Why Do We Need a Temple | 4th Jan 2020 | ISKCON Mauritius | Srila Gopal Krishna Goswami

Hi Krishna! Hey Krishna! Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevah. Om Namo Bhagavate Vivasvivaaya. Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevah. Om Namo Bhagavate Vivasvivaaya. Om Namo Bhagavate Vasdeva— Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. As you know, today is a special program. The purpose of it is to make you part, encourage you to participate in something very important. Guru Mahārāja Nārada Mūla Swāmī were serving the most important guru 500 years ago. 500 years ago, the richest country in the world was India, not America. There was no America at that time. America was discovered much later. And the richest part of India was the kingdom of Bengal. And Bengal was being ruled by a ruler whose name was Nawab Hussein Shah. At that time, the population of the country, of this kingdom, was predominantly 99% Hindu, and then Buddha was a Muhammadan. He was a particular man. He did a survey who could run the administration. And he found that these two brothers were very respected by their parents, so they were forced to take the position which was virtually like running the kingdom. One was the head of finance ministry, the other was the head of family ministry. It's a role for some parents. Brehat was not into this. What was Brehat into? Into what? Learning Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He met Chaitanya Mahaprabhu initially in a place called Ramakiri. Ramakiri is now, I believe, in Bangladesh. And because these two brothers were so well known in society, they had to disguise themselves to go and meet Lord Caitanya. So they said, "Amma mahārājaṇāya kṛṣṇa-kṛmoprayaḥ kṛṣṇa-kṛṣṇaḥ." This is in our language. How did they learn the words possible? And they said, "In society people think we're ignorant. We don't know who we are." Ki ami? Prasada then told them, "Continue to serve for some more time." He gave them an example. Prabhupāda uses this example in the Bhāgavad-gītā introduction. He gave an example of a married woman who has a lover. Externally, the married woman will be very conscientious. Internally, her thinking is, "Where can I go and meet my lover?" So, this example gives us how we should act in the material world. Externally, maybe we're doing a job or business, housewives, students. But internally we should be thinking, "How can I serve Kṛṣṇa with my efforts? How can I study about Kṛṣṇa?" The goal of all life should be to please Kṛṣṇa. We both continued to work. And then Prabhupāda saw me resign. Much to the frustration of the king. And when Rupa Goswami resigned, he had a whole boat full of gold coins. Isn't it? A whole boat full of gold coins. At that time, we didn't have the paper currency. Currency was more valuable. And He had so much wealth and he divided it. He gave 50% to the brahmanas. They were genuine brahmanas, not commercial brahmanas. 35% to his relatives, and 35% he kept for himself. He remembered the Swami's design. The pada sanatan, also didn't want to continue the work. So he sent a notice to the king, "I'm sick." And for one month he didn't go to the office. He was studying the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam with Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. The king said, "Krupa has left her job, and her brother Sanatan also is ill." He sent his doctor to go and see what's wrong with Sanatan. These days, somebody wants to come to your house, rings the bell, and you say, "Who is it?" If you don't want him to come, he doesn't come. All right. And it's like cell phones. Before you answer your cell phone, you see who it is. If it's a bill collector, you don't answer. If it's somebody who will marry you, or if it's a friendly person, you do reply. In those days, these facilities were not there. So the doctor walked straight into Sanatana's room. They saw Sanatana studying the Bhāgavatam with 30 other brahmanas. He went back to the king and said, "Sir, this Sanatana is completely healthy. He's studying the Bhāgavatam." So the king said, "Call him here." Srinathan went to the king. Srinathan bowed down to the king. He said, "Your elder brother has proved to be careless. We are falling in his mishap. Who will resume the job?" Srinathan said, "Now I can't. I can't put my heart into the job." 'Please release me.' There was no judiciary at that time. King said, 'Now, if you don't give me your job, I'll put you in jail.' And the king had him imprisoned. This is that time, letter arrived from his brother, 'I have kept 10,000 gold coins with the local grocery store.' PRASAD RAVALAD RAVALAD. Those emperors at that time, the bankers were the global bourgeoisie, so nothing moves in Bangladesh. So he got the money. He went in jail. The king went down to conquer other areas. And he offered the jailkeeper a 500 gold coin bakshi, donation he gave. In modest language they call it donation. In crude language they call it bribe. They offered the king, the Sarnathiputra offered 500 gold coins as a donation. Called Dakshina. To the— to the— No, no, no, no. I can't release you. The king knows you are not an ordinary prisoner. You are a VIP prisoner. It's not like a seaman's breeding. Okay. Take 7 other gold coins. Till again, I want to pass in the Hooghly Ganga, and I jump in the river. They released him. So, Sanadan had to go through secluded paths till he reached any stop, or the way in a hotel, or a motel, or a refuge, anywhere people were staying. He took with him a servant called— what was the servant's name? What? You don't know? Ishan. Volcanic Indian called him. The manager or the proprietor of the motel and the restaurant manager at the entrance, he will figure out how rich he will be. Customer was, and then they would plunder. So the customer, the astrologer, told the proprietor, "This man is very rich." So he was getting VIP treatment. But sometimes when you get VIP treatment, you get suspicious. Someone flatters you, praises you, offers you dental floss. Then sometimes you get suspicious, "What is this guy up to?" So, you know, the proprietor was so courteous, so now they got suspicious. He asked him, "Are you carrying any money with you?" He said, "Yes, I'm carrying 7 gold coins." You see, he was carrying 8. Now the 2 gold coins and gave him a little pupa, you know, the dough. He said, "Please take this and help me cross the mountains, and I need to go to Varanasi." And so Prasad RAVAL sent Ishan back, and they proceeded to Varanasi. In Varanasi, you are supposed to meet Om. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was staying in the house of Chandrashekar in Tapan Biswa. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu told his host, "There is a great saint standing outside. Bring him in." And Chandrashekar went out and saw. He couldn't see any sadhu. All he could see was a man with a long beard, and he concluded this man must be a maula. He said, "No, I don't see any sadhu. I just see a maula there." He said, "This is the Lord's head." "Is that a maula?" "Very clearly." "This is the Lord in Brahma's head." The Lord embraced him, and then the Lord could see that Sathyanathan was wearing a very expensive shawl. It was a— a Swedish shawl, probably. It was given to him on the way by his mother-in-law, Srika. So, Sathyanathan could see 'Lord is not happy with this very opulent shawl that he was wearing,' Mr. Prasad RAVAL said. So, Mr. Prasad RAVAL went to the bank of the Ganga where there was a Bengali mendicant with a torn quilt, drying his quilt. Mother said, "Sir, I want to give you my new blanket, a new challah, in exchange for your torn quilt." The appeal is like that. He said, "Are you joking? You are going to give me an expensive challah in exchange for my torn quilt?" "No, I'm not joking." Says, "No." So Sanatan came with a torn blanket wrapped around him in front of the Lord. Lord was very pleased. Why? Lord said, "One who has renounced, one who is in the renounced order of life, he should lead a simple life, not anyway 10 rings and—" in the body of the guru is true. So, Saratha and Rupa were instructed by Caitanya Mahāprabhu to do this Śrīteṣa. Before they proceeded to Vṛndāvana, Ācārya Caitanya gave them very detailed instructions on the process of devotional service. Ācārya Caitanya told them, Prabhuṇḍaṇa prabhuṇḍa-konaṁ bhāgavānā-jī. Guru Kṛṣṇa ki prabhavaḥ. Hāṣināḥ prabhu. I will be traveling to many places, that these appointments all will be full of seed of bhakti. And how will the seed grow? It grows by the watering process. What is the watering process compared to? What is it compared to? Shyamam in Telugu. Prasad RAVAL explained, so Lord Chaitanya instructed Rupa Gosvāmī to go to Vṛndāvana and execute 3 major activities. One activity was to identify places where the Lord had performed His pastime. Today when you go to Vrindavan, how many of you have been on Braj Mandal Parikrama? How many of you? Every year I meet many more rishis on the Braj Mandal Parikrama. It's called the Braj Mandal Parikrama. We know this is the— His pastime was performed here. That's because of the work done by that Gosvāmī. They identified the places where the Lord had performed His pastimes. One was to identify places where the Lord performed His pastimes. The second one was to write books on the process of devotional service, which they did based on instructions that Caitanya Mahāprabhu received. That's it, Himabhu gave to the two brothers. And the third one was? What was the third one? Huh? To establish temple. He said, "Construct temple in glorification of the Lord." Many of the temples that you see in the mountain, All inspired and built by the Gosvāmīya Vrindāvana. He was there everywhere. Of course, temples have been there for a long time. But all the temples in Vrindāvana and North India were destroyed by the Mohammedan kings. Prasād RAVALA. He— so The ghost of his cave, through which we know it comes. Lord Caitanya desired that the temple be constructed in Vrindavan. But why do we desire temple to be constructed? Prabhupada was instructed by his guru to take the Vedic teaching to the West. So after Prabhupāda established temples in America, Canada, and Europe, Prabhupāda concentrated on coming to India, because he felt great pain to see that Indians were giving up their original culture. Then Prabhupāda wanted to build temples in India. Especially the Vrindavan Mahaprabhu and Bhagavan. Prasada Raṣadra, I will live underneath that tree. Like that, Gosvāmī. Because only the Vrindavan, as you probably know, lived an extreme simple life. Just loincloth to cover the body. Lived by doing madhukari. And what did they do? They inspired the construction of the major temples of the land. As far as their religion was concerned, they were residing underneath the inventory, very nice. They didn't have a place to cook. They didn't know this was it, but they were happy. They knew that if they can stay in the different tree to be nice, but to attract the people, we need to build a house for the Lord. What is the temple? What does Prabhupada say in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta? He says these temples are Spiritual hospitals. Why do people go to hospital? You are a doctor. Why do they go to hospital? You go to hospital to get cured. They are diseased. So they get cured. They can get special attention. Therefore you go to the hospital. So Prabhupada says, A temple is a spiritual hospital. What does it mean? It means people are by and large conditioned, polluted, corrupted, in distress. They have to go to the temple, bow down before the Deity, Have darshan of the Deity, participate in the kirtan, listen to the discourse, you'll get purified. So with this in mind, Gosvāmī built this center. Sanatana Gosvāmī and Rūpa Gosvāmī used to live by doing madhubhārī. Sanatana Gosvāmī was going house to house, and he came to the house of one Mr. Chobe. This Chobe had a Deity of Madal Mohan, and they were keeping the Deity like a member of their family. The mother would say, she would scold the Deity like she would scold her children. And the children would play with the Deity as if it was one of their brothers. Nārada said, "This is not proper. The Deity should be respected." "Can I take the Deity? I'll look after. I will look after the Deity." Then Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, "No! He is a member of our family. You can't let him go." That night, Achyut had a dream. In the dream, the Lord said, "That mendicant who was begging you to hand me over to him, please do that. He will look after me better than you." So, Sanathana thought, and it was almost evening. There was a small dealer was headed for Agra, and he was a little panicky. He was panicky because he was thinking, "Now it's getting dark. The dacoit will come and rob me." He saw light in a hut. He went to that hut, and there was a deity of Krishna on the moon. The offering of Jesus is And by the time he came back, the boat which was stuck in the mud started moving. It was Mādhava's mercy. So then this businessman went to Agra, made a fortune, and came back. He brought all this money. He says, "Nādhava, we are mercy of your Deity." made this wealth. Now, with this wealth, build the temple. They built the temple of Father-Mother Moon. So, most of these temples in Vrindavan were inspired by Gosvāmī. Rūpa Gosvāmī is credited is having inspired construction of a temple. Very simple. Another Govindini. Another Govindini, of course, now the deity is in Jaipur, but there's a reason, because when the Imams were being brutal, most of the deities of the Nawabs were either dug below the earth or they were taken to Jaipur, which had a Hindu king at that time. Radha Govind Ji and the personal deities of Rupa Gosvami. So based on Caitanya Mahāprabhu's order, Rupa Gosvami inspired the construction. On the Radha-Dharmendra Temple. So these principal temples of Vrindavan were all built by the Gauṣalīs. For living themselves, they didn't even construct a room. They were living under a tree, living by doing madhukāri. Madhukāri is a process where you go house to house bringing forth arms, and he just survived the bare minimum. But to construct— but to please the Lord, he constructed a very opulent temple. So building temples is part of our Vedic tradition. Just like in the Islamic faith, there are mosques. Isn't it? I'm sure in Mauritius there are more mosques than temples. I was in the Middle East a few years ago, and as I was walking, we saw every few blocks, mosque. We asked the local devotees, "Is this built by the government?" He said, "No, Muslim, before he builds his house, he will build a mosque, and after the mosque is built, then he thinks of making his house." Whereas in the case of Hindus, first they build the house for themselves, then for their grandchildren, then for their great-grandchildren, And after everyone's palaces are built, then with some change that is left over, okay, I will put that book for them. In the Christian, you see the churches in every corner, isn't it? If you go to Russia, in Moscow, there are thousands of churches, and these were all built by Businessman. So building temples, whether it's in the form of a mosque or a church or a temple, is an established process. So Prabhupada also wanted to follow, and of course it only goes on. So Prabhupada, after he established ISKCON, remember, he turned his attention to India. When he came to India, he wanted to construct temples. But Prabhupāda said, "I can live underneath a different tree every day. I can live underneath a tree. If I live underneath a tree, people won't come there." "Will they?" "If I build a nice temple, so then people will come." So Prabhupāda struggled. And a Gates Fellow building Hare Krishna Temple in Bombay. How many of you have seen the Bombay Temple? You? Okay. Pray for that beautiful temple. And as all of you may know, it's a real history, a real struggle, how Prabhupada struggled to build that temple. That Baba wanted a temple in Nalanda, the place where the Lord performed His pastime, and He wanted it in Mayapur. So, Baba established the need to establish temple. Why? A, that's the residence of the Lord. What is a temple? It is the Lord. He is a big man. Very good and big man, Swami. Big house he lives in. Is true? So who is bigger than the Lord? Is anyone bigger than the Lord? No. So building a temple is building a house for the Lord. If a temple is built, thousands of people come there. That's like going back to the Bombay temple, Hare Krishna Land Yuga. Before the temple was built, we had a small temple with Radhaswami Devi, and every day we would get 50-100 people. Now since the temple is built, We get about 80,000 people every day. It may not be that high in Mauritius, but your population is a lot thinner. But if you're getting 50 people a day now, you'll probably get 2,000 every day with your temple. And when people come, they see the wonderful deity of the Lord, and they offer their respect. When they offer their respect, they are making spiritual advancement. So these temples are spiritual hospitals where we come as Deewdwar, where we come for rehabilitation. We need spiritual rehabilitation. That is why this temple. So Prabhupāda came to your country in '75, the first time, I believe. And he was very impressed by the enthusiasm of the local people. And what did Prabhupāda say? What did he say? He said, "Morrissey's gonna become the first issue of 'The Independent' in the world." So I believe this man 13, long time ago. I remember when I came here the first time, 1985 or something. No, when I came, I met them in '75. I believe the land was purchased, but I was really impressed. It was donated. Prasad Raaval. For a long time. Finally, the temple construction has started. I visited the temple yesterday. I think the design is very good. The project is quite big. It's a big temple. It's well designed. A temple is only built with the emphasis on the devotees. Am I right? Or there's a parachute down from the spiritual world. Comes in a parachute. Temple comes in, just, you know, they have what they call prefabricated buildings now. A prefabricated temple, they sent from the spiritual sky. Muraṣa. Temple will be built with the efforts of the devotee. So what does Kṛṣṇa say to one who helps the devotee? What does he say? Kṛṣṇa says, "Those who have built my temple will be pleased, blessed, and they may spiritual advancement. When Prabhupāda was building the Hare Kṛṣṇa Land in Bombay, there was one devotee, a Hare Kṛṣṇa devotee called Mr. Sethi, who helped Prabhupāda very actively. So Prabhupāda was so pleased by his help. At that time Prabhupāda didn't have almost any help. All the disciples of Prabhupada said, 'Saidi, you are helping Krishna. You are helping build that temple for Krishna here. And Krishna is building a home for you in this world.' Prabhupada said, I repeat, 'Saidi, you are making a house for Krishna here. And Krishna is making a house for you in this world.' So, those who help in the temple are eternally indebted. They'll all become eternally indebted. And I strongly believe that this temple will inspire thousands of people. Your country is famous for tourism, isn't it? One of the main sources of revenue for the country. Tourism and sugar cane and some other business. But a lot of tourists coming. But you don't have so many tourists coming to the temple, except the ones who come from India. All right. But if you have a nice temple, there's a good chance you will have an impact. To thousands of tourists from your country. This temple can be built if we all enthusiastically participate. Sometimes we think, "Oh, if I give this donation to the temple, then what will my wife say?" There's so much furniture. This to buy, that to buy, that to buy. You become a big shopkeeper. You should know that when you give to Kṛṣṇa, are you ever a loser? No. No, you are a gainer. For example, in the 10th Canto, you read a famous story. A lady is selling apples. "Anybody wants to buy my apples?" And so it is they had a brother-sister. So young Krishna, 3 years old, had greens in his hand walking up to the lady who was standing up. By the time he reached that lady, all the greens fell out of his hand. Huh! But that lady was so attracted to Krishna's beauty. She still gave the apples. She didn't say, "Oh, I'll become poor." And when she looked back, what did she find? What? Apples made of gold. You may say, "That's not a bad deal." I'm ready to give a donation. Can you assure me I'll get apples made of gold? Yes, you get credit points. Those points are worth more than one gold. Achyutanya took sannyas and he was headed for Jagannath Puri Temple. On the way he felt thirsty. There was a man selling watermelon. Achyutanya took it home. Madka drank the buttermilk and proceeded and moved on to Kalyanakuri Temple. That milkman said, "Sir, you drank all my buttermilk, where is the money?" And Lord Krishna said, "Behind me my colleagues are coming." 'They will pay for this butter milk.' Then later on, Nithyananda arrived with the devotee, and that milkman said, 'Your colleague came and drank all my butter milk and said you will pay for it.' Nithyananda said, 'Sorry, we don't have any money.' The milkman said, "Okay, I will go home, tell the sannyasis, and milk water donation from me." So he proceeded to lift the big mud cup from the ground. When he proceeded to lift it, he couldn't carry it. It was so heavy. He said, "What? I swore on my butter milk, this pot should be completely light." It's heavy. You saw inside. You saw what it is. Diamonds, jewels, silver, minerals, all full of minerals. You give them buttermilk and what do they get? Dust. So when you serve Kṛṣṇa, you get unlimited blissful love. And in order to build this temple, the devotees should go house to house and where should I go, and ask people to participate. This is the main spirit. So it's nice that many of you have contributed to make the temple come up to the level it is. Still a lot more has to be done. How many of you have contributed so far? Okay. It appears that only a few small percentage have contributed. How many of you would like to see the temple constructed as soon as possible? Everyone. You want to see it may take 20 years. Do you? When you're building your own house, what do you do? Work around the clock. Am I right? Work around the clock. Want to finish your house as soon as possible. So our desire should be construct this temple as soon as you can, ASAP. But that can only be done if all the members of the community actually participate. Few years ago, we built a big temple in Poona. How many of you have seen it? Poona Temple. We built a temple in Pune. I was very involved in that. So to build that temple, the devotees not only helped themselves, but they cultivated the congregation. They went house to house, collecting, asking for help, and thousands of people participated in the process of making that temple. The temples are built with the efforts of the devotees, and the program today is one of a series of programs. The goal is to request all of you to please, enthusiastically support this temple. Is that a good cause? Yes. That's a very soft yes. Yes! Is that a good cause? Yes! And what's your deadline for building this temple? Huh? 2 more years? 1 year. Probably take 2 years really. So, but that will only happen if all of you participate. So, are all of you ready to participate? Yes. "Yes, yes, it's all new for all of us." If I ask, "You all of you want to build your own houses fast?" They say, "Yes." "Yes!" When the man comes to the temple, I said, "How many of you would like to see the temple built as soon as possible? How many would like to see the temple built?" as soon as possible. So, are all of you ready to help? Yes. Okay. Now you can explain what the schemes are. So, thank you very much. Thank you. Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna! Krishna Krishna! Hare Hare! Hare Rama Hare Ramana Maharshi! Lama Lama! Hare Hare! Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna!