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Forever after

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 20 December 2012, Durban, South Africa, Srimad Bhagavatam 12.6.40)

Eternal love

I was listening to a lecture of Srila Prabhupada and Prabhupada made a point and said, "Love is for Krsna." We think we love so many things but all that love is not going to last. The only love that can last is love for Krsna; no other love can last no matter how deep it may be experienced now.

Just like between parents and children, such a deep love but then how long are the souls together. Bhagavatam looks at it from the bigger picture; from the bigger perspective of time and is pointing out to us that life-after-life, the living being is going through so many births in the material world and for a moment, like two straws floating together on the river of time, just for a moment these two straws are floating together until the waves will separate them. So our material love, even for those who are so dear to us, time will separate us!

But that doesn't mean that once we have assimilated this philosophy that now we must become cold, and that in this world there is no meaning to human relationships and affection and so on… No, we can remain affectionate but we must understand that those feelings of love only become meaningful if we connect them to the Supreme Lord because then the eternal element comes into the relationship. Then, in that relationship of affection, there is eternal spiritual advancement.

If we are not giving Krsna consciousness to our loved ones then there is no love at all! Then it is just illusion. For a moment, I love you so much then it all disappears again. There is no such thing as eternal love in the material world.

Eternal relationships

Sometimes, some souls stay together for a number of lifetimes in different relationships. It depends; they may not always be husband and wife. They may change roles – the husband may become the wife and the wife becomes the husband, or one may become a child. So many varieties of karmic relationships may be there, changes may be there but some souls may be connected for a while, then time will separate them. But between vaisnavas, eternal relationships can be established. They exist when vaisnavas engage together in glorification of the Supreme Lord. Then everything becomes eternal… relationships become eternal and continue in the spiritual world. That is even possible for devotees to continue their eternal relationships in the eternal realm.

Also, the relationship between Guru and disciple is described to be eternal. But the question may be raised, does that mean that the relationship was already there before!? Eternal means ever after but also ever before! This is a topic that has been debated many times and there are opinions. And it is not so (clear)… we don't have so much clear indication. Some have said yes, eternal means ever after and ever before! Others have said, eternal means from now on forever. That if a relationship develops here is this world that it continues forever. Whatever may be, the most important focus for us is that it is forever…

The full class may be downloaded by clicking here.

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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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