(Kadamba Kanana Swami, September 2010, Durban South Africa, Lecture)
We must always take shelter of our spiritual master. This is very important. We must take shelter again and again otherwise we will have no strength. Without taking shelter, we will not be able to succeed in spiritual life, we will struggle. We will not be able to maintain our vows or we will not be able to even take vows in the first place. Taking shelter is crucial, it keeps us on the cutting edge of spiritual life otherwise Krsna consciousness cannot take us very far and then it becomes a social club, “… and it’s Sunday again and it’s so nice to be here! And we had such a nice birthday party last week and guess what… we’re going to do it today! (Singing) May you never take birth again!”
Okay and you can have your cake and eat it too and it is nice to sing, “May you never take birth again,” but how do you actually do it? It is not so easy to never take birth again – a slip in between the cup and the lip and before you know, another birth again! So to never take birth again is more than just about eating cake! It is really a matter of making a commitment, of being brave, being very brave and going before the spiritual master and saying, “I am yours!” It is a scary thing to do, very scary to become someone’s property completely. One must do whatever such a person says! This is the nature of the guru-disciple relationship.