English
JAPA TALK 24 SEPTEMBER
LORD IS ATTACHED TO HIS DEVOTEES.
There are devotees chanting in 457 places. Actually, it is due to Srila Prabhupada's mercy that chanting is happening in still more places.
Hundreds of reports are pouring in from various places on the last day of the World Holy Name Festival. More and more reports are coming. The reports that come tomorrow will be the last and final. I want to declare the reports which I remember. However you are also free to read the reports that come after the Japa sessions. You may also read this report in the World Holy Name Festival website also.
These glorious reports are also the glories of the holy name because all those participants who are chanting are chanters of either japa, or participating in a kirtana mela or doing nagar sankirtana in some street. Wherever those devotees are chanting, those chanters are also glorious. All glories to all those chanters!
Muralimohan Prabhu through this japa conference has reminded us that in ISKCON we distribute the holy name, Prabhupada books and prasada. By doing all these one becomes a worthy ‘paropakari', doing something good of great benefit for others. The recipients of these three items - the holy name, Prabhupada books and prasada are really greatly benefitted. Those who share these gifts do ‘paro upakar' and are glorious.
Devotees in Toronto, Canada have sent their reports through the japa conference. World Holy Name Festival was celebrated in Bangladesh. Sankirtana Gaur Prabhu organised sankirtana in Bangladesh, a Muslim country, He says that many Muslim youths had joined the Nagar Sankirtana in Bangladesh. It is glorious.
Devotees in Dubai are glorious. They have a program called 'Nityam Bhagavata Sevaya' where devotees assemble to hear Bhagavatam during World Holy Name Festival before they start work. The topics of these Bhagavatam sessions are japa. They are reading from Namamrta and Prabhupada books which has all the quotes of glorious Harinama.
In Bhiwandi devotees are chanting. Srikanth Ganguly chanted 140 rounds and he is still going to chant another 20 rounds today. Gaur Prabhu has taken a vow to chant 192 rounds. I think that is 300,000 holy names. In Bangalore, 200 devotees were chanting extra rounds. So far they have chanted more than 7000 extra rounds. 200 devotees took part to chant extra rounds. And a mataji from Pune, Rohini Jadhav Mataji, chanted and got different children to chant japa also.
From Solapur, Ramalila Mataji is doing Nagar Sankirtana and got as many as 70 Matajis who went into the streets and with their family members. Nandamukhi Mataji from Noida chants 40 rounds daily during World Holy Name Festival. In Jamshedpur Bhadra Revathi Prabhu chants 36 rounds. Madhavi Gauri Mataji from Delhi is the coordinator of the Holy Name festival in India. She does all the communication. We will have to thank her for her efforts for spreading the word around for the World Holy Name festival. She is also reporting that chanting is taking place in remote parts of Africa and Nepal. There is chanting and dancing in Bangladesh. We welcome those reports from those countries. Their japa must be glorified. She will send more reports tomorrow morning.
Neetu Sharma from Noida chanted 20 rounds. Radha Chitta Hari from Noida chanted 22 rounds today. Chakrapani Radha and Yogi chanted 64 rounds. Advaita Acarya and Sita Thakurani chanted and they are gathering lots of people and getting them to chant in various parts of Noida. Even Hari Kirtana Prabhu collected members from his colony and made them chant one round. Everyone is doing their best to glorify the holy name by chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna themselves and getting others to chant. So today is the last day of the World Harinama Festival. If you have not done anything so far, this is the last chance. Today is the last day for your participation. From Melbourne Australia there is a report of Nagar Sankirtana, and book distribution and tonight Bhakti Rasayan Maharaja is going to conduct Nagar Sankirtana in Melbourne, Australia.
Wonderful! Very, very happy to hear that.
Devotees are distributing prasada in the World Holy Name Festival and cooks are also glorious. We are grateful to all those cooks who are cooking prasada for distribution during the World Holy Name Festival. In Gurgaon Nagar Sankirtana was conducted in a new neighbourhood. Let's stop this reporting part now and I shall share something glorious from Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s antim lila.
One night there was kirtana in Nabadwip, Mayapur at Srivas-angan’s, a famous kirtana sthali. Every night Mahaprabhu would conduct kirtanas. Mahaprabhu gathered only His confidential and pure associates to chant and the whole night Caitanya Mahaprabhu was chanting and dancing. In Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s chanting and dancing, He created the vibrations which are still there, even to this day. That is what is causing us to chant Hare Krishna. Gauranga Mahaprabhu’s chanting is a cause of our chanting - sarva karana karanam. He chanted and He is still chanting and hence we are chanting, We should remember that. Therefore we are part of Caitanya Mahaprabhu's chanting movement.
This is how Caitanya Mahaprabhu had done mighty kirtana in Srivas angan. So one night during kirtana, Srivas Thakur noticed that there was some kind of disturbance, some cry was heard from the inner chamber of his house. When he went he was shocked to find that his son had died. The ladies were crying. Srivas Thakur wanted these ladies to stop the crying as it could disturb Gauranga in His chanting. This was his preaching to the ladies and his good wife, Malini was
crying as her son (one of their five sons) has died. Srivas Thakur was explaining to the ladies that dying can’t be avoided. ‘Death is surely going to come one of these days. The departure of our son is glorious because kirtana was going on in our house. You all must have heard the chanting of the holy name, that was going on in our angan (courtyard). How glorious is his departure!. There was nothing to worry. Our son has definitely returned to the spiritual world. In that sense this is an occasion for celebration. Our son has gone back to Godhead as he was hearing the holy name before his departure.’
Srivas Thakur also told the ladies that now they have to stop crying. If they do not stop crying, and if he hears them crying again then he will throw himself in the Ganga and leave his body because of the disturbance they will be causing to Gauranga Mahaprabhu’s kirtana. Mahaprabhu and His kirtana party were getting distracted.
After a warning like that Srivas Thakur returned to the kirtana mandali, kirtana party with Gauranga with His associates, The Pancatattva and HIs associates were fully absorbed in the kirtana, forgetting the surroundings. They were in their own world of chanting. Then at some point, the kirtana stopped and Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu came to know that there was some disturbance. He said, ‘I feel there is some difficulty. Something’s wrong.Something’s happened?’ Srivas Thakur was just surprised by His perception and Mahaprabhu’s guess and said, ‘ Yes, You are right.’ Upon enquiring what has happened, He was told that Srivas Thakur’s son had died and in the middle of the kirtana Srivas Thakur had gone inside the house and had stopped the ladies from crying and rejoined the chanting and dancing. He did not give any impression that any calamity had taken place. This was told to Gauranga Mahaprabhu.
This way Caitanya Mahaprabhu realised something and He expressed His realisation. This was great appreciation for Srivas Thakur. He said,’ Just see how Srivas Thakur is attached to the holy name. How much he did. He did not want my kirtana to be disturbed. So he expressed total detachment from his family and children. Especially his son has died and he showed absolute detachment, totally detached because he was totally attached to the holy name and was attached
to Me and so he managed to develop detachment from the family relations social relationship with his son.
So we are supposed to be attached to the holy name and it is a ladder from sraddha to prema so we could see how Srivas Thakur had achieved that, of course that asakti is beyond. I want to say one more thing, that was Mahaprabhu’s statement, ‘Just see how attached our devotees, especially Srivas Thakur, are to me. How could I leave them behind?’ These were Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s words when He was thinking of taking sannyasa. He could not keep His thoughts within Himself. He uttered it, a slip of the tongue. He couldn't resist. How could He leave such devotees such as Srivas Thakur? ‘Look at him.’ He said. ‘I am taking sannyasa. How can I leave?’ This is the Lord’s statement. The Lord is also equally attached to the devotees who are attached to Him. This we could see in this episode.
Attachment to the Lord is developed by getting attached to the holy name. The names of the Lord, the holy name and the Lord are not different identities. They are one and the same! We shall stop here. Today is the last day. Reminder to all over there to distribute the holy name, prasada and books also and the glories of the holy name. This way you are assisting the Lord.
dharma-samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge (BG 4.8)
Hare Krishna!
