Radhanath Swami on Parents as Leaders

All the religious literatures explain that what the leaders of the society will do, the common man will follow. We are all leaders in our own spheres of life. Mother and father are the leaders of the family. Religious literatures explain that every leader should become a guru. A guru is one who simply preaches the message of God to others. Mother and father should become the guru of the family, they should bring their family together regularly to discuss the topics of God. Parents should train their children in the science of God so that children can understand who they are, what is their relationship with God, what is their relationship with material nature, what should be the duty of every human being, what are the qualities of soul and what should be the goal of their lives. If the children are trained in such an incredible way then these children will not only become the best of human beings but will also become the greatest welfare workers of all humanity.

Radhanath Swami on What is Dharma

Dharma means occupation. Dharma also means the intrinsic nature of a thing or a person. The intrinsic nature of sugar is that it is sweet. The intrinsic nature of chilli is to be hot. The intrinsic nature of water is liquidity. If you put it in an artificial circumstance, it can turn solid ice but as soon as it comes to a natural setting, it immediately melts into liquidity. So the intrinsic nature of every living being is to serve. You cannot live without serving. You are either serving your family, serving your boss, serving your country, serving the government or serving your mind or serving your senses. Everyone is serving. And sanatana means eternal. The eternal nature of every living being is to serve God because we are part and parcel of God. Some are serving His external energy or maya or illusion and some are serving His internal energy in love and devotion. But that is our constitutional nature, to serve God eternally. Those who follow the Vedic culture follow these principles of sanatana dharma.

Radhanath Swami on the Oceanic Happiness of the Soul

The soul in itself is like an ocean of bliss and happiness, an ocean of pleasure. In this world so many pleasures and pains come. Sometime pain, sometime pleasure, sometime honor, sometime dishonor, sometime happiness, sometime distress. These are like rivers entering into the ocean. Do the rivers disturb the ocean? During the dry season, the rivers don’t carry much water, but during the rainy season they pour in billions of liters of water into the ocean every second. But still the ocean is unaffected; it has such depth in itself, that the rivers are very small and insignificant in comparison. The Bhagavad Gita describes that the peace and happiness of a self-realized soul is like an ocean which is unaffected by the rivers of pains and pleasures of this world.

Radhanath Swami on Transcendental Distress

Why would a devotee feel distress? He is transcendental to the modes of material nature. The impersonalist may want to be above all distress, but the higher platform is to be in distress out of mercy and compassion to others. That is more pleasing to God. It is a deeper form of ecstasy than merely experiencing peace because it is based on love, selfless love. There are so few devotees and there are so many billions of suffering, conditioned souls in the entire material creation. Individually cultivating pure love of God does not please the Lord as much as cultivating and distributing that love to others.

Radhanath Swami on Helpless Chanting

The opulences of high birth, beauty, knowledge, fame and strength that are so dear to materialistic people, that they spend their whole life trying to achieve, are the greatest disqualifications for a devotee, because they make one proud or they make one complacent. And then even if he chants the holy names, it is not with sincere feelings. It will just be mechanical. God is the property of those who feel, "I have nothing but You, my Lord. There is nothing else that can protect me. The world is a dreary void without You, my Lord." That is the mood in which we should throw our hands up in surrender and chant the names of God.

Radhanath Swami on Turning to God

The only solution to any real problem is to turn to God. Solutions bereft of God consciousness may provide for the immediate need but generally create a problem more complex than the original. Turning to God means taking shelter with a grateful heart. The tendency of this world is that to take shelter, something has to shake us up. Hence, the wise recommend that we undertake austerities beforehand, before any catastrophy strikes us. Austerity is required to show our sincerity, to control our mind and fix it on our purpose, to show God that we really want to take shelter of Him. Even then, God favors us only when there is devotion in whatever austerities we take up. Our approach when we turn to Him is what really matters.

Radhanath Swami on Extinguishing the Forest Fire

This material world is like a blazing forest fire. When we talk about the material world as a blazing forest fire, it doesn't mean that the whole world is on fire. We talk about the fire within the heart. The fire for honor, the fire for sex life - that's the blazing fire. The spiritual master teaches us how to control the fire. The spiritual master comes with the rain of his instructions and the rain of the divine grace of God to put out these fires. It begins by learning how to lead our lives in a constructive, positive way. Putting off the fire means transforming it into pure spiritual energy by chanting the holy names of God.

Radhanath Swami on Lust, Anger and Greed

Wrath is one of the great enemies that must be controlled somehow or the other. Lust is another great enemy and, when it is unfulfilled, it creates wrath. When there is wrath, there is offence, and when there is offence one falls down into material existence - lower and lower and lower. To control anger is very difficult. Greed for accumulating more and more worldly things, things which we do not really need, will also degrade us. These three - lust, anger and greed - are all interconnected. Just one of these gives rise to the others. These are the three gates that lead to hell. And any sane person must give them up because they lead to the degradation of the soul.