(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Finland, 2011)

Each set of clothes brings with it a certain mood and a certain mentality. I was in Bengal on a train, and I was wearing these clothes. There was a young Bengali boy who was wearing Bermuda shorts with some designs….colourful…….and he laughs at me.

He says:

“Look at that! “

I asked:

“What’s your problem?”

“Look at those clothes!”

So I said:

“Well, you know look at those clothes…look at those clothes!”

And what he was wearing.

So I asked him:

“Do you like those shorts?”

“I like them very much”.

“Ok. So do you wear them everyday?”

“No, of course not. Not everyday. Only sometimes”.

I said:

”Well I wear these clothes everyday because they are spiritual and therefore, they are fully satisfying. I do not need to change. But you have your shorts today, and then you wearing something else, only because you are not completely satisfied”.

So if you look at the pictures of Krishna and Lord Ramachandra,They wear these clothes.

Some people they say:

“Why do we have to wear these Indian clothes in the West?”

There is a certain group of devotees who are feeling like that…and are speaking out like that. Even some senior leaders have spoken up like that.

Srila Prabhupada has explained this:

“India is a very special Country. It is very special, because in India they speak Sanskrit…traditionally it is Sanskrit. Sanskrit is ‘deva nagari’ – is the language spoken in the heavenly planets! It is even spoken in Vaikuntha!”

So the Indian culture is parallel to the culture of the heavenly planet, and that means that whatever is in the heavenly planets, is predominating by goodness. Whatever is going on in our regions is predominating by passion. The earthly regions are predominating by passion. So therefore, this dress, this culture has a value because it is related to the culture of the spiritual world, and that is coming through India.

So India is an amazing place. Not only is the Ganges coming from the spiritual world onto material world, but there is a whole culture within it. Both Krishna and Lord Ramachandra wears dhoti…..Sita wears a sari and therefore dhotis and saris are the best! So it’s not Indian culture, but a spiritual culture!

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