(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 2011, Govinda Valley, Australia, Srimad Bhagavatam 3.25.27)
As the years go by in the Hare Krsna Movement, sometimes we are surprised at how some devotees become entangled again in material things. We could never have imagined that it would happen to them.
If you are involved in management, it’s like being the cops – you are always with the dead body; that’s the job of the police. Being in management is the same – do the post mortem, “Alright, here we are again. Let’s look at all the horrible details of what went wrong.”
This is also part of the Movement! Let us face reality… it is not just a beautiful story – we joined the Movement and we all became saints! Sometimes we struggle since we do not have much desire to chant the Holy Name or sometimes we made an offense by speaking harshly to another vaisnava… It can also become a little more raw than that!
The lower nature can really come out. What can we say!? Psychologists speak about the “inner child”. I am often in Germany and in a bookstore; I saw a book speaking about the Innerer Schweinehund. The best way to translate it is: the inner hog dog. Literally, it means the pig within. We know him well and he is there pushing and ready for action at any time. The moment we think that we are beyond it, then DANGER ZONE… DANGER ZONE! One must remain on guard always and remember, “I have this weakness inside of me; it will not benefit me in any way if I follow it!”
Our handle, our control on that weak side of us is first of all REGULATION – to follow a regulated program. Secondly, we need PHILOSOPHICAL UNDERSTANDING so that we can look beyond the here and now and see what the consequences are in the long term. If we learn to think about the consequences of our actions in the long term, then we are more protected.
Therefore, we do not want a Movement where everyone is on automatic pilot. If we don’t think then we are an endangered species. We have to think of the consequences of our actions; this is what the Bhagavatam is calling for.
The Bhagavatam is not just a sweet book, describing the sweetness of Krsna’s glories and pastimes. If we think that the Bhagavatam is just a sweet inspirational book, then we are certainly missing the point because it is a heavy book as well. The Bhagavatam shows us the heaviness of the material nature and how it entangles us. The Bhagavatam asks us to think about the consequences of things. Therefore the Bhagavatam is there to awaken us and kick start a process of where we begin to practice questioning, “What is going to be the result of the actions of what I am doing now?”
