(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 2nd Jan 2012, Simhachalan, Germany) Caitanya-caritāmṛta talk
We find in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta a cultural expression, which is very important. Because without cultural expression, how are you going to live? In mankind we need a certain range of activities to engage in. These activities in this world, they come back again and again with regular intervals, because life is repetitious – everyday the sun rises and it sets…every night you go to sleep and everyday you get up. So there is repetition in life! It goes on and on.
So this is what we are experiencing in culture, meaning that there is an arrangement of regular activities, which are favourable for spiritual life. That’s real culture! There is so called culture which also means regulated activities of the degraded life, but that is not culture. True culture means that, which elevates, so we have that – we have all these activities that elevates us!
What Srila Prabhupada did was a transplant. He took the culture from Bengal, India, and put Krishna Consciousness in the west, and gave pure teachings of Srila Rupa Goswami, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and so on…the entire sampradaya, and with it some culture!
