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Awakening that original hope!

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 30th Dec 2011, Munich, Germany) Lecture: Caitanya-caritāmṛta Adi 9-48

Devotional service captures the heart. It awakens a long dormant hope. In our hearts there is always this dormant hope for happiness. Maybe once when we were children we thought, yes, we will find it, but we didn't. Then we became adult, and as adults we come through this point life when we realise:

"Well, you cannot always get what you want, and you have to settle for the reality and so on."

So we settle for compromise. But this fruit of love of God, or fruit of devotional service awakens that original hope! That actually it may be possible after all to be fully satisfied. It awakens the very natural desire in us!

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Anchoring our vows

(Kadamba Kanana Maharaja, Dec 2011, Cape Town, SA) We have to build a very solid spiritual life. Vows don't stand by themselves. Just like a pole put in the sand doesn't stand very firm unless it is anchored in a strong foundation. Either you have to anchor it with a big concrete block on the ground or you have to put lines on four sides to sort of anchor it otherwise with time it will fall over. So we find that the vows in spiritual life also need to be anchored; they need support lines and a foundation then the forces of material nature will not knock over these vows. So the interesting part is that what was sort of relatively easy in the beginning… In the beginning you follow these vows on the strength of determination and it works. Then as time goes on, you actually realise that you have to do more than you were doing before to maintain these vows. When we are advancing we think we have to do less, but no, we actually have to do more to maintain these vows with time. That's the interesting part and one has to put more and more into place.

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The power of bhakti

(Kadamba Kanana Maharaja, Dec 2011, Cape Town, SA) Karma can never overcome bhakti. There is no question that karma, at any point, can overcome bhakti. Bhakti is always more powerful than karma and no matter what can happen, bhakti can rise above.

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Venus and Mars again

Kadamba Kanana Swami
(22 December 2011, Cape Town, South Africa)

Srimad Bhagavatam 7.14.3-4

Affection and relationships should be there in our life. But of course, they shouldn't lead to illicit sex. That is the bottom line. As you know, accidents do happen. That is the nature of the senses and the mind, that where there is attachment to such sense gratification, somehow or other, when men and women come together… you just don't know how it happened! Somehow or other, it happened… and everybody could see it coming and could understand it's going to happen if you go on like this… because that natural attraction is there.

Srimad Bhagavatam has the butter and fire analogy where men are butter and women are fire. And when the butter comes near the fire, it melts… it always melts! Bramacharis are basically trying to keep the butter in the fridge so that it doesn't melt quickly so they have a whole fridge system there within their saffron cloth and bramachari practises.

Ladies in spiritual life are covering the fire. That's why they cover their heads and wear sarees which cover the body more than modern clothing. So they are trying to cover the fire.

We are not trying to blame anybody, like throw the blame on the women that they are mayadevis. The poor men are the victims and those women are nothing but trouble makers. That is a somewhat biased and wrong understanding of what the Vedic literatures are saying. However, the illusory power of the female body is very strong undoubtedly. They have this power of attraction more than males. Although males may be attractive still the male body is not as charming as the female body.

In spiritual life, we recognise that the beauty of a female body has a danger connected to it. A danger to entangle spirit souls, both men and women. The women themselves are also falling victim to their own beauty… it gives a certain power and it's kind of addictive and difficult to stop it. So devotees realise this and therefore keep a certain amount of reservation.

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Looking for recognition

(Kadamba Kanana Maharaja, 29 December 2011, Munich, Germany) As long as one has a desire for recognition that means we want to be glorified and then we cannot glorify Krsna. Then we cannot chant for very long; we chant for a short time and then we are waiting to finish these rounds. But the less we are looking for recognition for ourselves, the more we can chant and the more we can glorify Krsna. That's why in the third verse of the siksastakam, these two points are connected: one must be more humble than a blade of grass, more tolerant than a tree and one must be ready to offer all respects to others. Then one can chant the holy name constantly, kirtaniyah sada harih. So this is a great enemy in spiritual life- recognition. Somehow or other we have to break the false pride in our material attributes.

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