Arrival Address

Giriraj Swami: Thank you for the very enthusiastic reception. When Srila Prabhupada first entered the agreement for the Juhu land, he spent some days in Bombay and then he left for maybe Australia. So the devotees went with Srila Prabhupada to the airport, and in the airport there was a very enthusiastic kirtan. And at the end of the kirtan, Srila Prabhupada commented that, “If you go on having kirtans like this, our project would be a success.” So I have got the same thing, seeing the kirtan tonight. Actually, the holy name has all spiritual potencies, and therefore if we come together and chant the holy name together, we can be infused with spiritual potency from the holy name.

Recently a grand, a magnificent temple opening in Bangalore, and the temple director and project manager remarked how much inspiration and intelligence the devotees in the project got, just by coming together every morning, and from 4:30 until 9:30, chanting Hare Krishna together, and reading Srila Prabhupada’s books together. They were all infuused with spiritual potency. Therefore they were able to achieve wonderful things, have never been achieved in ISKCON before. So this is our real strength. When we come together and chant the holy name together, and discuss Srila Prabhupada’s instruction together, we become enlightened with transcendental knowledge, and we become inspired by spiritual potency. 

And therefore, all apparent obstacles and impediments are removed. Because the spiritual energy, by nature increases. By nature it expands, and therefore if we remain in the spiritual energy, then naturally our service will expand. And Srila Prabhupada wanted us to expand, and expand, and expand, until ultimately every living entity in the whole world is touched by Krishna consciousness. There is one organization in India called Gītā Press, and the Gītā Press edition of the Bhagavad-gītā, is very popular in India. Almost every Hindi family has at least one book from the Gītā Press, generally the Bhagavad-gītā or any other book, like (unintelligible 00:07:55), which is the Hindi translation of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So Srila Prabhupada commented, when we began the ISKCON press in Boston, that he wanted at least one of his books in every household in the world, just like the Gītā Press. And of course, when one book enters the house, the house can be transformed, and then so many other books will enter. 

In Bombay, Srila Prabhupada printed the Krishna Trilogy. He did not print it in Bombay, he printed it in Japan for Bombay, or India. Very attractive, three little book in a box. And he commented that once a family takes the Krishna Book, then gradually they will take all the other books, because the Krishna book is so attractive. The Krishna Book is Krishna himself, and Krishna is all attractive. So when one is attracted by the beauty of Krishna, by the qualities of Krishna, by the mercy of Krishna, then he wants to know more and more about Krishna. He wants to know more and more about the science of how to approach Krishna in service and love, so he will take more and more books. And the more he takes the books and reads the books, the more his attraction for Krishna and Krishna consciousness increases.

So through the medium of book distribution, the whole world can become Krishna conscious. We are so few devotees, how many places can we go, how many people can we meet, and sit and talk with them about Krishna. But when we give them Srila Prabhupada’s books, we are giving them the chance to hear from Srila Prabhupada directly. Srila Prabhupada is personally speaking to them. And therefore, they are receiving supreme knowledge from the supreme teacher. Of course, Krishna is the Supreme teacher. But Srila Prabhupada is the representative of Krishna, for presenting transcendental knowledge to the whole world, in the present age. 

And when they hear Srila Prabhupada speak, the transcendental vibration will enter their ears, and enter their hearts. And Srila Prabhupada explains in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that the pure devotee speaks the message of Godhead, his voice carries the particles of pollen from the lotus feet of the Lord. And therefore one’s consciousness can be purified by such words spoken by the Lord’s pure devotee. So every house should have at least one of Srila Prabhupada’s books, and should begin the process of chanting Hare Krishna, and worshipping Lord Krishna. This is the ideal civilization, where every house is like a temple. In Vrindavan, even today, one can always hear the holy name of Krishna being sung. So every place should become like Vrindavan, every household, the members of the family should chant Hare Krishna together, they should worship Lord Krishna together. They should read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam together and thus the house will become like a temple. It will not just become like a temple, it actually will become a temple. And then our mission will be complete.

So we have to go door to door and introduce transcendental knowledge, go village to village and town to town, and give people, what Srila Prabhupada gave us—the holy name of Krishna, the service of Krishna, the knowledge of Krishna, so that others can get the same benefit that we have gotten by Srila Prabhupada’s mercy. Although Srila Prabhupada gave us the perfect process, sometimes we commit offences which prevent us from relishing the true happiness of Krishna consciousness. But if we give up all offences, and simply chant the holy names, discuss Srila Prabhupada’s books, and serve the saṅkīrtana movement cooperatively with other devotees who are in the same mood of cooperation for the sake of preaching, we can be completely successful. 

So of course when we first came to Mauritius, we had the idea that Mauritius should become the first Krishna conscious country. And some devotees even quoted Srila Prabhupada that he said that, “Mauritius will be the first Krishna conscious country.” And it is so small, we can meet the leaders, we can meet the people in general. But actually we have seen it is not so easy just to make Mauritius the first Krishna conscious state. When we were staying at the White House, I met at least the richest Hindus at that time, and he was saying how every group has the same idea. That they want to introduce their philosophy, they want to introduce their process and make Mauritius the example to the world of what they want to introduce. So he said Mauritius is like a laboratory, and everyone wants to make their experiment in Mauritius, and show that their process is successful, that it works, that it is the best.

So it is not so easy as we thought. And therefore we have to be very serious about our mission, and we have to be very strong spiritually by getting up early in the morning, coming together in the temple, and chanting and hearing. And we have to be very surrendered to our mission, so that we don’t allow individual differences to come in the way. We don’t allow petty disagreement to come in the way. Maya is always there trying to capture our attention. But we should be so fixed on our goals that even if maya gives us some ideas, tries to give us some idea that would cause us to fight, and quarrel, and forget out mission, we will not pay any attention because we will be absorbed in Krishna’s idea, not in Maya’s idea.

Maya’s idea is of course that we fight and quarrel and don’t really make the concretive effort to spread Krishna’s consciousness, that we really need to make. And Krishna’s idea is of course that we set aside all personal considerations and work together to spread Krishna consciousness. So our minds have to be so full of Krishna’s idea that there is no scope for Maya’s idea to enter. And then, Srila Prabhupada’s ambition and the desire of the previous acharyas, will be fulfilled that everyone, as far as possible, become Krishna conscious. So we have a great task before us, and we should rise to the occasion, by being very regular in our spiritual activities, and being very open in our dealings with each other, only for the service for Guru and Gauranga. And then Srila Prabhupada and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu will bless us. They will be so please with us that they will give us whatever we need to serve them and thus Krishna consciousness will really have a tremendous impact here and everywhere but beginning here. 

So Srila Prabhupada himself came here twice. There are so many big countries where Srila Prabhupada never even visited once, but Srila Prabhupada came here twice and he was very enthusiastic about Mauritius. So we should try to fulfill Srila Prabhupada’s vision of preaching everywhere in Mauritius and bringing the people of Mauritius to Krishna consciousness.

Hare Krishna. 

Are there any questions or comments?

Of course it is a well-known fact that the morning program actually begins the night before, and if we take rest early the night before, then we will be fresh and ready for the morning program. So although I am speaking about the importance about the morning program, I am keeping everyone up late, so you might have difficulty in the morning. 

Srila Prabhupada ki Jaya

Nitai-Gaura premānande Hari Haribol.