20220811 ISKCON Sylhet Evening Address

The following is an Iskcon Sylhet evening address given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on August 11th,2022 in Bangladesh.

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: Dear devotees, today begins and for a few days there will be different programs. Now there was netronmilan, śayana-adhivāsa of Śrī Rādhā Mādhava today. This program was performed by His Holiness Bhakti Puruṣottama Swami, Bhakti Advaita Navadvīpa Swami, Bhakti Vijaya Bhāgavata Swami and other Vaiṣṇavas as well. Tomorrow will be the abhiṣeka and prāṇa-pratiṣṭha, installation. Śrī Rādhā Mādhava will come to accept your service. Now, the pūjārīs, the ācāryas, sannyāsīs will do the various ceremonies. But all of you can pray to the Lord, please come and we will serve You. Serve You! Serve You! Serve You! Serve You! Serve You! Haribol! Nitāi-Gaura! Rādhā-Mādhava! You will all pray earnestly to the Lord requesting Him to come. Now the Lord will descend from Goloka Vṛndāvana and you will be able to see Him in a particular form. With ordinary material eyes we cannot see the Lord. We can experience the Lord through His holy name, His arcā-vigraha form, His Bhagavad-gītā, and other feats. Some people ask, have you seen God? With our material eyes there is no way to see the Lord. But the Lord says I am in water as the sweet taste. How many of you have had water? That means you have seen the Lord. The Lord says I am the light in the sun. Have you all seen sunlight? This way you have seen the Lord. This way the Lord incarnates in a form and everyone can see Him. But ordinarily, if one does not have spiritual sight, one cannot see the Lord. That is why He comes in the arcā-vigraha form. You will all be ready to serve the Lord. The Lord will come and all of you be ready to present some gifts to Him. Tomorrow is his birthday. Don’t we have to give gifts on birthday? Some will give rice, some will give fruits, some will give ghee, some will give money, clothes, milk, etc. Whatever your wish, you can give. This way, Bhagavad-gītā says that He accepts fruits, milk, flowers, water, if offered with devotion. The Lord only wants your devotion, your love, prema. Ordinarily, good children will come up to their parents and ask them, how can we serve you? But now a days, children generally come up to their parents and say we want money. Want to see cinema, etc. Anyway, we want good children, who serve the parents, we want to serve the Lord.

In this material world we all think we are this body. But we are the soul present in the body. Ātmā, the soul never dies. The body takes birth, becomes old and dies. And the soul goes into another child and starts all over again. The goal of our human life is how to get out of the cycle of birth, death, and old age. The human being has the ability to understand this – what is our relationship with the Lord. Eating, sleeping, mating, and defending is there in animals and in human beings. But the human beings have one more thing that is dharma – he can understand who is God. But the animals do not that ability. If you tell a dog, you are not a dog, you are an eternal spirit soul, he will not understand anything, he will just bark, woof! Woof! I am a dog! This way, Lord Caitanya says that the human form of life is special. And to take birth in Bhārata-varṣa, India is even better. Gaura-maṇḍala-bhūmi, yeba jāne cintāmaṇi, tāra haya vraja-bhūmi vāsa. Lord Caitanya says, bhārata-bhūmite haila manuṣya-janma yāra janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra (Cc. Ādi 9.41). When 500 years ago there was demarcation of India, Bangladesh, Pakistan. All were one Bhārata-varṣa. We need to understand that our goal of life is to serve the Lord. That religion which awakens our love, our devotion to the Lord, that is good.

Tomorrow is the appearance day of Lord Balarāma. Today my dear sannyāsī disciple, His Holiness Bhakti Nityānanda Swami left his body this morning. All of you please pray that he goes back to Godhead. He used to distribute books, preach and do various service. He gradually fell sick and he passed away. We don’t know how long we will live. Parīkṣit Mahārāja got seven days. We don’t know whether we will get seven days, seven minutes or seven years. But this way when Parīkṣit Mahārāja heard he had seven days to live then day and night he heard the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And then he went back to Godhead at the end of his life. His grandfather was Arjuna. Lord Kṛṣṇa spoke the Bhagavad-gītā through Arjuna. His grandson, Parīkṣit Mahārāja, brought the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Now Bhakti Vijaya Bhāgavata Swami is giving all of you an opportunity to get the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. I touched the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam set and Caitanya-caritāmṛta set which many devotees bought now. If you read these scriptures, your life will be perfected. This way, you will try to become devotees and then make others devotees of Kṛṣṇa. Tomorrow, in the morning there will be fire sacrifice at 7 am and 9 am abhiṣeka and then prāṇa-pratiṣṭha. Then darśana, bhoga and ārati. So I will end my talk here and will speak again tomorrow.