New Year speech

So, today is an unusual day. And we're in a position, where we celebrate New Years like [firework burst], thank you very much [laugh], several times year. We have this conventional Western calendar New Year, December, 31st, New Year's Eve, tomorrow is January, 1st, but it's called the Gregorian calendar, but we know here in Thailand this is a minor holiday, you don't have to break out the big fireworks, because that, when will it be this year? February? Do you know the day yet? April?
Devotee: The first is the Chinese New Year and then Thai.
Goswami Maharaj: Oh, so Thai has their own, all right, so then there will be Chinese New Year in February sometime, and then Thai New Year, and then we'll also have Gaurapurnima. So, Mahaprabhu's Appearance that's one calendar, Gaurabda, Sak-era.

But I think as an overview what it tells us is that, all of these things are meant for remembrance, to bring about some kind of remembrance. To make reflection, that's why we're fortunate with the vaisnava calendar that through out the year there are so many appearance days and disappearance days of great saints and on that day we'll recall them, their activities, their mood of devotion, things like that. And there's secular or mundane way of interpreting events and signs and symbols, and there is a very high spiritual way to do that also.

Like we've heard a long time ago and we've read in the Bhagavatam too, there is a science of omens, meaning when you see things in the environment and they are meant to indicate an auspicious or inauspicious sign. So, for example, like if you see someone caring two buckets, if they are empty, and you're about to go in a journey, that's not a good sign, if the buckets are full of water of full of whatever, that's a good sign. That's one. I forget the Sanskrit terminology for it, but it means, so they are always looking.

I remember our devotee in the past too was acquainted with that, whenever we'd go, we gonna get on the train or going on a major trip or something, he's searching for those auspicious signs or inauspicious signs about the journey. But interestingly Srila Guru Maharaj said that, "Radharani, She knows all of these, these signs of course. All these different things, but Her way of interpreting is they're indicating favorability for meeting Krsna or not. So, She sees that, "Oh, Krsna will come. That's a good sign."Different things like that. So, the same things, different level of interpretation. So, and it means, really, according to what is meaningful in someone's life, all these things were being considered.

So, in part of the world, December, 31st that's, or we just had December, 24th, like that's a big deal in America, Christmas Eve and Christmas, but not such a big deal in Russia. What is it in Russia? Like January, 10th? I think, it's like the more important day. But still there are these markers, we see the human tendency to mark certain days as being auspicious, again we know some of this goes back to seasonal changes like the winter solstice and we just had a change, what is it, December, 22nd? When it's changed from autumn to winter. And some of these pagan's celebrations were coopted by Christians or the Catholic Church. But still there is this idea that what's going on in this world is somehow a signifier or representative of something going on in another world or what we like to quote "the upper world,"or "higher reality”. These are the lower, more external aspects of reality, but then there may be, we want to trace them toward reality, toward spiritual substance.

So, just and in this regard, for example, when something would come up that's more from the Christian point of view, Christian signifiers, markers, etc., celebrations, I've noticed in Srila Guru Maharaj and Srila Gurudev a very generous attitude and way of seeing those things. Like some of the most profound interpretations, that we got about Jesus Christ and his pastimes came from Srila Guru Maharaj, like giving some insight. Particularly comes to mind the Judas pastime. Where Judas betrays Jesus and as He is going by with the cross, going up to the Mount Calvary, he stops at one point and looks at Judas, and Judas sees this look, and he goes off and hangs himself. So, Guru Maharaj says, "What was in that look?"That this was the outcome. He said, "What was in that look?"That Christ is turning to him and saying, "Prabhu, forgive me for using you this way, your name will be black for all time to come. But you're my trusted associate, I could only entrust you with this type of seva, your name will be black eternally. But for the necessity of this pastime I had to use you this way, so, please, forgive me my offence."Christ said this thing to him and then Judas thinks, "He is so kind, so merciful,"he goes off and hangs himself.

So, what I mean to say by siting that is how Guru Maharaj when this different Western calendar events would come up, (?) he had his own way of kind of looking at them. We know in his own world, for him a very auspicious day was the Ratha-yatra of Jagannath. And he said, "That is the day, when you want to start something new."It's the most auspicious day of the year to start something new. So, what did he start on Ratha-yatra day? In 1942, in Navadwip? Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math. That's the birthday of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math, it was on the Jagannatha Ratha-yatra. It's also later the day that he gave Gurudev harinam, so it's significant in different ways.

So, we have the tendency from the Western point of view at this time to reflect upon the last year. So, you'll see everywhere in the Internet and magazines, they'll tell you, "All the people who died in the last year. Here is the list of so many famous people, who died."And I can tell you this much as I get older, like when you're younger, you go like, "A lot of old people died,"and as you get older you start going like, "Hey, these people are either my age or younger."Like I was thinking Steve Jobs was being like my man, Steve, I am four years older than him. I was going, "That can't be right."So, they have this list at the end of the year, all the famous people who died. And as time goes on your age starts becoming similar to theirs. I mean young people died in the last year also. There is that thing too.

So, mortality, momento mori, these reminder and do they portrait (?) one of the stereotypes of the change of the New Year and the old year? Is last year is done almost like a death (?), not a Grim Reaper, but an old man, who is in the verge of dying and the New Year is represented as a baby, tightened (?) in the banner. So, I guess I'm the oldest person in this room, and that little baby is Tanusri, is the New Year baby. But so, that's something to reflect upon that, what? About mortality, to realize, "Time is going by. How are you using your time?"It's a time for reflection for devotees too. Could think, what service did we do in the last year and in this place particularly. Of course, our Anukrishna is not here with us, so we're a little sad, she should be here for this day. But this place is almost on its one-year anniversary. Right?
Devotee: April.
Goswami Maharaj: Yeah. Of coming here, but it's celebrated one year of like being in Puri, I mean as a group, it's the one year anniversary of the group. This service group, cause it did start in Puri, right? Yeah. So, that was like a few weeks. So, it's anyway, it's generally that. So, it has some significance here too, that this community, it's taking a root.
 

Like when we hear about sraddha, sadhu-sanga, bhajana-kriya, anartha-nivritti, nistha, one meaning of nistha is when the creeper takes root, then it's not so easily removed and it can stand, it can live in the environment. That's one way of looking at it. So, this community here is also taking a root and it demonstrates its ability to live within this environment and thrive and be vital. So, you can think about he service that's been done in the last year. And what will be done in the next year, but that another person will be speaking about soon. Which means Srila Bhakti Bimal Avadhut Maharaj. He'll come in here, and he'll, I'm preparing you, Avadhut Maharaj will be talking about what we'll be doing in August. That we should plan that all out right now. And it's very important, that we do it now, because if we're going to do anything substantial, it has to be advanced noticed. And it's true.

So, and it reminds me a sweet story of relation to Srila Guru Maharaj. We may know that in India, whenever they make a Math, or buy a temple, or build a temple, it's all paid, you buy the land and you build the temple. They never take a loan, they never do that, that's not in their playbook so to speak.  But once, when Srila Guru Mahraja and his party, they were in South India, and building a temple for Srila Saraswati Thakur and the Gaudia Math, and at a particular point they ran out of funding, and they didn't want construction to stop. And think, this was in the thirties, so, how even more extraordinary it was, they took out a loan, so, they could continue the construction. But they are kind of trying to keep that a little bit hidden from Daraswati Thakur, thinking that he might be disturbed, and inevitably Srila Saraswati Thakur heard bout that, and they were like, "Oh, no, now Prabhupad knows, what are we going to do?"And Saraswati Thakur was very happy and he said, "Not only have you [child is prattling around], so he said, not only have you engaged all of your present…[give him something to play with, like a person, that's usually the most fascinating]. So, anyway, Saraswati Thakur surprised them by saying, "Not only have you engaged all your present serving energy, like everything you had you gave that in service, but you've risked your future, I like that, even what you don't have yet, you're giving that."

So, that how we can think. That we're trying to give what we have now, but Avadhut Maharaj will be pressing us for the future. And that's why he is our best friend, we couldn't have a better friend than him, because he is always giving us service opportunities. Like Srila Guru Maharaj said this about Srila Swami Maharaj Prabhupas, he said, "Where are you going to find such a friend as this, even though he's left the world he's still engaging me in preaching, because he considered that all of us coming from the West to hear from Guru Maharaj as Gurudev said,  also on his own he said, "We're still taking Srila Guru Mahraja's prasad, after twenty-thirty years it's still true. So, Guru Mahara was attributing all of us coming to his lotus feet, to hear from him as Prabhupad engaging him in preaching and serving and then he said like that in a very affectionate way, "Where you are going to find a friend like that?"So, in a similar way, Avadhut Maharaj is that type of friend for all of us. Many things could be said, but one thing we can say for sure, he engages everybody in service and in connection with him we get innumerable serving opportunities, there is no shortage of that. Shyama Mohini is nodding in a very knowledgeable way.

So, actually in this place for many years it's been thought about, you know that, and Avadhut Maharaj, I know that a little bit myself, really at least five years before thinking about the future and repeatedly it would come up here, not specifically here, but it was about Thailand, and special connection between Russia and India, the placement, and now China, the gateway to the East, and as I was saying earlier today, I've got to find this quote from UNESCO about the special designation of the city, and it's more than (?) it's a little different, it's about culture, it remaining, it has some other name to use, it's what you said true about culture, but they want to make sure, I mean it seems like divine indication in the background, they don't want us to turn into what other places have become, not that there's anything wrong with that, but there is enough of it. They want us to remain a cultural center. And it said, fifteen-twenty years, they want that to be the creative things will be done here. That was the point. I mean it's ironic, that they are saying this in light of this particular project, they want it to remain a creative center, that attracts creative individuals, who generate nice things, content, enlightening things, what's the purpose of culture, but to enlighten people.

So, anyway I didn't want to speak too long this evening, because we have there are some events scheduled. And but it's like tradition, we're adopting here of offering the lights into the sky. That type of illuminating activity. So, we'll all happily do that, and I think everyone here is happy and thankful to have spent however much time in the last year and is looking forward to the next year. Cause now everybody is settled, cause no one was sure it could actually happen before, the logistics of that all, and so many foreigners are stating, but now all those things seem almost trivial in comparison and the future looks bright, the future prospect type of spiritual media, content being generated and produced here, everybody is become so qualified that I'm embarrassed. When I'm with everyone here, I think, "Gosh, I'm going to do something again."I thought I was just going to like go out, on the wave of past. And I see that's not in the card per sei (?), because everybody here is doing, they are in the doing mode, which is s very healthy good environment, and they are all uniquely qualified, so, there is not a lot of redundancy, that's good too. And all we are trying to do is with what we know of modern culture and technology and such things, media, is to make a bridge from Krsna Conception to people like us, we know what the people in the modern world are like, we are them in many different ways. So we should be the ones, the (?) is upon us as a service to create a bridge between these things.

Like many years ago "The Guardian of Devotion Press,"we're working on this one article of Guru Maharaj and it was called "The pontifical position of Madhavendra Puri,"and I thought, when Guru Maharaj uses a word it's always the precise word, the perfect word, let's see if Amia Sindhu can translate this. Mark Twain said, "What's the difference between, the precise in writing, the precise word and an acceptable word? It's the difference between lightening and a lightning (?) bug, firefly. Lightening and a lightning bug, a firefly."So, when Guru Maharaj selects the word it's lightening. It's the precise word, he titled the article, "Pontifical position of Madhavandra Puri."I thought, I've got to study this word "pontifical,"cause I've never heard it used, and the only way we know "pontiff" in English it's the pope, in Italy, he's called the pontiff. So, I just thought, "I don't get it to know,"usually, if I do a little research, then I understand, why Guru Maharaj selected it. And Madhavendra Puri, what do we already say about him? Oh, from Madhava line, then the Madhavendra Puri that's the beginning of the Gaudia line, but what does this word mean? So, pontiff, like we all said the word in English pontoons, there are planes that don't have wheels, they have like little pontoons, little boats, they land on water, so, pontiff means a bridge. So, when Guru Maharaj said, "the pontifical position of Madhavendra Puri,"he is saying, "He is the bridge by which the Madhava-sampradya crosses over into the Gaudia line, that's what he meant. I went, "Aha."

So, that's a very high thing, Krsna Consciousness is a very high thing. It's the highest thing, but anyway, that's a high example. But in the modest way and a humble way, this is how we can use our past in present and future service to Krsna Consciousness, is we understand something about the modern world and the modern people, we weren't born in Punyabhumi, in India, and some holy place, at least most of us, I mean we have some Indian devotees, that's a different thing, but still, so that kind of stereotypical sadhu-like background we don't have, but we do understand things about people in the modern world, and a digital world and all of that. So, that gives us the good fortune of having the seva of making the bridge from Navadwip, the center, the seed of Mahaprabhu's Krsna conception, creating a bridge from that, from our Guru-varga and their Krsna сonception to people in the modern world through digital media, that's what this project is here. It takes specific shape in different ways. But actually what we're trying to do. It's preaching. In that way it's all preaching, what everybody is doing here is preaching.

When we've established "The Guardian of Devotion Press"many years ago, again we were always looking at words, cause Guru Maharaj is using them in a novel ways and we're also interested, so we were about our place, because it was mainly every room was for printing, every room, where devotees live was like light table, drafting table, type setter, and we just slept on the floor at night on a little mat or something, but then put that away and it looked like a printing press. If anyone came to visit there it looked like you're vising a printing graphic design printing operation, housed in a very nice house. And then we had this one very nice room, where the Deity's were, the temple room. So, one day again looking in the dictionary I saw the word "chapel,"cause usually, the chapel, if this was the Christian equivalent, then you'd have this one room and say, "Oh, that's where the chapel is."It would be, Russian orthodox church is more like that, they'd have a little rooms, so those are chapels. But the original concept of a chapel it's where the monks were, who were doing all the book making, like they one group for the making these beautiful letters, I forget what they call it, when you make a page like that has one big beautiful letter and how they used to make Bible, and with ornament, so, they had artistic monks, some doing letters, others scholarly, some checking the words, some doing translation. Hm? Not calligraphy, it has another name. They use it more often related to Koran, cause Koran the super ornate. It has a special name. But like calligraphy. So, calligraphers, translators, and they had a small area where their worship would take place, that's what a chapel was. It's in a similar way this place is evolving like that. And what is in store for the future, we're simple hearted devotees, we do not so much about that, but whatever Krsna's plan is, we're happy with that. But it's been a good year here, the next year looks even more promising in terms of increased seva opportunities. More digital media, more content, more access of broader group of people. So, we think Srila Gurudev is pleased, Srila Guru Maharaj is pleased, Srila Saraswati Thakur, in what level would he be pleased, remember, from him comes the idea of Brhad Mrdanga, calling the printing press "The Brhad Mrdanga."  So, would he think of the Internet? If the printing press was the brhad mrdanga, then the Internet, the possibilities are astonishing and inconceivable. And he also said things like in a mood of a great intensity, that he was prepared to take all the marble of the walls of the temple and sell it and produce books. That he also said. So, that type of intense missionary spirit to extend Ksna Conception to others. So many times Srila Guru Maharaj would tell me, "What's been given to you is been given freely, but (?) understanding that you will extend it to others. That's for having receive this you have this unspoken obligation to extend it to others and then he would add this part saying, "And not anything less than what was given to you."You could say, "Oh, Gurudev, Guru Maharaj, they gave such…"No, then what they gave to the extend we can appreciate that, that's what you must extend, nothing less than what they've given. Then we'll say, then that will require us to rise, to constantly to higher levels of understanding and appreciation. Hare Krsna.

So, this is our, we're practicing for our next New Year celebration. That's will be Chinese. Then Mahaprabhu's birthday and then Thai New Year. Is that the time when they like for five days or seven days everybody throwing the water and going to their village? It is very sweet. Hare Krsna. Durga Puja was originally in spring time in Bengal and they moved it to October. Cause that's the biggest festival. It goes by the name of puja, when  you say "puja"in Bengal, like, "Where will you be for the puja?"It can only mean Durga Puja. And there it's so nice, everything is the cause for celebration. "What do we celebrate?""Oh, Visvakarma Puja.""What's that were?""Oh, now we worship our tools."So, like doing the video, you take incense and offer it to the camera and do arati and put a garland on your Red Scarlett. Because that is what you're using during the Year. They've got a puja for everything, right after Durga Puja it's so huge, it fades, but suddenly there is another. So, what's that? Kali Puja. Then in the spring time, like these birds here the kokil, that bird, they follow spring in India. Then comes Saraswati Puja, and so. All wonderful celebration.