(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 26 December 2014, Cape Town, South Africa, Srimad Bhagavatam 9.19.26)
I was reading Chanakya Pandit’s Neeti-Shastra. It was a long time ago that he wrote it, when he said ‘Which family has no blemish? Which family is not scarred by some scandals?’
In every family, there are some stories… Like, I have this uncle and his wife was a professional prostitute. What to do!? She got pregnant and he married her. The whole family, whenever they see her, it is always like, ‘There she is!’ She does not care but they will never ever forget that once she was a professional prostitute! That is how it is… We sort of do it behind the back of my uncle but some people want him to see their disapproval. It is somewhat of family entertainment.
Okay, now I put it on the table, ‘Oh my God, really? In your family, Maharaj? We always thought that you were from a respectable background and now we have to hear this? Oh gosh, Maharaj has gone down one level in public estimation, on this day.’ But as Chanakya Pandit explains, every family has some stories, something is there to tell, that is the situation but then we all try to sort of cover it up and keep it quiet.
The other day, I was talking to one devotee, devotee X, who was explaining that their family last name is the same as one of the people in the history of America who made an attempt to kill the president. It took him until he was forty-three when he finally asked his mother, ‘Does our family have any connection with so and so?’ And his mother just went like ‘We do not talk about that!’ Another blemish on the family. So it is interesting these things. In every family, there are some stories…