20250629 Initiation Address

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’s initiation program is first initiation which Śrīla Prabhupāda introduced to us. Now Gauḍīya Maṭha gives Harināma but that is not given the way we do it. But we give first and second initiations. In that in the first initiation, there is Harināma japa, neck beads, japa beads and fire yajña and the vows the initiates take, all this in the first initiation as initiated by Śrīla Prabhupāda. In the second initiation, again there is fire yajña and also Gāyatrī mantra is given. And the initiates who have taken vows in the first initiation, again take vows in the second as well, and that is very essential. The vows you have taken are that you will chant 16 rounds every day, if one day you chant 12 rounds only, then you will have to make up the 4 rounds the next day and chant the 16 rounds for that day as well. But having a backlog and to make up the next day is not so convenient. Anyway, this is Harināma and can be done.

But Gāyatrī mantra cannot be done this way. Three times of the day this has to be chanted and cannot be carried forward to the next day. The Gāyatrī mantra has to be chanted the very same day. Like, today you have chanted Gāyatrī in the morning but forgotten to chant in the afternoon, then you can chant Gāyatrī twice in the evening. But no carrying forward to the next day. I had a stroke approximately 20 years ago and so I was in the hospital and could not chant Gāyatrī for quite a few days. But that is outside of my desire. And the day I regained consciousness, I started chanting Gāyatrī again. This way, one disciple said that after taking Harināma initiation, I am still not able to chant 16 rounds regularly, but I want second initiation. Then I could not grant him that. At least for one year if he would regularly chant 16 rounds, then I would consider I told him.

Yesterday one person told me that he had a convenience store in which there were packets of foodstuff sold which have onion and garlic in them and therefore his name was rejected for first initiation. But no one has ever told me of such situation and I started thinking. Three brothers had a supermarket and in that supermarket they sold meat and fish. Of the three brothers, one of them was asking for initiation and he did not eat non-veg. The four brothers’ situation was difficult to get out of. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that in such cases the brother should not take the profit from the sale of the meat and other nonveg items. I was thinking that in his supermarket there are many items which have onion and garlic, and there are many which do not have onion and garlic. So, what is the percentage of items which do not have onion and garlic, I don’t know. Someone was checking on Google and found that almost 100% of the items had onion or garlic in some powder form or the other. I was thinking that from the profits of selling items from the supermarket he could give 5% donation to the temple, meaning the profits from the sale of items with onion and garlic was donated to the temple, how would that be? This way, I hope that all of you will follow the four regulative principles and chant 16 rounds regularly and serve Lord Kṛṣṇa. So that this could be your last birth! You have to be taking this up with a determined and steady mind. If you don’t do that then it will not be easy for you to go back to Godhead. Lord Caitanya, Lord Nityānanda, Advaita Ācārya, etc. Pañca-tattva are extremely merciful! And that is why participating in the Lord Jagannātha’s Ratha-yātrā, etc. is very nice. The śāstras say that if one pulls the rope of the cart of Lord Jagannātha, they will get liberation! But you pull so many times and do various services! We do not want impersonal liberation, we want to serve Lord Kṛṣṇa! (A child was crying in the audience and Guru Mahārāja said, give the child some sweet!)

Hanumān was the servant of Śrī Rāmacandra. And the devotees are the servants of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Garuḍa deva does the service of carrier. And Subala-sakha etc., are friends of Kṛṣṇa. And Yaśodā, Nanda Mahārāja, Kṛṣṇa’s parents as well as Devakī and Vasudeva. This way Lord Kṛṣṇa can be served as mother and father. They think that Kṛṣṇa is their son and that they have to take good care of their son. Rukmiṇī and Rādhārāṇī are part of the conjugal love service of Kṛṣṇa. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura said that we are gradually progressing and getting slowly close to prema-bhakti. First, we have śraddhā and hear about Kṛṣṇa. Then some satsaṅga, association with devotees. Like we have Nāmahaṭṭas and Bhakti-vṛkṣas, etc. Then is bhajana-kriyā. At this stage we do all the services associated with devotion, we perform. And at this stage also, initiation is granted. This initiation is necessary. Now Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu took initiation from Īśvara Purī and then exhibited the mood of devotional service. This way there are eight more stages of devotional service. Anartha-nivṛtti, niṣṭhā, ruci, āsakti and then after that is rati or bhāva. These are all preceding prema-bhakti. Prema-bhakti is a very special goal of all of us. We hope that all of you want to have the benefit of prema-bhakti! Who all aspire for this? Haribol! Have you all taken vows to follow the four regulative principles and chant 16 rounds every day? Please raise your hand. Generally, if there are only two or three, then we make the devotees take their vows in front of us. But when there are so many devotees then the vows are taken earlier. Now I end here. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

I will chant Harināma once. You can chant after I finish chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra.

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

There are temple presidents from three temples - Pānihāṭi Dhāma and other places. We welcome all of you.