(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 20 March 2016, Durban, South Africa, Lecture at Sunday Program)

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Bhagavad-gita makes it very clear – we should not waste our time in trying to control the material energy and make it more and more favourable for our stay in the material world. Rather, we should understand that our stay in the material world is temporary and therefore, whatever use we make of the material energy, let it be minimized and let us keep it simple so that we have ample opportunity to focus on the real roots of our existence, focus on Krsna – the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

So one must cut this tree of samsara (of material existence), this asvattham, this banyan tree that offers us no tomorrow, with the weapon of detachment. Detachment is necessary in this world. Of course, detachment is not easily developed. The Vedic model is given of phalgu vairagya. If you go to the state of Bihar, you can visit Gaya, and there is the Phalguna River. I visited there. It is just a dry river bed but that is not all there is to it because if you dig a little, about thirty centimetres below, you will find water. It is an underground river. So phalgu vairagya is depicting the underground desires which remain when we are trying to be detached, when we are trying to turn away from the material world but still, we must persevere to become free of them.

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