20240817 Initiation Lecture

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: Today, here there is first initiation being awarded now. Those who had taken shelter from me, I hope that all of you have taken your oath? Four regulative principles and 16 rounds mahā-mantra chanting. Is there someone who has not taken the oath? Many people ask me what instruction would you give me? The first instruction is the oath that you take at the time of initiation to follow the four regulative principles and chant 16 rounds, is followed. This is the most important oath. Illicit sex means that outside of marriage, one will not have any illicit sex with the opposite sex.

Now Lord Caitanya desires that everyone follows His instructions. Lord Caitanya is Kṛṣṇa Himself but He came as a devotee. And He teaches how we should do bhakti-yoga. A teacher teaches by writing with chalk on the board, ‘a, b, c’. Like this, Lord Caitanya is our teacher and He is teaching about Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is happy when someone chants the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra as per His instruction. Before we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra we chant the Pañca-tattva mantra:

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

Generally, in Kali-yuga it is very difficult to go to Kṛṣṇa but with Lord Caitanya, Nitāi Gaura’s mercy, it has been made easy! Śrīla Prabhupāda travelled around the world 14 times and now all over the world there are devotees who chant the holy names of Kṛṣṇa! I hope that all of you will preach the holy names of Lord Kṛṣṇa!

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

I hear that all of you men can do the hari-dhvani very nicely! And the ladies can do nice ulu-dhvani! The ladies actually can do both hari-dhvani and ulu-dhvani!

Have you all heard the ten offences to the holy name? Now I will give the Harināma and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa!

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

The oath you have taken is for the rest of your lives! You have to do at least 16 rounds but you can do more as well. I have got the Bhakti-śāstrī, Bhakti-vaibhava and Bhakti-vedānta degrees. I hope that all my disciples will read Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books. Haribol!

Now I will give the beads.