20080817 Lecture for the Youth Boys

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on August 17^th, 2008 in Bangalore, India.

Jayapatākā Swami: (audio begins abruptly) Surabhi cow is from the spiritual world, and she also lives in Surabhi-kuñja in Navadvīpa dhāma. So, normally we do not see her. You have to have some spiritual vision. So, she sprayed Kṛṣṇa with the Yamunā water and then the elephant of Indra sprayed. No, she sprayed… Indra’s elephant sprayed with Yamunā water and she sprayed with her milk.

And then also there was a pastime when Mārkaṇḍeya Ṛṣi, he has a blessing to live for so many kalpas. But when there is the big universal pralaya and flooding, then he can live, but he has to eat also. So, he is being battered around by the waves, and he has no food. And so, he is like going to die just of starvation. Not because of his longevity he can be like that, but he has to also eat. And somehow, he saw this island floating. It says that the Navadvīpa islands, they do not get destroyed by pralaya. They just float in the pralaya waters. And they are all spiritual islands. So, they expand in size, or they have a big expansive size in the higher dimension. So, there the Mārkaṇḍeya Ṛṣi, somehow, he got to the shore and that was on the Godrumadvīpa which was floating, and he saw the Surabhi cow. So, he prayed, “Please save me because if I do not get something to eat, then I am going to die. Please give me some of your divine milk.” So, she squirted some milk in his mouth and that way he was saved.

Also, Lord Nityānanda, he started the Nāma-haṭṭa movement at Surabhi-kuñja and Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he also restarted the Nāma-haṭṭa at Surabhi-kuñja, used to go there and chant his japa. So, now we tried to get that place but one of the Gauḍīya Maṭhas, somehow got it. But they are very friendly to us. And there are some young sādhus who are... as their guru passed away, then we go there every year, they give a big welcome to the ISKCON devotees. And they are going to build a temple there for Surabhi Devī. So, what more can I say? It is on the side of the Jalāṅgī River, just opposite from Māyāpur. So, about Mathurā, you know enough about Mathurā. So, no need to speak about Mathurā, but that is about Surabhi-kuñja.

So, anybody has a question for me? I have to go and do some other sevā.

Question: I asked the same question in temple also, but I could not understand. My subtle mind did not understand that actually why we bow to the Deities on our left side. That is what I asked.

Jayapatākā Swami: This is the tradition that Kṛṣṇa is kept to the left out of respect. So, when we bow down, technically we are supposed to put the guru in the front and then the other devas, they are bowing down to Kṛṣṇa also. So, we offer obeisances to the devas with the right side. It is how that was chosen but that is how it is handed down. Kṛṣṇa — left, guru — front, devas — to the right.

And you asked me about sports and cinemas, so I said normally of course, the young people, they are playing sports for exercise and to keep body tone. And Prabhupāda also mentioned that Kṛṣṇa used to play wrestling and also swimming. These are very good to keep the body tone. Apart from that, some sports are very complicated, and they take a lot of time. So, it is like generally we try to avoid. If someone is very good and they are like a professional or something, then it is not really a frivolous sport, it is like their occupation. But otherwise sometimes people spend so much time, just like when they had the Premier League cricket and this and that — people going mad, you know, trying to see. And after a while I think they started getting bored. So maybe it was good. To spend so much time in some type of sports, it is one thing if you are playing it to get exercise, another thing if you are just like in the West to get the newspaper. Even here newspapers are smaller but there they have huge like 80-page newspaper and about one huge section will be all about sports. Maybe sometimes one third of the newspaper and this one and that one and how this one. So, to be too much, you know, distracted by all that, that is a bit of a waste of time or to gamble on it and things like that.

As far as cinemas, if there is something really useful, something interesting—once we... there is like this movie called—it is an old one now, it is like not prehistoric yet but maybe historic. It is called ghosts. And that one, you know, it is kind of interesting because whatever the Bhāgavatam says about ghosts, this more or less matches up. And people that die, there is some kind of Yamadūtas type of people, if they are sinful, they drag them off and if they are good, they got some shimmery light goes and they go up. So, a little bit something at least you can say that maybe they read Prabhupāda’s books when they made the movie. (laughter)

And it says that ghosts do not have any senses. So, they are frustrated because they cannot enjoy. And so there was some... one of the actors was playing a frustrated ghost and he was lamenting that “I want to smoke a cigarette so bad.” And he got angry and hit the cigarette machine and it broke — you know, some cigarette thing. But he cannot. He has no senses. He is just on a subtle platform. So, of course the whole theme is a love story, as usual. But at least not very—not too much sensual, but it gives a good, interesting idea.

So, like that, if there is something that somebody says is useful. I was looking yesterday. I walked in one of these malls, I was taking my japa walk in the mall. It was raining outside and there was one in the store - one movie about life after death. So, I thought, “What is their idea about life after death?” And it had because it won what they call those awards they get, you know, not Olympic, but Oscar Award for special effects.

Because I am also making the... I am part of the team that is supposed to design the exhibits in Māyāpur for the Temple of Vedic Planetarium. So, sometimes I see things that have good special effects or something, just to see what the standard is nowadays. And this had the person die and kind of go to his dream world and then go to hell and different things. If you want to see it, I can pass it on. It is not very Kṛṣṇa conscious. I mean, it is not so much. It is kind of weird actually. But it shows their concept of life after death. There are probably better ones.

Matrix number one, we are recommended. I think that Bhakti Tīrtha Mahārāja took his followers. They went to see that, because there is this thing where there was somebody in it who is – he sells out to the computer. It is like these men against the computer. You probably saw Matrix, right? So, then he... but the other two and three are pretty bad. But number one was pretty good. And so, number one is this person. He actually leaks out where all the Matrix people are. It is like a devotee who sells out to māyā. And he said he knows it is illusion. He knows. But he said, “I just you know, sometimes the illusion is better than the reality. I just told him, “Give me a good illusion. Give me a good happy situation in the Matrix.” And he actually so that was kind of interesting.

So, if you find something somebody you know tells you that has something Kṛṣṇa conscious, maybe sometimes you can see it, discuss it. What is the Kṛṣṇa conscious aspect to it? There is a pretty this... there is once I saw this with the City of Angels, about an angel and he was like... their concept was an angel would help people die and go on to the next world and they would watch over people in the hospital. So, he is in the hospital all the time, fell in love with a human doctor and so showed how he fell down from being an angel. Kind of interesting to see how māyā works. (laughter)

And then he met another patient in the hospital and that patient could see him because he was a previously fallen angel, he could see the angels. So, it is kind of like a devotee who falls. Sometimes, rarely you find that some movie has something value, you know, a little bit something. Nothing very direct otherwise. But you try to avoid these frivolous movies that have no use all this.

Devotee: But that you can say only after watching the movie.

Jayapatākā Swami: Well no, you can tell also from the reviews, you know if it is a normal love story or something. I do not personally... I have never been since I have been a devotee—I never went to the movie hall. But sometimes someone recommends a CD that this one is good, or you are on a flight or something. You can get that. If you are on a flight, you get what they call the promo, the clip that for five or ten minutes it shows you. Then you can figure out if there is anything useful or not. [Aside: Pardon?]

Devotee: Mahārāja, could you speak a little bit on compassion and love of Kṛṣṇa and how Śrīla Prabhupāda manifested that love and compassion... Mahārāja, before that one thing I want to add. We also used to watch movies. But as you also watch, and you have compared, and you have connected those movies to Śrī Kṛṣṇa. But we never did like that.

Jayapatākā Swami: Ah! māyā!

Devotees: Haribol! Haribol!

Devotee: But we never used to enjoy the spiritual reason as you did. Thanks for that. You gave us a different view.

Jayapatākā Swami: Sometimes there are movies that the devotees are in, because we have our branch in Culver. Next, just to Avenue, the LA temple is on the other side of the Venice Boulevard, is Culver City. And in Culver City, there is Sony, which now owns the Columbia, there is Fox and a few other big, huge, massive studios. And then nearby is Hollywood. So, some of them come over to take prasāda at our restaurant or they send their... some famous names, I forget now. I have disciples who is the head cook for the restaurant and someone who is in the guest shop at the cashier. So they... Oh! There is some big movie star. Madonna sends over her person. She did not come herself to get some takeaway prasāda.

So, sometimes whenever they want to put Hare Kṛṣṇas in the movies, then they go and they talk to the president, sign a contract. Because the real Hare Kṛṣṇas are better than the fake ones. So, they have us doing Harināma in some street. And some big actor will be running by and it will be the Hare Kṛṣṇas. So, they tell us which movies we are in. Sometimes that is an excuse, you can see the Hare Kṛṣṇas in the movies. I do not know. If you want to know which ones we are in, I can write to the general manager who is my disciple. He can tell us. Yeah, the real thing was that.. what is the point?

In this material world, we struggle, we grow, we create some by-products, we get some children or maybe if we get married. And then we get old, and we die. And then we again take birth again. So, this is going on. So, the greatest mercy is when someone can deliver us from this cycle of rebirth. Even greater than that is if they can give us Kṛṣṇa. So, we can go back to the spiritual world, go to Kṛṣṇa and serve Him. So, Lord Caitanya not only gives us liberation, but He gives us love for Kṛṣṇa. Prabhupāda is His pure representative, he came. I was so moved when I heard in 1967. I became a devotee in 1968. But I heard this… I was one time listening to a class by one devotee, older devotee, who was… there were not too many devotees older than me (laughter) but he was older than me in terms of Kṛṣṇa consciousness and he was telling how when Prabhupāda was in New York, he got a stroke, and he was paralyzed from the neck down. Normally if somebody is paralyzed from the neck down, they will probably be on bed rest, and they would not do anything. But he was so much interested to keep the Kṛṣṇa conscious movement going. This is maybe his last chance. So, he did not know. He said that although they had to bathe him, they had to change his clothes, they had to help him do everything — all the private things. But he would be constantly preaching to them about Kṛṣṇa. So where do you find someone who is so merciful? He is paralyzed. He is still telling his disciples about Kṛṣṇa, trying to give them the last bit of knowledge he can.

When I heard that Prabhupāda was so merciful, I could not help but cry. It is incomparable. You never find anyone like that. He is just giving and giving. Somehow, by Kṛṣṇa’s mercy, he recovered. And then he went for brisk walks every morning. Being with Prabhupāda, he would come here to India. I came to India in 1970. And I have been living here since then, now thirty-eight years, I am an Indian citizen now. And so Prabhupāda would come about twice a year to Māyāpur. One time for a month and a half, two months, another time for two, three weeks at Gaura-pūrṇimā time. So, the other time when he was here for a long time in Kārtika or other times, then he would give us so much association. And that time, every day from about four to six, he had an open-door policy where anybody could come and see him because he said, in India, the gurus had to be available to the people.

Like in the West, it was harder to see Prabhupāda but here, Subhaga Swami, he used to go every day, take the darśana, the open-door policy. And he would ask questions and come. I remember one time one police inspector came and he said, “I want to be your disciple.” And probably most gurus, some police officer comes, senior officer, they probably would not ask too many questions, just okay. But Prabhupāda said, “You have to chant sixteen rounds, follow the four principles, then you can get initiation.” So, he was very merciful. But at the same time, he had principles. He was not even if some big commissioner or minister. He said, “You have to be vegetarian. You have to follow.” That was the principles that he enforced. He wanted that people take initiation and get back to Godhead. And he wanted to teach us also how we can deal with people, how we can preach to people, how we can cultivate people.

So of course, one thing, Subhaga Mahārāja at that time, he was not a sannyāsī, he was a brahmacārī. Apparently, there was a famous cricket player called Pināki Rāya from previous US and he is the nephew of Pināki Rāya. I do not know if anybody heard his name. But that is like now we know only Tendulkar and Dhoni and others. But anyway, so he was known by the elderly people from that period, fairly good, well-established family. So, when he came and he was, Prabhupāda had engaged him because he went to get a master’s degree in England, came back. But there he met the devotees and became a devotee there. In fact, he made Bhakti Vrajendra-nandana Swami a devotee by distributing books in Birmingham. So, he was preaching in England, just like many of you coming here to Bangalore to work but maybe your parents do not know that here you are practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness. (laughter)

They are very happy. My son has got a very good job in Bangalore. So, when he came back and he was in Māyāpur, she found out. So, the mother came, and Bengali mothers are very sentimental. Maybe all mothers, but they are special. They are rolling. She started rolling on the ground and crying, “Give me back my son. He has to come home.” And then Prabhupāda said, “I am not stopping him. You can take your son.” “Really?” Really, you know, she cried, “Sure. We do not force anyone to stay here. If you want to go, you can go. If you want to stay, you can stay. It is up to you.” But he said, “No, but Prabhupāda, I want to stay with you.” Now the mother is very happy. That initial shock, you know, that they... because somehow māyā gets them inspired that somehow your son’s life will go down if he is a devotee but actually it is not like that. Now they are very happy. They come out and cook and things and do.

Question: Mahārāja, how to get rid of the desire for recognition? If we are doing some service, we feel this deep desire for recognition.

Jayapatākā Swami: We want to give all the recognition to guru and Kṛṣṇa that if I do anything, at least to any degree properly, that it is because of guru’s mercy, Kṛṣṇa’s mercy. So, they are the ones that should get. So, when anyone gives us any kind of recognition, we should not take it ourselves. We should pass it on, then that way... because anyway, you are going to get recognition. To desire it is a waste of time. If you are a sincere devotee and you are serving Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa will arrange you get recognition just like He did for Arjuna. But if you desire it and you do not get it, then you start feeling frustrated and why? You know they, “Why recognized him? I did as good as him, maybe even better”, and you get all into the false ego.

Devotee: That was the last question actually…

Jayapatākā Swami: (laughter) Okay, that was the last. Thank you!