Kadamba Kanana Swami: Holland....which is where I'm originally from. Although I left that country really, a long time ago, twenty nine years ago exactly. I went to India. Yeah to me India was a country which was much more interesting than a boring place like Holland with, windmills and dykes and lots of wind and lots of rain.
Whereas India is a country which has about everything you can imagine. Lots of rain in some places and no rain at all in other places. When you go up in the Himalayas, it can go as far as minus seventy, which is nothing right? It exceeds what happens here in Norway! And you can go to other places in the heart of the desert of Rajasthan. Where it goes plus sixty! In other words, there are all kinds of varieties in that country, and in fact I wouldn't think that India is a country, but rather, it should be considered like a continent. Just like Europe is a continent with so many different countries, in India also we find actually different countries with different languages.
Like here today I spoke to some of the, people from India, some are from Bengal, and some are from Madras side or Ceylon side, which is like complete different countries, different kingdoms. Different language different culture, but, something they have all in common. That all of these different countries, they are not materialists. They are, at least their culture is not a materialistic culture. I do not say that in India there are no materialists, the opposite is found to be true.
Because if you walk around with a big watch someone is coming and saying
'Oh, can I see your watch?' right? (crowd laughter) So suddenly there is some material interest in things, right? “ Wanna change money” “wanna buy” you know this is how it goes, and you come to India, immediately many people come to you, to ask you many questions, if you want to buy this and that. 'I'll carry your luggage take you to the taxi, take you to cheap hotel' and so many things.
So it seems somewhat on the materialistic side. That's only on the surface. Because the culture in itself is not at all materialistic, but is a culture based on spiritual principles, and therefore throughout the country, there is great faith, that there is a God who controls everything and that the purpose of life is to increase one's God consciousness. Everyone believes that. It doesn't matter, whether you are dealing with a priest who is engaged in his worship in a temple, or whether you deal with some gunda, that means a criminal, who is doing his business....all are praying!
...... (contd in part2)
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Oslo, Norway 06/06/1999)
