The following is a nice article, written by Smita Krsna Mataji, describing Kadamba Kanana Maharaja's seminar regarding faith, held on the first and second of October in Govinda Valley, Australia.

Kadamba Kanana Swami flew in to the harbour city of Sydney just in time for the scheduled retreat at beautiful Govinda Valley situated one hour south of Sydney in the bushland of Otford.

Maharaja opened the retreat with a kirtana on Friday night. He charged the whole atmosphere with the spiritual sound vibration. After an hour of kirtan, Maharaja gave a welcome talk and an overview of the whole retreat. He emphasised that the taste for spiritual life can be developed by the service to vaisanvas. After the short talk, devotees were served delicious prasadam and then everybody went to bed early, in anticipation to spend the weekend with other vaisnavas to gain deep insight of the confidential knowledge of Bhakti yoga as revealed by the Lord Himself.

On Saturday, Maharaja led mangala arti as well as guru puja for Srila Prabhupada. The kirtan went long and devotees danced and sang with full energy. The topic of the first class was establishing the authority of Srimad Bhagavatam. Maharaja began with the explanation of 'om namo bhagavate vasudevaya' whereby 'om' includes every aspect of the Lord and 'bhagavate', referring to 'Bhagavan', indicates that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the focus of Srimad Bhagavatam. Maharaja explained that the Vedic literature includes many aspects of our life and that this is the purpose of Srimad Bhagavatam, to give transcendental spiritual knowledge. He told the audience that Bhagavatam is the teaching of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and therefore is highly essential. Maharaja also explained that the first verse of Srimad Bhagavatam establishes the teachings of our movement.

In the second class, Maharaja basically spoke about our faith in Srila Prabhupada.

The first day ended with the Vrindavan meditation with Maharaja singing sweet bhajans for Their Lordships in Their beautifully decorated altar.

On Sunday, after the mangala arti, devotees chanted their japa together in the association of Maharaja.

In the first class on Sunday, Maharaja explained faith in context with community that is in relation to people and not entity. He said that vaisnava culture has to be centered around Krishna and culture should be favourable for cultivation. The main points of discussion were Kanistha Adhikari, Madayama Adhikari and Uttama Adhikari explained with reference to the different stages of bhakti from sraddha to prema.

The second class on Sunday was focused on developing our relationship in spiritual life and about the 26 qualities of devotees. Maharaja explained that the depth of the faith directly reflects our relationship with each other. He said that if we make a relationship with the dhama, the vaisnava, the scriptures and the deities, then our roots will grow and through that our service will go deeper.

The final session of the retreat was focused on faith in dialogue, presenting, defending and explaining it. Kadamba Kanana Swami asked for volunteers from the audience and made a panel of speakers to ask them questions about philosophy, culture and real life situations. It was emphasised that when our knowledge is realised and when we experience conclusions of the scriptures then our faith becomes very strong and the eventually, at the stage of bhava, Krsna appears in the meditation. At this stage there is no question of believing or not,
but one can actually perceive Krsna.

The last part of the retreat was dedicated to discussing of Maharaja's book "Words of a Public Hermit" and Maharaja distributed this very book as gifts to all the devotees who took part in this retreat.

Please also view the pictures and listen to the lectures of this wonderful retreat.

After Kadamba Kanana Maharaja's stay in Capetown he went to Johannesburg, preparing to catch his flight to Austalia. He then eventually flew off to Sydney, Australia. Reaching there the next day he went straight on to Govinda Valley, a beautiful retreat center, situated directly on the coast in a town called Otford. There he gave an inspiring two-days seminar on the topic of faith.

On monday (03 Oct) he went to the Sydney temple, giving the evening Bhagavatam class. On the next two days he was busy giving the morning and evening classes and he also did a nice evening program at the Govinda's restaurant in Darling hurst, performing bhajanas and giving insights on the glories of Vrindavna Dhama.

On thursday morning Kadamba Kanana Swami held an initiation ceremony at the temple. He gave second initiation to one Mataji as well as first initiation to two Prabhus, calling them Nayanabhirama Dasa and Tusta Krsna Dasa. Enjoy the pictures!

If you would like to know more about the seminar regarding faith, please read this article and listen to the lectures. Enjoy!

If you cannot view the slideshow below, please visit flickr.

Here are the recordings of Kadamba Kanana Maharaja's seminar entitled
'Faith', given on October 1 and 2 in Govinda Valley, Australia.

Please also view the article and the pictures of this seminar.

If you cannot listen to these lectures, you can click on each of the titles to download them.

Day one

Kadamba Kanana Swami: Faith  

Kadamba Kanana Swami: Faith II

Kadamba Kanana Swami: Faith III

Day two

Kadamba Kanana Swami: Faith IV

Kadamba Kanana Swami: Faith V

Kadamba Kanana Swami: Faith VI

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Helsinki, 2011)

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was experiencing anxiety, because he was considering that so many conditioned souls were just totally covered over, and acting very sinful. They were not interested in chanting the holy name:

"So then how can we deliver these?"

Caitanya Mahaprabhu was in anxiety about it. So then Haridasa Thakura first gave the example of a muslim who just called out:

"Hare Rama, Hare Rama."

And then he was speaking about Ajamila who at the end of his life was chanting the name of 'Narayana'. But not with any intention to chant the name of the Lord but just calling his son, who was named 'Narayana'. In this way Haridasa said:

"All these sinful men will be delivered. All these living beings are being delivered by some arrangement of the holy name!"

So we can understand that Krishna has manifested the holy name in these languages – that is Krishna's arrangement, that the holy name is somehow or other part of our languages. Like for example the Dutch word for window is 'ram'. We will always say 'ram'. Close that 'ram'……………..who will come to clean the 'ram'. Like this it comes again and again in our language and in every language such words are hidden!

That is not a coincidence, since that is the arrangement of Krishna!

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Helsinki, 2011)

It is said that the muslims and the Arabic culture, in their language when they call out:

"Hare Rama, Hare Rama".

It means, ' what misfortune, what a great misfortune'. So each time they are calling out:

"What misfortune, Hare Rama".

Meanwhile they are getting the greatest benefit. There is an old puranic story about such a yadahana who had been pierced from the tusk of a wild boar. The result was that he was thinking:

"How could this happen?"

Then he was calling out:

"Hare Rama, Hare Rama! What misfortune."

As a result because he was calling out 'Hare Rama Hare Rama' at the time of death, he went back to Godhead! There are so many amazing stories like that. I know one particular case where one boy was taking initiation, and his mother went for the ceremony. His father didn't go because he didn't want to miss the football on TV. So he was sitting in front of the TV, and when his wife came back, the father called out:

"So what's his new name?"

It was a name with Krishna, I think it was Atul Krishna, and he repeated the name…..just then he dropped dead, on the spot, after he had said the holy name!

So unwillingly the holy name is being chanted, and unknowingly the holy name is being chanted – with no intention to serve the Lord………..with no spiritual intention whatsoever, and yet the benefit is there. That is the nature!