Radhanath Swami's Blog, page 30
April 8, 2015
Program at Villa Vrindavana
Title: Program at Villa Vrindavana
Location: Florence, Italy
Description: Radhanath Swami will speak and lead kirtan at Villa Vrindavana – Via Scopeti 106/108, San Casciano in Val di Pesa, 50026 Florence – Italy
Start Time: 17:00
Date: 2015-04-23
April 7, 2015
Bhakti Retreat with Radhanath Swami
BHAKTI RETREAT with RADHANATH SWAMI
A DAY-LONG EVENT
SATURDAY / SEPTEMBER 26 / 9:30am – 8:00pm
THE BHAKTI CENTER / 25 FIRST AVENUE NEW YORK, NEW YORK
ADMISSION: $115 / SUPPORTER PRICE $180
Join us for the first Bhakti Retreat with Radhanath Swami in New York City. Hosted at the Bhakti Center in the heart of New York City, you will have the opportunity to spend a day immersed in bhakti and learn to deepen your spiritual practice in the association of Radhanath Swami and special guests.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner are included.
Parents may bring their children if they are 10 years or above.
More information and registration to be announced soon.
SCHEDULE:
9.30 AM: Kirtan
10.30 AM: Lecture by Radhanath Swami (topic to be announced )
12.30 PM: Lunch
2.00 PM: Speakers to be announced for 2pm sessions
Diet for Your Health
Anger Management
Krishna Conscious Parenting
4.00 PM: Lecture by Radhanath SWami & Question & Answer Session(topic to be announced )
6.00 PM: Kirtan
7.00 PM: Drama
07.30 PM: Dinner
March 31, 2015
The Use & Misuse of Religion
Question: Religion is the source of so much strife in our world, perhaps because of the fact that it is misused. I would like to get your perspective on that.
Radhanath Swami: My guru Srila Prabhupada said, “Philosophy without good character is practically useless.” The whole purpose of religion is to help us in transcending the arrogant ego.
The ego creates such a void in the heart. If we have a full heart we don’t crave to feel superior to anybody. One who really considers oneself the servant of everyone is actually a true master. One who feels that need to be the master is a servant of their own mind and ego.
If we have an ego and we don’t understand the purpose of our religion, then the very wonderful blessing of religion that we have to go beyond our ego, we use that same thing to be a weapon to conquer others for the purpose of that ego.
True religion is a wonderful blessing and a path to help us go beyond our ego. But if one is controlled by ego they can misunderstand the purpose of religion and use that very same blessing as a weapon to conquer others for the purpose of the ego.
One may use a knife to kill someone. A surgeon will use the same knife to save a person’s life. Is the knife good or bad? The knife is as valuable as the person who is using it. Wealth, money, academic power, scientific discovery, religion, philosophy, they are all like that knife. If we have the proper character – which is the purpose of religion, to develop that humility, that compassion – if we have that proper character, all these things, including religion, can save people’s lives, can give people such life through love, through compassion. Otherwise, we just misuse it according to our own uncontrolled egos. And throughout history, people have misused religion for that purpose. But that doesn’t mean religion is bad. It’s the most sacred blessing that we all have if we understand it properly. True dharma is beyond sectarian boundaries, if we understand the essence.
March 30, 2015
Celebrating the Divine Appearance of Sri Chaitanya
March 5th, 2015 was the 529th anniversary of the divine appearance of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. The anniversary, called Gaur Purnima, is the most important festival of the year and the beginning of a new year in Gaudiya Vaishnavism. To celebrate the occasion, Radhanath Swami led five thousand devotees in a two day festival at Radha Gopinath Temple in Mumbai.
On the first day, in the morning and evening, Radhanath Swami spoke from the biographies of Sri Chaitanya: Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita and Sri Chaitanya Bhagavat. “Sri Chaitanya came like the rising sun to give light in this age of Kali, and he came to give what no other incarnation has ever presented to the world – the most intimate confidential pastimes or rasas of love as experienced by the gopis and the residents of Vrindavan. He has given this opportunity without considering who is fit or unfit, regardless of one’s geographical residence. The process he introduced is so simple – chanting the holy names and dancing.”
At dusk the forms of Sri Chaitanya and his brother Nityananda Prabhu were given a ceremonial bath. Devotees absorbed themselves in kirtans for the remaining part of the day.
Holi, the festival of colors, marked the celebrations on the second day. The deities of Radha and Krishna were escorted into a nearby garden, and were sprinkled with colored powders and splashed with coloured waters, to the accompaniment of melodious kirtan.
March 28, 2015
Making Service the Highest Priority of Our Life
The highest goal does not come at the time of death. The highest goal comes when we make service to God the highest priority of our life. We are not waiting for death to attain love of God. If we do not develop love of God when we are living, we will not have love of God at the time of death. Therefore little Prahlad (about whom the Srimad Bhagavatam speaks) said to his classmates, “Now is the time to live a life of devotion,” though they we all only five years old. Prahlad had pure, ecstatic love of God even as a small child, and he lived his whole life expressing that love of God in a spirit of compassion to others. That is what we are striving for. Love for Krishna is not far away. It is the closest thing to our heart and is the very essence in the core of our heart. But unfortunately our consciousness is running far away from the thing that is closest and nearest to us.
Yes, now is the time to begin to redirect our consciousness to our essence, to our eternal spiritual nature. We cannot wait till the moment of death. If we haven’t deeply realized the Absolute Truth when we are living, the time of death will proclaim a great sorrowful failure of our human life. But if we pursue the goal of pure devotional service now, then we are already on the path of perfection.
Srila Prabhupada, our guru, once told the devotees, “Because you are living a life of service to God, and you are chanting the names of God, you are all liberated.” The devotees were astounded, because even though they were following the principles, chanting the names of God, serving God, and reading the scriptures, they understood that they had much envy, pride, greed and lust within their hearts to deal with. Srila Prabhupada said that his followers were liberated because they were living like liberated souls by following the principles of bhakti. They just hadn’t realized their liberated state. So if we just follow Srila Prabhupada’s teachings we are actually living in a liberated state. And by living in that state gradually we realize our liberated condition. And that is the perfection of life. – Radhanath Swami
March 26, 2015
How To Recognize a Genuine Guru
How do you recognize a genuine guru? That takes a little education, but in principle, according to our traditions a true guru is not one who claims to be God. A true guru is one who claims to be a humble messenger of God. I met so many gurus who had so many philosophies and I liked almost all of them, because I was just learning. I discuss this in the book I wrote, The Journey Home. I remember, I was in Vrindavan in 1971 and I was among 5 or 6 other people sitting around Srila Prabhupada. He wasn’t my guru then, he was just one of the saints I was coming to visit. And Srila Prabhupada was visiting Vrindavan for a few days, coming from somewhere else. Somebody asked him, “Are you the guru for the whole world?” He didn’t say anything. I was really very excited with anticipation –what is he going to say? Most people would say, “Yes.” And after he paused for a few minutes, he looked down to the ground. With tears of humility in his eyes, he said, “No, I am the servant of everyone. That’s all.” And I was thinking, “He is really the guru of the whole world!” – Radhanath Swami
March 25, 2015
The Only Characteristic That Impresses God
We may become very dear and attractive to the world, but what is the value of it if it doesn’t bring us closer to God. We see in many places of the world people who can speak very nicely, who have an incredible memory, and who have charisma and the power to attract others. Sometimes when they speak tens of thousands of people come to hear them or sometimes millions come to become their disciples. Sometimes it is because they can perform some magic tricks. Sometimes it is because they are very learned.
But a true devotee of the Lord judges things the way the Lord judges. “What is a person’s humility? Is this person’s motivation exclusively to be the servant of the servant of the servant of the Lord?” This is the only characteristic that impresses God. He is not impressed by our magic tricks. He is not impressed by our ability to speak, because whatever we speak – the language, the words, and the power to speak comes from Him. God is only impressed by humble devotion, by the mood of eternal servitude. – Radhanath Swami
March 20, 2015
Chariot Festival at Galtare
On February 22nd, 2015, Radhanath Swami led the celebrations of the Rath Yatra, an ancient traditional chariot procession, at Galtare Village, Maharashtra, India. Galtare Village is the home of Radhanath Swami’s project, Govardhan Eco Village, a model farm community and retreat center highlighting the importance of spiritual ecology. The procession, with a chariot carrying a Deity of Krishna, passed through the narrow streets of the village, as 2000 villagers pulled the chariot, sang kirtan and danced joyfully. Every house in the village had lamps lit at the doorway and rangoli patterns made of colored sand, drawn in the their courtyards to welcome the Lord and the devotees. Some villagers performed a traditional dance for the Lord’s pleasure. Sharon Gannon, the co-founder of Jivamukti Yoga, along with may of her students, joined the festival taking a break from their Teachers Training Program at Govardhan Eco Village.
In his address Radhanath Swami elaborated on the significance of Rath Yatra from the sacred text Chaitanya Charitamrita, and appreciated Srila Prabhupada for inspiring the celebration of this festival in villages, towns and cities all over the world.
The villagers were overjoyed to receive the special guests from 21 countries – the Jivamukti Yoga family. Sharon Gannon also expressed her joy. Being an animal rights activist, she shared with the villagers her happiness over how the animals are treated at Govardhan Eco Village.
March 19, 2015
Radhanath Swami Speaks at Divine Life Society’s International Headquarters
On the evening of March 2nd, 2015, Radhanath Swami spoke at Sivananda Ashram, the International Headquarters of the Divine Life Society in Rishikesh. He was invited to speak by the President of the Society Param Pujya Swami Vimalananda Saraswati.
During the evening Satsanga Swami Vimalananda Saraswati introduced Radhanath Swami to an international gathering of 150 yogis and devotees; leaders of the society, including General Secretary Swami Padmanabhananda Saraswati, were present. “We met each other for the first time in the 1970s on a mountaintop monastery in the United States. There we chanted the holy names and danced together,” Swami Vimalananda Saraswati fondly recalled. He glorified Srila Prabhupada, the Founder Acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, for spreading the glories of the Mahamantra all over the world. Speaking from his memories of ISKCON’s first cart festival, where he had met Srila Prabhupada, Swamiji said, “In 1969, in San Francisco chariot festival, we all went and danced with Prabhupadaji. There were more than 5000 people there. It was a wonderful sight to see.” He then requested Radhanath Swami to speak on ‘Devotion and Glories of the Holy Names’.
Taking cue from Swamiji’s recollections of 1969 cart festival, Radhanath Swami first spoke of Srila Prabhupada’s fondness for cart festivals. As a child Srila Prabhupada would look through railway timetables to see which trains went to Jagannath Puri, where the internationally famous cart festival has been held annually for thousands of years. Later Srila Prabhupada started the celebration of that same festival all over the world.
Radhanath Swami then spoke from the Chaitanya Charitamrita the story of Sukhlambar Brahmachari, and from the Srimad Bhagavatam the story of Sudama. “They had simple and humble devotion. So the Lord ‘stole’ their offering of chipped rice, even though they didn’t formally offer it.” Speaking of the glories of the holy names he said, “Hari kirtan is the sublime way of awakening our love for God and softening out hearts.”
Towards the end Radhanath Swami led everyone in kirtan.
