Jayananda made his own notes in the jacket of his Krsna book in a list in point form.

[krsna]

He wrote:

 

“As your begin to apply the book’s clearly described principles to your life you will quickly experience a new realm of mental poise and experience an inner happiness even in the midst of the most trying circumstances.

 

You will worry less and enjoy more. Your power of concentration, memory, understanding and creativity will increase. You will work more energetically, more confidently, and efficiently, as well as relate better to people.

 

And you will succeed more easily at whatever you try doing. At night you will fall asleep immediately and in the morning you will awaken thoroughly refreshed with even less hours of sleep than you more normally need. Consequently you will understand the real purpose of your life and your unique role in creation.

 

“For one who worships Me, giving up all his activities unto Me and being devoted to Me without deviation, engaged in devotional service and always meditating upon Me, who has fixed his mind upon Me, O son of Prtha, for him I am the swift deliverer from the ocean of birth and death.” [bhagavad-gita 12.6-7]

 

 

 

From a notebook of Jayananda’s, in the possession of Mother Jahnava in New Rama Reti, Alachua Florida. Near the end when he was in New York - He wrote:

 

Fire yajna- One must approach one who has realized the truth. If we approach one who has not fully realized the truth then what good will that association do?

 

 

Jayananda speaks Bhagavad-gita class:

 

“So, therefore, we can have faith that Krishna will always protect us in any kind of situation. That’s the potency of devotional service, that it’s transcendental to the bodily concept of life even up to the point of death. Devotional service is more powerful, because devotional service can even attract Krishna. That’s the strength of devotional service, the devotion can attract Krishna. So if we have... if that devotion... even Krishna says it’s not so much the service that’s there, but it’s the attitude of the devotee, the sincere desire for Krishna’s association. In that way, Krishna will protect us. Krishna says in the Bhagavad-Gita that for one who does good, he is never overcome by evil.”

 

 

From Jayananda’s Bhagavad-gita class-

 

“So, of course, that’s our good fortune that we’ve been able to contact, by Krishna’s mercy, we’ve contacted a bona fide spiritual master or a pure devotee. Because in order to advance in Krishna consciousness, the principle is that one has to accept a spiritual master. … Just like Krishna revealed Bhagavad-Gita, spoke Bhagavad-Gita to Arjuna because he is a devotee as well as His friend, that is the qualification of a devotee. Because Srila Prabhupada is a pure devotee, therefore, he becomes qualified to also speak Bhagavad-Gita, to instruct according to time and circumstance. Otherwise, how is it possible? How is it possible that we could take instruction from anybody else who wasn’t a pure devotee? It’s not possible because Krishna can only be known through devotion.”

 

 

Service attitude was the thing that Jayananda always taught us, by his example, and sometimes in stories. Jayananda told us this story of a bhakta in the San Francisco temple. He only wanted to remember Krishna and nothing else. He would sit around the temple all day and stare at a picture of Krishna and chant all day long.

 

Devotees would ask him to do some service or go on Hari Nama, and so forth. But he would say, “No, Prabhu, I’m so fallen that I need to remember Krishna all day long.” But, as plans of mortals seem to go awry...well, what happened was…He got tired of just sitting with the picture. So he would pace around the temple floor, looking at the picture. After a while, he got tired of that, so he would sit out on the step. He got tired of that, then he would pace in front, or circumambulate around the temple. He got tired of that, so he would circumambulate the block with the picture, while he chanted. Then it was 2 blocks, then it was 3 blocks. Then 4, then 5. And then one day he went so far that he lost his way, or he forgot to come back.

 

 

More nectar

 

There is a nice story that, two stories actually, that give proof that he was a mahabhagavata. Someone who can produce in others the loving sentiments of devotional love for devotees of Krishna by dint of their actions.

 

 

The first was related to me by Hamsa Rupa about an experience I believe he said Tosan Krishna had when he went for the permits for holding Ratha-yatra on Fifth Avenue in New York City the year after Jayananda passed away. In the appropriate office he approached an extremely large smoking wretched woman who, like so many bureaucrats in that fair city, weld great control and clout. IF you have ever been to Manhattan City Hall you know the type. She was barking and cursing at the supplicants who sought her favor and was in a bad mood, (probably perpetually) but that day for sure. When the devotees made their appeal for a permit she shouted, “Where is Jayananda, I will only deal with Jayananda for this permit.” The devotees were surprised that she knew Jayananda by name and explained that Jayananda had passed away during the past year. The hardened, course bureaucrat, as tough as they come, you might say without the least exaggeration, immediately dissolved in tears and had to leave the room sobbing uncontrollably. When she returned after five or ten minutes she gave them the permits and related how much she had appreciated knowing Jayananda.

 

 

Spontaneous sentiments for Krishna and His devotees are generated by pure love for Krishna. This love and its taste is perceived in non-devotionally inclined persons when they get the merciful association of a mahabhagavata devotee. Jayananda was such a devotee that he could inspire such feelings even after leaving the planet.

 

 

Another occasion of this sort came when a devotee was approached by a rather down-and-out fellow in the streets of New York. The man inquired about Jayananda and wanted to know if the devotee knew him. When he was told of Jayananda’s departure he began to weep profusely.

 

“He was the only person I ever felt ever cared about me,”

 

said the derelict. He had worked on the Ratha-yatra carts with Jayananda Thakur.

 

 

As far as his total example goes Jayananda-acharya was and will probably remain unbeatable. We have the proof in New York City Hall, in the streets and in our own hearts. If new devotees want to find a perfect example of humility we have Jayananda for all time in ISKCON.

 

(From COM, not sure who wrote this)