Hare Krishna Sunshine

Cintamani Nam

Cintamani Nam 2

Stress and anxiety has a purpose. It’s nature’s way of telling you your life is off the rails, off track. Bhakti yoga calls for rejuvenation of the human spirit, when the human vitality is being used for its true purpose, then change will take place. Change (for the better) in the environment, in relationships, in the well being of all living beings.

Human Beings Are Way Off Track

Gratitude - Rukmini Mataji

Sacred Sounds on Sacred Grounds

Even when they are a little off-beat or eccentric, the singers and musicians serving at the Radha Raman Mandir in Vrindavan always melt the heart.

Radha-krpa-kataksa stotram in Radha Raman -Jan 2013

Chaitanya mahaprabhu said, “Krishna is non different than his name, nämnäm akäri bahudhä nija-sarva-çaktis, all of his powers are within his name. But then my lord said, if a devotee is chanting the holy names but offends Vaishnavas, Krishna is so displeased, that Krishna through his name may destroy you out of mercy. Krishna’s name is Krishna, he is a person. It is not something mechanical, we ,must chant in a way that pleases the holy name. The seventh offence to the holy name is to commit sinful activities on th trength of chanting. If we think let me chant and then I can do any thing sinful and then I will rectify it by chanting again, if that is our mentality you are offending god in his name and the first of all offences is to blaspheme devotees of the lord. Why are these offences? It is not just something mechanical. It must be understood in a very personalized way. These are offences because they displease Krishna substantially.

The Crucial Principles of Bhakti

Lessons From Corona By HH Radhanath Swami at ISKON Juhu on 26 Jan 2021

'Flower Festival Special Class' with HH Radhanath Swami at ISKCON Chowpatty on 30th Jan 2021

To be congenial means tapasya. It’s going to be difficult. But when a husband and wife are congenial together with Krishna in the centre of their lives, service to Krishna, service to their children, service to the society, service to each other in reference to devotion to Krishna, then Lakshmi and Narayan are living in that house, not figuratively but for real. Lakshmi and Narayan are living in that house even if you don’t have deities, they want to live there with you because of your devotion to each other and even if you do have deities, and you spend lakhs and lakhs of rupees on beautiful altars, and getting deities made in Jaipur and calling all devotees to do the yajnas,  to install Them and abhisekams, and everything else, if you don’t have that congenial relationship of oneness for the higher principle, Radha Krishna, Laxmi Narayan, They are not in your house. They are statues in your house. Hare Krishna! Because They are going to be there to accept your devotion, they are everywhere. They are in deities too but They are not going to reciprocate unless you approach Them according to Their desire.

Principles of Marriage

So, really what saint Valentine’s day is all about for a religious person is giving up everything, being willing to undergo even torture and death in the service of the Lord. That’s what Valentine’s day represents to a vaisnava or to a devotee. But to a materialistic person Saint Valentine’s Day means following in the footsteps of the lusty birds. Hare Krishna! We see the birds mating and we think this is romance. This is something wonderful. Let me do it too, let me be like the birds. That is Valentine’s day. Human beings trying to follow in the footsteps of the birds! Hare Krishna. But at the same time, Rupa Goswami explains that ‘just as a young boy loves a young girl, in the same way if we can repose our affection in Krishna, we will achieve the ultimate perfection of life. That same propensity for love and affection if we offer it to Krishna, it is the ultimate perfection of life. That love of the heart, its nature is to be offered to Krishna.

The Origin, Concept And Spirit of Valentine's Day

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.


Lessons From Corona By HH Radhanath Swami at ISKON Juhu on 26 Jan 2021

Radhanath Swami

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