radhanath swami

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Lecture for ISKCON Leipzig. 2021-05-07
Video: https://youtu.be/Tr_EWCmdztU

Essence of Vaishnava Etiquette

But chanting from the heart means ‘I am chanting because I really want to purify my heart, I see so much lust and envy and anger and pride and greed and illusion and anger, I see all these things. I don’t want it. I want to wipe it away, I want to wipe away all these attraction and aversions and attachments and upadis, I am sick of them, I am disgusted with them, they drag me birth after birth after birth after birth away from Krishna and they are doing it again. Even despite I receive so much, still these material attachments are pulling me away from Krishna, contaminating my mind. I don’t want it anymore. Krishna! save me! I want to be your pure devotee. I want to be an instrument of your love.” And in this spirit, we really cry out the Holy name, we cry out the Holy name to cleanse us, to save us, to save us from Maya, to empower us to become pure.

What is it Mean “Chanting from The Heart?”

The example is given here of watering the root of the tree. Automatically whole tree is nourished. In that same verse from Bhagvatam it is explained that if you feed food to the belly automatically every limb of the body is nourished. If you simply give food to the stomach, then your whole body will be nourished. Your hands, your legs, your eyes, your brain, your feet, your lungs everything. But can you approach your belly directly? Is it possible? You can only get food to your stomach through your mouth. Krishna is the belly. His dear devotees are like the mouth. Unless you offer to them, unless you please them, unless you satisfy them, whatever you do will never reach Krishna. ‘yasya prasadad bhagavat-prasado yasyaprasadan na gatih kuto 'pi’ So, it is this type of determination is resolute purpose that is necessary. Krishna consciousness is achieved by the mercy of the Lord. Only when we want that state of love, when we want that state of service to the Lord through his devotees more than everything and anything else in the world, if there’s anything that you consider more important or a priority to Krishna, you will never see Krishna until you finally realize that Krishna is everything all in all.

Service of The Lord Should Be the First Priority

Maharaj Pariskhit could have done anything his last seven days, but he chose to think of Krishna, to chant and hear His glories. So, let us make our life a beautiful, a wonderful, a meaningful life. A life that is no longer subject to fear or anxiety, a life that is constantly devoted to remembrance of the all beautiful, all merciful Supreme Personality of Godhead, by remembering Krishna we become purified from within and without and for the pure soul, there is only the mercy of God that he sees in every step of his life and therefore he is always peaceful, he is always in a state of love, of compassion. He is always tasting the ultimate beauty of life and that gift is available for you today if you accept it. How to accept it? It is very simple, by surrendering to Krishna, by chanting His name, by following the words of the great souls, that is all Maharaj Pariskhit did, he simply heard from Sukadeva Goswami and followed his words and chanted the name of God, that same benediction is yours.

A Devote Never Subjeccted to Ordinary Material Karma

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?

Offenses that are serious against our spiritual life are not innocent mistakes that we make. But offenses are even though we know better, we misbehave. Those Krishna will hold us to very severely but just innocent mistakes Krsna will over them. What is your intension? What is your motive? “Krishna sees from the inside out. Man sees from the outside in.” We see a first what a person does and we judge him by what he does. But Krishna within your heart He sees what is His motive, what is his aspiration and He sees what you are doing from back vision. So, if you honestly, humbly trying to serve the Vaishnavas but you make mistake from they are displease with you, for Krishna that is a humorous thing, because you are sincere, when you see that displease with you, you are corrected and then you will do it their way. That’s not an offense.

One Who Criticizes Vaishnava Is a Snake

Brahma does not give up his position, he does not give up his family but he does everything for the service of Krishna. He understands fully that it is only the shelter of Krishna that will give us any real purpose or happiness in life and this must be our conviction, whatever our paticular status or situation may be we should never be deluded by Maya to think anything but the shelter of Krishna’s lotus feet will give me any real meaning or happiness in life.

We Can Find Real Pleasure Only at The Lotus Feet of Krishna

Our Yearning For Love

So Many Miracles!

In service to Krishna, we are serving Krishna to please him. If we are acting enthusiastic and eager so that people will think we are an advanced devotee, then that's a materialistic perception. But if my Guru Maharaj or Srila Prabhupada wants me to be eager to chant the Holy Name, if he wants me to be eager to hear Srimad Bhagavatam, if he wants me to be eager to read his books, if he wants me to be eager to come for the aratis to worship the deities, if he wants me to be eager to distribute his books or to preach to others or serve the Vaishnavas or whatever we're doing that eagerness for the pleasure of Krishna, whether we feel eager or not is a detail.

How to Please Our Spiritual Master?

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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.
