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.

Written from my Home base: Śrī Māyāpur Chandrodaya Mandir
Date: 11 May 2025

Today is the most auspicious appearance day of Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva. In Māyāpur, since 1986, we worship Sthāṇu Nṛsiṁhadeva with Prahlāda Mahārāja. His form is ugra, ferocious, He is just coming out of the column looking for the demon, Hiraṇyakaśipu. But for devotees, He is a protector. Hiraṇyakaśipu was ready to kill his 5-year-old son, Prahlāda, but he was giving Kṛṣṇa consciousness to all his friends. Śrīla Prabhupāda introduced us to the worship of Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva.
One time, when Śrīla Prabhupāda was sick, he said the devotees could pray to Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva for the spiritual master to regain his health. Our parama-guru, His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda, he also established Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva in the Yogapīṭha temple. Also, there is a special song written by Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura where he pleaded to Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva to please put His lotus feet on his head and bless him so that here in Māyāpur, in Navadvīpa-dhāma, he could worship Śrī Śrī Rādhā Mādhava. So, by the mercy of Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva, we can get to worship Rādhā Mādhava. I offered my special prayers in front of Prahlāda Nṛsiṁhadeva for all my initiated disciples, sheltered and aspiring disciples, grand-disciples, śikṣā disciples. I pray that any obstacles in their devotional service are removed and they become fixed in pure devotional service. I am also praying for all devotees in ISKCON. I have a special email ID for the disciples of His Holiness Bhakti Cāru Swāmi (bcs.jpscare@gmail.com) and His Holiness Gopāla Kṛṣṇa Gosvāmī (gkg.jpscare@gmail.com).

Nṛsiṁhadeva is very merciful. Devotees say that my recovery after stroke was also a mercy of the Lord. The neurologists who were treating me said they had never seen anybody with my kind of stroke recover. They considered me a miracle case.
On Akṣaya-tṛtīyā, I was in Digha for the Jagannātha dhām temple opening. Śrīla Prabhupāda gave me many instructions. Some are like shooting the rhinoceros, impossible! But Śrīla Prabhupāda asked, so I am trying to fulfill them. One of the instructions that he gave me was to try and get entry for the foreign devotees to enter the Jagannātha Purī temple. When he heard that non-born Hindus were not allowed into the temple, he himself refused to go. He said that since they accept Lord Caitanya as Bhagavān, then they should accept all His devotees as well. In the initial days, I went to one of the Śaṅkarācāryas of Purī. But he told me to drink boiling ghee, die and take birth as a Hindu! Then a few years back, I again wrote a letter to the Gajapati Mahārāja, king of Puri. So, for over 50 years, I have tried various ways and approached many influential people. But one of the Daitapati mentioned that it is written in their scriptures that if foreigners came, their devotion would be so attractive that Lord Jagannātha might leave the temple and go with them. But now, our West Bengal Chief Minister, Śrīmatī Mamata Banerjee, has constructed a duplicate Jagannātha Mandir in Digha, West Bengal. Digha is in the Gaura-maṇḍala-bhūmi and Jagannātha Purī is in the Śrī-kṣetra. The architect said that there is only a 15 mm difference in the architecture of Jagannātha Purī temple and the Digha Jagannātha dhām!

There are three Deities, one big Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā, Sudarśana and another small Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā, Sudarśana and Rādhā Madana-mohana. The pāṇḍās who came from Purī did the prāṇa-pratiṣṭhā for the small Jagannātha Deities. The rest of the Deities, I did the prāṇa-pratiṣṭhā ceremony.

In Jagannātha Purī, an eagle took the flag tied on the Sudarśana cakra of the temple and circumambulated the temple clockwise and then anticlockwise. After that, the eagle threw the flag on the terrace of the Puri resident, who then brought it to Digha on our West Bengal Chief Minister’s request and the same flag has been hoisted up in the Digha temple! I could not imagine that Lord Jagannātha would be so merciful!

The Chief Minister constructed the temple and gave ISKCON to worship in an irrevocable agreement. His Grace Rādhāramaṇa dāsa, Vice President of ISKCON Kolkata, has worked hard to get this. In Purī, there are thousands and thousands of pāṇḍās to do the service. But we need devotees to serve in Digha. We can worship the Deities, do kīrtana, book distribution, prasāda distribution, so there are so many opportunities to serve and preach. Those who are willing to go there and serve they will be provided a place to stay and prasāda. It is amazing, they would not let us in the Purī temple, but an exact duplicate Jagannātha temple has been given in Digha! And we are responsible for the pūjā! I have also written to many foreign devotees encouraging them to come and serve in this temple even for a short time. Please contact HG Tulasī-priyā dāsa on +91 8369960736 if you are interested in taking up any service in the temple. So, he can facilitate you for the same.

During this month, I also attended the appearance day festival of Gadādhara Paṇḍita in Gadādhara Paṇḍita Dhāma, Bāshkhālī, Chattogram, Bangladesh. I saw the program on Zoom, and I heard that around 4000 people attended the festival.

This month is Baishak month, and it is one of the three auspicious months in the year. Gaurāṅgī Gandharvikā devī dāsī, under the Congregational Development Ministry, Bhakti Kids, organized a Baishak month challenge. They had 850 participants who committed to a fixed number of japa daily, actively engaged in kirtan, learning slokas, listening to classes and various other devotional services. Every day, they had a different challenge to do. 20% of the participants were new to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Today, on the auspicious day of Narasiṁha-caturdaśī, I performed abhiṣeka ceremony for the lotus footprint of Lord Nityānanda. This will be installed in Aruppukottai, Madurai, Tamil Nāḍu. There is evidence that Nityānanda Prabhu visited this place.

I wanted to tell you that initiation is totally voluntary, but once you accept it, then you have to follow it lifelong. At the time of initiation, the guru takes the responsibility of taking the disciple back to Godhead, and the disciple’s responsibility is to especially follow the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, minimum 16 rounds a day, and observing the four regulative principles. So, if you follow these, you are guaranteed to go back to the spiritual world after this lifetime, to not have to return again to the cycle of birth and death in conditioned life. I see that many youngsters, they get inspired to take up the process and receive initiation. But then gradually they get busy with their studies, exams, etc, and they say they don’t get time to complete their 16 rounds daily. So, I want to emphasize that when you take a vow before the Lord, before the fire, before Śrīla Prabhupāda, before the spiritual master and other Vaiṣṇavas, that has to be followed throughout your life.

Sometimes devotees ask me if it is necessary to have second initiation to go back to Godhead. One time, Śrīla Prabhupāda held me by the arm and told me, “You can be a little lenient in first initiations, but you should be very strict for second initiation.” By chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa under the guidance of a guru, one can go back to Godhead, but by taking the second initiation, if one is careful and very serious in their practice, it can help to concentrate the mind and become more conscious of Kṛṣṇa, and it also gives one the privilege to worship installed Deities. But one has to be more responsible because a brāhmaṇa is supposed to know better and be more experienced. So they get more reactions if they are careless. Therefore, we have to be careful about taking second initiation. I want all my disciples to be serious and take second initiation, though it is not essential to have it to go back to Godhead.

A few days ago, I resumed the tests for my Bhakti-sārvabhauma degree. I am answering questions from Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi-līlā at present. I receive many updates from my disciples that they have completed their Bhakti-śāstrī, and they are inspired to pursue Bhakti-vaibhava. Some of them said that they thought why they need a certificate if they are reading Bhagavad-gītā daily and know the philosophy. But when they actually took the classes and tests, they gave more attention and there were many things that they did not know before. So, I am glad my disciples are getting inspired to systematically study Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books and take the tests. It would be nice if everybody gets qualified in Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books. Because of the stroke, I am not able to write so well. But I can hear. Every night, Jaya Rādhākṛṣṇa dāsa brahmacārī reads Caitanya-caritāmṛta for me. The BBT in Mumbai has an App called ‘Transcend’. It is in all the Indian languages, including English. So, one can hear the scriptures and take an oral test, even if they cannot write.

If you can study and explain Śrīla Prabhupāda’s teachings, Lord Caitanya’s teachings, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, then there will be a lot of devotees. We are goṣṭhy-ānandīs, and we want to increase the number of devotees. We want to have Lord Caitanya’s mercy spread unlimitedly all over the universe. So, you should always be thinking, how you can please the Lord. This is not very difficult. If one constantly thinks how one can perform devotional service to the Lord, then he will always be in complete ecstatic bliss. So, if we are always trying to see how we can serve Lord Kṛṣṇa, that is ideal.

You can also pray to Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva every day for protection. He is so powerful that any inauspicious elements are destroyed.

Always chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, serve Pañca-tattva, Kṛṣṇa, and think about Kṛṣṇa!

Your well-wisher always,
Jayapatākā Swāmi

JPS/ssdb