20230921 Question and Answer Session

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

Question from Śānta Gopī devī dāsī, Māyāpur: Generally, when one is in separation, mind is in disturbed state and cannot think straight. Then how is that love in separation and performing service can be better?

Jayapatākā Swami: When one is serving Kṛṣṇa in separation and one feels disturbed, that thinking naturally is something which is a type of love in separation. So, when one is feeling love for Kṛṣṇa, and that love is normal then that shows one’s affection for Kṛṣṇa.

Question from Āyuṣmati Mādhavī devī dāsī, Māyāpur: Sometimes in mind some offensive thinking comes. But I don’t think like that, it comes like forcefully. Please instruct me how to overcome that situation at that time?

Jayapatākā Swami: When one is trying to think of Kṛṣṇa in an appropriate manner but sometimes some inappropriate thoughts come to mind, by thinking of Kṛṣṇa in a very positive way, naturally after some time the mind becomes proper.

Question from a YouTube viewer: How to manage spiritual life and material studies?

Jayapatākā Swami: You see, one has to be very careful and do your studies. At the same time, we don’t want you to do something which is against the spiritual life. So by practicing one becomes perfect. By thinking that we want to use the mind to serve Kṛṣṇa then naturally we are able to eventually do the right thing.

Question from Premeśvarī Śrī Rādhā devī dāsī: How to remain consistently strong facing the various tests that Kṛṣṇa sends our way while practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It takes a considerable amount of time to develop the right mood and enthusiasm for performing service. But one negative incident, something against our desire to perform devotional service can demotivate us for a long time. Please guide on how to face all these obstacles.

Jayapatākā Swami: In the neophyte stage, we are suffering all kinds of tests but eventually we can overcome those. We can see [audio break]

Question: ?

Jayapatākā Swami: So I am glad that you are reaching a stage that you are being perfect. I don’t think I am perfect yet. Tell me what your secret is! Ha! I was always trying to be perfect. But even Rādhārāṇī feels She is not perfect. She still has some percentage to go. But you have reached the perfect stage. It takes some time to be perfect. So who here is perfect, please stand up! Are you perfect? I am ashamed how can I be forgiven? Day after tomorrow we have Rādhāṣṭamī. Rādhārāṇī is very merciful and by being very humble She will forgive us.

Question from Swapnil Haldar: How can we get our guru’s mercy very quickly and become a good devotee? Please forgive my offences.

Jayapatākā Swami: We can try to see how to become a good devotee. With Rādhārāṇī’s mercy, we can become a good devotee. So he is asking, Guru Mahārāja, please give your mercy on this fallen soul. Sometimes, they say, please accept my fallen praṇāma. Sometimes someone said my obeisances are like stool. I offer them at your feet! This is better!

Question from Akhil Verma: Guru Mahārāja should we expect justice in this world?

Jayapatākā Swami: If we get justice then we are lucky. This world doesn’t always do justice. Therefore, we don’t want to stay here, we want to go back to the spiritual world. Who wants to go back? Okau, thank you. Who wants to stay here?

Question from Nandapriyā Padmā devī dāsī: Have been thinking about this a lot – how can we know who is our iṣṭadeva? Whenever we remember Kṛṣṇa, should we remember some specific Deity or form of the Lord like Lord Jagannātha?

Jayapatākā Swami: So, devotees have an iṣṭadeva. They have a devotee, they have a form of the Lord which they think of. Here we have a person thinking of a form of the Lord and asking who is my iṣṭadeva? Like, sometimes one is thinking of Lord Kṛṣṇa, then he or she is thinking who is my iṣṭadeva. Maybe that form that you are thinking of is your iṣṭadeva. So Śrīla Prabhupāda was asked why did he keep the Deity of Kṛṣṇa Balarāma in Vṛndāvana. He said that actually Nitāi Gaura had come and instructed the six Gosvāmīs to establish Nitāi Gaura in Vṛndāvana. But actually, they established these 5000 temples all Rādhā Kṛṣṇa. So I wanted to establish, Śrīla Prabhupāda said, Kṛṣṇa Balarāma, and Nitāi Gaura and Rādhā Śyāma. So I established Nitāi Gaura, Kṛṣṇa Balarāma and Rādhe Śyāma. You see behind they had the sahajiyās who were chanting nitāi-gaura, rādhe-śyāma japa hare kṛṣṇa, hare rāma. Śrīla Prabhupāda heard that every day. Why don’t we chant Nitāi-Gaura Rādhe Śyāma, jaya Kṛṣṇa Balarāma?

Question from Anuj: I am blessed to have your shelter and seeking your initiation soon. Guru Mahārāja, I have one question that if someone has not followed the fourth regulative principle regarding having a relationship before connecting to ISKCON, but after taking shelter and following all the regulative principles strictly, then can he become a full-time devotee by going to the brahmacārī āśrama or is it better to be a gṛhastha for him? What is the possibility of success for him in either āśrama?

Jayapatākā Swami: In the 8^th canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in the pastime of Gajendra Mokṣa, Gajendra, he was fighting with the crocodile for a long time. But he was an animal of the land, and the crocodile is an animal of the water. So he was feeling that he was losing and he was getting weaker. But the crocodile being a water animal, he was getting stronger. So then, Gajendra, he began to pray to Lord Kṛṣṇa. And so, he began to pray, he remembered a prayer from his previous life. In this way, he began to pray. In the purport Śrīla Prabhupāda was saying that if can remember prayers from our previous life then we can chant that and that will help us to go back to Godhead. In the purport Śrīla Prabhupāda said that everybody should be strong in their fight against māyā and somehow Gajendra, he was strong in the land. But the crocodile was stronger in the water. Like that everyone is an individual and they may have a particular individual situation in which they are stronger. So it doesn’t matter but one should stay in one’s strong position and fight against māyā. So one may be stronger as a gṛhastha or one may be stronger as a brahmacārī. Just like the water and the land. So in that way Gajendra was stronger as an elephant. He prayed to the Lord accordingly.

Question from Sucitrā Vrajagopī devī dāsī from Vṛndāvana: I have only one son studying in 9^th class. From childhood he was practicing all devotional service but now he lost interest to chant also. That is why we cannot make our son exemplary. That is also affecting our preaching life. Kindly advise how to make the situation favorable?

Jayapatākā Swami: You and your husband can talk to your son and see what he may be interested in. And try to encourage him to do some service in that way. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Alright! 9.30 pm! I would like you all to take rest. Tomorrow is the adhivāsa of Rādhāṣṭamī. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

You know it is not so important that we be in the brahmacārī āśrama. In the Kali-yuga Lord Caitanya’s almost most of His followers were gṛhasthas at some point. So what is important is that one should be engaged in Kṛṣṇa’s service.