Nectar drops: 25 June 2017
By KKSBlog on Jun 25, 2017 02:13 pm
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The rarity of a brahmana
By KKSBlog on Jun 24, 2017 03:10 pm
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 16 February 2010, Cape Town, South Africa, Srimad Bhagavatam 7.4.12)
Austerity is the wealth of the brahmanas. Great sages like Bhrgu had attained higher planetary systems above the heavenly planets. They were very powerful by dint of their austerity and everyone within the universe was under the control of these great sages. So also a vaisnava, by his austerity in devotional service, is gaining in transcendental strength. Spiritual strength depends on many factors but austerity is an essential element of it. In this age, it is difficult to perform austerity because we are weak and not inclined to austerity. But we see that great personalities in the past were famous because of the austerities they had performed in their spiritual practices.
When Nanda Maharaja was celebrating the appearance of his new born son, at that time Gargamuni appeared. He was sent by Vasudev to perform the birth ceremony. It is said that Nanda Maharaja was highly pleased to receive that brahmana. He worshiped that brahmana because even at such a time, 5000 years ago, such a brahmana was very rare!
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Spiritual life is about the spiritual world
By KKSBlog on Jun 22, 2017 11:32 am
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 13 May 2012, Sydney, Australia, Srimad Bhagavatam 5.11.14)
I remember when the Australian devotees used to come to Vrindavan. I used to be in charge of allocating rooms in the ashram. For the Australian brahmacaris, I used to give them a whole room for themselves which was pretty good and they had somewhere to sleep. In India, basically you have a room with a cement floor and they said to me, "Is this our room? Where is the carpet? It's just a bare floor! But okay, let's go and get some maha! Where are the pizzas?"
In Australia, you know, you have… but that really is a waste of time because spiritual life is about the spiritual world. If you have to choose between a pizza and a chapatti, then most people would choose the pizza, even in India they would go for the pizza. Hridayananda Maharaj told us this happens because a pizza is a self-realised chapatti!
That goes deep if you think about it but still, you know, even pizza at one point just does not do it. Spiritual life is about the spiritual world so let us remember that because in the spiritual world there is no birth, death, old age and disease.
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The self-realised soul
By KKSBlog on Jun 21, 2017 10:13 am
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 30 June 2012, Cape Town, South Africa, Bhagavad-gita Lecture)
The 5th Chapter of Bhagavad-gita gives us a metaphor of the lotus flower that sits on water but yet is not affected by the water. The water just runs off and the lotus is blossoming in that condition.
In this analogy of the lotus in water, the water represents the struggle for existence that everyone is facing and the lotus is a symbol of one who is not affected by that struggle for existence. A lot of people are under the weather, a lot of people have a story to tell about how tough it is.
But here, we see a lotus – a symbol of beauty and a symbol of being the best while the conditions are difficult. The lotus is representing a self-realised soul, a person who is in this world but at the same time not in this world – who may be physically here but who internally lives in another reality, in another dimension.
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Glorious devotees
By KKSBlog on Jun 20, 2017 07:46 am
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 20 March 2013, Cape Town, South Africa, Srimad Bhagavatam 8.12.6)
When the disciples of Prabhupada saw him lying on his bed, in his final days, they said, 'How can such a terrible condition happen now? How can this happen?'
Prabhupada said, 'Don't think it will not happen to you because it will.' So, this is the situation. Pure devotees also go through the processes of the material energy. Pure devotees are also embodied. Pure devotees also face hardships – heat and cold, hunger and thirst, disease and old age – they face it all! But they are not taking it seriously because they know that is just the body, it is happening to the body. So this understanding of, 'I'm not the body,' really means that whatever happens is not serious, 'I'm not the body,' and therefore the whole material world which is related to the body, is not important!
The material world, we can just write it off but something which we can use for the service of Krsna, those things we will take but for the rest of the material world, write it off.
Pure devotees dedicate their lives to service. We may not recognize them at first but then they emerge very clearly for all to see. Those extraordinary persons who give their lives, who begin faithfully, who carry on faithfully and then still go on faithfully until the end – those persons become glorious!
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Contemplate first …
By KKSBlog on Jun 19, 2017 10:34 am
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 25 April 2017, Radhadesh, Belgium, Srimad Bhagavatam
7.15.68)
The teachings of Srila Prabhupada, his books and his lectures, are like our anchor. We also get more information from the previous acaryas. In this way, we get a general idea of what to do in our lives. In the Eleventh Canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam it is said that one must apply knowledge with one's own intelligence.
Sometimes we judge circumstances, we have our own opinions and we have some doubts about that opinion. We may not immediately buy into some things so we put them on the shelf because we are not against it also. We just put it on the shelf because we are not sure about it. And then in the course of being with other vaisnavas, we get more information on that point or topic and more angles on it, and then we get some vision on how to deal with it.
This is why you should not just deal with things in the mode of passion and as soon you hear something you think is awful, you say, "This is awful. I mean, this is ridiculous! Forget it! I am not going to do that!" This is not the best way to proceed. Best to put it on the shelf, hear from the vaisnavas, absorb more and then proceed carefully and thoughtfully. Every one flies his own plane so you got to figure it out. Good luck and happy flying!
Lessons in life
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 03 September 2016, Cape Town, South Africa, Srimad Bhagavatam 1.9.25)
In this chapter, the passing away of Bhismadev, in the purport to this verse there is a list of challenges for society at large to improve their quality of life. The first challenge is, "Not to become angry!" We remember Upadesamrta, the Nectar of Instruction Verse 1, vaco vegam manasa krodha vegam, one must control the pushings of anger. So even when anger is pushing, one must somehow or other subdue it. Bhismadev also said that in order to conquer anger, one must learn to forgive because it is very difficult to judge with two types of measurements – measurement for others and different measurements for ourselves. For ourselves, there are so many explanations for our mistakes, "It wasn't really my fault. It was just circumstances. I didn't intend it that way…"whereas for others, "How could they do that! This is outrageous." We judge them different and the same extenuating circumstances are not being considered so Bhismadev points out that we must learn to forgive. We have to see that others make mistakes because then we can overcome anger.
Forgiving is not necessarily the same as forgetting. If someone has committed an abominable activity, we may forgive but it does not mean that we forget. We will remember but we will also keep a special eye – if someone puts his fingers in the money box then after that we keep him at a distance from the money box obviously. So forgiving and forgetting is not necessarily the same. Also, there may be a point when we forget, it depends on the seriousness of the offence.
Sometimes though, anger is required. Sometimes, it is necessary to send out a signal that from now it is too much. This has to stop. BANG, fist on the table! Everyone needs that also. It is not that anger per se is bad. Those who are envious sometimes deserve anger. Those who are envious of devotees, we need to sometimes check it with anger. That is also there. But Bhismadev is referring to uncontrolled anger. Controlled anger has a place. Srila Prabhupada would also get angry at times but his anger was always related to Krsna and to whatever was favourable to Krsna. When there was neglect, Prabhupada was not tolerating that. He would point it out!
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