There was a rush of questions asked after Maharaja finished the talk on:'Heavy Karma in this material World'
The lecture was based on a cutting verse from the Srimad Bhagavatam and the verse explains heavy karma and problems in material relationships such as hate and revenge.
Below is the Srimad Bhagavatam verse and below that are the questions that were asked after the talk. Click read more to read the answers from Kadamba Kanana Swami.
Also, stay tuned ,the whole talk will be on the blog soon!
SB 9.19.9: Being very sorry, the he-goat, who was subservient to his wife, followed the she-goat on the road and tried his best to flatter her, but he could not pacify her.
SB 9.19.10: The she-goat went to the residence of a brāhmaṇa who was the maintainer of another she-goat, and that brāhmaṇa angrily cut off the he-goat's dangling testicles. But at the he-goat's request, the brāhmaṇa later rejoined them by the power of mystic yoga.
How to avoid karma and suffering?
What about motivational chanting?
Karma that comes after many years of chanting, is it material karma?
Why is there karma being taken on when feet are touched?
Do you need to be punished even if you have already learned your lesson?
Does the spiritual master at initiation also take a vow, to deliver the disciple no matter what?
...
Panchajanya Prabhu : Maharaja, naturally no one wants to suffer, you know…
Kadamba Kanana Swami : No one wants to suffer?
Panchajanya Prabhu : and…
Kadamba Kanana Swami: Well!!! there are some macerkers, they love to suffer, there was a guy … I would like you to ask a question but I’ll just tell this story since I am going strong! There was one guy who was proclaiming to be a cannibal and he put it on the internet and he asked if there was anyone who wanted to be eaten and then finally some guy agreed to it and sent him a message : ‘ yes ok I agree’
So they made a contract anything and the guy ate him! So carry on…..
Panchajanya Prabhu: No one wants to suffer but we have committed sinful activities before, some we know we have done and we don’t want to go through it so how we are going to avoid?
Kadamba Kanana Swami : So how are we going to avoid….
Panchajanya Prabhu : So how we are going to avoid getting the reactions from the previous karmas - is there a way?
Kadamba Kanana Swami: Hare Krishna Maha Mantra
Panchajanya Prabhu : My next question is that: is that then motivational chanting?
Kadamba Kanana Swami : Ya!!! But That’s the lower level of chanting, but it’s better than nothing! You get purified from it, so it’s not pure chanting but there is chanting with some motivation to avoid karma. So anyway just chant and gradually your motivation will also get better. But chanting is the best way to become free from karma - but if we can’t chant the whole day, then do devotional service:
clean the floor,
peal the potatoes,
do the shopping,
water the flowers,
distribute books,
do Hari Nama,
do service… preach and we will get purified and then all karma will disappear.
Panchajanya Prabhu : If one seems to have karma even after so many years of chanting then is it to be considered material karma?
Kadamba Kanana Swami: We have so many different karma from so many life times – so there can still be something coming from old karma even in the advance stage, -but in the advance stages of bhakti then you become free from karma but then you start to be merciful to others and then you get something for that. Like Prabhupada, he absorbed so much like that because His disciples were not following, then he had to go through disease and so on - That’s there and so then you don’t take your karma but the karma of others, people touch your feet or if you eat the food cooked by materialist you get their karma like that you can also absorb their karma.
Panchajanya Prabhu : May you also elaborate on the feet principle how is it, you touch the feet and why, why particularly that?
Kadamba Kanana Swami : Because you are accepting worship so it’s like someone touching your feet and then he puts you on the platform as a superior. You are bowing down and as soon as you start touching the feet you are bowing down and the other goes in the superior position. Then karma is transferred. Yes!!
So for being a superior you have to take karma.
The king has to take one sixth of the karma of all the people.
The president of South Africa ….Zoomaaaa takes one sixth of the karma of the South African citizens - do you want to be Zoooma ah?!!
One sixth of the Karma of the whole country and it’s not hard to think what kind of karma is going on in South Africa, ha ha !!!
One sixth he gets, so he gets a huge amount of karma and then they want the government post so bad because they can steal a huge amount of money ah!! ...
…but as devotees one should chant Hare Krishna and follow the four regulative principles you don’t worry about karma so much although the whole lecture is about karma ! I got carried away a little bit with karma but the truth of the matter is that if you are situated within the four regulative principles and chanting of 16 rounds then you don’t have to worry about karma. If you are not then you have to worry a little bit, but if you are situated properly so no worries no worries at all then just go forward and look at the bright side of making advancement and doing more service for Krishna because for devotees who follow, it is all auspicious even the lazy ones who are sleeping in the ashram! At least they are sleeping in the ashram.! You get purified by sleeping in the ashram!
Aatish: I don’t know if my understanding is correct on this one matter, my understanding is that you only get punishment from something you need to learn a lesson from and if you have understood that it is wrong then you don’t need to be punished for it?
Kadamba Kanana Swami: Ok, ok so you were a sinner, you were a big thief and then you have learned I woudn’t do it any more - now I am a good guy so now you don’t have to be punished. Well… No, Not necessarily - maybe the reaction becomes diminished by the purification you have gone through but it’s not that it’s completely taken away - even devotional service can give us diminished reactions:
The fan, when you take up devotional service - the fan of karma, the electricity is turned off so you have changed your ways but you still get diminished reactions - Some maybe taken away if Krishna so desires - so that understanding is not 100% in line with Prabhupada.
Lirex Prabhu: Maharaja, I heard recently that when the guru gives initiation to the disciple, then he takes also the vow that he has to deliver the disciple no matter what even if he has to come back for the disciple?
Kadamba Kanana Swami: the guru also takes a vow but the guru can also reject the disciple - he has the right to reject the disciple also - if the disciple is a total rascal the guru has the right to reject him. But Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says glorious is that spiritual master who brings the disciple back by the hair - so even if he doesn’t want he pulls him back somehow or other.
Hrikesh was for a long time Prabhupada’s secretary and in his presence Prabhupada once said to his disciple:
“When will you get serious I am already trying to deliver you for six hundred births!”
Now the spiritual master doesn’t necessarily have to come back - he can be in the spiritual world and manifest through someone else, it’s also possible but yes the spiritual master is more serious at the time of initiation than the disciple.
You see he’s very serious to do whatever he can to deliver the disciple.
Transcribed by Madhumati Devi Dasi
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Pretoria, South Africa 2010)
