(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Berlin, September 2011)

It is very interesting how selfless the love of Srimati Radharani and the gopis is, and she is of course, the topmost.  I find this image of her love being a mirror reflecting the qualities of Krsna and then eternally discovering more qualities – I find it very interesting because it just shows how one eternally makes spiritual advancement.  No limit to it, never!

It's very profound.  This of course, does not just apply to Srimati Radharani.  It applies to all devotees, and especially to all the eternal associates of the Lord, and even to us.  We are also discovering, little by little, more and more about the nature of Krsna, the qualities of Krsna.  At this stage our love is not very developed, but some attraction is there.  It's unavoidable, because Krsna is Bhagavan.

Srila Jiva Goswami explains one definition of the word Bhagavan.  He breaks it up in three syllables.: Bha, Ga, and Va.  He says Bha stands for Bhajanya, Ga for Guna, and Va, for Vasistha.  Bhajanya Guna Vasistha means that Krsna is irresistible – you have to worship Him.

So this is the situation.  Therefore there is no question of not coming to the point of loving Krsna.  Sooner or later, even demons are transformed.

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Finland, 2011)

We can give people prasadam. We can at work and even in hospitals! One can slip it in…slip in some prasadam…a little maha water in there…within the water. We must become secret agents – 007, and somehow or other become agents of mercy. We should always think about it like that!

In my family they were always a little bit reserved about prasadam. If you would bring sweet balls, then they kind of didn't like it! But if you disguised it like a dutch apple pie. Make some dutch apple pie and offer it all to Krishna.

"Wow! Did you bake that?"

Dutch apple pie with cream….well you know, then they would all take prasadam. So somehow or other we must have this consciousness of giving mercy!

By: Kadamba Kanana Swami

The holy name was bouncing of the walls continuously, at night it continued in our dreams, at times I woke up and just started kirtana. It bounced against the wall of our false ego, making cracks and gradually breaking it. In the Caitanya Bhagavata it is described how Lord Nityananda engaged a group of young boys for one month in continuous kirtana, they didn't  even stop to eat or sleep and at the end the boys in their ecstasy ripped  entire trees out of the ground. During the Kirtana Mela, sometimes the kirtanas were wild and intense,other times mellow and meditative, an ocean of so many rasas, so many different types of taste. Some danced the whole week.

Then  we sang and  danced while pulling the chariot of Lord Jagannatha through the streets of Leipzig and still there was more festival to come the next day, Radhastami, the appearance day of Srimati Radharani. Remembering the pure loving devotional service of Srimati Radharani.   Her love is like a mirror reflecting the unlimited qualities of Krsna and she continuous to discover newer and newer amazing qualities in Krsna and in this way her love is increasing eternally. That love is touching Krsna, who also feels His love for her increasing and increasing. There is no end to the pleasure in the spiritual world.   The Mayor  from Limbach, the village where the Kirtana Mela was held,  personally visited the festival and enjoyed the festival and prasadam. The Mayor is a theologian with a keen spiritual interest and came across very favorably in a newspaper artikel; "We are a town open to the world and I find it fantastic, that people from the entire globe came to be our Guest. Generally speaking  in connection  with the Globalization a stronger effort should be made toward dialogue between various cultures." "Such festivals with their impressive atmophere are very suitable toward realizing that objective and can have more impact on the consciousness then Seminars and speeches on the theme of Global Culture",  he added. "He would welcome the festival if it would again take place in Limbach in 2012."

Meanwhile here in the material world, there is now a moment of peace and quiet,ki jaya, a moment of rest, and after catching up on some good sleep, we can try and catch up on some good japa and read the sastra. Hearing, chanting and remembering, sabde pare ca nisnatam, always bathing in transcendental sound continues also at a time of rest.  Now may be also the time has come to reflect, how deeply can we become aborbed in chanting  Krsna's holy name. The Padma Purana has established that the name is non-different from Krsna, Himself, but we are not yet actually perceiving it in that way. We look at the chanting like  a yajna, a sacrifice to attract the mercy of Krsna for our purification. We also look at the chanting as just fun when famous, powerful kirtan leaders such as Lokanatha Maharaja, BB Govinda Maharaja, Madhvava, Sacinandana Maharaja and many others are leading and we don't forget the extra dimension to that fun of the eternal benefit that we have gained from the chanting. Then we flooded Leipzig with the ecstasy of  Ratha Yatra and our heart became inundated more. On Radhastami started our reflection on pure devotional service of which Srimati Radharani is the emblem and we prayed to her for service knowing that no one can please Krsna the way that she can.

Now everyone has gone home! Where is my home? My home is with the devotees, who are my real friends, I am at home with them and visit them all over the world.

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The love of Srimati Radharani, who is the personification of the hladhini shakti, is just eternally increasing and that brings about a reaction in Krsna. So Krsna is not just sitting there watching His energies and, 'just see My amazing glories and My amazing energies, just see…just see…' No, that love of Srimati Radharani is equally bringing out love out of Krsna. And then we understand that Krsna, in His exchanges, with all His associates, all His devotees, is just increasing His transcendental love, the premamrtambho- that ocean of transcendental love is eternally increasing  in the heart of Krsna and in the heart of all His devotees. Therefore it is said that although Krsna is completely absorbed in this transcendental love and just can't practically think of anyone else because it is just an overwhelming experience. But still there is another side of Krsna, which feels something lacking when there are living beings who are not part of that. Therefore Krsna comes into the material world to bring us also to that ever increasing ocean of love of God… (Kadamba Kanana Maharaja, 6 September 2011, Berlin)

Here Srila Krsnadas Kaviraja has captured that point how Krsna is everywhere seeing Srimati Radharani. When Krsna is coming to Vrndavana all of Vrndavana is simply engaging in the service of Krsna. Every aspect of Vrndavana is serving Krsna. Nature in Vrndavana is simply serving Krsna. The water plants in the Yamuna are collaborating with Krsna. When Krsna places His lotus feet in the water of the Yamuna, the plants quickly wrap around His foot so that He cannot pull it out! And the Yamuna stops flowing and then the water just gets still and then suddenly little whirlpools appear due to ecstasy from holding onto Krsna's feet. The trees are blossoming, whether it is season or not. Whenever Krsna is coming pass the trees start to blossom and the wind immediately takes advantage to carry the fragrance to Krsna. Therefore when Krsna sees these flowers as offering of the trees, immediately He is thinking of utilising these flowers in His exchanges with Srimati Radharani. Therefore everything reminds Him of Srimati Radharani, everything is aimed at that…

(Kadamba Kanana Maharaja, 6 September 2011, Berlin)

After five days of tasting the full nectar of the Holy Name, manifested by various great kirtaneers in the Kirtana Mela, the festival continued in the nearby inner city of Leipzig. There the devotees, charged by the intense chanting, pulled the Lord in His form as Jagannatha through the streets of Leipzig. Kadamba Kanana Maharaja was the first to lead the kirtana, followed by Lokanatha Maharaja and Sacinandana Maharaja. It was the biggest Krishna concious event that ever took place in Leipzig. The procession ended in the Clara Zetkin Park, where different programs took place, like bhajanas and a theater. Jayadvaita Maharaja inspired everyone by tirelessly answering all kind of questions in the Q&A tent, whereas Kadamba Kanana Swami rocked the stage in a final kirtana.

The next day an initiation ceremony took place in the Leipzig temple. As Maharaja mentioned in his talk, it has been a rare occasion, since both, Kadamba Kanana Swami himself as well as his spiritual master Jayadvaita Maharaja were present. Both of them have given a talk before the diciples received their new names. One devotee from Finnland received the most auspicious name Nityananda Dasa, while one local mataji was named Akuti, which means 'she who hankers for perfection'.

After the ceremony, Kadamba Kanana Maharaja went on to the Berlin temple to celebrate Radhastami on the following day. There he led the bahajanas, which accompanied the bathing ceremony of the deities, and gave the morning and evening classes together with Kavichandra Maharaja.

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