was sitting there on his raised Vyāsāsana
and said, “Even if you are ninety percent Kṛṣṇa conscious, Kṛṣṇa is so kind,
that you may still be delivered.” Then he started to get down and when he was about half way down,
just as he was getting off the Vyāsāsana he turned to the devotees and said, ”Even ninety percent, you can be delivered.”
He started walking out, then he turned and his chaddar fell off, I remember it was such a dramatic,
almost like you see in those movies Julius Caeser like that, his chaddar flew like that and said, “Even seventy percent.”
He took his chaddar and threw it over his shoulder and raised his head and walked away.
(Devotees laughing)
Śrīla Prabhupāda Ki
Devotees: Jaya!
Category: [Vaiṣṇava Dealings / Association (Sādhu-saṅga)], [Sādhanā / Regulative Principles], [Sādhanā / Chanting (Japa)], [Material Sufferings / Death], [Kṛṣṇa (Godhead) / Spiritual World / Dhāma], [Karma / Desires]
Questioner: Bhaktin Vaiṣṇavī
Date: 2022-08-05
Jayapatākā Swami: Hard to say as the śāstra says one may achieve success just by aspiring.
So, by taking dīkṣā,
one is more guaranteed
but if one is fully
thinking of Kṛṣṇa
at the time of leaving this body,
then he may go back to Kṛṣṇa.
Category: [Dīkṣā (Initiation)], [Kṛṣṇa (Godhead) / Spiritual World / Dhāma], [Material Sufferings / Death]
Questioner: Prakash
Date: 2022-08-05
Jayapatākā Swami: We know from Bhagavad-gītā
that there is a subtle body
and a gross body.
The subtle body is mind, intelligence and false ego.
So the DNA is external.
That may make our bodies similar to our parents’ bodies.
But
we are not the body.
And so, we develop our consciousness
separate from the body.
And that way,
you can develop your spiritual life.
So your life is transcendental
and by remembering Kṛṣṇa,
you achieve your spiritual identity.
That is not dependent on DNA.
Category: [Material Sufferings / Death]
Questioner: Golokapriya Gaurāṅgī devī dāsī
Date: 2023-07-07
Jayapatākā Swami: Since the guru is a pure devotee, always thinking of his guru and Kṛṣṇa,
therefore by thinking of the spiritual master,
one can also achieve Kṛṣṇa.
Category: [Guru (Spiritual Master)], [Material Sufferings / Death], [Sādhanā / Philosophical questions]
Questioner: Pūja mātājī
Date: 2022-07-30
Jayapatākā Swami: You see, material separation is due to identifying with the body.
Say we have a body, it came from a mother or father.
But from the same father and mother came brothers and sisters.
Like that, if we feel separation due to some bodily relationship,
that is something material.
Because in every birth we have different mother and father, different brother and sister,
sometimes we would be born in a lady’s body, sometime in a man’s body,
and we also may be born in some other species.
Indra was once offensive to his guru.
The guru cursed him be a pig,
and then he was in this planet as a pig.
He had many wives, many piglets, and he was lying in his mud.
The guru came to take him back,
but he did not want to go.
He was feeling separation from the piggy wives and piglets.
Then the guru gave him the memory of who he was.
He was thinking, ah! how I am in this horrible place?
So that is material separation.
And spiritual separation is where we are connected with the Lord,
it is a spiritual heart to heart, spirit to spirit relationship.
And naturally we feel a kind of separation to guru or Vaiṣṇavas,
that is something transcendental,
and they are not based on the body.
Category: [Guru (Spiritual Master) / Guru Disciple Relationship], [Kṛṣṇa (Godhead) / Gaurāṇga], [Material Sufferings / Death]
Questioner: Devotee
Date: 2022-12-22
Jayapatākā Swami: Rādhārāṇī always thinks how I can surrender more unto Kṛṣṇa.
If we think that we are ready to face death, that is not right, then we may get lazy.
But if we have eagerness to understand devotional service all the time
then that will always be beneficial for us.
Questioner: Devotee
Date: 2023-09-24
Everyone has a time.
Everyone has an expiry date, like medicine has an expiry date.
I had gone to see my purvāśrama brother in Minnesota.
And there I got to see my brother.
But I had a closer relationship with my devotee disciples.
Anyway, one of my disciples had brought some medicine for my purvāśrama brother. He ate some prasāda and there was some discussion. He went back home.
We remain in this body as long as we are destined to be there.
Generally, we think that if we do this we will be happy.
And as a result after this body we get another body.
Some think that if I am rich, I will be happy.
Some think that if I am a woman, I will be happy.
Some people think if I am a man, I will be happy.
Some think that if I am a pig I will be happy.
This way, again and again, we repeatedly take birth.
And we take on different bodies due to those desires.
But if we think that we will be happy by serving Kṛṣṇa,
then our rebirth comes to an end.
And we shall return to the abode of the Lord, Vaikuṇṭha dhāma.
No death and birth, we have eternal life.
Haribol!
- Anarthās
- - Apasampradāya
- - Bad association
- - Māyā
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- Yet To Categories
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