(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Berlin 2011)

In the earlier days of Iskcon austerity was a big thing, it was considered spiritual, the more austere the more spiritual:

the colder the water the better, the less you could eat the more Krishna consciousness you were!

'How many chick peas do you eat?'

The days of austerity where everything was taboo;

'A book that is not Krishna conscious'

'It should be burned!'

'If we found it in the ashrama it would be confiscated and..burned, burned it was'

'Such books are not to be read, such books are maya, and such books are contaminating us, we do not even wish to see them or smell them, …..burn them, destroy them, annihilate them, burn them deep in the ground and let the worms devour them that they will never return in our life!   So that we will be safe from maya and it will not in any way disturb us and we will just have our purity in our devotional life……………………………………………oh, there's just one thing that we forgot.'

'Oh what's that?'

'We forgot that we were human, we forgot that we have taste, we forgot that we have likes and dislikes, we forgot that we desire, to enjoy and feel good.'

'Maya Maya, are you serving Krishna? Are you serving Krishna?'

'But I want to take a walk in the forest'

'Sense gratification, Sense gratification'

'But the green is good for my nerves'

'You're not your nerves'

'I'm tired….'

'The soul, the spirt soul is full of unlimted energy, the soul is never tired!'

So those days were moving along and yes…it couldn't last.