Live From Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir!
Date: February 10th , 2012
Topic: Maharaj Prthu’s Going Back Home
Verse: SB 6. 3. 20-21
Speaker: HH Jaypataka Swami
______________________________
dvadasaite vijanimo
dharmam bhagavatam bhatah
guhyam visuddham durbodham
yam jnatvamrtam asnute
TRANSLATION: Lord Brahma, Bhagavan Narada, Lord Siva, the four Kumaras, Lord
Kapila [the son of Devahuti], Svayambhuva Manu, Prahlada Maharaja, Janaka
Maharaja, Grandfather Bhisma, Bali Maharaja, Sukadeva Gosvami and I myself
know the real religious principle. My dear servants, this transcendental
religious principle, which is known as bhagavata-dharma, or surrender unto
the Supreme Lord and love for Him, is uncontaminated by the material modes
of nature. It is very confidential and difficult for ordinary human beings
to understand, but if by chance one fortunately understands it, he is
immediately liberated, and thus he returns home, back to Godhead.
PURPORT: In Bhagavad-gita Lord Krsna refers to bhagavata-dharma as the most
confidential religious principle (sarva-guhyatamam, guhyad guhyataram).
Krsna says to Arjuna, “Because you are My very dear friend, I am explaining
to you the most confidential religion.” Sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam
saranam vraja: [Bg. 18.66] “Give up all other duties and surrender unto Me.”
One may ask, “If this principle is very rarely understood, what is the use
of it?” In answer, Yamaraja states herein that this religious principle is
understandable if one follows the parampara system of Lord Brahma, Lord
Siva, the four Kumaras and the other standard authorities. There are four
lines of disciplic succession: one from Lord Brahma, one from Lord Siva, one
from Laksmi, the goddess of fortune, and one from the Kumaras. The disciplic
succession from Lord Brahma is called the Brahma-sampradaya, the succession
from Lord Siva (Sambhu) is called the Rudra-sampradaya, the one from the
goddess of fortune, Laksmiji, is called the Sri-sampradaya, and the one from
the Kumaras is called the Kumara-sampradaya. One must take shelter of one of
these four sampradayas in order to understand the most confidential
religious system. In the Padma Purana it is said, sampradaya-vihina ye
mantras te nisphala matah: if one does not follow the four recognized
disciplic successions, his mantra or initiation is useless. In the present
day there are many apasampradayas, or sampradayas which are not bona fide,
which have no link to authorities like Lord Brahma, Lord Siva, the Kumaras
or Laksmi. People are misguided by such sampradayas. The sastras say that
being initiated in such a sampradaya is a useless waste of time, for it will
never enable one to understand the real religious principles. [End of Srila
Prabhupada’s purport SB 6.3.22]
HH Jayapataka Swami: So I take this opportunity to first of all welcome all
the GBC and IRS(?) members who have come here and to Bali Mardan. This is
your home – Mayapur Dhama. Prabhupada built the Iskcon centre here to be the
home of all the devotees. Haribol. [Haribol.] Srila Prabhupada Ki! Jai!
I like to share with you a few things. One thing is that Prabhupada wanted
the devotees to attend the regular Gaura-purnima festival every year. One of
the GBC’s said, “Prabhupada (At that time it cost $500. Now it is more
expensive.)Each year thousands of devotees go and they pay $500 each. That
is $500 000. We could build a temple. (In those days.)” Prabhupada said,
“Yes. The devotees eat so much [Laughter] If they didn’t eat we could have
so much money. [Laughter] The GBC shut up. [Laughter] we can’t live without
food. Similarly association with devotees from around the world it is a
special energising process. And as we know this year to have all our leaders
– so many leaders. It is a very special reunion. So we want to take this
opportunity to say that we are sure that Prabhupada is very pleased that you
are all here and by your association we also hope to get a chance to serve
you in Mayapur dham. We also as leaders hope to get more energised, more
nice association with all of you.
One day Saci-matta was very disturbed. She had a bad dream and she was
confused so she asked her son Sacinandan what is the meaning of this dream.
She had Krishna Balarama deities in her puja room. There she saw Krishna and
Balarama on the altar. She also saw baby Lord Caitanya and baby Lord
Nityananda and They were talking to Krishna and Balarama. Nitai was doing
all the talking. He was saying, “This yuga is Lord Caitanya’s yuga. It is
not Yours! [Laughter]…”Then He ran up to Mother Saci, “I am hungry. Feed
Me!” So what does this dream mean?
“Well what i am seeing here is Nityananda is hungry. You should feed Him. So
I will go and invite Him for lunch. You prepare the lunch.” And so Lord
Caitanya went looking for Lord Nityananda. At that time Lord Nityananda was
swimming in the Ganges so He called Nityananda over and said, “Today You are
coming for lunch.” “Oh, very nice. I will go.”
As They were walking to Mother Saci’s house – Jaganath Misra’s home, Lord
Caitanya said, “No funny business! No funny business.” And Lord Nityananda
said, “Me! I don’t do funny things. You do funny business.”
So when They sat down in the puja room and Mother Saci was so ecstatic to
serve the two. In her ecstasy she put down three leaves… So then she gave
rice. The traditional way of serving a Bengali feast is a mountain of rice
and around dhal subjis and bitter gourd. She was getting more things and
when she came in instead of seeing Nitai-Gaura she saw Krishna and Balarama.
Then Lord Caitanya spoke, “Mother Saci, Mother Saci!” She started crying.
She ran to her room. She wouldn’t talk…
So like this Nitai Gaura, They were having pastimes here in Navadvip dhama.
One thing stands out – this is Their yuga. And it was predicted in the
Brahma-Vivarta Purna that there would be a ten thousand year Golden Age when
Lord Caitanya’s holy name will be preached in every town and village.
All the holy rivers and kundas and sarovaras came to see Lord Krishna in
Dvaraka. They pushed Ganga-mayi ahead. She was the spokesperson on behalf of
everyone. So she said, “Very soon we see that Your pastimes will come to an
end and You will go. So we are wanting that You take us with You. We can see
that a new leaf – Kali-yuga will begin and so many sinful people will just
bathe in our waters and just dump all their sins on us. So we rather go with
You.”
Lord Krishna was smiling. He said, “Just to see a Vaisnava is purifying,
what to speak of touching one. In five thousand years I will send a special
devotee who will take this message, My holy name to all the continents of
the world. And all those devotees will come and bathe in your holy waters.
This will purify you and for ten thousand years there will be a Golden Age.
Haribol! [Haribol] After that Kali-yuga in its normal form will be Gaura
Kali. At that time like the Sarasvati River you can go underground and wait
until Satya-yuga begins.”
So Prabhupada came after five thousand years of the Kali-yuga and he took
the message of Krishna consciousness to all the continents of the world. He
took it to South America, North America, Europe, Asia, Russia, and
Australia. So he fulfilled the prediction.
Om Visnupada Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Thakur had told of how after two
hundred years of Lord Caitanya’s movement when this chanting was very
prevalent all over Bengal, Orissa and different parts of India. At that time
Kali was desperate how to stop Lord Caitanya. So he approached the guru of
the demons, Sukracarya and said, “I need your help. I have to stop Visnu. We
have to stop Him!” Sukracarya said, “Well I don’t want to with Visnu.
Because of Him I have one eye blind.”
When he told Bali Maharaj to tell Visnu, “No.I can’t give You three steps.”
Bali did not follow. At that time Sukracarya had taken with his mystic
powers a form of a fly and climbed up to the water pot spout of Bali. So
Vamanadeva took the staff and poked him in the water pot spout and blinded
one eye of Sukracarya as a fly… So when Sukracarya took his human form his
one eye was blind.
So he said, “I will get back at Visnu. I WILL GET BACK AT VISNU. I will take
my appearance as Rupa Kaviraj…and I will preach sahajism, that just by
imagining that you are Yasoda or Radha or some great devotee or sakhi – no
sadhana or no bhakti – just imagine.” So there are these apasampradaysa that
teach one can be a devotee without going through the sadhana bhakti
practice, ecstasy is there.
So in this way the movement of lord Caitanya wavered but Prabhupada came and
his mission was to spread the message of Lord Caitanya. That is why we need
to be very much fixed on Srila Prabhupada and Lord Caitanya and not get
deluded by the sahajiyas or by the Mayavadis. Prabhupada said that there are
two sides of the same coin. On the one side you think you are god and on the
other side you think you are some great devotee. We just want to be
dasanudasanudasa – servant of the servant of the servant.
So Prabhupada had great expectations for the leaders of Iskcon: the temple
presidents or the GBC. He wanted the GBC’s to go and supervise the
presidents, to imbibe in him the spirit. And also there are many letters
were he wrote to the presidents where he wanted the presidents to see to the
preaching. When I was a president he told me to write to him twice a week.
Twice a week! He didn’t want to the … he wanted to preach to the leaders.
At first he said, “Make temples.” So we were in the mood of making temples.
When we had about forty temples he said, “Now we should boil down the milk.”
In India the milk sellers say, “I don’t put any water in milk. I swear on
Gita! I do not put water in the milk.” They take milk and they put it all in
the water. [Laughter] So they don’t put water in the milk. They put milk in
the water. [Laughter] these are all kinds of …
Anyway the point is somehow if milk and water gets mixed, more water, more
water, more water very soon it is not milk any more. So there was a time he
wanted to boil the milk. Then when he has a hundred centres at that time –
he had some prediction that he would make a hundred temples. So now he said,
“Now I want to write and I expect the leaders to take this management
headache from me. I expect the temple presidents – they can have something
and get together and talk. And when I finish Bhagavatam we should have one
thousand centres.”
We have – last time I heard was about 950 centres. There are many
nama-hattas, bhakti vrksa groups, counsel groups, sastra groups – different
kinds of groups. I don’t know how the fit in the equation but Prabhupada
wanted 1000 centres. So the idea we are very much grateful to the Strategic
Planning Team. As we see the GBC has given some special areas they want to
concentrate on like – Devotee care; Position of Srila Prabhupada; Parallel
lines, what is the organisation of Iskcon… how many zones and all that. So
many other topics. So the idea is to share those with the progress we have
made so far – share that with the Iskcon leadership and to associate with
them. Of course I don’t know if any one, others are allowed to visit this
seminar. I don’t know. That they can say. But this is a great opportunity to
really find out. Also not all of these meetings have only GBC’s. They also
take leaders from around the movement. So in some community especially
interview them tell them to run this building. Maybe they will think …No
one told them I am just speaking.
Krishna and His GBC – eight mahajanas. Prabhupada hoped in the future that
the GBC will be like mahajans….Prabhupada had great expectations. He
wanted the leaders and GBC’s and everyone to take some responsibilities. I
am readings again the books. So recently I read again – I forget how many
times – ‘The Nectar of Devotion’ I am still reading and there Rupa Goswami
states that there are three levels of devotion: practice, ecstatic devotion
and pure love.
So in the practice level there are two sub divisions. One is to follow
according to the sastra, according to the guru. Prabhupada wanted us all to
chant sixteen rounds and read his books and engage in devotional activities,
rise early. He said if you do this it will be very easy to manage Iskcon.
That is the first thing. Then when one starts thinking, how to improve my
service, how to do better. A president has a whole state or a country to
expand. So he has a larger area. His service, how to take care of devotees,
how to expand the preaching in all of this area, how to make more centres,
how to make more devotees. So when he starts to think how to improve my
service that is one level of raganuga. On another level expand love. This is
also called raganuga. So the devotees start to think how to do better in my
service. How I can make a difference. If I can bring one person, one person
to become a pure devotee you get a free ticket. A free ticket back to
Krishna!
Om Visnupada Bhaktisiddhanta said Bhaktivinode Thakur used to say –
Prabhupada told us – how if one person, his whole mood of sixty four temples
and thousands of devotees – if one became a pure devotee he will consider
the whole movement a success. So we hope that many, many pure devotees, men
and women and leaders, they can please use their intelligence, use their
creativity, use their inspiration how to improve their service, how to
expand the Krishna conscious movement more and more. This will be very
pleasing to Lord Caitanya and very pleasing to Srila Prabhupada. Haribol.
[Haribol] [Applause] Any comments or question?
Prabhu: Hare Krishna Maharaja. Thank you for the very inspiring class.
Maharaj you mentioned the existence of the apasampradayas and how Srila
Bhaktivinode Thakur defeated them to establish pure bhakti. My question
Maharaja is in what forms are these apasampradayas still existing around the
world and what can we do to defeat them?
HH Jayapataka Swami: I know I am thinking it is Bhaktivinode Thakura but we
know there are different apasampradayas. During the time of Bhaktivinode
Thakur he sang a song aula, baula, kartabhaja, prakrta-sahajiya,
sakhi-bheki, jati-gosai, gaura-nagari. There were like thirteen
sakhi-bhekis. … all the deviants. I have seen in one temple a lady is
doing arati. She turned around and she is not a lady. She is a man – big
beard but she/he wears a sari. It is called sakhi-bheki. In the mood of
feeling holy they are practicing wearing a sari. So all these are
speculations. I only know one….so i don’t think that it is a wise use of
time.
We want to follow Srila Prabhupada. [Haribol] Anything not authorised by
Prabhupada – Haribol! Okay. …Please while you are here in Mayapur I hope
you all help whether you staying or are just visiting for Gaura-purnima
please have a very nice ecstatic time. Every service you do here is a
thousand times – a thousand times benefit. Of course Prabhupada said what is
a thousand times zero! [Laughter] While you are here the idea is a
transcendental location. More chanting, more hearing or more puja. Somehow
keep yourself busy, more hearing, more associating with Lord Krishna in this
way utilise your time in Krishna’s service and you will get multiplied on
thousand times. Srila Prabhupada Ki! Jai! Haribol! [Haribol] [Applause]