ISKCON’s Comeback Emperor – H H Jayapataka Swami Maharaj

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna.
Scones, come back Emperor. His Holiness, Jaipatakaswamy Maharaj. Recently, I saw a video of His Holiness, Jaipatakaswamy Maharaj leading kirtan in the Kirtan Mela in Mayapur.
Maharaj was, it was a heart-rending experience to see how Maharaj is exerting himself to despite his many body inconveniences, to sing with such intensity, such devotion, such fervency. Although, I saw that video several days later and although I was thousands of miles away from Mayapur, still the spiritual potency of that sound of the kirtans was so apparent, so evident. And even more striking than that spiritual potency of the sound was the determination of the kirtanier, of Jaipataka Maharaj.
He was, as we all know that he had a devastating stroke and yet here he was, right in the heart of the devotee community, at their center as a commander, leading the forces by sending out the ecstatic weapon of the Holy Name, which was dissipating illusion and distributing ecstasy to everyone who was fortunate enough to hear that sound coming from his lotus mouth. Now, in sports, if somebody has an injury and then after that person comes back, he said that person has made a comeback. So, in tennis, there was a tennis champion, Rafal Nadal, who suffered a very severe injury to his foot and then he was sidelined for a long time and some people thought it might be a career-ending injury.
But he came back and he came right to the top. So, he was celebrated as the comeback king. Now, he is known as Jaipataka Maharaj.
He is supposed to be called the comeback emperor. Why comeback emperor? Because to just survive from a devastating stroke, from which even most doctors did not give any chance of survival, that itself is remarkable. Further, not only to survive, but to march determinedly on the long road to recovery to a normal life that is even more special.
Now, for all those of us who have gone through any serious disease, we know that for every visible health challenge that is there because of a serious health complication, there are a dozen invisible challenges that have to be dealt with and conquered in the privacy of the mind. So, for somebody to be able to conquer that, that itself is very special. And more than that, to not just return to normal life, but to return to the center of the army as a commander after having been so devastatingly sidelined, so that is most special.
And to do all this, not for the sake of one’s own glory, but for the sake of glorifying the Lord and for the sake of benefiting all of us, that is purely, that is supremely special. That’s why there is no doubt that Jyotaka Maharaj can be called the comeback king, comeback emperor of ISKCON. So, I have not had much fortune to have his personal association.
The only time when I had his association was once when a youth festival in Kolkata. Actually, Maharaj was supposed to give a talk on the topic of recession. This was around 2008-2009, that time.
The recession was there in the world. So, I had written a book on that topic and I had prepared a PowerPoint show also. So, I showed it to Maharaj and Maharaj asked me to delete some slides so that he could speak adequately on the slides that were there.
Then when I started speaking, then I updated the slideshow and I started moving the slides and Maharaj started speaking. Although speaking was difficult for him, but what he was speaking was amazing. He was drawing on his… Maharaj has travelled all over the world, not just once or twice, but for many decades, many times.
He was drawing on his experience, of global experience and he was exposing how the promises of greed are false and futile. And greed is, of course, the cause of recession and the economic meltdown that happened at that time. And then, because Maharaj had asked me to cut down some slides, so I had deleted some slides.
But Maharaj remembered some of the slides which I had deleted because he felt that was an important point. So, he spoke that point. So, not only he remembered three slides like that, he spoke their content precisely and he elaborated on them also wonderfully.
So, despite his physical condition being so acutely painful, his clarity of consciousness and his sharpness of recollecting, recollection was amazing. So, do miracles happen in ISKCON? Yes. You know, if you want to look for a real miracle, a real, undeniable miracle, we don’t have to look any further beyond the living example of His Holiness Jaipatakaswamy Maharaj.
Thank you very much. Jaipatakaswamy Maharaj ki Jai! Shri Prabhupada ki Jai! Hare Krishna!