Giriraj Swami and Indradyumna Swami at Piyush and Lalita’s Wedding 02

Giriraj Swami: We have gathered at a most auspicious occasion to perform a sacrifice for Vishnu. In our lives we go through different phases, but the constant factor in every stage of life is service to God. And in the Vedic culture, every social event—every event of any kind—was meant to bring people together for the glorification of God. So we have the deities (arca-vigraha) here: Sri Sri Gandharvika-Giridhari, Sri Sri Nitai-Gaura-Nataraja, and Srila Prabhupada. Whatever we have done here and whatever we do in our lives is meant for Their pleasure.

Our esteemed priest, Chaitanya Bhagavān Prabhu, has done an excellent job, as usual, of leading us through the ceremonies, reciting the mantras, and explaining them. And we are grateful to him.

We in Kali-yuga have been given a very special facility by God Himself, and that is that all rituals, all mantras, all devotional activities can be fulfilled by the chanting of the holy names of the Lord. In fact, the Vedic scriptures say that what could be achieved in Satya-yuga through meditation, what could be achieved in Treta-yuga through yajña, and what could be achieved in Dvapara-yuga through puja, can all be achieved in Kali-yuga by chanting the holy names of the Lord:

dhyāyan kṛte yajan yajñais
tretāyāṁ dvāpare ‘rcayan
yad āpnoti tad āpnoti
kalau saṅkīrtya keśavam

“Whatever is achieved by meditation in Satya-yuga, by the performance of yajña in Tretā-yuga or by the worship of Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet in Dvāpara-yuga is also obtained in the Age of Kali simply by chanting the glories of Lord Keśava.” (Vishnu Purana 6.2.17)

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is accepted as the supreme evidence in Vedic authority (śabda-pramāṇa), describes that in every age the Lord appears in a specific incarnation to propagate a specific mode of worship for that particular age. And in the present age of Kali-yuga, people who are intelligent will perform saṅkīrtana-yajña, the sacrifice of chanting of the holy names of Hari, or Krishna.

kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣākṛṣṇaṁ
sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam
yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair
yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ

“In the Age of Kali, intelligent persons perform congregational chanting to worship the incarnation of Godhead who constantly sings the names of Kṛṣṇa. Although His complexion is not blackish, He is Kṛṣṇa Himself. He is accompanied by His associates, servants, weapons and confidential companions.” (SB 11.5.32)

His Holiness Indradyumna Swami Maharaja has already nicely explained the significance of marriage, vivāha-saṁskāra, so I thought I might emphasize the spiritual continuity of the soul as it goes through different stages in one’s status of life. Actually, as we were sitting here before the ceremony began, I was looking at the deities and getting some impression—it is supported by shastra, but in a more personal way—that They have been with me for a long time. Now I am sitting here with Them, but They have been following me in my progress in life and probably through many lifetimes. The Lord is situated in the heart (īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe ‘rjuna tiṣṭhati), and it is said that He accompanies the soul—the Supreme Soul, Paramātmā, accompanies the individual soul, jīvātmā—life after life, out of His love for the soul, who is His part and parcel, out of His mercy. So He is following our sojourn through different stages of life in our present lifetime and in past lifetimes.

As the Upanishads say, the jīvātmā and Paramātmā are situated like two birds on the same branch of a tree, and one bird, the jīvātmā, is tasting the different fruits on the tree. Some are bitter and some are sweet. Thus the jiva is enjoying and suffering in the material world. And the Paramātmā is sitting just next to the jīvātmā, witnessing all of his activities. He remains neutral. As long as the jiva is involved in enjoying and suffering the fruits of his or her actions, He remains neutral. But actually He is just waiting for the jīvātmā to turn to Him, to have the awakening that “This enjoying and suffering the fruits of life in the material world is not bringing me real satisfaction or happiness. There must be something more.” And then, when the jiva turns his face toward the Paramātmā, the Lord within the heart becomes very eager and willing to help that soul.

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta describes how that help is manifest:

brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva
guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja

“The living entity is wandering through the universe in different species of life, but when one becomes fortunate, by the grace of guru and Krishna such a soul gets the seed of devotional service, the bhakti-latā-bīja.” By the grace of Krishna, one gets guru, and by the grace of guru, one gets Krishna.

Lord Krishna told His friend Sudama, “As the Supersoul, I sit in everyone’s heart and observe everyone’s activity in every stage and order of life. Regardless of which stage one is in, when I see that one is engaged seriously and sincerely in discharging the duties ordered by the spiritual master and is thus dedicating his life to the service of the spiritual master, that person becomes most dear to Me. Without the blessings of the spiritual master no one can be happy. By the mercy of the spiritual master and by his blessings, one can fulfill the mission of human life.” (Krsna, Ch 80)

As His Holiness Indradyumna Swami said, it is not in every lifetime that we get the association of sadhus. Such association is most rare and valuable. As I was told when I first met the devotees, the living entity in the ocean of material existence is like a turtle in an ocean and the chance of the living entity coming in touch with a bona fide spiritual master is like that of the turtle finding a raft with a hole in it and climbing through the hole to safety on that raft. It is not an ordinary thing. So that is the Lord’s mercy, that He brings devotees in touch with His servants, His representatives—teachers of the science of devotion.

And these relationships are eternal. Our relationship with our spiritual master, our relationship with Krishna—these are eternal. We might be in brahmachari ashrama for some time, we might be in grihastha ashrama for some time, and then we may enter vanaprastha ashrama, and in the case of some, sannyasa ashrama. Those are external, and those are part of the gradual process of purification. But the constant factor is our relationship with the spiritual master, with the disciplic succession, with Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and ultimately Sri Sri Gandharvika-Giridhari.

We wish the couple, Piyush and Lalita, all the best. Bhakta Piyush has achieved the mercy of His Holiness Radhanath Swami, who is unable to be here with us today but did ask me to convey his blessings and good wishes to the couple. And I am sure that not only Their Lordships Gandharvika-Giridhari, Sri Sri Nitai-Gaura-Nataraja, and Srila Prabhupada will be with you through your sojourn; in fact, all of us, all of your well-wishers, to our capacity, as much as we are able to stand on the spiritual platform, will also be with you. You should never feel alone or like you are going into some wilderness and don’t know what awaits you, or going into some palace and don’t know what awaits you [laughter]. We will always be with you, there to help you in your spiritual life and everything that pertains to it.

Hare Krishna.