(H H Kadamba Kanana Swami, 20th June 2012, Prague, Czech Republic) Lecture: SB.4.12.8
When I was a child in a game I tried to cross the Grand Canyon by hanging on the washing line and I fell on my back from about 2 metres high, and I got some realizations! I realised that that doesn’t work. I never tried it again. So like that with many things we realise over time.
One time I was in South Africa and I was getting out of the car (it was a low car)so I grabbed the piece of metal and started to pull myself out and as I was just out of the car, a nice helpful devotee closed the door and my fingers were caught in between the door. Well there were two things going: Automatically from my mouth a siren came and said:
‘Open the door!!’
And meanwhile in my mind I was thinking:
‘I probably lost my four fingers!’
Anyway when the door was opened my four fingers were still on there and I realised that the designer had thought of it – he thought that someone might get his fingers in between the door and he left some space for them. So all glories to the designers! So I got some realizations, and now whenever I get out of the car and I see servants coming, I’m very careful! I learnt, ‘Watch out for servants, they can be dangerous!’
So as the years go by you get your realizations about the material energy, and that is helpful but that is not enough. No, we must also get our realizations about Krishna, and we must realise not only that Krishna is the all-attractive but also how Krishna is the all attractive, and as we are serving Him we have to discover His all-attractive nature. Otherwise, if we just serve Krishna because we have suffered in the material world, then we will not last because we still want sense enjoyment! We have to become thoroughly convinced that the most wonderful thing is to serve Krishna, because He is the most wonderful! That is the realization of the spiritual dimension, so both must be there.
So if we get a lot of suffering in the material world, then after that we must get more serious about serving Krishna, and from that by going deeper we can live out some higher taste!