Overcoming Harshness & The Srngi Within | May 2021

Some tracks to help inspire devotion to Krishna

Spiritual Spoken Word

Krishna's sweetness - Dina Bhandu Das

Sharad Purnima 7.2.20 Nityananda Trayodasi Abhishek Kirtan

Govinda Prabhu 7.2.20 Kirtan In Aindra Prabhus Room On Nityananda Trayodasi

Caring - Krishna Nandini Mataji

Avani Prabhu 10.6.20

"New Year Meditations" with HH Radhanath Swami on 01st Jan 2021

It was just a couple weeks after that the closing pastimes of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur’s lila took place. He was in the Bagh Bazaar Temple in Calcutta and there his devotees from all around were having beautiful kirtan around him. On the morning of December 31st 1936, Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati asked one of his disciples Srila Bhakti Rakshak Sridhar Maharaj to sing for him the beautiful song of Narottam Das Thakur – ‘Sri Rupa Manjiri Pada’, which is the eternal aspiration, the mood of the song is eternal aspiration of all true gaudiya vaisnavas. And then he asked another of his devotees to sing the beautiful ‘Siksastakam’ prayers and then he told his devotees that they must serve one another, love one another, preach together, co-operate and he told them to divide the management under a authority called GBC, Governing Body Commission of about 10-12 men who will help to develop preaching strategies for his worldwide movement.

Final Instruction of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur

So, now Nimai is standing before him, soaking wet from the bath in the Ganga with the shaved head and Kesava Bharati says, “You are the Supreme Lord and if this is how you want to teach the world to make me your guru, I am your servant.” And then he gave the two pieces of saffron cloth to our beloved Lord Gauranga. The Lord put on the saffron dress of a sanyasi. When the people saw him without his beautiful golden robes, without his jewellery and his garlands, without his luxurious cascading hair, their hearts were broken. But still, in the saffron robes of a sanyasi, he was so unlimitedly beautiful. He charmed their hearts. They fell unconditionally in love with this form of Mahaprabhu as a sanyasi. Then, the Lord did something that was wonderful.

Lord Gauranga Mahaprabhu Accepting Sannyas

you have to struggle, you have to work, you have to push, you have to surrender, you have to do it with good intelligence. But the way you are pushing, the way you are surrendering will have longevity, you will be able to continue this way with enthusiasm. And as far as accepting guidance, if you are sincere, you will seek out guidance. If you are insincere, you will say, “Oh my guru is not here, who will I turn to?” But the fact is there are so many wonderful vaishanvas who understand the philosophy and who can help you. And if you are sincere, you will turn to them and you will accept guidance. If you are sincere, when you are reading the books or hearing the tapes of the great acaryas or the great devotees of the lord, you will receive so much guidance through them, practically all your questions will be answered.  What to speak of all the devotees who are present, who have so much experience?

If We Are Insincere, We Can Justify Anything

But Lord Varaha, what technology he has. He could roar with such volume, it’ s heard through all the different, through the 14 planetary systems from satya loka down to patalaloka, when he roar’s everybody hears it. And the sages who are right next to him, it sounded very sweet. It sounded powerful but beautiful. So, this is the Lord’s achintya shakti, inconceivable potencies. When he roared and when they saw that everybody could hear it and it was so nice, it was so beautiful. It’s described that Lord Chaitanya, sometimes he would roar when he was in ecstasy with the volume of ten million lions. It was so powerful this roar that by his yoga maya potency, he had to enter every single person’s ears to protect it from blasted to pieces. And everyone it was loud but everyone liked it, it was beautiful, it was sweet. So, when they heard this and they saw this gigantic form, they all understood ‘this is Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Varaha dev.’ Haribol!

Appearance Day of Lord Varahadev

Radhanath Swami is a Vaishnava sanyassi (a monk in a Krishna-bhakti lineage) and teacher of the devotional path of Bhakti-yoga. He is author of The Journey Home, a memoir of his search for spiritual truth. His teachings draw from the sacred texts of India such as The Bhagavad-gita, Srimad Bhagavatam, and Ramayana, and aim to reveal the practical application of the sacred traditions, while focusing on the shared essence which unites apparently disparate religious or spiritual paths.
Born Richard Slavin, on December 7, 1950, in his teens he came to confront a deep sense of alienation from suburban Chicago life and the civil injustices of mid-century America. At the age of nineteen, while on a summer trip to Europe, his internal struggles culminated in a commitment to search for God wherever it might lead him. Meditating on the Isle of Crete, he felt a supernatural calling and the next morning set off alone to find spiritual India. The Journey Home documents his odyssey as a penniless hitch-hiker though Greece, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and finally India. There he lived as a wandering ascetic, first amongst the forest dwelling Himalayan yogis and later amongst a wide variety of gurus and spiritual practitioners throughout India and Nepal. Ultimately, he was led to the holy town of Vrindavan, where he found his path amongst the Bhakti-yogis.
In Vrindavan he found the teacher he was searching for in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977) the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), and representative of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, (the Krishna-bhakti tradition stemming from the 16th century mystic avatar Sri Chaitanya). In choosing Bhaktivedanta Swami, as his guru, Radhanath Swami felt compelled to shear his matted locks and reenter Western society with a mission to share the sacred wisdom he had received. This return exemplifies the form of devotional yoga which is at the heart of Radhanath Swami’s teachings, a spiritual practice expressed as tangible action meant to bring about personal fulfillment and benefit the world.
At the the age of 31 he took the monastic vows of a Vaishnava sanyassin and became known as Radhanath Swami.
Today Radhanath Swami travels regularly throughout India, Europe and North America, sharing the teachings of Bhakti-yoga. He resides much of the year at the Radha Gopinath Ashram in Chowpatty, Mumbai. For the past twenty-five years he has guided the community’s development and has directed a number of acclaimed social action projects including Midday Meals, which daily serves more than 260,000 plates of sanctified vegetarian food to the children of the slums of Mumbai. He has also worked to establish missionary hospitals and eye camps, eco-friendly farms, schools and ashrams, an orphanage, and a number of emergency relief programs throughout India.


Final Instruction of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur

Radhanath Swami

Related tracks