20251105 Fortnightly Message (22 October – 5 November 2025)

5 Nov 2025|English|Message to Disciples|Chennai, India

Fortnightly Message (22 October – 5 November 2025)

Dāmodara Māsa, Gaura Pakṣa, Pūrṇimā, 539 Gaurabda

My dear dīkṣā, sheltered, aspiring, śikṣā, grand-disciples, and well-wishers,

Please accept my blessings, best wishes, and praṇāms as appropriate.
All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Home Base: Śrī Māyāpur Candrodāya Mandir
Camp: ISKCON Chennai, India

Date: 5 November 2025

Highlights

Today is the last day of Dāmodara month and also Bhīṣma-pañcaka vrata. Generally, I am in Śrī Māyāpur dhāma for Bhīṣma-pañcaka. But this year, I have to be in Chennai for my treatment, so I observed my Bhīṣma-pañcaka vrata here. I heard that in Māyāpur, more than 2,500 devotees observed the second level of fasting for Bhīṣma-pañcaka. I sent them a video message glorifying the vrata along with my blessings and best wishes. Bhakti Kids also organized a Bhīṣma-pañcaka challenge and I addressed the participants on Zoom. More than 300 youths and adults were present online.

Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Message

One time in Māyāpur, at the Lotus Building, Śrīla Prabhupāda was standing on the first floor, and he was looking at all the bugs flying around a light. Many of us were watching Śrīla Prabhupāda looking at them and wondering what he was doing. Then he turned to the devotees and said, “You see, these thousands of bugs are flying around the light, but there are no crashes. But even in the airports sometimes, with radar and so many advanced facilities, still they have accidents.”

So, Śrīla Prabhupāda, everything he would see, he would have a Kṛṣṇa conscious approach.

Inspirational Stories

While in Chennai, my disciple Śabda Hari dāsa invited me to speak at a retreat which he organized for around 300-400 business coaches from all over India, and it was called “Freedom Challenge Retreat.” These people have a collective influence of 10 lakh students. I was happy to share with them about the importance of serving Kṛṣṇa, and all of them also offered lamps to Yaśodā Dāmodara. After the talk, Śabda Hari sent me testimonies of some of them expressing how happy they were to add spirituality into their lives. Most of them said that they were inspired by my presence and the address.

I also received a letter from one of my aspiring disciples, who is a class 9 student from Lucknow, that for his birthday he took his school friends to ISKCON Lucknow, and they did Dāmodara lamp offering, feeding of cows, and also took prasāda.

I am very inspired by a letter from Mathurā Candrikā devī dāsī, one of my dear spiritual granddaughters from Russia, who wrote to me that for the past three years she was sick and wheelchair-bound, but she never stopped her services. During that time, she started a Vaiṣṇava children’s channel and continued her book distribution services and other preaching programs.

I wanted to share these inspiring preaching stories with all of you to emphasize that there is no impediment to preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness: neither audience, age, nor physical health status.

My Message

In the second chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā, it says that except by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa’s pure devotees, one cannot know Kṛṣṇa. And in the seventh chapter, it says that everyone is under the influence of the three modes of material nature. Even those in sattva-guṇa or brāhmaṇas are not able to understand Kṛṣṇa. But if someone achieves devotional service, only they can understand Kṛṣṇa.

Śrīla Prabhupāda said that his devotees are pure devotees, and he said some are ripe mangoes and some are green mangoes; but mango is mango. So, the thing is that only the devotees can make other devotees, only devotees can pray for people they see or meet to become devotees: Kṛṣṇe matir astu! In this way, our Kṛṣṇa conscious movement spreads. Unless a devotee influences them, preaches to them, prays for them, there is no way they can understand that Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead can be transcendental. The brāhmaṇas, they come to the impersonal realization, but by mental speculation, they cannot go beyond that.

So, we want all devotees to pray that the people they meet become devotees.

I am looking forward to receiving your preaching ideas and preaching reports.

Your well-wisher always,
Jayapatākā Swami

JPS/rrsdb

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