KKSblog.com - An initiation lecture in Melbourne

An initiation lecture in Melbourne
Looking for strength
The absolute truth
A visit to Melbourne
Seminar in Melbourne: BECOME A CHAMPION CHANTER

Posted: 10 Oct 2011 04:04 PM PDT

This is an initiation lecture, given by HH Kadamba Kanana Swami on the 08 October 2011 in Melbourne, Australia. In the lecture Maharaja explains the importance of initiation and elaborates on the ten offences against the holy name.

If you want to download the lecture, just click here!

Looking for strength

Posted: 10 Oct 2011 04:01 PM PDT

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Helsinki, Finland, 2011)

I have one more thing to say about men and women. A lot of fuss has been made about women wanting to be equal to men. But in most cases, the truth of the matter is that men have become equal to women – that's actually the situation. That's actually where we are at in society.

In a sense that men are also weak, and they are also inclined towards the senses and not inclined towards a higher goal. The men are supposed to be strong by saying:

"No!"

By going for the spiritual goals in life, but the men are very weak, and the whole culture is like that. Everyone is a slave to the senses, and everyone is full of good intentions but cannot live up to it, because this is the situation. When we take to spiritual life, then we fix ourselves:

"Yes I'm going to do this".

And we don't do it, because as we are getting confronted with the three modes of material nature – we find ourselves weak, because we find that we do not having enough strength to do so! So men are meant to be strong but in this age the men are also weak! That is why I said:

"When we say men and women become equal".

Yes, that has already happened – the men became like the women. So that is the whole population, which is very much inclined towards the mind and the senses – that is the situation.

Therefore, we see now that sometimes some women are spiritually stronger than men, where the wife is the driving force in the family and the men is sort of flaky, and half there by not following all of the principles……….falling back into smoking dope. I know so many cases like this, but the truth of the matter is that, that is Krishna's arrangement, and Srila Prabhupada is making a point here:

"Because women were especially created by the Lord to give service to men!"

A woman is looking for strength in a man. A woman wants to feel protected, and wants to feel supported and is looking for a man who is actually stronger than she is, since then she will actually feel inspired and follow the man…………and together she can also do it. Therefore, in the Bhagavatam it is stated:

"If one wants to be husband, then one has to be of a very high calibre. One has to be practically as good as a spiritual master".

So where do we find such husbands? Mostly the husbands are struggling and weak, then the women become restless and not satisfied. We don't understand these things when we come from the west. We don't understand that deep down there is this expectation, since the woman expects the man to spiritually be the example. That is the kind of man that she really wants – a the first class man!

The absolute truth

Posted: 10 Oct 2011 03:30 PM PDT

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Helsinki, Finland, 2011)

I grew up in a family where the house was a big thing. My father always wanted a bigger house. We had nice house. There were three of us kids, and we all had our own room. There was also a guest room. So I thought:

"It was fine".

There was a nice garden with fruit trees…..basically it was a nice house!

But no, we had to have a bigger house and anybody who came, got the full tour of the entire house, which took twenty minutes at least:

"And here we have the Italian marble wall……..and there is an empty table, and that mirror is also two hundred years old……….and then we are going upstairs. This is the study……and this is the bedroom, and this is the room for the dog!"

It was just a waste of time (as far as I was concerned) since so much energy was going into the house. So much thinking:

"The house….the house, the house!"

So this is not a vaisnava's business. So devotees will also recognise within themselves the same tendencies………………………………………The Bhagavatam is the absolute truth which is holding up the mirror to us, and we have to just look at it like that:

"Well, I guess that I also have these tendancies".

A visit to Melbourne

Posted: 10 Oct 2011 03:14 AM PDT

After the initiation ceremony in Sydney on Thursday morning (6 October), Kadamba Kanana Maharaja flew to Melbourne, where a fully scheduled week of programs awaited him. Upon arrival, he attended a nice home program. The highlight of the evening was an explosive kirtana, followed by a short lecture where he explained how one can only see the real value of something when one puts Krsna next to it.

The next evening Maharaja led a Maha Harinama that started-off in Crossways at a devotee restaurant in down-town Melbourne. It was a rocking trip through crowded streets and shopping centres with many enthusiastic devotees. Click here for the ecstatic video!

On Saturday morning, after giving the Srimad-Bhagavatam class, Maharaja initiated two devotees. They were a married couple of Indian descent who were named Vrajanatha Dasa and Sadhumati Devi Dasi. The class will be available shortly.

Later that day, Maharaja began a three-part seminar entitled Become a Champion Chanter. Click here for the recordings. The seminar took place in the very room that Prabhupada stayed in when He visited Melbourne. There was an overwhelming response and the room was filled with devotees. After leading an inspiring bhajana to inaugurate the session, Maharaja spoke on the topic of nama tattva based on the Caitanya Caritamrita. The day concluded with a Question and Answers program at the Bhakti Bhavan centre near the temple.

The seminar continued on Sunday, where Maharaja elaborated further on the meaning of the Holy names. In the last session, he concluded by telling educational stories on the subject matter. Maharaja then went on to give the Sunday Program Srimad-Bhagavatam class and at the end, he led the visitors in the chanting of one round of Japa on chanting beads. Enjoy the pictures!

If you cannot view this slide show, please visit flickr.

Seminar in Melbourne: BECOME A CHAMPION CHANTER

Posted: 10 Oct 2011 03:00 AM PDT

Here are recordings of the 3-part seminar series entitled Become a champion chanter given by HH Kadamba Kanana Swami on 8-9 October 2011 in Melbourne, Australia. In these lectures, Maharaja explains different aspects of chanting the Holy Name e.g. the actual meaning of Hare, Krsna and Rama, as well as different techniques and meditations to enter deeper into the chanting.