Lava-Mātra: A Moment with Jayapatākā Swami by HG Dīpapriyā Vrajeśvarī Devī Dāsī

So thank you mataji for giving this opportunity to actually tell that how i got connected to guru maharaj so my name is deepa priya deepa priya brajeshwari devidasi and my native is in orissa i'm born and brought up in orissa in a small town jaipur but i did my education in various parts of the country like i did in vizag and then into bhubaneswar and in those places so when it comes to getting connected to iskcon i got connected to iskcon when i was in bhuvaneshwar so that time i used to only visit i went to the iskcon bhubaneswar just for prasadam because the prasadam was so tasty and i would go there and i will see devotees they do parikrama and they were chanting one day even i did parikrama and i was chanting and i used to go very frequently to iskcon bhubaneswar because i liked the deities over there and i liked the hare krishna mahamantra but i did not chant there so i used to go from one and a half year to two years i went there but i didn't see as such like somebody preaching like maybe that window in which i was going that time some preaching was not happening so anyway i used to go have take deity darshan sit in kirtan have prasadam and come back and then i came to chennai when i came to chennai because i got my job and in twenty fifteen twenty thirteen i came here so again i started coming to iskcon but then again it took me so much of time to again get that association of that one devotee who would introduce me to krishna consciousness it took me two years and i was coming continuously from twenty thirteen to twenty fifteen in twenty fifteen like i got connected to one devotee she was priyasakhi malati devidasi she was also taking care of this iskcon youth services so there is where youth girls were there and that's how i got connected to this youth society and then sukhiti mataji her priest sukhiti mataji she is my siksha guru so under her i started learning this krishna consciousness so coming now to guru maharaj like it was my initial days in twenty sixteen i got aspiration from guru maharaj so how can i tell like the first thing is that when we before meeting guru maharaj we meet guru maharaj's disciples right and from there we come to know about guru maharaj so when i was they always used to tell so much about guru maharaj and i was to hear that how he is and so much of glorification of guru maharaj then i used to think like okay who is this person i would definitely if i have to ever choose a guru then i will definitely choose him only as a guru because first thing is that he has such wonderful qualities second is that his disciples are so so nice so wonderful they make me so comfortable they are so caring about everybody and they are so krishna conscious so that's one thing which got me attracted to guru maharaj but then as we get connected little more we go getting connected to many many devotees we get to hear from many other gurus also there is always a dilemma from whom should i take initiation from so because i am a bengali basically i'm a bengali but born and brought up in orissa so then what happened is that i heard even radhanath maharaj's lecture should i mention the names i don't know but i heard many gurus so after that i was actually in a dilemma that what i should do and the guru maharaj was coming it was on janmashtami in twenty sixteen he was coming and to chennai and it was that time that you know everybody said that guru maharaj is coming i was very excited in the same time i was very fearful also to meet guru maharaj thinking that i am definitely i am not such a nice person before coming to krishna consciousness i have my own past like i am a fallen soul so i was very much afraid to go near such a pure soul i was really afraid and in the same time i was thinking that okay i have to said about this aspiration and everything and i was not sure what i should do and something very wonderful happened just before i take aspiration guru maharaj came to my dreams and it was at that time that the same fear was there within me in that dream i was hiding and it was the rooftop of mayapur where guru maharaj's room is there and the wonderful part is that i never went to that place i never went to mayapur i never have seen i had never seen this rooftop and even after having the dream also i never saw in youtube or any pictures or anything about that rooftop only when i went to mayapur i saw that flower pots and everything that rooftop and when i saw that at that time only i could recognize okay this is the place in which i had dreamt about i had not dreamed about any i had not knew known at that time also so anyways i dreamt about it and the guru maharaj was there i was hiding from him but he he came and he saw me from the bushes some in one pot behind one pot i was hiding and he just saw me and we had a glance maybe some talk or something i couldn't remember all those things all those details of the dream but then one thing what i said to my counselor is that hargreaves suketi mataji is that when gurmaraj comes i would be asking question did he was he really there because what i heard from my seniors is that if it is a spiritual dream it is actually a truth it is not some fantasy or anything like that so i wanted to confirm that from guru maharaj but then i was very fearful to ask that question so guru maharaj was there and it was such a wonderful time we got such time with guru maharaj it is very difficult that we get that one to one talk with guru maharaj because there are so many devotees you know but then that was one thing which by guru maharaj and maybe by radhakrishna's mercy like everybody was there all these girls were there and one by one we started coming in front of guru maharaj and we started taking the from jagannath stick he was he was we introduced ourselves we introduced ourselves and then they asked that from what i'm doing how i'm got connected to this is con and all those things mataji was introducing me to guru maharaj and i was like completely blank i don't know what to ask completely blank and everything was nothing was there okay and then mataji said she is a bengali so whenever guru maharaj hears this that somebody is a bengali he starts the conversation in bengali with that person so when it came to me i was totally blank as usual i don't know what to do there i was just standing with my hands folded in front of guru maharaj and then guru maharaj when he heard so guru maharaj something is there that she wants to tell you and about she saw you in a dream she wants to tell about that thing and then i was like mataji i know i am not able to i was like dumb i don't know how to tell then mataji said this thing to guru maharaj and when guru maharaj heard that's what why guru maharaj confirmed that that's why i'm thinking why your face is so familiar and then guru maharaj blessed me with his jagannath stick and so that's how and whenever guru maharaj it's been i'm not able to go so close to guru maharaj but then whenever i get this chance whenever i'm there he once he asked me how are you he asked in bengali nobody said that she is a bengali but then he just recognized and he started talking to me in bengali so these are small things which happened to me and when i come like this is how my relationship with guru maharaj is and it's actually beyond that not only limiting that to a dream or that small i mean to say that that conversation that i had with guru maharaj it's been like whenever i'm in dilemma or some issues are there so once i wrote to guru maharaj it was my birthday so and guru maharaj was having this zoom darshan he was giving to everybody who is having these birthdays right so everybody who will not like to have that blessing from guru maharaj everybody would be looking forward that they can get that blessing somehow the zoom call it ended and i was waiting and somehow my turn did not come up i could not have gur maharaj session so i was very upset and i started writing to guru maharaj that day i wrote to guru maharaj and i said about that i am preaching i am doing this i am doing this youths i mean to say that this youth preaching i am doing but i have set of responsibilities also i am a grihasta and i am having so some way i think i am lagging behind in this preaching so guru maharaj had wrote to me in that email that when it comes that prabhupada says this that when it comes to preaching a woman should be like a tiger and when it comes to a grihasta at that time the woman should be like a cat like very very humble very taking a very humble position but when it comes to preaching be like a tiger so what i took that as an instruction what guru maharaj is giving me that you do your preaching duties be like a tiger do it very very like you be very prompt in doing all those things but when it comes to your vyastha life take care of it like how the gopis they used to do they used to meet krishna but in the same time they used to take care of their activities very nicely very perfectly so that nobody can question that okay you are not taking care of your family but only taking care of your devotional life so that is what i took it from guru maharaj that mail and maharaj has blessed me in everything so many emails which i write to guru maharaj in that way i'm very much connected to guru maharaj and so that's it thank you so much mataji and look forward seeking your blessings so that i can serve guru maharaj in some way can you tell little bit about your initiation initiation okay okay so guru maharaj how i took initiation so initiation my initiation was in twenty twenty and in january twenty january twentieth twenty twenty it was my initiation so guru maharaj gave initiation to me and my husband together so we both were there so we both were seeking today guru maharaj's initiation so even the day when my initiation was there that day morning i saw guru maharaj in my dream guru maharaj was there and he gave me blessings through that dream and it was it was a journey in which yeah definitely there were so many things from aspiration to taking that of the initiation between i got married and i was thinking that always my counselor she wanted that both of us to take the initiation so i was waiting back there i didn't take initiation in the start so i was waiting so that my husband has also completed that stages and all those things and we both take initiation so when we were taking initiation gur maharaj as usual he was playing with me you know he was taking the beads and he was like he was he he was like as usual he plays with many some disciples like whenever this initial ceremony is there he will pray with disciples whether to give or not to give right one desire which i had when i was in front of guru maharaj during the initiation was that i was thinking oh i'll just take beads and go and i'll not have little more time to be with guru maharaj maybe that one desire which i had guru maharaj fulfilled that desire by playing with me that you know he was having that mala and he was playing with me and that's all and guru maharaj when it comes following prabhupada instructions it is so visible that how he is following the instructions like he keeps telling that this was prabhupada desire to have top he keeps telling us that how he is now what he now wants one thing which is very much he is focusing is that now on his disciples is that do bhakti shastri do bhakti vaibhava do all these courses he's very much focusing read prabhupada books and always you hear his lectures it is like we are hearing to prabhupada again so whatever he has like if you are regularly hearing prabhupada's lectures and as well as hearing guru maharaj lectures you can easily see that how guru maharaj takes all those examples from prabhupada and he will quote always prabhupada prabhupada said this to me recently i was hearing this mother's day there was a video which was out like guru maharaj class was out and that time prabhupada guru maharaj wherever possible he will quote from what he got instructions from his guru from srila prabhupada and there is where again he said that prabhupada once said me that to preach mother lauri and be like the kapila muni he said that i was like i was like i was like stuck like he remembers each and every detail of what his guru has said so so that is where he is a prabhupada man recently when he was in if somebody said that you have done so much things he would always tell it is always like it is always less than what prabhupada has done so in that way you know like he is a very close closely following the instructions of srila prabhupada and he is showing that mood of srila prabhupada thank you so much hare krishna.