20150128 Śrīla Prabhupāda Kathā

Today we are having class on Śrīla Prabhupāda pastimes. Yesterday I went for the Saṅkīrtan awards. They said that 2700 congregational members participated. In many years in the past, the Delhi temple has become victorious in the December Prabhupāda marathon. However for this year they announced that the Māyāpur was number one for the year. I distributed some books for Delhi also. And next year being the 50th anniversary of ISKCON, it should be a very intensive fight, who can do the nicest seva for Śrīla Prabhupāda. He said, “If you want to please me, distribute my books.” So they already declared next year, Delhi ISKCON already declared that in 2016, the whole year would be a marathon. What they will do next year, we are not sure. But Prabhupāda he departed from India to the west.  In the year 2015, we are having a celebration in Calcutta the day when Prabhupāda entered the Jaladuta. He went along the Indian eastern coast, stopped at Colombo, went around Cape Kanyakumari and stopped in Cochin and from Cochin he went to the Mediterranean and then to the Atlantic Ocean. And finally he reached Boston and then New York. So these two years will have lots of celebrations. You should inquire from your local temples what days they having the celebrations, what days, and how you can participate. How you can do some service for Śrīla Prabhupāda. Any questions? 

Devotee: Letter written by Śrīla Prabhupāda: 

Camp Rama-śaraṇam, 18th Road,

Chembur,

Mumbai 

November 27th 1970 

My Dear Jayapatākā Mahārāja,

Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your kind letter dated November 22nd, 1970. I am so glad to learn that you are collecting funds for building.

I quite approve your proposal that if the money is used for establishing Bombay center, the donors will not be encouraged. In that case you can open an account with the Central Bank of India in the name of ISKCON. The Society is going to be registered here and the arrangement is done. We have already an account here with the Central Bank H.Q. and the number is 3/953. The way we open our account is that we have passed resolution and submitted it to the bank. The enclosed copy can be adjusted by you for Calcutta. Our account here in Bombay is with the Head Office and the Calcutta branch can inquire from them.

So the account should be opened and cheques should be drawn out by two signatures. One of the signatures must be mine and the other names should also be registered: Jayapatākā Svāmī, Acyutananda Svāmī and Madhudvisa Svāmī (Founder and Acarya, President, Secretary and Treasurer respectively.) These four names should be registered.

Please send a list of the Members you have already made and how the collection is dispersed. Are the funds divided into 50% for the Temple Construction and 50% for the Book Fund? And a separate contribution for the Hamilton House.

If you want to take four men to raise the funds for purchasing the Hamilton House, I have no objection. We agree with Mr. Poddar that four men raising Rs. 25,000 each will be very nice. Side by side, you can try for the Alipore house just in front of the Judge's Court. Either the Alipore or the Hamilton house may be taken for our Calcutta branch.

If you are unable to open an account in Calcutta, then the collection money may be transferred to our bank here and I will keep separate account for it…

Devotee: Prabhupāda is talking about opening an account and using the funds to buy Alipore house or?

Guru Mahārāja: I told last night, what happened with the Hamilton house. Hamilton house and, Prabhupāda was very fixed that in Calcutta we should have some appropriate land. At that time the land was sold in kattas,so we were trying obtain land. Śrīla Prabhupāda always wanted that the land should be exclusive and pseudo easy to reach. And he wanted the accounts should be with two signatures. Two signatures. In this case for the building he wanted to be a compulsory signature, he must sign, plus one other. So I think that in Camac Street, there was a large Central Bank, one of the tallest buildings in Calcutta. So we opened a bank account there. Net 50% would go for books. Actually we buy books and we will sell them. Then the money from the sale of the books will be used for other things like the temple maintenance and so on. So in this way the books will be sold plus the temple will be maintained. In the end we got land at 3, Albert Road which was previously a British house and Prabhupāda was satisfied with that.

Devotee: 

…Regarding Jhajaria's proposal for uniting the Bhu Lok diksa Mandir with our ISKCON, there is no question of such amalgamation. So we do not go on with such ideas. But don't make him enemy; just try to avoid any intimate connection.

So far the Magh Mela is concerned, I have received word that our application has been received, but I do not know about any land being set aside for us. If you have got such information, please send me the copy.

Your title is actually Tridandi Svāmī or Tridandi Bhiksu… 

Guru Mahārāja: ah?

Devotee: …Your title is actually Tridandi Svāmī or Tridandi Bhiksu, which is the first stage of sannyasa life. Tridandi Gosvāmī is for one in the fourth stage of sannyasa life which is paramahamsa stage.

Hope this will meet you in good health.

Your ever well-wisher,
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Svāmī

So one is Jhajaria's, Jhajaria's proposal for uniting the Bhu Lok diksa Mandir with our ISKCON. Second getting a place for Magh Mela. Third is the question about sannyās ashram.

Guru Mahārāja: So Prabhupāda he didn’t want us to associate with people who are not strictly following the four rules. Diksha Mandira was not from our Gauḍīyā-sampradāya. There were other problems. So he wanted to avoid. At the same time he didn’t want to make enemy with Mr. Jhajaria. And so his request was for dealing in very careful way. Handle with a diplomatic way. In every six years there was a big mela known as Kumbh-mela or Ardha-kumbh-mela. So that was happening in February of 71. So it was a whole competition to get the best site, best site for the camp. So 71 was the Ardha-kumbha-mela and 21 million people were supposed to attend as compared to the Purna-kumbha-mela which 31 million people would attend. 31. Since then we asked the Vṛndāvana temple because they are in same state of Uttar Pradesh to book the place, book the place. And every year they have a Magh mela , every six years Ardha-kumbha-mela and every twelve years a Purna-kumbha-mela. So the next one was Ardha-kumbha-mela. So we got some professional decorators to rent us tents and facilities for setting up the camp site, to set up the camp site. I remember that our initial camp site was near to a giant Hanumān and this Hanumān was beneath the ground, beneath the ground. And people would go down and have darshan of Hanumān. He was lying down, he was huge. So now we were much closer to the confluence. So this first year we were on the edge so we had the devotees accompany the decorator, decorator, who would rent us the camps. 

There were different titles for sannyās. I know that someone called tridandi gosvāmī and someone tridandi bikṣu and tridandi svāmī, tridandi svāmī. So Śrīla Prabhupāda clarified that the tridandi svāmī or tridandi bikṣu is for the first stage of sannyās and as one grows more responsible and one is a guru and has disciples, then he can use the title the ‘tridandi gosvāmī’. So here Prabhupāda clarified that I should use ‘tridandi svāmī’. 

I went on Saturday to Punjabi Bagh and Sunday to Dwarka in Delhi and yesterday to the Santhnagar temple for the Saṅkīrtan book distribution marathon awards and today I am little tired. Any questions?

Devotee: I hear there is another version of svāmī and gosvāmī. In ISKCON usually those who take sannyās without marrying are called svāmī and those who take sannyās after entering grhastha ashram, they are called gosvāmī. Is that another version?

Guru Mahārāja: In the actual sannyās name I am Jayapatākā Svāmī and Tamal Kṛṣṇa was Tamal Kṛṣṇa Gosvāmī, but these are additional titles. I am Jayapatākā Svāmī, it won’t change. But it may be ‘tridandi gosvāmī’ if I am taking disciples. Tridandi Gosvāmī Jayapatākā Svāmī, but someone who is just starting out may be so and so gosvāmī, tridandi bikṣu. But after some time the headings may change but the name doesn’t change. So Prabhupāda kept it simple, either svāmī or gosvāmī. Otherwise there is a 108 Vaiṣṇava sannyās names from Om Viṣṇupada Bhakti-dāyita Mādhava Mahārāja. His sannyās name is Mādhava. And for the māyavādis they use ten sannyās names: Sarasvati, Puri, Tīrtha, there is ten of those names. So whatever sannyās name you get that doesn’t change but the headings may change tridandi svāmī , tridandi bikṣu, tridandi gosvāmī.  Aur kuch prasna hai? Kuch prasna hai? Hai? Prasna hai? Boliye boliye! Ah? Write it down and one night we will have just questions. Now we are having questions on the topics discussed.

Devotee: Ananda Kṛṣṇa devi dasi from Equador, Apoorva Mishra from Udupi, Bandhu Madhava das from Bangalore, Bhuvana Pujita Mataji from Canada 

Guru Mahārāja: ah?

Devotee: Bhuvana Pujita Mataji, Gopāl from Los Angeles, Kālindi Gopi,  Kānti Priya devi dasi from Central, I think New Jersey, Lalitāngi Rādha devi dasi, Hillsboro, Patābhi from Chennai, Phaneswari Lakshmi devi dasi from Santiago, Sashi-mukhi Rādha devi dasi Kuala Lumpur, Sri-guru Sevānandi devi dasi, Chennai, Sukhadātri devi dasi, Kuala Lumpur.

Guru Mahārāja: Blessings to the online listeners. Any questions? Alright. Come get your prasādam.

Tags: 50th Anniversary, Kumbh-mela, Bank accounts, Calcutta, sannyās