20250628 Question-and-Answer Session

Gaurāṅga! Nityānanda!

Jayapatākā Swami: Anyone has questions? If you write in Bengali, I will reply in Bengali and if you write in English, I will answer in English. If you write in Chinese, you won’t get any answer. Is Jalāṅgī Devī Dāsī here? I have a Chinese translator, she can translate then!

Question: How to reduce indulging in prajalpa and engage more in kṛṣṇa-kathā?

Jayapatākā Swami: If we think we are the body, then naturally, we talk about bodily things. But if we think we are the servant of Kṛṣṇa, then naturally we will avoid prajalpa. Because we want to please Kṛṣṇa with every speech. So how many of you think you are the body? Raise your hand! How many think you are the eternal soul, nitya ātmā? So, another question.

Question: For preaching to college students, often some materialistic talks are necessary. How to preach amidst that?

Jayapatākā Swami: Is the question written in English? If you are speaking in English and have to speak some materialistic things, that is your preaching strategy, then that may be alright. It depends, what you say. And you have to become expert. At the last moment, it should be about Kṛṣṇa. Like, whatever maybe the śloka is I somehow or other get back to speaking about Lord Caitanya. So, Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He was expert as Nimāi Paṇḍita on arguing and after dīkṣā He became a devotee. Did you hear about the war between Israel and Iran? The whole world is in war! Now the only way of peace is to chant the holy names:

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

You see I started with a material talk about the war between Israel and Iran and ended up chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Question: There has been quite a setback in my career where despite endeavors things did not turn out as expected, which has led to my giving up attitude. In bhakti we have heard that whatever one gets is due to his past or her past karma but after continuous failure I feel like giving up, thinking ultimately I am going to fail due to my bad karma. And this has led me to depression and feel what can I do as I will not succeed anyway. So my enthusiasm in bhakti is going down. How do I get out of this situation?

Jayapatākā Swami: So, the problem is what we would have got in our material life would have been much worse than what we get as a devotee. So, māyā is tricking you, if you give up bhakti-yoga then you have to take birth again and again and again. Birth again and again! In America they put stickers on the back of their cars, all kinds of stickers. They ask, the Christians, are you born again? On the back of the car the sticker said, “Born again and again and again”. Anyway, if you are in this material world, this material world stinks! But serving Kṛṣṇa is the all-blissful activity! I am wheelchair bound, and my kidneys have failed. But, talking about Kṛṣṇa, I feel very happy. I hope you all chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness!

Question: I had applied for Harināma initiation, but my form got rejected. Although I am not eating onion and garlic, I have a consumer store in which 50% of the items I sell contain onion and garlic.  I live in New Town, in Kolkata where people are not devotees mostly. I cannot remove items with onion and garlic from my shop. That is why, am I eligible for dīkṣā?

Jayapatākā Swami: I don’t know everything. But, if some preparation like chips or something has onion and garlic, I don’t think that would disqualify you. When I eat something, I look at the ingredients on the packet and if there are onion and garlic, I don’t take it. I was in a flight to London. In that flight, there was a sannyāsī, not from ISKCON. I went to him and talked with him. I saw he was eating the plane biscuit. It was wrapped in a cellophane wrapping. I did not take it because it may have egg, onion or garlic or something. But he was eating it. So being from the West, we naturally look at the ingredients. You also need to check the ingredients and eat. In India, now, more packaged foods are given. They say what the ingredients are. When I came in 1970, most of the food was like, raw! How many more questions? We will go until 10 pm. Any Bengali questions? I said if some chips or something contain onion or garlic, that does not disqualify. But in some shops they sell meat, that is a disqualification. If you have a choice between selling two items, one containing onion and garlic and one which doesn’t have, then you sell the one without onion and garlic. I don’t know in India if people read the packets!

All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda!

Question: How are you bābā?

Jayapatākā Swami: I am Bābā or Dāda?! Kṛṣṇa is everything, He is a child of Yaśodā Nandana, He is a friend to Sudāmā. He is Rukmiṇī’s husband, Rādhā’s paramour. That is why better to love Kṛṣṇa!

Question: Tomorrow is my initiation. Please bless me that I can distribute books and spread the holy name very successfully!

Jayapatākā Swami: Kṛṣṇe matir astu!

Question: How can we save ourselves from thinking that the spiritual master is an ordinary human being?

Jayapatākā Swami: If we think our spiritual master is dear to his spiritual master. And therefore, somehow he is dear to Kṛṣṇa. So, is that ordinary? You should find a guru who you think fits these qualifications. And if you are sincere then Kṛṣṇa will bless you in any case.

Question: My heartfelt desire is to take second initiation. But I am not well educated but I have been serving in the ISKCON Kolkata temple kitchen for many years. Please let me know what to do?

Jayapatākā Swami: I don’t know what service you do in the kitchen. Generally, to do service in the kitchen one has to be second initiated. Anyway, I desire that to get second initiated, you have to get the Bhakti-śāstrī degree. Because Śrīla Prabhupāda has written in many places. I think the students can read the books. Usually the people from Nāma-haṭṭas, from villages say they are illiterate. Now, girls and boys, brothers and sisters can read, if they read to you for an hour or so, both you and they will benefit. The Māyāpur Institute know I had a stroke, and I cannot write with my right hand. So, I verbally gave the answers. I can read from the screen. If people do not have any of these facilities, I had inquired from BBT what they can do. They said there is a ‘Transcend App’. And all Indian languages are there – Bengali, English, Telugu, Tamil, etc. you can read that or hear on audio file. This ‘Transcend App’ can be used to study the Bhagavad-gītā, etc. All the Śrīla Prabhupāda books are there in audio form as well. And the one in Bengali is cheaper than the English one. You get all the books in Bengali. If you cannot read, you can hear them.