20151231 New Year Eve Class

New Year Eve Class

Date:

Thursday, December 31, 2015

Collection:

Inspiration series - 2015

Audio player:

20151231_New_Year_Eve_Class_Perth_Australia Gurumaharaj: Do you have the ah... jadi Prabhupada na haita song handy Devotee: Yes Gurumaharaj, I mean in lyrics or ...... Gurumaharaj: Is there some way to play it? Devotee: I can play it here. You want me to play it here. Gurumaharaj: second best Devotee: second best Gurumahaharaj: So there was Prabhupada who would have taken the message of Nitai-Gaur to all the parts of the world. Who would have given their mercy out? So if there was no Prabhupada, who would have given this Krishna consciousness, to the mayavadis, to the sunyavadis, to the duracharis, who would have given out this mercy? So the mangalarati starts at 4:30 dark, goes throughout the day and ends at night at 9’o clock, 8:30 at night. So all over the world he initiated the deity worship which goes day and night. Festivals like Janmasthami and Rathayatra’s, Gaur Purnima. So... Srila Prabhupada translated the Srimad Bhagavat, Caitanya Caritamrita and Srimad Bhagavatam and wrote purports adapting the instructions of the previous acharyas to the modern day. Like this he also showed us the holy dhams like Vrindavan, Mayapur, Jagannath Puri, so he gave us so many things but... so this is the 50th anniversary of his voyage which is 2015, his voyage to India to the West. Lord Krishna comes once in a day of Brahma, that means once every eight billions years and sometimes Lord Caitanya comes after him. So Lord Caitanya, He comes in disguise, He comes as a devotee and He gives out love of Krishna freely. So eight billion years is incalculable. That’s why sastra says that He gives us a gift which hasn’t been given for a long long time, and when He was present, He was 48 years and many people missed out, so Krishna had predicted that the people who are in the distant lands He would send a devotee who would spend the message around the world. So when we see that the only person who did that was Srila Prabhupada. Jay Srila Prabhupada ki Jay So... or at least he was the first to do that. So he is the one who is indicated by the scriptures. And ah... Lord Caitanya, He didn’t consider who was qualified and who was unqualified, He gave out His mercy unlimitedly. Srila Prabhupada would tell us how merciful Lord Caitanya was, that He was unlimitedly merciful. So ah...we all need the mercy. In this modern world, we are very much taught, programmed that we are the bodies and that ah... we should ah... try to enjoy the bodies. I went to the local district headquarters for printing out something in India and ah... it so happened that they had exam for second class and ah... one of the questions was, tumar ki parichoy ?, what’s your identity? So as a devotee would say I am a spirit soul, so asked what is the correct answer? They said I am body, I am Bengali, I am an Indian, like this is the correct answer. I said, “Oh, What if they put I am a spirit soul.” “He will fail” (laughter) Just wondering, so... that’s the spiritual country in the world. Here in Australia, what do they teach, they teach you are not the body? So all over the world that they are the body. It’s natural we are in the material world, they are going to have some bodily pleasure and we are going to have some bodily suffering but actually we should have spiritual bliss which is something that’s unknown. All people think that spiritual life is all pain. I met one scientist in our Bhaktivriksha in Gurgaon, in Delhi. So I asked him, what’s his science, what does he research. He said, “I research pain.” Quite interesting. So I said, “What have you found that?” “I found out pain is everywhere.” (laughter) “there is mental pain, physical pain, emotional pain, pain for others, pain for yourself, pain from nature” And all the grihasthas men raise their hand. There is financial pain. (laughter) So I said, “Well Krishna in the Bhagavat Gita he states, “this material world is dukhalayam, dukahalayam asaswitam. So what you are researching is already there.” So I asked, “Who pays for your research?” He said, “Pharmaceutical companies, that’s a multibillion dollar business, how to...how to contain their pain...pain killers (laughter) So, that side of life people don’t want to recognize but it’s also there, and so it’s important to have a guru, like Prabhupada would remind us that there is a higher spiritual pleasure, higher spiritual bliss and thus ultimately we should aim for that. Now if you are too austere that’s also not good because that leads one to the realization of impersonal realization, impersonal mukti. So the devotees, they do yukta vairagya, that means they use the material things in the service of Krishna like ah... having a children. Now grihastas have children, they think that’s their enjoyment but our devotee grihastas they love their children and they want their children to have their best, so try to bring them up to be nice devotees. Ultimately it’s their free will, we can’t say what they will decide to do when they are 25-30, but at least we did our best to tell them what the goal in life is. So like that we use things in the service of Krishna, so what would be ordinarily be material enjoyment it’s purified and becomes a spiritual service. Now something like in Australia, tonight on the new year eve they have fireworks and ah...when Prabhupada would see he would say the fireworks are tickling the eyes... and ah... of course the fireworks lasts for 10-15 minutes and ah... nobody has ceased the circle of life and death by watching fireworks (laughter) But for 15 minutes it passes your time. So at some of our rath yatras in India they also have fireworks, just to attract the people and make the occasion of rath yatra more festive. When Lord Caitanya took grihastha ashram, it’s said that he went in a procession to the house of the marriage and alongside him there were Brahmins chanting mantras, in front of him there were dancers, in front of them was an orchestra playing different traditional instruments. Some of those instruments I personally never heard of before. I think we have to find the instruments and take a photo of them. I mean I only heard of the mridanga, kartal and pakawaj, but they have about 12 instruments mentioned. It’s said that people in Nabadwip became wild... they otherwise very shy and reserved ladies became very excited. Look Nimai Pandit is getting married, come on wear your silk and sarees with your eyeliners, hurry up, (laughter) this is a once in a lifetime you know and it’s said that a whole flood of lover of Godhead came over Nabadwip dham. Just then someone knocked at my door, and they walked in, told me, (laughter), “Mayapur is flooded.” (laughter) So Prabhupada said when Mayapur floods, this indicates that Lord Caitanya wants the whole world to flood in Krishna prema. I think that the grihastas, they can do immense services, in helping spread the Krishna conscious movement. Three couples came to see Prabhupada in Montreol. Took his blessings and went to London, there they met the Beatles, and heading was, “Hare Krishna rocks London.” So Prabhupada was very pleased. He said, “My gurudev sent sanyasis but they failed.”, “I sent grihastas and they succeeded.” (applause) So whether you are a grihastha or you are a brahmachari, everybody should chant, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.” So the six goswamis, Rupa Goswami said that the two syllables of Kris and na, they have unlimited happiness and ah... so we are very fortunate to have this mahamantra. I remember at that Khumba mela there was one Australian, a leader and ah... Prabhupada had to give a class how if one has achieved bhakti yoga, that the person has already gone through the various preliminary practices and rituals. So this leader raises his hand, he said that, “Prabhupada, you said that how by coming to Krishna consciousness you have already passed through all the preliminary stages, but when I look through my life, I didn’t do anything positive, I didn’t do anything spiritual, my life is just materialistic and so I wonder how did I get Krishna consciousness?” Then Prabhupada, he said very emphatically, “I have made your good fortunate for you!” Hari bol. So whether we have done any pious activities in the past or whether we are here just because of pure mercy, the point is that it is all the mercy of Lord Caitanya. The ah...Tamil disciples were playing some bhajans, where the lyrics were glorifying mother Yasoda. What pious activities, what penances, what fasting did you do, to have to be able have the supreme personality of Godhead call you mother?, to allow Him to bind Him and ah... in the Damodar lila, what pious activity have you done to be able to scold the supreme personality of Godhead?, and how He want to drink your milk? We were ...37.46-37.49... what have you done? You got such mercy So... this things they go over people’s heads, they don’t even think about this, they do not even think whether there is a God or not, but how merciful the Lord is, He comes down to the earth, He displays His pastimes, why? He didn’t have to, He just does it to give us a chance to go back home. We don’t belong in this material world, we belong to the spiritual world, and that’s because we don’t have the purity to the see the Lord, He has given us the guru, we can see the guru, we can ask questions to the guru and thus he leads us as long as we see the Lord face to face. So here we celebrating the New Year. Years will come and years will go, and every year that goes our life is going and ah... but if we can use this time to chant the Lord’s name, to engage in devotional service, to engage in yukta vairagya, then we face the yukta vairagya. Lord Caitanya gave His mercy out to different kinds of devotees and ah... and Lord Krishna also gave out His mercy. When we go the Pandarpur we will see the deity of Vithalla, how is standing on the brick and waiting for his devotee and ah... and we see different deities, on Gujarat – Ranchora, Gujarat or Rajastan ? Gujarat. And there He left the battlefield to go and rescue Rukmini, where a ksatriya to leave a battle field is a very disgraceful thing, but Krishna promises that His devotees will always be protected by Him, so that’s a bigger promise, and Lord Caitanya for six years he walked and stayed in different grihasta’s houses, every night. So the grihastas would be blessed to wash His feet, to feed Him, to give Him a place to stay, to hear His lectures, to take His instructions, someone take his initiations, and then He would go on. There was one leper, his name was Vasudeva, and he took it that, “I am a leper, ok.. because of my bad karma. It is my bad karma this insects, this naggets, they have to eat from my arm, and if one would fall off, he would go – enjoy, very detached, imagine feeding naggets to your body. Then he heard Lord Caitanya was there, so he went rushing to that place, but Lord Caitanya had just gone, he was crying, “I missed Lord Caitanya, I missed Lord Caitanya”, and he was so sincerely crying, that Lord Caitanya came back, He appeared and He embraced Him. He said, “no, no, don’t embrace, I am a leper.” But when He embraced him, he got cured of his leprosy. I don’t know what did you do, I will get proud. Then he said, “everyone you meet you tell, jare dekho tare kaho Krishna upadesha, you tell them the message of Krishna, and I will come back and see you in this place.” Hari Bol. So like that miracles were being performed by Lord Caitanya every day. So the Caitanya Bhagavat says, “adyapeha lila kare Gaura rai, kono kono bhagyavan dekhibare pay.” “even today Lord Caitanya is performing His pastimes, those who are very fortunate they can see.” So this year coming, is our 50th anniversary of ISKCON registration and therefore we want to be celebrating this coming year in various ways and ah... already one proposal came up that every congregational member, every devotee should try to distribute one book per week as a minimum, may be others would do more, but minimum one per week, so in that way we will all be engaged in Prabhupada’s dear book distribution. Last night I was asking ideas, if anyone has any other ideas I am the co-minister of the CDM, the congregation community development ministry, I have to suggest some things, so yesterday we got the idea to expand the prison preaching, since we have our captain audience, and ah... today they told me in Mayapur that they are going to distribute 1000 plates of prasadam at the local prison for one year as a trial. The prison keeper, he says that he knows a bit vegetarian food, they are more peaceful. (laughter) and if they take eat meat they get more aggressive. So let them take prasadam. So let’s see what happens. Haridas Thakur, he convinced his fellow prisoners to chant Hare Krishna, and they became very happy, and then he was brought out from the prison, and then the Nawab said, “ you are supposed to be suffering of prison”, they didn’t have the idea of rehab...rehabilitation. (laughter) We are suffering but you are enjoying, and Aitola, he was pushing him on. “So it’s my order, you have to stop chanting Hare Krishna.” He said, “Lord, I can try to do anything you said but I cannot stop chanting Hare Krishna. As long as a little piece of me is left it will still be chanting Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. Then ...Aiatola said, “ Haram, Haram.” (laughter) So that’s when he was given a sentence of being whipped in 22 market places and two or three market places were enough to finish an ordinary person off. Is it fair? Some people protested, “this is not fair, he is not doing anything illegal, he is only chanting the names of the Lord.” And the executioners would beat them up, and they whipped him but that time Visnu was coming to get them with His Sudarsana chakra but he was praying, “O Lord! Please forgive them, they don’t know what they do.” And... then the Lord He personally took all the hits and ah... at the end of 22 market places Haridas was still alive, the two executioners were very depressed. (laughter) So Haridas asked them, “why are you depressed?” “you are alive” “How does my being alive harm you?” “You are supposed to be dead after 22 market places, you are still alive means we are in big trouble.” “You mean if I die you would be happy?” “Please.” (laughter) “Ok” So then he went into nirvikalpa Samadhi and... “he is dead, he is dead... 54.38-54.41...” (laughter) So the King he wanted to see... the Nawab... “just see, I said he was not a real saint, so we should bury him.” But Aitola said, “burying him will give his soul peace” He said, “He should be thrown in a river, there the crows and the birds will eat him, he will have no peace.” So he said, “thrown him in the river.” But the executioners couldn’t lift him up, and he brought some elephants. Umh... umh... (laughter) Anyone else? But they couldn’t move him, he brought more elephants, they tied him in thick ropes, umh... umh...(laughter) He started swelling, then he suddenly became light like a balloon and they carried him and dropped him in the river. Then he flowed along. “See no peace, it’s great haram” But as Haridas reached almost the edge of the other side, the water was gushing on him, it broke his Samadhi and he started swimming across and then the king and everyone saw he was alive, he is swimming across. Then he got up on the other bank and chanting Hari bol, Hari bol, Hari bol. (laughter) So the king went to the boat and told the boat man, “take me to that side.” And he ran after the king...he ran after Haridas Thakur, and he fell at his feet, he said, “please forgive me, you are a real saint. Please forgive me.” Then Aiatola came up, “I don’t want to hear anymore.” Aiatola wasn’t talking to the king, he was talking to Haridas Thakur, “please forgive me, please forgive me, please, please, please forgive me Haridas.” Haribol (appalause) So Haridas said, “I will forgive you if you give the order that anybody can chant the names of Hari within your kingdom without any punishment.” Hari bol. So Haridas Thakur is our patron saint for our prisoners. What time is it? 8.30 So anymore questions? Q: how can we chant nicely the Lord’s name? Gurumaharaj: In this regard Prabhapada had said the panchatattva comprises the various spiritual personalities, each one is capable of giving unlimited blessings. So that’s why we chant the names of the panchattava, we chant to the panchatattva for their blessings and also the six goswamis or the previous acharyas. So by taking the gurus or the previous acharyas or the six goswamis and panchatattva and praying to them... to chant the holy names purely, it’s possible. Lady Mataji : Personally I have notice that when I am Mayapur dham, it’s very easy for me to chant, not much of an effort, pretty much every way I walk it’s easy to sit down and start... (laughter) but when I return to Perth (laughter) Gurumaharaj: When you return to Perth what happens? Lady Mataji: It becomes a bit more difficult and challenging whereas in the dham it’s so much easier to chant than to...why is this ... the difference? Gurumaharaj: the dham is manifested from the spiritual energy of the Lord and ah... naturally the dham is thousands time more powerful than ordinary places, that means it’s a thousand times easier to chant and practice, and when the Lord travels over the world, He can rcognize, “Oh, this place is my dham”, so Mayapur and Vrindavan are non-different, there are other dhams like Tirupati said to be Vaikuntha, and Jagannath Puri known as Sri Kshetra and there is also Dwaraka, so like that there are different holy places and each has a certain power, but in Kaliyuga the Nabadwip Dham grows in power and therefore it’s a very auspicious place. So we hope that the devotees can visit sometimes. I am very glad that Iksavaku Prabhu is there now. But also the temple... that’s the dham and the temple is like the Counsellor General... only a certain amount, may be two miles or something but it has some effect. So going to the temple and doing your devotional service has got a special value and ah... so sometimes we do it in the house, sometimes we do it in the temple, sometimes we get to go to India and get to do it in the dham. I was reading how if you have 12 saligrams, that place is holy for a certain radius. And our Narasingha deity has 108 saligrams, if you have not seen it, but the deity has this saligram necklace and ah... So you could have deities, you could have saligrams, to make your temple more powerful. In Mayapur they have a yantra for Narasimhadev, and all year long people chant extra mantras and on the days before the Narasimha Caturdasi they deposit the mantras in the yantra. So that yantra has millions of mantras. So there are ways you can make your temple more powerful by yantra, by saligram, even by regular worship of the deities.

Transcribed by: Sadananda Krishnaprem Das Date: 20-01-2016