By KKSBlog on Apr 10, 2018 11:00 am
 (Kadamba Kanana Swami, 18 October 2017, Melbourne, Australia, Srimad Bhagavatam 4.3.17) I have a disciple who always signs their letters with 'your mercy case' instead of the usual 'your servant'. It has been consistent over many years and it is nice. It sounds good to think with that mentality, 'I am your mercy case!' Whatever reminds us of our humble position, that is an asset! When we are seeing ourselves as fallen, then we feel a need for shelter. As soon as we think, "Well I know it all. I have been around for a long time," then the difficulty begins. We immediately start to derive some status from our position but by taking birth in this age of Kali, we are actually all inherently weak. So we deal with such weaknesses by chanting, taking shelter, adopting Vaishnava etiquette and 'beating our mind'. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura advised that we must always 'beat the mind'. He did not just say that; he actually did it. Krsna consciousness is not just about reading the books, understanding them and getting some glories – "I have now thoroughly understood Srila Prabhupada's books in a way that they are very rarely understood." No, rather we have to reform ourselves again and again, except that is still not the main thing; it is only a catalyst. That conscious endeavour is only the catalyst. It is one of the factors that support the real purification that comes from devotional service because ultimately, mercy is more important than our endeavour. It is good when a child is trying to do something independently. However, when an adult interferes and provides assistance, that is obviously more powerful than the child trying to do it all alone. Sometimes, we may also need a little help from someone who knows more. So in spiritual life, we need help. We should never think, "Now I have come to the point that I do not really need help from my spiritual master. He has helped me a lot, but now I am a teacher myself! So I do not need him anymore." Absolutely not. We always need the mercy of the spiritual master. We always need to have him to help with our attitude. We must always be at the feet of our spiritual master, talk to him, be open to him, consult him, share our lives with him and ask him for directions! The article " Your mercy case " was published on KKSBlog.
By KKSBlog on Apr 09, 2018 01:31 pm
 (Kadamba Kanana Swami, 25 January 2018, Radhadesh, Belgium, Srimad Bhagavatam 8.12.23-24) The human form of life is very different from the animal form of life. In the human form, we have responsibility. An animal has no karma in whatever they do – karma-free! You want a karma-free life with no restrictions and the ability to do anything? No problem, here is a tail and a snout to go with it; become an animal! Here, all you get as an animal is your old karma from previous lives and you do not create any new karma. So isn't it great to be an animal? Not really, because then you do not proceed anywhere. You may say, "Oh, I will do it. I will sign up for that. I will opt for an animal birth next time. Where do I sign up to be free from karma? Phew!" But what you may forget is that when the previous karma comes, so will happiness and distress, so it is not that good. The other thing is that you will not go anywhere and make no progress. You are stuck here in the material world, chained by sex life. How long have we been locked away in this jail where the bars of this jail are sex life? These bars keep us here within the jail of the material body. We should not think that this body is for enjoyment. It is actually a cell within a jail. Some may have a big jail cell, whereas some may have a small jail cell, some may have a beautiful jail cell, whilst others may have an ugly jail cell. But which one is good? We may look at each other and think, "That one looks much better. I want to have what they have." We may look at others with envy, but there is no need to be envious as everyone is actually suffering within different cells of this jail. When my spiritual master was in New York, a policeman approached him and asked, "What is it that you monks have to give up?" My spiritual master replied with, "Suffering!" The policeman said, "Well, that makes sense." This is because we can see all layers of society in a city like New York. We get a good overview of the varieties of the sense-gratification that are available to us and its results. But since the ultimate result is not happiness, we voluntarily embrace restrictions in our life. The article " Embracing restrictions " was published on KKSBlog.
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