HH JAYAPATAKA S WAMI GURU MAHARAJ, EVENING ADDRESS, KRISHNA CAITANYA BOOK COMPILATION, CHENNAI, 18 DECEMBER, 2018

Nama Om…
Mukham karoti vaachalam…

Now we are starting a new chapter in the compilation of the Krishna Caitanya book. All the students that were learning under Nimai Pandit, Nimai Pandit said, He was no longer going to teach the shaastra because He was only going to talk about Krishna. So the students said they will also follow Him. So in this way, it was a very emotional moment, where the Lord was embracing His students, He was weeping and the students were weeping, it was a very intense program. So the Lord’s transcendental scholastic pastimes came to an end and He taught His students how to do the sankirtan.

So today it was supposed to be a day with my physical therapist but he said his wife was sick so he couldn’t come. So I did some exercises on my own with the local devotees’ help and we chanted Gayatri in the sun. Oh I forgot to mention yesterday that one of my devotees from Malaysia, his name was Samba Krishna das. He was quite elderly, now he was in his 80s but he was very active in performing yagnas and fire sacrifices, he was a learned pujari and a very sincere devotee. So chanting Hare Krishna he left his body, yesterday. So if any devotees would like to offer their prayers, he is a very nice devotee. Also, Swarupamayi one of the group of disciples from the JPS Archives. Archives is based in Mayapur. For the Gaura Mandal Bhumi book they went around different Sripaats and so far have visited about 5 districts. They are very fortunate that the family shaaligram shila which was worshipped by the forefathers of Vishwanath Chakravarti Thakur and he worshipped the deity himself, and that had been handed down generation after generation. Now that man is 86 and the last descendant of Vishwanath Chakravarti Thakur, he gave us the shaaligram shila which we will give back to them when the temple is refurbished. In the meantime, in Mayapur it will be worshipped by Gauranga Prema Maharaj. If you want to see the original shaaligram shila worshipped by Vishwanath Chakravarti Thakur, you can go to the Namahatta in Mayapur. Shyamarasika was saying that they have a drone that takes aerial photos of the Sripaats but the villagers have never seen the drone, they come out in huge crowds and say please fly your helicopters again. The devotes tell them you chant Hare Krishna and we will fly them again. So the whole village chants Hare Krishna and the drone rises up. So while they are taking photos of the different Sripaats, they are also doing some preaching!! Let us hear what Lord Caitanya did.

So in this way, the Lord’s scholastic pastimes came to an end and completion. And He began the sankirtan yagna. The congregational chanting of the holy names of Krishna was begun. So with the inauguration of the sankirtan movement, the congregational chanting of the holy names of Krishna, the scholastic pastimes were completed. What does sankirtan mean? It refers to congregational glorification of the names, forms, qualities, associates, pastimes of Sri Hari. As well sankirtan also refers to the hearing service oriented. There is a special characteristic of sankirtan. Unless Krishna in those things connected to Him, namely names, form, qualities and pastimes are properly glorified, unless they are glorified without offence there is no possibility for materialistic people or those who are averse to Krishna, forgetful or averse to Krishna. So the glories of Krishna and those things connected to Him don’t reach materialistic people. For their deliverance the Lord comes as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and He gave His mercy and protected all the inhabitants of this world from ignorance. He awakened the pure spiritual propensity for serving Krishna. By preaching the ultimate result of cultivating spiritual knowledge is to achieve the perfectional platform of serving the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna. One normally thinks that serving the senses and being very efficient in that is the goal of life. But one does not achieve satisfaction as a popular rock group is sing “I can get no satisfaction”. Lord Caitanya by His preaching could give the people transcendental satisfaction. By nature, we are the living force in the body and when the body becomes broken, we leave the body and take another birth. But we never die but the body dies. In fact the body is never alive – it seems alive because of the presence of the soul. When the soul leaves the body then its natural state of dead matter is visible. So Lord Caitanya He came down to show how to surrender to Krishna. Someone asked yesterday, how long it takes to become Krishna conscious? And we said Prabhupad said depends how intensely one wants it. And we showed like crying of a baby how one attracts the mother, similarly by crying out to Krishna you can attract Krishna. Gauuuuuranga! I SURRENDER TO YOU! Who surrenders? Even if one once surrenders to Krishna, he remains eternally in His orbit and if you cultivate that desire, you come closer and closer to Lord Krishna.

In the four directions all around Him, the students with tears in their eyes and their throats choked up, cried. So the Lord became mercifully disposed and spoke the following words to them.

You have studied and have listened for many days, now let us chant the names of Krishna together and make everything complete! So the Lord said as a result of My studying and hearing linguistic literatures for so long, I understood that chanting of the names of Krishna is the only essence and fruit of such studying and teaching. This is the only purport of the Vedas, Therefore, students – in this He is saying the first verse of His Shikshashtam.

“Therefore Oh students you should engage in Sri Krishna sankirtan which cleanses the heart of all the dust accumulated for years which extinguishes the fire of conditional life, of repeated birth and death, which is the prime benediction for humanity at large because it spreads the rays of the benediction moon and which is the life of all transcendental knowledge.”

So sometime people say oh just by chanting, it is not just, there is no difference between the holy name of Krishna and Krishna Himself. We chant the holy name of Krishna, we are getting association with Krishna and all these results are there, and more. So chanting is actually the most potent. In all of the yugas somebody chanted and got deliverance but in this kali yuga it is the only recommended practice. Harer Naam Harer Naam Harer Naam eiva kevalam, kalau naastyaiva naastyaiva naastyaiva garir anyatha – chant the Holy name, chant the holy name, chant the holy name of Hari. It is the only recommended process. In this age of kali there is no other way, no other way, no other way to achieve success in this lifetime. Hare Krishna!

The students asked how shall we perform sankirtan? Lord Sri Sachinandan the son of mother Sachi, personally taught the students to chant as follows. See, Lord Vishwambhar while He answered His students’ enquiry about sankirtan, He taught the Absolute Truth and devotional service to Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishwambhar is the husband of Saraswati, the transcendental goddess of learning, taught the students about the descending process of receiving knowledge. The ascending process was not respected in His teaching. So this was revealed. So the descending process means receiving from Krishna and the disciplic succession, and the ascending process means I know so much and we try to increase our knowledge. In our experience we are only seeing white swans so you can say in our ascending knowledge we can say that all swans are white. But in some countries there are black swans. So then the whole ascending process is changed by one black swan. So like that the knowledge that modern science promotes is ascending process that is why all this knowledge changes as they get more and more understanding. But the understanding will never be complete. Now the descending process means that people who already know the truth, they give this knowledge to the next generation that wants to serve the Lord Hari. But those who are in the ascending process tend to be envious of Lord Hari and many of them are atheist or what they say, agnostic. So Lord Caitanya recommended receiving the holy names and the knowledge from the disciplic succession. Lord Gauranga Mahaprabhu exhibited the pastimes of receiving such mantras and holy names through the disciplic succession. He gave instructions on the same.

Hari haraya naama Krishna Yadavava namaha Gopal Govinda Ram Sri Madhusudhan (5 times)

This means Oh Lord Hari, Oh Lord Krishna, I offer my obeisances to You. Who is also known as Hari, Yadava, Gopal, Govinda, Rama and Sri Madhusudhan. So this is a bit technical that if one chants the holy names of the Lord as an address by using vocative case as in Hare Krishna maha mantra, then he is engaged in bhajan or worship of the holy names. Chanting the holy names in the fourth case indicated full surrender. Whereas chanting the holy names in the form of address indicates a desire for eternal service. Normally we don’t understand whether we are chanting as an address or in some other sense, but in this chanting of the holy names, there is sign to the chanting of the mantras. But even if one doesn’t know whether he is chanting in the vocative sense or in some other sense, they all get the benefit. The whole idea of chanting the mantra is to gain an idea or to achieve knowledge of one’s eternal relationship with the Lord and one achieves perfection in chanting the mantras, then worship by such liberated souls begins. Ina the Caitanya Caritamrita Adi 7.73 it is stated that by chanting the holy name of Krishna in the form of mantra one can attain freedom from material existence. Indeed, simply by chanting the Hare Krishna mantra, one will be able to see the lotus feet of the Lord. So this mantra was a mantra very dear to Lord Caitanya. Hari Haraya naama Krishna Yadava namaha Gopal Govinda Ram Sri Madhusudhan. So Prabhupad said that in Mayapur we should also chant this mantra because it is very dear to Lord Caitanya. So everywhere we chant the Hare Krishna mantra, so that we are mainly known as the Hare Krishna movement but sometimes in some places we also chant this mantra. Hari Haraya Naama Krishna Yadavaya namaha Gopal Govinda Rama Sri Madhusudhan. And in the use of fourth case of the names of Hari and Yadava means complete surrender. So we can receive transcendental knowledge by fully surrendering at the lotus feet of a bona fide spiritual master whose only resolution is to chant the holy names of Krishna. One should hear the topics and holy names of Krishna from the mouth of the spiritual master and the vaishnavas. And he should loudly call out and always chant the holy names of Krishna without offence. HARE KRISHNA! GAUUUUURANGA!

So this teaching of the chanting to His students will go on for some time and so we will continue reading tomorrow. And you can also learn to chant. Lord Nimai Pandit is personally teaching how to chant. Any questions?

Transcribed by Jayaraseshwari devi dasi
18 December 2018