20221120 Live To Give Prabhupāda Marathon Inaugural Address

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram
Harihi oṁ tat sat

Jayapatākā Swami: All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda! Hope that everybody is very enthusiastic for ‘Live to Give’. By giving Bhagavad-gītā to people they can understand the real purpose of life. The Bhagavad-gītā is the essence of all the Upaniṣads. Bhagavad-gītā is the nectar Lord Caitanya asked us to give as kṛṣṇa-kathā. Bhagavad-gītā is spoken by Kṛṣṇa, it is the original kṛṣṇa-kathā. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is spoken about Kṛṣṇa and the Bhagavad-gītā is spoken by Kṛṣṇa. The scientists, they do not understand that there is something after we leave the body. We need to read the Bhagavad-gītā. We had about 30,000 people in Jagannātha Purī and they were doing the Purī parikramā. So like that we were starting the Bhagavad-gītā marathon. This year Gītā-jayantī day is a bit early, the 3^rd of December in India. What day is it in the West? (3^rd). So like this, we want the people should read Bhagavad-gītā and understand the real purpose of life. Śrīla Prabhupāda was saying in many lectures, how if we surrender to Kṛṣṇa, He will make us happy. But people are not surrendering to God, and they are not happy. We are seeing how all over the world there are famines, floods, hurricanes, and if people read the Bhagavad-gītā regularly, it says that inauspicious things will not happen to them. The śrī-vaiṣṇava-sāra, the essence is that Bhagavad-gītā gives one all auspiciousness.

I was seeing a drama in Chennai performed by children. Two were playing Yamadūtas and one was playing Yamarāja. The Yamadūtas were complaining that, “These Kṛṣṇa devotees, they are reading the Bhagavad-gītā, they chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, they worship the Deities in their house and like this we cannot take them to hell. If everyone becomes like this we will be out of job!” I asked people, “Who want to give the Yamadūtas a vacation?” And everybody wanted to give them a vacation, nobody wanted to go with them. So we should have everybody distribute Bhagavad-gītā and give the Yamadūtas a vacation. Haribol!

This Bhagavad-gītā Marathon is not only for the brahmacārīs, but all the gṛhasthas, Vaiṣṇavas, Vaiṣṇavīs, they can also participate. We saw in Māyāpur we are having the temple filled with people. Some devotees are going out in Malaysia and other places. We should all live to give! Give Bhagavad-gītā to everyone!

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare!