20250816 Śrī Kṛṣṇa Janmāṣṭamī Morning Class

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram
hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

Jayapatākā Swami: Today, on the special event of Kṛṣṇa Janmāṣṭamī, I offer my heart wishes to all of you! Today, Kṛṣṇa, He appeared in this world. That is a wonderful thing for all of us! Kṛṣṇa comes once every day of Brahmā. Brahmā’s day is one thousand catur-yugas. So we are very fortunate that just in the previous Dvāpara-yuga, Kṛṣṇa came! Of course, He wanted to give everybody the opportunity to taste kṛṣṇa-bhakti! About 500 years ago, He came again as Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

So, Kṛṣṇa when He comes, He is merciful, but Lord Caitanya is more merciful! So, Kṛṣṇa, He wants your love. And He doesn’t enjoy the material world. He wants the bliss of the spiritual world, the transcendental world. Sat-cit-ānanda, the transcendental bliss, Kṛṣṇa tastes that! Better late than never! (A-side: to Acintya Caitanya dāsa the repeater) In the Nectar of Devotion, Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, it says of the different rasas that exist in the spiritual world. If someone thinks that I am suffering a lot, I don’t want this suffering anymore, then he can get this liberation of sāyujya, merging into the brahma-jyoti. But a devotee never wants this, he never appreciates this. He wants to serve Kṛṣṇa.

So there are five rasas in serving Kṛṣṇa. The first rasa is neutral. The yogīs, the trees and animals are all part of the neutral or śānta-rasa. The next rasa is servitude, dāsya. That also exists in Hari-dhāma. But in Goloka Vṛndāvana, the people who serve Kṛṣṇa are referred to as anugas. Like in Goloka Vṛndāvana, Dāruka is one anuga. He is the foremost of all the anugas. So, the anugas, they serve Kṛṣṇa all the time.

Then there are the friends of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa has different stages of His life and there are three stages kaumāra, paugaṇḍa and kaiśora... Kṛṣṇa is showing His friendship more in the paugaṇḍa stage. Paugaṇḍa is like five to nine years. There are four kinds of friends. They are well-wishers, some are a little bit older than Lord Kṛṣṇa. And they think that that they want to protect Kṛṣṇa. So like this, they are thinking how to protect Kṛṣṇa. Then there are the ordinary friends. And there are a little more intimate friends. These stages have been very nicely elaborated in the Nectar of Devotion. And there are a types of friends of Kṛṣṇa who go for herding the cows with Kṛṣṇa and sit with Kṛṣṇa and have a picnic. Each friend thinks Kṛṣṇa is looking at him! And when they have separation from Kṛṣṇa even for a short time, they feel tears coming from their eyes and feel very affected.

When the different demons attack Kṛṣṇa, at that time Kṛṣṇa performs different pastimes. There was a cloud over Govardhana and one of the devotees who was protecting Kṛṣṇa, thought that it was the Aghāsura demon or something. He readied Himself to fight with that asura. But some other friend said, “It is not an asura, it is just a cloud!” The fourth type of friends are the most intimate devotees. And when Kṛṣṇa is in kaiśora or end of paugaṇḍa, these kind of friends are with Kṛṣṇa and interact with the gopīs with messages of Kṛṣṇa. And some of the gopīs were talking that these friends of Kṛṣṇa, there is a particular number, that they come and whisper in your ear some message, and Kṛṣṇa that disturbs us. So in each stage there are the beginning, middle and end. So, it is said that the dealings between Kṛṣṇa and His friends is so wonderful that even great paṇḍitas are unable to describe!

So the next stage is parental rasa. They like, particularly the kaumāra age the most. Like Kṛṣṇa in the beginning of kaumāra, He was crawling on the ground and so on. Sometimes, He had clothes a little bit and sometimes no clothes! Śrīla Prabhupāda said that the devotee parents in this parental rasa think that I must take care of Kṛṣṇa and I must look after Him, otherwise He will not grow up to be a good person. They are always thinking that Kṛṣṇa is dependent on them! One time someone was talking and Mother Yaśodā thought that, “Kṛṣṇa lifted the Govardhana Hill? But how is that possible for a small boy? I think that Nanda Mahārāja, he must have lifted it!” Like this it describes in the Nectar of Devotion, that of all the devotees in parental rasa, Mother Yaśodā is number one! And number two is Nanda Mahārāja. I forget all the ones in Vṛndāvana, but there are many. Devakī, she is the foremost in Dvārakā or Mathurā. So, the other wives of Vasudeva also are in the parent rasa. I remember, in Vṛndāvana how the boys Brahmā stole, their mothers were in that rasa too. And of course Vasudeva.

So when Kṛṣṇa went to Mathurā and killed Kaṁsa, Kṛṣṇa went to see Devakī and Vasudeva. But they were not in the parental mood then. Because He had killed Kaṁsa, they offered prayers in awe and reverence to Kṛṣṇa. But Kṛṣṇa did not want that. He wanted parental affection. So then Kṛṣṇa sprinkled some līlā-dust on them. Then Devakī and Vasudeva, they felt, “Oh! Parents!” So like this, Kṛṣṇa, He wants to taste rasas! In Hari-dhāma, these opulences of the Lord are manifest. But in Kṛṣṇaloka, devotees interact with Kṛṣṇa in a very, very intimate way. That is also known as Goloka Vṛndāvana. In Vṛndāvana Kṛṣṇa acts as a cowherd boy or vaiśya. But in Dvārakā, He is in the mood of a kṣatriya. So Devakī and Vasudeva, they are prominent in Dvārakā. And Yaśodā, Nanda Mahārāja, Rādhārāṇī, they reside in Vṛndāvana. Therefore, Vṛndāvana Pastimes are more special! The Vṛndāvana-līlā is considered sweet, sweet, sweet And Mathurā is sweet, sweet. And Dvārakā is sweet! So I am not in a position to describe the intimate pastimes of Śrīmatī Rādhā, the gopīs and Kṛṣṇa. They are not like the material situation. All the vraja-vāsīs, they all want to please Kṛṣṇa and they want Kṛṣṇa’s satisfaction to be foremost.

That is why I am telling you many times, to try to please Kṛṣṇa! Today is a special day to please Kṛṣṇa! But every day we should make this our goal, that we want to please Kṛṣṇa, please guru and Kṛṣṇa.

Lord Caitanya was so merciful that He allowed people to be either gṛhasthas or vairāgīs. So, Lord Caitanya saw some lady was pregnant and He told her she would have a son and said, “You should call him this name.” That means, He was showing so much affection to the gṛhasthas! But He told Choṭa Haridāsa, a little mistake he made as a vairāgī that he was banned! So this is a special matter, in whatever āśrama one is in, they should follow the regulations of that particular āśrama. In Vṛndāvana for instance, how the vraja-vāsīs loved Kṛṣṇa, how they were exchanging pastimes with Kṛṣṇa is very relevant. So, we should worship and take care of our Deities in that mood.

Before I came to India, I went to Los Angeles. There every week the devotees used to go up to the small Deities and give the report of their activities. This way, there was a personal relationship with the Lord that I am serving the Deity. In this way, we should be thinking all the time, how we should please guru and Kṛṣṇa! We should think that we have a responsibility to serve Kṛṣṇa. So, today Kṛṣṇa appeared in this tithi, five thousand years ago.

His Holiness Bhakti Vijaya Bhāgavata Swami requested me to announce that today on Kṛṣṇa Janmāṣṭamī, he is giving a special discount of 1500 rupees on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam! Normally the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam sets are 9000 rupees, but today they are 7500 rupees! Whatever the left side, the stall has the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. All the vraja-vāsīs want to please Kṛṣṇa. So in this way, their only goal is to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. And 8 O’clock is Deity darśana. So now we will have some questions and answers.

Of course, we are praying for His Grace Ambarīṣa Prabhu to be healthy again!

Question: What qualities does a devotee have to develop that makes them eligible to go back to Godhead in one lifetime?

Jayapatākā Swami: You see, if you want to serve Kṛṣṇa, then the only suitable birth is for you to take where you can serve Kṛṣṇa. I did not say about human birth but that is alright! But we want to serve Kṛṣṇa. And so like Śrīla Prabhupāda said, the gṛhasthas should be paramahaṁsas. And they should have ācāryas as their children. Because we need a lot of ācāryas!

Now it is 8, so let us go for the Deity darśana.