Radhanath Swami's Blog, page 21

Characteristic of Compassion

The fundamental need of all of us is love. Every living being is looking for pleasure—from the insignificant insect to the kings and prime ministers. Everyone is seeking pleasure, but there is only one pleasure that can reach the heart, and that is the pleasure of experiencing the heart’s need to give love and receive love. The pleasures of sensual experience, fame, acquisition of wealth, etc. can reach the mind and the senses, but they don’t really touch the heart. What if you were the proprietor of everything on earth when you were the only being on earth? There will be no one to love you and there will be no one to be loved by you. We need love; that’s our nature.

One thing that every spiritual path has in common is the characteristic of compassion. One who actually follows a spiritual path is an instrument of compassion. In Buddhism, one of the cardinal principles Lord Buddha taught was ahimsa, which means non-violence, respecting the integrity of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness of all living beings.

In the Jain religion, they are very strict vegetarians because they want to reduce the amount of violence that they commit to others. During my spiritual search, while I was traveling in Iran, I studied Islam during the month of Ramadan from a very wonderful scholar of Koran. He told me that they follow the fast of Ramadan to develop compassion. He explained that people are hungry because they don’t have money. Giving charity to them to get our tax laid off is good, but it is not really fulfilling to the heart. To give in charity to get our name exalted is good, but it doesn’t touch our heart. But to give in charity because we actually feel for the suffering of someone else and out of love we really want to help that person, that is real charity. He fasted so that he could know what the pains of hunger are like and then when he sees someone hungry, he feels compassion for that person. The highest and most pleasing service that one can offer is to be willing to accept inconvenience and difficulty in order to show care and compassion to another.

– Radhanath Swami

How to Keep the Mind Steady

Question: I wanted to know how to keep the mind steady; usually we have contradictory ideas and thoughts going on in the mind.

Radhanath Swami: The nature of the mind is like that of a monkey, it jumps from branch to branch. It goes to one branch, then to the next branch, then to the branch next to that, then again to the first branch – 2nd, 4th, 10th, 1st, 9th, 3rd. It’s the way the mind works. But when you give the monkey a nice ripe banana, it’s happy. Similarly, Bhakti is about giving the mind a deep and fulfilling experience.

Though we may not get that higher taste immediately, but since we know it’s there waiting for us, that helps us keep the mind steady. Coming back to the analogy of the monkey, if the monkey has the banana, it will stop jumping from branch to branch even before it has tasted the banana. It stops jumping in order to go through the process of pealing the banana.

Our spiritual practice, our sadhana, is like pealing the banana. We know that the higher taste is there – inside – just as the monkey knows that the banana is there inside the peal. And just knowing that it is there, and keeping our mind focussed on the process, our mind can be kept steady.

So when we are chanting the holy names the mind will go here and there; do not worry about it – just bring it back. Bring it back to the divine sound vibration, to that object of our meditation. Try to keep it there, and if it runs away – and it will surely run away – then bring it back as soon as we realize it has run away.

While we do seva, if we realize our mind is wandering, we just bring it back. ‘I am doing this for Krishna; let me do it in the best possible way.’ The more we take responsibility to do something wonderful for God – sweeping the floor, cooking a meal or doing our business – if we are really doing it for Krishna, for God, we are going to be attentive to whatever details we can, and that keeps our mind focussed.

Radhanath Swami Attends Pope Francis’ 9/11 Memorial Address

On Friday, September 25th, Pope Francis visited the 9/11 memorial site in New York City, where nearly three thousand were killed by terrorist attacks in September of 2001. While there, the pontiff prayed at the site and joined local representatives of the various world religions inside the 9/11 Memorial Museum’s Foundation Hall, for a multi-religious meeting for peace. Radhanath Swami was one of the spiritual leaders invited to the event. Other ISKCON representatives were invited, namely Annutama Das and Gadadhara Pandit Das.

Prior to the popes arrival Radhanath Swami spent time speaking with other guests including Bishop Efraim M. Tendero, whom he had heard speak at the U. N. the day before, and Professor Francis Clooney of Harvard Divinty School with whom he had collaborated on several events in the past.

There were over 500 attendees at the event. Most of the participants were families of those who loved ones during the 9/11 tragedy, faith leaders of the New York City area, and local government officials such as Senator Chuck Schumer, Mayor Bill De Blasio and former Mayors Bloomberg and Giuliani.

The Pope arrived at 11:30am walking right by the aisle where Radhanath Swami was seated and he took the opportunity to shake the Pope’s hand and exchange some greetings.

Representatives of the Islamic, Hindu, Sikh, Jewish, and Buddhist traditions were asked to read prayers. The pope remembered victims of the tragedy and consoled the surviving family members. After the ceremony Radhanath Swami spent some quiet time at the memorial to those lost on September 11th.

 

Love Conquers All / Radhastami at New York’s Bhakti Center

On September 22, 2015, Radhanath Swami was in New York City to speak at The Bhakti Center for their 3rd Annual Pearl Festival, celebrating Radhastami (the Divine appearance of Srimati Radharani). A special feature of this festival is that all guests received the opportunity to write a prayer on a paper pearl and offer it, along with a real pearl, to Radharani. All the real pearls were then collected, strung into a necklace and offered to Radharani as a gift. Below are some excerpts of his talk.

“The Latin poet Virgil, has written, ‘Love conquers all’. The second part of what he wrote, in many ways is instrumental. He said, ‘Love conquers all, so let us all be conquered by love’. This is the principle of bhakti. The first and great commandment is to love God with all your heart, mind and soul, and the natural consequence of that is that you will love your neighbor as yourself. And according to the Bhagavad-gita you will see every living being as your neighbor.”

“But that actual ecstasy of loving God really comes when we become conquered by God’s love. Krishna, who is the Supreme Absolute Truth, the one God who has many names and has descended into this world many times, in his fullest expression, comes once in a day Brahma to this world. Sri Radha comes with him. The one Supreme God is ever as two personalities, Krishna, the Supreme object of love, and Srimati Radharani, who is the ultimate supreme lover.”

“The deepest pleasure that everyone is seeking in this world is to love and to be loved. The origin of that experience is the love of Sri Krishna and Sri Radha. We are all part and parcel of Krishna and our nature, our greatest potential, is to love Krishna. This love for Krishna is within every heart. It is the nature of the soul.”

“In bhakti the goal of life is very different than what we see many religious people have done throughout history. People want to conquer others on a material platform in the name of God. In bhakti, we understand that the higher principle is to be conquered by love. Radharani is giving us the capacity to be conquered by Krishna’s love and to conquer Krishna by our love – that is bhakti.”

“Like a pearl, a little grain of sand goes into an oyster and just by staying there for some time it becomes a precious natural pearl. So whoever we are, if come into the association of those who have been blessed by the grace of Sri Radharani and Krishna, then naturally from our hearts, that pearl of love will grow and there is nothing more priceless than that.”

Soon you will be offering a pearl, but it is not things that give Krishna happiness, only love can do this. The real pearl is our love. I like this festival because I was born on Pearl Harbour Day! (laughter) But the Pearl Festival is a festival of love, of making an offering and when we write our prayers in bhakti we pray, ‘How may I please you my Lord, how may I serve you? How may I be the servant of the servant of the servant of the instrument of your love and compassion in everything I do?’ That is the highest prayer and it is that prayer, when offered sincerely, that conquers Krishna and in reciprocation, His and Radha’s love conquers us. – Radhanath Swami

Radharani – the Supreme Abode of Love

Krishna is the vishaya vigraha, that means he is the supreme object of love. Sri Radha is asraya vigraha, the supreme abode of love – the supreme lover. Every living being is the part and parcel of Krishna and similarly the inherit potential, the essence of every soul is prema – to love Krishna. All love for Krishna, within everyone, is part and parcel of Sri Radha’s love.

Krishna tells that he is conquered by the love of his devotee. Why is he conquered by each and every devotee who loves him with pure love? Because that love is a particle of Sri Radha’s love. She is the complete whole, the absolute abode of all love. Compassion is the manifestation of that love within this creation. Sri Radha is karuna mayi, she is the complete fullness, the source, the reservoir of all compassion. Sri Radha is the absolute truth.

Krishna expands himself in these two forms for the sake of pastimes of pure love. Just as Krishna is the source of all incarnations, Narayana, Dwarkadish, etc. Similarly Sri Radha is the original sources of all the queens of Dwarka, the goddesses of fortune of Vaikuntha. She is the original spiritual energy that gives pleasure to Krishna and the source of all shaktis of all the divine energies of the Lord that manifest everything that exists in all material and spiritual worlds.

What is the nature of that love? The love of the gopis is absolutlely free of any tinge of selfishness, ignorance of ego. Everything is exclusively for the pleasure of Krishna. – Radhanath Swami

Means for Developing love for God

In the great religions of the world there are many processes or disciplines to help allow the In light of love to shine from our hearts, to help purify our hearts from all of the unwanted qualities which are like the cloud covering the sun-like soul. According to the Srimad Bhagavatam the most highly recommended means of developing our love for God is vibrating the pure sound of God’s name. In each and every name of God, God has invested all of His power, all of His potencies. Simply by chanting God’s Name, our hearts become purified. What you associate with, you become like. Therefore, try associating with spiritually-minded people, with saintly people. And by associating with God, we become saintly and we become godly.

Now, how do we associate with God? God is everywhere. God is within everything, but we are not conscious of His presence. Therefore, the name of God is the manifestation of God in full, which can keep our consciousness constantly and always in connection with Him. It is such a simple and wonderful process. Whether one is a young man or a young woman, or an old man or an old woman, regardless of any of our qualifications or disqualifications, anyone can vibrate the name of God. By that vibration we associate with the Supreme Truth, the Supreme Pure. Through that association we become purified.

Now, how do we chant the name of the Supreme Lord? There are many ways. There are no hard and fast rules. But the essence is that our concentration should be attentively fixed on the pure sound of God’s name. So when we chant the maha-mantra – Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, we are not practicing a particular type of religious dogma. Every name of God is universal. It is complete, but you have to chant some name of God.

It is not that any name of God is limited to the boundaries of any type of sectarian dogma. We create labels which make it appear that way. The name of God is perfect and complete. The name of God contains the whole universe because God is appearing in His name. Therefore, the most natural life is the life where we are always in contact and unity with God.

Everyone likes to dance. Everyone likes to sing. So sing and dance in the glorification of the Lord’s name. On every level we find joy, and that joy gives birth to eternal joy.

When we chant and when we dance, whether we are chanting the name of Allah or Jehovah or Yahweh or Wakan–tanka, we are not concerned about which name, provided it is a pure authorized sound. It’s not that if you chant “apple, apple, apple”, you will attain the same goal as if you chant the name of God. The name of God is revealed through His pure servants and through the scriptures of the world. If we simply accept a humble life in praise of God, then the light of the love of the soul within us will shine to give light to all creatures on earth. If we simply chant the name of God, the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, we will find that great treasure of happiness, and we will have the ability to share that happiness with all. – Radhanath Swami

On the Art of Giving

Question: While traveling by trains I see many children begging. They seem hungry and I can’t bear the sight. When they ask for money, one side of me says I shouldn’t give them the money, for they might give it to people who’ll misuse it. My other side says that I should. What should I do?

Radhanath Swami: Real joy comes through service – through serving without expecting anything material in return. When we do something and we get something in return, it gives satisfaction to the mind and to the senses, but it does little for the heart. Actual inner wealth is the propensity to serve, not to exploit – not to take, but to give.

There are different levels of service that give different levels of inner fulfillment. Philanthropy is to serve those who are in physical or mental need. That service is in sattva guna, the mode of goodness, if it is done properly. And that gives us a higher sense of gratification than just making and taking, because it gives us a chance to express a selfless spirit of servitude. To give without expecting anything in return is love, and ultimately it is love that we are all looking for.

Greater service is done when we cater to the needs of a person’s soul. While giving a person inner enlightenment, we are not just solving temporary needs which will come back in a few hours. We are actually giving them inner eternal wealth.

When these children come to beg from you, in my opinion, as far as possible you should give them something. If you are afraid that they are going to misuse your money, then always carry some prasad, nice food that’s sanctified by offering it first to the Lord. Have a little bag of prasad, or a big bag of prasad, and give them prasad. You will see that the children will become HAPPY! We have an instruction for our entire congregation: wherever you go in your car, have prasad in your compartment; and if you’re walking, have some prasad in your bag, and never leave a beggar empty handed.

If you give beggars money they may spend it on food, or they may spend it on drugs or they may give it to some mafia person who’s hiring them – you don’t know. But then, YOU DON”T KNOW! They may give it for food. So no harm in giving them money. But if you want to be sure of really helping them, give them some prasad, and then they will be very happy.

In fact, whenever we drive in Mumbai, at the stop lights little children come running to our car, and they surround us saying, “prasad, prasad, prasad.” They jump, they laugh, and they are happy to get the prasad. Thus they get some nourishment, their bodies get some fulfillment, and they are also getting spiritually enlightened through the process.

There is a certain natural guilt in our heart if you just refuse a beggar, and that guilt in the heart is your higher nature saying, “Somebody has come; you should help them if you can.”

Radhanath Swami Launches Arvindbhai Mafatlal’s Biography

On August 19th, 2015, Radhanath Swami launched the book, ‘A Life Lived with Grace’ at Y.B. Chauhan Auditorium in Mumbai. The book, authored by Mini Chandran Kurian, is a biography of the late Sri Arvindbhai Mafatlal, a leading industrialist of the old business era of India and a prominent social activist who passed away in 2011.

Mr. Mafatlal was the chairman of Arvind Mafatlal Group. Under his leadership, the Mafatlals have grown to become one of the top three industrial houses of the country, the other two being the Tatas and the Birlas. He played a prominent role in the post-independence growth story of the nation. To achieve his social vision of improved quality of life for the underprivileged, Mafatlal worked closely with renowned Gandhian Manibhai Desai to set up the Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation (BAIF). BAIF used modern technology, and focused on research and development to improve the earning potential of tribal and landless population. Today, BAIF initiatives are benefiting over 4.4 million families in 16 states. Mafatlal was also a supporter of women’s empowerment. Under the guidance of his guru Parampujya Ranchoddasji Maharaj, Mafatlal launched the Shri Sadguru Seva Sangh Trust in 1968. The trust carries out activities like health services in rural areas, and relief and rehabilitation at the time of major natural calamities.

Leading industrialists and social activists of India attended the book launch. After launching the book, Radhanath Swami spoke. “Arvindbhai was loved and he is still loved, because he loved everybody. He was blessed with the wealth of compassion. He liked to talk about his various development projects. Every single project was an expression of his devotion to his beloved Lord Ram. He genuinely felt that without a constant sense of the divine power, life became insubstantial and meaningless. Chitrakoot, the land of Sita and Ram, was the place he was most attached to, and it was fitting that he left his body there – minutes after he heard the last verses from the holy book of Ram Charit Manas.”

Radhanath Swami Attends the Kumbha Mela

On August 28th and 29th, 2015 Radhanath Swami attended the Kumbha Mela, in Nashik, India. The Kumbha Mela is a festival held every third year at one of the four holy places of India by rotation: Haridwar, Allahabad, Nashik and Ujjain. These melas are reputed as the largest peaceful gatherings of the world. Right now a two-month-long Kumbha Mela is under way in Nashik with 10 million people expected to attend.

Radhanath Swami stayed with his dear friends Lokanath Swami and Pankajhangri Prabhu at the ISKCON camp located at Sadhu Gram, a makeshift colony that is housing 138,000 sadhus who have converged for the mela. ISKCON’s camp has a hi-tech yet traditional kitchen that is feeding thousands of pilgrims every day, and a medical clinic that is treating hundreds.

The first Shahi Snan (royal bath), in the river Godhavari, was on the 29th. Devotees from ISKCON joined other Vaishnava groups or akharas in the royal procession towards the bathing place Ramkund. One and a half million pilgrims took their holy dips at that time.

Radhanath Swami, along with Lokanath Swami, lectured both in the mornings and evenings. Radhanath Swami said, “In a previous millennium the devas and asuras churned the milk ocean for nectar. After the nectar emerged a few of its drops fell on earth and thus started the Kumbha Mela. But a sweeter kind of nectar is spoken about in the Srimad Bhagavatam – Prem Ras or the nectar of love. The gopis of Vrindavan poured that nectar in while they churned butter. And to taste that nectar Krishna became the celebrated Makhan Chor, the butter thief.”

Srila Prabhupada’s Appearance Day 2015

“Srila Prabhupada lived with the spirit of the Lord’s compassion shining through his heart. Through his example he showed how to live as a true well wisher and friend of every living being. The genuine essence of all spiritual teachings can be understood by observing his qualities, hearing his words and reading his books.” – Radhanath Swami