Timeline of His Holiness Jayapataka Swami's Life - 1991-2000

My dear ones, Please accept my best wishes. All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda!

Dhaka

Today we go to South Bangladesh, to within a stone’s throw of the Sundarban jungle where the royal Bengal tiger reigns supreme as king of the jungle. We won’t go into the jungle but just preach to those who live near the Bay of Bengal-sea.

We began our journey after taking darshan of ISKCON Dhaka’s beautiful Deities (Śrī Śrī Rādhā Govinda, Gaurāṅga, Pañca-tattva and Jaganātha-Baladeva-Subhadrā) and praying for Their Lordships’ permission and blessing to go out preaching on Their behalf. It was 7:30am and we had to go to the old airport closer to the city to fly in the small newly started 12 passenger commuter plane service to Barisal. The famous city of South Bangladesh. Famous for rice, rivers and rivulets.

I got the front row seat with a good window view. It was very panoramic to see the green Bengal countryside below. Although it was summer the last few days, many storms had drenched the countryside and water had collected in low-lying areas as if the rainy season had already begun. It normally takes 12 hours to journey to Barisal by land, but we reached in 30 minutes. The flight was full, 4-5 foreigners were also onboard.

Barisal

A disciple was waiting for us, but he didn’t have any vehicle. He had nothing but a smile. I set up my computer and read some mail from UK, Australia and other places while waiting for our ride. It is late. We take breakfast in the air terminal which is almost empty.

Our ride arrives. It is a really junky car. The body is half rotten away. I don’t know if it will make it. The devotee who brought it, Kamala-mukha Kṛṣṇa dāsa, now serves in New Orleans and is a university graduate. One would think he would know better. He apologized and said it was the best vehicle in the town he came from.

We first went to Barisal town, the district headquarters. I had been asked by Prabhā Viṣṇu Swami to check out an offer of land there. We reached the Saṅkara Maṭha, it was on a 5-acre plot in the heart of the town. The temple had a Śiva Liṅga in the main room with a mūrti of Saṅkarācārya on one side and a white marble mūrti of some local Māyāvādī yogī in another room. Saṅkarācārya had Vaiṣṇava gopīcandana tilaka on.

He looks good with Vaiṣṇava tilaka! His actual inner mood was revealed. He did everything for the service of Lord Viṣṇu! An ISKCON devotee had placed the tilaka on him.

The local Hindu leaders want to give us a prime plot at the front of their Saṅkara Maṭha land. It is very valuable property worth $500,000 at the local market value. Of course, we would never sell it, but just for knowing the property value. They have no conditions. They want ISKCON to start activities there in a big way and some local devotees are willing to take it up. The question is, where to get money to develop it? I tell them we could accept in principle, and I would have to discuss with my co-GBC’s on the details.

We go and see the local Viṣṇu temples and then head off for Mathbariya, the place of our program today. It is only 50km, but we left at 12:30pm and reached at 4pm plus. It took that long! Half of the road was simply brick paved, which bounced our bones. We crossed a small ferry which took 25 minutes. We had to cross a break in the road which had been washed out by storms last night. During the smooth areas in the road, I wrote this record.

It is hot and muggy. Sweat is pouring down the sides of my face, except when the vehicle is moving. The distance actually turned out to be 84km with lousy road conditions. It seems my secretaries should plan out the itineraries better. For any VIP’s visit to our temples, they plan out the minute-to-minute program. It would be nice to have an hour-to hour program chalked out, at least so that we can try to keep things within some reasonable limits.

Mathbariya

We finally reach Mathbariya! More than a hundred devotees greet us and give me garlands. They want me to walk in kīrtana with them, but I know that if I do so everyone will grab my feet. I opt to stay in the van with the kīrtana in front. They chant and dance melodiously. We go through the packed bazaars on the busy Haṭṭa day. Hindus and Moslems alike watch me go by and the devotees are chanting with raised hands and everyone is very happy. We have reached. I must close the computer and go on from here to the next phase of our preaching program.

I was informed by the local preacher that this area is filled with sahajiyās. One leading guru dressed in a sari as a “sakhī-bekhī” and imitated being a gopī. Others followed different sahajiya paths mentioned by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. It wasn’t easy to find pure devotees, but now with the ISKCON Nāmahaṭṭa preaching, pure devotion was gradually getting a foothold. This was going to be interesting and important to preach here. Many very respect able people were asking for initiation. They are preaching against sahajiyism.

We entered into the Hari Sabhā hall and saw clay Deities of Rādhā Kṛṣṇa and Gaura Nitāi artistically made and almost 5 feet tall. The hall downstairs was simple and filled with people receiving me. I was pulled by Kṛṣṇa dāsa to go somewhere behind the temple. He pulled me upstairs. There was a hall filled with devotees of the Nāmahaṭṭa. Several hundred. A makeshift altar had been set up with ISKCON style pictures on it. I went and paid my obeisances. People started to grab my feet. It drains the energy when non disciples touch the feet. It is also offensive to touch a sannyāsī if you haven’t bathed or washed. I jump up on the seat arranged for me.

They bath my feet. Guru-pūjā reception. People come and get prasāda and offer flowers. A fire sacrifice arrangement is visible in front of the altar but towards the middle of the room. Initiations are also scheduled today.

After the pūjā, I am dragged off from the hall and told it is time to take prasāda. We are taken a hundred meters away to a pious person’s house. The front of the house looks fancy with concrete plastering design work and nicely colored. We are told we will stay in the front of the house which also looks very presentable. Behind is a wooden structure, run down and simple, but kept quite clean. A nice bathroom and shower are available in the back.

Behind the house is a canal which is filled with river water coming by at high current. It is high tide coming in. We are only 30km from the ocean and tides are a big thing here. This whole city is like a miniature Venice with everyone having a canal behind their house to go by boat into the river.

Devotees had offered Kṛṣṇa dozens of preparations, some of which were made with me in mind - low fat and low salt. Eight kinds of green leafy vegetables, including some which by eating while remembering Lord Gaurāṅga, help to produce love for Godhead by Gaurāṅga’s mercy!!! They don’t know how to make cappatis and most are half cooked. Their service attitude is really enthusiastic. Quite a good prasāda. Whatever Lord Kṛṣṇa arranges, we must accept humbly. Some days fasting and some days sumptuous feast.

Today my first jackfruit for the year was offered. It was soft and sweet, but in small pieces. I was reminded of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s humorous story of an English man trying to tell his children of his trip to India and how he liked jackfruit (sometimes this story is told for mango too) but they couldn’t understand his description. Then he filled a bowl with sugar water and dipped his beard in it and asked them to suck it and then they could know what a jack fruit was like. I don’t think anyone would really get a clear idea from that either, obviously. This story is used to illustrate that unless one goes deep into KC, one can’t really taste what it is like. Unless one surrenders to a spiritual master and really begins to relate with him in a loving devotional way, and there is reciprocation, then one doesn’t understand what “Guru-bhakti” is and how it nurtures one’s devotional creeper.

I ask the devotees for a jackfruit seed to be scraped free of its skin. Śrīla Prabhupāda told us that after eating jackfruit, which is very rich and somewhat difficult to digest, if one chews a seed and sucks out the juice from the seed, it will help digest the jackfruit. The local devotees also knew this secret but were surprised I knew it. I asked them how they thought I knew - then revealed it was through the guru-paramparā.

I laid down to take a short nap. I was transported to a nectar land and was suddenly with Śrīla Prabhupāda serving His Divine Grace’s lotus feet. It was like cascades of nectar falling over my head. For a while I was in this nectar land and then things blurred. I woke up and by that time it was 6pm.

I asked for the evening schedule and for the list of candidates for initiation. It took them time to gather everyone into my room for interviews. I always as a rule have an interview before I give initiation to anyone. The people are all really gentle people. Head of the local high school, two other teachers, business people and their wives. Some wives of disciples who had earlier taken initiation but the wife hadn’t. And two other women who were well dressed and respectable. More town people than the previous program’s rustic villagers.

All had been waiting for years altogether for initiation. The high school principal was 60 years plus. When he saw me, he spoke in good English, crying out: “Our cherished dream is realized. We are all sinners and fallen souls. Now that you, our beloved master, has come here the place is purified and we are all blessed! Now my dream has been realized by your presence here.” Tears were pouring out from his eyes and his body was shaking with emotion.

The evening Pandal program was to begin, and we got the report that tens of thousands of people had gathered. They were going to do ārati and I would come a little after 8pm. I could hear the ārati kīrtana. Then thunder, lightning, heavy rainfall. Another tropical storm. The pandal program was abruptly ended by nature.

Actually, this town had been hit just a week or so ago by a cyclonic storm and all its electricity posts were knocked down. The whole town had no electricity. My room and the temple room were the only places since the devotees had hired a generator. It was a small generator and if anyone puts on one light too many, the tube light would go off due to fall in voltage. So they worked it out and everyone else in the house sat in the dark with a fan and my front room got the light and fan. No internet connection from here. All phone lines too have been out since the cyclone. I am told the jungle begins 10km to the south. No danger from tigers here. They stay in the jungle and immediate surrounding areas.

My room became packed with people. I wouldn’t go to the stage tonight. The storm lasted for more than an hour. During this time, I had been answering some emails and waiting for the devotees to come for the interviews. By this time, everyone was in my room, and I met each person and spoke with them for a short time.

Two cases were quite unusual for India Bangladesh. Two married women who were deserted by their husbands. Very sad situation materially, but it inspired them to surrender to Kṛṣṇa so in that way it was spiritually beneficial.

One was only 19 years of age and 25 days after marriage, the husband left her. In Bangladesh she might not get married easily again. She wants to know what to do? What a mess. Kali-yuga is affecting everywhere. Just getting married isn’t the solution but having a Kṛṣṇa Conscious spouse who will be responsible. Hard to come by.

The girl’s name is Mukti and she is stressed out and has high blood pressure. At that young age her pressure was already higher than mine! I taught her prāṇāyama breathing excercisea as she sat on one side during the interviews. I checked her blood pressure with my portable unit, and it had reduced 12 points on both systolic and dystopic. She can do this when she feels too much pressure in the future. I don’t have more time for yoga lessons.

Two people hadn’t chanted long enough to get harināma so they got taken off the list. One brāhmaṇa candidate hadn’t read Bhagavad-gītā even once completely so he is off the list. We are set to go. Choosing the names today is tough as my brain is tired from the journey and no rest. Somehow, we finish it. Why can’t all the names be known in advance for Bangladesh and chosen from Māyāpur? The secretary staff must be more persistent to get things organized. Name choosing is really tough when under pressure.

I return to the hall which now is really packed. Double or triple the previous count. Not an inch to move. I give a class on Prema-vivarta pastimes and the importance of initiation. Names are given out with beads and yajña is completed. I am whisked off again to a safer location. The three brāhmaṇa candidates get their mantras. By the time things are over it is well past midnight again. We have to leave around 5am in order to reach Barisal Airport for the 9am flight. I say my last prayers for the night, set the alarm for 4am and lay down.

By 5:15am, we had taken our bath and are ready to go. The devotees came from maṅgala-ārati and escorted us with kīrtana up to the van. Our short visit to Mathbariya, Bangladesh had come to its final point. It was time to leave. We bid farewell to everyone, and they all start chanting Namaste Narasiṁhāya. We are off.

Early in the morning. Clear, fresh and no people except the farmers plowing their rice fields with their bullocks. This is the time for me to chant my japa. I start writing again at the ferry ghat.

Barisal

We reach the airport in time. Before entering, I change my clothes for civilian dress again. We wait for the plane and take some breakfast in the terminal. The South Bangladesh tour is now moving to Dhaka and then Calcutta.

I hope that this finds you in good health and blissful in Kṛṣṇa Consciousness.

Your ever well-wisher,

Jayapatākā Swami