31 January 2012

KKSblog.com - Dishonour is worse than death!

KKSblog.com - Dishonour is worse than death!

Dishonour is worse than death!

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 03:40 PM PST

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Radhadesh, Belgium, January 2012) Lecture: SB. 5.9.4

It is said in the Bhagavad-Gita that dishonour is worse than death! So one who has fallen down, such as a sannyāsī – who gives up his sannyāsa, and takes again into the household life, is described as a 'vantasi'– a vomit eater! He is eating what he has vomited! So with something like that in the scriptures – then how are you going to walk around with your little baby on your arm after that? It is a little hard after that, because deep at the back of the mind, one remembers very well that:

"I am in a position where I really shouldn’t be, according to the scriptures."

Srila Prabhupada gave the license, which supersedes everything. So it takes great humility to do that…. great humility. One who falls down is due to misfortune. Such a person in great humility must take shelter, and ultimately that means to take shelter of Prabhupada! Because Srila Prabhupada brought us the Srimad Bhagavatam, and he brought us the tradition…and then he added his mercy from his personal instructions and so on.

As in the Bhagavatam, Lord Caitnaya had added His mercy and then Prabhupada added his mercy too. So take shelter of Prabhupada's concessions with great humility – that's the only option! If someone cannot do that fully, then you still cannot walk away. It will still (from the inside) work on him. You can never walk away!

When we speak of vows – I have a point on vows where, one should take the vows and protect them. It's like putting a post in the ground – you have to anchor it, and put some strings on there to make sure that it doesn't fall over…you must anchor your vows with supportive activities, but then one must take these vows and we must plant them, just like the pearls of Krishna (like the story of Krishna and the pearls). If we plant these vows, then so many nice things can come from them! So we really must make something out of these vows. If we don't, and if we neglect the vows, then the same vows will never leave us and they will beat our heart!

So yes, even with the concession, the sannyāsa vow is so heavy that even if one takes through to the concession and gets married again, it will still beat their heart! So that is a heavy thing to do!


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Feeding pride

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 02:22 PM PST

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Radhadesh, Belgium, January 2012) Lecture: SB. 5.9.4

It is very interesting how we have such bachelors in our movement (and in the world) who are in a way renounced. But it is not renunciation linked to cultivating Krishna Consciousness. It's simply renunciation out of convenience – out of avoiding the trouble….of having to deal with material energy. That kind of renunciation is not valuable….there is not much advantage to that, because by avoiding trouble, you'll just get another kind of trouble!

Just like, there is an example of Diogenes who lived in a rain barrel with ripped clothes, and Plato lived in a mansion, which contained silk and cushions. One day Diogenes just ran through a pool of muddy water, and with his muddy feet, ran into the house of Plato and jumped over all the silk and cushions! And he called out:

"I'm just stamping. I am jumping on the pride of Plato!"

So Plato replied:

"With the same pride!"

So it's a classic in the Greek tradition. So yes, that it is a fact that renunciation is another way of feeding pride. So what's a point of being a bachelor? But the real point is, if we are living in an environment where we keep material things out as much as possible, and we bring in as much spiritual influence as we can, then we are speaking of āśrama………… āśrama is a renounced condition of life. We must live in a āśrama and we must give shape to our āśrama, at least to a point where we are liberated!

When we are liberated souls then it doesn't matter where we live, but as long as we are not liberated then we should live in an āśrama, and make that āśrama a sacred environment – fill it with remembrances of the Supreme Lord and objects of purification, then that will strengthen us, and from that platform we can engage in our sādhana and get deeply absorbed. From that platform we are strong to deal with the material world, otherwise it is dangerous. So a āśrama is important!


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30 January 2012

KKSblog.com - Simplifying life

KKSblog.com - Simplifying life

Simplifying life

Posted: 29 Jan 2012 02:45 PM PST

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Radhadesh, Belgium, January 2012) Lecture: SB. 5.9.4


The devotee in his private life will be inclined to minimise the involvement with material matters. For example the purports in the Caitanya-caritamrta, in the instructions to Sanatana Goswami, the gṛhastha-āśrama is described, and there Srila Prabhupada explains:

"Yes, and those who are initiated gṛhastha devotees, should not desire to have the same standard of life as those who are in the world!"

That is interesting because, when looking at the gṛhastha, then sometimes I give the example of the difference between the gṛhastha-āśrama and the brahmacārī-āśrama. And how in the brahmacārī-āśrama, the brahmacārī every once in a while should clean his room….and should put everything outside room…clean out the whole room, and before he puts it back inside, then ask three times:

"Do I really need this?"

And if the answer is no three times, then do not put it back. Whereas in the gṛhastha-āśrama the mood is more of:

"Well, if you can use it, and it is allowed, then why not? It can come in handy."

So the whole house fills up with boxes stacking up, and accumulating – you never know:

"I think we got one of those things! No, I think we do."

It takes more time to find it, then to buy it! But we've got one somewhere stashed away. So this contrast is interesting between the two. So vaisnavas in their private life are generally not accumulators – they are generally also careful and inclined towards simplifying life, regardless of āśrama!


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Kirtana Mela in Mayapur

Posted: 29 Jan 2012 02:50 AM PST

“The holy name was bouncing of the walls continuously. At night it continued in our dreams and at times I woke up and just started kirtana. It bounced against the wall of our false ego, making cracks and gradually breaking it. In the Caitanya Bhagavata it is described how Lord Nityananda engaged a group of young boys for one month in continuous kirtana. They didn't even stop to eat or sleep and at the end the boys in their ecstasy ripped entire trees out of the ground. During the Kirtana Mela, sometimes the kirtanas were wild and intense, other times mellow and meditative, an ocean of so many rasas, so many different types of taste. Some danced the whole week….”
Kadamba Kanana Maharaja, “First Kirtan Mela- 2011″

From the 22nd – 25th of February the second Kirtan Mela will be organised by Sacinandana Maharaja. This time it will not be in Germany, but in Sri Dhama Mayapur, India!

Even though Kadamba Kanana Maharaja initially planned to take part in the Kirtana Mela, he now decided not to do so.

Still, for all the devotees who will go there, we wish a lot of inspiration and taste for chanting the holy name.


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29 January 2012

KKSblog.com - In the mood of Jaḍa Bharata

KKSblog.com - In the mood of Jaḍa Bharata

In the mood of Jaḍa Bharata

Posted: 28 Jan 2012 09:13 AM PST

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Radhadesh, Belgium, January 2012) Lecture: SB. 5.9.4

Jaḍa Bharata was extremely careful about getting involved with the material energy, and we can see to the extreme….to a point where he was not even caring about his basic hygiene, and those kind of things. So he was socially very aloof. He didn't care for his material comfort. A little later it comes up in the chapter that the father who was affectionate towards him, tried to care for him but later, the father died, and then the brothers had to take care of him. They felt that it was a great burden, and they would just give him burnt rice which was at the bottom of the pot – some black rice!

So it was a very brotherly relationship. That was going on but Jaḍa Bharata didn't complain. He ate the burnt black rice. He just accepted that. He was extremely tolerant, and extremely determined. He had gotten this extraordinary determination by remembering his previous lives, which gave him an extraordinary motivation to be so determined!

Of course, this story is depicted in the Srimad Bhagavatam, so that we can share Jaḍa Bharata's situation and we can also gain determination from that same pastime to also be aloof from the material energy! At the same time though, many of us (at least) in the sixties and the seventies would have made Jaḍa Bharata a hero! In the hippie era Jaḍa Bharata would have been like a real prototype of a super hippie, in a sense that he did exactly even more than like what we would have done ideally. For example, like many others who slept on cardboard boxes on the street, and I'm sure that so many people did these things, whilst travelling, without any money. Living without money was a big thing. We would be in Greece and live off the tomatoes and grapes that were growing in the orchards. Or Italy was good for growing peaches. So life was going on in this way, but eating only peaches for one week is kind of purifying the system – a peach fast. People do such things for health. We did it out of that same spirit of Jaḍa Bharata, because the mood was, that we don't want to get entangled!


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28 January 2012

KKSblog.com - The body is a dead matter

KKSblog.com - The body is a dead matter

The body is a dead matter

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 09:24 AM PST

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Radhadesh, Belgium, January 2012) Lecture: SB. 5.9.4

Jaḍa Bharata himself, who indeed had a fear of the material energy. This fear of the material energy, is described in the Bhagavad Gita,

'sv-alpam apy asya dharmasya
trāyate mahato bhayāt' (Bg2.40)

It is described as the greatest type of fear, and the greatest danger – to basically fall back down into the material world. There maybe so many dangers considered, but this is the one danger – that a devotee must be really alert of. Sometime ago I was contemplating on the world, and so many times I have been in traffic…..and suddenly an ambulance appeared with flashing lights….and all the cars sort of squeeze to the side as the ambulance flies by. Because it is a matter of life and death! A matter of life and death – that's like a crucial point. The crucial point in this world (in the view of the materialist) is the matter of life and death. But the truth of the matter is that it’s not at all the crucial point.

To Srila Prabhupada, death means that you are going to sleep for seven months, and then you wake up again….in the long term to resume your activity. Or Prabhupada would say to Dr Durckheim in Germany:

"The body is just made of dead matter. It was never alive in the first place! Where is the question of death? It is the soul that is alive…the soul that cannot be destroyed.

'nainaṁ chindanti śastrāṇi' (Bg2.23)

And it is the soul that moves that dead matter around in some way and it makes it act as though it was alive. But it is as dead as can be, all along."

It's a fact, that actually fear of death (and at the matter of life and death) is the essential crux of life, then it gets really serious – well that is not serious at all! But falling back down into the material energy, is when it gets very serious! Because then it is a matter of unlimited birth in the material world!


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26 January 2012

KKSblog.com - Making a connection with Krishna part 4

KKSblog.com - Making a connection with Krishna part 4

Making a connection with Krishna part 4

Posted: 25 Jan 2012 02:48 PM PST

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Mayapur, November 2011) Lecture – Caitanya-caritamrta part 7

Devotee: In Fiji, when the temple opened in Sigatoka, just over the fence, maybe four or five metres away from a house that was owned by a big businessman. When the temple's kirtans got going, he'd get very disturbed. So he started a court case to have the temple closed down and move out of the residential area. So the battle at the court was going on for a few months. One day his Christian friend said:

"Let's go to a lecture by the Hare Krishnas. I want to find out what their philosophy is, because people are always telling me that the Hare Krishnas know the answers to everything. So let's go!"

So this businessman went with his friend, and Tamal Krishna Maharaja was lecturing. So he put up his hand and asked a question, and Tamal Krishna Maharaja said:

"Come and see me tomorrow at the temple."

So he came the next day, and was very patient and well behaved. He waited for a long time and finally got to see him, and after asking him the question, Tamal Krishna Maharaja said:

"Oh, I know who you are. You're our next door neighbour, who is making a court case against us."

He said:

"Yes, that's right"

So Tamal Krishna Maharaja said:

"I have a challenge for you. You take these beads and everyday chant sixteen rounds, for three months, and at the end of three months, if you are not feeling differently about the action, then we will move the temple, and it will be closed down. You have my word for it. Otherwise you have to withdraw the case."

So the businessman was thinking and said:

"Three months is not very long. I will make it six months."

So for six months he was chanting sixteen rounds. He was doing it secretly and would creep out of the house, jump over the fence and go to the maṅgala-ārati, and chant the sixteen rounds. His family didn't know anything about this. At the end of the six months they were all surprised that he withdrew the court case. And he became the vice temple president! He was called Nityananda Chandra Das and is now the temple president of Dallas!


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Making a connection with Krishna part 3

Posted: 25 Jan 2012 02:32 PM PST

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Mayapur, November 2011) Lecture – Caitanya-caritamrta part 7

So if anyone has a story, then please tell us. I have one also. There was a hells angel, who was the king of hells angels. His name was Peter and he had a big motorbike. He wore a German army helmet and underneath it his face was covered with a black cloth with two holes for the eyes with red rings around it. The letter 'Jack', with 'Lord to spare' were on his back. He was a huge big guy, and somehow or other met the devotees (as they were travelling on sankirtan) and they gave him some cheese sabji. And he like the cheese sabji…boy did he like the cheese sabji.

After that they came past a few times in the area and each time they met him, he said:

"Cheese sabji!!"

So they had to cook cheese subhji for him. One day we heard a sound in Amsterdam, and it was a motorbike coming into the street. It was incredibly fast and terribly loud, which stopped in front of our door. When the door was opened, there was this hells angel in a German helmet, with everything on, including the black mask, and he said:

"Cheese sabji!!"

And we understood! We didn't know who he was, but we gave him cheese sabji. So from that time on he sort of became a devotee, but he stayed as a hells angel. So one time we were on harinama and he was sort of following behind. We were going across the street, and were just crossing the street, when there was a car there (the driver in that car was really aggressive) which was trying to drive into us! Out of nowhere, suddenly this hells angel flies into the sky and with his big metal boots he walked over there towards the car, by making noises….'crack…crack…. crack' and jumped up on the other side and gave that guy a look, who became totally quiet – that was devotional service!

It wasn't that long but later he died. But I will always remember Peter for having done that devotional service.


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25 January 2012

KKSblog.com - Making a connection with Krishna part 2

KKSblog.com - Making a connection with Krishna part 2

Making a connection with Krishna part 2

Posted: 24 Jan 2012 02:46 PM PST

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Mayapur, November 2011) Lecture – Caitanya-caritamrta part 7

In South Africa one of our leading devotees, who was the head of the BBT. He used to be a Christian activist. He used to go around, putting brochures in people's hand. When he saw the devotees he thought:

" Let me go and save those guys!"

So he went to the harinama party, and stood there with this brochure and was trying to give it to someone, but everyone was involved in the kirtan, and therefore no one was taking it. Until finally one of them said:

"Oh, we've only to take that? Okay I will take it".

And he walked away.

"I saved him! I saved him!"

But when he got home, he was thinking:

"They looked really happy, did those guys!"

And it impressed him so much that he actually went to the temple and became a devotee, and now he is a big leader in South Africa!

1st Devotee: I know a Prabhu who used to be a roller skater in Denmark, and had an attitude, within the roller skaters and the skateboarders' environment. Every time he saw the harinama party come by, then he would throw things at them, such as food, rocks and whatever he could find. And he is now living here in Mayapur!

2nd Devotee: There was a lawyer named Mahaprabhu, who lived in Chowpatty, and had joined the movement around in 1978. He was a gṛhastha and had another job. For some reason or other, he was involved in a case, and someone wanted him killed. So that person had hired a hit man, to go and kill Mahaprabhu. So this hit man came to the Chowpatty temple to kill Mahaprabhu. He came to the temple and found the devotees to be so overwhelmingly friendly and nice that he too became a devotee!


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24 January 2012

KKSblog.com - Making a connection with Krishna part 1

KKSblog.com - Making a connection with Krishna part 1

Making a connection with Krishna part 1

Posted: 23 Jan 2012 02:50 PM PST

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Mayapur, November 2011) Lecture – Caitanya-caritamrta part 7

Anyone who has contact with devotees is making a connection with Krishna! In Amsterdam in the late seventies we used to have harinama. Whenever we would go to do harinama in the city, there was a man who owned the vegetable stall, and he would always throw rotten tomatoes! So we knew when he came by to watch out, and so we ducked. But later that man became a donor and he gave vegetables to the temple!


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The next step

Posted: 23 Jan 2012 10:55 AM PST

(Kadamba Kanana Maharaja, 29 December 2011, Munich, Germany)

Our objective is to purify ourselves.  If we are developing a little bit of humility… humility doesn’t mean that we walk around all day long saying:
“I am so fallen!”
“How fallen am I?”
“Boy, O boy, I am fallen! I am sinful! I am terribly fallen!”

That’s not where humility ends.  That’s a step on the way.  But the next step is, ‘Therefore, I need purification.’  So if one is humble, the next step is to look for purification.  And that is our next step – to look for purification.

One who is not humble will not be able to surrender to all the demands required for purification.  So if we are serious about purification, we must make a real endeavor.


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