20260213 Śrī Māyāpur Festival Flag Hoisting Ceremony Address

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-gurun dina tāriṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram
Harihi oṁ tat sat

Jayapatākā Swami: This flag raising ceremony is very important because we are hyper-personal, so this festival is also a personal representation. So Garuḍa and several other entities and Śrīla Prabhupāda are personally present at this festival time! We are offering this festival as our offering to Lord Kṛṣṇa, Lord Caitanya! We want to individually and collectively offer our services to Lord Caitanya, to the guru-paramparā! There are many wonderful things that are here – the Deities, the TOVP, yesterday they opened the Yajña-śālā which is amazing! And we have the Śravaṇa-utsava, the Kīrtana-melā and we have the parikramā and various festivals after the parikramā. So this leads up to the Gaura-Pūrṇimā day, the day before is the last day of the year and Gaura-Pūrṇimā is the new year. This is the Gaurābda. 2026 and so on is Christābda. So this festival is our New Year’s eve festival! We observe it for two weeks! I think all the devotees, the managers, leaders have come to participate from different parts of the world. I appreciate all of you for participating in this grand yajña.

We were reading how Śrīla Prabhupāda, he was searching for Gaurasundara dāsa in Hawaii but he could not find him. Then he went back to Los Angeles and Gaurasundara came to see him. So Śrīla Prabhupāda talked to him but he did not answer anything. And Śrīla Prabhupāda asked him, “How did I fail you?” In various ways, but he did not say – he had big hair, beard and left. Śrīla Prabhupāda said, “He is a rascal! But I love him!” We are all here because Śrīla Prabhupāda loves us! If he loves the people who steal, who are rascals, what to speak of you all who are all dedicated devotees! We should be so much committed to serve Śrīla Prabhupāda, he loves us! Haribol!