(Kadamba Kanana Swami, August 2013, Abentheur, Germany, Hamsaduta Seminar Part 1)
Sri Lalita speaking to a swan (from the Hamsaduta), “You live in pure waters. You find happiness among the lotus stems. Your heart is pure. For this reason, I, a very unhappy women, take shelter of you. A request to a saintly person is never fruitless”
I like that point, “A request to a saintly person is never fruitless.” That puts a great responsibility on a saintly person. Really, if you think about it, we are all meant to be saintly persons because this is part of the story. Who is the messenger? Who is meant to be the messenger? It is not the swan. Gradually, as the narration unfolds, it may dawn upon us that we have to be the messenger. We have to be the duta and we have to be qualified as the duta. Now the swan is highly qualified because the swan is living in pure waters and the swan is eating only lotus stems. So, one must reside in a sacred place. One must take only Krsna prasadam. One must be pure, in other words, pure in his activities which will purify the consciousness. So our residence must always be a sacred place… there is no question. That is an important principle.
In the course of preaching, didn’t Nityananda go into the liquor store? Wasn’t Nityananda seen in the house of a prostitute? Isn’t that the case? Didn’t Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda go to a sannyasi who was staying with a women? Didn’t they even take some fruits there? Didn’t they only leave that place when the sannyasi offered alcohol? Then it got too much.
A preacher may go into sinful places but cannot live there, cannot reside there. One must reside in a place of purity. That place cannot just be external. One’s residence must be in one’s heart. One must be face-to-face with Krsna. Therefore, early in the morning, we are not performing our sadhana for the sake of just completing our vow. In the morning, we are meant to get absorbed in our worship. We are meeting Krsna face-to-face really. When we are chanting the holy name, which is identified as non-different from Krsna, we are meeting Krsna face-to-face and we are making our offering because the chanting of the holy name is a mystic process.
It is a process where on the one hand, we are producing the sound with our lips, with our consciousness concentrated, we are fixing the mind. The ear is there and as we are making the sound with our lips, our voice and mind are concentrated on making this sound, then part two! There is a part one – the offering that we are making. And part two is that because the sound itself is Krsna then Krsna manifests to us. We hear the holy name. There we are getting the darsana of Krsna through that sound. So, these two aspects are there and it is very interesting. So, we must meet Krsna. We cannot just mechanically chant! Then our residence comes at the lotus feet of Krsna. Then we can be the messenger, otherwise how can we be a messenger? What kind of messenger are we when our residence is not at the lotus feet of Krsna?
When it says, hrdaya-kandare sphuratu vah saci-nandana (Caitanya Caritamrta Antya 1.132) that in the innermost core of the heart must be Sacinandana or the Supreme Lord, what does that mean? It says what our actual interest is? Our actual interest must be fixed at the lotus feet of Krsna. That we must cultivate. Otherwise, how can we be a messenger? So today we are sort of beginning… let us realize that we are to be the messenger. We can, in our reading of the Hamsaduta, identify with the swan – as you always have to identify with one hero – and that is the swan is us!