“ We know that one good fragrant flower in the forest can give the good name for the whole forest, so like that in the parampara one good disciple will glorify the whole parampara.

So His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad because he took this message around the world he has created a very good name for the disciplic succession following Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

So we all must be very careful to do the same thing to be a good example of His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

I dont feel myself so qualified but I am trying; I am trying my best and I want my disciples, well-wishers, like god-brothers, god-sisters like everyone also try to do what they can to carry on Srila Prabhupada’s mission. This is my primary message.”

Celebrating this most-auspicious appearance day of HH Jayapataka Swami Gurumaharaj, with Guru Vandana Music Video. A humble dedication to His Holiness, on the occasion of his 61st Vyasa Puja Celebrations, 26th March 2010.

Courtesy: http://www.illuminize.com

“ As Vyasa Puja we can see how the Guru Tattva is broader perspective. We have a personal relationship and we are getting strength from that, we are getting personal instruction over doing our service as our personal offering to the Guru, to Krishna through the Guru.

At same time we see beyond that we are trying to please all the previous acharyas, we are getting shelter from Srila Prabhupada, from the previous acharyas from Vyasadev, from Gaur and Krishna.

So this is all coming down in a very natural way. Nobody can see how it is working. It happens automatically. Now how the devotees are feeling happiness, how they’re feeling inspiration by surrendering to the Guru, nobody can analyze very easily. But factually we see that it’s happening.

So if we follow this proper attitude, if we are serving Guru, not that he is God, but he is representing God, he is like God, he is the external manifestation of God and through him we are serving the previous acharyas and Krishna, then everything is perfect.”

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

“Guru is there to decide whether something is applicable for us or not, because he is taking that responsibility, the disciple also take vows to follow his instruction. So if you follow the instructions of a bonafide guru, he will get you back to Godhead.

But if one doesn’t follow, then how the Guru can get you back? If someone is having doubt, they should get that doubt clarified as quickly as possible. First with the vaishnavas, if not possible then go to the Guru and get your doubt clarified.

Guru is the one Supreme Court, the final verdict. Whatever the decision then the disciple follows that.

Otherwise sometimes it gets confusing also in ISKCON there may be may spiritual masters and sometimes they give different instruction for a devotee. Someone says, yes you should get married, someone says you should not get married, someone says you should do this, you should do that! Then one gets confused what should I do?

So then the spiritual master can clarify, because the Spiritual Master has taken the commitment, ‘I have to get you back to Krishna, even if it means that I have to take birth again to get you back!.’So he has taken responsibility.

So it’s important that we have proper spiritual master. That’s a single important decision. Ofcourse to take in the bonafide disciplic succession and get the mercy of Prabhupada and Krishna, take initiation eventually from the bonafide spiritual master and keep on serving under the shelter of the entire Guru Parampara.”

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

“By expressing our realizations, this is one way of worshiping, which is one way of partially repaying the debt. Because glorification is one service. We can only repay the debt by service.

shrunvatam sva-kathaah krishna punya shravana kirtana

So by shrunvata, by hearing, by chanting, by remembering the activities of a bonafide spiritual master, Krishna is pleased and the disciple is repaying to some extent a little bit of the unlimited debt.

Someone may be very shy, may feel, how can speak in front of so many people. But we should rise above that shyness, whatever it is, whatever our humble contribution, whatever we have received from Guru we can express to others..”

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

“Now how Krishna has helped us through the via-media of the Spiritual Master? What realizations we have received, what help that we have received from the spiritual master, what understanding we have about guru tattva, what special mercy we have received… these things are shared by the devotees at the time of the Vyasa Puja homages.

Sometimes even the godbrothers speaks something about a fellow Vaisnava to share with his disciples, or sometimes initiated disciples of other Gurus, they also share things from their experience. Or it may be that, there may be uninitiated devotees who have not yet decided who should be their spiritual master, but they have received some spiritual help from someone. So they share this with the devotees.

Actually Krishna is helping from within as Chaitya Guru and without as the Diksha and Siksha Guru. So we express these realizations and these experiences as a way of appreciating Krishna, how He is helping us through this particular Guru.

So if one know that this particular representative is helping devotees, then that also instills faith in general people and in the devotee, that by connecting with this representative, we will get the spiritual mercy that we require. We will get that connection with Krishna that must be there.”

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

“Srila Prabhupada said, “If you apply something at least in India, to the President, you have to submit to the local collector. The collector will submit to somebody else..somebody else, then secretary you go, then to the President.

So our system is like that. So it not that I am training my disciple to worship me…’Man Worship‘. I am getting some honor from them for nothing.

No it it not that, whatever honor, whatever respect, whatever presentation you are giving to your spiritual master, it will go to Krishna by parampara system.

This was Prabhupada’s Vyasa Puja address in 1973.”

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

“The whole purpose of Krishna Consciousness is to develop our pure Krishna Consciousness and the first qualification, first thing we should do, in the Nectar of Devotion, is find the shelter of a bonafide spiritual master.

We serve under the shelter of a bonafide spiritual master, and then after sometime we take initiation. After taking initiation then we get further instruction and the things progress from there, we offer our service to the Guru.

So Prabhupada said, the first qualification of a Guru is to be a disciple. Chadiyace vaisnava seva, nistar paiche kebab. If there is anyone who claims to be Guru who is not a disciple, then he is NOT a bonafide Guru.

A bonafide Guru must first be disciple of his Guru. Even Krishna is ‘Gurur Guru’. He is the Guru of all Gurus. He also accepted a Guru just to show us how it is absolutely essential.”

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

“If I were to describe myself it would be, ‘Bhakti hina, kryia hina, jnana hina, mantra hina.. the particular verse that we offer and beg for forgiveness and no qualification absolutely before coming in contact with His Divine Grace Srila Abhay Charan Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

So then, after meeting Prabhupada and his devotees, then we can see guru kripa hi kevelam. If there is any good quality that I have acquired, it was simple by the mercy of Guru.

Many of you may be born in Brahmana families and may have learned many slokas and suktas before meeting the Krishna Conscious movement. Ofcourse one should not be proud of that. You see that we did not have such an opportunity. Whatever we learned was after meeting Srila Prabhupada. Before that we even never heard of Krishna. We never heard of Bhagavad Gita. We never heard of Hare Krishna maha mantra.

So then we can see everything is due to the mercy of Srila Prabhupada, for us.”

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

“Prabhupada explains, Vyasa Puja address in ’72, just like in our country when there was British rule, there was a Viceroy, the king’s representative, so naturally when the Viceroy used to go to some meeting many people used to present valuable jewels, valuable, because just to honor him. But the law was that not a single of the jewels or contribution, the Viceroy could touch. It was going to the royal treasury. The Viceroy should accept on behalf of the King all contribution, but it goes to the King.

Similarly this day, Vyasa puja day, whatever honor, contribution and feeling is being offered to the spiritual master, it is, again as we have received the knowledge from upwards, similarly this respect also goes from the downward to the upward. This is the process.

So the spiritual master is the teacher of the student. He has to teach the student how to send back his respect in contribution to GOD. In other words whatever worship is being offered, the Guru accepts on behalf of Vyasadeva, on behalf of the previous acharyas and offers to them.”

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

“Prabhupada said in a Srimad Bhagavatam lecture about what is our relationship with the Guru, 1974. He said, ‘We must be DEBTOR! Guru. Debtor to the spiritual master, to the sages, to the saintly persons, because we are getting knowledge from them.

Therefore the Vyasa Puja is there. Once in a year the disciples are worshiping the spiritual master and trying to repay what he has received from the spiritual master.

Why we respect the Guru, Prabhuapda explains, because he does not manufacture. He says what he has heard from the acharyas. Exactly like the child, what he has heard from his father, from the superior, he speaks. So that is the position of Guru.

Guru is respected as good as God….why?…only for this qualification, that he does not speak anything nonsense. He speaks only what he has heard from the acharyas.”

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

“We wander from birth to birth. Even we go sometime from one day of Brahma to another taking so many countless births. Going from one universe also to another universe, one creation to another creation.

Because once we’re in a Brahmanda or Universe, we cannot leave until Lord Brahma dies or unless we get liberation. Either end of Brahma’s life or our liberation. So we are here in the material world for a very very long time.

Guru Krishna Prasadaye Paye

We pray to Krishna to get a bonafide spiritual spiritual master, to be in a bonafide disciplic succession. Actually when we take initiation from a spiritual master in a bonafide disciplic succession, we are connected with Lord Krishna, with Vyasadeva, with all the previous acharyas.

Once one has taken initiation in a bonfire disciplic succession, there is never any reason to change one’s disciplic succession because already the relationship is established. So we pray to Krishna to reveal to us who is our spiritual master, to show to us the bonafide disciplic succession.

So we find that in the age of Kali, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s disciplic succession embodies the essence of all the other disciplic successions. That it is giving us clearly the highest purpose of life. That it is giving us Krishna Prema, which otherwise is very difficult to achieve.

Therefore the wise person, the intelligent person will take shelter of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s sankirtan movement and disciplic succession.”

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

“If one carries..fulfills the order of the Guru carefully, one can cross over all obstacles in spiritual life. Vedas also say sarva deva moyi guru.

Within the Guru are all the Devas. So in the vaishnava tradition of our sampradaya, instead of worshiping Ganesha when we begin anything auspicious, which is the normal Karma Kanda system, we worship Guru.

Om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya
Caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah

Within the Guru, Ganesh is there, all the Devas are there. So that is our system. We always first, adau guru, we first worship the Guru in any auspicious ceremony. When we do deity worship, we first do Guru Puja. Then we do the other worship.

So by mercy of Guru, we get the mercy of Krishna.”

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

“Our mind is always trying to project itself as the centre of the universe. Sometimes we find that people who start rendering devotional service love to talk about themselves, ‘how dear they are to their guru, how important they are to the world, what great devotees they are and how successful their preaching is.’ Maybe their egos need to be glorified, but it is very painful to hear a person always talk about himself.

On the other hand, how blissful it is when a person always talks about Krishna, Guru and devotional service not putting himself in the centre. But the tendency of the mind is to reflect the false ego platform and try to see the self as having a separate role from Krishna’s.

To make the mind humble and actually take a service attitude requires an abrupt change of perspective. To do that, Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakura has encouraged that the mind be smashed down to silence. His instruction is that we should pick up a mental broom or shoe and beat our minds a hundred times. It is quite humiliating to be hit by a broom, because it is meant for sweeping dirty things off the floor. Similarly what could be worse than being hit by a pair of shoes.

One who is experienced in material life knows that there are many fair-weather friends, people who show interest only when one has money or position. A powerful or rich man has many such friends, but when the influence of the money is gone then so are such friends.

Actually only Krishna is our real friend and relative. Those who are connected with each other on the spiritual platform are also real relatives because such relationships are spiritual, heart-to-heart, soul-to-soul.

Gajendra, the King of elephants, was surrounded by his wives, children, and other elephants, but none could help when the crocodile in the water captured him. Feeling helpless, he prayed to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Who is above all the demigods and human beings, and Who is creator, maintainer, and destroyer of everything.

In response to his sincere prayers, Lord Visnu personally came and delivered him.

Jayapataka: Krishna said, “I am the cause of remembrance and forgetfulness.”

Prabhupada: Yes. Generally devotee dies remembering Krishna, generally. But even if for material condition he cannot, then Krishna is taken charge.

Panca-dravida: What was the arrangement with Bharata Maharaja?

Prabhupada: And there is no question of hopelessness, no. We have to do our duty very seriously. Then everything is all right.

Panca-dravida: So with Bharata Maharaja, that was special arrangement?

Prabhupada: No. It was…. It was punishment. He became so much, I mean, attached with the animal that he forgot his duty in devotional service. That is stated. Forgot. He neglected. Therefore he was punished, but he remembered that “I did it.” You cannot neglect your duty. Then Krishna is always with you. [break] …way, a soldier is dying in duty, immediately the government takes charge of the whole family. So that is…. Why not Krishna? [break] …Krishna visvasa palana. Bhaktivinoda Thakura has said. You know this song? Avasya rakñibe Krishna visvasa palana.

Jayapataka: “If one maintains his faith, then Krishna…”

Prabhupada: Ah! Yes. One should maintain his faith that “Krishna will give me protection. And my duty is to serve Him.” That’s it.

Jayapataka: Why did Krishna have all the demigod worship put in the Vedas?

Prabhupada : Hm?

Jayapataka: They put… Vyasadeva put all the demigod worship in the Vedas.

Prabhupada: For the karmis. Ksipra bhavati… What is that? Kam kanta…

Jayapataka : Karmanam siddhi.

Prabhupada: Karmanam siddhi yajanti iha devata. Who is interested to take bhakti immediately? Nobody is interested.

Jayapataka: They can get their material facilities from Krishna also.

Prabhupada: Yes. That is recommended. First of all sastra recommends that if you want this thing you worship this deity, this deity. In this way, at last it is said that you can get anything if you worship Krishna. That is said.

Akamah sarvo kama va moksa kama udara dhi tivrena bhakti-yogena. That is for the purpose that if he wants to take advantage, material benefit from Krishna, then Krishna bhajana will be there, gradually they will forget this material benefit. They will become pure devotee. Just like Dhruva Maharaja became. Svamin krtartho ‘smi vara na yace.

“Pure devotional service is unconditional and favorable to the Lord’s desire. Since it is Lord Caitanya Mahäprabhu’s desire that His devotees preach cooperatively the glories of the holy names of Krishna, pure devotees unhesitatingly perform this activity at all times under all circumstances.

The thought that an individual will “in his own way” spread Krishna consciousness outside of the sankirtana movement authorized by the previous acaryas is inconceivable for a pure devotee of the Lord.

There is no alternative for one who wants to achieve perfection in Krishna consciousness in this lifetime other than to remain within the shelter of the Krishna consciousness movement and cooperatively work together for the satisfaction of Guru and Gauranga!