Radhanath Swami on Children of God

The goal in human life is to be in God consciousness, to awaken one's natural devotion to the Lord. In the holy scriptures it is described that if a human dies without realizing God, he is a miserly person who has completely wasted his life. So it is the parents' first and foremost responsibility to try to create an environment that will induce the child to want to know and love God, and at the same time teach wonderful skills that they can use in God consciousness throughout their life. That is the singular exclusive reason for education - to give children tools that they can use in God’s service and express their love throughout their life. So all parents or future parents should take this very seriously. It is your first and foremost responsibility to your children to attract them to God by your personal example, by your words and by what you emphasize in their life. Raising our children should be in such a way that they are naturally attracted to God. Then even little austerities, with God in the center, is fun for children. We should create an environment where children find the greatest happiness in their life in those activities or subject matters that relate to God.

Radhanath Swami on The Greatest Strength on Earth

What is the greatest strength on earth? United we stand, Divided we fall. Our strength is in our unity, not only
as nations, not only as races, not only as families, but even within religion.  The greater the service we can do to society, the larger we expand this principle of compassion. There is nationalism, then there is humanitarianism. These are for all human beings, but they are limited too. The greatest compassion is compassion for every living being, even for the animals, the fish, the birds, the trees and the plants. We are all part of God. We can show our love for God by how we respect, how we serve, how we honor, and how we love each other. The greatest necessity is to create a very, very deep form of real unity and that unity, the unity of inner compassion born of unity between the soul and God, is the greatest strength on Earth.

Radhanath Swami on The Essence of Religion

Each and every one of us within our own hearts has unlimited tremendous spiritual power. True process of religion or yoga is not just to perform some rituals and have some social identity in which you protect yourself from other people with different religious or social identities. The essence of real religion or yoga is to access that incredible spiritual power and to express it in every aspect of our life. Then, with a pure heart, we can overcome so many obstacles that seem so impossible.

Radhanath Swami on The Mirror of the Heart

There is a simple universal principle with which we can eradicate envy within ourselves, envy for God, and envy for all other living beings. It is the principle of ego and envy which is the real cause of all problems. When a mirror is covered with dirt and when we look at the mirror, what do we see? We can see only dirt. The mirror is supposed to reflect us. We must clean that mirror to be able to see ourselves clearly. This mirror represents our heart, which is covered with dirt acquired from millions of years. We have to clean it of the dirt of ego and envy first, only then will it help us to see our own true self, which is eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss. That is the true nature of the heart.

Radhanath Swami on Loving Children

People see the authenticity of any religious movement according to how the older generation can imbibe within the small children the understanding and love for their religion. Consciously or subconsciously the world feels that way. To make thousands and millions of converts are good but that doesn’t impress them. We, as parents, must understand the serious responsibility that we have in inculcating love for God in the hearts of children. If our children do not feel love they will not understand God’s love because the love of the parent is translated to the children as the love of God. When they feel their parents' love, they can actually begin to understand God’s love. And what is love? Love doesn’t mean spoiling a child, love doesn’t mean being nice sentimentally - real love means that we must give the child the best possible that we can in our life, with the goal of awakening their eternal love of God. Then that’s the most important thing that we can give to our children - everything should be in harmony with that.

How devotees should control envious thoughts? -by H.H.Radhanath Swami

Q.Consciousness of a devotee and external behavior, is it related or independent? (This question is related to how a Vaishnava should behave in the mode of goodness so people in general are attracted by those qualities)

A. They are related. According to your consciousness, according to your thoughts and desires that is what will provoke words and actions. Therefore we have to go right to the root of the problem which is our material desires and material attachments and the Holy Name and devotional service goes right to the root of that problem and purifies our heart.

But in the meanwhile while this purification is taking place, on the external level we must be very careful to tolerate any inclination towards offensive activities. If we simultaneously perform the austerity of restraining our mind and senses and at the same time continue with the process of devotional service of chanting and hearing the Holy names and glories of the Lord, very quickly we become purified. If we do not contemplate and keep our mind endeavoring to be fixed on Krishna if we allow our mind to unrestrictedly contemplate the objects of the senses in envious and selfish thoughts then It is just a matter of time until those thoughts force us into offensive words and behavior. Therefore when these thoughts come into our mind we must restrain from giving into them and we must struggle and strain to replace them with holy thoughts. This is tapasya. This is real austerity.

Q&A with H.H.Radhanath Swami

Radhanath Swami on The Transforming Power of Power

There are many educational institutions in the world today and there are many people who are gaining tremendous power, but it is the most educated and powerful people in the world that are causing the problems. It is not the simple field workers that are creating threats of nuclear wars, creating disruptions in the whole economy, by cheating, plundering and greediness. It is not the simple people that are really creating the ecological problems that the world faces today. Power comes through knowledge, ability and influence. When power is used by the wrong hands, it can create greatest problems in the world. When power, and all those things that make power - knowledge, strength, prestige, ability, are used by the right hands, they can create a healing effect to the human society. In today’s world the greatest need is that the people’s hearts are cleansed of the tendencies of greed, lust, envy, anger, pride and illusion. In the world today people require to clean their heart and be instruments of love and compassion, and then our educational systems and scientific research will have a very deep healing affect on the world. It can bring real happiness and prosperity. That is why we pray, that is why we chant the names of God, to invoke the compassionate spirit of love that is dormant within us.