Prayers for HH Jayapataka Swami Maharaja Speedy Recovery

I.

Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. Can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Thank you. Like to welcome all the devotees.

To.

This special prayer session for Guru Maharaj. Like to thank all the devotees that joined us. We have been doing japa till now for Guru Maharaj. So I'd like to chant Guru Maharaj Prana mantra first. Then we start the session. Namaste. Like to welcome all the devotees to this special J Triple S gathering from ISKCON West Sydney to pray for Guruba's good health and recovery. And I would like to thank all the devotees who joined us from different places. I know some of them, of course, from Brisbane, and I don't know who the others are. Some of them got different names, but we got some Sydney devotees as well. Monica Mataji is online and Padmajamataji is online from Sydney. I know. And we also have pray Mikast who joined. He's going to narrate some pastimes of Guru Maharaj and also anybody else would like to. That will be the first item of today's program. And after that, we will be having question answer session. Hare Krishna, are you there? Oh, this Q A session. Will Guru Mahj be there for that or who is going to handle that normally? How do you do it?

Not from Guru Maharaj. It's from the speaker, for example, Vijay Gobik. What is his name? Who is going to be glorifying Guru Maharaj today? Premikas devotees can ask question to br.

Yeah, he's just joining, I think. Yeah, he joined us. Percy Garcia. Prem Hare Krishna. Welcome.

Can you hear me now?

Yeah, we can hear you now.

Okay. So Hare Krishna, please accept my humble obeisances.

Requesting Premikas Prabhu to glorify Guru Maharaj. Gurumaj pastimes. That's the next part of the program. And then Premikastro will have a Q a after that. 1220. Then we have done 13 prayers, the same Kavacha prayers. And 1245, we'll have Kirtan and closure. So you got half an hour. Thank you for joining us. Hare Krishna. Premikastro, are you there? We can see you.

Can you hear me?

Yes. You can.

Okay. So Guru Maharashtra's glorification is something that is easy in a sense, because what we see, what we see in him is actually something that is utterly extraordinary. And look, we are disciples. He's our source of inspiration. He's our connection with Krishna or direct connection with Krishna. So we have a bias in a sense. You know, it's like when the son has a really good father. The Father is always the biggest hero, you know. And the Son is always looking on the Father with those eyes, you know, he's my hero, is the best father in the world. So we as disciples, we have that attitude towards Guru Maharaj. And that attitude should be there. It's what allows the disciple to make spiritual progress. But even if I take that attitude of looking at Guru Maharaj as the most perfect Vaishnava, when I look at the objective facts, it is undeniable that we are witnessing something extraordinary. It is undeniable that we are witnessing something that is transcendental. It is undeniable that we're think we're witnessing something that we only hear in the Purana, certain other Vedic scriptures. Guru Maharaj in this phase of his life, in his pastime, in these pastimes of his life right now is showing us how Ka consciousness. How when Krishna is embedded in our consciousness, miracles occur. We transcend the body. We are not subject to the body. We rather the. Rather the body, rather the body becomes our subject. Guru Maharshi is showing us right now that through Krishna consciousness, when Krishna is imbibed in our consciousness, external moderations, external inconveniences, disease, sickness, illness, paralysis, obstacles, they don't mean anything. That our consciousness that is focused on Krishna surpasses all this. And to me, that human life, that is the potential of the human being being expressed at its maximum. That's what every human being on the planet secretly, unconsciously wants. To be able to go beyond this. Because as we know from the Bhagavad Gita, birth, death, all age and disease is an axiomatic truth. It's a self evident reality in this world. Nobody can escape this. So if you cannot escape these factors, these four factors, what do you do when you are besieged by this? What do we do? You know? So there is no other way but our consciousness to transcend this. But how do you transcend it? The truth is that every human being on this planet is looking for that. All of us, we're looking for that. All of us. You know, in this material body you have experience. If you are past the age of 50, you start experiencing pains and things that you never experienced in your 20s. And you go to the doctor and they don't know what is happening. They may give you something, some pills, some medicine, some this and that. But the reality is that we don't want those. And the reality is we cannot escape them. So since we cannot escape birth, death, all age and disease, what do we Do. The only solution is to transcend them. The only solution is for, for our consciousness not to be affected by it. Guru Maharaj is showing us right now how a body that is actually so riddled with disease and illness and sicknesses and inconveniences and pains of all types.

Of.

Can be transcended when Krishna is in our consciousness. And it is actually amazing. It's actually so wonderful to see it. It's actually a blessing or good fortune. It's actually a privilege. We're very lucky. We're very fortunate that we are connected to such extraordinary human being, to such an exalted Vaishnava. And that is showing us how everything is possible. When you're conscious of Kusha, this is my realization from observing, from just seeing Guru Maharaj's pastimes at this moment. I, I, I'm part of the, the health group. The devotees kindly, even though I don't deserve it, the devotees kindly added me. So it's a lot of doctors there. And I read the reports every day today. Mahabharah Prabhu, the secretary wrote, I'm just looking at it. That's Guru Mara. She's experiencing some pains. Yeah, okay. Yeah. GM isn't feeling well. Guru Maharaj isn't feeling well today. We're taking him to the hospital soon. He was discharged two days ago. He's on dialysis now. Say he may need another dialysis today. And then a doctor asks, what are Guru Maharaj's symptoms? Mahabharah probably replies, low saturation, nausea, tightness in the abdomen. So he's gone to the hospital right now. And when I was there recently, this was like kind of like a normal thing, you know, that happens to him. But what really, really, really blew my mind was the calmness, the peace of mind, the unaffectedness that Guru Maharaj, how Guru Maharaj goes through this, you know, like a sign of an advanced consciousness, a sign of an advanced human being is how do you deal? How do we. Difficult moments. Because when things are going okay, everybody can be a nice person. When things are going fine, everybody's doing great, you know. But it is in the difficult moments where you show your real character. It is in tragedy, it is in extreme sickness where you show your real character. And often, you know, we need crutches. But in psychology they call crutches, you know, if you're going through an emotional, through emotional pain, you know, people take shelter of things to be able to deal with the pain. You know, in a non devotee circle, people can drink alcohol and take drugs Nowadays you can binge watch on Netflix. You can do anything to be able to go through the pain, you know, but basically that means you're escaping the pain, and when you escape the pain, you become weaker. Okay? In the Bhagavad Gita, the first definition of yoga that Krishna gives is equanimity, samatwam in Sanskrit. To be steady, to be equal, equanimity. But to be, to have, to be equanimous, you know, when things are perfect or when things are not perfect, when things are going good or when things are going bad, you know, so yoga sakuru karmani, sangam tyakta, Dhananjaya siddhi asidho samo Bhutva samatvam, Yoga. To be equal in the face of difficult times, to be equal in the face of pain, that's yoga. So Guru Maharaj undergoes all this daily, but his consciousness is samadam. It's actually a true yogi. You know, triogi is not those people who stand on their heads and they just do some complicated gymnastic posture through yoga is samatram, that consciousness that enables you to transcend this. So, and those of us who by his mercy only have observed him for many decades know that Guru Maharash has put his body through extreme duress out of love for Iskcon, out of love for Srila Prabhupada, out of love for his disciples. I am, I am originally from Peru. In the 80s, I was sent to Mayapur in the Gurukulam. And that's where I began. That's when I began by, only by his mercy, because I have no qualifications whatsoever. That's when I began serving Guru Maharaj. Because he was. He was the GBC and is the GBC of Peru. He was also the. He initiated. He has many disciples from there. So Gurmarsh went to South America in 1982 till he struck in 2006. So how many years is that? 92, 2000 and to 34 years. Not once he stopped visiting his disciples there in South America. Not once he went to South America at least twice a year, sometimes three times a year. His own is in Chile, Bolivia, Brazil. No, not Brazil, sorry. Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador. For 34 years. At least twice a year he would fly there. And I remember only by his mercy he allowed me to serve him, to be his secretary. I used to buy his tickets. I used to buy a mileage ticket to Santiago, Chile. And Santiago Chile was his own still. And so if you know geography, Santiago, Chile is at the bottom of South America. And a little bit farther to south, there is another city called Concepcion. And there was a temple there too. And Guru Maharaj used to joke that that temple is the farthest temple from Mayapur. I'm trying to Google it. I think it is 10,000km, if I'm not mistaken, you know. Ah, no, it is 17,555 flying kilometers distance from Kolkata to Santiago, Chile. So It'll be like 18,000. So. So I remember Guru Maharaj used to. We used to buy the tickets. We used to buy a tickets, and at that time, now it's different. We used to buy a mileage ticket that allowed him to. To, you know, to make many stopovers. Anyway, it gets complicated if I explain all this, but I do remember him mentioning all this time, yeah, yeah. The temple in Santiago, in Concepcion is the farthest temple from Mayapur. And it was amazing how he would go there. It was amazing how he would visit. And, you know, when you travel so much, you know, it takes a toll on your body. And a lot of his GBCs, a lot of his godbrothers, they would tell him not to travel so much, but he refused. I remember he told me once, he said, look, I have to go and see my disciples. I. I have seen in other zones, in other places that when the guru doesn't visit his disciples, they leave Krishna conscious. So he said, I'm trying to remember the exact words. He says, I have to. Yeah, that's what he said. He said, I have to see them. It is my service. That he viewed his position as a guru, as a therapist, and because of that, of course, traveling so much, his body took a toll, you know, and going back to. I remember. So you. We would buy a ticket. The ticket was from Calcutta to Santiago, Chile. It was a mileage ticket, and it was only valid for two months, which allowed 25 stops on each way. If you knew Guru Maharaj at that time, he was in ecstasy. When we discovered that ticket, it was around two and a half thousand US which was very cheap. But he would squeeze every single stop out of it. Squeeze it. And within two months. So I remember we took a trip once, we bought a ticket and he. We went. This may not be exact, but it's an approximation. We went Calcutta. We went to Poland, to Warsaw, then we went to Rome, and then we went to. So it was, yeah, Calcutta, Warsaw, Rome, Copenhagen, Stockholm, back to Copenhagen, London, Miami, Atlanta, North Carolina, back to Atlanta, New Orleans, Mississippi, and then back to Miami. Then we went Ecuador, Lima, Santiago, to Chile, Chile, Bolivia, Sao Paulo, back to Miami, Atlanta again, New York, Sweden, London. Then we stopped in the Middle East, Bahrain, Dubai, Muscat, Mumbai. He went to Mumbai for some BBC meetings. Delhi and Kolkata, all within four months. Two months, yeah. He had so much energy. He was so energetic and he would, we would. It was very complicated because we had to match the GBC meeting. Oh, and Rathayatra festivals. He never wanted to miss a single Rathayatra festival. But we had to accommodate all that within that ticket. And he did. He did that so many years till the stroke, actually, in 2006. And he would do it because again, out of love for iskcon, he never missed a single GBC meeting. Never, never. You know, and if there were temples that were in problems, if there were temples that needed help, he would be there, even if it was outside his zone. And of course, his own. And his disciples, he never, not once neglected, not once. He never once said, oh, I'm not feeling well, I will not take this trip. He never once said, I'm not feeling well, I will not go to this meeting in. Everyone said, I'm not feeling well, I will not see my disciples. Not once. When he was healthy. And he still carry the same consciousness right now, despite all this, he doesn't like missing GBC meetings. He doesn't like. Now it's a bit limited. Can you do. But Mahabharabhu told me that was it 2016, if I'm not mistaken, when he had his kidney transplant and his liver transplant in one day and he was in that hospital in Chennai and he was incubated, completely intubated. You know, I think it was a week after the transplant, there was some GBC meetings. He insisted that he would attend the meetings on Zoom online. He insisted. And then I was talking to Radha Sundari. He's my friend, she's my friends. And on the Tirtha Prabhupada's wife, they are both the GBC secretary, they organize some conferences and all that. So he asked her, sent her a message. Gurumar sends her a message saying, look, I'm intubated, you know, would it be okay if I turn off the camera on the Zoom meeting? Because, you know, it may cause some distraction for the meetings. So that that's his consciousness, subjectively speaking, we cannot deny that we are witnessing something so fabulous, something so amazing, something so wonderful, something so transcendental. And it is. Or good fortune at least. At least from my side, you know, I don't think I deserve this. Of course, all of you wonderful devotees are different. You are more pious. You know, all of you are so dedicated to Prabhupada's mission, you know. But from my side I feel. Hold on. What have I done to deserve such wonderful blessing to be able to see this? But that's another feature of Guru Maharaj. His unconditional kindness is unconditional loving support for everyone. So thank you for inviting me. Thank you for allowing me to purify myself in glorifying Guru Maharaj. You know, this is amazing what you're doing. I would love to stay with you throughout this entire program. But I have scheduled a few classes at a few conferences. So I'll stop here if anybody has any comment or question we can attempt and try to answer. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Very, very ecstatic. So blessed we are to have your so many. Anybody wants to ask.

Pr.

We can't hear you properly.

Can't hear me.

It's literally too soft. Prabhu can't hear you at all. Can you hear me now? Better? Yeah, it's better now.

Yes.

Okay, I'll sit here. So Prem, got couple of questions. Unless somebody has. Please stop me. When was your first meeting with Guru Maharaj? And how do you get become convinced that he is your Guru Maharaj and you would like to surrender to him? You can share his experience. That'll be great.

1982, if I'm not mistaken, I met Guru Maharaj for the first time. There's a picture actually somebody just sent me. I'll try to. I'll try to dig it up. But yeah, 1992, I was. I was. I was a kid. I mean I was 11 years old at that time. And big and tall, he was really shook my world. And I took initiation in 1983. But the real is when I went to Mayapur in 1984 that I started to. To have a close, a very close look at the personality of Guru Maharaj. Mind you, I was 13, 14 years old at that time. But by Kusha's mercy, by Cash's mercy, he allowed me to see some glimpses of the kind of personality that he was. You know, what an exalted Vaishnav he was. I'll tell you an event that happened in 1984 that took this. So it's 40 years, right? That to this day impacted me to my. To my core. And that I see it as one of the lessons, life lessons that Guru Maharaj gave me. I can't find that picture. Else I'll find it and I'll send it to you. That Guru Maharaj gave me. And I think I will take his this lesson to my tomb. Tomb. At that time, Guru Maharaj, they had brought, he had. So Guru Marish was the pioneer, you know, he was a visionary. He's. He was one of the first leaders in ISKCON who introduced computers in ISKCON, really. So he bought a computer in 1984. At that time, a lot of you must are computer engineers. I know that. You know, you do, you work in it, so you would know that. I think it was in 1986 that the DOS system came. We're talking before Windows, those disk operating system. Right. But before those, because those was created by IBM. I know all this because I was there in the office when Guru Maharaj was going through all this. I'm not a computer engineer. So DoS was introduced by IBM, but before DoS, and they standardized. Right after the IBM introduced DoS, then all the other companies, they adopted DoS as their standard operating system. So there was only two systems, the Mac and the DoS. But before DoS there were many other operating systems that were very. What's the word? You know, they were just random in a sense. So the first computer Guru Maharaj brought was not run on DOS was run on cpm.

Microprocessor.

Yes. And CPM was before those. So it was a huge computer and there was this little screen in the middle. And why Guru Maharaj bought that computer was because he, he wanted to create a database for his disciples. Before all the disciples, names were just written in, in, in a black book. Same thing like Prabhupada had. But Prabhupada gave an instruction to Guru Maharaj that he should initiate at least 50, 000 people. And again, Guru Maharaj took these instructions so seriously. Everybody thought, everybody told him it's impossible. But no, it doesn't take, not for an answer. And in 1984, so we're talking 40 years ago, he bought a computer thinking that he's gonna need a computer in order to keep track of the 50000 people that he's going to be. So he bought that and some computer programmer devotee program the database for that system. And I was. And I learned typing at that time. I learned typing from a typewriter. But I was entrusted by his mercy a service of entering the data, especially the Spanish disciples, because I was the only Spanish speaking person there. So I could read, you know, the different names and addresses and all that. So the, the, the devotee who had programmed the database, the fields. Right, the database fields. He had put a field There, that said blooped and in iskcon lingo, blocked means he's left Krishna consciousness, you know, so blooped. And then I was supposed to write in that field yes or no if the devotee had blooped or not blooped. So I was typing the devotees names into the database. And then Guru Maharaj came into the office. I got up, paid my obeisances, and he said, now continue your service. So I sat down and I continued typing. And then he saw that I was putting yes to this devotee that had looked. And then he looked at it. And then he looked to the screen even closer and he was like. And then he got very upset. He started yelling at me. I mean, he said, why are you doing this? And I was like, you know, why are you typing this? I just replied, you know, because I was told that I should enter if the devotee had blocked or not blocked. I was scared, of course. And then he said, who programmed this? Who put that field there? And then the devoted computer programmer came and then he asked him, why did you do this? And they said, what? He said, well, you have disciples who live Krishna consciousness. I will never forget his reply. Maybe what is said, yes, but it's a reality. You have disciples who live Krishna consciousness, but they can always come back. So I've meditated on this for many years. And we all interact with people, with devotees, with family. And most of our interactions are based on our perceptions of people, how we look at them. And our perceptions of people are often based on the what is happening right now that is actually limited. But I realized that Guru Maharaj's perception of his devotees was not limited to their current state. He always had faith in people. He has faith in his disciples. He still does. And it is that faith that he has in his disciples where he's able to see beyond their faults, beyond whether they are practicing Ka consciousness at this moment or not, beyond whether they are being strict or not. And when the guru, when your spiritual master looks at you in this way, he's blessing you directly. No matter what you're going through, you will always be Krishna conscious. So again, I'm recalling this incident 40 years later. So it was in those times that I was young, but I was able to see what personality we have in front of us. Okay, yeah. So then. Yeah, so then I started there. And then many years came. Then, you know, we traveled, I became a secretary. And he's always been very kind, very kind, very. Even now when I bought, went back and spoke to him, he's always. I don't. I mean, he's. He's a guru too, you know, he. He can also correct you. Oh, he's corrected. And he's. He can be very heavy. But I've never seen him treat someone, anybody, especially his disciples, with anything but love. Pure love. Sorry, what was your question?

It's all nectar. Whatever you say. What inspired you to get initiated from Guru Maharaj? And how was your first.

You know, well, at that time, again, I was a child, you know, so. So I just saw him, a guru, and I said, all right, you know, I'll take any session. But I think a better answer for me is what inspires me to continue under his shelter.

Okay. All right.

And what inspires me to continue under his shelter is the quality of a Vaishnav that he is. And I must add to also the quality of a human being that he is, you know, the quality of a personality he is. His surrender to Krishna. Amen. You know, his devotion, his dedication, his superhuman strength is an inspiration to me. In moments where I face difficulties, in moments where I face challenges, all I need to do is I need to meditate on him. And then whatever challenges I'm facing, they are ridiculous in comparison to what he faces. And that, you know, that actually makes me feel blessed and fortunate, you know, that he allows me to be still under his shoulder. Allows us, all of us, to be under his shot. All right.

Thank you, Lord. Thank you so much. That's wonderful. Please let us appreciate this. Let's pray with us.

Like I said, I would love to stay with you. It's just that I have few. I have few conferences and classes that I must attend to, so.

Sure.

I have to. I have to leave now.

Yes. I appreciate you making time. Short notice I called you and you just jumped in.

You are a good.

For us, it is just our service. Anytime you want to, please let me know.

Sure.

Thank you for my benefit.

Okay. We will chant the Dhanvantari prayers now and Nasim Kavacha prayer. Let's start with Nasim Kavacha prayers. Lead the chanting of Narcavacha prayers. And after that we'll chant the Dhanvantari prayers. I'll put on the group and then we'll have our Kirtan and Guru Puja and Kirtan at the end. Of course. Prasadam for those who are here, face to face for Zoom Vasis. You should just imagine I'm missing the Prasadam Prabhu. Okay. Okay. Let's start with. Yes, please.

Sarvakaram Sarva Sampat Sakasham Goki Sambava Divya. Yeah. Samsa from Rashima Kavacham. Sam.

Can you.

Everybody together?

Yes. We'll repeat after your first time. Then get one more time group. I think everyone has got the mantra we can chant together. We have to chant at least 11 times. I got it. Let's chant together.

SA Radio.

Thank you very much. So now we'll have the Guru Puja. Thanks to all the devotees who joined online. Thank you Janikiraman Prabhu for facilitating this program. And we are praying for Guru Maharaj right now. Told us that he's just got the report that he is again in hospital. And all our prayers will continue. So we'll chant Nashing of prayers to Namaste Naya. And then we'll chant who is considering.

Na prayer Shika Shalika. Shalika.

Come on.

You have to be quick singing or not?

Come here.

Come.

It.

Nasimadi Ra Ra.

Now?

Yes.

Sa.

Ham Ram Ram Sam with Sam like it Ram Ra.

To turn this around.