1996 Ratha-yātrā Address

The following is a talk given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami in 1996 at the Ratha-yātrā in Durban, South Africa.

Come in order to deliver the people around the world. One of the pastimes of Lord Jagannātha is that Lord Jagannātha always wants his devotees to be fed sumptuous prasādam. Jagannātha Purī... who knows how many prasādam offerings are made everyday to Lord Jagannātha? Who can say? Chappanna, 56, but anyway more is no problem. Chapanna-bhoga, 56 offerings. So round the clock they make offering and the fire sacrifice that they cook the Jagannātha offering on, the fire I mean the stove is the huge wooden stove and they install it as a fire sacrifice. When you do the homa you call in the Agnideva, in the Viṣṇu form in the fire and that’s what they do for the fire, the food, the offering cooked for Jagannātha, in Jagannātha Purī are cooked on a fire sacrifice. That they do the pūjā too, and once they lighted the fire sacrifice that never goes out. It keeps on going day and night. So here also Durban ISKCON Ratha-yātrā is famous because they feed hundreds of thousands of people prasādam during the Ratha-yātrā festival. I heard during the last year 2,00,000 spoons were given out. That’s how they know how many plates, they keep track of the spoons. 2,00,000 of spoons, of prasādam, of plates of prasādam. So any questions being selected so far.

This is the little intro on how Lord Jagannātha came to the West to fulfil the desire of A.C. Bhaktivedānta Swami Prabhupāda. Anyone knows what Prabhupāda did as a child regarding Ratha-yātrā? Anyone can say? What? You said. Yes? Right, he had his own little chariot and he was pulling Lord Jagannātha in the streets of Calcutta and he organized his own little Jagannātha ratha festival, of course with the help with his father. So at the age of six, he was observing the Ratha-yātrā festival. So Prabhupāda, he said, “make the Ratha-yātrā festival more gorgeous, make it ah... beautiful festival, everyone can participate, Hare Kṛṣṇa. When Prabhupāda was... you have any questions... okay So now some questions came.

Question: Mahārāja, yesterday you left before you answered the questions, a lot of people worship the devas, what fruit can we offer this people that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Lord. Where do we find now that if we are worshipping the devas.

Jayapatākā Swami: Devas... in English devas, which means godly, holy living entities, godly living entities or demigods. The worship of devas is mentioned in the Vedas. Vedic literature tells us about worshipping the devas, that they are powerful living entities responsible for the different departments, just like Agnideva is in-charge of the fire, Vāyudeva is in-charge of the air, if we had no air right now, we wouldn’t be able to breathe, we will all die. If there was no heat, very cold, now there is a lot of heat, so you can experience the power of Agni. So like that different devas have different departments, and different blessings they give Skanda-deva, he is the general of all the devas, known as Murugan, Kārtikkeya. Now if you look in the Vedas, in the Purāṇas, so many histories. Whenever the devas were facing extreme difficulties, and not able to defeat the demons, demons are those who are against God, against Viṣṇu, and suras or devas are those who are worhippers of Viṣṇu. All of the devas, by definition worship Lord Viṣṇu. Throughout the Vedas it is mentioned that Viṣṇu is Supreme, even in the Śiva Purāṇa, Lord Śiva was asked by Pārvatī that there are so many types of worships, so which kind of worship is the best. So then Lord Śiva saw Pārvatī. ārādhanānāṁ sarveṣāṁ viṣṇor ārādhānaṁ param/ tasmāt parataraṁ devī tadīyānāṁ samarcanam You understood, ārādhanānāṁ sarveṣāṁ. Ārādhanā means amongst all the worship, methods of worship, and ārādhanānāṁ means best of all the methods of worship. Not ordinary worship but the best of all the pujas, worship. Amongst them, ārādhanānāṁ sarveṣāṁ viṣṇor ārādhānaṁ param. Viṣṇu worship is param, is the best, is the supreme. tadīyānāṁ samarcanam, parataraṁ devī However my dear goddess, there is one exception, one thing which is more potent than worshipping Lord Viṣṇu, that is worshipping tadīyā, worshipping those who are connected with Lord Viṣṇu, who are related to him. Tadīyā, Tad-īya, in relation with the Lord, that menas worshipping the devotees of the Lord. Is more peasing Kṛṣṇa than when he is directly worshipped and therefore it produces even better results. So the system that the Vaisnavas use when the worship and respect the devas is to worship the devas as devotees. From deva comes devotee. Deva-ati, if you are devotee of Lord, that means you are deva, and if you are not devotee of Lord, that means you are not devotee of Lord, that means you are asura. So all of the Devas, they worshp Lord Viṣṇu. Even Lord Śiva, chanting on Rudrākṣa, the names of Viṣṇu, Brahma is chanting on Brahma-Saṁhitā, Govindam ādi puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi, govindam ādi puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi. After Indra tested Lord Kṛṣṇa and rained so much, torrential rain on Vraja dhāma and Kṛṣṇa lived in the Govardhana hill, and all the Vrajavāsīs took shelter under Govardhana, then Indra came and worshipped Lord Kṛṣṇa and begged him for forgiveness. Durgā known as Narayaṇī, Vaiṣṇavī. She is worshipped as Viṣṇu Śaktī. She is energy of Lord, and she has... in various places in the Vedas, worshipping Lord Viṣṇu. She is accepted as the younger sister of Lord Viṣṇu, when as Meenakshi, when she came as Meenakshi and was married to Lord Śiva as Sundareśvara, then Lord Viṣṇu came as the elder brother and performed the wedding, the kanyā-dāna and gave his younger sister in wedding. Today we have Jagannath, Baladev and Subhadra. Subhadra is yoga-māyā and she is also the origin of maha-māyā. So like this you can explain in various ways and question is whether someone is wishing... willing to listen. If they are willing to listen, then you can easily convince any of the Vedas, that it is more important to worship Lord Viṣṇu as supreme and worship the devas as devotees and not as independent gods. Even in the Skanda Purāṇa, Lord Kārtikkeya, holy scripture is mentioned that if someone leaves the worship of Lord Kṛṣṇa, Lord Viṣṇu to worship some other devatā. It is like someone leaving the care of his own mother, to be taken care of by a witch. I didn’t say that, it’s not my opinion. Lord Murugan says that. Skanda Purāṇa says that. People don’t know, most people never read the śāstra, they never read the Bhagavad-Gītā, they never read Skanda Purāṇa, Śiva Purāṇa, what to speak of Bhāgavata Purāṇa. If they read they would find that Lord Śiva is saying that Kṛṣṇa is Param Brahma, Śiva is saying that I cannot give liberation, only Viṣṇu, Mukunda, He can give liberation. So if you want to get some material benefit then worship the devas, if you want to get supreme benefit then you can worship Viṣṇu. Of course even if want material things you can also worship Viṣṇu, ārādhanānām sarveṣāṁ, no that’s the one I want, I want, akāmaḥ sarva-kāmo vā mokṣa-kāma udāra-dhīḥ tīvreṇa bhakti-yogena yajeta puruṣaṁ param. If you worship with unalloyed devotion Lord Kṛṣṇa, you will achieve your desired result whether you have got no desire, only pure love you want, love of Kṛṣṇa, or you have sarva-kāmo, all kinds of material desires, or whether you want desire for liberation, you can achieve it, whenever it is by worshipping purely Lord Viṣṇu in devotion. So there is no need but if someone is in the Vedic culture, they are worshipping the devatās, that is also auspicious. The Bhagavad-Gītā says, it is in the mode of goodness. To worship rich men, like someone people worship politicians, movie stars, rock and roll stars, they worship. I mean worship means if you respect someone, you talk about someone, you remember someone, you give a gift to someone or some service for someone, that’s worship. So people worshipping, they may not think it is worship, they may not like a formal pūjā with the lamp and ārati and everything. But it is still worth worship. So that worship of some great man is considered in the mode of passion. Usually the people worship some great famous person in order to get some material benefit or out of material attachment, then there is also worship of the ghosts and spirits in the forest. They offer various kinds of wines and meat and things to the ghost. That worship is considered in the mode of ignorance, and usually the black magicians, they use that kind of worship in order to get some black powers or to cast spells on others. So there is all kinds of worship but the supreme worship is to worship Kṛṣṇa, to worship Viṣṇu in pure devotion and that is the kalpa-vṛkṣa, that is like the desire tree. It can fulfil all your desires.

Question: Maharaj, there seems to be a strong belief that the seven missing years in the life of Jesus Christ, he was in India, is this true?, if so what concrete proof is there that he spent the seven years in India, did he learn to walk on water and leave and enter his body to study the yogic principles?

Jayapatākā Swami: Only seven missing years or 16 missing years? Well according... there is a footprint of Lord Jesus in Bombay, now known as Mumbai, 15.10 that he arrived there, there is a record in Jagannātha Puri that Īśa-Putra came to Jagannātha Puri from a Western country and Western.... at that time Israel was in the West, compared to India and that he was there and that was recorded and there was a book, any famous person who visited Jagannātha Puri, they put in a book, he is in the book. Then in the... there is some record in Tibet that he also visited Tibet. So there is various evidences that he came to India. Also in Kashmir, in one of the valleys there is a tomb of Lord Jesus where they say that after he was resurrected, he came back on the earth and he walked to Iran and ah... Pakistan and reached what’s today Kashmir, and then he stayed there and the name of the valley is called Jesus valley, in the local language Jesus is known as Isā and everyone knows about saint Isā, prophet Isā, and they have a tomb there of Isā or Jesus. So this are the kind of proofs there are, of course it is a question of faith. As far as which of it is concrete, matter of if it is concrete or stone or what, there is a lot of evidence to indicate that he was there. What he did when he was there, what he learned is not well documented, but we see that the philosophy of Lord Jesus and the philosophy Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not contradictory. Jesus says, “Love thy father thy God with heart, soul and mind”, and what Bhagavad-Gītā tells us and what Lord Caitanya taught was mana, kāyā, vākya- with words, with activities and thoughts we should worship the Lord and surrender ourselves, ātma-nivedanaṁ in His service, in pure love. So it’s... it is basically the same teaching, the essence is the same. The difference is that...

Here is another question..

Question: Why don’t we observe Śiva Rātri at ISKCON?

Jayapatākā Swami: Many ISKCON temples observe Śiva Ratri by doing a Hare Kṛṣṇa. In the Hari Bhakti Vilāsa, it says that ah... devotees should chant Hare Kṛṣṇa in Śiva Rātri. Śiva is a, vaiṣṇavānāṁ yathā śambhuḥ, the greatest of the devotees, and if the devotees want they can chant the whole night on Śiva Ratri. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

Question: How can one put the mind into chanting without any distractions and how many rounds must we chant per day.

Jayapatākā Swami: That is a gradual process. What this chanting does, why we sing and dance, why we use the music, it is because it helps to bring the mind in the focus. Right!?! As we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, with the karatālas, with the mṛdaṅgas, clapping our hands, dancing, it is easier to fix the consciousness. That’s why the chanting with many devotees in big kīrtana is considered to be the most effective way, even hundred times more effective than mental chanting. But since we are not always able to chant in a big group of people, we also need to chant on the beads. The beads use the sense of touch. By feeling the beads – counting, so that also helps us to concentrate, we look at the picture of Kṛṣṇa, we can look at the Deity of Kṛṣṇa and we can chant. If the mind goes away from the chanting bring it back. We chant, jaya śrī kṛṣṇa prabhu nityānanda, śrī-advaita, gadādhara śrīvāsādi gaura-bhakta-vṛnda – then again fix the mind.

If you are chanting with the devotees, chanting in the temple, chanting in some peaceful place, at least it will be easier to chant without distraction. If you are chanting in the middle of very disturbed environment, it may be very difficult to concentrate, still we have to do it all kinds of circumstances, because even at the time of death we cannot guarantee that we can die in a peaceful situation.

We don’t know what is going to happen at that moment, so we need to practice chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa under all circumstances. Good circumstances, bad circumstances, Lord Caitanya advised, “kīrtanīya sadā hariḥ” We should chant Hare Kṛṣṇa all of the time .

Second part of the question is how many rounds must we chant for the day. Lord Chaitanya said that there is no hard and fast rule about chanting. Any time, any place, anyway we can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

We should try, however it also said that counting how many times we chant is an important. How many rounds we chant depends on your guru, what he advice, what he advises you.

Generally Prabhupāda said everyone should try to chant 16 rounds as a minimum. If one is not able to chant 16 rounds as a minimum. If one is not able to chant 16 rounds, then chant as many rounds a possible.

Establish a minimum number. Someone says we only able to chant, minimum.. minimum eight rounds. Do you chant eight everyday. Some day it may be ten, it may be twelve, no harm in doing more, if you do one day six, it means next day you have to do, eight plus two, ten and make up for the shortfall.

Do this and get steady in chanting a minimum number and gradually trying to increase the minimum, 21.45 you reach 16 rounds as the minimum.

What time you got there?

It’s now three. Who is the next in line.

Govinda Maharaj. Śrī Govinda Mahārāja.

How many here are chanting rounds everyday. Very nice.

How many of you like chanting rounds. Gives you some energy. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Very good.

Any other question?

Govinda Jaya Jaya, Where is that 22.15 board, where is that board , Govinda Jaya Jaya, how many of you like ratha-yātrā festival?

Jagannātha Swami ki!

Baladeva ki!

Subhadrā māi ki!

Devotee: Jaya

Question: If I stop sacrificing a goat to mother Kālī, then what will happen to me and my family?

Jayapatākā Swami: If you stop sacrificing goats or sacrificing the holy name, and you take a commitment to chant everyday,

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare then nothing will happen.

It’s not you have to sacrifice a goat to mother Kālī, that is a facility for people who have, who determined and to eat meat. Then ah... sacrifice is given once a month, they could offer a goat to Kālī and that way they could eat meat without getting the bad karma, otherwise they shouldn’t eat any meat.

Now in some temple they are even killing goats or even sacrificing goats everyday which is not allowed according to the śāstra. Only one day in a month, and when you sacrifice a goat then there is a mantra you have to chant in the ear of the goat, the priest will chant a mantra that this person is taking your life now, you can take his life in the next life.

Many people don’t know that by killing the goat now, the goat can kill me in the next birth. Sometimes in some other countries in the modern world, people die violent death. Even one lady left South Africa for Saudi Arabia to avoid the violence and she was murdered in Saudi Arabia, came in the paper two days ago.

Even in Bangladesh, people leave and go to India to avoid violence, then they robbed and get killed by dacoits in India. So this karma we cannot escape by running away from one place to the next. If you want to get freed from the reactions we need to perform sacrifice to Lord Viṣṇu, yajño vai Viṣṇu.

However if one wants to be freed from that karma, there is more karma, if you kill a goat there is more karma, more than they come and kill you, then can give you more karma, multiple.

So that was a facility, but Prabhupāda explained, that actually mother Kālī, she doesn’t eat the goat meat, because mother Kālī is the wife of ... who is husband of mother Kālī, Lord Śiva, and Śiva is a vegetarian, he doesn’t eat meat, so he only eats Kṛṣṇa prasāda.

Jagannātha... so only one food is offered ah... to Kṛṣṇa, offered to Śiva will Kālī take. So she takes vegetarian food just like her husband. So the goat that is offered to Kālī, she doesn’t eat it, she gives it to her friends or assistants, the goblins, the ghosts and other assistants who are with her in Kailāśa, and what you are getting is their prasāda.

So if you give up something for a higher sacrifice then there is no bad reaction, you wouldn’t suffer any bad reactions. If you chant 

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare