Progress Not Perfection - Q&A | Nov 2019

Visvambhar - Adharam Madhuram - 08.30.21 Janmastami @NRR

Why as soon as we become devotees, why don't we just become pure souls and go back to Godhead? For the same reason, because Krishna wants to see the quality of our love. He wants us to develop the quality of our love, then love is developed through the process of sacrifice and if we didn't have to undergo the tests of lust and anger and envy and pride and greed and illusion and all these horrible things that are within us, that we have created ourselves to all of our previous births, we have created the condition of our consciousness but Krishna wants us to face all of these testing elements within our life and with faith and conviction and determination and with trust in the guidance of the great soils and faith in his words, he wants us to pursue to work, to strive, to sacrifice for him. And when he sees that quality in us, then by His mercy, he very gracefully awards love of God to us. You see, love of God is not something that you can acquire. It is already within you, but you'll never find it on your own. It is only when Krishna reveals it by his own sweet will that you can understand where it is. And he reveals it when he sees that you have qualified yourself through sincere devotion and sacrifice, through passing through so many tests, then you have showed your love for him.

Why Krishna Allows Maya to Test His Devotees Very Severely?

‘a brahma-bhuvanal lokah punar avartino ‘rjuna’ Krishna says, ‘you can perform for many, many life times of sacrifices and austerity and ultimately attain the supreme heavenly planet of brahma loka, and you can enjoy there for billions of years but ultimately you will fall down as soon as your good karmas is exhausted and then when you are again in the body of an insect or some lower creature. what is it that you have gained through all that you have done? Nothing. Everything has come and gone, like a dream. And only thing you have to show for all your lifetimes and lifetimes and lifetimes and lifetimes is the time that has been wasted. All of the austerities and then enjoying the fruits of austerities and through the whole time your mind has simply been bewildered in forgetfulness of the real goal of life, which is to attain the mercy of Krishna, which is the only ways and means to eternity, knowledge and true bliss.

Beating the Empty Husk

Srila Prabhupada would quotes, dina-hina jata chilo, hari-name uddharilo, tara sakshi jagai madhai that even the most hardened cruel demons like Jagahay and Madhai can be transformed by the power of God's names. Nityananda prabhu, he saw that potential in their hearts and they became saints. In the same way Srila Prabhupada when he traveled around the world 12 times, he saw that potential in everyone's hearts and so many people became transformed. And in the same way through our sadhana, our spiritual practice and through our prayer and practice, we should cultivate seeing that potential in everyone and in each other. I am so grateful to my Guru Maharaj Srila Prabhupada for inspiring such a wonderful family as all of you and we should never forget this ‘that we are a family. We should each and every one of us take serious responsibility to speak and behave properly, in such a way that it will inspire true devotion and true happiness in each other and it will create a happier, more united family.’

Serving Means to Create Happy & United Family

All the trials and challenges that we may be enduring today and all that we will inevitably endure in the future are being addressed in the Bhagavad-Gita. Krishna begins by explaining the nature of the true self, the jiva. ‘na hanyate hanyamane sarire, na jayate mriyate va kadacin’ that the eternal soul is never born and never dies, it is not subjected to the forces of nature or time. But the forces of nature and time are so powerful, this maya which is based on the interaction of the three modes of nature with time and the karma, the various actions that are accelerated by that combination, it's very difficult, it's very impossible to overcome. To control the mind, to control the senses, to overcome fear, lust, envy, anger, greed, illusion, these forces from all around us and within us are very difficult to overcome. This is very much the essence of the Gita. Krishna explains how material nature works, he explains how we become bound up by Karma, how we're always being consumed at every moment we're being destroyed by time, but we can easily overcome it if we simply do one thing, take shelter of him. That is this essence of the Gita to take shelter of the lord.

Essence of Bhagavad Gita

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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.


Serving Means to Create Happy & United Family

Radhanath Swami

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