(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 01 October 2011, Govinda Valley, Australia, Faith Retreat – Introduction)
It is so nice to be focusing on Krsna, whether it is through his holy name, through some Krsna katha or whether it is through serving the vaisnavas. These are like the main ingredients of our Krsna consciousness. Especially by serving the devotees, one develops the taste for hearing about Krsna. Such taste for hearing about Krsna is important, as taste is the key in anything we do; if there is no taste, life gets difficult! So serving the vaisnavas is the beginning of developing taste for hearing and chanting about Krsna. That is quite an important element. Many of us hear about very exalted philosophy, we hear about the spiritual world, we hear the pastimes of Krsna which are just very rich and playful…
For example, Rupa Gosvami describes how the gopis feel that the flute of Krsna is stealing away their property, by touching the lips of Krsna. Therefore, the gopis have an ongoing relationship with that flute – they try to steal the flute. Again and again, they are trying to steal that flute. Radharani also once had a plan to steal Krsna’s flute but it was very difficult because of her effulgence. It is explained that due to her ecstatic love, she is shining so bright that even in the dark of night as she was trying to steal the flute, everyone could see that she was doing it. So again it did not work! And so far, the gopis have not been able to steal Krsna’s flute although they have been after it for a long time, for an eternity!
Once Radharani was established as the undoubted queen of Vrindavan and her prime minister, Visakha, was controlling who was allowed to meet the queen, as you don’t just walk in on the queen like that; you have to apply for the audience and so on. So, Visakha was deciding about that and she said that Krsna could not have any audience with the queen. But Krsna said, ‘No, I am not coming just like that – I am coming to offer my services.’
‘All right’, Visakha said, so Krsna was appointed as the chief of police and everything was going well in the court. Krsna as the chief of police was doing great but at one point in the middle of the whole thing, Krsna started to complain that somehow or other his flute was stolen. The prime minister was staring at him, ‘What kind of police chief is that if he cannot look after his own flute! How can you feel secure with such a person who gets his own flute stolen? What kind of security is that?!’ But Krsna then started to do a serious investigation in the ways of Sherlock Holmes and then found out that the prime suspect was the prime minister herself! So, he managed to recover the flute from the dress of the prime minister who, of course, claimed that the police chief had planted the flute there!
In conclusion, such pastimes are going on and politics are certainly there in the spiritual world, not only here in the material world, but it is politics for pleasure, for fun. So this is very nice and in this way, the pastimes of the spiritual world are very wonderful. If we absorb ourselves and forget everything about this material world that would be great. The key to that absorption is the service to the vaisnavas, as such service will give us the taste by which we can do so. Therefore, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu emphasized humility as the means to go deep in our Krsna consciousness.
