(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 20 March 2014, Melbourne, Australia, Srimad Bhagavatam 2.7.52)
Because w
e are in the spiritual world, we are not really here in this material world. We’re only here because the spiritual world is covered by some cloud of illusion and it seems that we are in the material world, but actually we are not. We are actually in the spiritual world.
We see that Srila Prabhupada had that kind of consciousness and became very tolerant and sort of unaffected by material things. Prabhupada was so focused on Krsna that he didn’t identify so much with the material world. Hari Sauri, who was Prabhupada’s personal servant, described that Prabhupada had a swollen cheek one day.
So Hari Sauri said, “Prabhupada, you have a toothache?”
Prabhupada said, “Yes, yes. Some discomfort”.
And that was all! He never mentioned it again. Prabhupada never brought it up again. I mean, you try that when you have a toothache. You know, it is not so easy. I mean, every three minutes you sort of have to go like, “Sssssss,” and everyone goes like, “Oh! You have a toothache?”
We need this sympathy, you know what I mean!? We need all the people around us to sort of suffer with us. We need that constant support, that emotional support, that people share our suffering. So we are like, “Mmmm, aaaah, ooooh”. We get into it, “This cheek and it’s swollen and the tooth is throbbing!” The mind just becomes a tooth, right. The mind is just a tooth. The whole consciousness is in the tooth. There is nothing else. The universe has become a tooth!
But we can see for Prabhupada that was not the case, that didn’t happen. His mind didn’t go into the tooth. His mind stayed with Krsna and therefore he could tolerate it, without painkillers and anything, which to us, is inconceivable. An intense toothache without painkillers is very tough but Prabhupada could do because he was so absorbed in the spiritual world.
So that is the idea which Bhagavatam is waking us up to. Bhagavatam is awakening that kind of vision, the vision of the spiritual world, the spiritual reality and one begins to see like that. So in this way, the Bhagavatam is more than just a book, it gives us an outlook.
