His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Disciples
Connecting disciples of His Holiness Jayapataka Swami
Excerpts
There are many examples in the scripture which tells us how we
should render devotional service but there are no sufficient words
to describe the relationship which evolves between the spiritual
master and the disciple when the disciple renders/ achieves pure
devotional service. That is the greatest gift that one can get from
the spiritual master is to get the gift of pure devotion. Pure
devotion to Krsna is desired even by Brahma, by Siva, by the great
Rsis. But one can get that priceless gift from the spiritual master
by his mercy.. that is what puts us in the inconceivable debt.
Actually even if the guru gives one spiritual instruction, one
mantra in our ear, no amount of material repayment can pay for
that; because material things are after all temporary. It is like
if someone gives a paper flower…like say, when some one gives a
huge palatial building and in return you give a paper flower, then
what is the value of that? Still there is some relative value. The
paper flower is there for sometime say for few years and the
building will stand for hundred years or more. But the mantra… the
spiritual seed given by the spiritual master stands forever. And
any material thing has limited life so there is much greater
difference. You can't give any equable example to explain.
-April 24,1986, Malaysia
-April 24,1986, Malaysia
Comment
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Comment by JPS Disciples Team on January 11, 2011 at 3:20pm
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Representatives of Andal & Ramanujacarya!
When we took our Safari to South India we went to the Sri Rangam temple and
there we chanted Hare Krsna for the acarya of the Sri Rangam temple, one of
the 64 temples of Ramanuja and that’s maybe the most important that he has.
Then he said you are all incarnations of Andal, an incarnation of Laksmi who
chanted the holy name and said everyone should go with karatals and drums in
the street and chant the name of Krsna. He said you are all incarnations or
representatives of Andal, you are doing.And just recently when we had the Tirupati temple opening, the head acarya
was going to come for one day just bless it. But he stayed for all the seven
days. When he saw some of the gurukuli devotees leading kirtan, and
everybody chanting and dancing and all wearing tilaka, then he made a
declaration that, “You are doing what we should be doing. This is what
Ramanujacarya did, he made people devotees. We have become expert in all the
rituals but we are not making new devotees. But you are making the new
devotees.”Then Radhanath Swami told me that he did a programme in Sri Rangam and the
acarya had publicly over television said, “I want to be a member of ISKCON.
[Devotees: Haribol!] They are doing what Ramanujacarya told us to do.”from Lecture by HH Jayapataka Swami Maharaja
March 19th, 2008
Mayapur
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Gurumaharaj speaks regarding developing attachment to the deity:
Each deity is a unique incarnation of the Lord or His energy. Although Lord Krsna is one, each Deity form or Arca avatar has His own unique pastimes with His devotees. This is technically termed “lila –Vaicitrya” or “unique variegated pastimes”. May all the devotees develop their personal relationship and dedication to the Arca avatar form of the Lord! In this way you can get the full mercy of the Lord even while externally living in this world.
28 April 1994
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"We are more happy to see the other devotees eat and we eat after. It is
more enjoyable to serve prasad, at one level of devotional - may be in the
beginning not, but at one level you will feel more happy serving people
prasad than eating the prasad. But still you have to eat prasad. You cannot
escape. Someone else has to serve you. This is the exchange between the
devotees. In six ways they exchange love. By giving and receiving prasadam,
by revealing their mind and hearing the other person's mind, and also by
service and receiving service. So Lord Caitanya loves to praise the
devotees, increase the glories of the devotees and to give the devotees
satisfaction. So, If you think how I can please Lord Caitanya, how I can
please the Lord, that's "Devotee". Then the lord is thinking how I can
please this devotee. Usually every body is thinking how can I please myself.
And they are not satisfied. When we think how we can please Krsna, everyone
else becomes satisfied. And Krsna, this devotee is going to please me, so he
thinks how He can please this devotee. Now who's is more expert - You or
Krsna? You are trying to please Krsna, you are trying to please Lord
Caitanya and everyone. Ok, you are going to compete with me, Ok; I am going
to please you. Then He is going to win. You become worser, then you feel why
Krsna is serving me so much, I have to serve him more. So we keep on going
and trying to serve them more, trying to satisfy Krsna. So this way there is
a natural loving exchange, the devotees are satisfied. That satisfaction is
pure."
- HH Jayapataka Swami,Gurumaharaj
January 14, 2002 - Gundica Marjunam; Chennai , India
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"Somebody might be a professional Bhagavatam lecturer, or mystic yogi or
miracle man or God man or something and get all kinds of public acclaim in
the name of religion. But this is not pure bhakthi. If his motive is to gain
name and fame and be a popular person and then this is also dust and dirt in
our heart. So just like Lord Caitanya cleansed the heart many times, we have
to also clean again and again, going deeper and deeper. What is the idea, we
want to invite Krsna to come inside our heart and be seated there. Just like
Lord Caitaya was cleaning the temple to invite Jaganath, Baladev and Subadra
to stay there. So we clean the heart by chanting "Hare Krsna Hare Krsna
Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare"."
- HH Jayapataka Swami,Gurumaharaj
January 14, 2002 - Gundica Marjunam; Chennai , India
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"Krsna is in our heart, but we won't see Krsna in our heart unless we can
purify the heart. So like this, we get these other desires out from the
heart, that's the first thing. But then there is also dust, this dust has to
be also taken out. Some of the modernized material benefits also disturb us.
Somebody is thinking that by doing some good karma they can counteract the
bad karma. So they are still into this idea of doing punya karma, worshiping
devas, so these things are also like the dust because they are obstacles to
our pure bhakthi. Impersonal speculation thinking that we are God, is
another very big obstacle"
- HH Jayapataka Swami,Gurumaharaj
January 14, 2002 - Gundica Marjunam; Chennai , India
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Simply speculating
Whether you are a great sanyasi or pandit or even a demigod, when you are in the material world, it is hard to understand what is beyond the material world, especially if you are simply speculating. Srila Prabhupada gave this example: Just like, some times you hear, tick tack, tick tack. Some noise from the ceiling. We are all sitting here in the room and we can take a poll of what the noise is. Someone may say, "One of the life members daughters is practicing Bharatanatyam". And yet someone may say, "No, someone is washing his clothes". And yet someone else may say, "Someone in the street is repairing something" or some goondas have come upstairs and they are playing dice". Like this, we can go on speculating and none can say who is saying the right thing. And finally, you go upstairs and find that it is just some crow , pecking the ground, or something. So, unless one goes up and sees what is happening, comes down and informs us, we can never know. Narada Muni is such a messenger from Narayana. He goes to the spiritual world and comes down to inform us.
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FEAR OF MAYA - Devotees are fearless, abhaya charanaravinda re , having the shelter of the Lotus feet of the Lord. This fearlessness is in their determination and courage to engage in devotional service to Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and spread His sankirtan movement in spite of so many obstacles.However, fearlessness of Maya is not the mood of a devotee. Rather a devotee knows that Maya is stronger than individual jivatmas and without the shelter of Lord Krsna the jiva is subject to being subjugated by mahamaya and enslaved under her dominion. Even pure brahmanas like Ajamilla could be misled by tamasic and rajasic association, what to speak of Kali Yuga conditioned souls who have been in the habit of sensual pleasures in the modes of ignorance and passion. How much easier it is for Mahamaya to dominate a careless jiva soul in this age of Kali, a soul who has neglected to fear her influence and has not kept clinging dearly to the Lotus Feet of Sri Sri Nitai Gouranga!
As time passes it never fails to cause us all anguish to see nice devotees succumbing to the influence of Mahamaya and leave the priceless jewel of devotional service to Srila Prabhupada aside. Devotees who seemed fixed up and dedicated. In retrospect it is seen that carelessness and pride have left the avenue open for Mahamaya to act. A lack of fear of Mahamaya is dangerous and fatal. Sometimes we hear devotees exclaim how "they arn't kids anymore" and how they know "how to handle themselves", and so on. Later we see them casualties to Mahamaya_ casualties to their own lack of fear of Maya. It instills fear in my heart. I dont want ever to be separated from the Lotus Feet of Srila Prabhupada and Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. I certainly don't want any of you to be separated from Krsna consciousness either. Developing an enjoying attiude is not difficult for the conditioned soul who has known nothing but an enjoying attitude for unlimited millions of births. Re- awaking our long dormat Krsna Conscious devotional service attitude is the miricle of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu's causeless mercy which Srila Prabhupada has given to us. We must keep our Krishna consciousness awake and not Mahamaya cover us with the darkness of ignorance putting our devotional service to sleep. This is not difficult for Mahamaya to do, unless we are protected by Lord Krsna's shelter. Remaining humbly fixed in devotional service to Lord Krsna is our only shelter. mam eva ye prapadyante mayam etam taranti te. Only by the Lords mercy can we get free from Mahamaya, otherwise it is duratyaya- very difficult! There is no Question of "not being a kid anymore", as until we are back inthe material world we are all subject to relaspsing into our dormant state of Krsna consciousness- Mahamaya ignorance. We should rather be fearful like a child who is afraid due to not seeing his parents. Srila Prabhupada said we should cry for Lord Krsna! Srila Prabhupada stressed how everyone needs to carefully remain fixed in devotional service 24 hours a day. Even a few minutes of Mahamaya activities can cause us spiritual havoc. Srila Prabhupada ordered us to chant 16 rounds of Hare Krsna Mahamantra every day. He has also instructed to strictly follow the four regulated princibles of no meat, fish eggs, onion and garlic eating: no intoxication, no gambling and no illicit sex.(sex not for krsna conscious procreation). We should fear anything which reduces our strong engagement in devotional service or weakens our capacity to observe the regulative principles. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu advices in His Shikshastaka prayers to always chant the HAre Krsna Mahamantra in a humble state of mind.. We should never forget that.
Srila Prabhupada didn't want to go back to God head alone, he wants to take all of us back with Him. Please carefully follow these guidelines and let us all be together eternally with Srila Prabhupada and Sri Sri Nitai - Gour! - Part of a Letter to disciples (Sept 3 1990)
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"Srila Prabhupada told us that if we cannot expand it, we should at least
maintain it. He said that if we could maintain whatever he has given us and
not let it decrease, he would be very pleased. If we could also expand it,
of course, that would be very good. But he asked that we at least maintain
what was already in place."
"Following Srila Prabhupada's Instructions"
Bhaktivedanta Manor ,UK 1988.
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"Srila Prabhupada was personally protecting the movement in so many ways,
and therefore he was getting headaches. He was seeing how tricky maya was in
finding different ways to attack the movement. Srila Prabhupada was
personally taking on his head the entire burden of protecting the devotees
and protecting the movement.
Now that burden has come to us, and we have to take that service on behalf
of Srila Prabhupada and see that the Krsna consciousness movement expands."
From a lecture given at the Bhaktivedanta Manor in 1988.
"Following Srila Prabhupada's Instructions"
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Each devotee should feel that it is his/her personal duty to tell others about Lord Krishna! Maybe if they don’t do it then someone who could have gotten to Lord Krishna will miss the chance! Each devotee is so important to the mission and can make such a difference by utilizing every opportunity that Lord Krishna sends us to preach. Otherwise it is like valuable jewels slipping through our fingers.
Diary, June 2nd, 1997
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...So kindly be very careful in your devotional practices. Kali is not merciful. If we give him an opportunity he won’t give us any breaks or mercy. So we have to keep very fixed in our Krsna conscious activities and don’t give an inch or millimeter to Kali to enter in.
Diary,June 8th 1997
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Prabhupada really wanted us to be dedicated to carrying out his mission. We can be inspired how he carried out the mission of his spiritual master for us to carry out our mission which is Prabhupada’s mission, to carry out the mission of our Founder-acarya. And we know that all the subsequent generations of devotees--some of Prabhupada’s grand-disciples are members of our GBC--we’re already an endangered species, we’re going to eventually be in extinction, all the direct initiated disciples of Srila Prabhupada. So we need to create this culture, our spiritual corporate culture. We are dedicated to carrying out the order of Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, that’s the spiritual culture we are implementing. If everybody maintains that--we know that his culture also is to fulfill the desires of the previous acaryas--then we’re completely linked up with the guru-parampara. That’s means we get the full empowerment and the full energy coming down from Krsna to the guru-parampara, to all of us. That’s what empowers ISKCON, our connection. Krsna consciousness, Prabhupada repeatedly said, can’t be spread simply by some material adjustment. It has to be done by being empowered
-February 11,2004 -Appearance day of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura
Sridham Mayapur
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Bonafide Guru
So sometimes devotees get mental. There are envious people who say "Oh, you are worshiping a conditioned soul," and put the seed of doubt in the mind, "but you should worship only liberated souls." Then how do you know who is liberated? He should have four arms and cakra ! gada ! padma ! or something, or what? He should fly in the air? How do you know who is liberated or who is conditioned? This is not easy to understand. So sastra does not say all these things. Sastra says he who is representing the Lord clearly is a bona fide guru. We consider that if someone is representing Krsna, then he is also transcendental. Even though he is the guru, he presents himself very humbly because he is always dependent on his guru. Still, by worshiping a bona fide representative who is not concocting, the effect is there.
April 18, 1997 ,Sri Vyasa Puja,Sridham Mayapur
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Sasyanam Griham Agatham
All the ashramas, everything is to bring people up to the spiritual
identification. So we are doing our devotional service with the
idea of achieving the perfection of life. There's a sanskrit verse
"sasyaanam griha aagatham"…..
"Sasya" is the crops in the field, the grains, the wheat the rice,
the crops….. they have a very nice field of crops, but if the hail
storm comes and knocks the ripened crops on the ground, then what
is the use?
A farmer, when is his satisfaction?…. if he sees the fields he gets
a certain pleasure, but the real satisfaction is when he harvests
and brings it home. That's why the vedic verse that says "sasyaanam
griha aagatham". Apparently, sometimes the devotees would start to
praise some devotee to Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakura, that "Oh
that devotee is really fired up, he is very good, very nice
devotee". Then he would give a reply "sasyaanam griha aagatham",
like the proof is in the pudding, the proof is when you get the
harvest home, "he has got a good start let's see if he makes it to
the end". Sometimes you hear devotees say "I have done so much
service, I have done so much for Krsna what has the movement done
to me? I don't have a color TV, I don't have my own car, I don't
have my this, I don't have my that. You hear materialistic devotees
complain, but actually what do we want? Is that what we come to
Krsna Consciousness? We have come to get home back to Godhead…and
until we get there, the harvest isn't in, it's still in the
fields.
Somehow people, somehow devotees, and somewhere along the line,
they start to identify with their body and mind in some cases. And
it's very painful, how this disease infects devotees. So for the
devotees who are fixed they have to be very careful: "this is a
disease, this is what we are here to guard against, that I don't
identify with body and mind, that I can bring the harvest back
home. When I am back in the spiritual with Prabhupada, with Krsna
and the spiritual master and I am serving in my eternal svarupa,
that's when I have Krsna Prema and I am bowing down at Krsna's
lotus feet or Krsna is coming embracing me, "why have you taken so
long to come back to me, I have been waiting for you!"
When all those transcendental mercies as said or described by the
Goswamis are achieved, that's when the harvest is there, until then
there is really no time to, it's not the time to delay. Like in
agriculture, if you miss the time; sometimes it is sunny out, you
have to dry your grains in the field quick and get them back in,
because if it's starts raining, you don't the grains back in time,
they'll all start to rot in the field. There's all these kinds of
obstacles…so we don't know what the future is holding for us, we
don't know what obstacles are there…. so whatever the
circumstances, we want to be very careful to use every opportunity
in Krsna's service… not to make a slight mistake… Prabhupada says,
"it's like someone is shaving with a straight edge razor, and
they're a little careless, they can easily cut themselves".
So that spiritual life is like a razor's edge: just that takes
little bit of bodily identification. a little bit of mental
concoction and we can get off the track, and the harvest won't get
back home in this life, maybe in a future life we will get a
chance, nothing is lost. But we want to bring the harvest back home
in this life time; this is the special chance that Lord Caitanya is
giving us…that we can bring home the harvest in this lifetime.
Prabhupada promised: " chant your sixteen rounds, follow the four
principles, engage in service to Guru and Krsna your whole life,
you will go back to Godhead. ….. that's the yajna to bring the
harvest home.
- Lecture on SB 1.3.32
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