Written by Nimai
The last week of Kadamba Kanana Swami’s stay at the AVP hospital passed by very quickly. The main treatment was over and the focus was on rebuilding Maharaj’s strength. By then, he was allowed to be in the sunlight again so we resumed our daily 5 km program and walked through the neighbourhood. We also got to speak to the main doctor of the hospital during the last days. He suggested that Maharaj should stay in one place for a year and forget all travelling, however Maharaj explained that it’s his duty as a sannyasi to preach so finally, they agreed to slow down the travelling for some time.
Svayam Bhagavan Das, a disciple who is originally from South India, came all the way from his preaching center near Mumbai to visit Maharaj. He speaks the local language too which was very helpful sometimes. Maharaj gave one class at the temple where he spoke about “The storehouse of love of God”.
He explained how Vedic culture had decreased, using Srila Prabhupada’s analogy of the dead elephant – a dead elephant is still useful as we can make use of the tusks because they consist of ivory and we can make use of the hide, etc. Similarly, Vedic culture had become ritualistic and the love was lacking. But then, the Panca Tattva broke open the storehouse of love of God and drank the nectar. They became intoxicated and started spreading the mercy. They preached that kirtan will purify everything.
Maharaj spoke about taste in spiritual life. He said that just knowledge is not enough. We can be the most determined person, but if we don’t have taste we will become weak sooner or later. So this taste comes by chanting the holy name and THEN material enjoyments start to look very shallow.
We got lots of Ayurvedic medicine to last for the next three months. From Coimbatore, before travelling to Amsterdam, we spent another few days in Vrindavan. Maharaj spoke to a few devotees who came to visit him but was still quite exhausted from the weeks of treatment that had just finished.
One day, we went to Loi Bazar to do some shopping. Maharaj bought a whole stack of books in preparation for his scheduled one month of writing in Radhadesh. He gave a class too, which was in some ways a continuation of the class in Coimbatore. He spoke about Dadhīci Muni, who gave up his body so the demigods could make a weapon out of his bones. He was a very powerful yogi and completely free from material desires. Maharaj then explained that our position is not one of Dadhīci. We live in the age of Kali where our birthright is weakness. We are dependent on Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s mercy which is like a shield that blocks off maya. We should not worry about the temporary but look at the long term benefit that we get from singing and chanting the holy names of Krsna. Watch the video of the class on YouTube here.
After flying from Delhi (30 May), we stayed two nights in Amsterdam at Uddhava and Visakha’s house. Maharaj bought more books while in Amsterdam and got ready to start his writing. Then we travelled to Radhadesh where we will stay until the end of June.
Visit Flickr to see all the photos.