Devotional service is something very practical, very utilitarian. Someone loves their wife or their husband, so they try to help the spouse to be God conscious. At the same time maintaining their own consciousness. This is the Krishna conscious way. It is called mercy. You try to help others, that is the mercy, compassion.
His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Maharaj
1986, 29th Sep, SB class @ Toronto, Canada
So many times persons engaging in devotional service they become upset over insignificant things. What this one said, this one didn’t give me prasadam first or this one didn’t do this or that, I was neglected at this time or whatever, different insignificant things happen and these are allowed to take predominance in our mind. Actually we just take everything as the mercy of Krishna within whatever situation we are we try to do the most Krishna conscious.
His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Maharaj
1986, 29th Sep, SB class @ Toronto, Canada
If somebody is able to do any service ; whether it is any aspect of devotional service successfully , is due to the mercy of Krishna and the previous acharyas. Later they become, someone becomes puffed up and they think that now am a great sage or something, i do not have to strictly follow the principles of previous acharyas. Where do you think you got your so called great wisdom from? great power, for serving Krishna is not a material thing. There is never a point when we are independent of the mercy of Krishna and the spiritual.
His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Maharaj
1986, 30 October, SB class @ New Talavan, USA
Varaha, Kurma, Matsya as well as Parasuram, and Narashinga, Krishna Balaram, Buddha, Kalki all avatars are mentioned. Amongst all these Krishnas tu bhagavan svayam. Ete ca amsa kala pumsam – all these as a part or part of the part of the supreme person. Krishnas tu Bhagavan svayam. Krishna is the original supreme person. He is the origin. Whatever qualities Ram has, Krishna has. Whatever qualities Varaha has, Krishna has. Whatever qualities Narasingha has, Krishna has. But the qualities Krishna has, no one has. He has some qualities that no one has. Even Varaha, even Narasimha, even Ramachandra. They may have 93% of these qualities, they may have 94% but 100 % only Krishna has. Therefore Krishna is analyzing all the avatar that came to the conclusion, He is the only one who has got exceptional qualities more any than others. Therefore he is the original.
His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Maharaj
1986,10th August, SB class @ Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Sometime the deity are coming, moving in a line when they are doing a pastime. Then they go back and take a deity form. These are also avatars. So Krishna avatar is predicted that every day of Brahma at a particular Manu at a particular time and He comes in that Dvapara Yuga. And He does His lila. Then Krishna’s Lila is ended in this universe He’s started in another universe. And as… It’s described here as Krishna has been born here, when the birth Lila is over in another universe birth Lila is going on. Just like here at 7 in the morning, 6 in the morning the sun is raising, by 7 o’clock it’s already risen. But over in the next in the… over Indonesia or Andaman Islands of … in the Bay of Bengal, now the sun is start rising there. In in the next place is rises. Like this it’s rising – the rising lila is going on. Krishna’s avatar is going on in always. Don’t think that at this time Krishna is not taking avatar. But not in this universe, some other universe. After some… again the next day of Brahma Krishna will again come in this universe on schedule.
His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Maharaj
1986,10th August, SB class @ Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The whole world is riding upon the, specially India having come from the British time, they are running on the British idea, that this life is a temporary, life, eat, drink, and be merry, and tomorrow you die, but you ask a common villager, he thinks that no what I do in this life will give me my next life, and if I suddenly suffer, this is due to my previous life, and if you are a little bit more intelligent like Arjuna, he could understand that where does my power come from, it comes from Krishna
How is that all the ministers were there yesterday?, rath was standing, photos were taken, then after that, press people and everyone left, then suddenly the rath caves in, Krishna withdrew the power. They had to go back and, when they heard it, they had to go back and take the picture. The second picture was taken after the people were gone, you can tell, there were no people left there. So we shouldn’t think that the rath is running because of we are making it run. Rath is only being running because Krishna is giving me energy.
His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Maharaj
1985, November 11th, SB class, Life Member House Mr.Patel @ Bangalore, India
This was just after the departure of Krishna from the world, when Arjuna was protecting Krishna’s wife and different Visnuduta’s in the dress of cowheard boys came and stole away the wives and took them back to Vaikuntha where they belong, but Arjuna’s point of view, he was defeated by some ordinary farmers. So he could see that all of his powers were gone in a second. In fact Yudhistara advised him, “Why does you as well through your weapon in the water?, they are of no use.” Sometimes we feel, that our achievements are by our own endeavour. We fail to recognize or remember, that actually any achievement of any value can only be achieved, by the blessings of the Lord.
His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Maharaj
1985, November 11th, SB class, Life Member House Mr.Patel @ Bangalore, India
Krishna is neutral but He reciprocates according to how different persons approach Him. For instance, in Bhagavad Gita He describes, ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham (BG 4.11) according to how people worship Him similarly he reciprocates with them and worships them. So those who worship Him with hate, enmity such as some of the asuras wanted to kill him then he reciprocates with them and kills them and those devotees who worship Him with devotion and with faith, He reciprocates and He protects them and He gives them His love since those devotees are giving their love to Him. Someone would say well, although He is answering the prayers of the respective people accordingly but one person is getting slain by the Lord and the other person is getting embraced. But then in one sense is it still equal and this the Lord is absolute even if He kills somebody they achieve liberation. So no matter what benediction he gives to someone even if it appears materially to be harsh ultimately everything He does is all good and thus no one is a loser.
His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Maharaj
1985, October 1st, SB class @ New Talavan, USA
Krishna came in His form as Chaitanya , then all there hardened criminals , instead of just killing them he would melt their hearts, he would make them devotees and give them Krishna prema. So in this way he killed the demoniac nature and he would give them the perfection of life. So therefore namo mahā-vadānyāya, there is no greater charitable person more than Lord Chaitanya. He is giving the greatest gift so freely. Actually Lord Chaitanya’s movement is still present on this planet and handed down through disciplic succession and by chanting the Holy name (jaya) sri-krishna-caitanya prabhu nityananda sri-advaita gadadhara srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrinda, by worshipping Sri Sri Gaur Nitai, we can get their mercy. This is brought now all over the west by Srila Prabhupad’s mercy. Therefore we have this opportunity of getting Lord Chaitanya’s mercy. Even though we may be criminals, in the karmic sense ,we may have had so many demoniac natures before being a devotee. Even those things which are not fully purified yet after having initially surrendered ,but by the mercy of Lord Chaitanya all these can be purified and we can actually achieve pure devotional service. So this is very special mercy of Lord Chaitanya. We should understand that Krishna has offered this opportunity to everybody.
His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Maharaj.
1985, October 1st, SB class @ New Talavan, USA.
Everything that happens with Krishna is all good. Even Putana, the witch , she came to kill Krishna by giving poison on her breast , because Krishna sucked her breast like a mother although He sucked her life , He promoted Her to the spiritual realm to be His own mother in the spiritual world. And like this Krishna is so kind that even if a demon offers some nice service, then he reciprocates and gives them sarupya, salokya or some appropriate liberation. So actually the Lord is impartial. But some people are approaching Him in a particular mood and that is also one of His rasas. One of the seven temporary rasas is chivalry. So chivalry is manifested when you are fighting with someone and hardly can he fight with His devotees very often. So in the material world sometimes He comes and He fights with the demons and in this way He gets to relate on the chivalrous temporary rasa and satisfy that particular desire. Those demons are actually liberated for being aspiring partner with the Lord. So they actually are the benefactor of the Lord’s mercy. In fact in some cases those demons get liberated.
His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Maharaj
1985, 1st October, SB class @ New Talavan, USA
krishna karuna sindhu dina bandhu. Dina bandhu – The friend of the fallen, when the friend of the fallen, combines with the compassion of Radharani, then you get Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Therefore, we see that these demons, they were killed by Krishna and He gave them liberation. That’s very compassionate of Him. But, Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu was even more compassionate. Because, when Lord Caitanya, He didn’t kill the demon. He touched their heart with His transcendental mercy and with His weapon of Love, He was able to change their mentality, from a demoniac mentality to the one of pure lover of Krishna. In this way the same killing process is there of killing the demon, but Lord Caitanya killed the demon without making him change the body. Just the demoniac aspect, that was destroyed. But, instead, their pure love for Krishna was revealed. Therefore, Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu is known as the most compassionate.
His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Maharaj
1984, 18th Sep, SB class @ New Orleans, USA
when you understand the powerful, absolute position of Krishna, then you realize how gentle and kind and personally He is dealing with His devotees. Then one can see that how merciful Krishna is, how wonderful it is to be a devotee of Krishna. Krishna is not an impersonal feeling person. But, He is very personal very compassionate, and very loving to His devotees, much more than anyone could imagine. Rather He outdoes, all of His devotees except, there is a very strong competition between Radharani and Her associates. Where she, Krishna sometimes says that, she has defeated Him. So, when Radharani and Krishna combine together, when that completely all compassionate form of Krishna, His spiritual potency, Hladini Shakti, Radha, again combines with Krishna, that form is known as Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu. The all-powerful Krishna combines with His all-powerful power. It’s inconceivable. This combination.
His HolinessJayapataka Swami Maharaj
1984, 18th Sep, SB class @ New Orleans, USA
we try to follow the sadhana because that was the order of the spiritual master. If there is someone who didn’t follow any sadhana but still they got the mercy then it’s quite obvious that its kripa siddhi. Srila Prabhupada one time I went to his room in Mayapur, and he just suddenly started to admonish me, that “I am not depending upon my chanting of Hare Krishna to be Krishna conscious, not depending upon my writing or my reading, studying of sastras to become Krishna conscious. I am not depending upon.” He started explaining all the different aspects of devotional service that he wasn’t depending upon. Which normally we all think that we have to completely depend upon. He said, “I do all of these simply for attracting the mercy, I do this just to please my spiritual master and I am completely depending upon the mercy of my spiritual master.” He brought in a totally different viewpoint that actually we are depending upon the kripa siddhi, that we don’t depend on our expertise in doing the sadhana that “I am very expert in chanting my rounds, or I am doing everything and because of my own expertise I am doing all the practices therefore I am going to make advancement.” We try to be as expert as we can, we try to do as well as we can to please the spiritual master. Still we are always anxious at every step to get a little special mercy, to get that little, you know we are going through the motions.
Just like someone they may be going through the high school, college graduation MA, PhD, but along the way if somebody offers a PhD, they are not going to refuse it. So here, but of course normally people don’t get it. So we practice we go step by step getting our graduation papers or whatever at different levels to get the mercy but we are always anxious to get their mercy. You don’t want to jump up artificially but to get their real mercy even before hand or even in spite of our inefficiency in following everything perfectly as we’d like to. So we are always anxious for their mercy.
So that’s one of the qualities of surrender to be always hopeful and anxious to always get the mercy of Krishna. You should always be hopeful to get the mercy of guru and Krishna. And we take it that everything is by their mercy that actually we may be doing the sadhana, it may appear that we have done sadhana and therefore we have got the mercy if we take it that there may have been so many mistakes in what we have done or even if whatever we have done but ultimately by the mercy of the spiritual master.
Not only did he instruct us how to do and what to do without which we couldn’t have made any advancement at all but on top of that the ability to do that and overcome the different obstacles that come up that is also by his shelter and mercy. So we take it as a krpa-siddhi you can say. It is just that when externally the sadhana is very prominent so that will be categorized as sadhana-siddhi but the devotee himself takes it that it is the mercy of the Lord and that the sadhana is actually a medium for trying to satisfy the spiritual master.
His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Maharaj
1984, 13th Sep, SB class @ Bhaktivedanta Manor, London, UK
by Krishna’s mercy even our regulated advancement or the yogis step by step control of the pranayama and taking the atma to the different chakras. But Krishna allows it, in each stage He actually gives His blessings and one advances. But He allows it to appear as if it’s going on mechanically but actually at each stage He is giving His mercy but He gives it more, it’s kind of more or less automatically, doesn’t withhold it. But at the last stage sometimes He may, there is no specific point at which one can directly know for sure that “At this time Krishna if I do this He is going to appear to me.” Like Narada Muni after seeing Krishna again he did all the systems and meditations and he is trying like anything Krishna wasn’t coming. Krishna says that “I don’t come like that. You won’t see Me for some time.”
But its not that by some regulated mechanical thing that Krishna appears. He appears at that level its completely personal. He appears because that’s His own desire to do so. Sometimes if He wants the devotee to experience a more intense desire then like for Narada He just suddenly appeared then disappeared. Or like Parikshit Maharaj He was suddenly there and gone. Whole life, why the name Pariksit? Pariksa means to test. Anyone he looked he was analyzing is this the same person I saw when I was in the womb? He was testing everyone Pariksit. But of course there was no one who was like Krishna who he saw when he was in the womb.
His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Maharaj
1984, 13th Sep, SB class @ Bhaktivedanta Manor, London, UK
A very elevated platform from there Krishna’s mercy and especially Lord Caitanya’s and acaryas mercy is not long in coming. If they want at any moment they can give their mercy and they can give complete devotional protection of the level of prema to the devotee. One can’t demand it. It’s not something that anybody deserves. It’s something beyond deserving, it’s a mercy and we have to simply hanker for that, desire and then Krishna’s sweet will is there and He gives it. But if we become impatient and try to make a short cut, that’s called sahajiya. You can’t short circuit, you will just blow a fuse.
H.H. Jayapataka Swami Maharaj
1984, 13th Sep, SB class @ Bhaktivedanta Manor, London, UK
Krishna, sometimes personally, comes down… of course it’s said that He only personally comes down especially for His devotees, He makes it appear as if He has to come down, so sometimes that bewilders certain philosophers, but actually the fact is that He can do everything through His energies. He can empower different energies to do everything; He doesn’t actually have to personally do anything. That’s His supreme position, but out of His own sweet will He comes down here to Benedict the devotees.
H.H Jayapataka Swami Maharaj
26th Dec, 1982 SB class @ Atlanta,
The devotee is begging to Lord Nityananda to just have a drop of that ecstasy. With one drop of the ecstasy of Lord Nityananda, a person is flooded with an ocean of transcendental happiness! And when you are flooded with an ocean of transcendental happiness it’s very easy to be mad after Krishna, you see. So, this is the short cut. How to become spiritually absorbed, how to become absorbed in Krishna. If you taste the ecstasy which is so great that it has no material comparison, it’s very easy to be mad after Krishna. So, that’s… the short cut is that Lord Nityananda, Lord Caitanya, They are giving that special mercy very easily.
H.H Jayapataka Swami Maharaj
26th Dec, 1982 SB class @ Atlanta,