20210628 Question and Answer Session

The following is a Question and Answer session given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on May 28th, 2021 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur, India.

Satyarāja Govinda dāsa, USA: Do we find acyuta-sāka anywhere now?

Jayapatākā Swami: I was just thinking that in Māyāpur we should have a sāka festival so we can show all the different sākas. I don’t know what sākas are available in the USA. But here in Māyāpur they have a variety of sākas. Helañca-sāka grows in a lotus pond, on the top. Wherever you have lotus pond in America, you can grow Helañca-sāka there. Also, Russia!

Lakṣmī Rādhā devī dāsī:  In recent class it was mentioned that if there is a pure devotee in a family, fourteen generations of his is delivered. So even if the children are not devotees like smārta-brāhmaṇa sons in the case of Advaita Ācārya, will they also get liberated and get entrance into the spiritual planets?

Jayapatākā Swami: You have to make one a pure devotee. If you have two children, make one a pure devotee.

Marina, Krasnodar, Russia: Hare Kṛṣṇa Gurudeva! Can I take the vow of renunciation, sannyāsa? I wrote you about it in a letter. Thank you for the ocean of mercy from your lotus feet.

Jayapatākā Swami: Sannyāsa is not for ladies. Ladies are supposed to be protected by their father, husband or elder son. If a lady goes like a sannyāsī alone, she may get abused. So she must be always protected.

Divyangi Lalitā devī dāsī, Omaha, USA: Could you please tell us how to overcome the attitude of eating prasāda to gratify our senses and to develop the proper mood to honor the prasāda?

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Caitanya, He showed, He offered His obeisances, He circumambulated, and with great respect He honored the prasāda. What more can I say?

Question (in Tamil): Is cabbage considered as a sāka. Is coriander, mint curry leaves considered sāka? And also some sākas are available only in Bengal not available in Tamil Nāḍu. So how to offer these things to Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu?

Guru Mahārāja the question is: Is cabbage considered as a sāka. Is coriander, mint curry leaves considered sāka? And also some sākas are available only in Bengal not available in Tamil Nāḍu. So how to offer these things to Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu?

Jayapatākā Swami: You can grow the sāka. Get the seeds. I don’t know if spinach is technically a sāka. We could may be prepare it like a sāka. Normally, I don’t know whether bādha-gobi - cabbage is considered a sāka. Curry leaves is a type of spice and coriander leaves. So these are like leaves from different vegetables and things. So maybe some of the things are there in Tamil Nāḍu, and they have poṭala and pumpkin leaves. So we might ask the devotees to make a comprehensive list of different sākas and see for the Tamil devotees which ones are available in Tamil Nāḍu.

Mathurā Līleśvarī devī dāsī, Gītā Nagarī, USA:  Hare Kṛṣṇa Guru Mahārāja! There are many discussions whether or not we should children to school opposed to gurukula. Home schooling or devotee run schools? In a place where there is no devotee run school or gurukula, is it okay to send our children to karmī-run school, while helping them to learn Kṛṣṇa consciousness at home?

Jayapatākā Swami: You have to see the school I guess. See what the situation is. One of my South American disciples, her daughter went to school, and accidentally they switched her lunch box to the non-veg box. She went to the school and complained. How this the Kārtika or Dāmodara month. So the school said, oh, you can prepare a lamp offering with all the students? So then they brought candles and all the students offered lamps to Yaśodā Dāmodara. So you can see what kind of school it is. Whether it is a parochial school. Hard do to say. I don’t know why you ask a sannyāsī these things. You should ask gṛhasthas!

Questions: Like Acyutānanda was a qualified son of Advaita Ācārya and he received the mercy of Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda, were there any unqualified sons of Advaita Ācārya?

Jayapatākā Swami: He had six sons. Three were devotees, and three were smārtas.