Chanting Hare Krishna Works!
“This chanting of Hare Krishna even if someone does not know what it is, it still works. Once in Hyderabad in South India one man came up to me and said: “Every religious sect have blind faith, blind faith, this is true of any religion without any faith it will still work”. This is a post office. This is India you know. People are always asking philosophical questions. Never happened in an American post office. But I was thinking, wow what a question! But I remember I said, no, there is a process, even if you chant without faith the names of God, even if you don’t know what it means it still works.
Just like Ratnakar he was chanting murder! Murder! Murder! Kill kill kill in Sanskrit which was Mara! Mara! Mara! Chanting a word which, he was a murderer, he was a robber. When you chant it in sequence mara mara mara it becomes Rama Rama Rama. Chanting Rama even when he was thinking something else it still worked.
So the chanting, like Prabhupada said, it is like fire when you put your hand in the fire whether you believe it or not you get affected, somebody does chant somehow with an open mind if they just chant they will feel some difference from the chanting. So I hope that the devotees here they know about the chanting. If you know about chanting take advantage of chanting. If we know and we don’t chant then that is a very great failure on our part to take this opportunity to perfect our human form of life.”
HH Jayapataka Swami
Lecture BG 2.14
1st November 2005
Atlanta, USA
Mantra For This Age!
“When Lord Caitanya visited South India, he visited all the temples. Not only the Visnu temples, but also the Siva temples, the Durga temple, the Meenakshi temple, Ganesh temple, Murugan temple. He visited all the temples. But at every temple he would chant the same mantra Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. He would give this message to everyone, chant the Hare Krsna maha mantra. This is the mantra for the age of Kali and this mantra can be chanted without any restriction, not only the brahmanas but anybody of any caste any community can chant this mantra. So how many of you are regularly chanting? Wow..so many!! Those who are not chanting should immediately start chanting and those who are chanting should be very determined that chanting is going on. This chanting is the link in our heart, our eternal relationship with Krsna.”
Sunday Feast Lecture
12th April 2009
Coimbatore, India
Who Are We In Actuality?
“It is described in the Vedas that we are just very minute almost atomic size, the spirit soul. But although the same type of spirit soul, the same category of living force exists in a very educated person, a very foolish person, the same type of spirit soul is there. The living force is not of a different category. Same category same basic potential but due to being developed or undeveloped in consciousness the full potential of the spirit soul comes out filtered by the extent of materialistic consciousness that we have. In other words in the pure liberated stage the spirit soul has his unlimited potential manifested. At that time as described with this spirit soul is more powerful than millions of suns because even the sun is a material luminary which goes through creation, it stays for sometime and ultimately it is also destroyed as everything material goes through these changes. But the living force which is in the body, that is indestructible, that is immutable. “
Lecture BG 9.2
Wake Up from Bodily Conception!
“Today the whole world is centered on the bodily conception of life. In fact, such a concept is glorified. Krishna criticized Arjuna for being overly attached, and encouraged him to perform his duty and fight the battle for a religious cause. But now people are encouraged from childhood to be in bodily consciousness. Bodily consciousness is so strongly forced into people that hardly any religion is able to train their followers in real spiritual understanding. Even the religions are rooted in a bodily conception of life. This body is going to perish, from dust to dust, still all attention is given to this body. Whether in the field of sociology, religion, or politics, everything centers on the body. Beyond lip service, there is no real discussion of the soul. This is the present state of affairs. ”
From the book: Vrindavane Bhajan
Page 80
Got Your Spiritual Visa?
“There was a devotee in Navadweep. His name was Vaasudeva and he was a devotee of Varahadev. So he particularly liked to see Varahadev. So he was able to see that form of the Lord and thus he attained to Varahaloka. According to the different avatars there are different lokas. If you want to participate there is Nrsimhaloka, Varahaloka, Vaikhuntha loka…so you get to participate in the Lord’s pastimes in that loka, so if you want to go to Krishna leela there is Krishna loka it is also known as Goloka Vrndavan. So it is up to you which planet you want to go. All in the spiritual world. Someone was asking today – is there like a visa? Ha! Ha! No VISA! Ha! Ha! Prabhupad would call these people at the immigration stations they are like barking dogs : no, no you cannot come!. But there you can go wherever you want. If you want to worship Krishna you go to Krishna loka, if you want to worship Rama you go to Rama. Like in the Brihad Bhagavatamrita it is said that some devotee he went to all the planets and finally he decided to go to Krishna loka and how he went there is also revealed. Finally he went to Krishna loka and met Krishna and Krishna said I was waiting so long for you! SO LONG!! So it all depends where you want to go – you want to be with Krishna, or Rama or Varaha – they are all different forms of the Lord. So like this the mahatmas they understand they are focused on Krishna and they like to worship Krishna. But they respect all the others.”
Lecture BG 9.13
11th January 2011
Sydney, Australia
Krishna Consciousness in Happiness Or Distress!
“In difficult time we do not give up our devotional service, we stick to it and in good times we also do not give up our devotional service, now it is okay and I will make hay while the sun shines kind of attitude and I will enjoy life now and worry about death later. But if we know that death can come at any time, someone who has always been engaged in Krishna’s service 12 months a year, 365 days, does not matter whether there is life or death doesn’t matter, all are auspicious, because everything is in Krishna consciousness. So the devotees, they always remain moderate, in distress or when they are in opulence. They are moderate in their existence and keep Krishna as their top priority in their life. Now in the world we ..were you know . things were a little bit looking difficult economically, but not that bad but like now there is war and so many people who are senselessly killed in terrorist attacks. This could make somebody very much down or depressed about the whole future of things. Whether there is some difficulty or there is something good we need to do our duties, we need to do our proper Krishna conscious thing.”
Lecture BG 2.14
1st November 2005
Atlanta, USA
Get Cared for…Feel Cared for!
“One time Prabhupada was sitting with his hand on his head and he was saying, “You don’t know what it is like to run a world-wide spiritual movement. You don’t know.” The inference, with the way that he was holding his head, was that it was a big headache. Prabhupada was so concerned that we all stay together, that we all work together, that we all cooperate to spread the Krsna conscious movement. We have many, many devotees now and it’s important that the devotees get cared for, and feel cared for. So part of the function to care for the devotees, is through the diksa guru. He is the manifestation of the Madana Mohana vigraha, the sambanda vigraha. There’s also the help of the many different instructing spiritual masters, or siksa gurus, who is a representative of Govindaji, the abidheya vigraha. The goal of life is Radha-Gopinatha.”
Vyasa Puja Lecture – 2008
Sridham Mayapur