19800315 Ordinary People Don't Believe In Sin

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The following is a lecture on Ordinary People Don't Believe In Sin given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on March 15, 1980.

The wise men, the great sages and pure devotees are to drink the nectarine milk of Bhagavad Gītā. In this present day man is very eager to have one scripture, one God, one religion and one occupation. So let there be one common scripture for the whole world. Bhagavad Gītā. Gītā. And let there be one God only for the whole world. Śrī Kṛṣṇa and one mantra only. And let there be one word only. The service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Let’s end up introduction by Śrī Prabhupāda. So here Prabhupāda has given us a victory formula that in the whole world there should be one God, one scripture, one religion and one occupation. Bhagavad Gītā is the scripture, Kṛṣṇa is God serving Kṛṣṇa. And pure devotional service is the religion. And chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahamantra is the universal mantra.

So Prabhupāda, in the Śrīmad Bhāgavata he describes how this chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa, this is to be practiced by every family and every society every day, all over the world. It’s not difficult for any family to sit down. We are such a big family, we are able to sit down and chant what to speak of any family anywhere in the world. They can sit down and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa if they like. So this was desired by Śrī Kṛṣṇa Chaitanya Mahāprabhu that in every town and village all over the whole world that his name will be spoken. So you see Lord Chaitanya Mahāprabhu, he was trying to preach his message in Navadip and all the scholars and the logicians, they created so much trouble. So finally he decided that he would take sannyas and preach all over India.

Because as a Sannyāsī he would get the respect due to that social order. So that the common logician and puffed up scholars would not criticize him, thinking him an ordinary person, giving him the respect of a Sannyāsī. Thus they would avoid committing offenses which are further hurting their spiritual advancement. And of course we all know that Lord Chaitanya went to Jagannath Purī and he toured South India. And then he went to Vrindavan and he sent his associates in different places to preach this movement all over Bharat Varsha. So he sent Lord Nithyananda to Bengal to preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness up and down the Ganges river, assisted by many transcendental associates.

And although Nithyananda was from 12 years age wandering with the sadhus in different holy places and practically speaking he was actually pure Brahmacharya since his birthday, he never question of being married, never came up. Lord Chaitanya told him, you go back and you accept the hostage. Of course, the great advanced Acharyas, they’re very pleased because they didn’t like to see that Kṛṣṇa and Balaram should be undergoing tapasya. Why should the Lord do tapasya? He’s the enjoyer. All the devotees want to give him pleasure. Why should he suffer and do tapasya like an ordinary human being trying to reach perfection? An ordinary human being. He has got material senses which are his enemies. If they’re not engaged in Christmas service. Where is the question of the Lord himself? His senses are spiritual. And there’s no question of ever falling under the sway of illusion.

So why should he go through that, go through the drama of acting like an ordinary person. This gave pain to the devotees to see Lord Chaitanya as a Sannyāsī and to see also Nityānanda as an Avidud. So Lord Nithyananda, he accepted the Grihastha Ashram to show how one can practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness and still be from the Grihasta Ashram. So that the family devotees all over the world, they can also realize that whether they are married or unmarried, they must chant Hare Kṛṣṇa without fail. They must engage in Sankirtan movement. So we’re Nanda, we started the preaching that every person in every house, they have to take up this chanting process. Every family. And he set up a transcendental marketplace for distributing a holy name. He himself was the great. We call the Mul Mahajan the main. The main capitalist. And what was his capital?

His capital was the harinam. He had unlimited wealth of harinam. So he wanted simply to see that it was distributed at broad scale. So he wanted to set up chains of stores everywhere. And in some places he established a big marketplace. In some places his devotees went and established small storefronts. And some of the devotees went as traveling salesmen to distribute this ware. These goods. And these goods are simply the pure chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa Mah Mantra. But they had to go out and find out the customers. And who was the customer is the person who has the money to buy the goods and who has the money to buy the good. What is that money? What is that exchange? That exchange is faith. One has to have transcendental faith in order to purchase the harinam.

Depending on the intensity of one’s faith, that’s how much harinam he can get. And there’s an exchange rate, how many marks or pesos per rupee. This is a rate how much faith for how much one will get a taste for hari na. If one has $0.01 of $0.01 of faith, then he gets harinam on the srādhā level as he increases. Then he gets satsang association with devotees. He gets practice of devotional service. Then he gets nishtar fixed ruchi kaist ashakti attachment and finally bhav ecstasy and the full price. Of course one will get prema or pure love of God. Of course, later on bhakti vino takor. He also re enlivened this namhat or marketplace of the holy name. And he had so many people chanting, at least he had 500 centers throughout Bharat varsa neighboring countries chanting this holy name.

And he was trying to spread it all over the world. And śrīla prabhupāda, when were in Los Angeles, I remember that he said that just like the Christians are having so many churches and they’re having congregations that not everybody will come and live in our temple. But everyone can chant hare Kṛṣṇa and we will have so many temples and people in general, they will become congregation and they will practice in their home and chat hari kishna staying too long. So everyone will not live in the temple. Some people will live in the temple and be pure devotees. And some people will live outside the temple and chant hare Kṛṣṇa and come sometimes to the temple. Everyone can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa every day. There’s no problem. Namhat movement means to get everyone to chant in their village, in their house.

It means bringing them to our temple, giving them association and having them go back to their own place and practice and make others practice. We see that all over the world there are so many social clubs. Lions club, Rotary Club, Moose club. Don’t have in Spanish moose. They have white scouts, girl scouts. There are so many clubs. But all these clubs are devoid of any spiritual touch. So here we have the international society for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And this is meant to spread Lord Caitanya’s mother movement to every town and village throughout the world. So this can be practiced and should be practiced by everyone either in the temple or in their homes. It is not possible for us to open up a temple immediately in every place.

But whoever is enthused or a little bit interested, he should be encouraged to chant in his house. He should be encouraged to bring his friends and to meet at that place and chant every night or at least few nights in a week. If several people get together and chant, that means that’s a bigger store. And if one person is chanting in his own family. So that means that he has got a bhakti kuti or he’s got a little center of devotion. That the secret is first to get people attached to Kṛṣṇa. The secret is first to get the people to be attached to chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. Once they’re attached, once they get a taste automatically rules can be increased. If we are to advertise that this movement is for following these four principles then people immediately, of course they will find that very difficult.

So Prabhupāda, he first of all, when he came to the west, he told the people, you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and you dance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And then after dancing you feast on Prashad. So in this way people became very enlivened to chant, dance and take feast of Prashad. And after they became very enlivened, then gradually Prabhupāda started to say no smoking, no drinking, only take Prashad, etc. Etc. And they became gradually very advanced. So there will be many people in the world who like to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. And they will like the principles in our philosophy. But they may not be immediately able to follow all of the rules, all of the restrictions. And we cannot compromise the standard in our temples. In our temples we must strictly maintain these four principles. Principles and chanting 16 rounds.

But that does not mean that people should not be encouraged to chant in their house as much as they can. To follow as much as they can. This Namhat movement is a transcendental club where in each village you can have a group of people chanting. Even they don’t know very much. They can read from Prabhupāda’s books and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Periodically devotees go there and teach the more senior full time devotees. They go there and preach to them and make them more and more advanced in their understanding. In this way our preaching can be expanded widely without any limitation. Even people who are working in their jobs and could not break away from so many attachments, they can still become active members at least part time.

Of course this is very easy for the people of Indian community because this is their tradition or religion from birth. This is their duty and they can be convinced on that level. In India we have started this Namhat program both on a group level and on an individual family level. Our goal is that to have 11,640 centers in every state. 11,640 centers in every major state. State. This is that 108 centers make a district or a mālā. Okay? 108 malas is 11,640. I believe malas we call that one flood or problem. One third of a flood is a tidal weight. Of course, this seems all very wonderful now. But actually it is not very wonderful. Because in each state there is, for instance in Bengal, 40,000 villages. In Bihar there’s 60,000 villages.

So one out of every five villages there is nothing much to speak of. So when Lord Caitanya said that all over the world and every town and village. So in this way we can see that with temples being like training centers that we can have chanting in every town and village very quickly. Even without increasing our number of temples immediately. Just like for the social clubs, there is a rules and regulations. So for Namhat centers, if there’s a rules and regulation basic, then everyone can participate that this is a formal organization. This is under iskcon. We should follow strictly. If five people agree to meet at least once a week and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and read from Prabhupāda’s books at a fixed place. Then we register them as beginning Namhat association.

When they come up to doing once every night, they become an advanced Namhat group. When they come up to the morning and evening program, then they become a beginning Namhat center. And as they advance each level, they should increase distributing few books from their centers. And making new centers in other neighboring community or villages or C. When some of this mara’s a little sleepy, when there’s initiated devotee in charge of the center having morning and evening program, then that becomes an advanced. And then when they have deity and the bigger program, it becomes Namhat Mandir. Practically it’s like Iskandam. The difference india is that we keep Namah as a division of ISKCON. Because we have the local people manage the finance and everything. And simply register everything as a autonomous subsidiary of iskcon. Amaz Economical Mimos.

(Side B of the Cassette)

In India, we keep them autonomous so that in case their standard is not as high as iskcon will not be get. Any kind of people can understand that this is separate from iskcon. Yet this is recognized project of ISKCON and this makes the local people have more incentive to develop the preaching in their area. So Prabhupāda said that every family and every society around the world, there’s no reason why they can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa every night. So when we meet very favorable people and we try to preach to them, they may not be able to move in the temple. Does that mean that we should allow them to rot and not practice any devotional service? Should they simply either you live in temple or you go to hell? Is that our idea?

Obviously that is not the way which is going to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness to every home. Śrīla Prabhupāda told us we should take favorable people, let them stay for a few days or a week in our temple and then go back and preach in their family and in their neighborhood. In some countries of the world where the government is unfavorable, this is the only way we can preach. In Bangladesh where the majority population is Muslim there we have to do this program on a wide scale. Is doing, I think similar program in Eastern Europe. I think that Jagjiva Swami mentioned to me. He started such a program in South America. Gradually, as people are encouraged to chant and practice, they will render more and more service and they will become first class devotees.

In Vedic society there are Brahmanas, there are Kshatriyas, there are Vaishas, there are Sudras and there’s pure Vaishnavas. So this society is for pure Vaiavas. But whether one has got no desire or if he’s got all desire or if he wants liberation, everyone should worship Kṛṣṇa. So I hope that we can expand the base of ISKCON so that not only the devotees who are fully engaged are active but that thousands and millions of people become favorable to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa also. Prabhupāda told Chiprari Maharaj to distribute and thank your tan little deities of Kṛṣṇa. He had told them, we are distributing this lollipop in the airport. You know, lollipop candy. So Prabhupāda said, you give little Kṛṣṇa deity. You tell them to wave one stick of incense. You say, this is a special. You see, Wishing God.

Whatever you wish you get brings very good fortune. You just take one incense and wait. You can also give it a glass of water. Then this way Everyone will have little Kṛṣṇa in their house. So Prabhupāda wanted every family should have Kṛṣṇa in their home by any means. We have to make them attached to Kṛṣṇa. This is what we call grassroot work. Grassroots. This means that working with the massive people. So many books are going out now. If we can get people just to practice in their own home when they see how tolerant we are also many more will come and be devotees. My own brother and my sister and her husband. They thought that to become devotee meant have to shave and give up your job. So they are too afraid now they’re going to move on Tamal Kṛṣṇa Goswami’s farm in Oklahoma.

And there they’re going to farm and they realize that they can live there as a family without difficulty. Of course to practice in the home is difficult because there’s little association. So that’s why if we know who is chanting and periodically some senior devotee, some strong devotee visits that will give them encouragement. And if they come to the temple on regular occasion, then gradually they will become stronger and stronger with association. So in this way, before anyone can know, there will be millions and millions people chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. And Hare Kṛṣṇa will become actually the one religion of the world. And all these families who want to send their children to Kṛṣṇa conscious schools and those children will be first class devotees. So along with our other program, this program is very important to be implemented.

And those people who chant, they will contribute fun which will support our temples. And that will free our full time devotees for doing more and more preaching. And this will give us make us very stable with a broad popular base. And if each of those people distribute even five books a week or ten books a week over thousands and thousands of people, that will increase book distribution just unlimitedly. So this is the basic program which was started by Bhakti by Lord Chair Nithyananda Mahāprabhu and was further expanded by Bhakti Vinod Thakur and which Śrīla Prabhupāda has mentioned throughout his books and in his preaching in many ways. So, and we can say that this is opening the way for the future of fulfilling Lord Chaitanya’s prediction. To mass distribute the Holy Name to every town and village, to every home marketplace of the Holy name.

Any questions? These people that live like the brother and sister there are, that’s up to Tamar Kṛṣṇa Gosan, I don’t know, but I think that they’re supposed to expect it to follow. He’s got a separate program. But the people who are in our Namhat centers, they follow some. I think they have to take a program there. I don’t know exactly how he’s organizing, but I just got a letter that my point was that many people like Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, they like the idea, but they have the wrong idea that they can’t practice unless they do everything. But if they know that if they do even something that’s better than nothing, that’s good for them, then many people would like to practice something. And if they practice something, that will open the door for practicing a lot gradually program. So that risk is always there.

That’s why india we have called it the Namhat program. Other than the directly iskcon, the initial time is the most important because when we begin then we have to see that the we have only so many preachers to do this kind of work. Like we started in Māyāpur and within the first two months, three months ago we started. Within the first three months we had 60 villagers have applied to become Namhat center, Sangha or group. And during the festival alone another 15 signed up. So that makes it 85. So if one person is to stay 85, he can only go there how many times a year. So Prabhupāda said that from each center we have to take a person and have him stay in our temple for a short time.

And so it requires that the way that Bhaktivedinol Thakur set it up was he had a group of these Namhat centers were formed into a circle. He called it a circle or a chakra. And over that circle there was one commander. And in this way there were various levels of circles with different names. And say for every four centers there’s one patrolman or commander and that you can say a sub circle. And for every 12 there is a circle. And so 12 means that three sub circles and in each unit, in each village or in each place where there’s a group, five, six people, there’s one person who’s responsible. So as one becomes responsible for four or 12 of these such and he goes and tours and preaches then that how things are going, that standard is maintained by these people.

And sometimes some speculation comes up. And the sub circle commander, he sees that there’s something going up and the people ask questions or make some challenge. He’s not able to answer because he’s not so advanced. But then he goes to his circle commander and request him that you please solve this problem. And he comes in there and if he’s not able, then above him he has the greater circle commander and he comes in and then if he’s not able, he calls the Mālā 108 is a Mālā, the district mālā commander and he comes and settles the thing. Generally speaking, the mālā or as one gets in a higher position that will become actually a very fixed up devotee who may or may not be living in the temple.

But anyway it will be a fixed up devotee eventually you will be definitely a full time devotee. So in this way, to maintain this, obviously an infrastructure of responsible people has to be set up. And this is the system which Bhakti Vinod started by having circle commander and periodically the sannyāsī or very advanced devotee, they do yearly programs and visit these different areas. And when they go there, they preach pure devotional principles in those areas. And to make sure that the traveling preachers, they go and they preach and make sure that the standard is maintained at the high level. So there may be some slight, you see, misconception here and there. But after all, these are not the basic iskcon. ISKCON is keeping very pure.

But ISKCON is encouraging people to practice devotional service and with the basic infrastructure in each place there is to be a leader. And there’s also to be one patrolman, one policeman. And the policeman, if he sees any, he may not be himself able to lead the others, but he’s there to see that is our internal, you can say KGB to see that. And he, everybody knows he’s the patrolman, why you are not coming every day. And he reports that this negligence is there and this is not our system. This system was established by Bhakti Vinod Thakur that there should be. And he requested.

And of course india it’s a bit different, but he requested every grihasta should go and visit five people a day and simply request him please take up chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, that’s all, just a simple request and go to the next house and this way every day he wanted that each Vihasta should ask five more people that they should try to take this up. Of course india it’s very easy to walk in the house and say please chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and walk out. Obviously it’s not so easy in the west, but idea is that he wanted everyone to at least take up some kind of preaching. That was the basic thing. Whether giving someone a book or requesting them friendly, you please chant.

And so obviously once this starts, it is a tremendous pressure on all our preachers to maintain the purity in all these places. And whenever we find A little bit responsible person to train him up to see that other people maintain the minimum basic standards. Control me, Control. So he’s actually not asking about the navajata, he’s just asking if in different countries different types of colors should be applied. Well, what’s the question, in other words, how we maintain india is that each member has to contribute a monthly fee and that to their local body and that local body and each member or each group, depending on the financial situation of that particular state. They subscribe to weekly newspaper which is especially.

We have a fortnightly newspaper which is especially for this program giving very basic philosophy and lots of news of how Kṛṣṇa consciousness is spreading in different places. And whenever there’s a function in any of the village centers, that news is printed up in the paper with the names of the people who participated. And they see their name in the paper and they feel also really good. So they have to purchase that paper. They have to purchase back to godhead subscriptions. And with the money they collect, they put on. In India there’s of course very little finance, so there’s very little they collect. So they put on every year one function. And ISKCON also attends that function. And that gives them some basic fun to work with. And that way it’s self sufficient.

But in western countries they can give a lot more than a rupee a month per head. And it could be actually a big contribution factor to the temples because people could easily give, you know, a percentage of their wage, even program with one. So he’s very impressed about this and he wants to know where he can find more information about all this Namahata and this system. He wants to know more. We’re publishing one booklet very soon you can write to Namhat, program secretary, no, you see, discussing the glories of the Holy name. Just like if you tell someone that you just. You’re supposed to Jarodaki Tara Kaho Kṛṣṇa. Whoever you meet, you say please chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That’s not the glories of the Holy Name. That’s asking them on the order of Caitanya. He said, ama, this is my order.

Kṛṣṇa, Balo Kṛṣṇa Bhajokuro, Kṛṣṇa Shikkha. He told Nithyananda Haridas to go every house and ask the people chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, learn about Kṛṣṇa and worship Kṛṣṇa. When the teaching, the glories. If you start to say that by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa then all these sins that you’re committing are all finished. And you get a spiritual body which has got four arms and you get a Little helmet on. And then you get also a garland which never fades. And you know, if you start saying, you know other people, wow, this is crazy. I am never going to chant this. What do I do with two arms, extra power, that you don’t tell them more than what they can take. That’s the glories of the Holy Name. They don’t even believe in sin. Ordinary people, they don’t even believe in sin.

You say if you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, your sins will be finished. They don’t even believe in sin. They believe, drink and be merry. You say, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and be merry. You see, those people are not ready yet for Namhat. But those people anyway, they’re just chanting. When they become a little bit more advanced, a little bit more interested, then they read our books and they will find out gradually about the glories of the Holy Name. So there’s that difference between asking someone to chant that we ask everyone that. No offense, but if we try to give him too much of the esoteric or the hidden meanings of the chanting, the glories of the chanting, and he is not actually a faithful person, that is not good, because that will simply increase his doubt due to his ignorance.

So therefore, we just say, please chant, and we don’t go into solid details. What is chanting? If we ask, we tell briefly. We don’t go into too much depth, more than he can swim in. The more that one becomes advanced, enchanting. He realizes that to make very quickly advancement, he has to actually give up all the four regulative. All these things, follow all the four regulative principles, and accept the spiritual masterpiece. That automatically becomes more and more clear to the person as the chanting clears away the fog in his brain.