Param Guru Srila Radhanatha Swami

Radhanath Swami

"Glories of Sri Hanuman - The Emblem of Devotion" by HH Radhanath Swami on 28th April 2019

Wisdom From The Bhakti Tradition By HH Radhanath Swami on 6th May 2019 at The Bhakti Centre

It was on the banks of the Ganges that he would teach his students every evening. It was there that he defeated the great Keshava Kashmiri, it was in the Ganga that he would perform all his wonderful activities of harassing the citizens of Navadweep and play with His friends, throughout the whole day, swimming and splashing. Later on when Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu took Sanyaas, he expressed to Sarvabhowma Bhattacharya and the other devotees in Puri that “I wish to return to Bengal for two reasons: to see Ganga Devi and my mother Sachi”.  And while traveling at one time He saw Ganga and He offered His prostrated obeisances, He drank the water, He bathed in the water, crying and weeping, He began to explain to His devotees that the water of the Ganga is so pure. Ganga Devi is so merciful, she is non-different than the Lord’s merciful Lotus feet in this Amrit, that anyone who sees the River Ganges, who touches River Ganges, who bathes in the River Ganges, who drinks the water of the Ganges, anyone who is touched by the breeze that has come from the Ganges that person will be delivered of sins and will achieve devotional service to Lord Krsna.

Glories of Mother Ganga

Look at what is happening to the world today, because we don’t understand the Vedic conception of the absolute necessity for a peaceful life and peaceful society, to honour and respect our mothers. The earth is our mother. She is being exploited in such ways that if we keep going this way, even the greatest geologists and scientists don’t know how life can continue. Here in India, the river Yamuna – Yamuna mai, she is one of our sacred mothers. She nourishes hundreds of millions of people with her water. On one level, she is a goddess – the Shakti of Krishna who is the personification of Krishna’s compassion in this world. On a physical level, life is depend on water. She is being dammed, she is being diverted and the river bed of the Yamuna is being filled industrial waste and sewage. And when you bathe in Vrindavan, or Prayag, from the Jamuna side, you are just bathing in the sewage of Delhi. This is India, the land of dharma. Is this the way to honour our mother? The cow is our mother. India is one of the top countries in the world for exporting slaughtered meat of cows. And what are we doing about it? How are we going to change this? We have to educate our children with values. Not just put them in a swirl of anxiety about their exams or where they are going to go to college. And our own mothers. You see, whether it’s mother earth or the Yamuna river or the cow or the mothers of our families, a mother’s seva is supremely sacred but it’s very gentle. Often times, its men who fight wars, who run politics, who bring money home and they are so much recognized and the mother who is taking care of children, who cares? Let her do it! What glorification, what honour do they receive? It’s become so bad, that in secular society, so many women are abandoning taking care of children for carriers, because that’s the way the society sees it. Otherwise, they are just worthless mothers sitting home, cooking, cleaning, nursing. And even within religious societies; I am sad to say, even within our own spiritual society, how much do even the husbands or the society at large value and honour the contribution of a mother? It’s quite rare. And it’s one of the saddest deviations from Vedic culture. Because a mother who does that gentle service, whether she is just quietly flowing as a river, or giving milk in a goshala, or whether she is just mother earth providing quietly crops and trees and fruits and vegetables, or a mother at home who is washing and cleaning and loving little babies and keeps staying up all night if necessary, twenty-four-hour service, a good mother. Do we appreciate? Do we honour? If the society at large does not honour, how will our children appreciate? 
Krishna, Krishna showed us a good lesson. He was conquered by the love of His mother. Yashodamai, she wasn’t a warrior, she wasn’t a great scholar; she was just taking care of Gopal. She didn’t even know He is God. But she served His every need with such motherly love, that the supreme absolute truth accepted being bound by her love. And queen Kunti, what a mother she was! When she was praying to Krishna, she was remembering Yashodamai, that “Krishna, You are feared by fear personified. Yet when Yashodamai had her little stick and was sitting in front of You after You stole butter, Your limbs were trembling. Your lips were quivering. Tears were pouring from Your eyes mixing with the black mascara and decorating Your whole body, and You were pleading, pleading to be forgiven”. The supreme absolute truth is showing the power of a mother’s love that He Himself, Lord Narsingadev, we know His powers, Lord Varahadev, the Virat Rupa – the universal form in the eleventh chapter of Bhagavad Gita, well here is the source of all of those forms, conquered by the love of His mother. That is Krishna consciousness.

Valuing The Contribution of Mothers

Srila Prabhupada, for many, many days, weeks and months he often spoke on the teachings of Prahlada, the prayers of Kunti, it prepares our hearts and prepares our minds with the pure bhava, the aspiration for unconditional service of the Lord. We may want to be residents of Vrindaban, but that is a very high platform. We understand this through Brihad Bhagavtamrita and other such Shastras, you actually have to qualify yourself. “are we as fearless as Prahlada? Do we have the faith of Prahlada? Do we have the absolute dedication and obedience to our Guru as Prahlad under all circumstances? Are we willing to welcome difficulties with a happy heart like Prahlada? Is the supreme personality of godhead willing to appear in this world for us like Prahlada? If not, we should not jump over his head. We should fall under the dust of his lotus feet and follow in his footsteps. That is why Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu put so much happiness and emphasis on this story.

Why Sri Chaitanya Maha Prabhu Put So Much Emphasis On Reading Srimad Bhagavatam?

Guidely Presents "Compassion & Self-Awareness" With HH Radhanath Swami on 01st July 20

HH Radhanath Swami Address on Disappearance of HH Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaj

The Nectar of Devotion and the teachings of Lord Chaitanya to Rupa Goswami and Sanatana Goswami were given in Bengali and Sanskrit. Srila Prabhupada he lived at Prayag too, he had his Prayag pharmacy, In fact His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada was given both first and second initiation at Prayag by Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada at the Rupanuga Gaudia Math. Srila Prabhuapda was initiated by Bhakti Sidhnata Saraswati Thakur in the same place that Rupa Goswami was given teachings and mercy and blessings by Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And that is where Bhakti Charu Maharaj had his first personal, physical contact was Srila Prabhupada and it was at that time he was given this instruction to translate Srila Prabhupada's books, all of them in the Bengali language. 
Now Srila Prabhupad's books by that time 1977 were being translated in many languages of the world but Bengali was the very language of Srila Prabhupada's own native tongue. It was the language of Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda and Gadadhar Pundit and Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur and Bhkati Vinod Thakur and the six goswamis and Viswanth Chakravarthi Thakur, they were all coming from that Bengali background. Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita, Sri Chaitanya Bhagavata are primarily written in Bengali with profuse Sanskrit verses. Srila Prabhupada translated from the Sanskrit and Bengali to English and now for the first time he's asking someone to translate these books into the original language of Bengali. Srila Prabhupada had just met Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaj, he was not even initiated and yet Srila Prabhupad could see something in him, he could appreciate him so in such a special way that he gave him this very intimate, personal service. Like taking water from the Ganges and offering it back to the Ganges. The literatures like Caitanya Chritamrita were coming from Bengali, given to the world by Srila Prabhupada and Prabhupada is now offering it back into the Bengali language through the loving heart of Bhakti Chari Swami Maharaja. Now translating all his books is really a task, all the Srimad-Bhagavatam, all the Chaitanya Charitamrita, The Nectar of Devotion, Sri Isopanishat, all the small books, Bhagavat Gita, but Bhakti Charu Maharaj immediately accepted the service. He tells how he considered himself totally unqualified and that's how he felt, but Srila Prabhupad saw that his feeling himself unqualified was his qualification. Because when we really feel our self unqualified, but we're sincere and we are serious and we're willing to give our life with without ulterior motives, then Krishna and Guru empowers us. Srila Prabhupad told him that if you just do it through your practice, you will learn. But he was really saying if you just surrender to my instruction, I will empower you.

HH Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaj – The First Meeting With and First Instruction By HDG Srila Prabhupada

HH Radhanath Swami at The Memorial Event for HH Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaj by Bhakti Vendanta Manor

"Remembering HH Bhakti Charu Swami" A Special Talk by HH Radhanath Swami

'How To Keep The Devotees Together And Closer To Krishna?' by GBCSPT With HH Radhanath Swami

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.
