20221201 Conversation with His Grace Jananivāsa Prabhu

Jananivāsa Prabhu: Nice to see you, the way everything is going out, books are going out, people are coming. And grand festival here, thousands of people coming.

Jayapatākā Swami: I was giving out Bhakti-śāstī certificates.

Jananivāsa Prabhu: Yeah!

Jayapatākā Swami: Very nice to see people are studying Śrīla Prabhupāda Books.

Jananivāsa Prabhu: Very good. This is like another stage in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Pañca-tattva’s mission is being fulfilled. From the grass-hut you are sitting there, now thousands and thousands of people are coming. We are lucky to be here to see that.

Jayapatākā Swami: You were also in that grass-hut. [laughter] Why don’t you write about that? How Māyāpur started from a grass-hut! If you tape it, I can have someone to transcribe (and make it into a book).

Jananivāsa Prabhu: Ceṣṭā! (will try)

Jayapatākā Swami: Khub bhālo! Very good!

Jananivāsa Prabhu: We did something yesterday…

Jayapatākā Swami: They asked me… I was telling a story about the Yamadūta, who distributed a book. I told that story in the temple, I asked Sujitendriya… You heard that story?

Jananivāsa Prabhu: I just came after that…

Milana Rādhā-Mādhava dāsa: No! No! In the Bhāgavatam class in the temple Prabhu. Did you hear that story?

Jayapatākā Swami: Did you hear it?

Milana Rādhā-Mādhava dāsa: Yes! I heard it. I will tell him. Okay.

Devotee: That story is spreading everywhere.

Milana Rādhā-Mādhava dāsa: From Tirupati.

Jananivāsa Prabhu: Person who died…

Devotees: Yes! Yes!

Jayapatākā Swami: He died, they were taking him to the crematorium and they were chanting “haribol, bolo hari!” He sat up! And everyone “Ah! Ghost!” Then he said, “I am not a ghost!” He got down (from the death procession) and he went temple, asked for the Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. And he got that hold it and he started crying. So the devotee asked, “Why you are crying?” He said, “I died, I was taken to a hell by the Yamadūtas. And Yamarāja said, “You brought the wrong guy! Taking back!” I don’t want to go to hell! Then he was put back in to the body, and one Yamadūta said, “There is a temple nearby, they have Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, you read that you don’t see us again!” Then he ran to the temple. He started crying. Yamadūtas were distributing the books.

Milana Rādhā-Mādhava dāsa: Prabhupāda’s books.

Jayapatākā Swami: True story, Revatī Ramaṇa told me.

Jananivāsa Prabhu: Bengal, India?

Devotees: In Tirupati.

Jananivāsa Prabhu: There was an another story in Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s ula-grāma… that Birnagar.

Jayapatākā Swami: What happened?

Jananivāsa Prabhu: They had a brāhmaṇa (ghost) lived in a tree. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura got a brāhmaṇa chant the Bhāgavatam or Bhagavad-gītā. Then that tree split, when they finished the reciting, the tree split, and the ghost fled.

Jayapatākā Swami: Wow!

Jananivāsa Prabhu: Birnagar.

Gopati Kṛṣṇa dāsa: Added to the story directly.

Jayapatākā Swami: Ghost story, wow!

Jananivāsa Prabhu: Night time is not good!

Gopati Kṛṣṇa dāsa: Hare Kṛṣṇa, ghost stories! Okay Guru Mahārāja, we have to go the temple, darśana, dinner and class. It is getting late.

Milana Rādhā-Mādhava dāsa: Okay Guru Mahārāja!

Jananivāsa Prabhu: Hare Kṛṣṇa! Thank you for tolerating me all these days.

Jayapatākā Swami: Any other stories?