Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Radhanath Swami on Material and Spiritual Fear

We should be anxious not to ever forget God. As long as a devotee is remembering the Lord, he is perfectly situated. His prayer to the Lord is: “My dear Lord, You can take away anything You wish, and You can give anything You wish, but just let me remember You always. My only fear is that I might forget You.” This type of fear always keeps the devotee at the Lord’s lotus feet. On the other hand, material fear is based on attachment to temporary objects of the senses. Until we are thoroughly detached from material life, real transcendental fear will not awaken in our heart. But in our state, in which we have so many fears, we have to learn to fear the right thing. We can’t just extinguish fear, but our fear should be that we might forget the Lord and disappoint Him again.

25 comments:

  1. As long as a devotee always remembers the lotus feet of His beloved Lord, he has nothing to fear in this world or the next.

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  2. Prahlad Maharaj also expresses his fear of material illusory energy. We fall pray to maya when we forget Krsna as Krsna is light and maya is darkness. Thus, indeed, falling victim to maya is a fearful situation. Maya is that which is not - material happiness. Its called so but its not happiness. Due to its temporary nature there is always either hankering or anxiety or lamentation - all fearful situations that cause distress.

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  3. Just how eager GOD is to see His children happy is illustrated here by Radhanath Swami. He says that we should be fearful not to forget GOD and disappoint Him again. Who would not like to surrender to such a loving GOD?

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  4. Wow!! It's really amazing. I never knew that we need to dovetail our sense of fear too in the mood of humble dependence on God. Thank you Radhanath Swami Maharaj for sharing your wonderful & profound realizations.

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  5. Radhanath Swami explains things in the right perspective. We cannot get rid of fear. We have to transform fear from material to spiritual. Beautiful!!!

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  6. What Radhanath Swami explaining is a healthy fear. Rather than fearing for any other thing it is better to fear forgetfulness of God.

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  7. What an amazing instruction from HH Radhanath Swami to transform our material fear to transcendental fear.
    "We can’t just extinguish fear, but our fear should be that we might forget the Lord and disappoint Him again."
    Thank you Radhanath Swami for being such a kind mentor.

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  8. Maya is very strong as Krishna has mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita. Before we know it She can make us forget Krisna. It is very good to be fearful of forgetting Krishna. This fear will keep us focussed on the lotus feet of the Lord.

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  9. We should be anxious not to ever forget God.
    Very nice instruction from Radhanath swami maharaj....also he is emphasizing our defect and what we should do...We can’t just extinguish fear, but our fear should be that we might forget the Lord and disappoint Him again.

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  10. It is only by hearing or reading regularly from personalities like Radhanath Swami can we remain alert and fearful enough of not forgeting our duty towards the Lord.

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  11. Even fear should be used in the service of God

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  12. So many lifetimes have passed, we have been over and over again committing the same mistake of having the wrong fear. When will this fear go, and the real fear dawn in our hearts.

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  13. Always remember god , never forget Him. My chilhood experience : whenever I was alone in dark night , i used to chant Ram,Ram .. and I could immediately feel security.

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  14. I am fearful that i am not having right kind of fear.

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  15. This was the most sought out answer that I needed always dwelling in material fear. Thank you Radhanatha Swami to throwing light of material fearlessness and spiritual fear in my heart.

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  16. I had heard that one can dovetail his lust and anger in Krishna's service. Maharaj is explaining how even fear can be dovetailed by fearing the right thing - fear of forgetting the Lord. I pray that I can replace all my fears by being fearful of forgetting the Lord.

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  17. A devotee can also be in fear for not forgetting him. Nice Explaination by Maharaj.

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  18. When we develope our spiritual inclinations, we have to also learn even the basic issues like what should we REALLY fear, as explained by Radhanath Swami. Otherwise we will always be in the rut of fearing for our bank balance, our physical beauty, our so-called academic prowess........

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  19. Look ahead and trust Krishna!
    Look behind and thank Krishna!
    Look around and see Krishna!
    Look inside and find Krishna!
    Maharaj says,
    Always remember Krishna,Never forget Krishna!

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  20. Very inspiring for me. Radhanath Swami's quotes such verses from bonafide scriptures which test our attachments and place us at the Lotus feet of the Lord.

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  21. My Lord! Let me never forget You! And let me never disappoint You.

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  22. Very nice difference between material and spiritual which Radhanath Swami has given here. We should always remember that if we don't make such difference, we won't be able to understand the hidden instruction which he has given.

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  23. Nice instructive article......

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  24. Wonderful explanation of what is right fear. Fear should be there for every human, but Radhanath Swami Maharaj so nicely explaining here on which the fear should be.

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  25. Very profound and crystal clear explanation by Radhanath Swami, thanks Maharaj

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