By KKSBlog on Apr 22, 2018 06:29 pm
 (Kadamba Kanana Swami, 26 December 2017, Govinda Valley, Australia, Initiation Lecture) The essence of the process that we are following in this movement is the chanting of the holy name. This process is the yuga dharma – the dharma (religion) for this age of Kali. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has made this chanting of the holy name widely available to us and also added his extra mercy. The holy name has been chanted widely throughout the millennia but in this particular millennia, there is the added mercy of the Lord himself. Therefore, now it is very easy and quick for us to chant Krsna's name and attain the results. It is described by Rupa Goswami that in other kali yugas, there are also incarnations of Vishnu who teach harinam sankirtan. But because Vishnu is not the original Supreme Personality of Godhead, he cannot invest the name with the special mercy by which prema (love) is very quickly attained. So in those yugas, the chanting is going on, but it is difficult; the progress is slow. But now, the progress is very quick as the added mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is rapidly invoking Krsna prema. In the first initiation, the main focus is the holy name – that is the essence! The spiritual master chants on the beads first to invest them with his blessings and the blessings of the entire parampara (disciplic succession), coming from Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. It is then that he invests his special mercy on us. Therefore, even though one has been chanting before, where the mercy of Caitanya Mahaprabhu is still available to all, the spiritual master invokes the entire parampara's prayers during an initiation, which is very powerful! The article " Special mercy " was published on KKSBlog.
By KKSBlog on Apr 20, 2018 07:49 am
 (Kadamba Kanana Swami, 25 January 2018, Radhadesh, Belgium, Srimad Bhagavatam 8.12.23-24) Our first Ratha Yatra in Jaipur was a humble attempt. The devotees had just recently opened a small little centre. It was not much but they still wanted to have Ratha Yatra so we decided to keep it simple. They had one chariot. A life member made a little stage and in India, it is quite common that the stage is built to the height of the chariot. When the chariot stops people go to the stage and make offerings to the deity. So they had one such stage at the end of the procession. But as the parade started, the local people of Jaipur got interested, "Hey, what is that? You are having a festival? Oh, we are joining in!" Further along, a drum band appeared out of nowhere and joined the parade. At the end, there were elephants marching as well! As it was getting dark, a group of men came carrying lights on their head and all this was not organised. It just happened! The people of Jaipur welcomed Ratha Yatra. There was just spontaneous devotional service. That is the result of chanting Hare Krsna. There will be spontaneous devotional service and then it will spread. The article " Spontaneous devotional service " was published on KKSBlog.
By KKSBlog on Apr 17, 2018 02:00 pm
 (Kadamba Kanana Swami, 26 December 2017, Govinda Valley, Australia, Initiation Lecture) We should understand that we are always accepted by Krsna through the prayer of our spiritual master. Therefore, we continue to remain indebted to our spiritual master. How often emails are exchanged between the Guru and the disciple does not define the relationship. We are living in a crazy world where the communication is bizarre – never have people tried to communicate through telecommunications as much as now – it is just insane! Sometimes I am asked, "Why did you not answer my email?" I could give different answers to that. An answer I sometimes give, "Well, I was chanting Hare Krsna!" If I don't answer your email, at least know that I was chanting my rounds. The relationship between a Guru and his disciple is very different to all this constant communication! It is an eternal relationship that can never be broken. Nothing can break it, not even us. One can walk away from it but still we cannot break it. The relationship will always stay! It is a lasting bond that is created between the Guru and disciple where the Guru is the representative of Krsna. When we take the vows to the Guru, remember that we are actually making the vows to Lord Krsna. The spiritual master accepts the vows on behalf of Krsna and supervises them on behalf of Krsna. One might be able to run away from the Guru in keeping these vows but one cannot run away from Krsna! Krsna once wanted to plant pearls. His parents told him, "What are you doing Krsna? You cannot plant pearls. They do not sprout or produce plants." But Krsna convinced them that they do! He planted the pearls, watered them with milk and sure enough, these pearls sprouted and produced many bushes that produced many more pearls. Therefore, the vows of initiation are like such pearls. We are getting a great gift. The vows are very valuable and one must do something with them. One cannot just keep the gift, "Yep, got that, initiation done! Now I will just do my rounds and fulfill the daily quota." No! We must take the vows, take the pearls, plant them and water them with hearing, chanting, devotional service and making sacrifices for Krsna – doing something extraordinary with the vows! If we do, then the vows will produce amazing results – that is the idea! It is a great treasure that we must take advantage of. The job is not done. We got the pearls, now we must plant and water them! The article " Planting pearls " was published on KKSBlog.
By KKSBlog on Apr 16, 2018 02:09 pm
 (Kadamba Kanana Swami, 24 December 2017, Sydney, Australia, Bhagavad-gita 1.1) It is said in the scriptures that when we have a goal which is other than satisfying the senses of Krsna, then we will remain in anxiety. When our goal is to control, then anxiety will follow – "Will I get it? What do I do? I hope nothing will go wrong! Is it going to work or not? Let me cross my fingers, cross everything, even my toes!" Everything is crossed in the hope that it will go according to our wishes, but there is no guarantee, none at all. This is because the protection of Krsna is the only thing that can give us continuous success. Temporary success without Krsna can be attained, but then one might start to think, "I am a self-made man. I started with nothing, but by hard labour, I built up this entire business empire. It was all my own strength". Self-made man, huh? So they did not have a father or a mother? One simply takes advantage of the material opportunities available to them, and it is Krsna who presents the results to them. In India, almost every shop owner starts the day by performing a puja of Goddess Lakshmi – "Lakshmi Lakshmi Lakshmi!". All everyone wants is Lakshmi. But there is still no guarantee, because even after one performs such puja of Lakshmi, it does not mean that Lakshmi will stay. This is because Lakshmi is cancalam ('fickle'). So then we are restless, like a child going from a book to an iPad to sitting down to jumping; constantly changing. That is the nature of material existence – to have a flickering mind. So we must try to fix our mind on Krsna, because that is the only place where the mind can remain fixed. Everything else we want for ourselves, but even when we attain that material goal of ours, we will still not feel satisfaction, because our desire for wanting more will always remain. The article " Combatting anxiety " was published on KKSBlog.
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