Prashant · Madhav Mela {Day 3} · 6.26.22

Sometimes Bhakti Charu Maharaj, on a personal level would share with me that we were soul brothers. In a way because at exactly the time, same time in 1970, I was leaving the West travelling overland to India to look for spiritual life. And Bhakti Charu Maharaj was traveling west for the same purpose. And of course, I don't remember or recall that we ever physically and personally met on that level. But, we both had the same intention, at the same time, he was going west, and I was going east, and ultimately, he returned to the east. And being such a effulgent, intelligent, and sincere seeker of the truth, wherever he went, any spiritual teachers, they, they longed for a person like this. So, he traveled for some years, reading books, meeting different gurus and sages and yogis. And at a certain time, he was given the Nectar of Devotion, a book by Srila Rupa Goswami that was translated in summary, by His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

HH Bhakti Charu Swami Gave His Life to Srila Prabhupada

And at this particular time, I'm personally meditating on how His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaj was very much following in the footsteps of Ishwara Puri. Bhakti Charu Maharaj, he was born and raised in an aristocratic family in Kolkata, was very highly educated, eloquent in every way. But the perfection of his life, he has always considered was the opportunities he had to follow in the footsteps of Ishwara Puri and be at Srila Prabhupada’s bedside during the closing pastimes of Srila Prabhupada’s leela in this world.

Epitome of Submissiveness - HH Bhakti Charu Swami

In all of the wonderful incarnations of the supreme Lord, the principal incarnations, we find that Balaram is present as Narayana. Balaram appears as Sankarsana, Sesanaga, he becomes the Lord’s bed. Laxmi is massaging His feet and Balaram is His bed, His resting place. In the avatar of Sri Ramachandra, Balaramji appears as His younger brother, Laxman. And what was Laxman’s constant meditation? “Simply to be the servant of Rama, always wanting to serve.” He was so anxious to serve that He was doing all the service.

Reason for Balaram to Appear as Elder Brother to Krishna

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When Krishna sees that for his pleasure, we are not being discouraged by success or failure, honor or dishonor, pleasure or pain, happiness or distress, health or disease, victory or defeat. Devotional service is ahaituky apratihatā; it is unconditional by these things. As long as there is selfishness or arrogance in what we do, then we become very discouraged, because we are not getting our way. But when we are truly doing it for Krishna's satisfaction, even though there may be heartaches, there may be so many impediments in doing Krishna's will, our enthusiasm to persevere for Krishna's pleasure with the right intention of the heart, will never wane.

13-VR06

Two Principles of Two Fingers Too Short

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Srila Prabhupada performed so many austerities for us. And all of his followers have performed so many austerities to assist him. And for the next generation, what pleases all the representatives of Srila Prabhupada is to perform austerities. The austerity of our sadhana, the austerity of our cooperation, the austerity of following these regulative principles and doing everything we can to serve.

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HNR - 10 Hour Kirtan - Gauravani

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.


HH Bhakti Charu Swami Gave His Life to Srila Prabhupada

Radhanath Swami

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