19860326 500TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION OF LORD CAITANYA’S SANKIRTAN MOVEMENT, MAYAPUR: My dear sir it appears that the influence of your great knowledge is hidden. Factually you are bereft of all material association and fully absorbed in the thought of the Supreme. Consequently, you are unlimitedly advanced in spiritual knowledge. Please tell me why you are wandering around like a dullard. O great saintly person you have spoken words approved by the yogic process but it is not possible for us to understand what you have said. Therefore, kindly explain it. Canto 5 Chapter 10 text 18 of the Srimad Bhagavatam in the chapter entitled The Discussion Between Jadabharata and Maharaja Rahugana. A very important purport with many essential points. Srila Prabhupad states how Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu for the benefit of the souls of this kali yuga has given us very nice instrument – chanting the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra. At the beginning of spiritual life, if we give many instructions to the people they become sometimes bewildered, they cannot assimilate. So sometimes they also reject. When we ask people to chant Hare Krishna by chanting automatically their consciousness becomes purified and by Lord Caitanya’s mercy they are able to get an understanding of the Krishna consciousness philosophy. By Prabhupad’s mercy I have been blessed with a general 90% of the areas where the people are very pious. And if you ask them to chant Hare Krishna they will do it if it is presented properly, somehow Caitanya Mahaprabhu blesses them. They are relatively able to chant Hare Krishna quite easily. But in many of the places they are not able to understand the philosophy. So for this 500th anniversary for the past two or three years I have been telling people I am trying to reach one crore or ten million people to agree to chant at least ten minutes a day Hare Krishna. Over a hundred thousand will sign up. And of course pada yatra and others have also continued this program, signing people up with a card called the samskara patra. Promising to chant at least 108 times Hare Krishna. The effect we have seen by just asking people to chant is unbelievable. Simply by chanting countless people have stated how by chanting its completely changed their lives. Forget what you call – taking their testimony the miracle chanting the holy name has done to their lives. I challenge people to chant the holy name and that if it doesn’t, I guarantee it will have an effect. No one has come back to collect their guarantee back. We know how Srila Prabhupad, he came to the west and he simply encouraged everyone to chant the holy name of Krishna. At that time people didn’t know how many rules and regulations the Krishna consciousness movement had. Somehow or another they chanted Hare Krishna, feasted on Krishna prasadam, danced in ecstasy and countless people took shelter of the movement. Now the present generation is already little wise in the west. They know that the Hare Krishna movement is very strict. So sometimes they worry about chanting. We find that if somehow or another if you could get someone to chant they don’t experience any difficulty at all in practicing Krishna consciousness. So I see that the whole purpose for distributing Srila Prabhupad’s books is to encourage people to chant the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra and to give them the spiritual understanding so that they can continue. Whenever we would go to a public lecture with Srila Prabhupad he would always have us chant the sankirtan first. He said the people have got no intelligence to understand spiritual knowledge. But by chanting you give them that intelligence. Then if we speak, it will enter into their heart. So chanting of Hare Krishna which devotees are doing every day, regularly, we are trying to encourage the mass of people to also do that so that they can also gradually become pure devotees. I met one person, he came to me, he said he has been chanting Hare Krishna for 26 years but he got no bliss. So I told him you chant the Pancha Tattva mantra before chanting Hare Krishna. So he started chanting a 108 times Sri Krishna Caitanya Prabhu Nityananda Sri Advaita Gadadhara Srivas adi Gaura Bhakta Vrnda. Then he chanted Hare Krishna. He came back to me in tears a month later when I saw him and said, you have given me the greatest secret, now I am feeling unlimited happiness by chanting Hare Krishna. Jai! Actually Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Krishna but He is the most merciful form of Lord Krishna. It states in the Caitanya Caritamrita that we can chant the holy name of Krishna even for many kalpas, for many millions of days of Brahma, what to speak of lives and still not get pure love for Krishna if we are committing offences to the holy name. But Caitanya Mahaprabhu is so merciful that He doesn’t accept any offence. Caitanya Mahaprabhu is so merciful – Srila Prabhupad used to tell us no one can appreciate fully the extent, magnitude of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s mercy. Radha Krishna worship is Maadhurya rasa, Jagannath worship as Dwarkadeesh worship is in Aishwarya. Caitanya Mahaprabhu worship is in Audurya. That means that Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s mood is one of simply giving out the mercy. Therefore, who is there in this world that is not a candidate for Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s mercy. Sri Krishna Caitanya Prabhu Nityananda, by chanting these holy names even the most sinful person can get delivered with the highest benediction. In India people like to see miracles. There are many bogus avatars, so called avatars, so called siddha purushas who are able to perform some magical tricks, so people accept them to be some form of incarnation of Godhead. If they can produce a Seiko watch, if they can produce some rosagolla. Many newspaper men have challenged them that why don’t you give us a few million dollars which could be useful which you cannot ordinarily get. This they are not even able to do. People used to ask Prabhupad can you show us a miracle. And this is a miracle that in this kali yuga where the environment is all pervasive sense gratification. Everywhere people are simply absorbed in bodily consciousness and trying to expand the sensual activities. But in spite of that some, by practicing this process of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Krishna consciousness process, they are able to become immune from that pollution of kali yuga and then they become Krishna conscious. That is a miracle! Actually we should understand how much a miracle it is. Sometimes we underrate the actual potency of the holy name, the process of Krishna consciousness. So many devotees ask why is it that someone has this difficulty? Prabhupad said that the real question should be how is it that even one person can remain aloof from maya by chanting this Hare Krishna mantra? That actually that is the miracle! And that not one but thousands and tens of thousands and millions of people by chanting the Hare Krishna mantra, Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s name, are becoming purified in this kali yuga. That is the real revolution against the sinful nature of this age. Actually I was present one time when Srila Prabhupad received a letter, or maybe I heard about it, first hand, he had received a letter, he had told me later also about it, how two devotees wrote to him that we are reading your books, we are aspiring to be your disciples, we are chanting Hare Krishna in our homes, and we are trying to follow your four principles. We are trying to follow the principle of no illicit sex but being husband wife sometimes we make a mistake, we are not able to control ourselves and we feel very ashamed. We want to become absorbed in Krishna consciousness and transcend this. We are trying to observe the principle of no intoxication but all our friends tell us to take marijuana and sometimes we are not able to say no and we fall down. But we are disgusted with this and we realize that Krishna consciousness is the only happiness. So please bless us that we can one day become qualified to become your disciple. Letter was much longer, more detailed. So when Prabhupad was reading the letter he started to cry, he was in Bombay then and for days he was telling the life members, just see how they are struggling with maya. Actually preaching in India many times we preach to people, they say I can follow your principles, no meat, no eggs, no onion, no garlic, you notice one was missing! They said but no fish, that is very difficult! So like that in different parts of the world there are different mayas which are more prominent. Maybe in Bengal it is fish, maybe in the west it is sex. Maybe in some other place it is intoxication. Maybe in some place it is everything. But Srila Prabhupad he was telling all the Indian gentlemen this is what is glorious, because these people are struggling, they are fighting with maya. Just see how they are trying, how they are going thru such a struggle in order to overcome the influence of maya. This is glorious. So whether we are in the beginning stage trying to follow the four principles which at any stage may attack us. Or whether we have subtle mayas that we have to struggle with. The different upasakhas or weeds of devotional service. Nishiddhaachar kuti naati, jeeva himsa, laabh, puja, prathistha aadi jato upasakha gan. Whether it is breaking the principles or duplicitous activity or whether simply being inimical to other living entities or whether it is a desire for position or worship or profit or any of the other different weeds, what is glorious is when we are struggling against those things. And we are all one, Prabhupad used to say, Krishna’s army, one big family. But here in a sense we are stranded. We are here in this ocean of material energy of birth and death, old age and disease, of all kinds of maya. Maya is trying her best to pull us away and engage us back in material sense activities. So Srila Prabhupad was so concerned, he said it is so hard to make one devotee, that we don’t want to lose any of those that we have. All the devotees in this great struggle, competition against maya, for all of us it is a horrible thing to see when one devotee has difficulty with maya, having any type of attack. If the attack is simply sinful activity, then the devotees they try their best to bring up that person back again to the pure standard of spiritual life. However, if someone renounces the spiritual master or offends the disciplic succession, of course then only do we avoid such persons. But for sinful activity we should never think that there is no hope if we correct ourselves, if we engage sincerely by Caitanya’s mercy there is no one who cannot achieve complete perfection. Otherwise, where is the hope? In the 11th canto of the Bhagavatam Jiva Goswami explains that in this kali yuga the atmosphere is so polluted with materialistic environment that even a mahabhaagavat devotee cannot remain unaffected. Some degree of effect will be there. So then where is the hope? Our only hope is the mercy of Sri Krishna Caitanya Prabhu Nityananda, the mercy of Srila Prabhupad, Caitanya Mahaprabhu ki jai! Prabhupad said there is a difference between ordinary people and saintly people. Actually Prabhupad, when he gave us this Krishna consciousness movement, he gave us the special boat that we can cross over this ocean of material energy. He personally was the karna dhara guiding the ship, he has left his books, our guide for all spiritual masters to come so that we can chart our course through the very dangerous ocean of maya. I was reminded how the Yadu dynasty – the Yadu dynasty was so powerful that no one could have stopped them or controlled them. When Krishna wanted to take them back with Him to the spiritual world, to wind up their activities here there was no way to neutralize them except by them fighting with each other. Otherwise there was no one powerful enough to destroy or to wind up the Yadu dynasty. So this Krishna consciousness movement is so powerful. Srila Prabhupad said that there was no outside force which can stop the progress of Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s sankirtan movement. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu ki jai! The sankirtan movement couldn’t be stopped by the Chand Kazi, couldn’t be stopped by Ramchandra Khan, couldn’t be stopped by various ministers of the Hussain Shah, or by anyone. Neither can it be stopped by inimical governments or by unfavorable press or by envious karmis. But Srila Prabhupad warned us that we should be very careful not to misdirect our energy to conflict amongst the devotees, but to direct all of our energy towards preaching Krishna consciousness and delivering all of the people. This year is an amazing year, over 50 years the Gaudiya Mutt, the Caitanya mission has been fighting court cases. Some of those court cases are still going on. They are not resolved yet after 50 years. Who is the acharya? And recently another court case was there where one temple was divided into three groups and one devotee had his head cut off! He didn’t die, head stuck on by the jugular vein and the esophagus. Wind pipe as we say. Now those groups somehow they got together and they are working cooperatively. This year for preparing for the 500th anniversary of Caitanya Mahaprabhu all the temples here in the Mayapur island formed together in a birthplace society and we requested the government who was about to do nothing to put street lights, to build shelter for the devotees coming here and to make other arrangements because so many pilgrims would come. And all the temples unanimously, repeatedly requested that a representative of Bhakti Vedanta Swami Prabhupad should be the chairman because he was the one who had done the most for expanding Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s movement and glorifying Sri Mayapur Dham. Hari bol! So it was the first time when Prabhupad he came from the west, one of the first things he did you know, he always wanted to work with his god brothers. But he was such a dynamic preacher that they would not allow him. They requested that kindly why don’t you make your own movement because everyone is being attracted to you so better you make your own movement. He never wanted to. In fact, before he came to Mayapur to buy our own land, he had me come and other sanyasis go and approach the existing temples here to use their guest house. That we will bring all the devotees there but they said it was filled up, no room! So he said what can we do? We have to have our own place. When he built this Mayapur temple, even before building this, he called all of his god brothers and god nephews and he requested that now I have come from the west, I have so many Krishna consciousness centres all over the world, let us work cooperatively together to spread the mission of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur and Lord Caitanya. That picture which he had painted we have here 12 feet by 8 feet, huge picture of all the various god brothers and god nephews that were present who he requested. Unfortunately, they didn’t accept his invitation. So we know that Prabhupad would be very happy because seven days before leaving this planet he formed a Bhaktivedanta Swami Charity Trust and he said that one of the specific purposes was to unite the Gaudiya devotees of Lord Caitanya and specially to try to unite the Saraswat family. So this year all of the descendants of Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur on this island are working cooperatively together . They have all come here for meetings, we have gone to several centers. We took our parikrama to some of their temples, they brought their parikramas here. We know that Srila Prabhupad would be very pleased, would be very happy to see this cooperative effort. And some of them are requesting, say that why don’t we have a GBC for all the Gaudiya sampradaya. So the whole world is looking for a solution. At the Bombay very nicely organized congress for the synthesis of science and religion it was very encouraging to hear one British physicist state that he considered that India’s greatest contribution, although they were contributing no doubt to the technological advances in the west, but in many cases probably they were gaining more than what they were contributing in that field. But he felt that they had the greatest thing to offer the rest of the world by providing the spiritual leadership for the rest of the world that he saw only the Vedic understanding offered such a wonderful universal solution for synthesizing science and religion for leading the world out of its present malady of difficulties. So I wonder where that kind of statement came from. We heard Prabhupad say again and again here in India the story about andhaa pangu, the lame and the blind man. Here we heard it from a British physicist maybe in slightly different words, I wasn’t able to say it exactly. But it was almost Prabhupad’s understanding. But coming from a British physicist who wasn’t a devotee of ISKCON, a renowned physicist, so Prabhupad’s understanding is actually spreading. We saw that the scientific community who came, they are deeply affected by Prabhupad’s teachings. I think we should thank Bhakti Swarup Damodar Maharaj for organizing on the occasion of this 500th anniversary that wonderful scientific congress which was done totally through local funding, not totally but largely through local funding in Bombay. So people are putting the pressure, what is the solution? Nuclear war, everyone is afraid. United Nations no one has hope that that is going to give a solution, even their own members. Actually Krishna consciousness is the only hope. But if you read the Mahabharata, just as Shakuni was very expert in creating various conflicts between the members of the Kuru and Pandava dynasties. This is known as kuti naati. Maya is very expert in trying to create division and kali yuga means the age of division. Everything should be divided. So this Krishna consciousness movement is unity in diversity. We can never stop and neither do we want to, the individuality or the diversity. If we try to strive for that we will become impersonalists. At the same time within that unlimited diversity that each soul is an individual entity having an individual relationship with guru and Krishna, we have simultaneously unity and in the Vedas it says, kalo sangha Shakti, in the kali yuga the only strength is through collective association, through sangha, through unity. The more that we can be united in spreading Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s mission the more difficult it would be for kali yuga to stand. Therefore, kali yuga the first objective is to create division, dissension, quarrel, and so on. Apparently Prabhupad said, one of the things he was concerned about was that his devotees would fight amongst each other. He said Bhakti Siddhanta’s disciples never fought until after he left. He said, but you western devotees you are always fighting even in my presence! So please don’t fight. Philosophically we all have our responsibilities to preach, to purify. The objective is to create a deeper vaishnava relationship to appreciate any devotee from the neophyte stage up who is trying to struggle to become Krishna conscious. As long as someone is trying to struggle to give their energy to Srila Prabhupad, we want to encourage that because every bit of energy is needed. Prabhupad said, Lord Caitanya He can make the whole world Krishna conscious simply by His desire. He said I am not so powerful; I need so much help. We need every bit of energy we can get. If we see someone is not trying, then they are in trouble. We have to help them to try and if they won’t try then what can we do? But if someone is trying to be Krishna conscious, if someone is trying to overcome the influence of this vicious age, all glories to that person! So actually this Krishna consciousness movement is so blissful. When we are in the festivals we are so overjoyed but at the same time it is not simply a game, this is for real. Life and death, eternal life, eternal baddha jiva, as it states if we are able to remember Narayana anthaha smrithi, Krishna at the end of our lives we are perfect. And if we are not able to leave this body in Krishna consciousness then again we have to come back. So it is very serious business. But by Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s mercy there is never a point when we need to be completely hopeless, there is always a hope for us. And Prabhupad said if somehow or another a person is simply able to follow chanting 16 rounds a day, the four principles, they are guaranteed to go back to Godhead. What spiritual leader has given such a broad promise, so therefore we have with great conviction this confidence that anyone, people say no one should, Vedas say you cannot be a spiritual leader of any type unless you are able to deliver your follower from birth and death. So we know that simply if a person is following these instructions of Srila Prabhupad, when they leave their body they are going to go back to Godhead. So somehow or another we have to keep everyone in the race. Of course Prabhupad said some will fall, birds are flying, battle there are casualties, one bird stops to fly what can you do? You cannot carry for him. We can only encourage; we can only try to give strength to that soul. This was the great strength we got from Srila Prabhupad. That he never stopped to encourage us to be Krishna conscious. There was never a point when he said as long as we came to him and said, Prabhupad, I want to be Krishna conscious, I want to follow you, please help me, there was never a point where he said that no, you are hopeless. He would always encourage, yes, you try, you do this, you do that, he always gave us a way how we could purify ourselves. So that is what we are needing from the association of vaishnavas in this time of separation from Srila Prabhupad. The positive encouragement for everyone to continually expand and improve in all directions. The preaching, book distribution, the purity of the Krishna consciousness movement. Free from all material qualities whether tama, rajas or satwa. So on this occasion I would just like to read the first six verses from the Caitanya Caritamrita to let us meditate on Lord Caitanya’s 500th anniversary, appearance day, some of the glories of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Actually in the Caitanya Bhagavat it says adhyapiha sri Krishna Caitanya naama je loi, prema ashru ta hoya uday. It is not exactly but anyone to day who chants the name of Sri Krishna Caitanya, he immediately feels transcendental ecstasy coming. So they asked thousands of millions of people that you want proof of the Krishna consciousness effectiveness or whether Lord Caitanya is still present with us. So I say everyone chant Nitai Gaur Prema anande Hari Hari bol! Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. So those who are feeling happy in chanting this mantra raise your hand. Then everyone raises their hand. I say this is the proof, even today when you chant the name of Lord Caitanya you are feeling spiritual ecstasy. In the satya yuga they were doing ashwameda, take an old horse and with mantra bring back to life. So now we test the mantra, if you chant Sri Krishna Caitanya Prabhu Nityananda, you chant Hare Krishna Maha Mantra, you feel spiritual happiness. And it is a very simple test but anyone who takes this simple test they see that yes. Therefore, this chanting Lord Caitanya is still present even today and this chanting is fully effective. So Lord Nityananda, Lord Sri Krishna Caitanya, They come. Here in Mayapur Dham Lord Caitanya rose and from Gaudadesh Nityananda and from here Prabhupad said the whole world should be flooded. He said that Mayapur, sometimes there is flood, this year there was a minor flood. Year before this year the flood came up and touched the lotus feet of Radha Madhav, went down, now we are seeing that the Ganges is coming closer. Prabhupad said in his Caitanya Caritamrita purports that there are floods in Mayapur because this signifies that Lord Caitanya wants the sankirtan movement should be preached more vigorously to flood the entire world from Sri Mayapur Dham. Some people say that there are other priorities but Srila Prabhupad used to tell us that an idle mind is a devil’s workshop. We heard from Tamal Krishna Goswami how he came to Prabhupad to say in Bombay, he was so busy, he had to do printing, GBC, temple president, he had to do construction, that he said he didn’t have any time, he was totally day and night, just no time to do anything. Prabhupad said very good, then maya cannot catch up with you! We understand that Prabhupad gave us our number one priority to spread this Krishna consciousness movement, to preach it vigorously all over the world and that automatically purifies us. If somebody is 100% absorbed in spreading Lord Caitanya’s movement, there is no greater purification. That is the greatest purification that there is because it destroys all the offences. When Haridas Thakur was asked how to chant the holy name offenselessly, he said you chant it loudly. Because that destroys offences and makes the chanting more effective. So when we chant loudly through preaching, through book distribution, through various types of expanding the glories of Lord Caitanya, this purifies our heart like nothing else and this gives us the qualification to chant the holy name offenselessly. Sitting around and talking about it will not. But loudly chanting Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, Prabhupad wanted us to come together in this Mayapur festival and discuss how to spread the sankirtan movement of Caitanya Mahaprabhu all over the world. When are we going to do it? We have the greatest brains in the entire world here and if we collectively try to take inspiration from Srila Prabhupad, Lord Caitanya on this very sacred occasion, we all take that unlimited strength praying to Lord Caitanya for His mercy to spread this Krishna consciousness movement, then it is going to expand more and more. There should be such a fervent fire in our hearts for expanding the Krishna consciousness movement that it will burn away any little impurity that remains. Prabhupad practically took the whip to us to get us out to distribute his books, to build his temples, to expand the preaching. Now he is not there personally taking the whip to us. So somehow or another we have to whip ourselves into action. Everyone is working very hard. But Prabhupad would always glorify us, you are doing wonderful, thank you very much, now double it! Actually I was very inspired last night and I wanted to offer thanks to His Divine Grace Tamal Krishna Goswami for the Jagannath Priya natakam. I think that has touched everyone’s heart seeing how this message of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Krishna can be presented through traditional drama. So like that so many original ideas are coming. Prabhupad said take over the entire world by Lord Caitanya’s culture, take it over by the Vedic culture in spiritual sense you can touch them. So by your presence you are attracting these millions of people here to Mayapur Dham. You are attracting the people of India; they are very eager to see how the foreign devotees are preaching. And I can speak on behalf of all Indian people that they are very enlivened, they are very impressed when they see the devotees from all over the world practicing Krishna consciousness in sincerity. We thank all of the devotees for coming here, for fulfilling Prabhupad’s desire to make Sri Mayapur Dham the greatest pilgrimage place in the world. Hare Krishna! So on this day we take the opportunity of bowing down before Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu and praying to Him, surrendering to Him - Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu, I surrender at Your lotus feet. Please engage me in Your devotional service. We pray to Caitanya Mahaprabhu on this very sacred day and to His associates in the disciplic succession. On this day we take the simple austerity of fasting and chanting to give us strength to spread Lord Caitanya’s movement all over the world. Now you are at your home. Srila Prabhupad said that Mayapur Dham is the home of all the devotees of Lord Caitanya, of all the preachers. That we come here to become rejuvenated to become purified and then we, with new vigor we go out and spread the Krishna consciousness movement. So want to thank all the devotees all over the world for doing such wonderful service, spreading this Krishna consciousness movement which year after year is increasing more and more. This year the Counsel General from the USA, from Calcutta High Commission of England, the Consulate General of Italy and many other countries they have come out to Mayapur, why? Because Krishna consciousness movement is becoming so expanded and because the glories of Lord Caitanya are expanding so much that they also have to come out to see what is happening. So thank you very much for expanding the glories of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Let us all work together cooperatively to expand His glories unlimitedly until the non-devotees in the world become a minority. Hare Krishna! Any questions? We are going to have guru puja here for Prabhupad, so in a few minutes we are bringing a picture. Any questions? Haridas Thakur and Advaita Acharya were simultaneously calling Lord Caitanya to come down. Haridas Thakur was calling in Phulia. Phulia is near Shantipur, that is where the cave is where Haridas Thakur was where the python came. He was calling from there and Advaita Gosai was calling from Shantipur by the side of the Ganges. Yes? Your relationship with Lord Caitanya in the spiritual world states that the devotees of Lord Caitanya they simultaneously have relationship with Radha and Krishna and with Lord Caitanya. In this there are two parts in Goloka Vrndavan – in the Shwetadwip part where the original spiritual Navadwip Dham is situated where Lord Caitanya’s pastimes are eternally situated, there the devotees are in male form in general engaging in the sankirtan movement with Lord Caitanya and many of those devotees are in female form assisting Radha and Krishna in the Vrndavan side of Goloka Vrndavan. Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna! I take this as a sign from Lord Jagannath. He is asking about our preaching in Jagannath Puri. Last night when I saw that play I saw the last half in Bengali three days ago and last night the first half in English. When I put the two together it gave a very deep impression to me to see how Indradyumna was ordered to build the temple for Jagannath when Jagannath – Neela Madhava he never saw, simply on the order of his guru, he was ordered by Narada muni, you build a temple and Jagannath will come. And Prabhupad told us, don’t know all the devotees who were present when he said, I would like to find out, but he told us in no uncertain terms that we should build a replica temple of the Jagannath Puri temple in Puri which is a multi-million-dollar project. And then go in front of the Jagannath Puri temple and chant Hare Krishna and Jagannath will come out and go into our temple. So being weak at heart this has been put in the back of our priorities or back of our pocket book. But actually when I saw the play yesterday it was illustrated how Indradyumna had the same order and it even took him yugas practically to do it. I mean he went to Brahmaloka and came back, three or four generations had gone by and finally Jagannath came. When Prabhupad has given us this instruction it seemed to me that Tamal Krishna Goswami was acting as a kind of a spiritual, knowing or unknowing, gyatha agyatha, messenger to tell us how this was actually our responsibility handed down from the disciplic succession. We have to build that very wonderful temple in Jagannath Puri and Jagannath will come and stay there with us. So you want to ask, he asked what is the preaching in Jagannath Puri. So that is the preaching. That is what we are supposed to do. Actually Prabhupad said, start the Puri temple immediately. One year, but we said Prabhupad we have to finish the Mayapur temple first and Bombay and Vrndavan and then. Just like Prabhupad when he finished this building he said immediately build another one. There is so much room we said. No, no you will need another one, it will be very crowded he said. No one could imagine then how this huge building could be crowded. And now we are kicking ourselves that why didn’t we immediately take Prabhupad’s offer and build another Long building where now we could have facility for twice as many devotees as we do today. So similarly for one reason or another we failed in this regard, Prabhupad said to build his residence, we did not build. So now we are building his Samadhi temple. He said to build another Long temple, now we have to build so many, we have to have bunk beds to accommodate. He told us that we should build the Puri temple and that Jagannath will come. So that actually is our program in Jagannath Puri. I was thinking to privately sneak up and tell Tamal Krishna Goswami my realization that I was feeling in the heart how his play seemed to have given me in the heart a message. Then I was thinking maybe at this opportunity I will mention in this group and I said no, I shouldn’t do it. Then he out of the blue sky says what is our preaching in Jagannath Puri? Just when I was thinking that! I said, this is Krishna! So in addition to that of course, we are trying to develop, actually it is dependent now on, we have some land there that has to be handed over to ISKCON and then we can start the work on this project that Prabhupad gave us. Right now our main preaching in Orissa is from Bhubaneshwar, His Divine Grace Gour Govinda Maharaj is there and His Holiness Bhakti Purushottam Swami is assisting. We are all preaching together at the Namahatta and other preaching. But Jagannath Puri, this specific instruction that was given, apart from that we can have some small camps in the meantime but that was the ultimate objective. Hare Krishna! Any other questions? Jagandeeppad has explained this is the Mayapur Express with the two tier sleeping berth. Reservation only. Ha! I have heard unreserved is on the roof! Ha! Unless the ticket collectors catch you! Ha! This is Yoga Maya, Mayapur means not the, there are two mayas, one is Maha Maya and one is Yoga Maya. Mayapur because this is under the spiritual Yoga Maya, this entire place is under the protection of Lord Caitanya’s Yoga Maya, so this is why it is known as Mayapur. His own maya, His own spiritual potency. So when you are here you are under Lord Caitanya’s shelter. Take advantage, chant Hare Krishna and be happy! Yes, Lokanath Swamiji! I have been ordered to tell other things which happened on the Gaura Purnima day. Actually millions of years ago on the Gaura Purnima day Mother Ganges was coming down and when she came to the earth on the prayer of Bhagirathi, Maharaj Bhagi, he was taking the Ganges (Prabhupad ki jai!) down and just that when he reached Mayapur Dham, she stopped. Alright, you know that Maharaj Bhagi he prayed to the Ganges to come. Because all his descendants were there burnt to ashes because of having offended Kapila muni at the place now known as Navasagar island but that was Kapila muni’s ashram. So he was trying to deliver his fore fathers so he prayed to the Ganges to come down because if she touches their ashes they would all be delivered. So she said that she didn’t want to come because all the sinful people kind of bathe in her and just dump all their sins on her. But then he said that so many pure devotees will also come and bathe and that will give you benediction. So then she agreed. Otherwise Ganges came just to get the association of devotees and she is taking the austerity of taking the sins of non-devotees just to get the association of devotees. So this is mercy! Prabhupad went and bathed in the Ganges here in Mayapur. So when this Maharaj Bhagi said this, she said when I go on the earth I will simply splatter everywhere, so how will I be taken down? So Maharaj Bhagi said I will dig a root with my chariot, dig a river bed so that you can come down. So Maharaj Bhagi was going furiously, one side other side, moving in the Ganges, millions and billions of cusecs, tons of water flowing behind right from the heavenly planets, gushing and he is moving with the entire Ganges. When he gets to Mayapur Dham he suddenly hooo.. the Ganges stopped! He said, please you didn’t go all the way to the ocean bed. He is doing a whole worship of the Ganges, trying to find out why the Ganges was not moving. Then she appeared to him and revealed that I am going to stay here until Gaura Purnima day which is just coming because that is the appearance day of my Lord Sri Krishna Caitanya, then I will go on! This is going to be really tough today, anyone who bathes in the Ganges from this Mayapur side gets pure love for Krishna. The government has passed the law that you cannot bathe in the Ganges except at certain places. We are announcing it every day because one calamity was there already. So good luck! Where there is a will there is a way! Well, you could have someone go down and get a bucket I guess and bring. That happened millions of years ago or millions of thousands of years ago when the Ganges first came. Of course all the demi gods were coming to offer prayers to Lord Caitanya in the womb, unseen to all but a few fortunate, glorifying Lord Caitanya. Then of course the lunar eclipse was there, all the people were chanting Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare. And then when Lord Caitanya appeared the whole world was filled with the chanting of the holy names. Then the demigods came, demigoddesses came as villagers in disguise to see Lord Caitanya in His baby rupa or baby form and they offered their worship unto Him. That continues on until tomorrow when there is Jagannath Mishra Mahotsva where there is also a big feast which is given by Jagannath Mishra to all of these brahmanas who are coming including many demigods and demigoddesses. When Lord Caitanya appeared there were dhun dhubi drums beating in heaven, there were celestial flowers poured down, there were all auspiciousness everywhere with the holy names abounding. These are some of the highlights. So let us worship Srila Prabhupad! Hare Krishna! Jayaraseshwari dd 16 April 2016