20251019 Sunday Feast 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: So, today what should I lecture on? What the audience would like to hear? How many of you are initiated devotees? And how many have second initiation?

Devotee: Maybe 15 to 20

 Jayapatākā Swami: I don’t know what other spiritual masters require for second initiation, I require that they take Bhakti-śāstrī, read Bhagavad-gītā three times and reach reading Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam at least till third canto. So, we want all the devotees to at least have second initiation. It is nice if you do some service in the temple as second initiated. But that is not an essential point. We want you to advance in your spiritual life and get closer and closer to Kṛṣṇa! 

You see, generally people in the material world identify with the body as themselves. But we are the spirit soul and when the spiritual soul leaves the body, the body is declared dead. Śrīla Prabhupāda was preaching to some villagers, say a grandfather, a soul leaves the body, and everyone says, “He is gone, he is gone, HE IS GONE!” So who is gone? The body is there, the skin is there, everything is there, but they say, “HE IS GONE!” So who is gone? So, someone is crying, “My husband is gone, my father is gone, my grandfather is gone!” So, Śrīla Prabhupāda was asking, “Who is gone?” This shows how the actual person is the ātmā, not the body. As long as the ātmā is present in the body, the body is beautiful and nice! But when the ātmā leaves the body, then it starts to decay. According to the Hindu tradition, you have to burn the body. So, everyone is born and eventually they will die. The Vedas say, when one who dies again will take birth. So the thing is that where we take birth, we can have that decision making.

Like various persons do some worship of the devas, devīs. And as a result, they get some material benefits quickly. And they may go to the higher planetary systems. They stay there for some time and when their good karma runs out, they come down again. If they lived a sinful life then Yamarāja has a nice place for them! There was one family, wife, children, all were my disciples. But the father, he was against. He was diagnosed with cancer. He was in his bed. And some very dangerous persons entered through the wall of his room. They had leather ropes. And he saw them coming to him. They looked like Yamadūtas. He said, “No, no, no, no! Not me! Not now! HARIII!” And so those dangerous individuals disappeared through the wall! He called his wife, “I want to read Bhagavad-gītā! [Hari Bol]. I want neck beads, I want japa beads!” And he started to chant:

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

And his wife and children took turns to read Bhagavad-gītā to him. So, what we could not do in many years, the Yamadūtas did in a few minutes! [Clapping] And so we don’t want you all the meet the Yamadūtas! We know where they will take you – to one of the hellish places! Kumbhīpākam! What are some of the hellish planets – Ayaḥpāna, Tāmisra, Andhatāmisra, Raurava, Mahāraurava. So we want you rather to go up back to the spiritual world!

You see, Nanda Mahārāja was going to do pūjā to Indra. And Kṛṣṇa was a six-year boy. He said, “Father, what are you doing?” So He dissuaded the Indra pūjā and that angered Indradeva. Instead, Kṛṣṇa had the brāhmaṇas, the cows be taken around the Govardhana in parikramā. But then Indra told his rain clouds – ferocious clouds to do a cloud burst! We were seeing in the newscast in some places like Uttarakhand, Haryana, they have cloud burst. So this was happening in Vṛndāvana. And Kṛṣṇa lifted the Govardhana Hill! With one hand, one finger He held the mountain up. So, He told all the cows, cowherd men and women to go under the mountain. And they took shelter of Kṛṣṇa and went under the mountain. For seven days He held up the mountain! Everyone had a different relationship with Kṛṣṇa. His friends thought they were equal with Kṛṣṇa. And they said Kṛṣṇa, let Sudāmā hold the hill a bit, we will share, You take some rest! Like that they were putting their sticks up to hold the hill! Actually, for Kṛṣṇa lifting one mountain was not a big thing! He is creating through His expansions all the ananta-koṭi brahmāṇḍa! Eventually, Indra realized that he was messing with the wrong person! He is my Lord! And all the cowherd men, cows, boys, everyone came out of the hill and Kṛṣṇa put the hill down. Then the cowherd men went to Nanda Mahārāja and said, “We just saw your son lift the mountain, lift the hill for seven days, who is He? And he said that Garga Muni, the astrologer had come to their house. He told us that your son, He has the power of Nārāyaṇa and is the well-wisher of the cowherd men and He is auspicious for you and the cows.

So, like this, Kṛṣṇa is the source of the Supersoul that everybody has in your body. But you are all some jīva-śaktis. So that means also a small particle of Kṛṣṇa! So, we are meant to worship and serve Kṛṣṇa. But many yogis, they don’t know about the Supreme Being, being a Person. He is not material, He does not have a material body but has a spiritual body. We have a material body which undergoes birth, disease, old age and death. So to get out of this cycle of birth and death, different transcendentalists are trying. Most of the transcendentalists, they are trying to merge into the spiritual brahma-jyoti. But the devotees reject this form of liberation. They demons who are killed by Kṛṣṇa, they get this type of liberation. So if someone wants to serve Kṛṣṇa, they know that Kṛṣṇa is transcendental and the brahma-jyoti is the radiation from His body, then why will they take such a horrible situation? And they want to engage in the service of Kṛṣṇa and His expansions. When we serve Kṛṣṇa, He feels little happiness, and we feel unlimited spiritual bliss!

So, devotees, they are always happy! I just heard that in Russian how they say we are happy! Miradhe! Everybody in Vṛndāvana, they say, “Rādhe Rādhe!” They don’t know they are also speaking Russian!! So anyway, I want see, I want to go in front of Nitāi Gaura, Rādhā Kṛṣṇa, Rukmiṇī Satayabhāmā Kṛṣṇa, Jagannātha, Baladeva Subhadrā, Sudarśana and Lakṣmī Nṛsiṁha!

I hope you are all convinced to serve Kṛṣṇa! Go back to the spiritual world! Every place in the material world is a place of death. We are in the middle planet, in the earth, Bhūmi. So we have the opportunity to engage in Kṛṣṇa’s service and end this cycle of birth and death. Lord Caitanya, when He toured South India, He told everybody: 

yāre dekha, tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa
āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra’ ei deśa 
[Cc. Madhya 7.128]

Translation: ”Instruct everyone to follow the orders of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa as they are given in the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In this way become a spiritual master and try to liberate everyone in this land.”
Haribol!