Padmanābha Māsa, 539 Gaurabda
Monthly Message (8 September – 7 October 2025)

My dear dīkṣā, sheltered, aspiring, śikṣā, grand-disciples, and well-wishers,
Please accept my blessings and best wishes as appropriate.
All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Home base: Śrī Māyāpur Candrodaya Maṇḍir
Camp: ISKCON Chennai
Date: 7 October 2025

Highlights of the Month

A few days ago, I reached Chennai after my preaching tour in Malaysia. I had gone from Māyāpur on the 8th of September to attend the Hare Kṛṣṇa Convention and reached Kuala Lumpur on the 9th morning. After two days, I went to the Śrī Śrī Rādhā Kṛṣṇa Temple of Devotion and Understanding in Penang, where I spoke on the inaugural day. Soon after, I fell sick and was hospitalized due to intestinal obstruction. The pain was severe, and the doctors considered surgery, but by the prayers of devotees worldwide, I was treated without surgery. Gradually, I recovered and was allowed to take liquids. I am still on a liquid diet and consulted the doctor in Chennai, who asked me to go slow. He said I can gradually start taking solid food: once a day in the first week, twice a day in the second week, and by the third week, I can take solid food for all three meals.

The convention in Malaysia was well attended by about 1000 devotees from Malaysia, India, Singapore, Australia, and Khasadesh. The theme was to inspire preaching, and they also launched a preaching app, which will help in preaching and reporting. I also addressed the devotees on the last day of the convention from the hospital.

While in the hospital, I distributed mantra cards, clickers, books, and prasādam to the staff, attended meetings, and met devotees. The chief consultant was very impressed with my caretakers, and I gifted him a Bhagavad-gītā and invited him to Māyāpur. Two days before discharge, with the doctor’s permission, I visited ISKCON Botanical Garden, Penang, which was very near the hospital and addressed about 500 devotees from North Malaysia. After that, on the 23rd of September, we went to Kuala Lumpur for a week, where I gave two classes and also launched the Damodara Month Programs. On non-dialysis days, I gave a class and met ISKCON Malaysia leaders to guide them in expanding the movement and on dialysis days, I attended meetings and did more correspondence. And on the 1st of October, we travelled to Chennai, and I will be staying here for about three weeks.

Here in Chennai, I addressed the congregation on two days, and we also had the abhiṣekam of Lord Caitanya’s Lotus footprint, which will be placed in Ahobilam.

Devotees are concerned about my travelling, but when I think of the risks that Srila Prabhupāda took to go to the West and preach, what excuses do we have!

Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Message

Many times, in my classes and letters, I have emphasized that Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted his gṛhastha followers to be paramahaṁsas. So I wanted to share with you the excerpt from the Vyāsa-pūjā address that Śrīla Prabhupāda gave in 1973 in London.

“…I have got many disciples, they are married couples, but all of them, husband and wife, they are helping this movement. So actually, married couples should be paramahaṁsas.

Paramahaṁsa means the topmost stage of sannyāsī. Paramahaṁsa. A sannyāsī has got four stages: kuṭicaka, bahudaka, parivrājakācārya and paramahaṁsa. A sannyāsī, in the beginning, he’s supposed to make a small cottage, just on the border of the village, does not go home, but the, his necessities are supplied by his home, but he does not go home. This is called kuṭicaka. Then gradually, when he is practiced, he begs from home to home. He does not anymore depend on his own home. That is called bahudaka. Bahudaka means collecting his necessity from many places. And then as he becomes practiced, he becomes parivrājakācārya. He goes from place to place, village to village, preaching the message of Kṛṣṇa….

Because our only business is Kṛṣṇa. It doesn’t matter whether a gṛhastha, vānaprastha, sannyāsī. It doesn’t matter. So when he preaches all over the world, that is called parivrājakācārya. And when he’s experienced, he executes the work by his assistants. That is called paramahaṁsa. So gṛhasthas are supposed to be paramahaṁsa. Just like Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he was gṛhastha, magistrate, government servant, but he has worked so much for Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu in writing books. Not only writing books, but also begetting a child like Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Mahārāja, my spiritual master. So that is gṛhastha. They should produce children like Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Mahārāja. Because we want big stalwart men to preach this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.”

(https://vedabase.io/en/library/transcripts/730822vplon/)

A haṁsa can separate milk from a mixture of milk and water — similarly, a paramahaṁsa can take the Kṛṣṇa consciousness from a mixture of material and spiritual activities, leaving aside Māyā. So, a paramahaṁsa always thinks of something spiritual and does everything for Kṛṣṇa.

Inspirational Stories

While in Malaysia, we launched the Bhakti Steps at the national level, and later, I spoke to the ISKCON Malaysia leaders regarding expanding the preaching in Malaysia. Śrīla Prabhupāda went to Malaysia in 1971, and he planted the seed of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and we can see that the movement has expanded so much at present. The Bhakti Steps program, consisting of five levels, is designed to inspire and encourage devotees by recognizing their chanting and spiritual progress. It serves as an excellent system to help devotees strengthen and enhance their spiritual practices. This system is followed in many parts of the world, and they are seeing very good results.

I received a letter from His Grace Dayal Mora dāsa, Temple President of ISKCON London, that my disciples Vishāl Gaurānga dāsa and Amala Mañjarī devī dāsī, under their leadership, have established twenty Bhakti Steps groups, both from traditional and non-traditional Western backgrounds. He also mentioned that my disciples Aravinda Kṛṣṇa dāsa and Yamuneśvarī devī dāsī, who are leading the East London Bhakti-vṛkṣas, started a weekly Western outreach program with twenty-five to thirty participants every week. Dayal Mora dāsa was very appreciative of my disciples assisting the local temple in expanding the preaching, and I am very happy to hear such news.

If you are doing some successful preaching or if you have any ideas or anything which you have done that is successful, you can share with me. Send me your ideas, strategies, all the steps, all the different aspects, so that we can understand and we may publicise that information.

My Message

We are beginning the holy month of Dāmodara — the pastime of Kṛṣṇa being tied by the love of His mother. He also delivered the sons of Kuvera in the form of Lord Dāmodara. So we should also pray that by the mercy of Lord Dāmodara, just as the sons of Kuvera were freed from their bondage, we may also be fixed in devotion to the Lord. We should encourage everyone to offer a lamp to Lord Dāmodara, and it is also an opportunity to make new contacts for your congregation. I look forward to your Dāmodara month preaching reports. You can send your reports using https://lampadaycdm.web.app/

You can read more details about Dāmodara Month and how to conduct Dāmodara outreach programs on our Congregational Development Ministry’s website:

https://iskconcongregation.com/programs/damodar-outreach-program/

By giving out Kṛṣṇa you get the mercy, and you get a taste for chanting, and a taste for serving. The more you give out Kṛṣṇa, the more Kṛṣṇa-conscious you become.

Generally, people want to get a better car, better house, better spouse, but these are all material and temporary. To get Kṛṣṇa-prema, that is eternal! So, we should try to get the eternal benefit by the mercy of Lord Caitanya. In this material world — whether Svarga, Bhūloka, or even Naraka — there is always some suffering, so our goal should be to go back to Kṛṣṇa.

I can give you some basic programs for practicing your Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and reading the Nectar of Devotion and other Śrīla Prabhupāda books will give you more information. If you have any questions that you want to ask me, you can see my websites (https://jayapatakaswamiarchives.net/questions-and-answers/) and social media pages and get some information through my previous lectures, etc. If you want to write to me directly, you can do that at jayapataka@gmail.com

So the idea is that I would pray for you and bless you, but you still have to practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness by yourself. I can only guide you or help you, but the practice is up to you. Haribol!

Your well-wisher always,
Jayapatākā Swami

JPS/ssdb

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