Author Archives: KKSBlog

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 03 July 2016, Czech Summer Camp, Srimad Bhagavatam 3.2.5) Krsna does not derive any happiness from the material energy. He enjoys only his inner, eternal spiritual energy. However, the material energy can be connected to Krsna. By engaging the material energy in the service of Krsna it becomes transcendental because the ‘fruit’ becomes […]

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 26 April 2016, Radhadesh, Belgium, Vyasa Puja Address) I thank all the vaisnavas for their prayers. So many prayers. I will tell you the truth, my astrology is not good for long life but then there were so many prayers of so many vaisnavas. I think these prayers are stronger. I have […]

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 26 April 2016, Radhadesh, Belgium, Vyasa Puja Address) Many of you have discussed my health and it imposes some further limitations on me. What can I say!? I have to start thinking about going slow, what a boring thing but what to do!? Limited! The guru is limited so ultimately, at the […]

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 26 April 2016, Radhadesh, Belgium, Vyasa Puja Address) Every spiritual master is representing the sampradaya and is representing the knowledge of scriptures in parampara and at the same time, every spiritual master is an individual and each individual is different and therefore every spiritual master brings in his own individual mood. Well, […]

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 26 April 2016, Radhadesh, Belgium, Vyasa Puja Address) We want to manifest the spiritual world here. This is our business together. This is what we are meant to do and everyone is meant to contribute in their own individual way to bring in spiritual elements. Whatever it is, bring in Krsna according […]

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 26 April 2016, Radhadesh, Belgium, Vyasa Puja Address) I was fortunate; I got the mercy of the dhama, of a world dedicated to Krsna. Of course, the external layer of Yogamaya covers the dhama but below it, there is a deeper level. When we go to Radha Kund, we may see amazing things but we do […]

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 26 April 2016, Radhadesh, Belgium, Vyasa Puja Address) I spent time in Vrindavan by Krsna´s grace. I had not deserved it but somehow or other, I joined there. I had the good fortune of being in the place where Krsna was so present and where Prabhupada was so present. In the Krsna […]

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 26 April 2016, Radhadesh, Belgium, Vyasa Puja Address) Very recently, we have celebrated various appearance days of the different incarnations of the Lord. Most recently, it was of Lord Ramachandra, the embodiment of dharma. Each of our main books has an overriding theme. In the Bhagavad-gita, we find the dilemma of Arjuna. Arjuna […]

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 26 April 2016, Radhadesh, Belgium, Vyasa Puja Address) sarva mahā-guṇa-gaṇa vaiṣṇava-śarīre kṛṣṇa-bhakte kṛṣṇera guṇa sakali sañcāre (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila 22.75) It is said that all the good qualities of Krsna will manifest within the body of a vaisnava. This is the amazing nature of Krsna consciousness. Because by serving the spiritual master… whatever the […]

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 […]

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, May 2016, Coimbatore, India, Hospital Conversations) The spiritual world is where we should be. Residents of the spiritual world descend to the material world to preach. As long as we are in material consciousness, there is struggle with the senses so we have to take responsibility of preaching like how Haridasa Thakur […]

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, May 2016, Coimbatore, India, Hospital Conversations) In Satya yuga, there is no varnashrama but in Treta yuga varnashrama is introduced. In grhastha life, devotees are busy but still, we must study Srimad Bhagavatam because it is our main book. This book describes the hierarchy of Krsna’s various plenary portions and also the […]

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, May 2016, Coimbatore, India, Hospital Conversations) Initiation is beginning of our spiritual life and is based on prescribed duty. One should never see the spiritual master as an ordinary person; the relationship with the spiritual master is never ordinary. Krsna enters the relationship; it is Krsna’s arrangement. Through the form of guru, […]

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, May 2016, Coimbatore, India, Conversations in Hospital) Desire and hate, lust and anger manifests because we do not understand Krsna and this is because of our attachment to the body, iccha-dvesa-samutthena (Bhagavad-gita 7.27). We relate to our working senses – working, surviving and struggling – thinking we need just a little more […]

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 17 January 2012, Radhadesh, Belgium, Srimad Bhagavatam 5.18.9) The movement of Lord Caitanya is accommodating all kinds of people but that is not an excuse to stay how we are. We bring all this negative stuff with us, in our hand luggage… just like how when you fly on Ryanair, you put […]

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 19 January 2014, Durban, South Africa, Lecture)  We can become free from personal motivation. It comes from sacrifice in devotional service; it cannot come from anything else. We just put our own ideas aside and do something, and over time we take responsibility for Prabhupada’s movement. We just volunteer and we become […]

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 22 December 2014, Cape Town, South Africa, Srimad Bhagavatam 9.19.19) This human life is very short and we have to be very careful that we do not waste the opportunity to go back to Godhead. In whatever we do, do what you have to BUT, do not, in any way, jeopardize the […]

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 22 June 2014, Bhaktivedanta Manor, London, Caitanya Caritamrta Adi-Lila 8.63-66) It is mentioned in the Hari Bhakti Vilasa that if one accepts the worship of a deity then, not only should one worship that deity very nicely during his lifetime, but one is also responsible to make sure that the seva puja […]

‘Miracle on Second Avenue’ is a short, carefully researched documentary book written in a you-are-there style, that catalogs the start and growth of the Hare Krishna movement. ‘Miracle on Second Avenue’ won the 2012 National Indie Excellence Award for Biography. The work is a memoir of Mukunda Goswami, one of the pioneers of the religious […]

  Dear  BBT Africa Supporter The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust Africa herewith presents to you its Annual Report for 2015. Download Here Snapshot The continent has recorded its best score since 1992, with 267,941 books distributed for 2015. South Africa was the number one distributor, after chasing Kenya for top-honours in the last five years. Once again, the […]

Written by Nimai After leaving Vrindavan, Kadamba Kanana Swami flew from Delhi to Coimbatore in South India (06 May), where he was warmly received by a group of devotees who had all come to the airport to meet him for the first time. We didn’t drive to the temple though, but made our way straight […]

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 02 May 2015, Simhachalam, Germany, Nrshima Caturdasi Morning Lecture) om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah When Srila Prabhupada was lecturing on the appearance day of Lord Nrsimhadev in Bombay, he was lecturing immediately after a play and he was glorifying Hiranyakasipu because the part was played so well. Then […]

Written by Nimai After his Vyasa Puja festival in Radhadesh, Kadamba Kanana Swami travelled to India for a one month stay. We arrived in Vrindavan on 30 April and spent a week there. We welcomed heat after it had been snowing in Radhadesh. Maharaj took a few days off to recover from the journey and […]

Written by Nandan Wednesday, 27 April It feels like yesterday that we were on the last Kingsday parade. Already a year gone…. This may have already been said umpteen times but one can’t emphasize enough how different it felt without Kadamba Kanana Swami being here! As we were getting ready for the parade, Maharaj was […]

Written by Nandan Srimad Bhagavatam 7.8.19-24 The temple deities were stunning as always. It never fails to astonish me how the pujaris can dress the deities so beautifully every day! It is like there is never an off-day, the deities are on form, every day, day after day. And this is not just in Radhadesh, […]

Written by Nandan Evening festivities in the Community Hall… The display in the community room was not as elaborate as last year but it was pretty and sparkly. There was a table with deities of Krsna and Balaram with a couple of Gopas surrounded by various flowers, stars and foliage. The floor near the deity […]

Written by Nandan The Initiation Ceremony Monday, 25 April – 3.45pm and it was still crisp outside and rather muggy. But inside the temple it was very warm indeed. Warm in the physical sense from all the people assembled and warm in the subtle sense from the abundance of goodwill emanating from the vaishnavas present. […]

Written by Nandan Srimad Bhagavatam 7.8.18 The second day of the festivities and it was a bright but nippy morning. Guru Puja had just finished, the temple room was packed to overflowing and Maharaj strode in to give the morning class from the 7th Canto. It was all about the mentality of Hiranyakashipu. Quite a […]

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 03 January 2016, Drakensberg, South Africa, Lecture) Remembrance of Krsna is the result of hearing and chanting. When you hear and chant, then automatically remembrance comes, sravanam kirtanam visnoh smaranam (Srimad Bhagavatam 7.5.23). This is the bhagavat vidhi, the path of glorifying the Supreme Lord. So this path of glorifying the Supreme […]

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 12 March, Durban, South Africa, Lecture at House Program) Jiva Goswami states in his Bhakti Sandarbha that Vrindavan is a state of consciousness. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta once said that there is an intimate correlation between nama (the holy name) and dhama (the holy land). He said that it is only within the dhama that the […]

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 23 May 2015, Cronulla, Australia, Srimad Bhagavatam 1.8.35) We need some happiness in Krsna consciousness. A little happiness helps; it makes life easier so we need some friends. As the Hare Krsna movement became bigger, it lost some of its original spirit of being like a family, of being like a group […]

In the last week of Kadamba Kanana Swami’s stay in Durban, there were three significant programs. On Friday, 15 April, on the special occasion of Rama Naumi, Maharaj attended the evening program at the New Jagannatha Puri Temple where he gave a lecture in glorification of Lord Ramachandra. On Saturday morning at 10:30 am, an initiation […]

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 08 September 2013, Johannesburg, South Africa, Home Program) If we do not have any trust in devotees to guide us, inevitably we will do our own thing. But then how will we proceed? That is why there is a structure. It is not that the guru-disciple relationship is left up to us […]

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 24 April 2014, Radhadesh, Belgium, Caitanya Caritamrta Lecture) Focus of purpose is what I was thinking about and that is what I would like you to think about. What is your purpose? I am not going to carry people and sort of micromanage their life. Of course, if you want to ask about […]

“Vanity Karma: Ecclesiastes, the Bhagavad-gita, and the meaning of  life,” by Jayadvaita Swami, has won the 2016 Benjamin Franklin gold award for the year’s best book in the “religion” category. The award was announced by the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), the authority for the awards, at a ceremony on March 8 in Salt Lake City. The IBPA is […]

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 25 April 2015, Radhadesh, Belgium, Lecture at Cultural Festival) What does it mean to follow the mood of the spiritual master? I think, it means that whatever is really important and essential to the spiritual master, that should also be essential to the disciple. Not that we become cat copies of our […]

Here are photos and recordings of Kadamba Kanana Swami from the Sunday Program on 10 April, taken at the Sri Sri Radha Radhanath Temple in Durban. KKS_DBN_10April2016_SundayProgram_Kirtan https://archive.org/download/KKSDBN10April2016SundayProgramLecture/KKS_DBN_10April2016_SundayProgram_Kirtan.mp3 KKS_DBN_10April2016_SundayProgram_Lecture https://archive.org/download/KKSDBN10April2016SundayProgramLecture/KKS_DBN_10April2016_SundayProgram_Lecture.mp3  

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, October 2013, Melbourne, Australia, Srimad Bhagavatam 2.3.12) At one time, Krsna was establishing that he was the Supreme Lord and that all the various incarnations of the Lord were within him. So the gopis said, “If you are the origin of all the incarnations, then it means that Lord Ramachandra is also here. […]

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 28 March 2015, Lenasia, South Africa, Rama Naumi Lecture) When I first went to India, Lord Ramachandra was the first deity I ever saw because the first temple I went to was of Lord Ramachandra and that was my temple! It was a small round temple and later on, they renovated and […]