Lava-Mātra: A Moment with Jayapatākā Swami: HG Ekanātha Gaura Dāsa #JayapatakaSwamiArchives

Hare Krishna. My name is Sekanad Gora Das. I'm originally from Argentina. So I became devotees in the 90s, 1996, I met the first devotee in my school. And then after some time I was practicing some kind of Buddhism meditation, Kuan Jin method from a Chinese guru. And then my mom started giving me different books. I remember at 17 I was reading the Bhagavad Gita. It was only the verses. And I used to go to the disco and learn some Shlokas of the Bhagavad Gita, change some words and talk to the girls using different slokas. I don't want to say the word, but it's a funny thing. Anyway, I used to read Bhagavad Gita back in the day. But then my mom started giving me Srila Prabhupada books. So I started reading, getting deep into it. And then my mother told me, why you don't go to visit the temple? So I felt, you know, if I go to the temple, I will betray this guru. But finally, anyway, I always were looking for something else. So I went to an Amahata Goswami close to my house. I saw the altar, the deities, the shaligrams. So I started to. Then I went to a temple. It was like for me, completely weird, crazy thing to see people dressed like sadhus and Zika. So I get very impressed. And then I start going to Namahatas to providence in different houses. I really like it. I love the philosophy. And I think one of the things that made me remain or stay in Ka consciousness is Srila Prabhupada books. Especially coming back the science of self realizations, perfect questions, perfect answers were the books that struck me. The nectar of devotion was, you know, for me a change in complete change in my heart. Of course, later on, Bhavad Gita Krishna books, the books that were available in Argentina.

When you start your service as a secretary.

So Guru Mahaj used to come to Latin America once a year. So in 1998 I was traveling. I was doing book distribution. 98 or 99, I can remember 98 I was doing book distribution, traveling Sankirtan, all over Argentina and Uruguay. So Gurumas came to Argentina and I saw him for first time. I got extremely impressed, especially with the wimpers and kirtan and the classes. It blew my mind completely. And I remember I had the chance to do some service for him, like holding the bag, running around, looking for things during the class. So after that visit, when Guru Maas, before he leaves he asked me if I wanted to travel with him. So of course I said yes. And then I waited for one year until he come back because he was traveling with another secretary called Nanda Kumar. So he was the acting secretary back in the day.

How was your training?

My training as a secretary was very similar than when you get trained in the street. I remember once, the first time I traveled to India, Mayapur came for the festival. So immediately, because I need to give you some context, I cannot just dive into the answer. So I came to Mayapur. Guru Maha saw me. We went to the darshan room. Before he used to have his room and darshan room. So he was sitting there. I entered the room and he told me, do you know how to fight? Are you a Kshatriya? So. So you know, I knew how to fight a little bit. I was very skinny, young, 20 years old. Say yes, Guru Mahash. I'm a Kshatriya. It's okay because I need a bodyguard. So when you travel with me, you need to know how to fight and protect me. You know, those who know me back in the day, couldn't even kill a fly, I think. But I became the bodyguard and travel secretary. So why I say I learned in the street because there was not such a thing back in the day as, you know, you get trained and then you travel. Mainly Marici Prabhu told me this is, you know, Guru Maharaj Travel 2, 3 days in every country. I start practicing in Mayapur, serving him every day during GBC meetings and during Parikran. Staying with him, carrying his things. Make sure what are the things. All the things he use in the daily, you know, routine on daily basis. Like his camera, his phone, his small cartels, big cartels. Sunglasses. Sorry, not sunglasses. Reading glasses. And then tissue paper. And then we used to carry the sun cream if it was summer, and then mosquito repellent. So we used to learn the normal things he may need in daily basis. Contact book. And this was our bag that we knew. We call it the servant bag. That when we travel or when we go with him or where we're serving, we travel with a bag that has everything that he may need. Of course, during GVC meeting, he was in need of more things. More documents or papers or presentations or USB or the computer bag. The computer bag was the computer, the projector, the cables, credit cards, et cetera. So we used to carry all these things and learn and then trying to learn at what time Guru Mahj wake up. So go to the room how to wake him. Up. You know, back in the day, Guru Mah has a very deep sleep. He sleeps four or five hours a day maximum. But these four, five hours, very difficult to wake him up. So we need to learn how to wake him up. Doing massage in the feet like one devotee, whoever was there in the morning shift, they will teach you how, how to wake him up and then prepare the things for him. The set of cloth, dotties, kurtas. That's what we learned from Daresh. He used to have all the different, there are different aspect of course of training. But Daresh taught me, okay, how to prepare the cloth, what cloth he needs. And then that was in Mayapur, the first training and then there was a training of traveling. So the traveling training was completely different because Guru Maas used to travel with two luggages. So we used to have winter cloth and summer cloth because the tour usually involved three to four months. And I ran the world tickets on some places it's winter, some places it's warm. So we usually carry three sets of cotton sets and three sets of silk sets. That's more for winter. Plus the jacket, the shoes, the cleaning kit and japas for disciples, for initiation, Brahmin threads, contact notebooks, a special book with the names of all the disciples, the pictures, the countries. And then we carry different sandals and shoes and rompers, sun cream and this kind of stuff, like very simple, just two luggage of Guru Mahesh. So when we travel, the first trip was to Bangladesh. I didn't know anything, I didn't know how to buy a ticket. I mean, of course, you know, through a travel agency, you know. But how to buy the round of world tickets, I have no clue. But it was a short trip. So we traveled three people, Sarvashakti, Lila, Madhava and myself. So we went to Bangladesh, we flew there and then Gurman has initiations. So I didn't know, you know how to do all the process of initiation. Because initiation is another aspect of traveling secretary. We used to do all the initiations. So we need to check the. They have all the papers, they answer all the questions, they submit all the documents properly filled up, they fill the contact notebook, we go through interviews, all this, I learn it in the spot, but I also need to learn how to pre select three names. And the names, it shouldn't be in the full contact notebook of whatever in those days were 10,000 disciples. So it should not repeat, it shouldn't be a rasa basa. It should have a prefix, a suffix. And it was quite a challenge because I didn't know nothing about names. So I need to learn the spot, how to pick up names. And sometimes I used to pick Rasa Vasa names. So Guru Maharaj used to laugh. And then the system is we select three names. Guru Maha ready, he likes he choose one, otherwise you need to select two, three more. So like that I learned the other aspect of choosing names. But on the way back I didn't have my ticket because I didn't know I need to buy. I saw the temple will buy. I didn't know the system so I almost missed the flight. So I learned how to organize my tickets, Burma's tickets. Make sure we fill up the luggage, we have everything. And we went through so many challenges in the way. Then it was an international trip. Mainly training for us was just make a summary because it involves many aspects. Involves traveling, how to buy the tickets, how to change the tickets, how to apply for visas, how to contact the temples, how, how to arrange his programs, how to arrange his itinerary, how many days in each place, how to keep track of the frequently flyer miles, how to contact with the temple precedents. Then once you arrive, how to do the jaguyas, how to do the contact notebook. Taking pictures, making diaries, uploading the pictures in the computer, recording the classes, recording with video, recording audio record and do presentations PowerPoint for Guru Mahaj during the different places he used to visit and arrange all the presentations, arrange the day, connect the cables. There were so many aspects in our secretary training of all the different angles we're supposed to know and learn how to do and what to do to perform. And there was a daily routine because Guru Mahaj back in the day, he used to usually wake up at 4am as soon as he wake up, take a quick shower, go to the temple, attend the mangalartic, then sit chant in his Japan until 6. At 6am he used to stand up and walk with his disciple. Whatever place he was, he used to go for a walk and come back at 7:15. Then in those days, sometimes we used to do Guru Puja before the prana starts. So we do small Guru Puja. Then we go to the Arctic. The first Arctic in the morning at 7:30, Darshan, Arctic, then take darshan. Then we do a big kirtan. Then gurma, sit for the class. So the class has two aspects, the kirtan and the class in itself. So sometimes Guru Mah when he sits because sometimes we go to festival. Many other gurus do the Guru Puja and singing. So sometimes depending on how if Guru Maha sings or not he sits in the Bhagavatam class. So you have to sing Jayuradha Madhava. And then he started playing with the small cartels. And then we knew when Guru Mazda start to do a rhythm of. We knew that the speed of the cartel was up. So we need to take out the wumpers and exchange. And that's when the kirtan start. Sometimes start for one hour, sometimes for half an hour. Everybody stand dancing and singing. And then the class comes. So Guru Mahd gives the class finish the class. Sometimes he goes to his room. Otherwise he immediately used to sit in a secluded place. Depending on the program on the temple. And devotees used to queue. So he used to talk to each of his disciples. We used to have a contact notebook. So we used to write down all the contacts of all the disciples and to check whether they were or not. If they were in the contact notebook, then we have another notebook to write down the different timings for the darshan we used to call Darshan. So Guru Maha sit and talk to all the disciples until breakfast. They can take breakfast sometime, depending on the day and the circumstances. Sometimes we have seminars. So Guru Mahat right after go to give a seminar in the temple. If it was a seminar program or just again, he sit and talk to all his disciples until lunch, then take lunch. Then sometimes we used to take half an hour to one hour nap, depending on the situation of how many days we stay in the country. And then immediately wake up. If it was more than 20 minutes Danda, the guru mahj used to call one Danda. Then we take a shower. If it was less than 20 minutes, just wake up, refresh and continue with the darshans or seminars. If it was darshan, then he talked to all the devotees about the different problems, issues, their preaching reports. Guru Mah gives them advice. And then like that the whole day until the evening that he class. So again the same thing with the class starting. Starting with Radha Madhava going to a kirtan class. And then after class again Guru Mah will give darshan until sometimes 11, 12 midnight. So at that time when everybody start going and Guru Mah see that there is nobody in line, he go back to his room. Usually that was an email time. So he used to do between 12 or 1 or 12 or 2am emails. Then when his eyes were completely closed, we were falling to sleep. Then he goes to the bed. We used to have his cloth for sleeping. So we used to also pack that in the luggage. That was another set we packed. So Guru Maharaj changed the cloth as soon as he touched the bed completely fall to sleep. So we do some massage and then usually sleep sometimes 2 hours, 3 hours, 1 hour, but 4 o' clock up again. And this was. We used to do back in the day two days in one country, maximum three days and sometimes one day. And rare cases we used to do two countries on a day.

After a stroke. How is a day of Guru Maharaj after a stroke?

Everything changed because the energy level is different. Gurumaha Bapu the body is different. So the needs and the care, it completely changed. Before it was to we used to travel one secretary only. So now we travel five people accompanying Guruman. We have a doctor, we have one or two secretaries and he has two assistants that come to help with the daily needs that he have in his program. So the thing changed. And when he's in one place, we divided the day into three timings. From 6 till 2, from 2 to 10 and from 10 till 6. That's the three shifts we have. So each shift we need three local devotees or three devotees in the morning shift, three in the afternoon and two in the night shift. So and then he has secretary that stay with him during, during the day, back and forth, organizing the agenda. So usually now he wake up at 5 mainly always, sometimes 4:30, sometimes 5. Then by the time he wake up, he start chanting while we cleaning the eyes. The first thing now he wake up, we clean the eyes and then we before we use the tape. So you know, we need to take the tape, clean the eyes, put the eye drops, clean the face, then do exercise, physiotherapy in the bed. So while he's doing all this routine in the bed, he's chanting every movement, he does one mantra. Then after that we make him sit, we take him to the bathroom. So in the bathroom we do all the morning duties, brushing, etc. And sometimes we do emails. So that's our email time while we're doing the brushing, stone scraper and all this. He chants when we do emails. Of course he does all emails. And then he finishes his morning duty. He takes shower, he come to the room, it's already. It can be 7:38. It depends on the day because if we do many emails or not the day change, then he come, takes his medicines. Then he takes sometimes pre breakfast mint juice, specific juice for like pomegranate for urinary tract infection. And then he takes breakfast. Then we do, while he's taking breakfast we put the headphones so the devotees through the phone they play the emails. So he starts listening to the emails and then he crafts a reply. Then we check the day, if we have meetings or not, or what is the agenda of the day. Then usually he depends on the situation. If we travel, if we don't travel, if we're in Mayapur, which time of the year. But usually he go to meetings and then come back, take lunch, sometimes in the middle, go to physiotherapy, pool, exercise or go to the gym. Every step or everything we do related to gym or exercise, he chant. Then we go back, take lunch, take one hour rest, sometimes hour and a half or two, depending on how tired he is. But maximum 4:30 or 5pm he need to be already ready and set to start the meetings or the evening program, classes or visiting devotees or darshan or whatever is the agenda. And then 7:30 he usually give class either online or temples. For sure, it's a class. Once in a week we do a morning class because we have more challenges to finish all the morning duties, chanting if we go early morning. But once in a week he gives morning class. Then after he finishes the evening class, darshan, he talks to the devotees. Usually if we're traveling, he sit in the house and talk to some devotees. Otherwise he just attend another meeting or take dinner after, right after dinner, speak with the devotees after a little bit and then prepare to take rest, adjust, change, sometimes go to the bathroom, come back, change, we put him to bed and then we read Prabhupada books. Sometimes half an hour. And when we do some massage, adjusting, clean the eyes, take rest. Usually 11 o' clock is the time we are ready on the bed, sleeping.

Did you see any change in Guru Maharaja's relationship with his disciples or the Buddhist in general? After stroke.

I mean, of course a change is there in many ways in how he interact. Because, you know, he needed more assistance. So devotees, naturally they became more familiar, like a father to help him, to assist him. But still he remained very sober and grave. And he tried to those who are serving him, he tried to make it easy, sometimes make some jokes. So we all relax. And those who are coming to see him, he's pretty much the same as before in his structures, in his thought process, in how he behaves, how he attended meetings. Of course, now he needs a repetition. So before was like private. When it was a mail, it was private. But now he needs all the time somebody to repeat what he says. So this is one of the changes. Otherwise he became a little more depth sometimes. And he's a personality who like to really think before he answers. But I think in other aspects he remained the same.

We share Guru Mahara's biggest anxiety for the society, devotees in general, his disciples and people in general.

I think that the main goal of the Guru is to take the people back to Krishna and help them to navigate the process, the challenges, the difficulties, inspire them, create a space for them that they know, okay, Guru Mas is there if I need something. This is related to devotees in general, disciples and non disciples. We all have the same need that we need inspiration. We need somebody to help us to navigate the challenges. We need somebody that we know that is there when we need him, or at least he tries to be there when we need him. So this remains his big one. Of the anxieties, I don't know if I call it anxieties, but one of the big efforts that Guru Maharaj needs to do on daily basis to try to carry on and enthuse the disciples and well wishers and devotees in general regarding the society. On the management side, you know, he always tried to inspire the leaders to enthuse, take care of devotees, make sure that they have the proper facilities, training, etc. To develop their spiritual life, develop the congregation. And I think if I need to say in one word what is the biggest anxiety for Guru Maharaj, I will say time. Guru Mahaj used to say always, the time is always running behind me. I don't have enough time. So I will say that that was our biggest concern. Otherwise Guru Mahas doesn't get disturbed for things, either big problems or small problems. He remains calm. Of course, you know, heavy meetings, always there is discussions or heavy discussions. But in general he was a calm person and we didn't see to become anxious about something for traveling. Traveling, if we take him not to travel, that was another anxiety because he wanted he know how much the devotees depend on him. So for him, traveling is a big aspect. So we can tell him everything, but we should never tell him stop traveling. Because for him, stop traveling means stop seeing the disciples. Then if he doesn't see the disciples that already see them for a few days a year, maybe twice a year, then the enthusiasm level and everything goes down. So traveling also was a big thing for him. Important. Yeah, that's, I think more or less in a nutshell, what I have perceived.

Personal instructions from Guru Maharaj for you?

He gave me few instructions when I was in Bangladesh. He usually travel and preach in Bangladesh and we used to go to Bangladesh. He gave me instructions for managing like he wanted me to Take more responsibilities in the GBC level. But it's not my cup of tea. Then of course, many times he depends because we were like. Our instructions mainly are related to the service that you perform. So for secretaries, we have daily instructions of almost everything. Guru Mahas used to say at advanced devotee knows the things that the guru wants before the guru asks. So he used to train us in that way. So mainly most of our instructions were based on the daily basis. And then if we take a responsibility, manage a temple in the sun, all related to the sun, how to take care of the devotees, how to manage the temple and things like that. Of course, you know, to take Bhakti bhai bab to preach. But it wasn't because still we are engaging his personal service. Still most of the instructions remain on the daily basis.

How you see Guru Maharaj following Srila Prabhupada's instructions?

We have a list of all the instructions that Srila Prabhupada give to Guru Mahaj. So we see that some instructions take years to develop. Some instructions he follows every day on daily basis he tries to fulfill. Some instructions are naturally, you know, in a middle term. But I always say that Guru Mah has the mentality, personally, what I have perceived that If Guruman has 100% of battery, he will give 100%. He has 90. 90. He has 1. He will give 1. He will try to fulfill whatever he can fulfill in that specific time and period that he has the energy to do it. And that was really amazing to see. I always see him in the daily activities. Whatever he does is trying to fulfill proper instructions. Mainly.

What is your realization with Guru Maharaj in relationship with the Mataji children?

Okay. Guru Mahaj was always. There are different. It's a very open question, so to speak. Because there are different times and generations that pass through Guru Mahaj's life. You know, it's different in Guru Mahaj in the 70s, different in the 80s, different in the 90s, different now in 2000 and different 20. 20, of course. But for sure we have one instruction from him. Here we say, masanias, I can never be alone with a lady in a room. So that's the first thing we put. Strictly no woman's alone with me in a room. And if I need to be alone or they have a private question, then a secretary needs to be with me and be there, just standing there. And if it is very private, okay, we move in one corner, but we see we are standing and witnesses personally says all the tyagis brahmachari Banapran, sanyans, they have no private life. That was one of the main things he told me. And then for the youth and children, Gurma is a very joyful person. Of course, sometimes in some places we used to think for the youth and kids. Grumas used to do a drama or used to engage the kids in something. But he wasn't too much into kids, you know, to do prayer for kids or preaching for kids, he encouraged, but he did encourage all his disciples. Okay, do something for the kids, do something for the ladies, do something for the youth. He encouraged that a lot. But he wasn't directly all the time involved in doing himself personally. That's what I have seen. But he was very kind when he see, you know, devotees, kids. He always said that the kids are vaikuntha kids. So he used to repeat this many times when we face challenges. He used to give that class to all the temples and places where he visited. So as of now, he's still encouraging, supporting kids until today in different aspects of their life. But mainly as a Sanniaski, very neutral on that.

During your traveling and as a secretary, you have to listen many times for sure about the different devotees having challenges, their marriage, life. So what is the concern of Guru Maharaja or divorces or devotees keeping together?

You know, Guru Mahans is a person who taught us that there is nothing impossible, especially our training. We spoke before about training. So one of the training that Guru Maz used to give us is you never say no, you would need to give a solution when you always need to jump and do it. So similarly, his mindset is like that. So when he gives instruction about first Prabhupada told him he always repeat to all the Grihastas, I'm a sannyas, you know, I'm not a Grihasta. So I'm not expert on giving Grihasta advice. You know, we can, we know the challenges but. But he always used to suggest to talk to Grihastas to solve the issues within Grihastas. He always used to try to encourage devotees to remain together and solve the differences. I never heard him saying, okay, get thai die worse. Sometimes many devotees, we have the tendency to just go already with the solution to the guru, you know, I want to do this. So when Guru Maha sees that the devotee has his solution in the mind and is said, he doesn't comment so much. If the devotee is open and comes in a sincere attitude and says, what should I do? Then Guru Mahd give More advice according to how you structure your questions and your situation. Guru Mahd give little advice or he just listened. Also. It's a big thing, you know, sometimes we only need to be heard a little bit of our problems and because we already know the answers.

So for the past 15 years or more, Guru Maharaj has been not able to go personally to many places. So did you hear something about Guru Mahara said to try to develop relationship with him through the photos or classes or lectures, not depending on the physical presence.

Okay. Regarding relationship, what I have witnessed is that we say in my country, to dance tango, you need two. So similarly, the more you put the effort to relate and create a strong relationship with Guru Mahaj, the more he reciprocates. If you remain shy and you don't approach or you don't go and you don't report and you don't tell him, then he doesn't know. And if he don't come, he doesn't come. You know, even though he may come to your country and sit in a place to talk to devotees, if you don't approach, he doesn't. So usually this is one aspect, another aspect that is very important, that now we have 50 years of classes and videos and pastimes and most of the things, we try to document it as much as possible. Of course, technology changed. So before we didn't have certain tools. Now it's more easy. So that is if you really want. That's what I'm saying. It depends on us if we really want to relate. With Guru Mahaj, you can hear one class every day, morning and night for the rest of your life. And you will never finish to hear all Guru Mahj lectures. And Guru Mah has many books that you can dive into it and feel connected with him. So relationship, you can relate through him to his instructions to preach. If like for example, you do Bhakta Bricksha Namah house programs, then you will feel connected in that way. You do book distribution you do for him, then you feel connected. So connection is always standing in the state of mind and consciousness that you as a disciple have and how you perform your service on daily basis. If you connect with him, then you feel always connected. If not, then you don't feel connected. But if you want to reconnect, you can always hear the classes, listen from him and then connect again and do all the service in connection with him. And Srila Prabhupada.

Any memories you can tell us about with Guru Maharaj's safari. What is the meaning for him, what is the safari Guru Maharaj Safari meaning for him?

For us, safari. You know, we grow with the safari. I will say we grow old with the safari. You know, when I first came to India, I was having 20 plus 21 years old, 22. And I was reading in the back to Godhead magazine the Ganga safari. It became like trending a boat. The COVID was a boat with all the devotees lifting their hands. And I saw like, Ganga Safari. I need to go. So the day I came, I think the first safari I can remember, it was also the Ganga safari too. And we supposed to finish the Ganga safari or was in South India. I can remember my first safari. But for me, the first five years of safari were amazing because we were all youth. So all the youth from New Taliban, Atlanta, Alachua, they all used to come. We were like 15, 20 young boys and girls. Of course, I was Brahmachari. I was serving Guru Mah. I spent more time with Guru Mash and with the boys. But I used to have so much fun in the safari. And it was pretty austere always. But, you know, I was with Guru Mah. I was having the chance to see the deities and go to special places with Guru Mahaj firsthand. So for me, it was really amazing. And I used to, you know, I managed to mainly see all the Divyadeshans in India and all the holy places and temples and Rathayatras, you know, Guru Mahas. In those days, we used to do 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 Rathayatras in one safari. And then the preaching. Gurumah want us to preach, to do the panel program to bring many people. So for him was an opportunity to associate with his disciples more in intimacy for 20 days or one month, depending on the time, non stop that you see Guru Mahaj every day, you spend time with him every day. He traveled with us in the train, with us in the bus, with us everywhere. So it was like a big thing, you know, even in Ganga Safari, even though he has his Brahmachari boat on mailboat, but still, you know, we used to see Guru Mahaj every day, spend with him time every day until late night, since morning. So it was a big thing. And for him, he wanted to spend time with his disciples, take them to the holy places, sharing all the pastimes in the holy places, and then preach and induce new people to come through cultural programs and help the temples in that way and reciprocate with the different yatras in that way. And of course, devotees used to take advantage and do all the Rathayatras. Until the law changed that now they need to do the Rathayatra in India the same day as Puri Rathayatra. But otherwise we used to do Rathayatras in every safari. What is relevant for a disciple to connect with Guru Mahaj? Go through the challenges in this beautiful process of Ka consciousness, Advance and please him and connect and follow him. I think one of the most important things, try to get the mood of Guru Maharaj, share the mood. Of course, everybody is different, everybody has different moods. But at least by understanding certain aspect of his mood and mission, then we can connect with it personally. And I think Guru Mask has been encouraging all the devotees now to study. I believe that the more you read, the more you connect with Prabhupada, Prabhupada books, the more easy to make this click in your Ka consciousness. Because the moment you get the knowledge through the association of devotees, you are studying, refreshing Prabhupada's words every day, then automatically you need to act accordingly. Prabhupada books always encourage us to chant, to preach, to distribute Lord Chaitanya's mercy everywhere. And this is Guru Mahmud. He always want to preach, chant, dance, feast, he used to say that. And expand the movement, both in the houses around your city, your country, whatever it is your state. So he is a preacher. So Guru Maharaj always encourages devotees to preach because the moment you learn Achar Prachar, you learn and they need to preach. So once you preach, then you realize your knowledge and you get special mercy, special bliss that make you go through the challenges. And I believe that's one of the main things that if you follow as a disciple, you will get through, you will push through and you will be happy. Especially if you preach. If you study and preach, management is a different thing. It's not for everybody. That's for special devotees who have special mindset that they can deal with pressure, they can deal with challenges. That is strong, they have a strong conviction. They can take the whole, upgrade the whole society to the next level. But otherwise, normal devotees, what I suggest is you study, you try to hear from Guru Mahat, try to hear from Prabhupada, study Prabhupada books, try to do Bhakti Shastri, Bhakti Vaibhava, Bhaktivedanta and whatever other styles are there. Because knowledge is one of the main ingredients we need to have at the beginning in order to develop more faith and practice. And I already know we are Krishna conscious means we need to be Conscious of Krishna's, Krishna's pastimes, leelas, paraphernalias, friends, so on, so forth. But we need to preach. If you preach, then you close the circle. If you don't preach, you don't really close. You may be full of knowledge, but you don't have the vigna, the realization. So you need the realization. Realization comes through preaching. And also Krishna give you mercy. So that's how I feel. The easiest way to connect with Guru Mahaj is through study and preaching.

Maybe you can tell a little bit. How was your first and second initiation, your interview with Guru Maharaj?

My first initiation was in Mayapur. So it was different than everybody else, I believe, because I was his secretary, I mean his servant in those days. I started serving him in Mayapur from morning till night, every day, non stop. So my initiation, I was in my first initiation, I was with him, helping him to, you know, seeing the process of how he choose names and everything. Of course, not mine, but I was waiting until the last moment. I remember I had my recommendation and I already did. You know, I did all the tests was not shortcut for me to test oral. Because they used to take me oral plus all the tests. Oral, not just one question. They used to take me everything oral plus written. And then all the checklists of reading all the books. Once I feel about everything, then you go to the interview. I did that before. But then during my initiation day, I was with Guru Mahaj until the time he went to the initiation ceremony. So in those days they used to have in front opposite the temple, there used to be a park at Fontaine and it used to be a jagya pit. So Guru Mahaj used to sit in the jagya pit with six, seven people. And then outside the jaggya pit in the park were so many small jagyas for the different devotees they used to sit around. So I remember I said, with Guru Mahaj there. But during the initiation we were on a stage and Guru Mahaj called me and he said to me, you know, one of my good friends was Ekago Oranga. So he was there also in Mayapur. He happened to be in Mayapur. So we used to do book distribution together and preach together. So his name was Eka Goranga. So when he was sitting next to me in my initiation, he was sitting there somewhere. So Guru Maz told me, okay, your name is Ekanath Gaura. So my face, I became like very upset. So Gurma said, Ekannat Gaura. So my face, I became like super upset. So Gurma looked at my face and he looked at Ekagoranga. And he understood. Say your name is better than Rekagoranga. Because you are Ekanath, the only Lord Goranga. And I become happy. That was my first initiation. But for my second initiation to be continued.