20260302 Address: Prabhupāda Connect Day

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: On this auspicious evening, Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda! His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda desired another type of vision. Like every institution has an ācārya. So this way it is going on. But ISKCON has many gurus. Like about 200 now. But Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted thousand, ten thousand, one hundred thousand gurus! But if this has to be achieved, he desired that they should be qualified. And he said that Lord Caitanya said that,

kibā vipra, kibā nyāsī, śūdra kene naya
yei kṛṣṇa-tattva-vettā, sei ‘guru’ haya
(Cc. Madhya 8.128)

Śrīla Prabhupāda said that if one had a Bhakti-vedānta degree, that person could be a guru.  Today many devotees wanted to donate Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Caitanya-bhāgavata to me, but I want that all of you should read! I have read and have the Bhakti-vedānta and Bhakti-Sārvabhauma degrees. You all read! What is the use of donating to me? I will pass it on to some library! Everyone should take one and study! This way if you study, you will be grateful and satisfied. In Gauḍīya Maṭha every maṭha has a guru. But we desire that there be a crore of gurus! But this way, you should not be like a rubber stamp. You should study the scriptures and become qualified.

I have seen Śrīla Prabhupāda at night, he once called me around 1 am. I saw that he was sitting and translating. He knew Sanskrit and was translating it into English. And then from English to Bengali was translated by His Holiness Bhakti Cāru Swami. This way, we have the Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Caitanya-caritāmṛta in many languages. Śrīla Prabhupāda with great difficulty and austerity, did the translation. Not only that, he wrote purports for them as well. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that to get Gāyatrī mantra, one should have the Bhakti-śāstrī degree. Bhakti-śāstrī consists of Bhagavad-gītā, and some small books study as well. Now, only 10% of my disciples have got Bhakti-śāstrī. Because they don’t want to get the Bhakti-śāstrī with so much difficulty! Those who are 40 years over devotees, they can take the summative test. The questions are given earlier, 50 numbers. And you can study as much and answer 20 questions. If you give the answers for them, you will get the degree. In the exams outside, if the questions are given before the exam,  then people give lakhs of rupees for this! But the questions here are given to us openly here. Why even then devotees do not take it? It is necessary, we are in the Brahma-Madhva-Gauḍīya sampradāya and the specialty of this sampradāya is knowledge. Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote with so much difficulty. He established 108 temples and he was also taking care of the organizing these temples. But side by side he continued to write. The Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā, Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, Īśopaniṣad and other books. He has give all these with so much difficulty, will you all not study them?!

Today, His Holiness Bhakti Vijaya Bhāgavata Swami is distributing Caitanya-caritāmṛta. I hope that you will take them and study as well! We want you all to read the scriptures, not that we want the money. But we need money to print the books, that is why we charge you for them. If someone printed it with no cost, then we would also have give them free of cost to you!

Anyway, Śrīla Prabhupāda has given us this invaluable path, the path of devotional service  in the saṅkīrtana movement of Lord Caitanya. He used to say that Māyāpur was his place of worship. He said that Mumbai was his office, And Vṛndāvana was his place of residence. But Māyāpur is his place of worship. Here, he would worship Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga!

Many people say that devotional service is a sentimental path. But that is not so. There is so much to see, so many scriptures, we have to study them and understand them. Those who are able to, there is Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī; Ṣaṭ-sandarbha and other scriptures. But the most valuable ones are Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Caitanya-caritāmṛta. You all should read them. There is the Transcend App and if you are not able to study, you can hear. If any of your relatives cannot read, they can hear. I am not able to write now because of the stroke I got and my right hand is paralysed. That is why I gave the answer to the questions in the mike. And His Grace Atula Kṛṣṇa dāsa mercifully heard my answers. I hope that those of you would if you cannot read or write, someone can read them out to you. There are some sādhus who do not read or write, but they have great insight. All of you please accept this invaluable asset we have. Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted that Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s instructions, His prediction come true –

pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma
sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma
(CB Antya-khaṇḍa 4.126)

 So for this to come true, you should experience and feel the presence of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu in your heart. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that, kibā vipra, kibā nyāsī, śūdra kene naya yei kṛṣṇa-tattva-vettā, sei ‘guru’ haya—whether you are a brāhmaṇa, vaiśya, kṣatriya, śūdra, whatever, less than a śūdra, a caṇḍāla, if you become Vaiṣṇavas and are kṛṣṇa-tattva-vettā, this way you can become the guru of the whole world! This is what we hope and Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted that we have one crore gurus. Where is there such a far reaching vision like this anywhere?  Śrīla Prabhupāda said that husband and wife, whoever it be, if they get kṛṣṇa-tattva, knowledge of Kṛṣṇa, they can practice and expand it. This, Śrīla Prabhupāda had desired. Many may not be able to do so, but if you practice you can, it will happen.

Śrīla Prabhupāda took so much difficulties at the old age, he went to the West. I came in 1968. Then I saw all the ISKCON temples – there were three – San Francisco, New York and Montreal. Now we have about 800 temples. And Śrīla Prabhupāda in his time had 108 temples established. Anyway, Śrīla Prabhupāda had told me that all the property should be kept safely. Sometimes after the passing away of the guru, the disciples sold off the property to eat and live. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that this should not happen. And…