19810623 A Good Image is Essential in Preaching

The following class is given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Guru Mahārāja, on 23rd June 1981, in Bangkok, Thailand. The class is Part-2.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, we’re going all over the world. We see that the thing is which is in common is that, people… none of them have any direction. No one has any direction. Whatever direction they have, is just as Prabhupāda said, running in the forest fire. Trying to escape from the fire, here and there. When I flew from London to Miami, the plane was filled with Britishers going for their Miami holiday that they’d saved up for two years. Then when I went in Miami, I saw the Britishers as red as a lobsters, sunburnt with their skin peeling off, enjoying their holiday.

Like this everyone, they work so hard with the idea that I will enjoy my vacation, I will enjoy my…” But there’s no goal. There’s no course. Last night in Penang we invited everyone to take that proverbial house which at any moment someone can come and remove you from, by killing you. And no one wanted to take such a house, even though it was free of rent, had all facilities. Of course, when we pointed out that everyone is living in that same type of house - this body - then they became very attached. “But we’re very attached to making money, we’re attached to doing this, doing that…” So I explained that we’re not against making money. Make as much money as you can. But use upto 50% for Kṛṣṇa, or more. That would be your perfection. So… basically, there’s no spiritual direction. Whatever direction is there, because its material, its always changing. So here, in Thailand, there is a cultural direction, you see, which people may or may not be forgetting. But, one can see that, as everywhere things are becoming more and more impersonal. Life is becoming more and more of a routine. Of a drudgery, boredom. No change. No… whatever change, that’s a little sense gratification. Get drunk, go to the parlor… whatever. Some type of nonsense, for a momentary sensation and then back to the drudgery. So I was reminded that when Kṛṣṇa comes into Vṛndāvana, all the residents of Vṛndāvana, they call that a daily festival. Nitya-utsava. Nitya-mahotsava. Daily great festival, just to see Kṛṣṇa’s face. His lotus face. To hear the sound of His flute when He comes in with all the cows, cowherd boys, with the dust going all over. The holy dhāma. And the residents… at that time it’s called go-dhūli. Its very auspicious to be bathed in the dust. That’s one of the sacred baths. To be bathed in the dust kicked up by the hooves of cows. Especially Krsnas own surabhī cows. How auspicious, how transcendentally relishable. So this Kṛṣṇa conscious movement is actually a festival. Daily festival. Singing, dancing, feasting. Even we’re serving… devotee is always happy. Always happy because in this life there is nothing to worry about and next life there’s nothing to worry about! Therefore, with no worries, constantly serving, happy to be under the mercy and grace of Lord Kṛṣṇa and His devotees, constantly feeling spiritual bliss and in complete peace. The perfection of happiness, a daily festival.

I can just picture the sankīrtana party in that central square by all the main walks, here in Bangkok. Getting all the proper permissions and everything, not to disturb anyone. With the pictures of the Pañca-tattva and Lord Buddha and other suitable pictures, maybe Nṛsiṁhadeva or Kṛṣṇa. The pictures on very big stick with those type of Buddhist drapings around the pictures, hanging down. And the whole thing made to be a complete cultural experience, with big incense burners, with mahā-prasāda distribution and with very short pamphlets; after doing a lot of PR with the Buddhists. So that they realize that we are bringing the people on the similar path. How the people… their lives have nothing. No variety, no change. Just to see Prabhaviṣṇu Swami and our Ātmavidyā Prabhu loading up the van, the car. Atleast half the airport staff, all the custom agents came. Taxi drivers, tourists standing by the window, policemen, watching them tie up the luggage on the roof of Nṛsingha Tīrtha’s car, you see. That would given an indication that they are pretty hungry for some type of experience, you see. So, what else is there that can provide such an experience as Kṛṣṇa consciousness? Festivals! Wonderful festivals with prasādam. That I experienced when I went to the border with a cambodian refugee Buddhist. They all loved to sing kīrtana. They chanted Hare Kṛṣṇa, they clapped their hands. Getting the public to just sit down in a big public group and just sing with us ‘Hare Kṛṣṇa’ clapping their hands. They may watch the devotees dance. The dancing Buddhas. It’s there actually! There is the dancing Buddha in Buddhist culture. So everyone should be happy enough to dance. Otherwise what is the value of any type of religious process? Buddhism or otherwise. If one is not happy enough to dance, then śrama eva hi kevalam. It's all useless waste of energy. 

So Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mercy is unlimited. Śrīla Prabhupādas mercy was and is enough to deliver the whole universe. Why whole universe? The whole material creation simply by a speck of dust from his lotus feet can be delivered! He wants everyone to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Everyone to be happy in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Therefore he has asked his disciples and followers to do that. Very holy task of making people happy in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

So Kṛṣṇa is known to be very clever. He is very clever in attracting the minds of all the residents of Vṛndāvana. Everyone in Vṛndāvana was mad after Kṛṣṇa. Whether the elderly gopīs, whether the cowherd men, whether the friends of Kṛṣṇa, His mother, His father, the servants, the gopīs, the younger cowherder girls, even the cows, the peacocks… everyone was mad after Kṛṣṇa! Because He is all-attractive. Kṛṣṇa is very clever in capturing the mind, you see. That is why He has the name Kṛṣṇa, all attractive. So simply, we have to know how to present Kṛṣṇa.  Kṛṣṇa is unlimited. So we can present Kṛṣṇa in the setting which will be very culturally acceptable or assimilable (atleast they can relate to it) to these Thai people. And however, we’re only going to give Kṛṣṇa in His pure form; through His Holy Name, through His pure philosophy, through His pure Kṛṣṇa-prasādam. And everything else is of course is just packaging. So that packaging Lord Caitanya has shown, when he went in His saṅkīrtana party with His beautiful garlands and his mṛdangas and karatālas. The fourteen saṅkīrtana parties that went through the whole Navadvipa. The resounding of the vibration of those mṛdangas has shattered, all the illusions in māyā, of the living entities.

So we have heard how in Hong Kong… that, you can practically ignite an atomic bomb in the street and no one will stop. That they’re very hard to get people to stop. They’re very much into going where they’re going. And no matter what you do, practically, the sankīrtana distributors, to get a person to stop, has to utilize kung-fu or something. So of course, what our method of distribution or what our method of preaching will be; but we can understand that people will definitely stop to see devotees perform such festive activities like sankīrtana. They definitely will accept prasādam. That simply how to present it in such a nice way that no one will be offended, you see. And that the people can easily participate. And surely the people will like to participate because the people are very simple. They want to get lots of merit. Lots of good karma. And if they could just understand that even by witnessing sankīrtana, taking little prasādam, chanting… just unlimited. Even by witnessing; that they’re accruing more merit than they can accumulate by millions of years and births of pious activity in this material world. By simply chanting one time Hare Kṛṣṇa so much merit they can get that they could never expect.

So, this is a very great opportunity to give souls - who have never committed any Vaiṣṇava-aparādha – Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The people of Thailand have never comitted any Vaiṣṇava-aparādha. How could they? Theres no Vaiṣṇavas here! They never committed any Kṛṣṇa-aparādha, because Kṛṣṇa is not here, you see. In their culture they have Rāma. They have connection… this Thailand, ancient name is Siam. The ancient… if you look in old maps, in Sanskrit, you will see that this is Śyāmadeśa. And Burma is called Brahmadeśa. Even today in Bangladesh, the students… they still teach them, Burma – Brahma and Śyāmadeśa. Just like, probably, Bangkok has a different name for the Thailand people than… Kongkain (?). So similarly for the followers of the Vedas, this is Śyāma. It’s named after Kṛṣṇa. And Burma is named after Brahmā. If you study this ancient history of Mahabharata, this is all part of the kingdom of Mahārāja Yudhisthira. So this is a great cultural heritage. Because it actually links… so we can come in on a cultural wave. Culture, philosophy, festivities. 

Similarly here in the temple, we should try to produce that type of festival mood. Because in small temples, it sometimes tends to get dry. Sometimes little conflicts come up, because so few people are living together. I haven’t got any complaints yet. Maybe everything is going nicely. But sometimes it does happen. But the more we can keep a festive mood or a preaching mood, we can let out whatever energy is built up in sankīrtana, in chanting and in preaching and in serving Śrīla Prabhupāda and the sampradāya; then of course everything goes on increasing. So as I was saying, here is a place where there is no Vaiṣṇava-aparādha. When Prabhupāda went to America, people accept Kṛṣṇa consciousness very quickly. Of course, Americans, in general westerners, are burned out from material life. Plus they didn’t have any offenses. So here, the people may not be very burned out yet. Like Śrīla Prabhupāda said, new crows. They’re just looking forward to a new boom of economic development, possibly. That’s generally the mood in developing nations. But then of course, here we are. Vaiṣṇavas in foreign bodies. We have also lot to offer in terms of aspiring students visiting other parts of the world. To superficially attract. Different ways we could try to… we have to create very congenial Vaiṣṇava mood. A festive mood. We need now local devotees to help push on this movement. We need to be established as bonafide monks, keep a good self-respect, a good public image. There’s so many fallen people come through here who may have had previous connection with Vaiṣṇavism or Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We, as representatives of Śrīla Prabhupāda and this sampradāya, we have to present a very pakka (proper) image. Just like when we came into the airport, the immigration man offered me his bowed head. The custom man said, “Just go through.”, you see. They’re respecting monks, you see. All it takes is us to do a little irresponsible action and then they all differentiate that, “There are those nonsense Hare Kṛṣṇa monks who do these nonsense things.”, you see. 

So I know that Śrīla Bhagavān Mahārāja, hes very carefully kept the image very nicely in Europe. I know that Śrīla Tīrthapāda kept it very nice in England. And similarly, in Latin America, we have the impeccable image, you see. They love us there! The president of the countries are willing to give us interview in everyday radio, television. When I go there, they always have press conferences arranged that come in. Newspapers, radio, TV… they’re all there photographing me. For one and a half hours they’re taking notes. They print everyday one or two articles. Primetime 8’o clock news. 5 minutes nationwide television. ‘Meet the Pope of the Hare Kṛṣṇa Movement’ or whatever. However they describe me there.

Here we’re coming into a fresh field. I don’t think we have any type of good or bad opinion. People don’t know us that “Oh…”, so therefore we should create very good opinions, which isn’t hard because we’re a very good movement. We don’t have any bad part to us. Only if we’re irresponsible, short-sighted. So we should be very careful to create a good image by presenting Kṛṣṇa consciousness very carefully and there’s no doubt that Kṛṣṇa consciousness will be very successful. Very successfully preached here. Requires some dedicated service. Assimilating some of the local language and culture by some of the devotees. And then preaching very enthusiastically. Here there is no economic problem to speak of, compared to like Nepal or Bangladesh of other places. India has some members, but even in India in some places. Here there is no overall economic difficulty. Simply we have to be sincere and no doubt Kṛṣṇa, Śrīla Prabhupāda, will send us all type of help.

kali-kālera dharma kṛṣṇa-nama-saṅkīrtana
kṛṣṇa-śakti vinā nahi tāra pravartana
(Cc. Antya 7.11)

We should never forget that in this age, the yuga-dharma is Harinama-sankīrtana. Therefore, it is guaranteed that it will be spread. But the other thing is that it can only be spread with the mercy of Kṛṣṇa. We should never think that simply by our own endeavor we will succeed. We should always be depending on the mercy of our spiritual master, previous acaryas, Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, by very deeply taking shelter at their lotus feet and using our maximum energy, intelligence. Then definitely, Kṛṣṇa consciousness will be very nicely distributed. 

So Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu predicted that in every town and village His message should be spread. Therefore we know how dear this is to Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya-prabhu-nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

Actually, just being in Kuala Lumpur where… in Malaysia where, so many of the people are Muslim and Chinese Taoist. Only 10% are… actually they preach the 10%. The Hindu Tamils. Few Chinese are coming. So here, practically 100% are Buddhists. Few Indian mercantile people are there. That if we properly cultivate, we can preach to the whole country, you see. Not only preaching. They’re getting in their sankīrtana... some distributors are doing thousand Malaysian Dollars a day from the Chinese. That’s about $500 a day. That’s more than you did in Japan in most days. He does that everyday actually. $400 is like…. $300-400 daily. Going in shaved up in a dhoti to the Chinese people, having the little Chinese books. Especially looking just like Taoist type book. ‘On the way to chanting’, has the mantras down, gives him. “This book cost us $4 to print. Please give us something more.” He hands him $10. That’s it. And apart from that, even the Indian boys who go to the Chinese shops, they’re getting $100-150 a day, which we don’t get even in America today. You get $70-80, working HARD in the airports. 

But in the beginning they said it couldn’t be done. That even sankīrtana couldn’t be done. How much you want to depend on sankīrtana, that we can see in the future. But in Malaysia they said it couldn’t be done couple of years ago. So now they’re doing it. Here when the people go out in begging bowls every day, every morning. Just now, it’s not like part of the culture. Just the question of the right mantras, and the right books and the right… everything. Inspiration by Lord Caitanya. Even saṅkīrtana devotees, they also will be successful. 

Comment: (audio indistinct, possibly a devotee sharing his Kṛṣṇa conscious experience)

Jayapatākā Swami: Very nice! Not all of America. It’s just in Miami, Atlanta, Tennessee, Mississippi, New Orleans, St. Louis, Chicago, Denver, New York, Montreal, Toronto, Los Angeles, Laguna Beach and San Diego… and Honolulu. The next time I’m going to visit most of America. (laughter) Actually they called me up and they said, “Why didn’t you visit Boston? Providence? Why didn’t you visit Vancouver?” Actually, this visit… some devotees, for eight years they were chanting sixteen rounds but they would never take initiation. So last time I went there, there were 3 devotees in Toronto, living outside. They were coming. So, they developed some faith. So then they asked Viśvakarma if they could initiation from me. So I gave them initiation this time. Now there’s another 5 that want initiation. Sunday feast, they gave this… it's encouraging them. I moved my tape ministry from Los Angeles to Tennessee because… (aside: take this off, just push [possibly bringing Bliss Bars]) Half-a-million Bliss Bars! That’s what the target is. 42 states. The distribution is in 42 states. (some conversation) No because… the tapes, when I go to America, I tell all stories. When I get back to India, I got to do all the sharp talk. There, just one day… I don’t know anything that’s going on in the temple. I just come in and tell stories about Lord Caitanya and go on. So it’s like a story series. Children stories. Caitanya stories.

So this trip was Navadvīpa stories and stories of Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura, Jahnavā Devī and like that. Previous ācāryas, like the Rāmānujācārya. Next trip we will have Caitanya stories. I wanna cram from the Caitanya-bhāgavata.

Proofread by: Revathi Mtji