(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Finland, 2011)

We should understand that we are all caught here in our material bodies, and that the material bodies are dictating so many desires to us, when all these desires are not actually ours….but we are faithfully accepting them as ours!

"This is my desires".

And we think so many times like this, but the fact of the matter is that, these are the dictates of the body. Just as a simple example of when I was ten years old, I couldn't wait for my best friend to come and ring the doorbell and ask for me to come and play outside. If that were to happen now then he would be ring the doorbell and say:

"Maharaja, come, let's go play outside"..

And I would look at him and think:

"Too much sun, or something like that".

That is a fact, that we change, and our needs change very much and with it these are simply dictates of the body!

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(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Finland, 2011)

Srila Prabhupada had created quite an elaborate support structure. He created a network of temples around the world! In 1966 he created the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

There was a program in the 'Matchless Gifts' storefront, and suddenly, one man in a suit (who was also there) stood up and Prabhupada introduced him as a lawyer. The lawyer had a document for starting the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. They needed some volunteers to sign all the documents. So everyone was looking and thinking:

"What is this?"

I mean they were all hippies and were looking at the lawyer and thinking:

"What is all this….a lawyer…..a document….and a society?"

But Prabhupada really wanted it. So okay there were a few that volunteered to sign. Prabhupada's society was a fact. Since that time we have found that many devotees have faithfully taken up service in Prabhupada's institution, and they also faithfully worked to maintain, Prabhupada's institution!

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Kadamba Kanana Maharaja left Munich on Monday noon to fly off to Johannesburg via England. Arriving there the next morning, he immediately flew to Durban, where he was to stay for four days. These days were filled with a whole variety of programs…..!!!

On Wednesday Maharaja started off with a Srimad Bhagavatam class, which he ended early due to an appointment at the Indian embassy. Later in the day he rocked the students at a local university program with a flying kirtana, followed by an inspiring talk about overcoming the bad qualities in ourselves by chanting the Maha Mantra. In the evening he then visited the nama hata program in Umlazi, an African township area in Durban, again leading a full swing kirtana and giving a talk about real solutions for the suffering in this world, both on a material and a spiritual level.

On Thursday then, there was another short university program at noon time. Then in the evening, Maharaja went to Krsna Charana's house, whose daughter had a 5th year birthday party, with Maharaja and Bhakti Caitanya Maharaja as her special guests! It was a colorful program, filled with bhajanas, a speech, theater and cake! Enjoy the pictures!

Can't view the slideshow? Visit flickr!

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Before his big trip to South Africa, Australia and India, Kadamba Kanana Maharaja spent a few more days in Munich, from where he eventually also flew off to Johannesburg. In Munich Maharaja gave the Srimad Bhagavatam and Bhagavad Gita classes and gave a talk at the weekly sunday feast program. It was a more or less calm stay, suitable to prepare for the upcoming journey. Enjoy the pictures!

If you cannot view the slideshow, please visit flickr.

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(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Finland, 2011)

I went to Woodstock, and there in amidst of four thousand hippies who were all there, I saw all kinds of people. They had a pipe in the middle, and there was water coming out like a fountain. There was a really big fat man, who was wearing only swimming trousers or shorts or something like that. This man was lying in the mud and rolling in it. He was covered in mud. I have never seen a human being look more like a pig than him! He was literally big and fat and rolling in the mud. I thought:

"Where am I?"

Then I was in the village of peace with Indradyumna Maharaja, and suddenly Jagai and Madhai walked in, out of nowhere. Madhai was wearing a crown made from a cardboard box, and he had put wine bottles in the crown. There were all series of wine bottles like a crown on his head. And Jagai had his dreadlocks tied to empty beer cans. So he had a load of empty beer cans.

So they were walking in and they couldn't walk straight. They came in and I wanted to give them a contract. I thought:

"I'm going to sign these guys in the play and hire them as Jagai and Madhai".

I have never seen such good Jagai and Madhais like that – they were the best. About fifteen minutes later I saw them with a plate of prasadam and they were feeding each other! They were taking a bite from the papadum. It was already clear that Lord Caitanya's movement had already got them, because even if you just serve the holy name; even if you partake in the sankirtan; even if you don't chant; even if you do a little sewa….serving the holy name is already giving benefits!

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(Kadamba Kanna Swami, Finland, 2011)

Whenever we serve Lord Jagannath, it brings us beyond our limits. You can think:

"Well, this time I will not go completely crazy, in the Ratha Yatra".

Forget it! You will go completely crazy, and that's the nature of the Ratha Yatra. Lord Jagannath, somehow or other takes us to our limits….through our limits, and there are also no limits to how much service that Jagannath is able to receive.

Ratha Yatra, Lord Caitanya and His movement – they are very intimately connected. Of course, Lord Caitanya (in Jagannath Puri)for many years was performing Ratha Yatra. Actually it was six years in a row that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was performing Ratha Yatra, and later on He took twelve years in Jagannath Puri, and He was too ecstatic to deal with such things, which was another matter.

For six years Lord Caitanya was just dancing in the Ratha Yatra, which was inconceivable. He would throw himself high in the air, without considering how He would come down! Sometimes in his ecstasy He would crash to the ground – full on! He'd jump really high and would just crash on the ground! And everyone was thinking:

"His ribs would crash and completely break!"

But that didn't happen, and then he would jump straight back up and continued dancing…..and do it again! So Nityananda started to catch Him. As He was going down Nityananda was there catching Him! Lord Caitanya would jump so high…way above the crowd, who were just looking in amazement.

He would start spinning around in circles. He would go so extremely fast that it was compared to a firebrand (lets say a red hot piece of wood, and if you moved it very fast then it just looks like a closed circle of fire). Sir Caitanya Mahaprabhu was moving so fast that it just looked like a closed circle.

So who could imagine the dancing of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu?

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(Kadamba Kanna Swami, Finland, 2011)

The animals in Vrindavan and in the holy dhams are also devotees and they are very much on the spontaneous platform. I have seen many extraordinary things with animals in the dhams.

In Vrindavan we would take prasadam in the temple and then they were carrying the buckets from the kitchen to the main entrance of the temple. Just as they were carrying the bucket, this bird made a total attack and went straight for the sweet rice! Just flied half through it with mouth wide open!

I have never seen anything like it, but only in Vrindavan. Such eagerness….really. While we were taking prasadam we had a net which covered the courtyard of the temple to keep out the monkeys! But there was also the tamal tree in the courtyard of the temple. The tamal tree had broken a little bit of the net. So one monkey got in, whilst the devotees were almost finished taking the prasadam. Most devotees had left by then, so the monkey came down and sat on the mats in front of the empty plate. What to do? So we just served the monkey, who nicely took the prasadam, and then left!

That was not an ordinary monkey – it's very clear in Vrindavan, but all on the spontaneous platform. So gradually more and more devotional service must become spontaneous, because Krishna is so nice! Yes, we'll make a flower garland for him because He is so nice – not because we have to, but because we want to! We will go and find some forest flowers and do it, somehow or other for Krishna!

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(Kadamba Kanna Swami, Finland, 2011)

Such spontaneous devotional service can manifest in all kinds of ways:

We had a Catholic priest who was visiting our temple. Suddenly somebody walked by with a tray full of maha prashadam, and there were some balloon puris on there. This priest just suddenly became taken over, and he just grabbed one! Just like that, he took the puri – something nobody would do in a strange place, but he did it because somehow or other he got taken over to the spontaneous platform, and he took that puri.

Something similar was going on when Srila Prabhupada was flying on the plane. Srila Prabhupada had some puffed rice in a bowl. He was eating this puffed rice and the stewardess who was just walking past, and somehow or other she became completely attracted to that puffed rice, and she said:

"Oh, that looks very nice!"

And she just put her hand in there and took some out of Prabhupada's bowl! Just like that it was completely spontaneous.

Going to another level….for a moment stepping out of the stewardess and passenger reality and onto an eternal plane where the opportunity was there to get the remnants of the pure devotee. She took it and she got it – Prabhupada's remnants.

So what an amazing thing, and she became a devotee, of course later on….naturally…I mean how could she not, after getting Prabhupada's remnants. So amazing things are sometimes taking place in devotional service!

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(Kadamba Kanna Swami, Finland, 2011)

This is our movement – the movement of chanting and dancing, which brings us to the spontaneous platform, where we go beyond reason…… beyond where we just completely….spontaneously begin to call out the name….begin to jump. That is actually giving us a taste of spontaneous devotional service.

Spontaneous devotional service is real devotional service, where we are chanting, dancing and serving Krishna because we are doing it out of natural attraction. It is no longer calculated as:

"This is good for me. Well this is what is prescribed in the scriptures; this is my religious duty".

All these consideration are no longer there. One doesn't even think about it – one just does it! And that is the level of being attracted, which is very powerful!

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(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Finland, 2011)

In the material world (if some of you may remember), you go to the material party and it's a big thing. Then the morning after, you wake up with a huge headache from all the alcohol and everything. You feel terrible …and it's like a hangover from the night before – that's a material party.

But the spiritual party (besides the fact that we are having a good time whilst we are having a party) has a spiritual dimension, that you are also making an eternal spiritual advancement at the same time! We eat and stuff ourselves:

"Yes, I'll have some more of that apple pie…yes I will!"

But the apple pie is also giving us eternal spiritual benefit…………………..this is the amazing thing about this movement. One always makes spiritual advancement…..always!

Prabhupada once mentioned that:

"Even the devotee who is always sleeping – he makes spiritual advancement because at least he is sleeping in the temple!"

So like that, everyone is getting the benefit, and it is important that we appreciate how much benefit there is, how much mercy there is and how wonderful it is! It's just amazing how much better the quality of life of a devotee is!

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(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Finland, 2011)

I was reading in 'The Padma Purana', that:

"All the holy places of the universe are in one tulsi leaf!"

And we just think about that…..when you're a sannyasi, they always give you a tulsi leaf, and when you get the carnamtra it sort of gets stuck in your throat…there were moments when I thought:

"Oh God, here comes the tulsi leaf again".

I was reading, then Krishna made me read:

"All the holy places of the entire universe are in one tulsi leaf!"

Even when it gets stuck in the throat, it's very good….very nice!

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Do I obsess about 9/11? At least I try not to. In short: The official story of the "terrorist attacks" appears to me a fraud. The fraud has apparently succeeded in accomplishing its objectives. And so goes yet another small chapter in the endless history of the material world.

But though I have better things to think about than 9/11, I do sometimes think about it, especially on the anniversary of the event, or when I'm subjected to extra searches by airport security, or when something about 9/11 I didn't know before comes to my attention as particularly striking.

Today, two such special items.

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(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Finland, 2011)


Even with Vrindavan, there is a danger that we can become the enjoyer of Vrindavan, rather than in the mood of serving in Vrindavan. So there are many who are going to Vrindavan, not only in the mind but physically, enjoy Vrindavan:

'Oh Vrindavan….Vrindavan….Vrindavan!'

Even in Vrindavan one must always say:

"Well, what service can I do?"

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(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Berlin, September 2011)

The topmost level of devotional service is not to serve Krsna directly, because, in the topmost level of devotional service, one realises that what service can I render to Krsna to please Him?

"What is my capacity to please Krsna?  I am so limited!  I am small and insignificant, so even if I would render the greatest service that I could possibly do, even if I would go beyond all my limitations, and go to the maximum of what I can do and make the very best offering that I can, what is the meaning of it in comparison to the offerings that Srimati Radharani makes?  In comparison to the offerings the gopis make?  Therefore, the best I can do is act as an assistant."

(Sanskrit) So, in this way, to assist the assistants a hundred times removed from Srimati Radharani – that is the essence of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's teachings.

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