20250220 Address in the Prabhupāda Connect Festival

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-gurun dina tāriṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram
hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Jayapatākā Swami: All the people know English? Some speak Bengali?

When I joined ISKCON, I visited all the temples in ISKCON! All three of them! San Francisco, New York and Montreal. I became the president in Montreal and then I opened up Toronto. And we went and saw Śrīla Prabhupāda arrive in Boston. In Boston, they had a kind of a barricade - the Immigration was behind a glass wall and behind the barricade. We could see at the bottom of the barricade the feet, so we saw Śrīla Prabhupāda’s feet! And he raised his bead bag above the barricade. Everybody was so blissed out! The person nearby was chanting on his karatālas and he got cut in his head and the newspaper reporters were taking pictures. They said although he was cut, he was happy! Because he was happy to see Śrīla Prabhupāda coming! And then Śrīla Prabhupāda walked out of the door and everyone there from New York, from Canada, they all bowed down. Śrīla Prabhupāda looked over, everyone was bowing down. And then they got up and Śrīla Prabhupāda went and sat down in the chairs that they had in the airport. Devotees came up to offer him garlands and the garlands went up to his eyes, then he took some off and they came and gave more garlands. He took those off and he kept getting more garlands! So then he spoke for a few minutes. He said that the spiritual master should be offered respect like God, but if he thinks he is God, he is not God, he is D-O-G, dog! So, like that Śrīla Prabhupāda was speaking to all the devotees who were seated around. The newspaper media was behind, recording and taking photos. And then Śrīla Prabhupāda would speak to us and tell everyone that we are servants of God. And we should guide our life in that way.

So, like that, I was in Toronto and came down and then I wrote to Śrīla Prabhupāda that since I was in Toronto, I wanted to handover the presidency to Jagadīśa Mahārāja, then Jagadīśa dāsa Adhikārī, he was a gṛhastha at that time. So I wasn’t so fully engaged. So I asked, “Should I stay here or go somewhere else?” Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote back, “You come and see me and I think I will send you to India.” Acyutānanda not yet Swami was in India at that time and Śrīla Prabhupāda was asking him to find out if we had our own place. He wrote back that we did. Something like that. So I was asked to go to India. I asked Garga Muni for the money for the passage to India. He said, collect it! Ha! Ha! Garga Money! So I went back to Canada and tried to collect. But I did not get much. So I flew to the UK by Iceland Airlines. It was cheap. 100 dollars or something and then when I got to the UK, the devotees there asked me to stay for the Ratha-yātrā. I wrote that to Śrīla Prabhupāda but I did not get a reply. So I continued with my journey. I think I will skip the journey.

When I got to Calcutta then I took a taxi to the address I was given. It was Mādhava Mahārāja’s Gauḍīya Maṭha and Acyutānanda had not really told the truth! So I stayed for a few months in the Gauḍīya Maṭha, that was quite an experience! I did some shopping for ciḍā-dadhi for Bhakti Pramode Purī Mahārāja. I learnt how to speak a few words in Bengali. Then, Śrīla Prabhupāda asked to invite his Godbrothers for receiving him. So I went around and I was inviting people. I invited Bhakti Pramode Purī Mahārāja and he said it is very glorious that his guru-bhāi (godbrother) had conquered the Western world. But then some gṛhastha paṇḍitas of the Gauḍīya Maṭha, they said, “No Mahārāja, you took sannyāsa a few months before him! You are senior, you should not go to meet him.” Like that we met resistance at every corner. The day Śrīla Prabhupāda went, they had sent a truckload of brahmacārīs and we had a car to drive Śrīla Prabhupāda. It was an old Ford vehicle. So when Śrīla Prabhupāda came, they took him to the VIP reception and then Acyutānanda sang o he Vaiṣṇava Ṭhākura. Śrīla Prabhupāda was looking around and he asked, “Where are my godbrothers?” They said, “They are waiting at the temple and they have made a big feast for you.” So Śrīla Prabhupāda, smelt some politics! If they had come to the airport that was one thing. But that they had stayed in the temple and cooked a feast for him, Śrīla Prabhupāda said, they wanted to take credit that he went, he was sent by them to the West. And that now they are receiving him back.

Śrīla Prabhupāda, he went to the West. He had no help, no association. He said according to your pañjikā today is the adhivāsa of Gaura-Pūrṇimā. So Māyāpur, Vṛndāvana, the bhaktas must be having a big celebration. But I don’t mind even if I am alone, even if I don’t have any association, I don’t mind even if I have to go to hell, but I want to preach the message of Gaurāṅga! So, he would ask if one man could help him. At least a harmonium, no reply. He wrote if he could have a karatālas – how much does a karatālas cost? No way! So when Śrīla Prabhupāda was chanting he used the bongo drum. So he really only had the help from Lord Caitanya. We are all here today because of the mercy of Śrīla Prabhupāda! He went to the West all alone with no money. But only faith in his Guru Mahārāja and the power of the holy name. He had translated the Bhagavad-gītā and first canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

So, like that we ended up staying in the Gauḍīya Maṭha. That is why they consider me a half-breed! Something like that! Part Gauḍīya Maṭha, part ISKCON because I stayed a couple of months in the Gauḍīya Maṭha! They asked me what date I was initiated. Accordingly they told me to sit in the line for prasāda. Everybody sat according to their date of initiation. Very systematic!

When Śrīla Prabhupāda came and saw no godbrothers came to greet him, he had this idea that maybe they are trying to take the credit. So he said, go to our place! We had a doctor who was going to open a health clinic, he had a house, he gave us permission to stay there free just before he opened his clinic. On Rādhāṣṭamī day, Acyutānanda and I got sannyāsa. He said Acyutānanda was 10^th and I was the 11^th. He had given 9 before in LA (Los Angeles). 9, 10, 11. That was in 1970. So now it is 2025. 55 years. The other ten ahead of me are not sannyāsīs now. They either went back to Godhead or left sannyāsa.

So Śrīla Prabhupāda, he was trying to form an army of devotees. He sent me to Māyāpur. I am skipping the details of what happened in Calcutta. At first we were staying in the grass hut near the main gate. There was nothing else but the grass hut, there was no main gate, there was nothing. We were building the Lotus building and while we were in the grass hut, Śrīla Prabhupāda, he stayed in the grass hut. He kicked Garga Muni out because he snored too loud! And Śrīla Prabhupāda, you can imagine how he said, this is the spiritual world headquarters of Kṛṣṇa consciousness! And there was nothing there but the grass hut! But Śrīla Prabhupāda could see, his vision that this place would be filled with devotees. So he had a vision and he was bringing it to come, to happen, seeing that it happened. He had a couple of cows and one was called Kāmadukh. She gave lot of milk, comparatively. And she was grazing near the grass hut and near the end of the grass hut we had put a bee hive. And under the beehive there was grass. So Kāmadukh nudged the hive over and started to eat the grass. All the bees swarmed in the air and came into the grass hut and Śrīla Prabhupāda called me, “Jayapatākā Swami!” Then I came running. There were all bees in the hut. He asked me to take out the bees! So, in the apiary they have like a mosquito net dress and wearing that I had to get all the bees out of the hut! And Śrīla Prabhupāda said to put the bees somewhere else away from the hut! So right from the beginning there were a lot of austerities with Śrīla Prabhupāda. Every night we would sleep in the grass hut, and Śrīla Prabhupāda would be there with his special āsana and his cot. So, now we are doing a 24-hour kīrtana there.

Like that when we had the Lotus building ready, Śrīla Prabhupāda came there and lived in the second floor. At that time, the Gauḍīya Maṭha had influence with the top politicians. The President of India came by helicopter to the Yoga-pīṭha. Śrīla Prabhupāda was seeing and he said, “We should have people come here.” Yesterday, I heard that 80 some thousand people came to Māyāpur. That is not especially a big number yet, but I think Śrīla Prabhupāda would be much more satisfied to see so many people come here. He predicted that Māyāpur would have 50,000 people, residents and guests. So, now we have around 7,500 residents and guests maybe about 4,000. I don’t know how many are guests here. So we still have a long way to go to satisfy Śrīla Prabhupāda’s vision! The TOVP is nearing completion. And now that will certainly increase the people coming to Māyāpur. Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted the government to give us some land and he was pursuing that. But the Congress government at that time did not fulfil it. Then the Communists came and they were not friendly. Now the TMC came and they are friendly. Now we have like 700 acres in the Master Plan. This is all the vision of Śrīla Prabhupāda!

Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jaya!