Trascribed by Nama-rupa dd
(HH Kadamba Kanana Swami, 25 December 2012, Cape Town, South Africa, Srimad-Bhagavatam 8.6.31)
There is always the thi
ng about the coconuts. These coconuts are being thrown in front of the chariot. And just do the hocus-pocus: moving three times to the right, three times to the left. Why? I do not know- because they say so. Because that is how everybody is doing it. Somebody may know. Then we throw them and break them on the ground. Now, what are we doing there? Are we there breaking the coconut to capture all the inauspicious elements and to just make sure that nothing like that is happening? Or? And in that case- can you eat the coconut? Or is the all inauspiciousness going into the coconut? Or are we just saying: Ah, well, it’s Lord Caitanya’s movement and in a way it’s like an offering to Lord Jagannath? Boom! And, you know, whatever is offered to Him, we’ll take it. We’ll take the coconut.
We can debate about these things forever.
There are two ways to look at these things. I am inclined towards the latter. Because I think the predominating force in our entire life, in our entire spiritual life is the mercy of Lord Caitanya. Otherwise what chance would we have?
I
would like to offer this metaphor of the Vedic literature or the Vedic injunctions being so many, being there like a mountain in the ocean of the material existence. And we can see how between the two there is the line. The waves of material existence are washing on the shore of the Vedic literature which stands there like a rock. And one follows these Vedic injunctions. Then on this ocean of this material existence a wave, a great tidal wave of Lord Caitanya’s mercy is coming and is just washing onto that beach. And the water line… where the waves when they wash onto the shore they leave a water line, the furthest point where the water came. And suddenly that wave of mercy washes further onto the beach of the Vedic literature. And suddenly the mercy of Lord Caitanya is there and suddenly so many rules and so on are less important.
For example in Hari-bhakti-vilasa we see some rules appearing in Vedic culture. There is a verse there which says that anyone who eats on ekadasi- next life- a hog. There is another verse which says that if you have ever put out the ghee lamp that has been offered to the Lord (it may have inadvertently, not on purpose, happened) then next life- blind
So there are quite a few of us who have done these things. So what to do about that? But we understand. Srila Prabhupada set the standards. Being the agent of Lord Caitanya, setting the standard… (gestures) what? … it is not so important. And that is why sometimes we see that in India there are these differences coming up. Like on ekadasi; what can you eat and what can you not eat. You can eat only papaya, you can eat only this and that… and no eggplant and no tomatoes and all these things. And then Prabhupada says: no grains, beans, no mustard seeds also. Like that. So, standards may be slightly relaxed, slightly simplified in this sankirtana movement of Lord Caitanya, and not completely strictly according to the Vedic culture. But, whatever standards have been given by our Acaryas- that we have to follow.
