(Kadamba Kanna Swami, Finland, 2011)

Whenever we serve Lord Jagannath, it brings us beyond our limits. You can think:

"Well, this time I will not go completely crazy, in the Ratha Yatra".

Forget it! You will go completely crazy, and that's the nature of the Ratha Yatra. Lord Jagannath, somehow or other takes us to our limits….through our limits, and there are also no limits to how much service that Jagannath is able to receive.

Ratha Yatra, Lord Caitanya and His movement – they are very intimately connected. Of course, Lord Caitanya (in Jagannath Puri)for many years was performing Ratha Yatra. Actually it was six years in a row that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was performing Ratha Yatra, and later on He took twelve years in Jagannath Puri, and He was too ecstatic to deal with such things, which was another matter.

For six years Lord Caitanya was just dancing in the Ratha Yatra, which was inconceivable. He would throw himself high in the air, without considering how He would come down! Sometimes in his ecstasy He would crash to the ground – full on! He'd jump really high and would just crash on the ground! And everyone was thinking:

"His ribs would crash and completely break!"

But that didn't happen, and then he would jump straight back up and continued dancing…..and do it again! So Nityananda started to catch Him. As He was going down Nityananda was there catching Him! Lord Caitanya would jump so high…way above the crowd, who were just looking in amazement.

He would start spinning around in circles. He would go so extremely fast that it was compared to a firebrand (lets say a red hot piece of wood, and if you moved it very fast then it just looks like a closed circle of fire). Sir Caitanya Mahaprabhu was moving so fast that it just looked like a closed circle.

So who could imagine the dancing of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu?

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(Kadamba Kanna Swami, Finland, 2011)

The animals in Vrindavan and in the holy dhams are also devotees and they are very much on the spontaneous platform. I have seen many extraordinary things with animals in the dhams.

In Vrindavan we would take prasadam in the temple and then they were carrying the buckets from the kitchen to the main entrance of the temple. Just as they were carrying the bucket, this bird made a total attack and went straight for the sweet rice! Just flied half through it with mouth wide open!

I have never seen anything like it, but only in Vrindavan. Such eagerness….really. While we were taking prasadam we had a net which covered the courtyard of the temple to keep out the monkeys! But there was also the tamal tree in the courtyard of the temple. The tamal tree had broken a little bit of the net. So one monkey got in, whilst the devotees were almost finished taking the prasadam. Most devotees had left by then, so the monkey came down and sat on the mats in front of the empty plate. What to do? So we just served the monkey, who nicely took the prasadam, and then left!

That was not an ordinary monkey – it's very clear in Vrindavan, but all on the spontaneous platform. So gradually more and more devotional service must become spontaneous, because Krishna is so nice! Yes, we'll make a flower garland for him because He is so nice – not because we have to, but because we want to! We will go and find some forest flowers and do it, somehow or other for Krishna!

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