(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 27 January 2013, Radhadesh, Belgium, Radhadesh Mellows Class)
In the Caitanya-candramrta (1.5), there is a description from Prabodhananda Sarasvati Thakura and he writes: durdāntendriya-kāla-sarpa-paṭalī, protkhāta-daṁṣṭrāyate. Then he says: viśvaṁ pūrṇa-sukhāyate.
He says that the senses are like black snakes with poisonous fangs that are attacking us constantly. And these snakes will bite. The nature of a snake is that even when there is no provocation, it will bite! So, the senses are like that – always attacking us. Again! Constantly! Srila Prabhupada said that yogis are trying to control their senses but the devotee doesn’t bother with that. The devotee is not focusing on trying to control the senses. The devotee is simply absorbed in engaging his senses in the service of Krsna and then the poisonous teeth of that black serpent are broken!
So in this way, through absorption in service, automatically the senses will not affect us any longer in a negative way. There is sankirtan – the word kirtan or the root word kirti which means glorification of Krsna. If simply our whole life is kirtan, if our whole life is glorification of Krsna then everything we do is just glorification of Krsna. Not only the singing being kirtan but our life being sankirtan. Every aspect of it is glorification of Krsna!
Srila Prabhupada speaks about a young boy who is very impressed by a particular young girl and who desires to have an extended relationship with that girl and he wants to buy her a ring. And he is working and he spends a whole week’s salary on that ring! And Prabhupada says that actually the whole week the boy had been thinking about it. Every day he was working and waiting for his paycheck; just waiting until finally he could buy that ring. So in this way, he worked only for the girl as he never forgot her for a moment. Every moment he thought, “I’m going to buy the ring.”
In this way, all our activities can become part of that glorification of the Supreme Lord. Everything! Even when we have to earn bread-and-butter then that bread-and-butter will be for the glorification of Krsna. Whether we break loose in ecstatic dancing or whether we donate our earnings for maintaining or for having a festival for the glorification of Krsna – it is linked. Everything becomes linked and our whole life becomes dedicated to glorification of Krsna.
