Purchased by love

Posted by dinesh

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 25 June 2019, New York, United States of America, Srimad Bhagavatam 1.9.20)

Duryodhana was working very hard to win people over to his side and he was successful in some cases. Some karmi leaders were coming along with their armies and they were being received very nicely. They thought that they were going to fight for Yudhisthira and Yudhisthira made all such arrangements for them, but it turned out that it was Duryodhana. So then they felt so indebted, that they instead fought on Duryodhana’s side.

He tried to do the same with Krsna. When Krsna was coming as the messenger of the Pandavas, Duryodhana arranged a wonderful palace for Him to stay. And when Krsna came, He was offered an extraordinary treatment, a wonderful palace and a great reception. Then Krsna simply said, “No, I will never stay in the house of one who is envious of the Pandavas.” He refused whatever was offered by Duryodhana. Instead, He went to stay with Vidhura, which was something that even Vidhura did not expect. Vidhura was a dasi putra – he was not really a prince in that sense. He was certainly a son of the king, but with a maidservant. And therefore, although he was treated respectfully within the kingdom, he was not in a royal position and was also considered as a sudra.

So first of all, to stay with Vidhura was considered a bit awkward and second of all, Vidhura was not prepared whatsoever. At this time, all that Vidhura could arrange to offer Krsna were bananas. Then as his wife got the bananas ready, Vidhura offered the peels instead of the bananas. He was so overwhelmed by love of God, that he was so ecstatic, “Krsna is in my house!“, that he was grabbing the peels instead of the bananas. This of course shows why Krsna chose to stay in the house of Vidhura. So in this way, we appreciate that Krsna is purchased by love.

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A gradual progress

Posted by dinesh

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 18 March 2012, Prague, Czech Republic, Srimad Bhagavatam 4.9.8)

Question: When it comes to stumbling blocks in spiritual progress, with things like lust, pride and disturbances of the mind, I can clearly see them coming or even realise that they are there. Yet still they remain in my mind and I realise that by simple knowledge and awareness, they do not disappear. How do I deal with this, noting that we are conditioned and are aware of it, but we still continue to be conditioned by it?

Kadamba Kanana Swami: Krsna says:

sarva-dharmān parityajya
mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja
ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo
mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ
(Bhagavad-gita 18.66)

Krsna says that He will take away all the impurities! We cannot take them away ourselves. It means
we have to surrender to Krsna’s system of devotional service as it is passed down by the disciplic succession, and then Krsna will take away our impurities gradually. That is how it works. So if we are confronted by our own impurities, and we cannot put them aside with our knowledge, then this means that Krsna wants us to increase the quality and quantity of our devotional service!

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His loving mercy

Posted by dinesh

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 24 February 2019, New York, United States of America, Bhagavad-gita 7.7)

In the tenth chapter of Bhagavad-gita, ahaà sarvasya prabhavo mattaù sarvaà pravartate (Bhagavad-gita 10.8), we can see that Krsna is the origin of all that is spiritual and all that is material, and the wise who notice this, they perfectly worship Him with love. That is ultimately where we want to come. Because we are seeing how kind Krsna is… how unlimitedly kind He truly is! He is the Supreme, the topmost personality, all powerful, all beautiful, all perfect, yet He takes interest in insignificant creatures like us. He specifically notices our individual existence and that is something special. Every living being means something to Krsna and thus Krsna takes a personal interest in every single living being. That is something extraordinary! Suhrdam sarva dehinam (bhutanam) (Bhagavad-gita 5.29) – heartfelt suhrdam, heartfelt friend and well-wisher of every living being. So to think about that, that is the most amazing thing! And I meditate on things like this and can only imagine how kind Krsna really is. In this way, we can appreciate Krsna consciousness and when we leave this temple, we can look everything we see with a fresh perspective because we can see how Krsna is actually manifesting all these things for us and how He is behind everything. Everything is simply an arrangement of His kindness; sometimes aimed to frustrate us and sometimes aimed to encourage us. But nevertheless, it is all by His loving mercy. That is Krsna!

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