20251226 Addressing Soro, Odisha Congregation

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: Welcome to Māyāpur! Māyāpur is the audārya-dhāma. It is a mercy-dhāma! And here every activity you do, you get a thousand times credit. In Vṛndāvana you also get the same thing. But in Vṛndāvana because we also get a thousand times the result for every offence. Here it is not the same! So Lord Caitanya, He is very merciful. But we should try to avoid offences. Here all the holy places have appeared. There is Nṛsiṁhapallī and Puṣkara-tīrtha, and there is Harihara-kṣetra. And there is Pañcaveṇī. There is Rādhā-kuṇḍa, Śyāma-kuṇḍa. Generally, all the holy places, they are existing here.

So, here also we have Jagannātha dhāma! Sometimes Lord Jagannātha actually came here! So in that place we have the Jagannātha Deities. They came from the Odisha Government to declare that this is actually the place, where Lord Jagannātha came thousands of years before. So here I hope that you all have a very nice time and see the holy places. All the devotees who live here are very fortunate. Because this is a very special place.

Lakṣmīpriyā, Viṣṇupriyā, are Śrī-śakti and Bhū-śakti, respectively. But this dhāma is also Līlā-śakti! So, this dhāma was expanded by the Lord’s internal potency. And being here one can experience a special rasa!

Human beings we have gone through 8 million species of life, at least. And there are 400,000 species of human beings. Lord Caitanya came to deliver the fallen human beings. And therefore, He is known as the most merciful or Patita-pāvana. You see, we are the spirit soul. These bodies are machines, made of material energy. The body takes birth, grows up and gradually gives some by products and then dies. So the spirit soul doesn’t die. So ātmā, is a part of Kṛṣṇa’s superior energy. So the ātmā never dies. If we desire material things, we take again material birth! If we are in the mode of goodness we go to higher planets. If we are more in the mode of passion, we stay here in the middle planets. If we are in the mode of ignorance we go down! But if you are thinking of Kṛṣṇa and serve Him you go to the transcendental planet. So that is what the whole purpose of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is!

Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So this Navadvīpa dhāma has nine islands – and each island is connected to one of the nine processes of devotional service. Hearing, chanting, remembering, and offering service and offering prayers, obeisances and doing Deity worship. And then being a servant of the Lord, being a friend of the Lord, and surrendering everything, ātma-nivedanam. So the nine islands of Navadvīpa are connected to these nine practices of bhakti-yoga. Sīmantadvīpa, Godrumadvīpa, Madhyadvīpa, Koladvīpa, Ṛtudvīpa, Modadrumadvīpa, Jahnudvīpa, Rudradvīpa and Antardvīpa. Not many people do not know these nine islands.

So, we are happy to welcome all the devotees here! Lord Caitanya’s birthplace is about a kilometer down the road. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that ISKCON was the karma-sthāna, the workplace of Lord Caitanya! So, here we are trying to do the preaching, the work of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. While you are here you should see the TOVP, The Temple of Vedic Planetarium. We hope to open that in two years. It is almost finished. You can see by the main gate there is a grass hut. And at one point, that is all there was! So from that it became what you see today! And it is only like one fourth of the whole city! So every week we meet with the Master Plan Committee. Then we discuss the Master Plan of Māyāpur. So, we want to have a city, normally we now have 7,500, we want to have around 50,000!

Are there any questions?

Question: In the beginning in devotional service we advance very nicely but eventually we notice that we start declining gradually, why is that?

Jayapatākā Swami: Maybe some person is making offences. And so their advancement is slowing down.

Question: We say that the material world is the perverted reflection of the spiritual world. Everything that exists in material world is also there in the spiritual world. So animals here survive on other animals, if same is the scenario in spiritual world then how do we say that there is no death in the spiritual world?

Jayapatākā Swami: You see it is not the spiritual world is a copy of the material world. The material world is a distorted reflection of the spiritual world! So here we have birth, death, but in the spiritual world we do not. So this is distorted, because several things here do not exist in the spiritual world. Like here we have hatred, demons, all kinds things that do not exist in the spiritual world. In the spiritual world there is love, in the material world there is a distorted reflection of that love, that is lust.

Question: Lord Caitanya toured South India and spread the mercy there. But many don’t know about Him until they come to ISKCON. Why is He not known widely?

Jayapatākā Swami: That is for us. Our work is to amplify His glories. There is a village in South India where they were chanting the names of Lord Caitanya. They did not what it meant. Why they were chanting that, they did not know! Lord Caitanya came 500 years ago and He definitely had a great impact at that time! But who was the Chief Minister ten years ago, we forget! Ten years AIDMK or DMK or what! So, 500 years after maybe people have forgotten. So we have to remind them! Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted that we should expand the preaching unlimited and realize Lord Caitanya’s prediction. Here in Māyāpur, in April 1975 he was talking about ten million gurus! One joins as a student but eventually becomes a teacher! Not many are taking this responsibility. We have to do it selflessly to please guru and Kṛṣṇa.

So your prayers have helped Vrajeśvara Gaura dāsa. Like on previous nights, we are going to chant Pañca-tattva and Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, for his health and for the progress of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement!

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

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

Thank you all and blessings to you! Kṛṣṇe matir astu!

Oh Avatārīdeśa kī jaya!