(HH Kadamba Kanana Swami, May 2012, Bhaktivedanta Manor, London UK) Lecture: Part 1 seminar – Higher taste

You cannot read all of the time. We had one such devotee who for a little while was a temple president and he was always reading. If you were to ask him:

‘Prabhu.’

He would say:

‘Huh?’

‘Prabhu excuse me.’

‘Huh? What?’

‘Prabhu.’

‘Yes.’

‘We need the car.’

‘What?’

‘Car, Prabhu, Car.’

‘A car? Oh yeah okay, you can have it.’

‘Prabhu.’

‘Er yeah.’

‘Prabhu, with the key.’

‘Oh.’

‘Key, the key.’

‘The key? What key?’

‘The car key!’

‘Oh the car key, there, okay.’

‘Thanks. Where’s the car?’

Like that it would take a long time to get through the daily activities, and he was reading…In the bathroom he had slokas everywhere stuck on the walls. He used to go on harinama with a gong (big gong) and in the gong there was a book! So he played the gong and then he was reading the book. He was really into reading, seriously and we can say:

‘Well is that what it means when they say that the Bhagavatam should be our constant companion?’

If everyone would live like that then another one would come off the world and it would get a little difficult. So maybe not like that. Maybe that we have the Bhagavatam to touch us, and that we have to find jewels in the Bhagavatam. We have to find things that are precious to us and have a lot of meaning to us, and with these things we memorise and we carry them with us. Then the Bhagavatam begins to work with us, and that we learn verses, verses that we find are very deep and inspiring, and these verses become a shelter for us. They are there or just hear the Bhagavatam and regularly read the Bhagavatam every day. Bhagavatam is then appearing in our consciousness! Suddenly in the middle of the day you are in down town London (in the headquarters of maya) then suddenly a Bhagavatam appears in your hand. That is very nice:

‘That’s okay. Maybe this is good!’

And that is what you call a taste, and that’s where Bhagavatam begins to live a life in our consciousness, and it is there that gradually we begin to perceive reality from the Bhagavat!

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