(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Berlin 2011)

In the earlier days of Iskcon austerity was a big thing, it was considered spiritual, the more austere the more spiritual:

the colder the water the better, the less you could eat the more Krishna consciousness you were!

'How many chick peas do you eat?'

The days of austerity where everything was taboo;

'A book that is not Krishna conscious'

'It should be burned!'

'If we found it in the ashrama it would be confiscated and..burned, burned it was'

'Such books are not to be read, such books are maya, and such books are contaminating us, we do not even wish to see them or smell them, …..burn them, destroy them, annihilate them, burn them deep in the ground and let the worms devour them that they will never return in our life!   So that we will be safe from maya and it will not in any way disturb us and we will just have our purity in our devotional life……………………………………………oh, there's just one thing that we forgot.'

'Oh what's that?'

'We forgot that we were human, we forgot that we have taste, we forgot that we have likes and dislikes, we forgot that we desire, to enjoy and feel good.'

'Maya Maya, are you serving Krishna? Are you serving Krishna?'

'But I want to take a walk in the forest'

'Sense gratification, Sense gratification'

'But the green is good for my nerves'

'You're not your nerves'

'I'm tired….'

'The soul, the spirt soul is full of unlimted energy, the soul is never tired!'

So those days were moving along and yes…it couldn't last.

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 2005)

Our main problem is that we ourselves too are contaminated with material selfishness. That we think about ourselves:

'What am I getting?'

Instead of:

'What am I giving?'

This is the point. In Krishna Consciousness the essence is to give, and if we preoccupy ourselves from morning till night about giving instead about receiving:

'Am I getting the right things?'

Am I getting the good facility?'

'Am I getting….getting…..getting?'

Instead of worrying about getting, if we are getting in the spirit of giving then we will conquer our mind, our senses and we will be totally inspired in the service of the Lord! This is our aim; this is our objective; this is our meditation. Even while we may sometimes struggle with our tendencies to receive. Even while we are hankering to receive, we must preach to ourselves.

The reason why we are always again and again hearing and studying Krishna conscious philosophy is not that we are just becoming expert preachers for others, but first of all we are becoming expert preachers for ourselves……to preach to ourselves – that is an essential element! One must at times when the mind takes over,than we have to speak to ourselves:

"Ok, now you are on the mental platform. Just see you will allow yourself to totally go into this mind. Now is the time to chant. Now it's the time to get very busy in devotional service. This is your only saving grace".

And then we should act upon it. So this is the process that we do not allow the mind to control. Rather we control the mind by just preaching to ourselves and acting on the platform of intelligence which tells us to engage in devotional service and in taking shelter of the holy name. This is the way… it works!

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Berlin 2010)

It's not just in the external hocus pocus, but it is really in how much one makes a sacrifice within that makes it meaningful, it's not so much in a saffron,…or  in different mixes:

'Are you going for Loy Bazaar Pink or are you going for Chowpatty yellow or are you going for rock dye, or are you going for the old mix; good old orange and yellow- number fifity five and number six?'

So in this way there all expressions of one's personality;

'Are we going for the border, South Indian Style?'

'Are we going for the thick tilaka?'

'Are we going for the shika the size of the back of our head, or are we leaving an eternal beard of three days to look casual?'

'Are we going for beads around our neck with leaves with Holy Name all over and putting Kavacas on the left and on the right?'

'Does your brahmana thread have twelve strings or does it have 6 or does it have three… what is it?'

So all these things they can be meaningful only… if they became part of a sacrifice.