20250629 Ratha-yātrā Pandal Address Day 2

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: Jaya Lord Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā, Sudarśana! Thank you to everyone for coming here! Lord Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā, Sudarśana have come here after the Ratha-yātrā and will stay here for nine days! Generally, people pray to God to give them this and that! But there is something which is much better than all these things. This world is material world, and there is some happiness and distress. And we have ādhyātmika, ādhibhautika and ādhidaivika miseries. And the living entities have the propensities of eating, sleeping, mating and defending. But the humans and animals have a difference. Animals have no dharma. Humans have dharma. Lord Jagannātha has come here and that is His very special blessing! Because we can pull Lord Jagannātha’s ratha and do service to Him. That way, our life will be perfected. And in this material world we think we are the body. And some thinkers think that they have soul. But the Bhagavad-gītā says, we are the soul, and we have two bodies – material body and the other is subtle body. We have the Lord’s love with us and this you can call caitya-guru or Paramātmā. Now, we are in darkness. But if we serve Lord Jagannātha then our darkness will be dispersed. In the Kali-yuga, if we chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra and do kīrtana then our consciousness will become clean.

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

All of you do kīrtana! Whether rich or poor, educated or uneducated, all can do Hare Kṛṣṇa kīrtana! Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu said:

gṛhe thāko vane thāko sadā hari bole ḍāko

That means those who are gṛhasthas or brahmacārīs, all can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa! There is no use of taking sannyāsa in Kali-yuga. But everyone, men, women, children, all should chant Harināma. Lord Jagannātha has come being brought here by your pulling the ropes of His ratha! Now, all dharmas say you should serve the Lord and you should love the Lord. But vaidika-dharma who is the Lord and what He does is mentioned. I have brought some bhoga to offer Lord Jagannātha. I am very happy at being able to serve the Lord today! There are eight stages of bhakti-yoga. And the stages lead to prema. And prema has many stages as well. The first stage is śraddhā, you have come and are hearing means you have śraddhā. Then is sādhu-saṅga. That means the devotees you are associating with and hearing them. And these devotees do a lot of work with regard to the Ratha-yātrā. We don’t give them any remuneration. They are doing, because of their devotion. And they get bliss out of this! I have talked of two stages. The third is bhajana-kriyā. When one wants to do bhajana, does worship in the temple, does kīrtana and then take shelter and initiation from guru. This way they do some spiritual practice. Then there is anartha-nivṛtti when all their unwanted habits get eliminated. When this Hare Kṛṣṇa:

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

One day in the airport in Kolkata I was chanting on my beads with the bead bag. One Christian sister from the Missionary of Charity, came and said, if she could ask me a question. She asked me, “Do you have a chicken in your bag?” She saw that the bag was shaking as I was chanting! I told her, “No, this is japa-mālā, like you have rosary beads.” This way after niṣṭhā, one reaches ruci. To serve and take the name of Kṛṣṇa, we develop a taste. We desire that all of you should pass these above stages. Then comes āsakti after ruci. To serve Kṛṣṇa, and Lord Jagannātha, one is so happy that one gets attached to that! Then comes rati or bhāva. That is just one step below prema. The next stage is love of Kṛṣṇa or prema. So there are eight stages of devotion that devotees experience. Like, tears rolling down their eyes, hairs standing on end, rolling on the ground, do kīrtana and dance, and don’t care for anything else! And at this stage one could get darśana of Kṛṣṇa! And after that they develop prema for Kṛṣṇa! Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu came as Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa combined. Because Kṛṣṇa, He had told Rukmiṇī earlier that He would come in Kali-yuga. Kolkata is a part of the Gaura-maṇḍala Bhūmi.

Śrī gauḍa-maṇḍala-bhūmi,     yebā jāne cintāmaṇi,
tā'ra haya vrajabhūme vāsa

I hope that you will be followers of Lord Caitanya and distribute the message. Lord Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā, Sudarśana are very beautiful! They have come to give all mercy! The best thing is to serve Kṛṣṇa and slowly go up the stages of bhakti-yoga and reach prema! Gaurāṅga! Nityānanda!

Here, there is a very beautiful temple of Lord Jagannātha, I saw. I hope that you are all very enthusiastic about it. Jaya Jagannātha! Jaya Baladeva! Jaya Subhadrā! Jaya Sudarśana! Hare Kṛṣṇa!

If you have any questions, I can answer later.  You can watch the rest of the cultural program.