Radhanath swami on the Living Dead

Our bodies are just machines comprised of dead matter, just like an automobile. Like a car cannot do anything on its own without its driver, the body is useless without the soul. Whatever the car does, go forward, backward, slow or fast, it is the driver, the soul, doing it. When the car breaks the laws of state, it is the driver who is held responsible, not the car. The soul actually gives life to the body, making the body seem alive and conscious. Most of the times, we are unaware of the soul and its purpose. The soul has been put on the earth for self-realisation. We sometimes live such dynamic and enjoyable lives, but if we are unconscious of our real self, we are dead spiritually.

Radhanath Swami on Price for Divine Love

The Bible says, “Seek and you shall find.” If you have hope in any situation and you are looking for service there will be an opportunity for service revealed to you. If you are looking for reason to give up your faith you will find that too. As you approach the Lord, He reciprocates accordingly. If you take full shelter of the Lord, the Lord gives you Himself in full. If you take partial shelter of the Lord, He partially helps and leaves the rest to you.

If we are sincerely trying to taking shelter of God’s message, God will give us unlimited hope and unlimited faith in due course. But if we do not have that hope and faith and we continue with the same sincerity, God sees that we are genuine, we are for real. It is called the dark night of the soul. If you are practicing but you are feeling no love, even you feel your faith waning, but if you carry on practicing that’s the price of divine love.

Beware of Vaishnava Offence

We should be careful not to spoil our spiritual lives. We should understand that it could take many years to cultivate our Krishna consciousness but all of that will be covered by a foolish offence that we may make. Devotional service cannot be destroyed but it can be covered by the cloud of illusion. Offence can cover all our spiritual progress for many births. it takes years and years to cultivate the tree of devotional service and all that is covered and lost if we misbehave towards other Vaishnavas. You may not find it for many lifetimes. So we have to be very careful. Not only about offending Vaishnavas, but also about performing sinful activities that are completely against the principles of Krishna consciousness.

Radhanath Swami on Tapasya

The human form of life should not be wasted in sense gratification as this is available to the dogs and hogs also. Human life is meant for tapasya or austerity, becuase this will bring about the awakening of real joy and and happiness. And what i stapasya?Tapasya means to act according to the responsible occupation that we may have in our life but to never perform any activity that is harmful for our future spiritual development. According to Rupa Goswami perfection of tapasyais to accept what is favourable for devotional service and reject what is unfavourable for devotional service.

Radhanath Swami says how to control the mind.

The mind wants to go to various places and do whatever it wants. It is its nature and it has been conditioned to do that for many life times. It has to be engaged in Krishna's service. We desperately need devotional service. And when someone gives us devotional service we must not think that, that person is burdening us with some sort of work. Actually we have so many other activities, so many other desires
in our lives, but all of them incriminate us by the laws of karma. But only devotional service can control our mind and keep it above the laws of karma. When someone gives us devotional service then he is giving us the means by which we can purify our heart. They are giving us the only means to withstand and transcend the karmic influences of maya within our mind and within our life. There is no other way to do this except engaging in Krishna's service which begins by hearing His glories and chanting His holy name: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

Radhanath Swami on Attitude of a Genuine Spiritualist

In today's world we are all so inflated by our false egos that we cannot come to terms with the fact that we can do any wrong. We feel that all our actions and opinions are always right and the other person is wrong. When something is right, we take the credit for it, but when something goes wrong, we pass on the blame to someone else. A genuine spiritualist carries the exact opposite attitude.

Spirituality is ever fresh-Radhanath Swami

Spirituality is ever fresh, ever growing and eternal. We can never say that we have learned everything, or heard everything or experienced everything. The more we hear, chant, teach and engage in devotional service, the more enthusiastic we should become – that is the ideal situation. We should all strive to keep this enthusiasm ever growing. It is this enthusiasm that will please the Lord. To keep this enthusiasm going, we should take inspiration from the lives of the previous acharyas, spiritual teachers--how they had dedicated their whole lives to uplift human society!

Who is God?

How does one recognize who God is? Anybody might claim to be God. The Vedic scriptures say that God is that person who has six opulences in full. These six opulences are beauty, fame, knowledge, renunciation, wealth and power. Therefore the Supreme Lord is understood to be Sri Krishna, as he descends and exhibits these six opulences in full.

Radhanath Swami on Love of God

The living entity is the spirit soul, and not the body. The spirit soul provides the spark of consciousness to the body. There are eight million four hundred thousand species of life through which a particular living entity can wander, suffering disease, old age and death. But the living entity does not realize this truth and continues to make futile attempts to enjoy the material energy. The conditioned soul who is caught is this vicious cycle of birth and death can be freed from this entanglement only through love of God.

Radhanath Swami On What Should be Our Greatest Aspiration

Radhanath Swami On What Should be Our Greatest Aspiration

Krishna consciousness means to understand the value of the association of Krishna’s devotees. We have heard of stories wherein a dog becomes dear to a devotee, and the Lord sends the dog to the spiritual world. So somehow or other to strive to become dear to the devotees is the greatest aspiration that we should have in our lives. We should not have the audacity to try to approach Krishna, God, directly; even if we do, Krishna will not care for us. We know the story of Durvas Muni: he approached Krishna directly, but all that the Lord could do is tell him to take shelter of His devotee. As we do that, the Lord will reveal Himself accordingly.

Everything for God

Just make God the goal of everything you do.

God gives us the power to think. So let us think of him—How to serve him? How to please Him?

God has given us the power to see, so let us see those things that increase our love for Him.

God has given us the power to hear, so let us hear those things that give pleasure to Him.

God gives us the power to eat, let us eat prasadam, sanctified food, to show our gratitude to Him.

God has given us everything!