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Question: Just before I post my question a little background. Guru Maharaj, as Mayapur was being built, he was also been the GBC, the highest body which makes the rules, he is also empowered to go and preach and get devotees to come join, make sure the devotees progress in their spiritual life. Well, meeting people or marketing, sales people, we all do. We sell a product for a price. But the problems that you faced, your market was one in South America, one in Middle East, where you cannot even enter or preach openly. Or it was in Bangladesh where it was all Bengalis, so you had a language barrier, or a distance barrier or you had everything where it was not straightforward marketing, it was very difficult marketing of Srila Prabhupada’s vision, of Mahaprabhu’s blessing and getting Krsna enshrined in every heart. I am going to ask you this, you paid a big price. Not even personal hardship but you were attacked once in Europe in an airport by a madcap who was a radical who do this. You have faced bandits coming and attacking Mayapur. You have been facing multiple floods in the Ganges every time in the rainy season in Mayapur. You have gone through all this Guru Maharaj. You have always said. What is this difference in you – as a person I could sell throughout the world, I did not go to Iraq and sell, I have always employed people to do my hard work. What is it that drives you, what is that one significant thing that makes you who you are?

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Jayapataka Swami: That is for you to decide! Ha! But you know, in marketing you have to adapt to your situation, right? So I learnt Bengali, ami Bangla bolte pari (I can speak Bengali). I lived in a village in Mayapur. Nobody spoke English, so I had to learn Bengali and then I had to learn an India language to become an Indian citizen. You had to read and write and speak and understand. So my first language after English was Bengali. Then I learnt a little Hindi. Kuch Hindi janta hoon! (I know a little Hindi). Ha! Then I was made by Srila Prabhupada, the last GBC that he made. So in 1977, I became a GBC member, Governing Body Commission. So then I had the zone of Bangladesh, West Bengal and Odisha. So I spoke, kichu kichu Odiya januchi. I could understand Odiya but I couldn’t speak much. But Odiyas can understand Bengali although they cannot speak much. Anyway, when I was first there in Calcutta, they crossed out all English signs and wrote in Bengali. So I knew Devanagari from Canada. So I saw that Bengali was ‘round’ Devanagari! Ha! Ha! So then I learnt to read, the most difficult was when they wrote English words in Bengali! Glasshouse! Then I realized it was an English word! Like that! So you see Krsna He did His lila in Vrndavana, Dwaraka and Mathura and then His Deity was established in Jagannath Puri. So Vrndanva is called the Madurya Dhama, the sweet abode and Puri is called the Aiswarya Dhama, the opulent dhama, because they have 56 chappan bhoga they are offering to the Lord all the time. He has a blessing that His hand will never dry, because He is always taking prasadam, washing His hands, then taking prasadam again! He takes bhoga and He gives us prasad! So Krsna thought I enjoyed so much in Vrndavana, but the people of Kali yuga were not experiencing this bliss. So I will come again as a devotee – He came again as Caitanya Mahaprabhu. And then He gave out love of Krsna freely! Without considering who is qualified and who is unqualified. But people do not know Lord Caitanya much. So I had the duty to make this town developed and let people know about Lord Caitanya. So that is why we are trying to build this beautiful temple in Mayapur. And one of the aspects is that it is the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium. We want to show the world that Indian scriptures are not mythology, they are SCIENCE! And it was the tactic of the British to degrade the scriptures and say that they are mythology, they are legends and so on! But they are! They are real histories and they are real descriptions of life!
14-SEPTEMBER-2019 DAMODAR DESH