So the mercy of Lord Caitanya is obviously our savior and how to sufficiently get the effect of the mercy of Lord Caitanya is maybe the question. We know the mercy is there but our problem is that we are not taking shelter of it, we are not serious about taking it. It is there, “Yes, yes, yes…” we chant but casually, we eat but not always prasadam, like that we could go to the temple but we don’t go, we couldn’t do so much more to spiritually stay in the fire so to say. We all know the analogy- iron in the fire, iron becoming hot, iron acting like fire- that we know. But there is the other side of the story- iron out of fire, iron cooling down! And iron stopping to act like fire and iron having to be put back into the fire! And then we go, “Ooooh, it’s sooo difficult! Ooooh…” this is our problem. And that part is really up to us and that is the part called surrender! That is the part called surrender because although Lord Caitanya’s mercy is very elaborate and there is unlimited variety of maha prasadam, there is still one complication with maha prasadam…and that is this- you have to go and open your mouth! It doesn’t automatically fly into your mouth! It’s not that you just open your mouth and the rasagulla flies in! You actually have to take the trouble to get it! And that is where the problem is- that we have to ourselves make the endeavor. That is the one difficulty that we have, that’s the part where we lose out, that is the part where we drift away, that is the part where gradually weakness sets in, that is the part where Maya catches us, that is the part where in spite of the mercy of Lord Caitanya we don’t do it!(HH KKS, June 2008, Durban, SA)
