(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 28 February 2013, Vrndavan, India, Caitanya Caritamrta Seminar 3)
We feel very human. Our identification with this present bodily existence and all the needs, is very strong. In the teachings of Sanatana Gosvami, there is a verse,
kāmādināṁ kati na katidhā pālitā durnideśās teṣāṁ mayi na karuṇā jātā na trapā nopaśāntiḥ, (Bhakti Rasamrta Sindhu 3.2.35).
There is no limit to the quantity of my unwanted desires. For so long, I have been trying to fulfil these desires. Oh yes, I have faithfully served them. Whatever demand was placed upon me, I tried to fulfil but the senses have never been very grateful. The senses basically said; after I brought them everything, everything I could with all my energy; all they could say was, ‘Is that all? Bring more!’
And like this, it’s been slavery – just hard, hard labour without any reward, without any appreciation in the service of the senses. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu met with Sanatana Gosvami, and Sanatana Gosvami was saying, ‘For so long, I have been serving the senses but lately I have come to my senses.’
Srila Bhaktisiddanta Saraswati Thakura wrote an essay called, ‘The real and the apparent self.’ And in this essay, he says, ‘For so long, I have served this false person who I’m not. This false identity, who I’m not. I will no longer, no longer serve that personality, no longer.’
Basically, that is the theme of the article that one goes on strike for the bodily demands. But that is not so easy. Who can do such a thing? How can we do it? It is not easy. If the path is renunciation, if the path is so rigid, if the path is so demanding and we are not going to make it, then we are chickens after all – up in the air and then back on the ground! But we can’t stay there. How to gradually rise in the sky of spiritual realization, that is our focus!