"You are already surrendered, but you are surrendered to the police of God. Just like a citizen = he has to surrender. He has to surrender to the police or to the government. If he surrenders to the government, then he hasn't got to the police custody in jail. So instead of surrendering to Kṛṣṇa, we have surrendered to His māyā. And the māyā is punishing us.

 daivī hy eṣā..lSo if you want to get relief from the punishment of this māyā, then you surrender to Kṛṣṇa. Your position is to surrender, either this side or that side."

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 25 June 2019, New York, United States of America, Srimad Bhagavatam 1.9.20)

Duryodhana was working very hard to win people over to his side and he was successful in some cases. Some karmi leaders were coming along with their armies and they were being received very nicely. They thought that they were going to fight for Yudhisthira and Yudhisthira made all such arrangements for them, but it turned out that it was Duryodhana. So then they felt so indebted, that they instead fought on Duryodhana’s side.

He tried to do the same with Krsna. When Krsna was coming as the messenger of the Pandavas, Duryodhana arranged a wonderful palace for Him to stay. And when Krsna came, He was offered an extraordinary treatment, a wonderful palace and a great reception. Then Krsna simply said, “No, I will never stay in the house of one who is envious of the Pandavas.” He refused whatever was offered by Duryodhana. Instead, He went to stay with Vidhura, which was something that even Vidhura did not expect. Vidhura was a dasi putra – he was not really a prince in that sense. He was certainly a son of the king, but with a maidservant. And therefore, although he was treated respectfully within the kingdom, he was not in a royal position and was also considered as a sudra.

So first of all, to stay with Vidhura was considered a bit awkward and second of all, Vidhura was not prepared whatsoever. At this time, all that Vidhura could arrange to offer Krsna were bananas. Then as his wife got the bananas ready, Vidhura offered the peels instead of the bananas. He was so overwhelmed by love of God, that he was so ecstatic, “Krsna is in my house!“, that he was grabbing the peels instead of the bananas. This of course shows why Krsna chose to stay in the house of Vidhura. So in this way, we appreciate that Krsna is purchased by love.

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 18 March 2012, Prague, Czech Republic, Srimad Bhagavatam 4.9.8)

Question: When it comes to stumbling blocks in spiritual progress, with things like lust, pride and disturbances of the mind, I can clearly see them coming or even realise that they are there. Yet still they remain in my mind and I realise that by simple knowledge and awareness, they do not disappear. How do I deal with this, noting that we are conditioned and are aware of it, but we still continue to be conditioned by it?

Kadamba Kanana Swami: Krsna says:

sarva-dharmān parityajya
mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja
ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo
mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ
(Bhagavad-gita 18.66)

Krsna says that He will take away all the impurities! We cannot take them away ourselves. It means 
we have to surrender to Krsna’s system of devotional service as it is passed down by the disciplic succession, and then Krsna will take away our impurities gradually. That is how it works. So if we are confronted by our own impurities, and we cannot put them aside with our knowledge, then this means that Krsna wants us to increase the quality and quantity of our devotional service!

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 24 February 2019, New York, United States of America, Bhagavad-gita 7.7)

In the tenth chapter of Bhagavad-gita, ahaà sarvasya prabhavo mattaù sarvaà pravartate (Bhagavad-gita 10.8), we can see that Krsna is the origin of all that is spiritual and all that is material, and the wise who notice this, they perfectly worship Him with love. That is ultimately where we want to come. Because we are seeing how kind Krsna is… how unlimitedly kind He truly is! He is the Supreme, the topmost personality, all powerful, all beautiful, all perfect, yet He takes interest in insignificant creatures like us. He specifically notices our individual existence and that is something special. Every living being means something to Krsna and thus Krsna takes a personal interest in every single living being. That is something extraordinary! Suhrdam sarva dehinam (bhutanam) (Bhagavad-gita 5.29) – heartfelt suhrdam, heartfelt friend and well-wisher of every living being. So to think about that, that is the most amazing thing! And I meditate on things like this and can only imagine how kind Krsna really is. In this way, we can appreciate Krsna consciousness and when we leave this temple, we can look everything we see with a fresh perspective because we can see how Krsna is actually manifesting all these things for us and how He is behind everything. Everything is simply an arrangement of His kindness; sometimes aimed to frustrate us and sometimes aimed to encourage us. But nevertheless, it is all by His loving mercy. That is Krsna!

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, March 2018, Durban, South Africa, Human Relationships Lecture)

Krsna is always showing us the next step in our spiritual lives. So if it is clear that the next step is that you should be doing more, then we should take that step. If you feel, “Krsna is showing me that the next step is to develop love for him“, then do it!

You have these karate movies where the young karate character come out and makes all these moves and he is going really fast on all sides. But then an old Kung-Fu master comes out and does not make all these moves, but instead just has this one concentrated move. And then all of a sudden, everyone is flying in all directions and gets knocked out. (laughter) So in the beginning, we are like these young karate guys trying to run around, but we lack depth and we lack the real concentration and focus. We are trying to be busy for Krsna, trying to always chant, read and so on. But what we really need to work on is to deepen ourselves through our relationships and go deeper in our commitment to Krsna. This is the beginning step and it helps us in making Krsna the real priority. After all, he is the Supreme!

Nothing is really important except Krsna. We must truly understand this. Even in our relationships – our marriage, our friends and our families – if it does not help us go deeper in our relationship with Krsna, then what is the point of it!? Otherwise, we are just creating a beautiful illusion for ourselves, which is totally meaningless. If we are not trying to make our children Krsna conscious, then what is the point of having them? If we want to give our children Krsna consciousness, we cannot do it by dictation. We cannot do it by rules, “You must do this. You must not do that.” Such harshness will not work in the long run. Instead, we must pass Krsna consciousness through inspiration, by setting an example. Kids never do what you say, but they do what you do. So we must attempt to the best of our ability to be a devotee and conquer them with devotion; only then they will be amazing devotees.

If somebody has nice qualities, it impresses us. A thousand lessons from a book about moral behaviour would not work as much as the impressions from an inspiring person would. Relationships are a big thing! So if you are looking to engage in relationships and starting a family, you have to aspire to be spiritually advanced.