STRAWS

In the material world a so-called family is a combination of several persons in one home to fulfill the terms of their imprisonment. As criminal prisoners scatter as soon as their terms are over and they are released, all of us who have temporarily assembled as family members will continue to our respective destinations.

As water passes down a river, many straws and grasses are carried from the shore. These straws and grasses come together in the river's current, but when the waves toss this way and that, they are separated and carried somewhere else and float alone in the water.

Similarly, the innumerable living entities within this material world are being carried by the waves of material nature. Sometimes the waves bring them together, and they form friendships and relate to one another on a bodily basis of family, community or nationality. Eventually they are thrown out of association by the waves of material nature, and they are inevitably separated by the waves.

 

 

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WHY WE ARE NOT HAPPY?

Because:

- We compromise what we know is right
- We are afraid to confront what we need to change
- We are afraid to desire
- We are afraid to love
- We are not ready to pay the price of success

 

 

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Ready to approach anyone and everyone

Devotional service works for everybody, it always works and it never fails to act.
As soon as one somehow or the other connects to devotional service one becomes purified.
Srila Prabhupada has this great conviction and on the strength of that he was ready to approach anyone and everyone - he wasn't considering who is qualified and who is not qualified because he had this strong faith.

Transcribed by Madhumati Devi Dasi
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Stockholm 2011)

 

 

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'He is not answering my emails!'

Transcribed by Yamuna Devi Dasi
(Kadamba Kanana Swami 2011)

I was in one temple and they had a big office full of computers and all these devotees were typing these letters.
Suddenly, I was thinking:" Are they writing these letters to us.!!!"
Then I got thirty mails after breakfast!"
And then they complain:" He is not answering my emails!"

I always say: "If I don't answer your email then that's very good. Because then there is the good chance that I'm actually chanting my rounds and reading Srimad Bhagavatam"
When I answer all my emails very faithfully then you should doubt about my chanting because it is not humanly possible to answer to all those emails.

 

 

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I Just Can't Do It

Transcribed by Madhumati Devi Dasi
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Stockholm 2011)

Knowledge can increase our eagerness in devotional service. The more knowledge we develop about the potency of the Holy Name, the potency of devotional service, the more eager we will be to perform and to take advantage because then we realise that it is not impossible. Although emotionally at present spiritual life seems too difficult: 'It is nice, it is good, it is the truth, but it is too difficult."
This tendency to think that :'Yes I believe in Krishna Consciousness, I believe in bhakti yoga, I believe that it is the truth but I don't believe in myself, I don't believe that I can do it" - this is the more subtle form of faithlessness.
People that say "I don't have faith in devotional service" - we can say that is unfortunate but if we just study the arguments and logic, then many of us can accept it - Why would God not be ever fresh?
Why would He not be all powerful?
Why would He not be all knowing?
Why would He not be all famous?
Why would He not be a person?
When everywhere there is a person and everywhere there is a personality then why not Him, if He is the origin. Shouldn't the creation reflect the nature of the creator logically speaking?
Like that one can hear the logical argument and accept the system of belief of Krishna Consciousness and it makes sense and it gives a complete picture but then what?
We have no self confidence:
'I have never been successful in my life'
'I know my limitations'
'I just can't do it'
'I have already tried and I couldn't do it.'
'I tried following the four regulative principles but I couldn't do it and therefore it is too difficult for me so maybe I go and do hata yoga.'
Totally missing the point that success is not measured whether we can follow the four regulative principles or not - in the pre stages we may not be able to follow the four regulative principles that doesn't matter, we simply keep trying. Prabhupada often said that failure is the pillar of success just like it is natural for a child to walk but it takes a certain amount of effort like in the beginning the child will fall and fall and fall again and again and again until one day he will walk.

 

 

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