(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 09 May 2014, Bhaktivedanta Manor, England, Srimad-Bhagavatam 8.23.36)

In the Nectar of Devotion, we have a description of Kamsa’s moment of doubt. I like it! Kamsa sits on his throne in Mathura, in his ultimate mood of demoniac nature, and he is thinking, “Hah, what can Krsna do to me? Nothing! I have powerful malice. So many. I mean Keshi, you know Keshi, the ultimate personification of power. What is this Krsna going to do to me?”

Just then, the messenger runs into the court, “Your majesty, your majesty, your majesty. Tragic news!”

Kamsa, “WHAT?”

“Your majesty… Keshi!”

 Kamsa, “Noooo, not Keshi!”

“Your majesty, Keshi is no more.”

Kamsa, “No, he (Krsna) is too powerful, he is inconceivable! How is it possible? Maybe, maybe I should just surrender unto him? But what would people say, imagine me, Kamsa! No, I could not do that! Maybe then I should just go to Vrindavan and inflict pain on the residents. But how can I go when I’m too afraid to leave the palace because of Krsna.”

Isn’t it nice that even Kamsa, for a moment, was thinking, “Maybe I should just surrender!” Just see, that gives us hope. If that can come up in Kamsa’s head and heart then anybody has a chance. That is nice. Even the demons are touched by Krsna. Krsna is Bhagavan.

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 11 April 2014, Cape Town, South Africa, Lecture at House Program)
Prabhupada danced on so many occasions! But the most importance statement about Srila Prabhupada's dancing is not his dancing in the Avalon ballroom, in the San Francisco concert, nor is it in London at the famous London Ratha Yatra where Prabhupada went up and down in love and ecstasy.

The real dancing that Srila Prabhupada did is described in the Markine Bhagavata Dharma. When theJaladuta had just landed in New York, Prabhupada began to write about how he was just a kāṣṭhera puttali– a puppet, a wooden doll, a marionette, just a puppet on strings, "Make me dance. Oh my Lord, make me dance." In other words, to become the willing instrument of Krsna, in Krsna's hands, as Krsna desires it! There, Prabhupada really danced! And the amazing thing that happened is that the puppet itself turned into a puppeteer and subsequently, so many puppets danced in the hands of that puppeteer. Prabhupada made so many men dance according to his will!

He made them go to remote places. He made them really do something very substantial. That was Prabhupada, he was a general undoubtedly, driving a mission to go forward, to conquer the world. There is no doubt about that. Prabhupada said he had no problem except one problem which was that he could not think small, and that was a fact! He never could think small. He would always think big, so big that it would blow the mind of all. There is no one who does not feel that Prabhupada's big thinking exceeds anything that they ever thought; that is a fact!

But that is Guru; he has a greater vision about our life than we have ourselves. He wants something greater from us than what we would do on our own. Therefore, Guru is always challenging us to do more, to go beyond our limits.

Srimad Bhagavatam is designed to help us see how Krishna is close to us. Bhagavatam begins to explain, how the creation is emanating from Krishna and how everything in this world is depending on Krishna. It says that, without Krishna, we cannot see and without Krishna we cannot hear… 
He controls all our essential functions. So in this way, everything relates to Krishna…
We see that the Supreme Lord is ultimately behind the sun. He supplies that unlimited energy! How can a thing be possible for the sun to keep on shining, shining, shining, shining, shining? and it never becomes diminished! and it’s heat – How’s it possible? 
It is the unlimited energy of the Supreme Lord!

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 05/04/2010)

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, December 2013, Pretoria, South Africa, Caitanya Caritamrta Lecture)

The nature of Srimad Bhagavatam is that it is ever fresh. It is never old; it is never stale but ever fresh! It is going on right now – Bhagavatam. There is no limit to the Bhagavatam. The demigods have a Bhagavatam of 100 000 verses. We have 18 000 verses and they have a 100 000. There is more and more… and more will be revealed. Bhagavatam will be revealed from within the heart because dharmasya tattvaṁ nihitaṁ guhāyāṁ (Caitanya Caritamrta Madhya 25.57) – true religious principles are not found within the scripture alone but they are hidden within the heart. Within the heart these things will be revealed.

So we read Srimad Bhagavatam and then we live by Srimad Bhagavatam and then Srimad Bhagavatam becomes revealed to us, gradually. This is the system of how to change our lives. That is the idea. Only then will we know Srimad Bhagavatam. You cannot know the Bhagavatam just by reading. By reading, you scratch the surface but you cannot know; just as you cannot know Vrndavan by just buying a ticket, going there and walking around. One may say, "Radhe Radhe," but we cannot know. We cannot penetrate into Vrndavan unless we live like the eternal residents of Vrndavan, unless we become pure devotees then we can perceive Vrndavan.

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, September 2013, Cape Town, South Africa, Bhagavad-gita 9.9)

Krsna is full of love and full of kindness. We are too focused on the reality of the body, on this life we are going through… Whereas Krsna is not illusioned by the material forms, Krsna is seeing the soul. He is interested in the service the soul has rendered because that is actually blissful activity. Anything else is never blissful.Any material activity is never everblissful! Sometimes we are hoping that it is going to be. We hope that the material energy will be fulfilling our desires and as soon as there is a little enjoyment we say, “Yes, yes, yes! Now I am happy. Now I am so happy!”

But how happy are you really? Are you really happy? Who are you trying to convince? Material happiness is not going to be possible.

This verse (BG 9.9), takes us to this aspect of the material world, that Krsna has nothing to do with the material world. He is not interested in the material world; he did not want the material world. He does not particularly want to do anything with the material world. It is not his design, his plan. It is all the plan of the living beings. Krsna’s plan is something totally different – it is the spiritual world, and Krsna makes endless efforts to bring all living beings back to the spiritual world, in someway or other but to become a resident of spiritual world requires a certain quality, so Krsna does make many arrangements for us to learn.

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, June 2011, Stockholm, Sweden, Lecture)

I think that the only thing that can really bond us together is friendship. Just common acceptance of Krsna as the Supreme Lord will bring us together from time to time – we will come together at the temple and festivals – but friendship will take us so much further. Because it is in friendship, real friendship, that we are going to stimulate each other so much more than by just being colleagues!

I have often given this example of how we can be together like colleagues. We are all devotees of Krsna and we are all colleagues. We are all devotees in the same temple, we are all colleagues. We are all chanting Hare Krsna, we are all colleagues. We are all dancing in the kirtan party as colleagues. But when there is no friendship, it is not enough.

If there is friendship, then friendship is different. Friendship is like a family spirit. When your colleague is not performing well, it disturbs your work, and you say, “Get it together! You know, they’ll throw you out of here one of these days if you don’t get it together.”

That is what you say to a colleague but to a family member, you say, “When in the world are you ever going to get it together? But we can’t throw you out because you’re part of the family.”

That is different. That is friendship and in that friendship there is trust. We know we are going to be accepted. We don’t have to have a masquerade where everyone acts out to be a pure devotee in a Hare Krsna community. We can just be more honest. If there is friendship, we can just be who we are and still be accepted. In that way, we can get some real human support which is what we need!

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 11 April 2014, Cape Town, South Africa, Lecture at House Program)

In a small temple, with predominately congregational devotees – that means devotees who are maintaining a life outside the temple and who have limited time and energy – I think we should appreciate the time spent together and maintain relationships. Because especially in a congregational gathering, more than ever, we need friendship. You know, it is like if you have a little military army living in a temple and all are on a mission. Even if there is no such friendship, still all are together in the same mission. But when you do not have that kind of driving energy then the only reason to come together is for friendship. So that is a big challenge but I think that is the key.

Like, we are here tonight, at somebody’s house and that is very nice, that is how it should be. If devotees have not been in your house for a while then you must start thinking about it and arrange for them to come. Even if your house is small, it does not matter – squeeze in somehow or other – because bonding is important. So we need to stay close and in an congregational setting, friendship is a big element, if you want to be with people. If you do not really want to be with them then you are not going to be with them. In the temple, whether you want to be together or not, you have to be for mangala aarti. But in a congregation, if you do not want to be together then why would you be? You only go to programs that you want to.

In friendship, you have to conquer people, do something to win them over. You have to do something that touches their heart, and then we have real friendships. Friendship can never be taken for granted and it is not cheap, but that is what we need. I guess, you can say big things about friendship but you can also make it very simple. In one way, a very simple approach is to not give each other a hard time – sort of, make it easy for each other and it counts for everybody, even at home! You know, friendship begins at home, if we just sort of try and make it easy for each other, that would help.

Devotee: Maharaj, does that not defeat the high thinking society ideal?

It depends on what you call easy. I did not mean that we should lose the purity but we should accommodate each other a lot and be sensitive to each other’s needs, that is what I meant. Making it easy for each other means that we should think of everybody’s needs, and not just of our own, then that creates friendship. So we try to think of the needs of others.

(Kadamba Kanana Swami Govinda Valley, Austrailia, 2011) Lecture – S.B.3.25.27

When a community makes a commitment, that's when the community can support each other in that way, and that is needed. It doesn't matter what shape that community exists but that is one function of sadhu sanga. We often think that the association of devotees is meant for inspiration. It's like:

"I need devotee's association to feel inspired and whenever I am with the devotees then I am so inspired".

But we see in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, where a situation occurring, where Vallabhacharya came to visit Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and was Vallabhacharya proud of his learning (he was a great scholar) and said that he had written a commentary on Srimad Bhagavatam. He mentioned that he was not in agreement with Śrīdhara Svāmī who was the original Bhagavatam commentator. So Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu had no appreciation for that, because he had Śrīdhara Svāmī at a highest regard. Threfore, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu did not want to hear the commentary of. Vallabhacharya. So when Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu didn't want to hear, then no body wanted to hear – not a single devotee was ready to hear and Vallabhacharya would go around saying:

"Please, listen to my commentary, since you will find it very interesting".

"No, sorry……I have no time….I really have to go".

Everybody would make excuses and some said:

"No way!"

And some were blunt, but one devotee was very soft by nature, namely Gadādhara. Gadādhara was one of these soft natured person and Vallabhacharya had just cornered him and overpowered him with his energy by saying:

"You will hear my commentary".

Gadādhara said:

"No, please!"

" Yes! You will!"

And he took his right hand and started reading to Gadādhara who was thinking:

"Oh, my god what will happen now? Lord Caitanya will surely understand, because he knows my heart and that I don't want to hear it. But the devotees will never tolerate that I heard the commentary, because they are not so tolerant".

So that particular passage is interesting because that shows another aspect of devotee association, and shows the intolerance of the devotees. Or what is sometimes referred to as peer pressure….or you could say something like the village mentality. Now we are living in the village and if you act different in the village then the whole village is down on you! So everyone is living in fear of the villagers.

So the devotee community is something like that…it's like living in a village, and we are a bit worried about being seen by the neighbours because they know that you're going to cop it. Those dynamics are actually healthy – we need a bit of that…..we need a bit of the vigilant eye of the vaisnavas, so to keep us from becoming degraded, since the tendency to glide down is very strong…..very strong!