Radhanath Swami on Glorification of God

The glorification of God is the universal principle of all religions. In glorification we show our love. The greatest form of glorification, the one that pleases Him, is the one that pleases His devotees. There is no better way. There is nothing more pleasing to God than rendering of service. And greater the need, greater the service - if you give a person water, that is not such a great service, but if you give it to a person who is thirsting for water and whose mouth is parched, that is a great service. Because you are really pleasing that person who is in need. The greatest need of all human beings is God consciousness. People are spiritually starving. Therefore, the greatest service, the greatest charity, the greatest welfare work is to distribute the glories of holy name to the people of this world. This way we can purify our hearts and attract the love of God in our lives.

Radhanath Swami on Reviving Spirituality

We must learn to revive our real spiritual nature. We must be willing to fight against pride and our endless longings for our own personal interests. We must learn how to come to the pure state of consciousness. However beautiful our clothes and our cars and our scientific technology may be, if we are not pursuing the purification of our consciousness and not endeavoring for self realization, then we are living in an uncivilized world. Religious literatures like Bhagavad Gita give us very important and essential messages which can lead us toward real happiness and transcendental bliss which our soul longs for. When we live a pure life based on the principle of no intoxication, no meat eating, no gambling and no illicit relationships with the opposite sex, and we associate with the devotees and take up the cleansing process of chanting God’s name and hearing God’s glories then we truly become civilized. If we are following this then we are making real progress in our life.

Radhanath Swami on Spiritual Science

There are three types of diseases - disease of the body, disease of the mind and disease of the soul. We know all about diseases of the body; the whole medical industry is trying to deal with those diseases to alleviate pain and suffering. And psychology and psychiatry are trying to deal with alleviating the diseases of the mind and the emotional systems within. There is also the disease of the heart, the disease of ignorance. People have forgotten who they are, what is the purpose of life, what is their relationship with one other, what is their relationship with nature, and what is their relationship with God. And this disease can cause suffering despite having very healthy bodies and very strong minds. The spiritual sciences which inform us about the nature of the soul are meant to ultimately cure this disease. The nature of the soul is to love God, the nature of the soul is to be an instrument of God’s compassion in everything we do, everything we say and ultimately, in everything we think in life.

Radhanath Swami on The Science of Deity Worship

The deity is an incarnation of God in this world. The Lord is so kind that knowing our material condition, He appears in material elements so that we can see them and conceive of Him with our material senses, so that we can see with our eyes and serve with our hands. We could use all of our senses in a very active, dynamic and practical way to connect ourselves to serve the deity. And with our mind we can easily remember that form, we can meditate on that form, we can fix our mind on that form. God is that form because for God, material and spiritual is quiet irrelevant. God is the source of everything - He manifests His supreme spiritual glory even in material elements, therefore it’s no longer a material element, but it is perceptible by material senses. The deity is not material; the deity is pure spiritual substance. However, out of His mercy, that pure spiritual substance is manifesting to us, incarnating to us in such a way that we can perceive Him with our material senses that can only perceive material things. This is the science of deity worship. Therefore, we find throughout the scriptures how great souls were worshiping the deities and teaching others too.

Radhanath Swami on A Divine Society

Today there are so many social events - people come to hear materialistic music together, people come to dance together, people come to drink together, to eat together, to go to the cinemas, to go to the concerts, to go to the sporting events. People are so foolish that they do not take out time to regularly associate with the saintly people and to hear and chant the glories of the Lord. But the real purpose of the society is to give people opportunity to come together to hear the glories of the Lord, to chant and dance for the glorification of the names of the God and to take the holy food offered to the Lord together. And to the degree this is missing from our society, to the same degree there will be terrible sufferings in this world.

Radhanath Swami on Maintaining Spiritual Strength

Just as we regularly eat to maintain physical strength, similarly, we should regularly associate and chant for spiritual strength. The supreme most important responsibility for every human being is to come together to hear the glories of the Lord and to chant His holy name. But it should be done under the direction of genuine saintly persons who are humble servants of God and of previous saintly persons. If we do not regularly have the association of saintly people, if we do not hear and chant the glories of the Lord regularly then we will not be able to maintain our spiritual strength.

Radhanath Swami on Associating with the Holy Name

The Lord is eternally manifested in the sound of His name. He is inviting everyone to simply take this holy name and share it amongst one another. And through this process we can always experience the divine presence of the Lord in our life. This process will purify our hearts and we can attain eternal love and eternal peace. The greatest fortune in anyone’s life and the most precious opportunity in all of creation is to come together to chant the holy names of God. We should chant the holy name with great enthusiasm and great feeling. And we should live our life in such a way that we attract the mercy of the Lord. If we associate with the holy name in the spirit of submission then the holy name will quickly transform our minds to the spiritual world.