Apologies for the lack of chronology in the recent travel posts. Kadamba Kanana Swami interrupted his stay in Mayapur with a short visit to South Africa. Here is a report by Candrasekhara dasa.
Kadamba Kanana Swami visited South Africa recently. He visited different centres around Johannesburg motivating the devotees in their preaching initiatives. He arrived in South Africa on Thursday morning (12 December) and spent the day meeting with local leaders of the Pretoria yatra. In the evening, he conducted a program at a disciple’s home in Midrand. Despite his long journey and tiring day, he led a sweet kirtan which touched the hearts of devotees. In addressing the audience thereafter, he highlighted the importance of studying Srimad Bhagavatam and encouraged devotees to adopt this culture of study.
Maharaj resided at the Pretoria temple for two days during which he lectured on Srimad Bhagavatam & Caitanya Caritamrta in the mornings and absorbed himself in sweet bhajans during the day. He also used the time to meet with devotees. On Friday, 13 December, he held an evening program at the temple which was well attended by the congregation. Within minutes, he broke out into ecstatic kirtan which had the ladies compete with the men in dancing. He went on to speak about the importance of filling our lives with service to Krsna:
“The essence of what I’m trying to say is that we must fill our life with service to Krsna. That is the difference, you see, hearing, chanting and other service to Krsna will make the difference. Otherwise, we will be alone, wherever we are. It doesn’t matter who we are with, still alone! But when we are really absorbed in service to Krsna, then we will never be alone. Never! And therefore we will never be feeling any lacking. One who is not with Krsna all the time always feels something lacking, even if you have everything.”
On Saturday, 14 December, Kadamba Kanana Swami attended the wedding ceremony of two of his disciples, at the Pretoria temple. The wedding couple were of African descent and their family members, even though having limited exposure to Vedic culture, completely embraced the ceremony and fully took part in the ecstatic kirtan which followed the ceremony. Kadamba Kanana Swami, a true follower of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, was in ecstasy himself seeing the Lord’s holy names being taken to the people of Africa.
The following day (15 December), Kadamba Kanana Swami attended the Sunday Programs at ISKCON Lenasia and ISKCON Soweto. The preaching initiatives in Soweto have a special place in Kadamba Kanana Swami’s heart and he is always inspired to give the people of Soweto extra mercy, and the people of Soweto reciprocated by coming in numbers to the temple to receive him. The small temple room was packed to capacity and the devotees danced to their heart’s contents to the beat of the holy name which continued for two hours. After class, a local devotee offered his appreciation to Kadamba Kanana Swami for always keeping Soweto close to his heart.
On 16 December was the last program that Kadamba Kanana Swami held. This time it was a relaxed picnic program at ISKCON Sandton where he highlighted the importance of staying safe from the influence of kali.
The audio recordings of classes will be made available soon.
Please find below pictures from all these program.If you cannot view the slide-show, then please visit flickr
