(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Durban – South Africa, April 2011)

The other day I was not feeling well.  I was ill but I started reciting some verses, and as I was reciting the verses, I felt these verses were like nets that pulled me up.  The disease was pulling me down, down in misery, down and feeling like something wet and sticky and weak.  But then these verses are like little jewels of purity that give us shelter and that lift us up and keep us from going down and becoming absorbed in material life.

So in that way we have all these opportunities – little things.  It's not hard to learn a verse.  You tape it on the fridge or somewhere else.  You tape it on a wall and you see it and after a while it will be there in your mind.  All these little things – going to the temple, associating with the devotees, a verse from the Bhagavad Gita – all these are little pieces of our spiritual wealth.

Spiritual life is an enormous blessing, much greater than we realise.  Because we don't see the greatness of all the blessings we are receiving, we are not appreciating what we have.  And therefore we feel it's such a struggle – it's such a struggle!  Because we don't realise how good our spiritual life really is, we need to collect wealth – as much as possible – daily spiritual wealth.

Our trip to England started in the Bhaktivedanta Manor, where Maharaja gave an amazing class about the Caitanya Caritamrita, which dealt with the inner reasons of Caitanya Mahaprabhu's appearance. Based in the Manor, Maharaja attended different programs in London.

He went to London's "Matchless Gifts" program centre, which is a store-front with a small temple room in the cellar. The whole atmosphere there reminded one of the first days of Iskcon, with hippies playing different melodies and Srila Prabhupada singing the classic Hare Krishna melody, which was done this time by Kadamba Kanana Swami.

On Saturday night, Maharaja went to the famous Harinama in Soho Street. He first gave a lecture in the Radha Krishna temple there, and then the ecstatic group of vaishnavas made their way through the inner city of London. The response was amazing, with many people joining the Harinama, dancing and singing.

If you cannot view the slide show below, please visit flickr.