Great sages are personalities who have knowledge. They are not acting just according to their own ideas but great sages have absorbed, they have heard, they have absorbed transcendental knowledge and they have implemented it in their lives. They have taken shelter. The essence is that Krsna gives us so many directions in so many ways. He gives us many ways to take shelter. He appears in the form of His name – We can take shelter by reciting. We can take shelter of the meaning of the Maha Mantra and we can in this way understand what actually our duty is – serve Krsna, the all attractive Supreme Lord and then happiness will be the result. We can take shelter of the Deities. There are many shelters all along. But if we don’t take shelter then even if these shelters are there the result will not come. So the sages are those who have adjusted their lives according to the directions and desires of Krsna. Thus such sages are highly qualified. Their desires have become purified. Because in the beginning we may come with so many desires, because the living entity by nature is pleasure seeking. And when we are forgetful of Krsna then our search for pleasure will become linked to the material energy. Its inevitable. It must happen. If we are not full of Krsna and full of desire to serve Krsna then surely so many other desires will awaken in us automatically, immediately. And the opposite is also true. As the heart becomes filled with service to Krsna material desires disappear more and more and become insignificant and become no longer so burning so pressing, so difficult to overcome. They actually diminish day by day and disappear into the background until eventually they disappear altogether.
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, August 2009, Melbourne, Australia)
