20250722 Address to Assam Nāmahaṭṭa Devotees

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: Should I speak in Bengali or English? I don’t know Assamese! Mix Hindi and Bengali?

Haribol! Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu kī jaya! Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu kī jaya! Advaita Ācārya kī jaya! Śrīvāsa ādi Gaura-bhakta-vṛnda!

I am very happy to see all of you here. This is Navadvīpa dhāma, which is a very sacred dhāma. Rādhārāṇī established this and Lord Kṛṣṇa said that this dhāma is non-different from Vṛndāvana. Whatever devotional service you do, you get 1000 times more benefit. But, in Vṛndāvana if you do any sinful deeds or have sinful thoughts, then you get a 1000 times the result of that as well. But here, the bad results are not 1000 times the action. That is why this dhāma is called the audārya-dhāma! Vṛndāvana is mādhurya-dhāma, Jagannātha Purī is aiśvarya-dhāma. But Navadvīpa dhāma is audārya-dhāma. Audārya means mercy or kṛpā. Siddha Jagannātha dāsa Bābājī was earlier in Vṛndāvana but because of the fear of the bad results that accrue in Vṛndāvana, he came away to Navadvīpa. Here he attained siddha-deha! When we go on parikramā, we go there, during Gaura-pūrṇimā. Now, there are three Bengali parties in the parikramā. You can also join!

This Navadvīpa dhāma is the center of the lotus flower called Antardvīpa. And around are the 8 petals. They are connected with the nava-vidha bhakti, nine practices of devotional service. Some say that the rules are different but gṛhasthas are different. But Lord Caitanya said gṛhe thāko vane thāko sadā hari bole ḍāko. In the 9^th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Śrīla Prabhupāda in a purport says that be they men, women, śūdras, children, whoever does devotional service, there is no difference in the stage of bhakti-yoga. One may be very learned in sastras and scripture but if he is not doing bhakti-yoga, does not do devotion to the Lord, all these are useless and in vain.

In Nāma-haṭṭa, the desire is to do bhakti-yoga practice and gradually come up to the level of prema-bhakti. I wish that all of you one day, come to the state of prema-bhakti. Haribol! So much bliss is there, is incalculable!  In our adhivāsa-kīrtana we sing:

ānandera sīmā nāi, ānandera sīmā nāi, nirānada dūre jāi, nirānanda dūre jāi!

This material world has both happiness and distress. We have a hospital and there some people come with cancer and other diseases. Now, in the youth one does not generally have much disease but gradually with age, they have more problems and distress. Now I am bound to the wheelchair. Because I had a stroke and that is why I cannot walk without support. But, there is bliss in kṛṣṇa-bhakti! And I want that all of you experience the bliss of kṛṣṇa-bhakti!

You know that there are eight stages of bhakti – and one of the stages is bhāva or rati. This stage is the one just before prema-bhakti and one feels ecstatic love in bhāva-bhakti. After that if they get the darśana of Kṛṣṇa, then prema-bhakti begins. And this prema-bhakti also has eight stages. Rādhārāṇī is at the highest level of prema, called mahābhāva. This is very rare. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu expressed this mahā-bhāva all the time! One of our parama-gurus, Mādhavendra Purī, also was in mahābhāva. But this is very rare and cannot be ordinarily achieved. But, bhāva, prema, all of you can attain. For this you have to chant the names of Kṛṣṇa:

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

Now, Kṛṣṇa had brought the storehouse of Prema but He distributed it very little. He used to give that to very surrendered people. But Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu was Kṛṣṇa, but in the mood and color of Rādhārāṇī. Rukmiṇī devī told Lord Kṛṣṇa once that You know everything. What Lord Brahmā is doing in Satyaloka, what Lord Śiva is doing in Kailāsa, and You know whatever is going on in the ananta-koṭi brahmāṇḍas. But there is one thing You do not know! Rādhārāṇī knows, I know, but You don’t know. Kṛṣṇa was amazed! What is that I don’t know? So after a lot of inquiry, Rukmiṇī devī said that, “You are the Supreme Person, there is no one above You. But You don’t know how much the devotees love You!”

VIDEO ENDED ABRUPTLY