20200213 BSST Vyasa-puja Morning Class

The following is a morning class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on February 13th, 2020 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur, India. The class was given on the occasion of the Vyāsa-pūjā of HH Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Mahārāja.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Jayapatākā Swami: I don’t know whether you can understand me now. If at some point you cannot understand, raise your hand and he will repeat.

So, as you know today is the appearance day of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda.

And I was present many times when Śrīla Prabhupāda observed this day.

He would put Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura’s picture on his vyāsāsana and he would sit by the side.

You heard from His Holiness Gopāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami Mahārāja, how Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhakura and his wife had prayed to the Jagannātha Deity for a ray of Viṣṇu and it seemed that the Lord answered their prayer and gave them their son, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura in Jagannātha Puri.

You see, we always glorify Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura.

Actually, it takes two to make a baby!

Sorry!

And what a great Vaiṣṇavī she was, she also prayed to Lord Jagannātha for a ray of Viṣṇu, it takes two of them.

So I just wanted to mention that.

Sometimes we only glorify the one, there is two! Anyway, I was present at the time when Śrīla Prabhupāda was lecturing, I forget whether it was the appearance day or disappearance day, of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda.

But at that time he said that it is relevant to speak about other previous ācāryas.

And he mentioned how Jagannātha dāsa bābājī had located the exact birthplace of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he went begging door to door, he would not take more than one rupee from anyone, one rupee, people asked you want more money, he said, no, only one rupee!

And 30,000 rupees he collected!

That means he went to 30,000 houses at least.

And he built the first building at the birthplace of Lord Caitanya.

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura built the Yoga-pīṭha Mandir and the temple there and the Yoga-pīṭha at the birthplace of Lord Caitanya and he also built his āśrama, built the Caitanya Maṭha.

The Caitanya Maṭha has the four sampradāyas – Śrī, Rudra, Brahma and the four Kumāras.

So Lord Caitanya came to unite all the four sampradāyas to one.

His acintya-bhedābheda-tattva was the unification of all the four Vaiṣṇava sampradāyas.

There was some prediction that Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura would somehow be responsible for that.

So I was thinking that now we have temples all over the world by Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mercy.

And he said that his principle was to follow the words of his spiritual master, word by word, letter by letter.

He would follow it to the T.

He said distribute books, (he distributed) books.

He said make a GBC, (he made the) GBC.

So like that Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, he said a Vaiṣṇava is already qualified as a brāhmaṇa.

So he gave Vaisnavas the second initiation and gave the brāhmaṇa thread, upanayanam, to the men.

So, if he hadn’t done that, how would we be worshiping all the Deities in the West?

How would we be worshiping Deities in New Vṛndāvana, New Dvārakā, in Bhaktivedānta Manor and so many other temples?

So, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda,he laid the groundwork and then he sent Śrīla Prabhupāda to the West.

I was present here when Śrīla Prabhupāda was speaking and noting how all the previous ācāryas had done something to develop Māyāpur.

And he said I want to do something also and I want to build the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

He said I am grateful to all the devotees who are helping me.

He bowed down and started crying!

He could not speak anymore!

He said he was so grateful that he started crying, I had never seen Śrīla Prabhupāda crying, it was very rare, he would control himself.

But then he was crying!

So how dear is his desire to serve his spiritual master and have this Temple of Vedic Planetarium built, we cannot imagine!

I thank all the devotees, I thank Ambarīṣa prabhu and also his good wife, Svāhā Dāsī for having started this and I thank all the devotees who have pledged to help finish the Temple of Vedic Planetarium.

We also need, it is not enough to pledge, you should also pay up on your pledge!

I heard that a lot of people have not yet paid up on their pledge.

Don’t worry, there is still time, but it is very important.

We heard from HH Rādhānatha Swami how Śrīla Prabhupāda he prepared himself in Vṛndāvana, he translated the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam by the side of the samādhi of Śrīla Rupa Gosvami.

I remember in 1968, I bought a set of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

A full set three volumes and that was all we had at that time, Śrīla Prabhupāda brought from India.

I read that and I was convinced that this is the Absolute Truth, we have to follow this!

So this was requested by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda, that Śrīla Prabhupāda should preach in the Western countries.

He travelled around the world, I read a letter last night, he said I am going on my fifteenth world tour, if you can help me he wrote to someone I don’t remember, some government official, some professor.

Help me make the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

We want to show how the Purāṇas are good science, especially the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

But we will take all the Purāṇas.

So, of course I have tried to encourage everyone to help with the TOVP.

My humble service is the West Wing, which is the Exhibition Wing.

We have a qualified team with Hari Śaurī prabhu, Akandadi prabhu, Rāmeśvara prabhu and Drutakarma prabhu and others.

So, a very qualified team – Ravindrasvarūpa prabhu also, who are helping make this.

We want to show that the Purāṇas, the Vedas are very good science, the descending knowledge.

They have topics which the modern scientists cannot possibly obtain information.

Śrīla Prabhupāda said we should show the whole chandelier of the universe as described in the Purāṇas and just now they are coming close to the Vedic version.

Vedas have described things thousands of years before, and just now science is discovering a few things.

But they can never know what is going on in the distant parts of the universe, what to speak of beyond the universe!

But you can wait, they have sent a Voyager rocket in outer space and they will reach the other planets in ten thousand years!

They have spent billions of dollars to send that, so you can wait and find out if there is life on the other planets.

Or you can spend a few dollars and buy a Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam set and find out that there is life on every planet in this universe!

Śrīla Prabhupāda gave us the map of the universe in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and through the other Purāṇas.

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura gave us the Sūrya Siddhānta, there is ample description.

We are trying to show in the West Wing of the TOVP that the Vedas are good science.

That the scientists will gain a lot if they refer to the Bhāgavatam and the Vedas.

So I want to encourage everyone to please help Vrajavilāsa prabhu to collect the money needed to finish this building.

I heard the pujārī section was opening today.

It is huge, huge!

I think it is the largest pujārī facility in the world!

So we will need a lot of people to help us, some pujārīs and some could help with the exhibitions of the Vedic planetarium.

Haribol!