(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 18 September 2012, Cape Town, South Africa, Lecture)
Every day we remind ourselves of Krsna’s eternal activities because we know that it will capture our mind. At the same time, we try to conquer our mind and we say YES to devotional service, although the mind sometimes wants to say no. This is the nature of the conditioned mind. Whenever there is an opportunity for devotional service the mind is thinking, “How can I get out of it! How can I avoid this? How can I somehow or other find an excuse?”
So we have to conquer the mind and just make it a principle to say YES to devotional service and to just volunteer to do things even when the mind says no. And with all our hearing and chanting, gradually the mind will say, “It’s quite nice actually, this devotional service…”
So little-by-little we become captured and breakthrough in spiritual life. But it is not going to be so easy; it is not going to come automatically and certainly, it will not be that one day in the midst of all our resistance and reluctance, we will just wake up one morning full of taste and say, “Oh I really want to serve Krsna!”
No, it’s a matter of hearing about Krsna, chanting the holy name, serving Krsna & the devotees, conquering the mind and then gradually, service will take over until the emphasis will shift and the priority becomes Krsna!