The Installation of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s Lotus Feet

Giriraj Swami: So, we thank you for joining us for this most auspicious occasion of the preparation of the lotus feet of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to be placed in three places. As I was worshipping his lotus feet, I was thinking that I want those lotus feet to be eternally enshrined within my heart. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu desired and predicted,

pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma

sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma

That in every town and village of every country of the world my name or Krishna’s name will be preached or sung. And he made the prediction five hundred years ago. But even his followers could not understand how it could happen. They thought maybe Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was speaking in some metaphorical poetic way. Even Mahaprabhu’s followers could not understand how it could actually happen. But that desire and prediction was fulfilled by our beloved spiritual master, ISKCON founder acharya, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. And what Srila Prabhupada did could not be done by any ordinary person.

In Caitanya-caritāmṛta, it is said, kṛṣṇa-śakti vinā nāhe tāra pravartana, without being empowered by Krishna, one cannot spread the holy name. And so, many learned scholars and devotees have expressed the opinion that Srila Prabhupada is the śakty-āveśa-avatāra. Śakti means potency and āveśa means, you could say empowered by the potency of Krishna or Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And we all are so blessed to have come in touch with Srila Prabhupada either directly or indirectly through his disciples. And of course, we have access to Srila Prabhupada’s instructions in his books. He wanted us to study his books and also distribute them. Srila Prabhupada said that, “Distributing my books will keep them happy,” referring to the book distributors. “And reading my books will keep them.” Meaning, reading his books will keep them in Krishna consciousness.

So we should do both, read Srila Prabhupada’s books and distribute them. And we are blessed because Srila Prabhupada spent so much time in Bombay. He spent five hundred and fifty-four days in Bombay, which is more than any other place in the whole world. And he spent time here because he wanted to establish this temple. He had promised Sri Radha-Rasabihari that “You come here and I will build you a temple,” and it was a great struggle. But ultimately, Srila Prabhupada was successful. And now we are all enjoying the spiritual facility of Sri Sri Radha-Rasabhihari’s temple. So we are grateful to Srila Prabhupada for all that he has done for us. We can’t even imagine what would be our position or our condition if it weren’t for Srila Prabhupada, so we owe our lives to him. And as we have heard, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is the most munificent incarnation of Godhead. Srila Rupa Gosvami has praised Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

namo mahā-vadānyāya
kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāya te
kṛṣṇāya kṛṣṇa-caitanya-
nāmne gaura-tviṣe namaḥ

That you are the most munificent incarnation of Godhead, because you are freely distributing kṛṣṇa-prema. And Srila Prabhupada said that just as Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is most munificent, so his disciples who are representing him and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu should also be very munificent, very magnanimous in distributing the gift of the holy name, the chanting of which can awaken dormant love for Krishna, which is the ultimate goal of life. So we are blessed by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, by Srila Prabhupada, and we should take advantage of their blessings, take advantage of their gifts, and serve them by sharing our good fortune with others.

So again, thank you for coming and joining us for this most auspicious ceremony. And we will conclude by once more chanting Hare Krishna maha-mantra,

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Thank you very much. Hare Krishna!

Devotee: Hare Krishna. We thank His Holiness Jaya Pataka Swami Maharaja, His Holiness Gopala Krishna Gosvami Maharaja and His Holiness Giriraj Swami Maharaja, the participator in this most auspicious Abhishek of the lotus feet imprints of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. In fact, we owe a lot to His Holiness Jaya Pataka Swami Maharaja to have organized with this.