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A lesson on life

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 2 June 2012, Lecture SB 5.13.5)

Worms are eating your insides, right now! You feel the pains here and there. Worms are eating your liver. Worms are eating your heart. They eat your heart out while you sit there. There are even worms living in your brain, I read about this!

It's not that we are enjoying. We just accept the suffering when we are in these bodies as normal. It's normal that I'm sweating right now, it's just normal because it's warm. It's normal that I have a headache leftover from all the travels that had over the last years. It's normal that I have some pain between my shoulder blades because I'm 60 years old. It's normal that I have an in-growing toenail, it's completely normal. As I'm talking to you, I was just mentioning the toe because the sock is causing pressure on my toenail. I'm tolerating it but I suffer and so do you. If you carefully investigate our existence, we are all suffering.

From a philosophical point of view, we are always suffering. Sometimes we are aware of it and sometimes we are not, you know what I'm saying!? It's like we're suffering but sometimes we are not aware of it. Now, I'm experiencing this suffering, I'm not going to dwell on it – my toe, my sock, my toe, my sock. I'm dwelling on Krsna, I'm dwelling on the soul. I'm dwelling on the relationship that we have with the soul. But we are not in denial of the fact that the bodily existence is offering us suffering, it is, and therefore we want to get out of here!

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A gentle reminder

(HH Kadamba Kanana Swami, 16 December 2012, Phoenix, South Africa)

Life after life, we live in forgetfulness of the bigger picture. Instead of (becoming) mahatma or great minded souls, we become sudratma, small minded and preoccupied with petty little things. So many things to get excited about, worried about or desiring to have them, to enjoy them…

In Bhagavatam, in the eleventh canto this topic comes up. The sages assembled before Lord Brahma and asked Brahma some questions that were on their mind. And the question was asked: How is it that the mind goes in to things and things go in to the mind? And don't they!? So many things, we are carrying around. So many things preoccupy our thoughts and narrow down the mind until we become small minded.

As the mind becomes absorbed in matter, in material things, gradually circles begin to form and the circles narrow down. We gradually become captured by these things. Our consciousness becomes taken over.

Hare Krsna maha mantra cuts right through, cuts through layers of forgetfulness. For how long have we forgotten? When was the last time that we thought about of goal of the life?

Yes, for so long we forgot, we spend our time surviving. But who is surviving? Nobody did it so far. But, truth of the matter is that the goal of the life is to use every moment, every moment to become elevated!

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Who are we trying to impress?

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 14 July 2012, Modra, Slovakia, Srimad Bhagavatam 1.1.1)

All throughout history, people have tried to impress other people. Some men have been wearing very high hats. Some ladies have been wearing very high heels. In some ways, people have tried to impress each other, generation after generation. Are we any different? Same thing all over again. This one has a beautiful T-shirt, that one a far-out tattoo. This one has very tight clothes. Yes, we are trying to impress but the center is the body.

It is said that the happiness of the body is very limited. Many of us we know that but then again maybe we don't know that. It seems that part of us knows it, and the other part really maybe doesn't know it. We are attracted to Krsna. Yes, we are these people. Everyone is looking at us Hare Krsnas and some people are thinking,'Crazy!'

And maybe they are right, but then again we are having a good time, because we like Krsna and we know that Krsna is spiritual, we know that his body is not material, it is never tired, it is not influenced by time. Krsna can eat unlimited and He does not  become fat, it's convenient. You never see Krsna running around the block, trying to stay fit. Krsna is always fresh!

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Ancient wisdom prevails

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 18 May 2012, Melbourne, Australia, Lecture at Bhakti Bhavana)

It is so hard to do good things. You think you are doing good but it is so complicated to do good. It is so difficult to determine what is good and what is bad. Something looks extremely good and then after a while, you see, "Oh no! It was no good after all."

Modern ethics are always falling short. In general, you have an idea that it is good – to give to the poor. A lot of people would agree. But it is not necessarily so as many people will misuse it.

But whatever Krsna says, that is guaranteed. If you take the Bhagavad-gita then you are sure. It is so nice to live by the Gita; it takes us all away from this mental platform – deciding is it right or wrong!?

You see in Delhi railway station, you see everywhere on the walls: ABORTION and a telephone number. So it's going on, right? It is a good thing or bad thing, tell me?

Devotee: It depends.

Maharaja: Depends, ha?

Devotee: If you don't want and you can't give a good life to the child, it is better to not bring it into this world.

Maharaja: But how do you know what you can give to the child? You cannot be sure because maybe that child will get some blessing. Maybe the child is born in a very poor family by the side of the road and maybe I decided to drive past and pay for the education of the child.

So how do you know? Bhagavad-gita clarifies it completely, if we stick with that then NO PROBLEM. Krsna takes the responsibility. And of course in scriptures, the abortion is not allowed. By the scriptures, everyone who paints this kind of things on the wall is sharing the karma, even the person who takes the call, the receptionist, shares the karma. Everyone!

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Not following the rules but yet transcedental

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 2 January 2013, Durban South Africa, Srimad Bhagavatam 12.8.46)

The general class of men don't know the ultimate goal of life and they remain bound up within the three modes of material nature. Sometimes, the word guna is translated as quality and in other times, it is translated as a rope for that which binds. So, the three modes of material nature are binding us. Although we say three modes of material nature in one breath, there is a huge difference between the various modes – there is an enormous difference between ignorance and passion and there is an enormous difference between passion and the mode of goodness.

The mode of goodness is in many ways parallel to the mode of pure goodness 'viśuddha-sattva.'For example, in our spiritual life there are many practices that we follow that are coming from the mode of goodness. The way we take bath, the way we eat, the standards of cleanliness in general;  these kinds of standards are all related to the mode of goodness. We are interested in eating things that are in the mode of goodness and offer it to Krsna (first), which is the ideal arrangement with prasadam, so that it is pure, transcendental and at the same time wholesome. That is our program, so therefore the mode of goodness is also part of spiritual life and it supports spiritual life.

Sometimes, we see transcendental personalities who are externally not adopting the mode of goodness. They are known as 'avadhūtaḥ' personalities who are not following the rules and yet they are fully transcendental because the essence is really the connection with Krsna. It is said that such transcendental personalities, who are not so careful about following all the principles of goodness, will never act sinful, because they will never act against the will of the Lord. They will never ever act in a way that is not pleasing to Krsna because a devotee naturally pleasing Krsna!

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