JAYA JAYANANDA

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1. hasti gopala dasa says:

   5. May 2020 at 4:31 pm

   Please accept my humble obeisances all glories to Srila Prabhupada.
   All glories to Sri Jayananda Prabhu

   I was most fortunate to be at the first New York City Rathayatra in the summer of 1976. I have some excellent black and white as well as color photos. I went to the cart site on the morning of the parade in order to witness the relocation of all three carts to their parade starting location. While there at the holding site at 6 am Sri Jayananda Prabhupa came by to inspect the carts and to talk to and enliven the devotees. I did not speak to him formally but stood by him as he spoke to several of us. At that point my life was again blessed by his merciful association.

   This year as we celebrate the 43rd disappearance of Sri Jayananda Prabhu we are faced with the almost complete shut down of the Hare Krsna Movement’s temples and farms as well as all the international Rathayatra parades. How or why this is going on is another discussion. I strongly suspect that if Sri Jayananda prabhu were here now all of those temples and farms would never have been shut down.

   Every year that we celebrate the life of Sri Jayananda Prabhu we automatically celebrate the life of the Hare Krsna movement.
   Sri Jayananda Prabhu is a great embodiment of Srila Prabhupada and Lord Caitanya’s Hare Krsna Sankirtan Movement. Sri Jayananda Prabhu’s life is reflected all through Srila Prabhupada’s 1972 edition of the Bhagavad Gita As It Is. Sri Jayananda Prabhu was and still is a devotee who not only preaches and teaches but he ACTS in devotional service for the benefit of everyone. We can grasp that understanding from Chapter Five of the Bhagavad Gita titled Karma Yoga Action In Krsna Consciousness. That chapter is posted below. Sri Jayananda Prabhu directly represents that whole chapter. Read it and learn what we all need to do right now.

   These excerpts below are from this years Sri Jayananda Prabhu tirobhava tithi Disappearance day of Jayananda Prabhu
   Tuesday, May 5, 2020. They are examples of a devotee who has it all, primarily the ability to take the knowledge from Srila Prabhupada’s Gita and put it to practical use while leading from the front for others to follow. Let us all try to keep following his leadership example to the best of our ability. Let us now without any hesitation open up all of Srila Prabhupada’s Hare Krsna temples temples re ignite the movement along with Lord Jaganatha’s Rathayatra parades. Sri Jayananda Prabhu wants this done!
   Ys Hasti Gopala dasa

   For me this is a direct reference to Sri Jayananda Prabhu
   BG 4/19

   TRANSLATION

   One is understood to be in full knowledge whose every act is devoid of desire for sense gratification. He is said by sages to be a worker whose fruitive action is burned up by the fire of perfect knowledge.

   PURPORT

   Only a person in full knowledge can understand the activities of a person in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Because the person in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is devoid of all kinds of sense-gratificatory propensities, it is to be understood that he has burned up the reactions of his work by perfect knowledge of his constitutional position as the eternal servitor of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is actually learned who has attained to such perfection of knowledge. Development of this knowledge of the eternal servitorship of the Lord is compared to fire. Such a fire, once kindled, can burn up all kinds of reactions to work.

   Sri Jayananda Prabhu tirobhava tithi Disappearance day of Jayananda Prabhu
   Tuesday, May 5, 2020.

   By establishing Krishna consciousness everywhere, Srila Prabhupada realized that prophecy of Mahaprabhu and also the desire predicted by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur, when he said that the day would come when the devotees of the West and the Bengali devotees would gather in the land of Lord Chaitanya and everywhere to dance ecstatically and sing together “Hari Bol! Hari Bol! ” This has already been miraculously fulfilled in the manifested pastimes of Srila Prabhupada, and with unprecedented success, beyond what his own spiritual brothers and Vaisnavas from all over the world could have assumed.

   Jayananda also exemplified that, in order to attain spiritual perfection, what matters is the sincerity of a disciple and the intensity of his surrender to the spiritual master. In just 10 years of pure devotional service serving Prabhupada’s instructions without deviation (vani-seva), Jayananda achieved the success aspired by all devotees. Bhakti is the cradle of bhakti and, obviously, it must be understood that besides having undoubtedly received the causeless mercy of the spiritual master (guru-kripa), such mahatmas are very rare and surely come from the practice of bhakti in previous lives, or by the Lord’s desire, to assist the mission and pastimes of Sri Gurudeva.

   Jayananda was so immersed in executing Prabhupada’s instructions that he rarely had time to meet Srila Prabhupada. Serving in separation, he understood that association through instructions is more important than physical association. It is said that one must act in such a way that Krishna wants to see him; Jayananda exemplified this saying by his attitude of service

   Jayananda became absorbed in practical devotional service. He was constantly serving the Lord, either buying the supplies, cooking the prasada, cleaning the kitchen, taking out the garbage, or teaching the new devotees. He did all of that after a full day of work as a taxi driver, where he paid all the bills from the temple. He became an expert in everything that was needed to spread Krishna consciousness. He went out to sell The Teachings of Lord Chaitanya of Srila Prabhupada, becoming a pioneer in a service estimated by Prabhupada – the public distribution of pasted books of Krishna consciousness.
   On the day of Lord Chaitanya’s appearance, Srila Prabhupada was very happy to see Jayananda spontaneously performing kirtana on the street outside the temple. Then, encouraged, Jayananda began to sing regularly with other devotees in the busiest streets, establishing the pillars for the singing groups that would soon travel throughout the country.
   As many devotees as other people were instinctively attracted to Jayananda’s purity. Once, when he offered a garland to Srila Prabhupada, he apologized for his greasy clothes. Srila Prabhupada commented: “There is absolutely no offense. You, my disciples, can be dirty, but your hearts are pure. ”
   Jayananda touched the hearts of many people, and they usually responded by doing some service for Krishna. He got almost everything free for the temple or at a considerable discount. He was friends of the shopkeepers, the city police, the drunks, the infidels and the destitute marginals. Everyone loved Jayananda, and he engaged everyone joyfully in the service of the Lord. He worked harder than anyone, but praised the service of everyone else. He was humble, tolerant, compassionate, and renunciant. His actions, his words, his life, and his death, all exemplified the process of bhakti, devotional service to the Lord.
   Srila Prabhupada’s instructions, especially those that encouraged practical service, became Jayananda’s very life. Once, when a devotee asked him how to advance in Krishna consciousness, Jayananda shrugged and said, “I really do not know. I’m too busy working. ”

   Jayananda improved the festival year after year, getting the money, the permits, making the publicity, building from the huge big cars digging everywhere, and even the cakes he cooked for the groups with which he would act reciprocally, like the police of the City and the US Park Service He would live with the cars while they were being built, often working almost without sleep, when the festival date was approaching. Eventually held in Golden Gate Park, the Ratha-yatra festival year after year attracted more crowds. Thanks to the efforts of Jayananda, thousands of people received the mercy of Lord Jagannatha. The festivals are currently held in all cities around the world.

   The Ratha-yatra New York [to which the translator of all this had the fortune to participate and see Jayananda for the first time] was in fact a great success. Rolling down Fifth Avenue, the three cars charmed thousands of people, and many were inspired to ask and even accept the practices of Krishna consciousness. Srila Prabhupada was ecstatic, he said it was a great success and he thanked Jayananda for his valuable service.
   The bumps on Jayananda’s body turned out to be cancerous. He was diagnosed with leukemia, which gradually reduced his body to a peel. Accepting that he would die soon, Jayananda continued to express his deep gratitude to Srila Prabhupada. His friends were frightened and saddened to see his body desolated by the disease. But Jayananda was still too busy, performing devotional service to give him much concern. And when he agreed to continue medical treatment, he used his time in the hospital to preach about Krishna consciousness to doctors, nurses, and patients.

   Jayananda was expert in everything: cooking, preaching, worshiping the Deity, public relations, sankirtan, selling incense, in construction and in everything he did to spread Krishna consciousness. He was a tireless worker; the first one getting up in the morning and the last one going to sleep at night. He was always busy getting the flowers, washing the utensils, cleaning the kitchen or taking the garbage out. Any service that was given to him fulfilled it expertly, no matter how busy he was or how much personal difficulty he had to do it. No matter how hard he worked, he never stopped for a break during the day. He seemed tireless.

   It is said that although Krishna has nothing to do with those who are not devotees, His devotees are even more compassionate than He and will try to occupy everyone in the service of the Lord. Jayananda was eager to see everyone engaged in the service of Krishna

   Whenever a new bhakta Jayananda arrived, it made him feel that he was engaged in important work. He was older, bigger and stronger than almost anyone in the temple, and we were all glad to be working under his guidance.
   His style of preaching was simple and direct. He spoke from the heart to the heart. Once, he was preaching to a couple of hippies while crawling under a car. All that was visible of Jayananda was a pair of legs, but the two hippies that were left there, transfigured by his message. During the Ratha-yatra he used to organize out of the street a gang of non-cooperative, cynical, hippie, foolish, and non-devout personalities, to help him build the cars. He occupied them working for ten or fourteen hours a day, always glorifying them.
   In the Chaitanya-caritamrta (Antya-lila, 7.11) it is said: “The chanting of the holy name of Krishna is the fundamental religious system in the age of Kali. Without being endowed with power by Krishna, it is not possible to propagate the sankirtana movement. ” Because of genuine compassion in Jayananda, Krishna gave him the unique ability to make people want to do devotional service, directly or indirectly.
   Materially waived

   Posthumous letter of Srila Prabhupada to his disciple Sriman Jayananda Dasa
   Bombay, May 5, 1977
   My dear Jayananda:
   Please accept my blessings.
   I am feeling your separation very intensely. In 1967 you joined me in San Francisco. You were driving my car and chanting Hare Krishna. You were the first man to give me some contribution ($ 5,000) to print my Bhagavad-gita. After that, you have rendered a very favorable service to Krishna in different ways. Therefore, I hope that at the time of your death you have been remembering Krishna, and therefore you have been promoted to His eternal association. If not, if you have had some small material desire, you will have gone to the celestial kingdom to live with the demigods for many thousands of years and enjoy the most opulent life of material existence. From there you can promote yourself to the spiritual world. But even if one fails to promote oneself to the spiritual world, at that moment the person returns to the face of this earth and is born in an aristocratic family, where again there is an opportunity to revive Krishna consciousness, but because you had been listening Krishna-kirtana, I’m sure you were directly promoted to Krishnaloka.
   janma karma ca divyam
   evam yo vetti tattvatah
   tyaktva deham punar janma
   naiti mam eti so’rjuna ”
   Krishna has done you a great favor by allowing you to continue in your sick body and has given you a suitable place for your service.
   Thank you very much.
   Your eternal well-wisher,
   A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

   Bhagavad Gita As It Is 1972 edition chapter five Karma-yoga—Action in Kṛṣṇa Consciousness

   http://www.prabhupada-books.de/gita/gita-english/Bg5.html

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   • Rathayatra dasa says:

     6. May 2020 at 6:39 am

     Rathayatra New York in 1976 and working with Jayananda Prabhu was one of many highs in my Krsna Consciousness journey.

     Jayananda Prabhu before his death spoke to Pita Prabhu his realization which revealed to us that he was a pure devotee;

     I’m very happy I’ll leave my body before Srila Prabhupada because I do not want to see an ISKCON after he departs”.

     This statement by Jayananda Prabhu reminds me of these quotes from the 4th Canto Srimad Bhagavatam which became extremely relevant upon Srila Prabhupada’s departure on Nov 14 1977 which we all meditated upon and need to continue to mediate upon:

     “The Acarya, the authorized representative of the Supreme Lord, establishes these principles, but when he disappears, things once again become disordered.
     The perfect disciples of the Arcarya try to relieve the situation by sincerely following the instructions of the spiritual master.
     At the present movement, practically the entire world is afraid of rogues and nondevotees; therefore this Krsna Consciousness movement is started to save the world from irreligious principles,. Everyone should cooperate with this movement in order to bring actual peace and happiness in the world. SB 4.28.49

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2. hasti gopala dasa says:

   5. May 2020 at 4:54 pm

   Most wonderfully written sentiments by Anubhavananda das
   Thank you so much.

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