20220926 Addressing Congregation Devotees

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Jayapatākā Swami: I am very glad to meet all of you and I am very glad you are all engaged in devotional service. I see Jagannātha Deities, Pañca-tattva, Narasiṁhadeva in the center. I could not tell whether it was Bāla Gopāla or Narasiṁhadeva because the Deity is so small. Prahlāda Mahārāja, he mentioned that he was not afraid of the fearful form of Narasiṁhadeva. Blood on His hands and veins. Intestines around His neck. But he was very afraid of the material world. Because by the laws of material nature, he was born in a demoniac family. So he was very fearful of the material world. Narasiṁhadeva offered him any boon he wanted. But he said, I am Your eternal servant, I am not here to ask You for anything. It is not that I am doing a business, I served You and now asking You for something. By nature, I have been born in a demoniac family, naturally You could tempt me with material things. But if I have to ask You for something, please have mercy on my father, who was a number one atheistic demon. He did not have any bad feelings for his father. Although his father tried to kill him in many ways. So this is the nature of a devotee, they don’t hold any grudge. In the material world there are so many reasons you can find to envy someone. This person did this thing bad to me, so I want to reciprocate to him. But that is not the mood of a devotee. Devotee tries to always be the friend of everyone. And like that Prahlāda Mahārāja he is one of the Mahājanas, he is a great example. So what is very important is that we always try to act in such a way that Kṛṣṇa will be pleased with us and want to see us. Normally, everyone is trying to see God. But Śrīla Prabhupāda advises us, we should try to act in such a way that Kṛṣṇa will see us. Kṛṣṇa says in Bhagavad-gītā, He does not have any friends, He does not have any enemies, He is equal to everyone. But with His devotees, He has a special relationship. This is natural. We are a sample of Kṛṣṇa. If we take one drop of the ocean you know what the composition of the water is. But we are not God, our quantity is very less. We are a drop He is the ocean. So, just like a father, he has five sons and two are very helpful, very submissive, very service minded, so naturally he has a better relationship with them. So that is natural, it is not that he is taking any artificial position. He notices who wants to know Him, who wants to serve Him. Who is cooking for Him, who is making garlands, who is dancing for Him, He is noticing all that. You are translating for Him. I am very happy to meet all of you. I wrote one letter to the disciples and I mentioned about Kuching. And I want to help all the devotees in my zone and see them go back to Godhead. But those who are my disciples, I am more obligated. But I want everyone to go back.

Normally, we think that we are this body. In English, they say how are you? Soukyamā? But in Bengali they say, how is your body? Because the ātmā is always good. But the ātmā has the body. And the body is sometimes healthy and sometimes sick. So we should understand we are the consciousness, we are the ātmā in the body. So we never die. In the Śvetāsvatara Upaniṣad it says, nityo nityānāṁ, cetanaś cetanānām – of all the eternals there is one Supreme eternal. Cetanaś cetanānām – of all the conscious entities, there is one Supreme Person. Eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān – one person maintains everyone else. Kṛṣṇa maintains everyone. The ant and the elephant. Only the human beings, we mess things up! Humans create artificial inflation and depression. When I was here last time, the dollar was less than 4 ringgits, now it is 4.5. But it is worse in Śrī Lanka. So like that, in this world, there are always problems. We want to help people to go back to Godhead where we belong. Normally, it is very tough but by Lord Caitanya’s mercy in this fallen Age of Kali, it becomes very easy. Because He is the most merciful avatāra. Namo mahāvandayāya – He is the most munificent.

Anyway, I am very glad to see you all engaged in devotional service. Are there are any questions?

Question: Sometimes doing devotional service we tend to have laziness at that time we don’t do that service and let others do it. How do we get over this kind of feeling?

Jayapatākā Swami: As I said we should act in such a way that Kṛṣṇa will see us. If you act, oh, I am tired, ah! We want Kṛṣṇa to be lazy in giving you mercy? If you are really sick or something that is one thing. You can pray to Kṛṣṇa to give you strength. Or if you feel very sick or something, you can have someone cover for you. Don’t just leave it to the president. If you get a service, you take possession of it. Any other question?