(H H Kadamba Kanana Maharaja, Cape Town, 26th June 2012) Lecture: BG 7.22
There is forgetfulness of Krsna and there is resistance, even when we are conscious, even when we know that we should be serving Krsna, even when we know that we are chanting Hare Krishna…there is resistance.
So these two things, where we totally forget to serve Krsna and while we are serving Krsna: ‘I do not really want to. I cannot do it !‘ … these two elements are there.
So let us at least put ourselves first of all in an environment with devotees so that we are reminded of Krsna, and in the association of serving, that solves the forgetfulness. Then when we are reluctant to serve Krsna, you cannot really show that in the association of devotees since it is embarrassing. In front of others you sort of feel a social pressure to kind of act out the role of a pure devotee:
‘Oh my God, I got up! I don’t know how I did it but..‘
And everyone is thinking the same.
‘I don’t know why in the world I got up so early this morning, but everybody else did it. So what could I do? I also did it.’
So A got up for B and B got up for A, that is the interesting part. Neither one of them wanted to get up, but anyway they did. So the association of the devotees works very well and it helps us to somehow or the other act beyond what comes naturally.
If we go on just on our own, then we will only serve Krsna to what we can naturally do, but in the association of devotees we act beyond what we can do, so that’s important.
