19920816 Initation Speech

The following is an initiation speech given by His Holiness Jayapataka Swami on August

16th, 1992 in Teluk-Intan, Malaysia.

 

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Rama

Hare Hare (everyone repeats after Gurumaharaj).

 

So, on the auspicious

occasion of the inauguration of the Teluk-Intan Hare Krishna center, we

have gathered together for the most auspicious ceremony of Harinam

Initiation. The initiation is also called the spiritual birth. First, we are born

from the mother and father and they are our first instructors, our Gurus.

Then, we need to take shelter of a sat-guru, of a bona-fide spiritual guru

and surrender to him, to guide us in spiritual life. And at the time of

initiation, that, is called the second birth. That time, guru is father and the

sastra is the mother. So, also guru is called guru pita or guru or father, the

guru. So, when, one is not having any guru, that means that, one is

without a shelter. The Guru is always praying to Krishna and looking out for the

disciple. He is responsible, like a father. So, one without guru is called

anatha or unprotected, like an orphan. And someone who has guru is called

svanatha or someone, who has a protector. So, we offer our service to

Krishna through the guru. Being a fallen soul, we are not qualified to

directly offer our worship to Krishna, until we achieve the fully liberated state.

But, Krishna, out of His causeless mercy, He accepts the disciple, at the

time of initiation, being on the spiritual platform and accepts the service

offered by the disciple, through the guru. So, it’s very important, that, not only,

when, we take initiation, that we ceremoniously accept this truth, but, we

have to put it into practice and actually think and act as a spirit soul, as the

eternal servitor of Krishna. Jnana-vijnana, one is the knowledge and the other

is practical application of the knowledge. In the west, there are many philosophers, doctors, theists, who, are expert at different kinds of

philosophies. They also, those, who, are expert on Indian philosophy or

Indology. They have certain amount of temporary jnana, but, they don’t

practice, nor do they believe. So, we are not just wanting book knowledge,

we are putting this into practice, this is our life and death, this is for saving

our eternal soul from repeated birth and death. So, therefore, we need to

learn this truth from guru and guru’s representatives and apply the truth in

our lives. In material life, we suffer different kinds of causes of disturbance

or ashanti. Guru advices to give up the causes of this disturbance and

simply engage in devotional service. But, sometime, due to attachment, the

aspiring disciple don’t want to give up the things of the material world.

Even though, those very things are the cause of one’s own disturbance and

anxiety. There’s that story, it was by Srila Bhaktisidhhanta Saraswati Thakur,

to exemplify this, about a boy, who was taking, chewing tobacco, even

though, he was just a small boy, about twelve years old. Somehow, he would

get the chewing tobacco and eat it. So, for several years, he was taking like

this and it created a sore in his mouth and he went to the doctor. The

doctor said, that, your sore is very serious and if, you don’t stop taking

tobacco, you can get cancer also, cancer of the mouth. So, doctor said, you

stop the tobacco and everyday you take milk twice a day and this will cure

you. So, the boy started to take the milk, but, in spite of the doctor’s advice,

he was still sneaking and taking the tobacco. So, the sore was not curing

fully. So, some friend said why, the doctor told, you could get cancer, why

don’t you give up the tobacco? Arey, doctor told me to take milk, I am

taking milk along (laughter). So, when, I am taking milk, then, what’s the

need, I can also go on taking the tobacco. No, no, doctor said, you stop the

tobacco and take the milk, he didn’t say continue with the tobacco. So,

your sore is not getting better. No, no, I don’t mind taking milk, but, I also

want to go on taking tobacco. So, like this, some people, they like to

practice some of the things of spiritual life, at the same time, they want to

go on doing some of the bad habits. So, then the material disease does not

cure. It remains nagging and doesn’t give one the full happiness and

peace, that, one could get, if, they would fully take shelter of Krishna. So,

Bhanu Maharaj translated a very nice book, recommended by

Prabhupada, written by one of our previous acharyas, Vishvanath

Chakravarti Thakur, that is called the Madhurya Kadambini. There, it

describes, that, there are different stages of anartha nivriti, getting rid of the

disturbances to bhakti. I just was looking through the book few days ago,

but, I may not remember all the stages, Maharaj may have to help

me. One is thick and thin, that sometimes a person is very fired up, very

enthusiastic, sometimes one is feeling very depressed, very, lacking

enthusiasm. What’s that stage called?

His Holiness Bhanu Maharaj: Ghana-Tarala.

His Holiness Jayapataka Swami GuruMaharaj: Ghana-Tarala, like sometimes

thick and thin. So, due to attachments, due to material identification,

sometimes, one’s enthusiasm is diluted and one becomes thinned out.

Another one is, someone is always making promise. Today, I will do it, today

I will chant my rounds, today, I will get up early, tomorrow. They make so

many determinations, but, when, the time comes, they fail to do it. This is

called akshama. Then, there was another one? Yes! Ranga-rangini, when

one is a devotee, then, along with that, comes respect, comes honour and

distinction, come many facilities due to devotional service. So, one may

start to enjoy those things and that itself can also be a disturbance, if,

one neglects the devotional service, for enjoying the respect and other side

benefits of being a devotee. The idea is this, in the ocean of

bhakti, there’s many waves. So, it’s more important, to go deep into the

ocean of bliss and realise the transcendental ecstasy. But, if, someone is

very light weight, they maybe playing just on the waves and not going deep into

the ocean, that’s called Ranga-rangini. Oh yeah, utsaha, there’s another

anartha. It mean, when somebody, although, they are very junior in

devotional service, but, they already think they know more than the guru and

more than all the other people(laughter). They think, they know more than

the senior devotees and because of over-enthusiasm. There’s another

story, don’t know, if, you heard the story about, one carpenter was there, he

was going to get wood from the Sundarban forest. So, in Malayasia, there

is tiger, in Indonesia also, tiger. So, one carpenter,he was going into

the jungle to get wood, here, in Malayasia (laughter). Some old carpenter

warned him, that, don’t go in the jungle, you can get free wood, alright! but,

you have to be very careful, there’s tigers and other dangerous animals

like bears, leopards. So, you should take some weapon with you to protect

yourself. Uh, but, a young carpenter, he heard, yes yes, okay, thank you

very much for your advice. What does this old people know?! What do I

need to carry weapon for, when, I am going into the forest! I am carrying my axe,

what do you call that, saw! I will just cut off a branch of a tree and I will swing

it around my hip, then, the tigers and leopards will run out. There are so

many trees in the forest, I can anywhere get one stick. So, what is the

problem? I don’t need to carry weapons. But, what he didn’t think that if he

is cutting wood in the jungle and the tiger comes, the tiger is not going to

give him time to cut off the branch, to use against him(laughter). So, that’s

exactly what happened. This young carpenter, went into the forest and all

of a sudden, he saw a young tiger coming towards him and quickly, he

grabbed his saw and he started to saw off the branch. But while he was

sawing, the tiger jumped on him. Ahhh!(laughter) and it just started eating

him. He could never get the branch(laughter). So, this is the example of too

much enthusiasm without practical experience. You see the older

carpenter, they know, you have to be careful, you have to protect yourself, but, this one, he didn’t take the advice and he became tiger food(laughter). So, like that, we have to, it’s good

to have enthusiasm, but, we should not become so enthusiastic, that, we

don’t listen to Guru and to senior vaishnavas. So, like this, there are

different kinds of anarthas or disturbances in our spiritual life. Those are

more subtle kind, of course, the gross kind are the attachment to the,

breaking the regulative principles or to material sense gratification. So,

taking initiation means that, now, we are accepting the spiritual master as

our authority and we are going to be serving Krishna very carefully under his guidance.

And we should transcend all these anarthas by taking the shelter of guru

and Krishna. So, taking initiation is completely voluntary. It means that,

someone is now preparing to go back to Krishna after this lifetime. So,

everything we do, should be under the guidance of guru and should be

meant for the pleasure of guru and Krishna. In our ordinary dealings also, we

try to do things in such a way, that, Krishna will be pleased. So, ultimately

all our works are offered to Krishna at the end. In order to do this, definitely,

one has to always be vey carefully chanting the holy names and associating with the devotees,

taking Krishna prasadam, following this process. Since, it’s late, we will

have to end here, this discourse. We are very happy, that, some of the older

devotees, here, have taken up Krishna consciousness, for many years seriously and

now, they want initiation. Although, this creates unusual circumstances.

Sometimes, mother and father are initiated after son. So, although they are

mother and father, they are also younger brother on the spiritual

platform(laughter). So, everything is possible in the spiritual

world(laughter). How, that son can be older than the father. Of course, just

like Krishna is oldest of all, but, He appears as a small boy for His parents,

Nanda and Yashoda.