20161102 Srila Prabhupāda Kathā

20161102 Srila Prabhupada Katha - Udupi, India

The following is a talk given by His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Maharaj on November 2^nd, 2016, in Udipi, India. The talk was about Srila Prabhupada pastimes.

Gurumaharaj:

mükaà karoti väcälaà

paìguà laìghayate girim

yat-kåpä tam ahaà vande

çré-guruà déna-täraëam

sri Caitanya Isvaram

Hari Om Tatsat

Should I speak on Prabhupada’s pastimes or the Caitanya’s pastimes?

Prabhupada’s pastimes (by audience)

When Mayapur was attacked, at that time I was with Prabhupada in Vrindavan, and I heard that the devotees were arrested. So I immediately went back to Mayapur. Srila Prabhupada was very concerned.

There when I went and heard that the local politicians told the muslims, who were normally very friendly with us, they told us that if they drove us out, they will give the whole ashram as a madrasa. So a group of men attacked, but they were followed by a group of ladies who carried baskets. With that they would loot the ashram. I heard that they surrounded the school teachers, Hiranyagarbha and Nadia Das, and they broke the temple bell. So some of the devotees began to fire in the air, and with the gun shots they began to run. So, some of them had sustained bird shot from the shot guns, but there was no one who got grievously injured, but they had arrested the devotees. There were around 11 devotees in the Krsnanagar jail.

So when I got there, I moved the court order that they could get prasadam. So we gave them everyday prasadam, which in turn they gave to the jail keepers and some of the prisoners. There were some terrorist under high security, and when the devotees went by, they said, “What about us? We won’t get prasadam?”

Usually they would chant, Lal Salam (Red Salutre), but when they saw the devotees, they chanted, “Hare Krishna Salam” (laughter). So they gave them prasadam too.

So that time I called the meeting with all the village leaders, and everyday I would write a report to Prabhuapada, because I knew that he was very concerned. So we had a couple of hundreds of village leaders, cow herders, cultivators. Mayapur is about 50% Hindu and 50% Muslims. They said, “normally we don’t have any problem.”, somehow they were enticed. So we were talking with the other village leaders and trying to get their support.

I said, “We wanted to have a big procession on Balarama Purnima and chant Hare Krishna”, but when we had the meeting, the village leaders said, “Now they are in trouble and they want our help. They usually never invite us to their programs.”, and everyone was echoing the same sentiment that we were neglecting them. I was thinking how we didn’t pay attention to the village leaders and village politics??12.50…, and then somebody said, “They feed our hungry people, they feed our poor people. And then somebody said, “Anyway they worship the same Lord that we do.” Like this the whole discussion changed. So they asked me, “What do you want us to do?”

“Chant Hare Krishna.”

But they said we are carrying flags on lathis…  And a 168 kirtan groups gathered together. And they started the kirtan at the Iskcon temple, went through all the villages to the Jagannath temples, a 168 kirtan groups, thousands and thousands of men chanted. So this showed that there was a lot of public support for the devotees. So then Chief Minister said that, “We want communal peace.” So the FIR’s which were against both the parties, were moved and both the parties settled.

The devotees were released from the jail, and Prabhupada said that, “things were done by Jayapataka Swami just the way I would do it.” There was no greater compliment that I could receive. This 168 kirtan groups left a very great impression. On one hand it established peace and harmony in the village, and on the other hand all the devotees were impressed that each kirtan group was singing a different tune, and let us know that there was such a wealth of devotion in rural Bengal.

Later on I approached Prabhupada and said, “I wanted to unite all these kirtan groups.” At first they had the idea to call it the ISO – Iskcon Sankirtan Organization. I approached Prabhupada with this idea. He liked the idea. He said that, “You should bring them to the temple. They can spend a few days and learn how we do things, and then they can go back to the village and practice the same. Later His Holiness Bhakti Caru Swami, he gave a book called the Gauria Patrika. The editor of the book was Prabhupada as a Vanaprastha. It said, Editor-Abhay Caran Dey.

Tatwadarshan ki…………..Jay (audience)

In that book there were five articles by Bhaktivinod Thakur, about the Namhatta. So then I realized that there was no reason to call it the ISO. Om Visnupad Bhaktivinod Thakur had already given the name, which was given by Nityananda Prabhu called the Namhatta. So I took it that Prabhupada was giving his blessings and the name.

Now the Namhatta based in Mayapur, has branches in every district in Bengal and Northern Orissa. Some parts of Assam, and the eastern border of Bihar and Jharkhand, and also in parts of Tripura. In Bangladesh, they also have a extended Namhatta, and all over the world they have Namhattas, and the Urban version of Namhatta is called Bhakti Vriksha of which there are many branches in the Narasimha Gandarvika Gauranga mandir. ….. hari bol (everyone)… So this is all fulfilling the vision of Srila Prabhupada.

One another pastime. Prabhupada was walking on the road in Mayapur. He was heading to the North. Then one poor gentleman offered his obeisance’s to Srila Prabhupada, and he said that he would like to Srila Prabhupada, and he could do some work. So Prabhupada asked, What does he know what to do?, he said, he knew to weave clothes and handloom. So Prabhupada said, “we can take a 1^st class, 2^nd class, 3^rd class and 4^th class, a brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya or worker, but we don’t want lazy’s and crazies. So he is a worker. So we can engage him. So I purchased a handloom. When he was a little older, he could see the threads. I asked him if he ever had his eyes checked.

He said, “No, I don’t know about eye check.”

So we sent him to Nabadwip, to an eye-glass shop, ophthalmologist… So the ophthalmologist prescribed him some glasses, and he was surprised. He thought that as he grew old the old is becoming fuzzy, but he saw that he could see now that everything was not fuzzy. So he could see the threads, and he used the handloom. So Prabhupada said, “We should have our own gamchas, dhotis, sarees made by devotees.”

The people in the market, they make the edge of the dhoti or saree very fine. Tight weave, but in the middle the threads become more sparse. So our devotees will make the thread even, all the way through. In that way the dhotis and the sarees would last longer, but the market place could sell the other dhotis and sarees one rupee cheaper. So devotees look for the cheaper thing.

So although Prabhupada wanted us to make the dhotis for the devotees, karma-free dhotis, karma-free sarees, but the devotees went for the cheap things. So this was a problem we were facing. We still have a handloom at the Jagannath temple, and those who are intelligent buy the Mayapur handloom, and carry out the order of Srila Prabhupada.

Hare Krisha. Any questions?

In two days is the tirobhava of Srila Prabhupada.

On the Vyasa Puja we tend to rejoice the coming of the spiritual master, and on the disappearance festival we feel separation and happiness both. We carry out the orders and serve the vani of the spiritual master, and we remember all the other spiritual masters who have come before, and we also rejoice that the spiritual master is back with Krsna, and he has left in a glorious way.

So in both of the festivals there is rejoicing, but in the disappearance day festival rejoicing and also separation. We try to think how we will further the heritage and mission of Srila Prabhupada.

Any other question:

Q: Spiritual master gives a lot of instructions. Is it possible for us disciples to follow all the instructions, or is it ok to select one or two and do…

Gurumaharaj: The question was, the spiritual master leaves many instructions. So can we follow all or can we just follow one, or some.

All the vows we take during the initiation, we should definitely follow those, and then there are many other instructions, the more we follow the better. Prabhupada gave me many instructions, so I asked the devotees and disciples to help me fulfill them. ]

If you can follow one of the instructions, two or three, whatever you can do. It’s like there are nine practices of bhakti yoga. You can do any one or all of the nine, one or two or three or all. As many as you can do, all credits to you.

Last question.

Q: You spoke about following the spiritual masters instructions. Prabhupada wanting everything to made by devotees, and used by devotees, ….  How important it is for the devotees to understand that they have to implement this in every aspect of their life?

Gurumaharaj: When Prabhupada was present, he made 108 temples. Now there are more than 700. Many goshala’s are there. In Iskcon there are many goshalas that protect the cows and so on. So we should try to carry out the order of Prabhupada.

Now our demand for dhotis and sarees is huge. The supply is limited. So it’s not a big thing to buy clothes. The principle is that when available, we want to use the devotee clothes as far as possible. Where available we want to take milk that is ahimsa milk in the West. This is a natural way to end cow-slaughter.

Just like now it is popular to eat organic vegetables. So in the future if we could popularize ahimsa milk, we could have people who want to have milk from the cows who are not slaughtered.

Happy Cows.

So that’s something that can be organized. So as the number of devotees increases, these are the things that can be done.

Hare Krishna

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Transcribed by : Sadananda Krishnaprem Das (JPS)

Date: 03/01/2017, Mayapur.