20080812 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.26.10 Lecture in Czech Festival

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on August 12^th, 2008 in Czech Festival. The class begins with a reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Canto Four, Chapter Twenty-Six, Text Ten. The class comes with a Russian Translation.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.26.10

śaśān varāhān mahiṣān
gavayān ruru-śalyakān
medhyān anyāṁś ca vividhān
vinighnan śramam adhyagāt

Translation: In this way King Purañjana killed many animals, including rabbits, boars, buffalo, bison, black deer, porcupines and other game animals. After killing and killing, the King became very tired.

Purport: A person in the mode of ignorance commits many sinful activities. In the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī explains that a man becomes sinful out of ignorance only. The resultant effect of sinful life is suffering. Those who are not in knowledge, who commit violations of the standard laws, are subject to be punished under criminal laws. Similarly, the laws of nature are very stringent. If a child touches fire without knowing the effect, he must be burned, even though he is only a child. If a child violates the law of nature, there is no compassion. Only through ignorance does a person violate the laws of nature, and when he comes to knowledge, he does not commit any more sinful acts.

The King became tired after killing so many animals. When a man comes in contact with a saintly person, he becomes aware of the stringent laws of nature and thus becomes a religious person. Irreligious persons are like animals, but in this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement such persons can come to a sense of understanding things as they are and abandon the four principles of prohibited activities, namely illicit sex life, meat-eating, gambling and intoxication. This is the beginning of religious life. Those who are so-called religious and indulge in these four principles of prohibited activities are pseudo-religionists. Religious life and sinful activity cannot parallel one another. If one is serious in accepting a religious life, or the path of salvation, he must adhere to the four basic rules and regulations. However sinful a man may be, if he receives knowledge from the proper spiritual master and repents his past activities in his sinful life and stops them, he immediately becomes eligible to return home, back to Godhead. This is made possible just by following the rules and regulations given by the śāstra and following the bona-fide spiritual master.

At present the whole world is on the verge of retiring from a blind materialistic civilization, which may be likened to hunting animals in the forest. People should take advantage of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement and leave their troublesome life of killing. It is said that the killers of animals should neither live nor die. If they live only to kill animals and enjoy women, life is not very prosperous. And as soon as a killer dies, he enters the cycle of birth and death in the lower species of life. That also is not desirable. The conclusion is that killers should retire from the killing business and take to this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement to make life perfect. A confused, frustrated man cannot get relief by committing suicide because suicide will simply lead him to take birth in the lower species of life or to remain a ghost, unable to attain a gross material body. Therefore, the perfect course is to retire altogether from sinful activities and take up Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In this way one can become completely perfect and go back home, back to Godhead.

* * *

Jayapatākā Swami: [Aside: Spoken at the… read at the Czech Summer Camp 2008 on the 12^th of August 2008, Ekādaśī tithi, the year 522 of our beloved Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. And this is to the western side of the Ganges in Czechoslovakia, Czech Republic, sorry, in the presence of His Grace Hari Śauri Prabhu and Mahādyuti Prabhu, many other illustrious Vaiṣṇavas.] Haribol!

So, this is Nārada Muni preaching to the King Prācīnabarhi. Usually, the Vedas are direct histories and not allegories or just fictitious stories. But this story is the exception. In order to preach to the king, he is telling the story of King Purañjana – Kings apparently like to hear about kings. Sometimes it is this talk straight philosophy, and you see like half the devotees are like sleeping and when you tell some interesting story, then it is easier for them to keep their attention.

When Hari Śauri Prabhu is telling all the pastimes of Śrīla Prabhupāda, you do not see many people sleeping. Everybody wants to hear the pastimes of Śrīla Prabhupāda. So, in order to make it interesting, Nārada Muni is telling this interesting story about a king. At the end of the story, then the king pushed, “What does this story mean? Why are you telling me this story?” He knew it meant something. So, then Nārada Muni went back, and he explained each person who they are, each person like who is King Prācīnabarhi is the ātmā, I mean King Purañjana is the ātmā, and how he is going through different births and so many, explains everything point by point.

And we get twice as he is telling the allegory; we also get the explanation what it means. And then again when he, Nārada himself, explains the allegory, we get again. When Śrīla Prabhupāda first landed in America, in Boston he wrote “Mārkine Bhāgavata-dharma” poem. He mentioned that these people are very much in the mode of passion, ignorance, but they are very proud about it. They do not know any other standard. So, how am I going to preach to these people? How am I going to make them come to understand Your message?” Like this, he was praying to Kṛṣṇa to empower him, to give him the blessings.

Probably, you know a few people in this region of the world that are sometimes committing sinful activities and very proud about it. I was doing a harināma week or so ago in Freiburg, Germany. And you know, some people, some devotee was handing out books and flyers while we were doing kīrtana. And some people, they took it, looked at it. Somebody was going with some beer in his hand, a girl in his arm, pushed the guy off, “No, I do not need it.” Somehow when you do harināma, it is like you are in a one-way mirror. You are just seeing how everybody is reacting. But you are in another world. You are in protection of the holy name.

But then one lady was going by with a baby in a stroller. And when the baby heard the harināma, an amazing thing happened! The baby raised his arms, just a little time, maybe like one year, maybe one year, a few months and he cannot raise, and he is going, baby is going like this. The mother is looking, you know, she just swung around so he could see the kīrtanīyas. It was like, you do not see babies doing that too often. Must be there in some previous life was a devotee for about 20 minutes. The baby is going like this. (laughter). Fortunately, that was the amazing thing.

But when we are born in a non-devotee family, they are going to feed us meat and fish, all kinds of stuff. I had a nephew; he did not like meat. He had take the meat and throw it on the floor. And the parents are like, “No, you must eat your meat. This is very good.” Like that, you know, there may be so many kids that do not like meat, but they are told, “You have to take it, it is for your protein,” and all this. So, now more and more people are realizing that vegetarian diet is better and because the best thing is kṛṣṇa-prasāda diet, which is yajña-śiṣṭa, which is the remnants of sacrifice.

Śrīla Prabhupāda is mentioning that people, they do so many sinful activities because they are conditioned to a particular culture, particular traditions, and they do not realize that these are breaking laws of nature. So, if somebody, say, a normal citizen, they would avoid breaking the law if they know they are going to get caught. Like yesterday I was driving from Vienna to here and the driver said that, “You know, normally I go much faster, like 180, 200. We have another car with us, and they said only go 130.” I said, “There is no speed limit here in Czech? it is like what autobahn in Germany or something?” He said, “No, there is 120 kilometre an hour speed limit, but nobody follows it very much.” Then all of a sudden, he passed a car and there was a police car there. When they see the police then we have to follow. In other countries police got all kinds of radar, laser, all kinds of methods to catch you. But here I guess it is not so advanced. So, when I read this, I remember that the police was there. If you speed there, you know, maybe I am going to get caught. So, then you slow down. “No Police? Okay, go for it.” So, like that, people break the law if they think that they are not going to get caught. But if they know law of nature, you break, you are going to get caught – karma is there; you cannot avoid it. In Sanskrit, the word for meat is māṁsa, meat. What does that word mean? mām is ‘I,’ sa means ‘you.’ So, “I am going to eat you now, kill you now and later you can kill me.” That is the meaning of māṁsa. We kill the animal, and the animal will later kill us.

The Mṛgāri, the hunter pastime with the Nārada — when he realized that all the animals he half killed and forced to suffer, they are all going to come back and get him — he had a total change of heart. He saw, “I am going to suffer for all the suffering I caused.” So, when people realize that there are stringent laws of nature and if they break them, they are going to suffer. Then they are considered to have knowledge, so they give up things which are destructive.

We do not normally preach so openly in the negative way because most people do not have any faith, and they are not going to accept it anyway. Sometimes depends on the audience we do but it really depends how open the audience is, how spiritually developed they are. The Bible says, “Eye for eye, tooth for a tooth. As you sow, so shall you reap.” It is in all the different religions. I do not know the particular quote, and I am sure it is there in the Quran. They are even heavier. What I have seen sometimes, people in Saudi Arabia, it is very strict, no drinking, very strict. But when they go outside, they may not follow. They are not under that same strictness. They have guys that run around in Saudi Arabia with a stick with a little some kind of a chalk or some marking on it. If they see somebody with a short-sleeved shirt, they hit their arms, marking, “You are exposing your arm, no flesh.” If a lady is wearing a skirt and exposing her legs, (phew phew) and in the West there is no such thing, problems. (laughter)

So, we are in Berlin Ratha-yātrā. So many Arabs and Parsees dressed, you know, in very modern dress. So, like that, according to what we think we are going to get away with. And we tend to do it in the material world. But when we understand that the laws of karma are so stringent you cannot escape, people, religious people, they tend to avoid doing the prohibited things. But in Kṛṣṇa consciousness we accept this fact. At the same time, we tend to preach that this is the way to be happy is to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, that I was giving a lecture in Berlin, that this is the art of happiness. Just like in fourth chapter in the Gītā, Kṛṣṇa says su-sukhaṁ kartum avyayam (Bg. 9.2) This is the super happiness path, everlasting. So, we get people to taste a superior happiness. And then after that you can explain to them why they should avoid this killing business, this sinful business. Like when bhakti... His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda sent a sannyāsī over to England to preach. Then he met some aristocrat, some Lord or peer or something and he was interested. “How do I practice this bhakti-yoga?” He said, “No meat eating, no illicit sex, no gambling and no intoxication?” “So, there is nothing left in life. This is all I am doing. So, it is too difficult for me. I cannot do this.”

So, like that, I was once in Piccadilly Square the day before Ratha-yātrā. And there was a big harināma, like 150, maybe 200 devotees. Big harināma. I do not know if you know about Piccadilly Square in London. “Piccadilly?” “Oh, Piccadilly Circus.” It is a real circus. And it is all like casinos, nightclubs, dining. It is all complete. All these four things are all there. So, then there is a big kīrtana. Many, many people, maybe 300, 400 people gathered and then one senior devotee stood forward, breaks in kīrtana, gives a little talk. Then he said, “You must give up, the four sinful activities – no illicit sex, no gambling, no meat eating and no intoxication.” And, the people are like, there are Piccadilly Circus and everywhere that is all going on. Casinos, nightclubs, one by one, they are kind of like, all the whole big crowd, like faded off. I am sure they are thinking, “Wow, it is not for me.” Then I remember like Prabhupāda when He was preaching in the 60s and He would go to Golden Gate Park and it would be all the hippies and everyone. He spoke then about a higher happiness, about a more purposeful life. [Aside: That was before your time.] And I know what Prabhupāda said, but of course some of the devotees were preaching, “Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and be high forever”, because the hippies, they will get high. Then they come down, hangovers and headaches. This way. “Be high forever. Always be blissful.”

So, like this, according to the time, place and circumstance, Prabhupāda would speak in a different way. When He was talking to the cardinal in France, He would tell him that, “Why do you eat meat? It says, ‘Thou shalt not kill’ in the Bible.” So, sometimes He would be very direct with them. But in general, the big mass, He would just be encouraging, get them to chant, get them to get a taste. Then when they came to the temple, they would be more specific on how to maintain that.

I mean, now so many animals are being killed in the world, people do not understand what difficulty they are causing. Someone told me that they did a study and found the biggest cause of environmental pollution in the world is the slaughterhouses. You do not hear too much propaganda about stopping killing of animals for the environment. The animals, they are feeding so many antibiotics. And it was just in the newspaper yesterday, they are creating super bugs, super microorganisms which are bacteria which are — what do you call — immune to these antibiotics. So, they have animals packed in tight together and so it is an unhealthy situation. So, they fill them with antibiotics, so they do not get sick. And there is so much antibiotics in the animals that goes into the meat, and the people eat that, and they become also, the different microorganisms, they become immune to that. So, now there is super bugs that they have no cure for. Eating this flesh, it is actually barbaric. Why do you have to kill animals when you have so many nice vegetables and fruits and beans and nuts and grains and milk products? So, Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted to make Kṛṣṇa consciousness accessible to the people all over the world.

Just like today is Ekādaśī. So, Prabhupāda would use to call it Ekādaśī feast. No grains, no beans and no peas. Yeah, I mean legumes and grains and cereals. I remember once we were taking prasāda with Prabhupāda and somebody gave string beans. “You have given me beans. I have broken the Ekādaśī.” We had to observe Ekādaśī again day after Dvādaśī. But you know, Trayodaśī, he said, “Dvādaśī, you are not supposed to fast.” I had a few other times He had it the day after. Maybe it was a Trayodaśī tithi within a tithi.

I never saw for Ekādaśī, Prabhupāda doing like a nirjalā or anything. I mean I was. But He said to some devotees, if they want to, they could do the whole thing. But it is not obligatory for sure. It is not like if you do not do it, you are going to go to hell or something. The sins are in the grains and the legumes. There was Ekādaśī, people are doing Ekādaśī, they get a hundred times the benefit for doing Ekādaśī. Anything you do spiritual on Ekādaśī, you get a hundred times the benefit. So, there is some Purāṇic history that nobody was going to hell anymore. It was so that the workers down there were frustrated. Nothing to do. But if one does Ekādaśī and burns off all their sins too easy.

So, then they got the special dispensation that all the sins will be kept in the grain on Ekādaśī. So, if you eat grains and legumes and those things on Ekādaśī, then you are eating all kinds of sin. So, like that we do not eat those things. I know some devotees, they do the nirjalā at night, and they stay up, and they chant all night. But if you do that the next day, you are not supposed to sleep, you are supposed to go on with your ordinary duties. Most devotees, it is not possible to stay up. It is like one whole day, one whole night and the next whole day it is like how many hours? It is like 36 hours.

One devotee stayed up like that, working and the next day when he was driving, he got a micro blackout and he had an accident, was in the hospital for three months. So, it is not very practical. I mean, if you are living in the holy dhāma, you were fasting sometimes in Māyāpur. We are living in the holy dhāma. We are not going anywhere, not driving. But generally, for people in the active world it is dangerous even to recommend because if they follow it strictly, they may have a car accident. I like the Ekādaśīs a lot. I still like them, good days, Viṣṇu’s day but when I read that if you observe Rādhāṣṭamī it is worth a hundred thousand Ekādaśīs, then I liked Rādhāṣṭamī better. (laughter) So, every year I go back to Māyāpur for Rādhāṣṭamī and we do a big abhiṣeka and you only have to observe it also up till noon.

So, Prabhupāda said Rādhārāṇī is more merciful. It is hard enough. It is very hard. Even I have many devotees say they cannot do Ekādaśī because they have to have grains. They have some. They say, “If I do not have grain, I get a headache, I feel sick. It is very hard to get people to do these things on a regular basis.” If you make it impossible, like nirjalā and everything, how many people are going to do it? And then we are driving people away from Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The idea Prabhupāda said is that we eat the vegetables and these things because they may go bad. Before there was not refrigeration, they would go bad. So, the things that are going to go bad that do not last, you can consume those.

Yesterday we were talking about how Lord Caitanya’s pastimes, these eternal associates came down to the material world and they were helping Lord Caitanya spreading the saṅkīrtana movement. And one pastime came to my mind that Nityānanda Prabhu had gone to Vṛndāvana. And then He got a message from Lord Caitanya that saṅkīrtana movement has started. He should come now to Navadvīpa. So, then He went to Govardhana. And there in Govardhana there was one of the cowherd boys who had been resting in a cave for, you know, 5,000 years. If you are eternal, it is nothing. Take a little nap, rest up a bit. He was Śrīdāmā Prabhu, Śrīdāma sakhā. So, then Nityānanda called him, “Śrīdāmā! Śrīdāmā! Śrīdāmā! Come out.” So, then Śrīdāmā came out, you know. “Who are you?” “I am Balāi.” See, the cowherd boys had nicknames for each other. So, Balarāma was Balāi and Kṛṣṇa is Kanhaiyā —

kṛṣṇa kanhaiyā, dauji kā bhāiya!
kṛṣṇa kanhaiyā, dauji kā bhāiya!

Like that. So, they have all these different vraja-vāsī mantras. So, Kanhaiyā and Balāi.

So, “Balāi? You do not look like Balāi. Balāi is white. You are golden also. What happened now?” “It is Kali-yuga, I have come here again as Nityānanda, but I am Balāi.” Then Śrīdāmā said, “Well if you are Balāi, He is the only one who could beat me in a race around Govardhana.” How many kilometres is it around Govardhana? 26? Is not that the marathon? It is also 26. Now the Olympics are going on, so, there will be a lot of people running marathons. The cowherd boys used to run too. So, instead of having this, they have some goddess from Greek mythology on the medal. They should have Kṛṣṇa, Balarāma and the cowherd boys running.

So, anyway, then Śrīdāmā started running around Govardhana. “On your mark, get set, go.” When you start a race, they say, “On your mark, get set, go.” I do not know what you are saying. Boom, they started running and they were neck and neck. Going around the first corner, going around the Govardhana, coming in the backside. Neck to neck, running. Coming around second and second, the far corner. Coming in for the home stretch. And then Nityānanda pulls ahead. Balāi pulls ahead and goes. And it is Nityānanda. “Nitāi! Nitāi! Nitāi!” Then Śrīdāmā said, “Okay, you are Balāi, I accept. Nobody else can beat me. Balāi holds the world record for marathon around Govardhana, amongst the cowherd boys.” “So, Kanhaiyā has come. He is starting the saṅkīrtana movement. You want to join and spread the love for Godhead everywhere? You going to join Me, Kanhaiyā and Me for the saṅkīrtana?” “Sure, why not? Sounds good. Like to be with Kanhaiyā and You.” “Okay. But you are” — you know this cowherd boy, he is gigantic. But he is still like 5 years old. But he is really big. 10 years old.

So, then He said, “So, I am going to shrink you down to Kali-yuga size, transform you,” put His hand on the head. (shrinking sound) Then he became like Kali-yuga human size. So, Śrīdāmā then became known as Abhirāma. Sometimes as Rāma Abhirāma. So, together he and Nitāi went to Bengal. Had so many saṅkīrtana pastimes. Actually, I do not know what the name of that book is. There is a book about Śrī Abhirāma’s pastimes written by his disciple — Abhirāma’s pastimes. So, when he was in Vṛndāvana, he took a hair from his head and threw it in the Yamunā and a baby girl appeared on a lotus flower and floated downstream. There is a whole pastime, later on that became his consort. Because most of them, almost 99%, almost everybody in caitanya-līlā, they were all gṛhasthas. So, he was already preparing for the future. And so, there are pastimes about this expansion, female expansion of Śrīdāmā. She could dance unlimitedly.

Anyway, that is another story. Then they went together. They were back in Navadvīpa, hosting saṅkīrtana. Lord took sannyāsa. And Lord Nityānanda with His associates went to Jagannātha Purī. Then Lord Caitanya asked Nityānanda to go back and finish the preaching in Bengal and flood Bengal with harināma-saṅkīrtana. They went back to Bengal with… Lord Nityānanda took with Him about, I do not know, forty-fifty devotees — Mīnaketana Rāmadāsa, Abhirāma Prabhu — they all went with Lord Nityānanda. All the cowherd boys. And they had a big harināma-saṅkīrtana at Pānihāṭi. It went on for like three months, nonstop.

Lord Nityānanda, so, after taking some prasāda and resting, then Nityānanda came out with His associates. They started a kīrtana with the fifty devotees, some local devotees joined. Then wherever He would look at, the people were going into ecstasy. Then Lord Nityānanda, He got up, and He started to dance. And whenever He was, His dancing was so beautiful. When He touched the feet to the ground — because He is the origin of Varāhadeva, who is the husband of the earth — whenever He touched the earth, she would have tremors of ecstasy, minor earthquakes. Then when Lord Nityānanda dances, Lord Caitanya said there are five places that He always is. And one of those places, wherever Nityānanda dances, He is there. Nityānanda Prabhu’s dancing is so wonderful. Lord Caitanya would never miss it. And He said, “Lord Caitanya is here.” Everybody is looking. “They cannot see Him. You cannot see Him. I can see Him. He is in South India. But He has come here also to be here. You cannot see Him, but He is wearing a special flower garland with scented flowers from South India. You can smell Him”, and He continued dancing, kīrtana was going on and the devotees started sniffing around and then, “Gaurāṅga!” fell on the ground and overwhelmed by smelling Lord Caitanya. They got so much ecstatic love of Kṛṣṇa awakened in their heart. They were rolling on the ground. So, one by one, as the devotees could smell the flower garland and Lord Caitanya’s fragrance, they were fainting in ecstasy, “Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga!”

How many would like to smell Lord Caitanya’s flower garland? God realization by smelling. So, it is... every aspect of the Lord is beautiful. It is wonderful. It is so lovable. His form, His name, His scent, His fragrance, His touch. In Nectar of Devotion, it says that sometimes when the devotees are chanting, when they reach the stage of bhāva, the Lord may come and touch them. How many would you like to be touched by the Lord? “Gaurāṅga!” And the devotees of Lord Caitanya were so fortunate, they could touch the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda. Sometimes.

Sometimes He allowed or they just sealed it. So, like this kīrtana went on and on – three months and 10,000 devotees started coming and joining the kīrtana. Day and night, 24 hours for three months. And at the end, the devotees were getting like mystic powers just manifesting naturally. And desire just happened. So, Abhirāma, he picked up a bamboo that was like 20 meters long and picked it up like a flute. And playing this bamboo, the leverage that would be so heavy.

One devotee jumped on top of a tree, and he started floating from one tree to the next, chanting “Haribol!”, lighter than the lightest. One devotee picked up seven palm trees, started dancing with them, ripped them out of the ground. Someone picked up a big mango tree, must weigh, I do not know, 50 tons or something… picked it up and started dancing with it. Then Rāghava Paṇḍita, he told Lord Nityānanda that “They are pulling out my whole garden, and I do not have any mangoes, no anything to offer to my Deities. Maybe I have to shift it. Now it is like people are going to break down my house.”

So, then this kīrtana party just went around Bengal. Then it stays somewhere for a week, doing kīrtana and then moves to the next place. So, some devotee was coming from the kīrtana. So blissful, so ecstatic. “Hare Kṛṣṇa!” And friends asked, “What happened to you?” “Are! Are! Nityānanda’s kīrtana is going on! Haribol! Haribol! Haribol!” “Thanks for translating the last one.” And then the person going to check it out, you know, curiosity — “What is this kīrtana?” — gets sucked into the kīrtana. He would be there for three days. Forget about eating, forget about sleeping. Then, “Oh, I got a wife, I got kids, I gotta do the shopping.” He goes off from the kīrtana party, but his heart is filled with love of Kṛṣṇa, “Haribol! Haribol! Haribol! Gaurāṅga! Nityānanda!” So, on going around, Lord Nityānanda finds some good place and would leave an associate there and say, “You preach in this area.” That was called their guru-datta-deśa, given by the guru for them to preach. Abhirāma Prabhu was given Khānākula Kṛṣṇanagara. He built a Gopīnātha temple, and he would worship his Gopīnātha Deity every day with the door open so disciples could see how to do the pūjā. Then, so, it is said that he would send out the different devotees to preach and establish Nāma-haṭṭas. Sometimes Nityānanda would come, and they do Harināma around all the places. They had a map of the place. “Okay, they said this. We have a Nāma-haṭṭa here. What about this place? You have a Nāma-haṭṭa here?” “No, no.” “We did not find anybody interested yet.” “Okay, but next to it is a Nāma-haṭṭa. Okay, let us make a big one-week festival here. Harināmas, dramas, feasts. Right next to that village. Somebody is bound to come, and they have to come to this festival. When we make the contacts and cultivate them and then we establish a Nāma-haṭṭa in that village too.” This is called the Vāmana process in our congregational preaching ministry — three steps: contact, cultivate, commitment. So, this, they were using some system like that, doing big festivals, making contacts and establishing new Nāma-haṭṭas.

I just want to bring up how Śrīdāmā was an eternal associate of Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma, one of the chief sakhās, or maybe the chief one. He comes down and he is there planning out saṅkīrtana strategy, how to expand Nāma-haṭṭa. This is a transcendental activity. It is part of caitanya-līlā. Just as in kṛṣṇa-līlā, the cowherd boys would plan which village, which forest they are going to go to, where they are going to take the cows. In caitanya-līlā, these associates would help in planning out how to spread the saṅkīrtana movement. So, Prabhupāda especially came to the West to spread the saṅkīrtana movement. And He needs all of your help. “Who is determined to help Śrīla Prabhupāda establish the saṅkīrtana movement here in the West?”

Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jaya!

Prabhupāda kī jaya!

Prabhupāda kī jaya!

Gaurāṅga! Nityānanda!

There is a verse in Caitanya-bhāgavata, second verse... First or second verse...

adyāpiha nitya-līlā kare gaurarāya
kona-kona bhāgyavān dekhibāre pāya
[Cb. Antya 10.31]

[Aside in Bengali: You know right, Bengali?] adyāpiha means till today, Gaura-rāya – pastimes of Gaurāṅga and Nityānanda, they are visible. Those who are very fortunate, they can see that these pastimes are going on.

pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma
sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma
[Cb. Antya 4.126]

So, this is extended to the whole world. Lord Caitanya predicted that, “In this whole world, every town and village, My holy name will be sung.” So, to help Lord Caitanya fulfil that prediction, that is an extended pastime. So, you get together in this camp, make a plan, decision how you are going to spread the saṅkīrtana this year to come and report next year how things have progressed.

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

Any questions? Hari Śauri Prabhu come in..

Hari Śauri Prabhu: Just a question about observance of Ekādaśī. If grains and legumes carry sins, so we avoid eating them on Ekādaśī. But if prasāda is transcendental and therefore free of sin, why is it not our right to eat prasāda grains on Ekādaśī?

Jayapatākā Swami: Well, Lord Caitanya asked His mother and asked His followers to observe Ekādaśī. And this kind of argument was given by the paṇḍās we heard. I did not see it in writing, but I heard it so many times. Presume it is true that the paṇḍās offered, went to Lord Caitanya and put jagannātha-prasāda in front and say, “This is jagannātha-prasāda, eat it”, paṇḍās are like the priests of the temple. (laughter) [Aside: They are priests.] So, they say that Lord Caitanya paid His obeisances to the prasāda and was offering prayers and obeisances the whole day, the whole night until it was time to break Ekādaśī. Then He took.

So, I know that Prabhupāda, like on days we sometimes do not take grains, he would say that if a guest wants to eat grain, then give them prasāda rather than they go outside and eat. But he wanted us to follow. So, for whatever reason Lord Caitanya wanted us to also take non-grain prasāda on Ekādaśī. I do not have any answer.

We know prasāda is pure, but the only answer is that Lord Caitanya wanted us to and Prabhupāda wanted us to observe the Ekādaśī even if prasāda with grains is still holy or not. But it is kind of a, what you say, academic question. But if there is a devotee who cannot follow Ekādaśī for some health reason, at least take prasāda obviously, I could speculate reasons why they instruct us. But that is not what we are supposed to do. (laughter) Dhanya Nimāi dāsa, yes?

Question: In the story of King Purañjana sometimes leaves the city and goes to the garden out of the city which is compared to sense gratification. And this gate is sent. And through this gate there is always one guide who guides him through the gate. Who is this guy?”

Jayapatākā Swami: “Why do not we stick to the verse we read today? No, but the point is you are supposed to ask the question on the verse we are discussing in the class I gave. If you want to ask me questions from some other part, then show me that verse where it says that and I can, because you may have an idea in your mind, they do not know what you are talking about. So, then it is a kind of just put everybody else like what is going on. If you want to. Plus, they told me I got to end class right away because you guys got to go. I do not have time to look it up. Read out the other verse so everybody on the. Because this is. You would not ask me. Bring it up later. Show me the verse, I will answer. But if we are going to answer for everybody it should be something they know what we are talking about. I will be available. We had to apparently leave our rooms by 11 o’clock. They have to hand over everything by 11. So, I will be out some public. That is what they told me. But there may be some other okay, 10:30 they have to hand it by 11. But I will be here either here or outside if anybody has some questions or wants to talk with me. If you want to keep in contact or anything.

Last night I gave you puṣpagandha, Narasiṁha oil. puṣpagandha. [Aside: What happened to the other?] I got here aṣṭagandha, somewhere here. Maybe not. [Aside: Where is the black bottle? Want to check it out? Oh, here it is.] This year I had so many donations for narasiṁha-abhiṣeka, we give oil abhiṣeka on His birthday, that I made two varieties of bathing oil made from flowers’ essentials and then aṣṭagandha from the Āyurveda cooling oils. This is also to remove obstacles. As you are going out if you want to get some oil, put it on your forehead, smell it. Narasiṁhadeva kī jaya! Thank you very much. Like to just inform everybody, this year at Gaura-pūrṇimā we are having, every five years we have mahā-abhiṣeka of the Pañca-tattva not with oil but with all kinds of other things. Look, I do not know the exact date they are planning but usually it is before, it is at the beginning of the festival, before while the GBCs are still there. (audio abruptly stops)