13 November 2011

KKSblog.com - Devotional service can change anything!

KKSblog.com - Devotional service can change anything!

Devotional service can change anything!

Posted: 12 Nov 2011 04:00 PM PST


(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Stockholm, June 2011)

Devotional service can change anything. It doesn't matter since it can capture the impious. The impious can also engage in devotional service, and we see how much of an expert Jayananda was at that:

"Excuse me. I'm just doing some work……could you for a moment hold this plank, while I put some nails on there? Oh thank you very much. Could you just put a nail on your side?"

"Yeah, sure".

"Wow! you did that so expertly. Are you a carpenter?"

And before you know it there were strangers building a Ratha cart! If they wanted to smoke, he would say:

"No….no, you can't smoke here. You have to go outside, and afterwards wash your mouth and your hands, before you can carry on".

Sometimes Jayananda would have a whole crew like that! Then he would quickly go and cook some halwa for everyone. So Jayananda showed how he could get people just directly off the streets………… and just engage them in service!

That mood of abundance

Posted: 12 Nov 2011 03:22 PM PST

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Stockholm, June 2011)


I remember the story of how Srila Prabhupada went to Scotland in Glasgow. They made a very nice arrangement and hired out the theatre. It was a nice theatre with balconies on the side and in the centre. It was just packed. Everywhere there were people, there were even people standing in the aisles – that's how packed it was. It was amazing!

So there were devotees managing the whole thing. They rented out the whole place and. They were stood at the door as guards and so on. Everything was nicely managed, and Srila Prabhupada gave a lecture, which is a story in itself.

There was a huge kirtan – a big kirtan, and Prabhupada himself got into that kirtan on stage. They got really ecstatic……so much so that the guards at the door just left their posts and joined the kirtan! And then these little grubby street kids. In 'The Lilamrita', Satsvarupa Maharaja used the word 'little urchins' (dwarf like figures – small) and they were kind of blackish and dirty, like street kids. They just came in and tried to climb on stage with Prabhupada, and when the devotees saw them, they were throwing these kids off the stage and Prabhupada said:

"No, they are devotees. They want to chant Hare Krishna".

The kids joined the kirtan in ecstasy! That mood of abundance of just distributing to anyone without discrimination – that mood was there in Srila Prabhupda! No one else had that. All of his god brothers didn't have that mood! None of them had that mood!

The whole essence of spiritual life!

Posted: 11 Nov 2011 10:00 AM PST

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Stockholm, June 2011)

Sometimes it is said that in the initial stages of faith of when there is the initial phase – that we are travelling but the journey goes uphill. But we are appreciating the association of the devotees and we are with the devotees, but the path is still going uphill. We are still struggling so much with our senses and our mind, and then we may get some knowledge in the association of the devotees. But it says:

'balavan indiya-gramo vidvamsam api karsati', (S.B 9.19.17).

Even if we have knowledge, then we will still struggle, since that's how strong the senses are. So the struggle continues and then we look for the purification, 'atmendriya-priti' the removal of the stumbling blocks in the heart. By fixing ourselves in the regulated process of devotional service:

'vihārasya yukta-ceṣṭasya karmasu' ( B.G 6.17).

A regulated process of devotional service will be purified and still uphill! It's still uphill and the process of 'anartha-nivrttih', the stumbling blocks from the heart will be removed, and it's since it's still a uphill struggle…..struggle, until we get to the peak of the hill, and on the peak of the hill is the stage of 'nistha'.

The stage of 'nistha' is the stage where material desires have diminished somewhat and spiritual attraction has become strong. In 'nistha' one has strong faith – firm faith, and not the weak faith, that one initially has. In 'nistha' one has strong conviction. In that stage one says:

"I'm going to put all my energy and all my endeavours simply in following whatever Krishna desires. Whatever way Krishna has given towards happiness, that's my way, and no other way".

And all other ideas and all other desires in 'nistha' one can let them go! Before it was difficult to let them go and it was a struggle, since these desires come and harass us on the path and make it a struggle, but in 'nistha' we can let them go! It maybe that some material desires are lurking on the horizon, but they are not so strong anymore!

After 'nistha' the path becomes easy. It is now gently sloping down and it's not such a struggle anymore, because it is then that spiritual life really begins, with experiencing great taste, happiness and absorption becomes the whole essence of spiritual life!

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