From the Soweto Ratha Yatra, Kadamba Kanana Maharaja flew directly to Cape Town. Upon arrival (17 Sept), his intended “short address” evolved into an hour of kirtan at full throttle. Afterwards, he explained the wonders of deities and how they are miraculously interacting with their devotees.
On Wednesday (19 Sept), Maharaja was invited to speak at the University of Cape Town. After a short session of “mantra meditation”, he elaborated on the destructive side of modern living and offered a Vedic approach. He boldly stated, “Electricity is evil! Why? It destroys nature. The problem is that man is part of nature. We are building this whole unnatural environment and then we forget that we ourselves are products of nature. So the Vedic culture is more aimed towards the roots: Who are we as real beings? Who are we truly?”
That night Maharaja held a program at Nilambhara Prabhu’s place. He expounded the glories of the Vaisnava calendar and how following it deepens our meditation on the various personalities, thus enriching our spiritual lives. Later on, he asked different devotees to share their thoughts and realizations, concluding the program very sweetly.
On Thursday, during the Bhagavatam class, a one-man initiation took place. Bhakta Rory lived in the Cape Town temple for a year and was now ready to receive his spiritual name as well as the saffron cloth of a brahmacari. Maharaja’s talk was very rich, teeming with personal instructions for the initiate: “Distribute books! Because Bhaktisiddhanta said, that the printing press was making a beating noise just like a drum. The mrdanga is a two headed drum but the printing press is even louder! So he said that your mrdanga will be heard on one block, but the printing press will be heard all over. So book distribution must be there.” In this spirit, he eventually he gave him the name, Brhad Mrdanga Dasa, which is Srila Bhaktisiddhanta’s Sanskrit term for the above mentioned printing presses.
With this auspicious occasion, Maharaja’s stay in Cape Town drew to a close and he travelled on to Durban to celebrate the annual Radhastami festival.
If you cannot view the slide show below, please visit flickr!
