Jhulan-yatra Harikatha Day 1 (English)

Srila Gurudev speaks about Harismaran Mahotsava (the Mahotsava one-pointedly dedicated for remembering the Supreme Lord Sri Hari) introduced by Srila Paramgurudev. It is a one-month festival starting from the first day of Jhulan-yatra. Srila Gurudev speaks about the mood with which our Guruvarga have advised us to perform Jhulan-yatra. He elaborates about Raghava Goswami’s vision of Vraja-dhama and the swinging pastimes. Sad-goswami-astakam is also explained elaborately.

Jhulan-yatra Harikatha Day 1 (Bengali)

Those devotees who are eligible to perform worship following scriptural injunctions (Vidhi-marga) are not entitled to participate in the swinging pastimes of RadhaGovinda. This is because RadhaKrishna is the object of worship in the mode of spontaneous devotion. Though it seems that we are worshipping RadhaKrishna in an opulent manner but in actuality we are performing worship of Lakshmi Narayan. We do not have the eligibility to worship them in spontaneous mode since we commit so many offences.

Jhulan-yatra Harikatha Day 4 (English)

In the swinging festival, only Gopis are allowed. Gopi’s love is the highest love. How Gopis are completely attached with Krishna is beyond our imagination! Even Nanda Maharaj, Yashoda Devi, other friends and servants are not allowed. But yet our Guruvarga advised us to perform the swinging festival in the mood of deity worship (archana-bhakti), at whatever stage we are. We can worship swinging pastimes for the four-five days by archana-bhakti. It is Vidhi-bhakti—devotional practice with regulated scriptural injunctions.

Jhulan-yatra

Traditionally, in the Jhulan-yatra (swinging festival), conditioned souls (ordinary aspirants) are not entitled to enter. Yet, our Guruvarga has introduced this. This is a type of worship of Supreme Lord. We can do this worship for 5 days as per Archan marg. So our guruvarga said you can do it through sankirtan, by praying for grace, for entering into the transcendental realm. But as long as there is material ego there is no possibility.

Radha-dasya

Prabhupada then came out from his inner quarters and said,

Curing the Fever of Material Existence

Here, with different evidences from scriptures Srila Sant Maharaj explains that only by surrendering unto the Supreme Lord one can remain aloof from maya. The living entity becomes so influenced by the modes of material nature that he considers sense gratification to be the most desirable goal, even though it brings him only distress. Our state of bondage has existed since time without beginning, and is quite impossible for human intelligence to undo. It can be unraveled only by associating with sadhus, realized souls. Even a moment’s association with a sadhu can award all perfection.