20260404 Evening 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: Like this we want to enthuse new people to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa! In one year how many people can we motivate to chant? In one month? We want everyone to try your best to motivate others to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa! In India people are generally pious and so we should enthuse them to chant. One devotee wrote to me who was a book distributor. He was trying to do “Har Ghar Bhāgavatam” and he was wanting to distribute one thousand sets of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in a month, with no discount!! And it is very auspicious to have the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam at home. Śrīla Prabhupāda gave us this temple in Mumbai which is a very materialistic city. He wanted that the devotees preach here and the whole of Mumbai become devotees! Actually, you are the ones who have to do it! Whoever, you have to get your family, friends, colleagues to come over and to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and be happy! You have to explain the glories of the mahā-mantra to them! There are so many glories! So many glories! The mahā-mantra is our best friend! There is no friend better than the mahā-mantra. The mahā-mantra is non-different from Kṛṣṇa but if you make any offence to the Deity by chanting the holy name you can be forgiven. But if you commit an offence to the holy name there is no one but the holy name who can forgive you by chanting as the holy name is most merciful! So we have to attentively chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra as ask for forgiveness and chant constantly.

In all the yugas, Harināma is most powerful. But in this Kali-yuga the other processes like meditation, temple worship does not work as much as Harināma:

Harer nāma harer nāma
harer nāmaiva kevalam
kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva
nāsty eva gatir anyathā
[Cc. Ādi 17.21]

So we have to learn this verse by heart. But the tenth offence to the holy name is that even though we know the glories of the holy name we still do not have a taste for chanting the holy name. So the holy name is very special in this age. Lord Caitanya gave us this mahā-mantra. In His Śikṣāṣṭaka verse 2, He glorifies the holy name. The first verse He glorifies the saṅkīrtana. The third verse He says how our disposition should be. So this is a step by step process. Some people ask me that I am sad and give excuse that they cannot chant properly. The only good quality of the Kali-yuga is chanting the mahā-mantra. We should always chant in any way. So this holy name, even in arati we can chant. Alright? Men, women, sudras, anyone can chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. The scripture says that even though he is a brāhmaṇa by birth, if He is not a Vaiṣṇava, he cannot become a guru.

ṣaṭ-karma-nipuṇo vipro
mantra-tantra-viśāradaḥ
avaiṣṇavo gurur na syād
vaiṣṇavaḥ śva-paco guruḥ
[Padma Purāṇa]

If there is an expert brāhmaṇa, who is very advanced but he is not a devotee, not a Vaiṣṇava, the scripture says guru-na syād, he cannot be a guru. But if there is a meat eater but he is a Vaiṣṇava, he can become a guru. A Vaiṣṇava eats prasāda! You all have prasāda? You go to Govinda’s restaurant here and you can get prasāda! Life members prasāda, prasāda for devotees! Like this a Vaiṣṇava eats kṛṣṇa-prasāda!

Haridāsa Ṭhākura was born in a mleccha family who were meat eaters. But as a Vaiṣṇava he was eating prasāda and chanting 3 lakh holy names every day. So we want everyone to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Will you all help me in this? I went to the American consulate, there many touched my feet. I went to the hospital, the nurses wanted to take a group photo! This is India! Here people are very spiritual. What is the difficulty to get them to chant? But we don’t do it! I do it! Who all do this?

Thank you!