Spiritual life is meant to be our reality

We cannot say:” Now I have surrendered!”…

No, one has to surrender again and again, every time. It is ongoing process, the surrender- eternally so. One has to eternally gain the favor of Krishna. So this is quite something. So if we hear this description, the nature of relationship with Krishna, the nature of how He looks, than we see that it takes a spiritual life to stage of no compromise. That- for God- nothing but the best. No half work. Well, you know, I do something, alleluia… or Hari bol, you know some prayer… No, everything, complete, all the way. And than of course He will also come all the way. And if we only come this far, He will also come that far. And that we sort off well, stand there, God is far away. But if we come close, that He will come very close also, until very deep intimate relationships develop between devotee and Krishna. That is possible, very possible. And of course that is real spiritual life. It is not cheep. Than you become a Vaikuntha man, who goes to eternal plane. Than you will see it. Than is not a fairytale. But if we do a half work, than Krishna is sort of fairytale. Some bluish, blackish personality with the flute, living in the celestial forest with amazing friends and pastimes and nice- but what is got to do with a real life.

But, one who is deeply surrendering and is trying to adjust his life to Krishna, for him, he becomes to perceive that dimension, day by day, more and more. He becomes to perceive Krishna. Than life becomes fun, instead of struggle. Than it becomes quite ecstatic and blissful. And this is of course what spiritual life is meant to be.

Parts of the lecture given by HH Kadamba Kanana Swami 2008/01/04 Stockholm

The Art of Giving

The difference between an inspired devotee and an uninspired devotee is in giving. The uninspired devotee is looking at,"What am I getting?" The inspired devotee is looking at, "What can I give?" "Ya, but you have to be inspired before you give." No, you have give before you can be inspired. That's how it is. Even if you are not inspired, get into this mood of giving.

What do we give? We can give our energy. We can give our possessions. We can give our intelligence and we can give our words but more than that we can give everything. We can give ourselves. That's the greatest thing. We can give ourselves. Completely give ourselves. "Yes, I give myself to serving the devotees. I give myself to this movement. I give myself as much as I can at any time and at any moment." This is the spirit.

Real Inspiration

It is one thing to take up devotional service; it is another thing to become absorbed in devotional service. Ultimately many people are finding some taste: satisfaction in the philosophy and principles of moral behavior. A taste. But for the practitioners who are actually trying to change their whole lives it is not so easy...We see that somewhere along the line they go an independent course. They start very serious but sooner or later one gets confronted with oneself.

Sooner or later one must find, actually find, real happiness in Krishna Consciousness. It may not be enough that it offers morality, a secure society, it may not be enough to get a taste out of the kirtan. It may not be enough over the years to give ones whole life. One has to really make Krishna everything. One has to be absorbed. To be absorbed means to make Krishna everything. It cannot be that we like Krishna Consciousness amongst other things. It's good, inspiring but we are not completely convinced. It has not captured us to the point where Krishna is everything. Why is that? Because we have not made the service everything. As long as we are still karmi, as long as we still have personal desire, wanting to fulfill many personal ambitions then it will only partially capture us then all these other agenda items may grow and one day we take them up again.

Therefore the question is, " What service are we doing?" In the beginning it is natural that we are more concerned with what we are getting. What taste am I getting? What inspiration am I getting...It is fact that the element service is a turning point. So in the beginning it's about what we are getting. Oh, someone is so inspiring, so inspiring! But it's not about a person who is so inspiring it's the serviced that's so inspiring, (the person is a bonus!) But what is ultimately so inspiring is that the devotional service is inspiring. Because we must become inspired to serve. Otherwise what's the point? I'm so inspired! Ok but what's the consequence of that inspiration? How does it translate into service? Otherwise, "I'm so inspired!" Ok, take a cold class of water and you may feel better. After that what are you going to do now? Because ultimately inspiration is not a matter of excitement. Inspiration must go deep, serious also. Inspiration means now I will give my life to it. That is needed.

Lecture by H.H Kadamba Kanana Swami, Mayapur Gardens, November 25th 2007

Material Life and Elephants

Material life is like an elephant. Sometimes we are on top of the elephant, and sometimes the elephant is on top of us.

Kadamba Kanana Swami. Quote from unknown lecture, 2007

Reflections on Caitanya Caritamrta

From 2-5 Feb 2008 Kadamba Kanana Swami was teaching a seminar on Caitanya Caritamrta at the Bhaktivedanta College, Radhadesh, Belgium.
Now you can take part in this seminar yourself:

• Listen to it
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(If the links do not work then visit archive.org)

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Hope Against Hope

Advaita Acharya is special because by His prayer Lord Caitanya appeared and we pray to Advaita Acharya so that the lord will manifest in the innermost chambers of the heart. The outside shell we have nicely decorated with tiluk etc but what is in the innermost chambers of our heart, that we wouldn't ever speak. So secretly we are hiding. Somehow or other we carry on, by the mercy of Mahaprabhu, and He will make arrangements to purify the heart.....

Anyway there is just one thing for me, " Asabanda",hope against hope that in spite of the fact that I know I'm lacking, that my heart is steel framed, that I have no spiritual emotion whatsoever, I'm still hoping that I can get the mercy of Lord Caitanya. Hope against hope for the mercy of Lord Caitanya.

Therefore I will never give up my devotional service. Never! Whatever may happen. I will never, never give it up! No matter what happens! Even if the whole world explodes I will still carry on my devotional service. I am ready for anything. Nothing, Nothing will break my devotional service. Because I know that if somehow or other I hold on to that then Mahaprabhu is very kind, very kind, and He may just give it to me: Krishna Prema.

SB class 26/01/07 Australia

Bg Class transcript

· …Glorification is the spirit of the spiritual world- ALWAYS glorifying each other because sankirtana is the process- constant glorification. Criticism doesn’t really exist but some may also glorify in a criticizing way, that may also exist. Just like between Lord Nityananda and Advaita Acarya, they have these exchanges and the two- they have a rasa! And Advaita Acarya is calling Lord Nityananda, he’s saying that, “Who is this Nityananda!” First of all he invited Lord Caitanya, Lord Nityananda for prasadam and he had arranged so much prasadam. And then Lord Caitanya was saying it was too much. Lord Nityananda was saying, “Is that all? Is that all? We get invited by this miserly brahmana here today and we know yes, we’ll have to go hungry.” And then Advaita Acarya responds and says, “Who are You? You reject paramahamsa! Who do You think You are! What is Your caste anyway? What is Your position anyway? Nobody knows where You come from, nobody knows exactly what Your asrama is and You are here simply to harass and give trouble to the brahmanas!”

Nityananda becomes angry, throws rice at the body of Advaita Acarya, who then gets touched by the rice from Lord Nityananda. So They always do this with each other. Not only on one occasion but They keep on doing it again and again!

Later on in Jagannatha Puri, then the devotees, they go and take bath in a big pool, a lake near the Gundica Temple- Indradyumna Sarovara. And there in Indradyumna Sarovara- they start water fights! And different devotees, they’re all older, but Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya, he’s very respected, BUT he’s there like a kid!!! And there’s Advaita Acarya- grey hair and beard and everything- and of course, his opponent is Nityananda! And Nityananda in the water is mean, Nityananda in the water is something else! Nityananda, He even jumped in the water and beat up the crocodile! Not a small feat is well-known for that! So don’t mess with Nityananda! If He can beat a crocodile, what’s your chance…

So Advaita Acarya had no chance and Nityananda each time, very expert- shoo!!!- shoots the water straight in his eyes. So then he starts cursing Him, like, “This Nityananda is misbehaving with an elderly man…” and all these kind of things. Suddenly he begins to remember his old age. So sometimes They call each other names and blast each other but that is play, that is not serious. It’s never that Advaita Acarya is saying, “This Nityananda… He’s such a reject paramahamsa! And He’s always misbehaving with me and splashing water in my eyes…” No, that doesn’t exist in the spiritual world.

· If we can take one huge jump right now, we can reach the spiritual world.


· The main ingredient in this “transcendental cake mix” is chanting and four regs, BUT if the mercy of the vaisnavas are not there, your cake mix is going to flop! But we must seek out that mercy like anything, take shelter of it; not “give me the mercy…”


· We’ve seen kirtana’s where they’ve raised the vaisnava and they just pull his sock off his feet and ran away with it! That’s not the way… “Ha! I scored, I scored, I got the mercy!!!” Yes, but that’s not the most potent mercy. “It’s from his feet…”- oh, there’s much more potency mercy- DIRECTLY FROM HIS HEART! So we have to have the potent mercy from his heart that he pours on us because we have purchased it with our service.

With an extraordinary service attitude then we just get the mercy from his heart- whatever comes out. So we just have to in this way get the mercy. If we try to steal it by force, what we’ll get is something but not so much…But the real thing. We’ll get from a service attitude- what comes from his heart! And then without a doubt, without a doubt we’ll develop all the good qualities and then if there’s a slight trace of impurity- oh well, Lord Caitanya, if He wants to, will make an arrangement for us…

· And when we get mercy, we must take that mercy and make it…not just, “Okay, thanks for the mercy. You have more mercy?” No, no. Take that mercy that you receive and treat it as the greatest treasure! Not, “Ya we get the mercy of the vaisnavas; we have one room in our house and there we keep it- all the socks and the shoes and the walking stick and we have also, ya, we have three kurta’s! And we have a personal book of a vaisnava, which he underlined in different places, we have that also. This is his last toothbrush…” and what not! That’s all nice and these things are very powerful too, but still it’s much more powerful mercy… and each thing is a treasure and we keep it and we just take full advantage of it. The things that are used by a spiritually advanced personality are surcharged with transcendental energy and are purifying us and are very important. And we should keep them as great valuables. STILL greater though is the mercy a vaisnava is bestowing upon us by revealing to us intimate instructions how to act and how to deal in spiritual life after we’ve served him, and then we act according to those instructions and then still more will come…

(Sweden, 26/06/06)

10 Commandments for Kirtana

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR KIRTANA IN THE ISKCON RELIGION. by Jayadvaita Swami

1. Thou shalt chant as many tunes as thou canst think of.

2. Thou shalt not chant any one tune for more than three minutes.

3. Thou shalt not chant the morning tune in the morning. Or if thou start
with it thou shalt quickly switch to something else.

4. Thou shalt start fast, speed up, speed up more, then stop and start all
over again. The more times the better.

5. If thou art the mrdanga player, thou shalt always set the pace, following
whatever mechanical pattern thou art used to, and let the singer follow thee
or go to hell.

6. Thou shalt always chant "Jaya Prabhupada," "Jaya Gurudeva," "Jaya
Gaura-Nitai," "Jaya the names of all the Deities in thy temple (and then
some)," and as many other "Jayas" as thou canst think of. Thou shalt never
end a kirtana without those "Jayas."

7. Thou shalt always add "Jaya Radhe" to the kirtana. (And if thou canst
vary it with "Jaya Sri Radhe," so much the better.)

8. Thou shalt not allow the Hare Krsna mantra to take up more than ten
percent of the kirtana. And heaven forbid thou shouldest chant it all the
way through.

9. If thou art Indian, thou shalt try to sound like a professional bhajan
singer. If thou art not Indian, thou shalt try to sound like an Indian
devotee imitating one.

10. Thou shalt forget about the way Srila Prabhupada led kirtana.

4th & 5th dimension

Baladeva is just next to Krsna in the category of object of worship. In the Maha-Vaikuntha He is manifest as, Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. The topics of the fourth dimension lie beyond the threefold specification of the Linear, superficial and cubical magnitudes of this world.

The topics of the 5th dimension are still higher. They are words spoken by the flute of Krishna

BST, Presidentail address July 1931, Harmonist