(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 27 September 2009, Cape Town, South Africa, Bhagavad-gita 2.11)
In this life, we are trying to enjoy as much as we can and at the same time, we are trying to duck the unpleasant things that are sometimes flying around. I had this experience one time in India; I was riding on the train with an open window because it was bahut garam, very hot and just then… I don’t know who did it because when you travel on the train you don’t know, but suddenly a big ball of cow-dung flew into the train and hit me right in my face… and I tell you when that comes in at about 70 or 80 kilometres an hour… it was soft, so it didn’t injure my face… but it splashed hard and it managed to cover everything… not just my face but my clothes from top to bottom and everything. And you know how you feel at a moment like that. You can’t believe that this has just happened. You just think, this is not true… this hasn’t happened. The mind doesn’t want to accept. The mind sort of says no, no! This is just not possible… this cannot happen… this is not normal.
I still remember the experience – it took me hours to get it all off in a train. In a train, it is not exactly where you go take a shower. So it was quite an experience and at that moment anyone could have told me, “But Prabhu, because I was not a sannyasi then, but Prabhu cow-dung is pure!”
But you know those are not the moments when you want to hear transcendental philosophy! Those are moments when you really hope that somebody has a solution… something practical. So my point is that, although we try to enjoy in this world, it doesn’t always happen. Sometimes you get a certain substance straight in your face, and what you going do about it!? You just have to take it.