February 17, 2012
To my Dear Spiritual Children,
All glories to Srila Prabhupada. Please accept my blessings.
On the occasion of Lord Nityananda’s Appearance Day (5 Feb 2012) and Srila
Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada’s Appearance Day (12th Feb
2012), I thought I would just say some things to all of you whose e-mail
addresses are with me.
This year in Mayapur, the GBC invited all of the Regional secretaries,
Zonal secretaries, and Temple presidents to attend a special session of ILS.
ILS stands for ISKCON Leadership Sanga. We had seven days of seminars,
parikramas, feasts, kirtans and classes with all the leaders. The GBCs also
were at the programs for the large part. There was a very nice exchange
between ISKCON Leadership Sanga and the GBC.
I was reflecting on how I have many things to do to fulfill Srila
Prabhupada’s orders to me. Sometimes disciples ask me, “Please give me an
order or instruction which I can take as my goal in life.” But I hesitate to
do this because if the disciple does not carry out the instruction of the
guru, then it is a deterrent. I don’t like to give out such instructions
haphazardly. I like to think about it. But one thing is that I have many
instructions from Srila Prabhupad and all of you can help me to fulfil them,
at least some of them.
For instance, he told me to distribute his books and to expand the
congregation. He also wanted to develop the Holy land of Sridham Mayapur,
Navadvip dham and Gaura-mandala bhumi. The list goes on and on!
He also said, “Please expand the Krsna Conscious propaganda unlimitedly”.
So that is an unlimited instruction. I need some help how to fulfil all
these instructions by His Divine Grace.
I was reading recently in Nectar of Devotion how there are three steps in
our spiritual life. The first is sadhana bhakti,second is bhava bhakti, or
ecstatic love of Krsna, and the third and final stage is pure love of Krsna
or prema bhakti.
Two steps are given in the sadhana bhakti level. The first stage
is to strictly following the rules and regulations according to the
instructions of the Guru and the Sastra. The second stage is to improve
one’s service, that is a kind of spontaneous desire. Say one is a pujari and
he would want to do nicer and better standard of worship. If he is a cook,
he would like to cook better for Krsna. If he is a preacher, he would like
to have happier and more devotees. So this stage, which one reaches by
spontaneously trying to improve one’s service, is called Raganuga bhakti.
There are different definitions of raganuga bhakti but this is one of them.
I was thinking how all you disciples could help me fulfil Prabhupada’s
orders to me by taking up some initiative how to expand this Krsna
Consciousness movement, or how to improve your devotional service. I hope
you will be able to do this.
I was reading the biography of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur on his
appearance day and there I saw that some caste goswamis were against his
allowing all vaisnavas to be accepted as Brahmanas. They made a resolution
that gurus can be born only as brahmanas and therefore such personalities as
Rupa, Sanatana, Narottama, Shyamananda, etc., they are not bonafide gurus.
That was extreme. Bhaktiddhanta Saraswati Thakur defeated them. The caste
brahmanas got together and had another meeting and declared that Lord
Chaitanya was not an avatar. They made offence after offence! Then
Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur showed in the Sastras how Lord Chaitanya is
an avatar.
So we have this heritage given to us by Srila Prabhupada and to all the
Vaishnavas to establish Lord Chaitanya’s divinity, message and process. So,
I hope that all of you will take this up very seriously to see how the Krsna
Consciousness movement can expand in the next 4 years.
The year 2016 is ISKCON’s fiftieth anniversary. We want to do as much as
possible to advance ISKCON to care for devotees, to see happier devotees and
more devotees; to see that Krsna Conscious preaching expands in different
areas and to see that the standard of practice and worship are increased.
This is a great service which was given by His Divine Grace A.C.
Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada and I hope that all of you are enthusiastic to
progress in this way.
I hope this finds you healthy & happy,
Your well-wisher always,
Jayapataka Swami
See web sites:
www.jayapatakaswamioffice.com
www.jpsvani.com
www.mayapur.tv
www.namahatta.org
www.mayapur.com
www.mayapurworldwide.org
www.victoryflag.com
www.tovp.org