Radhanath Swami's Blog, page 22

Janmastami Wishes from The Bhakti Center’s Lotus Festival

On September 3rd, 2015, Radhanath Swami spoke at the Lotus Festival, a celebration of Sri Krishna Janmastami (the divine appearance of Sri Krishna) at New York City’s Bhakti Center. The event was attended by approximately 500 people and featured Radhanath Swami’s talk, hours of kirtan, a drama on the birth of Krishna, an 11 course prasadam feast, and the special feature – each of the guests received the opportunity to offer a real lotus flower to Radha Muralidhara (Radha and Krishna). Below is an excerpt of his talk as well as photos from the event.

Today is the Lotus Festival. There are many analogies involving lotus flowers. One is that the lotus flower grows in very muddy ponds, but the lotus flower and leaves are always pure no matter how much mud is around. It is it’s nature. So similarly, when Krishna comes to this world, even if this world is so full of dualities and selfishness, arrogance and exploitation, when Krishna comes it is completely pure. Just by remembering Him, by chanting his names and connecting with Krishna, in every way we become purified.

There is another beautiful analogy. When the full moon shines and it’s moon beams touch the blue lotus flower, it opens. And according to Sanskrit poetry there is nothing more beautiful in creation than a fully blossomed blue lotus flower. It only opens when it is touched by the moon beam of a full moon at night. Otherwise it is tightly shut – you can’t open it and it gives no fragrance. But when it is touched by the moon beams it unfolds and blossoms and emits a beautiful fragrance.

Similarly, the lotus of prema or love is actually within our hearts – everyone of us. When the moon beams of grace touch the lotus of our hearts it blossoms. And when it blossoms it is the most beautiful thing in all creation, that love. And that fragrance and sweetness of that love naturally spreads everywhere. That is the effect, by the grace of Krishna.

Krishna descends into this world simply to attract our hearts to receive that grace. Fifty years ago, from this year, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, left in a cargo ship from Calcutta to come to New York City simply to expand the moon beams of that divine grace. The Bhakti Center here, is a place for unity, where we are trying to help each other connect to the moonlight of that grace and spread the fragrance and the happiness of Krishna’s love.

I wish you a happy Janmastami. – Radhanath Swami

On Silence

We may be silent with our mouth, but what’s happening in our mind? So many voices, so many things. Real silence is when the mind is quiet.

Scriptures describe silence in different ways. One is material silence. When we are chanting God’s name, when we’re speaking about God, when we’re speaking for the benefit of others, we’re not speaking things that bind us to material existence. Therefore that is also considered as silence; we’re not gossiping, we’re not fault finding, we’re not talking just about political matters. Silence means no material vibration. Spiritual vibration is material silence.

If a small child is in school, and the child just keeps talking, keeps screaming, keeps yelling and keeps disrupting the class, what does the teacher do? She says, “Sit in the corner and don’t say anything and don’t do anything!” It is better to be silent in the corner of the room than to be disrupting the whole class. Yes? But is remaining silent in the corner of the room perfection? No. Perfection is to participate in the class in a constructive way.

Another example is, if you are really sick you’re told to fast. “Don’t eat anything. It’s better to fast than to make yourself more sick.” But when you are healthy the best thing is to eat healthily.

So similarly, the scriptures talk of silence — to not speak things that agitate our minds and agitate other people’s minds. But the perfection of silence is to be absorbed in remembrance of God, and the easiest most powerful way of being absorbed in the remembrance of God, which creates complete material silence, is to chant His holy name. – Radhanath Swami

The Total Satisfaction of the Enlightened Souls

The human birth is the opportunity to find the true pleasure, the real wealth of eternal happiness and to share that happiness with others. This is the nature of a person who has seen the light. He becomes humble by that light. There is no question of false ego. Selfishness, the incessant craving to be recognized, pratishtha, the desire for recognition, fame – it’s the mind’s way of succumbing to the ego. It’s the symptom of the person who has really not tasted the sweetness of glorifying Krishna, who is all attractive, who is Bhagvan. Krishna is the supreme whole and the origin of all knowledge, strength, wealth, fame, beauty and renunciation.

When we experience Krishna’s all attractive qualities, it awakens our love and that love is the total satisfaction of the enlightened souls. So there is no need to try to prove oneself to anyone, at anytime.

– Radhanath Swami

Being Grateful is a State of Awakened Awareness

Being grateful is something more than just saying, ‘thank you’ and then criticizing the person. Being grateful is a state of awakened awareness. Are we grateful for every breath we breathe? Are we grateful for every morsel of food or water, for the ability to see, for the ability to hear, for the ability to move?

If you have asthama and you are dying because can’t even get one breath, you start to value, what air really means to us. We are all just breathing thousands and thousands of times a day with no gratitude whatsoever. But if you have an asthama attack, you would give everything you own just for some air to come into your lungs. So sometimes the difficulties of life are there to help to deepen our awareness of what’s really valuable. As devotees, even at the time of death, we are grateful that we are eternal souls and we are grateful that Krishna is here to deliver us at this moment. And this is how we should be living with every breath of our life.

In bhakti we express our gratitude through seva, not through just saying ‘thank you’. We say thank you, but if we mean it we live that thank you. “How may I serve you in every situation? Because I am grateful.” – Radhanath Swami

Through Practice We Develop Our Inherent Abilities

A little child wants to walk, but first the child has to learn to crawl. Do you remember when you were learning to crawl? It was very difficult. When you had finally learned to crawl you saw everyone around you walking, and you wanted to be like them!

So you tried to walk, and your father, your mother held your finger. You fell down. Every time you tried to walk you kept falling down. But through the process of practice you gradually developed the strength and the wisdom to walk. And now how many of you think about it when you are walking? This is absolutely natural! But to come to that natural spontaneous state of walking, you actually took a lot of failed attempts. But you didn’t give up?

So similarly, we chant the holy names, we try to live a spiritually devotional life, and it may be difficult at times. But if we just keep trying sincerely, and try to associate with people and read sacred books that give us strength, then gradually wisdom and realization will come. And then spiritual life is just like walking. It becomes natural to us.

The reason the child is able to learn to walk is because the ability is inherent within him or her. If the ability to walk was not inherent within the child it would never be able to learn walking. But through practice we develop our inherent abilities. And that is the way of spiritual life too. To become peaceful and happy and to take shelter of the holy name even amid trying circumstances is actually inherent within the soul. But it takes practice. And along with practice, two qualities are very important: perseverance and patience. We must be enthused to persevere. But it may take some time. So we must persevere with patience. – Radhanath Swami

How to Increase One’s Faith

Question: How can one increase one’s faith in the holy name and in the process of Bhakti yoga?

Radhanath Swami: The best way is to associate with people who have that faith, to perform those activities and to cultivate those thoughts that increase our faith, and to avoid those vibrations that distract our mind from that goal.

When we are living in society there are so many distractions. But those distractions can actually help us if we are spiritually strong. When you resist the distraction, you become stronger spiritually. When you give in, you become weaker. So Bombay is a wonderful place to become strong!

If we have nice association and if we cultivate spiritual strength in our free time we will be empowered to keep our minds fixed on what is virtuous, what is truth, and what will help us awaken love of God. And every test we pass we’ll be filled with grace, we will become strong.

How many of you enjoy your exams in school? But those exams are necessary because when you know the exams are coming you have to prepare yourself. So, in this world, you know your faith will be tested every day. And knowing that actually helps us to take our spiritual practices more seriously.

Radhanath Swami Speaks on the Search for Happiness at Golden Bridge Yoga

On the evening of July 14, 2015 Radhanath Swami spoke at Golden Bridge Yoga in Santa Monica, California. He was given a very warm welcome by Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa the co-founder and director of from Golden Bridge, who asked him to speak on the topic of ‘The Search for Happiness’.

Radhanath Swami began by thanking the audience and expressing his special gratitude to Gurmukh and Gurushabd. He then recounted his early days as a small boy in Northern Illinois shoveling snow off the driveway in the brutal cold hearing the Beach Boys singing about surfing in Southern California. California sounded like a heavenly planet, where people came to enjoy. He went on to explain how the Brahma Sutras state ‘The common feature of every living being is they want to experience pleasure and avoid pain’. The Brahma Sutras also answer the question : What is the origin of that pleasure?

He narrated the story of Sridhar, who was a poor banana leaf seller. “In spite of Sridhar’s poor condition, he never asked for anything. One day he was asked by little Nimai, ‘Why do you worship Krishna? What is Krishna doing for you? You live in a small straw hut and you wear rags on your body as clothing. There are so many holes on your clothes that you have to tie twelve knots.’ He answered, ‘In my observation, I have seen kings with so much luxuries and a bird who wears the same feathers everyday. There is no difference in their quality of lives. They are both struggling in their own ways. I am happy within myself in whatever situation.’ This is the origin of happiness. It is in our very own nature, our spiritual nature.”

“The purpose of yoga, religion, and dharma is to reconnect our consciousness to the source. When that connection is made, we understand our natural connection with the environment, Mother Nature and our actual relationship with all living beings. When we realize and awaken love of God within us, we feel God’s love for us, then we naturally extend that love to everyone. Just like a man in a dream is horrified of a leopard chasing him, the eternal soul forgets its own real identity and experiences pain and pleasure. Real happiness is within our hearts; if we cannot find it there, we cannot find it anywhere. If we find it there, we can find peace and happiness anywhere, with anyone, and in any situation. When you find happiness within, your whole perspective of life changes. You realize that true joy of life is in serving, by being an instrument of God’s love in whatever your occupation and your role in society.”

Radhanath Swami concluded his talk by sharing three principles we can use to balance our life: satsang, sadhana and sadachar.  Satsang means to associate with people who inspire us spiritually. Sadhana is the spiritual practice of excavating the great spiritual treasure in our heart. Sadachar is to live with purity and integrity. By adopting these three principles in our lives, we can experience what is truly valuable and realize what real happiness means.

The Golden Jubilee Celebration of Srila Prabhupad’s Journey to the West

August 13th, 2015 marked the 50th anniversary of Srila Prabhupada’s historic voyage from India to the United States, a journey that was the prelude to his founding of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), in New York City, 1966. Srila Prabhupada’s followers around the globe remembered his arduous journey: on the cargo ship Jaladuta, penniless, to an unknown land, at age 69, suffering two heart attacks on the way.

Radhanath Swami joined other ISKCON leaders in addressing an audience of 35,000, from 125 countries who gathered at Kolkata’s Nataji Subhas Chandra Bose Indoor Stadium for the Jaladuta Yatra (Jaladuta Festival) to celebrate the occasion and hear inspirational talks in the city where Srila Prabhupada boarded the ship for his journey.

“When Srila Prabhupada boarded the Jaladuta 50 years ago, he did it in the spirit of total compassion for all of us, for all living beings. Compared to the ocean of his love for Krishna and his compassion for all living beings, all the oceans of this world are not even a drop. Srila Prabhupada’s voyage on the Jaladuta has given us limitless hope, limitless faith, and the opportunity for the perfection of life,” said Radhanath Swami.

Other ISKCON leaders present at the festival included Jayapataka Swami, Bhakti Charu Swami, Lokanath Swami, Shubhaga Swami, Bhakti Purushottama Swami and Praghosh Prabhu, to name a few. Kirtans, dances and dramas were also part of the celebration.

Two letters from the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi were read, conveying his best wishes to the organizers and participants. A pre-recorded talk by Tulsi Gabbard, a member of the US Congress, was played on the video screens. Herself a follower of Srila Prabhupada, Congresswoman Gabbard glorified Srila Prabhupad’s achievements.

Governor of West Bengal State, Keshari Nath Tripathi, social activist Kiran Bedi, and Odissi dancer Dona Ganguly were guests of honor.

Follow the Brain or the Heart?

Question: At times I get confused….to follow the brain or to follow the heart? How do we get that signal from God to take the right decision?

Radhanath Swami: The same way you access a television station. You have to tune into the correct frequency, and that comes by associating with the people who are tuned in. In their association, really learning how to hear from holy scriptures and from the holy Acaryas, we get the proper understanding.

If we do it with right association and with the right character, the chanting of God’s names tunes us into the frequency of God’s grace, God’s infinite grace. When we chant as a group together we are not only accessing the grace but we are spreading that vibration throughout the universe.

The heart is the seat of feeling; the brain is the seat of discrimination. Srila Prabhupada would say religion or devotional feeling, using the heart, without philosophy often is degraded to sentimentalism or even fanaticism. Then instead of feeling love, we feel hate and envy; that’s what fanaticism is about.

But just discrimination, using the brain, without feeling, often breeds just cold mental speculation, no transformation of character, no love – just intellect discrimination. We must harmonize the two.

50th Anniversary of Srila Prabhupada’s Arrival in America