(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 8 April 2014, Cape Town, South Africa, Rama Naumi Initiation Lecture )
One element of happiness is giving mercy to others – that brings happiness. That always brings happiness when we see how destitute people are getting mercy, that is very nice. We were just in the Ratha Yatra in Newcastle (South Africa), there was one bum off the street and he had a cloud of alcohol smell at least two metres around him, so it was serious. But when the kirtan came by, it struck a chord; something made him happy and he started to dance. He danced funny moves and he danced the whole way.
Then at one point, one of the devotees started dancing with him and then at one point, this devotee gave him a huge hug. Oh sure, that guy did not have a huge hug for a long long time – that really lifted him up like anything, God! He became actually happy since it was a long time that he had been accepted by anyone and not chased away like a dog, “Get out of here! You animal!” But for the first time in a long time, he was treated like a human being and that mercy lifted him up and also the devotee who did that became totally ecstatic!
I saw it and I also got a glimmer in my eye, ‘Hey, something is going on here. This is on a transcendental plane. This is on a plane of extraordinary generosity.’ Wherever we see that – that giving to uplift others, there we gain happiness!
