On Wednesday, July 8th, in Alachua, Florida, New Raman Reti Dhama, the same temple from where the North American TOVP Tour started, a celebration was held to welcome back the Padukas and Sitari, as well as Jananivas prabhu and the TOVP Team, and to also bid them a farewell back to Sri Mayapur Dhama. Amidst joyous kirtan in a packed temple room, an abhisheka was held. Then Radha Jivana and Jananivas prabhus spoke about the tour and their experiences, and, finally, prasadam was served to all the Vaishnavas.
Below is the link to the audio of Radha Jivana and Jananivas prabhus’ farewell speech, and a transcription of Jananivas prabhu’s words of appreciation:
Jananivasa Das: So thank you again for the second reception, sending us off on our tour with a lot of enthusiasm and receiving us again with a lot of enthusiasm.
So it has been a very, very successful tour, the point was to raise funds, the project in Sridham Mayapur is costing us half a million dollars a month to keep the work going. So almost for three years, that is 32 months we have the funds to keep the project going. Because if it stops, the workmen go away, the prices of everything goes up, they take away all the machinery when you are wating, like we had for Srila Prabhupada’s samadhi, the work stopped for 6-7 years. Nothing was happening until again Ambarisa Prabhu came to save the day.
We don’t want that to happen. By the indications, the prophecies of Nityananda Prabhu which he gave to Jiva Goswami in the Navadvipa Dham Mahatmya, Bhaktivinoda Thakur had the vision of the temple, so all these predictions are coming true right now. That the bathing ghats on the Ganga would be built again, many houses would be built in Mayapur. We see now we have villages there, Gaurangar, Abhaynagar, Sarasvati Nagar, Goshallapara, Grihasthapara these villages are all popping up. This is all the prediction of Caitanya Mahaprabhu revealed by Nityananda Prabhu.
This is also one of the main things that inspired me to come that the more we can collect the quicker we can build this temple. When everything is there, then the ultimate prediction of Mahaprabhu,
Gaurangera nitya-seva hoibe vikasa
That from this temple service to Lord Gauranga will spread all over the world. That is mainly the nama-seva, he has come to give nama-seva, but all those different types of service we can give which Srila Prabhupada described as the flood of love of Godhead which will begin in Mayapur. So it is coming like a flood of love of Godhead and we would like to think that when we were taking Lord Nityananda’s padukas-or they were taking us-like those water diviners, a V-shaped stick that moves where there is water. So it was like we were holding onto the shoes and they were kind of taking us around, looking not for water but for nectar.
We likened it to how Kapila Muni, after he instructed Devahuti, he left for the Himalayas and from there he traced the path of the Ganga down to the bay of West Bengal. This was just before the advent of Gangadevi in this material world. Kapila Muni traced the path where she would come, so we likened this to Nityananda’s shoes, they were leading us around, they were tracing the path from where the flood of love of Godhead would come. And here was the first place they came to and the last place so you can expect a double flood will come!
It has been very inspirational. I wasn’t very enthusiastic to come for some reason, because I heard that all the temples are empty in America, no-one is there, nothing is going on. And I thought it would actually be like that.
But it wasn’t. Everywhere we went was full of devotees. Of course we attended a lot of festivals also, but there was always service going on. Especially the community devotees were really enthusiastic and all the devotees were… I thought it was great. It dispelled my illusion; maybe in the past some time it was like that. But what I saw was great.
Srila Prabhupada wrote one letter to one Indian gentleman and he was telling about the project in Mayapur, we are building a 350 feet high temple and we are spending so much money and he was given all these statistics which were kind of over-rated, over-exaggerated. But now it is less even, what Prabhupada said. And he explained to this gentleman that after we got
everything, all the land, money, permissions and things like that, then he said now, when Lord Caitanya’s desire is there, it will be taken up.
Ultimately it is up to the Lord’s desire; not a blade of grass can move without his desire. Even we build the temple, still it is up to Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s desire when it actually sweeps all over the world. Anyway, that is practical. We may not be able to give love of God all over the world, but we can build the temple. That’s something practical. And when it is there, that ultimate prediction can happen at any time.
That is why it is so important and that was one of the inspirations for me to come, to get this temple built quickly so that at any time the Lord can just give his sanction. This is the Vaisnavas’ dream, that the whole world is chanting Hare Krishna. We have no other ambition. As Bhaktivinoda Thakur says in the song “Narada Muni Bajay Bina”, that he is going through the universes chanting “Radhika Ramana, Radhika Ramana”. And Bhaktivinoda Thakur says when the whole universe is chanting Hare Krishna then the Vaisnava is satisfied.
So we will be satisfied to… first we will be satisfied to deliver the world with it, the causeless mercy of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, causing everyone to be able go back to Godhead. And then after that we will have the universal temple, we will try for the universe then. Let the whole universe chant Hare Krishna, we can give them that facility. We will conquer the world with the holy name, now we’ll try for the whole universe.
It has been so nice travelling with all the devotees, meeting new devotees, everyone we’ve seen have a really nice service attitude, we are full up from eating so much prasadam every day, every place we go. It is a wonderful experience and again I thank you for hosting us on our return and I hope that you will be there, if not next year, then at least in 2022 for the grand opening. See you all in Mayapur! Hare Krishna. Srila Prabhupada ki jai!
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