HH Jayapataka Swami

[Guest guest]

>From Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir!

 

February 19, 2007

Verse: Srimad Bhagavatam 3.1.16

Speaker: HH Jayapataka Swami

__

 

puresu punyopavanadri-kunjesv

apanka-toyesu sarit-sarahsu

ananta-lingaih samalankrtesu

cacira tirthayatanesv ananyah

 

TRANSLATION: He began to travel alone, thinking only of Krsna, through

various holy places like Ayodhya, Dvaraka and Mathura. He traveled where the

air, hill, orchard, river and lake are all pure and sinless and where the

forms of the Unlimited decorate the temples. Thus he performed the pilgrim's

progress.

 

PURPORT: These arca forms of the Lord may be considered idols by the

atheists, but that does not matter for persons like Vidura or His many other

servants. The forms of the Lord are mentioned here as ananta-linga. Such

forms of the Lord have unlimited potency, the same as that of the Lord

Himself. There is no difference between the potencies of the arca and those

of the personal forms of the Lord. The example of the postbox and post

office may be applied here. The little postboxes distributed all over the

city have the same potency as the postal system in general. The duty of the

post office is to carry letters from one place to another. If one puts

letters in postboxes authorized by the general post office, the function of

carrying letters is performed without a doubt. Similarly, the arca-murti can

also deliver the same unlimited potency of the Lord as when He is personally

present. Vidura, therefore, could see nothing but Krsna in the different

arca forms, and ultimately he was able to realize Krsna alone and nothing

else. [End of purport]

 

 

Jayapataka Swami: So Vidura began his pilgrimage traveling around the

different holy places of India. By his traveling, Yudhisthira later made a

quotation that you make the holy places holy because you are carrying Krsna

always in your heart. He went as a humble devotee. He was going to get

purified from the association of Duryodhana and Dhrtarastra.

 

So here in this verse, the glories of the holy places is mentioned. In the

Padma Purana there is a list of holy places. According to a holy place's

ability to counteract sin, purify one from different sins, it is rated. So

there is a whole chapter that rates little sins like lying and stealing.

There are lots of holy places that can do that. But if you murder somebody,

then which holy place? There is a list of those. Then if you murdered a

brahmana, then there's a list. Then finally there are seven holy places that

if you die there you go back to Godhead immediately. Mayapur is one of them.

 

Devotees: Haribol!

 

Prabhupada once arrived in Mayapur, we had a big reception for him, we

offered guru-puja. Then he gave his class. He went up to his room, he sat in

seat, he took a sip of water. Prabhupada would drink water without touching.

He taught us, so we had to drink water without touching. If you touch, your

hand is dirty. You touch the Bhagavatam, you just committed an aparadha. You

spit on the Bhagavatam according to brahminical standards.

 

He taught everyone. He gave Brahmananda sweet balls and said, "Throw it in

your mouth without touching." If you live in India, you have to learn these

things because people notice. They know the standard of cleanliness. In the

West, nobody cares. If you drink from a glass of water, nobody thinks twice

about it, but in India they notice. You drink, you touch. If you drink

without touching, then you can touch the Bhagavatam.

 

Prabhupada always drank without touching. He had a golden goblet. He drank

and then, [sighs]. I can't sigh the way he sighed. He sighed an ecstatic

sigh. I just sigh an ordinary sigh.

 

He said, "Living and dying in Mayapur is all the same."

 

Devotees:Haribol!

 

Wow, what does that mean?

 

He said, "You live in Mayapur, you are living in the holy dham, and when you

die in Mayapur, you go back to Godhead. You are living in the spiritual

world and when you die you go back to the spiritual world."

 

It's like this year we are going on the safari to Divyadesa. We are going to

the holy places designated by Ramanaujacarya. Some of them are considered

like the spiritual world on earth. Prabhupada told us even Haridaspur, where

Haridasa Thakur was chanting for one day, within a three mile radius it is a

holy tirtha. It is called sripat. Where the Lord's murti is established,

then it has a wider area that is affected. It is a whole science.

 

So Vidura was going to all these temples. Just like Ranganatha is the

personal Deity of Lord Ramacandra. He gave to Vibhisana, but he got tricked

by the brahmana to leave on Ranganatha Island, Sri Rangam, in the middle of

the Kaveri river. So all these deities, the Kancipuram diety, Ramanauja's

disciple, Kuresa, who was blinded, he got his eyesight back from the Deity.

Even in our Mayapur, Lord Jagannath is always performing so many miracles.

When we go there on parikrama, you can hear from the pujaris about his

different pastimes. Our Nrsimhadeva also saved one lady from blindness, many

different pastimes.

 

I think this verse is very appropriate for me because I travel around the

world. I don't know what most of the places look like. Only I know what

Frankfurt looks like because I went on harinama in downtown Frankfurt with

the devotees. Otherwise, I don't know what. I went to Koln in Germany. I

only know what London looks like because I go on Ratha Yatra. I just go from

the airport to the temple and see the Deities. The Deities are so special.

 

Some of our devotees, some did well, some didn't do well, but the ones who

did well took groups of wealthy Indians to see the temples in the west. In

this way, going around seeing all the Deities, seeing the wonderful devotees

practicing Krsna consciousness in the West. Many of them started chanting

japa and become devotees themselves. Even they went on a mixed spiritual

tour, see Washington, see New York, then they'd go and see Radha-Govinda,

they'd see the different Deities. Actually, they'd get purified. These

Deities all over the world also, like we heard a few days ago in the class,

embassies.

 

The Dhams are direct extensions of the spiritual world. The temples are

embassies. Like Haridaspur,there was no temple there, but Haridas Thakur

stopped and chanted 300,000 names of Krsna there. So Prabhupada said it is a

holy place, Sripat, wherever some pure devotees gives a class, that is also

sanctified. So all the places they especially established Deities.

 

We go around Gaura Mandala Bhumi and say, "This Deity was established by

Lord Nityananda. This Deity was establish by Bhaktivinoda Thakura. This

deity was established by one of the associates of Lord Caitanya." We go

there, we bow down, remember that associate. It is so sanctified.

 

Similarly, the Deities which were installed by Prabhupada or worshiped by

Prabhupada, those are more special. In New Panihati, Atlanta, Prabhupada

taught the devotees how to chant "parama karuna, pahun dui jana,

nitai-gauracandra". He was crying before Gaura-Nitai. Tears of love were

pouring from his eyes. He said, "How merciful they are. They have come here

to America to deliver the fallen souls." Like that there are worshipable

Deities all over the world, giving their mercy out.

 

For me it's a great pilgrimage to go and visit these Deities. Of course in

India, if you can't go anywhere, at least come to Mayapur or Vrindavan or

both because here all the holy places are exisiting. They all reside. This

is Radharani's place. Radharani made Mayapur Dham for the pleasure of Krsna.

So to please Radharani, the supreme energy, all of the holy places have

come. Or some say they are all here and from here they expand out to their

other external forms. We'll see Naimisaranya on parikrama. We'll see

Puskar-tirtha, Kuruksetra, Triveni, Pancaveni, Campaka gardens of

Campakalata devi. Campakalata is next to Lalita. She has her own gardens in

Mayapur to bring campa flowers to Radha-Krsna by her mystical powers. With

their supreme energy, they all have so many potencies. We can't imagine.

These deities are unlimited, ananta-linga, unlimited potencies.

 

We pray, Prabhupada would pray to all the Deities, so many pictures of him

standing with folded hands, praying. Once some lady came up to Prabhupada

and said "What are you praying?"

 

Everyone was shocked, how can you just ask someone what they're praying.

It's private.

 

Prabhupada looked at her, then said, "I'm praying that I never leave Krsna

consciousness." Whether that was what he was praying or that is what he was

instructing her she should pray, we should pray like that anyway. Take the

tip. You don't want to leave Krsna consciousness. We want to spend ourselves

under the shelter of Lord Krsna's devotional service.

 

Today is a very special day. It's the disappearance day of three great

Vaisnavas, one of whom is a disciple of an associate of Lord Caitanya.

Shyamananda Pandit, who helped bring the works of the acaryas with Narottama

Dasa Thakura and Srinivasa Acarya. His disciple was Rasikananda, his chief

disciple. He had thousands of disciples.

 

Rasikananda was born as the son of a very wealthy feudal landlord. He was

married to Icchadevi. As soon as he met Shyamananda, immediately he knew,

his hairs were standing on end. Immediately he knew there was a connection

from a previous life, this was his preceptor. He immediately surrendered and

begged Shyamananda for initiation, Shyamananda initiated him and his wife.

He became Rasikananda and she became Syama Dasi.

 

Rasikananda and Syama Dasi established Deities in their town where they were

the lords, previously the lords. The town was so much, he said the people

were so devoted to the Deities, that they changed the name of the town to

Gopiballabhpur, all were in love with Gopiballabh, the dear to the gopis,

Lord Krsna, hoping that all the townspeople would also develop this love for

Radha and Krsna.

 

Somehow I have a really great fortune that Prabhupada made me the life

chairman of the Bhaktivedanta Swami Charity Trust and gave some of his guru

daksina as the seed capital. One of the assignments he gave was to fix up

the temples, preserve the ancient temples of Gaura Mandala Bhumi. So somehow

this trust has been fixing up the original temple of Rasikananda, which is

five hundred years old now, putting up a wall around it, fixing it up. We

did so many services, so somehow I got a little mercy there.

 

Rasikananda was taken to Radha-Gopinatha, Ksira-cora Gopinatha. After Lord

Caitanya and Madhavendra Puri visited. Gopinatha stole the ksira, everyone

knows that famous story. If you don't, have someone tell you because if I

tell it it will take too long. Anyway, the basic thing was, just the short

form of it: Madhavendra Puri wanted, since we are talking about Deities, he

wanted, everyday they offered condensed milk sweet to this Deity of

Gopinatha. Madhavendra Puri was coming from the Sri Nathaji deity. The

Gopalji deity, who is now known as Sri Nathaji, was in Vrindavan. He

thought, "I'd like to know what this tastes like so that I could offer it to

my Gopal deity. Wow! I just committed a big aparadha! It's bhoga. It's an

unoffered offering and I thought, 'How would it taste?' This is a big

offense. I am an aparadhi."

 

So he went out and he was chanting his japa and thinking, "Krsna forgive me.

I am so offensive."

 

Then the Deities came in the dream of the pujari that night and said, "We

took one of the pots of ksira and put it under our cloth. You can come and

get it. In the market there is a devotee called Madhavendra Puri. You can

give it to him."

 

He wasn't thinking about tasting it to enjoy it. He was thinking about

offering it to Krsna. So there was really no offense, but he was very humble

about the whole thing.

 

So this pujari woke up. Hours had passed since this Deity stole the

offering. He took his shower, got dressed in clean cloth, went, opened the

temple, looked, and sure enough, behind the dhoti of Gopinatha, there was

the pot of ksira. So the Deity stole the ksira to give to his devotee.

 

He went out in the market, crying, "Madhavendra Puri! Madhavendra Puri!"

 

Madhavendra Puri said, "Yes?" No one else was there. It was like one in the

morning. He was chanting his japa. He was still feeling so bad. He [the

pujari] told him what happened and said, "You are the most fortunate man in

the entire world. For you, the Deity has stolen this condensed milk." He

gave it to him. Madhavendra Puri offered his obeisances to it, ate the

ksira, kept the clay pot. He would eat a little piece of the clay pot every

day. So many other pastimes with Madhavendra Puri.

 

So this Ksira-cora Gopinatha was very famous. There was some king, maybe he

was a Muslim king, I don't know. He was a Deity-hater. He was going around

smashing Deities in temples. Like the Taliban in Afghanistan were smashing

the Buddhas. So when the people in Remuna heard that he was coming, they hid

Gopinatha under a pond three miles away.

 

The king was so upset, "Oh I could not smash the Deity! I love smashing

Deities!" What a demon, huh? Some people are like that. So then he broke the

Ramacandi, the Durga Deity that was there.

 

Later, Rasikanada was kept in-charge of that place. He had a dream to

excavate the pond where that Gopinatha Deity was hidden. He recovered the

Gopinatha Deity, built a temple for Gopinatha, because the temple, the other

one, must have been smashed or something, and he took charge of the worship.

 

Rasikananda and his wife made hundreds of thousands of devotees, according

to the history. They were super preachers. Even Shyamananda made Rasikananda

a guru in his presence. Like in ISKCON we have a few where the guru orders

his disciples to take disciples. Rasikananda was one of the main examples of

that kind of that the guru wants one of the disciples [unclear] preaching,

so they were both preaching simultaneously in different places. Later,

Rasikananda inherited the temple responsibility in Remuna.

 

There is a famous story that one morning he was sitting brushing his teeth

with a neem twing. Prabhupada used to use neem twigs. He said, "These

toothbrushes are unclean, using again and again." Of course sometimes he

used toothbrush, too, but that is because there was no neem twig in the

West. But he would change regularly his toothbrush, not keep them until they

are like rotting. But he said, "Best is the neem twig, disposable

toothbrush." You chew on the end, make a brush out of it, brush your teeth,

divide it in half, scrape your tongue, finished. So Rasikananda was sitting

in the asrama, in the courtyard of the temple, brushing his teeth early in

the morning and the villagers came, "Gurudeva! Gurudeva! There's a yogi in

the village, a yogi!"

 

"So what, there's a yogi in the village?"

 

"He's flying!"

 

"Not important."

 

Another group of villagers came, "Gurudeva, Gurudeva, there's a yogi in the

village and he's flying! He's got a stick under his leg and he's flying

around." Like the witches, they put broomstick, but somehow, this guy put

some kind of stick and sometimes people get this magical power.

 

"It's not important."

 

Again a third group came, "Gurudeva! There's a yogi flying, 'phush, phush,

phush,' flying in the sky!"

 

"I told you, it's not important." He took the twig out of his mouth, put it

under his leg, and started flying around the asrama. [laughter] "It's not

important. If it was important, I would have taught you a long time ago."

Landed down again.

 

Rasikananda Prabhu ki jai!

 

He's one of these personalities who came down from the spiritual world to

help Lord Caitanya's movement spread. It was on this day, on this tithi, he

was chanting in the courtyard in front of the Gopinatha Deity. Suddenly,

poof, he disappeared. He went back to Godhead. Some of his associates were

so struck with separation that they also went back. His samadhi is in the

temple courtyard compound of Ksira-cora Gopinatha. Today was his

disappearance.

 

Today also is the disappearance day of Jagannatha Dasa Babaji, the guru of

Bhaktivinoda Thakura. Rasikananda was 1590 AC. Jagannatha Dasa Babaji was

born in 1780. That was probably before the British got here, 1780 AC. And he

left, that year it was 25th of February, this is tithi, 1895. So he lived to

be 125 years old. He was born in Mymensingh, Bangladesh. Mymensingh is about

two hours drive north of Dhaka, the capital. I went there several times to

do programs. We have to find out his birthplace. I don't know if we can find

it out.

 

He a disciple of Madhusudana Babaji. He lived in Vrindavan, Kuliya,

Navadvipa. Bhaktivinoda Thakura met him in Vrindavan as well as here. So we

are going to go to his samadhi mandir on the parikrama on the third day. We

tell a lot of pastimes about Jagannatha dasa Babaji. I don't want to spoil

all those.

 

There is his samadhi temple there and behind the temple there is the old

Ganges. The Ganges at one point had a channel that ran there. He used to

chant his japa looking over the Ganges. One day he was chanting his japa in

great separation here in Navadvipa dhama. Radha and Krsna revealed

themselves to him. Everyone knew he had realization of Radha and Krsna. He

was called Siddha Jagannatha dasa Babaji. He was perfected. He had God

realization while he was living.

 

Because of his God realization, he had very much spiritual vision. One

pastime I can tell, some wealthy Indian gentleman came and saw him and asked

him, because at that time, in India it is quite popular that babas show a

little magic and then everyone thinks, "OK they're God." Without mentioning

which babas, there are a number of babas who are thought to be God or some

incarnation or something. Similarly, any great Guru, they should show some

magic.

 

Even people asked Prabhupada to show magic. "I went to America with forty

rupees. Now I have over forty million dollars of temples all over the world

in just five-six years with thousands and thousands of disciples. What more

magic do you want to see?"

 

Devotees: Haribol!

 

Sometimes they say that someone walks on water, so you save fifty paisa. It

costs fifty paisa to cross the river by boat.

 

So they asked Jagannath dasa Babaji to show some magic, show some miracle.

He said, "No, no, I don't do that. . . . Eh, get out! Out, out!" He started

with hitting his stick on the ground, "Out!"

 

"What are you doing? There is nothing there."

 

He said, "No, no, in Vrindavan," I forget which temple, one of these

temples, "the Gokulananda temple, there is a goat who is eating the Tulasi

by someone's samadhi, I am just scaring that goat away."

 

"How can you be sitting in Navadvipa scaring a goat away from eating a

Tulasi plant in Vrindavan?"

 

So they sent a telegram to find out if it is true. They said, "Yes, there

was a goat eating a Tulasi and the goat was chased away by something."

 

But the biggest miracle for us, the most important, is that he found the

birthplace of Lord Caitanya. We'll go there tomorrow morning and pay

obeisances at the birthplace because on the parikrama, we are supposed to

first start and end at the birthplace. The international parikrama, the day

after tomorrow when we have the parikrama, we won't go to the birthplace

because we'll save three miles of walking. You may not appreciate that right

now, but you will the day after tomorrow. Even if you don't go on the

parikrama, it is nice to go and hear from the different sannyasis about the

glories of the birthplace of Lord Caitanya. He found that. He was carried on

the head of Bhaktivinoda Thakura. You'll hear about that tomorrow, so I

won't. So today is his disappearance day.

 

In our own ISKCON, our own saint, Tamal Krsna Maharaja, he left the world on

this holy day. When I first went to the temple in San Francisco, I saw him

and I saw Visnujana. They were very impressive to me. At that time I didn't

talk to them, but I saw that they looked like very enthusiastic devotees.

Jayananda Prabhu was the one who talked to me. That's another story.

 

Here in India we were together when we were building that building. These

columns where Prabhupada is seated is in the Lotus Building. Behind

Radha-Madhava is the Conch Building. This is the temple, separate,

connecting the two. The first building we built was the Lotus Building.

Prabhupada was very tight. He gave us a 600,000 rupee budget to build that

building, which was about, in those days, about seven and a half rupees per

dollar, so 600,000, that's less than a 100,000, maybe 85,000 or something

dollars. Now it's forty-four, forty-five rupees a dollar, forty-two, I don't

know the latest rates, but in those days it was seven and a half, maybe. I

don't know. At one point it was seven and a half. Of course it's been

changing.

 

So we decided we wanted to cut the money, we wanted to really save the

money, so we decided we'd go out with the steel in the trucks. Tamal Krsna

sat in one truck and I sat in another truck. There was one other devotee, I

don't remember who, was in the third truck. The three of us were escorting

the steel. Why do you have to escort the steel? Who would steal steel?

 

Along the way, they stopped, after the weigh bridge, they weigh. We had the

right amount of steel. The weight was OK. The drivers offered us glasses of

milk at the Punjabi Dhaba. We were traveling the whole day, we haven't eaten

anything, so a little milk. Milk you can take from anybody. So we decided to

take a little milk.

 

Then somebody came and whispered in my ear because I was the only one who

knew Bengali, "They are stealing your steel. They are unloading it from the

trucks and throwing it in the ditch. They will pick it up later." So we ran

out. You can imagine Tamal Krsna at that moment. We found they were

stealing, trying to unload the steel. Like that, we were together many

times, many days, getting cement, getting steel, getting stone chips. He was

helping us.

 

He was a great strategist, great preaching strategist. Some points he was

here in India in the beginning. Before that I was temple president in

Calcutta. It was very hard to please him. I was not very efficient. He was a

very efficient person. He really wanted to do the right thing for

Prabhupada. Sometimes I'd get chastised. That was his special mercy. But

something I never minded because everything he was trying to do for

Prabhupada.

 

In the end, last days, he was serving Prabhupada so nicely. He was

anticipating. Prabhupada said, "First class disciple knows what the guru

wants even without him telling." It seemed he would always anticipate what

Prabhupada wanted. Sometimes Prabhupada wouldn't say anything, he was just

lying there in Vrindavan. He would go, [motions]. So like, what does that

mean, "Bring me water? Close the window?" He figured out. I was amazed. Like

that, "Go and close the window." How did he do that? He was like that. So

many times he would ask Prabhupada, "Do you want this, do you want that

something?"

 

In the last days, when he was here, he was just, I don't know if he

graduated or he was about to graduate as a PhD from Cambridge. He came here

and he was treating everyone, he started these kirtans that we should come

and get more absorbed in chanting the Holy Names. For a couple of years he

was having this chanting, really going deep into the nectar of the Holy

Name.

 

One day he went with me to the Ganges. We took our holy dip together. He was

very especially loving and affectionate during his visits.

 

I'm remembering how he was the one who made the six buses on the

Radha-Damodara party. Was it six? Prabhupada initiated, I think, one hundred

and fifty devotees at one time, Chicago, installed Radha-Damodara. Many

amazing things. Later Prabhupada asked him to go to China. He opened up

China.

 

Prabhupada suddenly took him away. He left his body in the holy place of

Phulia where Haridasa Thakura was chanting 300,000 names in a cave, just

about a kilometer from there. So today is his sacred disappearance day.

Devotees should go and pay their obeisances to his samadhi. Previous years

we had very big celebrations for his disappearance.

 

Today is a day when many people, three of our Vaisnavas left and went back

to Godhead, so it must be a special day for going back, just before the

Gaura Purnima.

 

So this verse we read today, Vidura is also visiting the holy places,

chanting. I hope that your pilgrimage, coming to Mayapur, seeing

Radha-Madhava, seeing Panca-Tattva, the other deities, Prahlada-Nrsimha,

Jagannatha, Baladeva, Subhadra, and other deities while you are here, will

purify you. These deities can grant your wishes. Try to ask for something

Krsna conscious. Don't ask for something ordinary that you can get just by

your karma. Get the mercy to chant and hear and serve and achieve pure

devotion for the Lord. Very important verses here. We are learning from

Vidura how all the temples are ananta-linga.

 

I remember once Prabhupada was telling us, we were at an old temple in

Panihati, he said, "Look at, it's a five hundred year old temple, but they

are still worshiping." The temple was rundown. He said, "At least they are

worshiping. I don't know, we are . . . ." ISKCON was only ten years old. He

said, "What will happen after twenty-five years? What will happen after a

hundred years?" Will the devotees keep worshipping the deities? Will they be

careful?" He told us to, "Install a deity you are very enthusiastic, utsaha,

enthusiasm, but then later on you may think that the guru, 'Why he has given

me all this burden? I have to get up early in the morning. I have to wash

the glasses and the plates, make the offering. So much service to do.' If

you start thinking like that, then everything is lost.

 

[We should think,] "The guru is giving me this great fortune, this Deity. I

get to serve the Deity, serve Krsna's incarnation, arca-avatara. One of the

eight kind of incarnations is the worshipable deity. So Prabhupada is

saying, "Utsaha, enthusiasm, and later if you are in maya, it becomes

nigraha, neglect, offense."

 

Sometimes disciples ask me, "Can I worship Radha Krsna? Can I install?" Who

will maintain? Like you go to the temples in Vrindavan. We inherited one

temple in Bangladesh where there are a thousand deities. If someone wants a

deity, we can give you, little donation for the temple, but you have to take

very nice care. There is the main deity that was installed by some rich,

wonderful devotee, built a big temple, but over the years, people could not

maintain the small deities. The children were not devotees anymore. Like we

want our children to take on the worship. So they came and leave an

endowment to take care of the Deities. Now it's got a thousand deities.

Then they gave to us. Now we have a thousand. You've got to wash them with a

hose or something. We don't have a hose, I mean, it's like so many deities.

When we took it, it was really run down.

 

Some of these, many of these grhasthas, gurus who were also grhasthas, great

pujaris were also grhasthas. People should also give some time to do the

deity worship in the temples. Some of the big temples, here we have enough

brahmacaris. Some of the grhasthas also come. In Mayapur, Vrindavan

Prabhupada said male public worship in the main temples because of the

culture, but in other temples, the ladies, too, they worship. That's also

important. Everyone in the community should share this burden of love. It's

a loving service. How much mercy you'll get by worshipping the deities, it's

incalculable.

 

So Thank you very much.

 

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

 

END