Radhanath Swami on Prema

In Vrindavan there was the Pulinda. One Pulinda woman was selling fruits. She cried out, “Is any one want to buy fruits?” Krishna came running to get some fruits. In those days there was no paper currency. There was the bargaining process. We got real things and we gave real things, it was an exchange of real things.

If you are hungry and you have a hundred crores of rupees, you cannot eat the rupees. So Krishna ran to fruit fender with some grains in His hand and he was enthusiastic and He is the supreme personality of Godhead, how charming and how sweet. He could not keep the grains in his hands. He could keep the sun in orbit for three hundred three hundred eleven trillion years during Brahma’s life. He can keep the sun on the orbit, He can keep the earth on the orbit, and He can keep everything in whole creation, not only in this creation but in unlimited universes. But that same absolute truth as the son of Nanda, He was such a charming little boy that all the grains are falling as He was running. By the time He gets to the fruit vendor, there was hardly anything in His hand. He does not know, He just shows. He was smiling. That Pulinda woman, she was so charmed to see Krishna’s beautiful smile, His wonderful form as just the little child. She was not thinking that this is param brahmana the Supreme Personality of Godhead. She was just thinking He is such a beautiful innocent little boy and He wants fruits. So He gave her nothing and she filled his arms with the best of her fruits, all that he could hold and more. He was so happy. Can you imagine that she was filing the fruits on His arms and He was smiling thinking so nice? Then Krishna ran home.

The Fruit vendor lady she was thinking so what I did not get anything in return. I made Him happy. She was just remembering that beautiful form and that smile of His pleasure upon her. That was greater wealth in anything that she could have possibly had. Then she turned around and she saw that her basket was full of jewels. According to Jiva Goswami, “It was not that she was become ecstasy because now she was rich with jewels. She left the jewels and what put her in ecstasy. It was the jewel that Krishna placed on her heart, the jewel of love for Him. She did not care about the other stuffs. She had the ultimate perfection of life. So who ever we are, wherever we are coming from, if we just make that choice to give pleasure to Krishna, Krishna gives us the ultimate wealth, the ultimate jewel of Prema or love. The ultimate and the only real aspiration of the heart.

-- HH Radhanath Swami

Radhanath Swami on slavery

In this world we are brain-washed to want to be the master to be the enjoyer but in Krishna Consciousness we are taught to be subordinate…in very very frank terms, we are taught slavery to be a slave. Who wants to be a slave in this world? People fight for freedom and we are striving to give up our freedom and be a slave. What does that mean? To surrender means to surrender your freedom to surrender your independence and as Prabhupada used to say to become a Vaikunta man to become Krishna’s man. Of course when we decide to do that the power of the gesture of that love is so great that Krishna becomes subordinate to that love.

- H.H.Radhanath Swami

Radhanath Swami on Very Nice

The greatest pleasure of a devotee is to place his head at the feet of Krishna and His devotee – I am your servant eternally. Those who like this idea…very nice…those who do not like this idea…very nice. That is our conviction. Everything is very nice. Whether they stone you…very nice…whether they throw flowers upon you…very nice. When I am in India people put garlands on me…when I am in campus in America, people throw tomatoes, eggs, water, buckets of water, apples, potatoes, stool, urine…so many variety of things I am offered when I am chanting Hare Krishna. What the acharyas are teaching us is to receive them all in such a way that it is very nice. They throw stool ,urine and stones at you…very nice…Krishna is reciprocating and if they throw garlands…yes this is for Krishna also. Whatever our occupation is understand that our fulfillment of life’s desires is only when Krishna is pleased. Let us aspire only for this – His eternal loving service. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna
- H.H.Radhanath Swami

Radhanath Swami on fitting in with the crowd!

If you really want to come close to God you have to be indifferent to what the man and women of this world think about you. You have to simply try to please Krishna…that is all. Srila Prabhupada told us whatever you do...people will criticize us. Therefore our concern is simply to please our guru and Krishna. We are not concerned with anyone else. If you are concerned with everyone else, then you are welcome to rot in this world birth after birth after birth because there is only one way out and that is to please Krishna. Pleasing Krishna means becoming anti-material.

-H.H.Radhanath Swami

Radhanath Swami on Love

Bhishma in the Mahabharat explains the definition of love. Love is to repose all affection in one object and there is no living creature on earth that we can repose all our affection in. It will always be divided. Only Krishna has the power to attract and to accept all the affection of a living being. Because the soul has eternal love that is simply longing and dying to be expressed and directed towards someone. But we cannot express or offer all our eternal love to some temporary form or object or person of this world. Only Krishna can reciprocate that love. Therefore to love means to love God and without love of God, in the true sense there is no love at all. What goes in the name of love in this world is a type of mutual exploitation tinged with selfishness. It is affection but it is not love. sa vai puḿsāḿ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje ahaituky apratihatā yayātmā uprasīdati. The supreme occupation [dharma] for all humanity is that by which men can attain to loving devotional service unto the transcendent Lord. Such devotional service must be unmotivated and uninterrupted to completely satisfy the self. That is the goal of life. Love of God is the Supreme goal, the perfection of life. It is the purushartha siromani. Of all the goals of life, of all the attainments, it is the crest jewel, it is the highest, and it is the only level of consciousness that completely satisfies the heart.

- H.H.Radhanath Swami

H.H.Radhanath Swami on the games of MAYA

We find in the story of Vishvamitra muni. What kind of tapasya he had performed? Who could do what he has done going into the deserts in the middle of summer with eight fires around you without eating or sleeping or drinking for years at a time, going to the peaks of the Himalayas up to his neck in the waters of the Gangotri with ice around him for years at a time. We have hard enough time if a mosquito lands on us, our mind gets disturbed, “May be I get malaria or something like this.” Vishvamitra muni, what kind of tapasya, undisturbed, he did not move a limb of his body, but Indra was also afraid of that, he must be wanting my abode. So through Kamdev, he sent Menaka. And Menaka, her bangles made sweet sounds. What craziness? after giving up all the pleasures. Vishvamitra muni was a great and powerful king, he gave up everything. And some little pieces of metals clinging together ! But maya has so ridiculously put us to shame. What really she offers us? what is sex? Srila Prabhupada said, you just cut open the container; what is inside; mucous, blood and stool, urine and pus. You go to the polyclinic at Mira Road and you see what is inside peoples body; it’s disgusting. As soon as the body opens, all it is terrible substances, they smell horrible, it feels horrible, they look horrible. Little thin layer of coating and we are mad for it and infatuated by it, and it is in the process of being wrinkled and by time whatever looks pretty now, it is going to be just baggy in a few years, you know it. Yet maya in such an embarrassing situation, for the pure eternal soul which is a part of God which is full of bliss, to become infatuated and attached to a lump of flesh. It is ridiculous, there is some spell, and some metal clinging each other, bangles, what is so great about that. But Vishvamitra muni could not meditate anymore because if those metal pieces of bangles bumping against each other terribly, he could not tolerate. So such a mental game that maya plays on everyone. Maya means that which is not, it is not enjoyable, but it appears enjoyable, but it is not beautiful but it appears beautiful. So he ended up getting married to Menaka and after living with her for some time, he realized that I have fallen down, I made a big mistake and he regretted everything. So he went back and began to perform more tapasya greater that ever before. So Indra sent another heavenly damsel, Rambha. She was also very beautiful and she also very beautiful and she also had nice bangles and anyway when she was singing beautiful songs and everything. And when Vishvamitra muni saw her, he understood that she has come to induce my lust, but I will not allow it to happen and he remembered what had happened last time and he became intolerably angry and by his glance, he cursed her to become a block of salt or stone. And again he lost the merits of his tapasya because he fell down to anger.

- H.H.Radhanath Swami