20160620 Bhakti Vṛkṣa Gathering at East London Avanti School

20160620 Bhakti Vriksha Gathering at East London Avanti School

Mukam karoti vacalam

Pangum langhyate girim

Yat kripa tamaham vande sri gurum dina tarinam

Paramananda madhavan

Sri Chaitanya ishvaram

I would like to also welcome everyone. We are very fortunate to be connected with the Bhaktivedanta Manor. It’s one of the temples that Prabhupada frequently visited. In fact I think that is the last temple in the Western world that he went to and Sruti Dharma, he requested publicly how he could defeat Mayapur in book distribution.

You see Mayapur has been number one only for two years. Before that every year we would win all eleven months but in Delhi would be in December. So I got sick when I was in Delhi, during the Marathon month. So then I realized why they were defeating us. They had 2700 congregational members out distributing books during the December month and the temple president for two months, he had every Bhakti Vriksha, Namhatta to pledge, how many books they would do and then every individual wasn’t a part of Bhakti Vriksha he got them to pledge. For two months he got pledges.

One elderly man, he pledged 5000 bhagavat gitas, and he would stop in the traffic in front of cars and say, “You buy Bhagavat Gita or run me over.” (laughter). I don’t know if you can do that in London but he did it Delhi and he sold his 5000 books. (applause)

So I told this Mayapur that we have 10 buses and two vans and two book tables, but I told them, “You don’t stand a chance against 2700 congregation members plus all the brahmacharis and other devotees. Unless you mobilize every department, everybody you won’t beat them in distributing books.”

So if you can get all these people, all these people in London under your care to distribute Prabhupada books then you can potentially defeat India. Also if you won’t take offence I like to correct one thing you said, it’s quite amazing that he memorized all these my life histories, but you said I took sanyas in 71, I took on Radhasthami,1970 (applause).

I don’t know how what is the price of petrol in India, but when I came to India, Petrol was 60 paisa for one liter. It’s like 50 rupees now, 60.

Also being there I learned Bengali and Hindu, a very little bit of South Indian languages, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and little Gujrati, a little Nepali (applause)

When I entered here the Bengali’s did a ullu dhwani. This is a special thing that is done is heavenly planets. (ullu dhwani by devotees)

Everyone can chant Haridhwani,

Hari Bol

Hari Bol (everyone)

Hari Bol

Hari Bol (everyone)

Hari Bol

Hari Bol (everyone)

So there is lot of transcendental vibrations in the assembly. Also in 1989 when I attacked in Spain, then after that I came to the Bhaktivedanta Manor, when I convulsing, for some months I stayed in the Bhaktivedanta Manor. So that’s one of the places in the world outside of Mayapur that I stayed for the most time. (applause)

So you know it touched my heart when you said welcome home, because truly I feel that Bhaktivedanta Manor is one of my homes. (applause). Don’t tell from anybody from India that I gave you the secret. (laughter)

Like that for the hundred anniversary of Prabhupada, the centennial, I was also made as the G.B.C minister for congregation development and at that time we created the Bhakti Vriksha system. Before that we had just the namhatta, now we have the namhatta and the bhaktivriksha which Prabhupada requested to develop.

So there are many times of yoga- jnana yoga, asthanga yoga, karma yoga and bhakti yoga. This human form of life is to practice yoga and be connected with absolute truth, and of all the yoga the bhakti yoga is considered the most correct, effective and universal. So like jnana yoga which was propagated by Sankacharya. He said to get impersonal liberation, you have to become a sanyasi and since in Kali yuga there are very few sanyasis, that means that hardly anybody gets liberation but Parakshit Maharaj, he was cursed to die in seven days. So he called all the sadhus, all the rishis, he asked, “what is the duty of a man who is about to die, how can he achieve perfection?”, and all the jnana yogis said, “Well, study sastra”, takes many years and then the fact that one may take may births.

Bahunam janamanam ante, after many many births the jnavan he achieves liberation. So seven days is hardly any time and then the ashta yogis just to learn the asanas through hatha yoga takes a long time. A couple of years at least, what to speak of meditating and learning the yama, niyama, all these, Samadhi.

So seven days is hardly enough time. But then Sukhadev Goswami came. He said, “No problem, by bhakti yoga one can achieve liberation, have you heard, even in one micro-second”, so then he began to speak the Srimad Bhagavatam and he went through the 12 cantos, when he was upto the tenth canto and he spoke on Krishna travelling on his chariot with the various rishis, vyasadev, vasista, many great rishis.

He went to the king of Janakpur, the Bahulaswa. At the same time he divided himself into two and all the rishis were also divided into two and he visited one poor brahma called Suta Dev, he visited him and his wife. So when he went to Bahulaswas palace, he was given a grand reception, a royal reception- Brahmans, music, they offered him a golden, jeweled seat for him and all the rishis. His wife the queen poured the water on the feet. The king messaged the lotus feet of Lord Krishna and rubbed the water in, for all the rishis. The he sprinkled the water on the queens head, his children’s heads, the ministers head and they gave special gifts to the Lord, diamonds and jewels, they gave a …18.45… to the rishis with golden ornaments and they offer them chappan bhog- 56 preparation feast. With tears in his eyes he was praying to the Lord that please stay with us a few days.

How we are so fortunate to have you as our guest. Simultaneously Krishna appeared with all these rishis in the grass hut of the poor Brahman Suta Dev.

Suta Dev was so happy hat Krishna came to my house and his poured the water and he did the pada puja of Krishna’s lotus feet and then he similarly washed all the rishis feet but he had no proper asana to give Krsihna what to speak of the golden jewels, he didn’t even have enough asanas for all the rishis. He had to go next door and borrow some asanas. He gave each a seat, then he had nothing, so he gave each a lotus flower, which Krishna graciously received then asked him if he could please give him a lunch. They agreed. So gave each one a banana leaf-plate and his wife what could they cook, they were poor people.

So she cooked rice, dal, couple of sabzis, maybe a pakoda, simple food and then he gave to each of the guest this prasadam and he was so happy, so happy, that the Lord came to my house, he has taken my food, he started dancing, dancing… Hari bol, Hari bol.

How many of you would like the Lord to come to your house?

Hari Bol (everyone)

So like this even a grihastha, a family man and his wife, they can easily achieve liberation, going to the spiritual world and serving the Lord directly and considering Parikshit Maharaj who was cursed to die in seven days.

Now by the tenth canto, may be five or six days are already over. Now what would you be doing if it is five or six days and you had no water, no food…. “food, water…. Ha ha ha, please!”, but what is he doing. After hearing this pastimes he said, “Please Sukhadev, what else did my wonderful Lord do, what else wonderful did my Lord do?” He was so eager to hear more and more and more.

So normally it’s very hard. I mean he is the grandson of Arjuna. Normally it’s very hard to get such great devotion but Krishna that I come once in a day of Brahma to this universe, once in great billion years. So 5000 years ago Krishna came and  he doesn’t come for once in 8 billion years.

So but he thought that so many people are there who are not getting access to my Vrindavan, my Dwaraka Lila’s. Let me come again as my own devotees and show the people how they can practice bhakti yoga by my own example. I will come as my devotee. Thus Lord Krishna came as Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Balaram came as Nitai, Lord Nityananda. His forefathers were from Bangladesh, from Silet, and he appeared in Mayapur Nabadwip dham. There he was leading a life like a pandit, for his first may be 14 or 16 years. Then he went to Gaya to perform pindi for his diseased father, Jagannath Misra and he met Iswara Puri Maharaj who had come to their house many times before and now he thought I should take initiation. So he requested Iswar Puri Maharaj to give him initiation but Iswar Puri said, “You are a great pandit. So who am I to give your initiation.”

If you don’t give me initiation, I cant live. I need to get initiated by a bonafide spiritual master. So indirectly by threatening to take his life if he didn’t get initiation, then Iswara Puri iniated him in Gaya. From that time he was changed and he baegan to chant, dance, so ecstatically that hundreds and thousands of people gathered around him. And at first he wasn’t aware, then he saw all the people, then he became shy that all these people are here and then he going to go to Vrindavan and he said, “Vrindavan Bihari Lal ki”

“Jay” (everyone)

“I am going to Vrindavan”, that a voice came from the sky and told him that, “Now it I not the time to go to Vrindavan, you should go later, now you have to go back to Nabadwip Dham and start the sankirtan movement. So then he headed back by the Ganges, and Kanai Natsala which is now the Jharkhand state which is previously Bihar state, he had the darshan of Krishna. In fact Krishna came back to him and embraced him and then ran off, and then when Lord Caitanya came back to Nabadwip, he was  a changed person. Now to all the students, he taught them everything connected to Krishna. He went to see all the Vaisnavas in the house of Sukhlambhar Brahmachari who had a kalpa vriksha tree, that one tree could supply all the flowers you needed. Any flower- rose, lotus, some Jasmine, how you would like a tree like that, Sruti Dharma? Nice for worshipping your deity.

That Lord Caitanya also saw that they had also a Tamal Tree and seeing that He embraced it, “you don’t know what it is like to have had Krishna, he was in my arms, and then to lose him !”, and then he fainted.

So from that time he started the Sankirtan movement but at first people were criticizing. They said, “Well, he has Vayu dosh.”

So he went to see Srivas Thakur, “Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure, what’s that?”

“Do I have a disease?”

“What are your symtomps?”

“well, whenever I hear the holy name of Krishna my hairs stand on end, I get choked up in the throne, sometimes tears come from my eyes, if I can’t control I laugh. People say I am diseased. Do I have a disease?”

Srivas Thakur said, “Yes, you have a disease and I want that disease too.” (applause)

“You have the disease of love of Krishna. Even and brahma and Siva want that disease but the general people will not understand. So please come to my house in the evenings in the evenings. I will invite devotees who appreciate your ecstasies.”

So that’s how the nocturnal kirtan of Srivas Angan started. And then that led to the Chand Kazi breaking the mridangas and banning the kirtan. Then Lord Caitanya said, “no one can stop the sankirtan movement”

So he sent different leaders to the different parts of the town of Nabadwip and 200,00 people marched to the Chand Kazi’s house and they were shouting. They were having a peaceful meeting then Chand Kazi was first afraid, he came out, he told Lord Caitanya that your father in law used to call me Cacha or Uncle, that means you are my nephew, so why are you coming to see me in a angry mood? Then Lord Caitanya said, “Why are you keeping your nephew on the street, why you don’t invite me in? So in this way things cooled down. Lord Caitanya told everyone, “Please sit down”, then he went and talked with the Chand Kazi, so then they had many discussions but at one point the Chand Kazi said, “I had a dream last night, someone came to me, a half man, half lion, and he said, “you don’t dare interfere with my sankirtan movement, otherwise I won’t spare you and he clawed on his chest.”

He opened his shirt and he showed he still had the claw marks.

Lord Caitanya touched him and said, “You will be alright!”

When he was touched by Lord Caitanya, he got love enter into his heart. So this was brought up, the he declared me and my descendents, “We authorize the sankirtan movement and none of us will ever interfere again.”

He gave his symbol for the sankirtan devotees. So this was referred to that how Lord Caitanya had also been blocked and how in the Bhaktivedanta manor 30 years ago, they also tried the Hindus from going there and like Lord Caitanya had a public display, 35,000 hindus marched on Parliament and the government at that time told that the county has no right to stop that many people’s religious freedom and that was the turning point. (applause)

No 30 years later the same party is in power and the Prime Minister came and did the ground breaking ceremony at Bhaktivedanta Manor, and that’s truly a miracle. So in our human form of life, we go up to the heavenly planets or go down to the hellish planets or if you practice bhakti yoga side by side with your grihastha duties, take it as one of your duties you will go back to the spiritual world.

In fact in the Brahma Baivarta Puran and many of the ancient books Lord Krishna predicted that after 5000 years someone will come and distribute the sanatan dharma and the chanting of the holy names of the Krishna all over the world. So that’s why we see that Prabhupada is that person because he is the first one to distribute the holy name and bhakti yoga all over the world and also in the Caitanya Mangal and other books it’s also predicted that Lord Caitanya said, “I will only preach in the Indian subcontinent but I will send someone after 500 years who will come to the rest of the world and distribute.”

How many of you are from Indian origin? Some are from different parts of Europe. Lord Caitanya said that, “Bharat bhumite manusya janma hoila jar, janma sarthak kari karo para upakar- Those who are born in the holy land of India they should make their lives perfect and then they should help others. So we see that those who are coming from that background in the greater sense this whole planet is known as Bharat Varsha. They should all perfect their lives and then help others. So that’s what our bhakti Vriksha program is, to perfect your life to help others, by doing that you can taste unlimited happiness.

Now there is family, friendship and love. Some people say there is no happiness there but some rishis say that, “no there is happiness”, and our acharyas say that, “yes there is happiness but that happiness is like say you are in the desert and you are very thirsty, very thirsty for water and someone comes and gives you a little water but you need liters of water. They give you a little bit but it’s not really enough. Keep working, working trying to get, but you will only get a little bit of happiness but now in the Adhivas kirtan sung before the janmasthami and other significant events there are two lines which tell us why we should do the harinam, why we should do the bhakti yoga,

Anander sima nai, Anander sima nai, Anander sima nai, there is no limit to the spiritual happiness. That means if you are in the desert you get as much water as you need and there is another line, “Nirananda dure jai, Nirananda dure jai, Nirananda dure jai, Nirananda.. ananda means happiness, nirananda means absence of happiness and sadness and such things, sadness. So nirananada dure jai means, sadness goes far away.

So who here would always be happy?

Haribol (everyone)

And who want’s sadness and suffering to go far away?

Haribol (everyone)

So that’s why we hope that you all will be very active in the Bhakti Vriksha and also help in the temples when there are big festivals and various activities so that you always will be happy, unlimited happiness and sadness and suffering will go far away.

So in this material world, especially in this part of bhuloka, this is the seventh level of the 14 bhuvanas. So here we have happiness and suffering both. Sometimes you have a very good job, everything is very nice. Sometimes you are laid off, sometimes you don’t have or you have a crazy boss, different problems.

Does anyone of you have crazy bosses?

You don’t raise your hands if your boss is here. (laughter)

When sometimes someone suddenly gets a disease, cancer, so many diseases. I had a stroke in 2008. That’s why he repeats what I say (laughter), so you will understand that half my face is paralyzed but although I have this physical challenge I feel very happy to be in devotional service (applause)

So I will speak just a few minutes in different languages.

(gurumaharaj speaks in Bengali) 49:00-50:00 (applause)

(gurumaharaj speaks in Hindi) 50:00 to 51:00 (applause)

(gurumaharaj speaks in Nepal)

So anyway I am very happy to meet all of you tonight and there are some other programs but I would also like to meet some of the leading devotees of the bhakti Vriksha ladder. Thank you for coming here and I hope that I can come again and meet all of you again. (applause)

Transcribed by: Sadananda Krishnaprem Das

Mayapur