Hindi
English
7 July 2020
Caturmasya vows and a special initiation
Hare Krishna. Welcome to you all in the japa talk. I think all of you are hearing me. I am very pleased when I see you all chanting. When you are chanting you become dharmic. All of you have become dharmic because of performing kirtana of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra which is the dharma for the age of Kali. When you accept this sankirtana religion, you are performing sarva dharman parityaja. By doing sarva dharman parityaja, we can do mam ekam saranam vraja.
sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja aham tvam sarva-papebhyo moksayisyami ma sucah
Translation: Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear. [BG 18.66]
When we are able to give up all other dharmas (religions) and develop renunciation then we can surrender to the Lord. This is the last promise of the Lord in Bhagavad Gita. Mam ekam saranam vraja.
nāmāśraya kori' jatane tumi
namasraya is mam ekam saranam vraja. While chanting we need to take shelter of the Lord's name. Ekam means only Krsna's shelter. Remembering the Lord's name, form, qualities and pastimes is taking shelter of the Lord.This is saranagati. Lord is saranagat vatsal. Lord expresses His vatsalya for those who have taken His shelter. We can experience this vatsalya. Chanting is the time to experience this vatsalya. A few days ago when Caturmasya started then at that time I had told you about the glories of Caturmasya and how this is a special period and how we do special sadhana and derive benefit from that. How there can be special sadhana, to increase sadhana quantity and quality wise? Increase both quality and quantity of sadhana and service. Increasing quality means chant attentively and with love and devotion.
I received a letter from Sundar Vaman Prabhu from Ahmedabad. He sent me his resolutions (sankalpas) by thinking for 2 days. These are some of the resolutions given by him. Taking resolutions helps in our sadhana. Without this we become slack. These are a sample of resolutions in Caturmasya. I didn't take his permission. I hope he doesn't mind that I am sharing. We can get ideas from this and we can also take resolutions for some special sadhana in Caturmasya. There are glories of resolutions also. You can also take some resolutions after this and you can write to me in chat session how will you improve or increase your sadhana.
1) He has written that he will perform Mangal Arati every day at 5 am at home.
2) He will chant 18 rounds everyday and 25 rounds or more on Ekadasi and special days like festivals.
3) He will observe bramacarya. He is a grhasta. But nowadays, grhastas are grhamedhis(centre of household life is sense gratification). And Krishna conscious grhastas are grhasta brahmacaryas.
4) Hearing and reading for 2 hours daily, minimum
5) Attend Sri Sri Radha Govindji's mangal aarti least twice a month and Their sringar darsana at least 3 times a week. He is from Ahmedabad and the ISKCON temple Sri Sri Radha Govinddev. He is writing that twice a month he will go to temple for Mangal Aarti and thrice a week he will attend Sringar darsana in temple. Sringar darsana takes place around 7.15 am or 7.30am in ISKCON temples.
6) Control unnecessary sleeping & eating. (No grains in evening and sleep for 6 hours). He will give up unnecessary eating and sleeping. He will sleep for 6 hours daily. He will take only fruits at night.
7) 11 dandavat pranam daily to Their Lordships and to the devotees. He Will offer obeisances to the Lord and His devotees 11 times. Like Sanatana Goswami used to pay obeisances 2000 times while on Govardhan Parikrama. Sometimes you say koti koti dandawat pranam Guru Maharaja (accept my millions of obeisances Guru Maharaja) but in reality you don't offer even a single obeisance. But literally Sanatana Goswami would offer thousands of obeisances every day. We offer obeisances to the Lord and not to the devotees. This is not right.
vanca-kalpatarubhyash cha kripa-sindhubhya eva cha patitanam pavanebhyo vaisnavebhyo namo namaha
Translation: I offer my respectful obeisances unto the Vaishnava devotees of the Lord. They are just like desire trees and can fulfill the desires of everyone, and they are full of compassion for the fallen conditioned souls.
Then the Lord says mam namaskuru means offer obeisances unto me.
8) Everyday Tulasi Maharani's Parikrama and water giving. He will offer water to Tulasi and sing Arati.If you offer prayer during cirumbulating Tulasi Maharani in the correct way then I'll be happy. I've written a book Sanskrit Pronunciation. There I have mentioned the correct pronunciation of every mantra. So correct pronunciation will please the Lord and me also.
9) Minimal talking about worldly matters and minimal engagements. Minimum talking about worldly matters (prajalpa) and engage less in worldly affairs. By doing so one may be able to reduce completely.
10) Attend all your holiness Japa sessions and hear all your lectures. He will attend japa talk daily and will hear my lectures.
11) Increase sraddha in Guru, Sadhugan and Sastra He will increase faith in Guru, Sadhu and Sastras.
12) To chant more attentively. Not rushing to complete his Japa. He will try to chant attentively and not rush to complete the japa. It should not be the case that we rush through japa. Attentive chanting is the goal.
13)In all these not to overlook Vedang's growth and also take care of him and have a spiritual and healthy relationship with my wife, HG Ratnavali Gopi DD and with parents as well. He will take care of his family. He will help his son, his wife and parents to grow spiritually.
14) Being more patient and not to get angry. He plans to become more patient and enthusiastic.
15)Do more vaisnava seva and make vaisnavas happy and to assist HG Murali Mohan Prabhuji in his projects. He will try to please many vaisnavas by doing more service and he will assist his counsellor Murali Mohan Prabhu in his projects.
And he writes in the end, "Maharaja please bless me so that I can fulfil all the resolutions."
May all your sankalpas be fulfilled!
You may think on your sankalpas and you can write them in the chat session.
Now there will be initiation ceremony. To attain the Supreme Lord, it is necessary for us to get connected to a bona fide sampradaya.
There will be program for 5 mins. Those who are able to wait can attend. We have a mataji named Kokila Mataji from Vallabh Vidyanagar. She is suffering from brain and lung cancer.She is not in a good condition. In special case Maharaja is giving initiation. She is chanting for the last 7- 8 years. Her husband and son are initiated devotees. This is being arranged under special circumstances as she is suffering through 4th stage cancer. Her family members are requesting this for the past since 8 years. Even though she is struggling with cancer still she is determined to take initiation from Gurudev. Gurudev gave her a name Kalyani Tulasi Devi Dasi.
Gurudev instructed her : •chant minimum 16 rounds without committing 10 offenses towards the holy names. •Sravana and Kirtan ( Hearing and Chanting) of Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam.
ante narayana smriti
This is the goal of human life. By doing all this you can easily remember Krsna. Make your life successful by doing all these devotional activities. Utilise your time properly.