Radhanath Swami on The Vicious Cycle

When you commit a sinful activity, then the seed of the reaction gets stored in the heart and it starts to grow. And ultimately, the physical reaction comes upon us. It is unavoidable. It may come in this life, it may come in a future life, but the reaction will come! If you cause any pain to any living entity then that reaction, that pain must come upon you with greater force, you cannot avoid it. It is just a matter of time. But worse than that, not only will the reaction come, but also the inclination to do it again becomes deeper and stronger within the heart. A gross example is, if somebody smokes cigarettes then he can’t stop smoking cigarettes, in fact he gets addicted to it. It is true for all types of material activities - the more we do them, the more we become internally addicted to the tendency to do it. And then the reactions come, and along with the reactions, the inclination grows. It’s a vicious cycle! How to get out of this cycle? When we chant the holy names of the Lord, it cleanses the heart at all different levels - it actually extinguishes the seed of inclination for sinful, materialistic, egoistic, selfish, envious activities.

Radhanath Swami on Getting Closer to God

The holy scriptures teach us that real intelligence is to learn to balance and harmonize our lives so that all our responsibilities are fulfilled in such a way that it pleases God. We should do our job and raise our family in a way that we are pleasing the Lord. That means there must be morality, there must be ethical values in our life and beyond them there must be spiritual vision and devotion for the Lord. And that is awakened by giving quality time on a regular basis to cleansing our heart by associating with saintly people. A saintly person is one who is harmonizing every aspect of life in a spirit of devotion. Such a person believes deeply in spiritual principles and lives by them. If we give quality time for hearing the glories of God in association of saintly persons and sincerely chant His holy names then gradually our heart will be cleansed and we will come closer to Him.

Radhanath Swami on Awakening Love for God

When our consciousness becomes spiritually inspired by God’s name, and gets spiritually connected to the all-attractive Lord of our hearts, then naturally, whatever we do will be motivated with love and devotion. Devotion is the gradual development of the eternal spiritual virtue which gives meaning and fulfillment to our lives. Real fulfillment is in the awakening of our eternal inner love for God. And to give that fulfillment to our loved ones and to the needy people in the world is the greatest service. But we can only give what we have. Thus, if we believe, if we have faith, if we have scientific philosophical conviction or just simple faith, either one, then yes, we will orchestrate our lives in such a way that we actually fulfill our various responsibilities on the path of perfection. And for that purpose, we must have a strong commitment to chanting God’s names and living a life based on religious principles.

Radhanath Swami on Hunger of the Heart

Charity is to help needy people. People need food, they need clothing, they need hospitalization and they need emotional encouragement. But they also need spiritual enlivenment, spiritual education. People’s hearts are starving, and the starvation of the heart causes much more problems than the starvation of the belly. Starvation of the belly can be satisfied with food but it is very difficult to satisfy the hunger of the heart. It creates massive problems and disturbances within the world where we live. Unless we solve the hunger of the heart, people will be selfish, crooked and duplicitous. A saintly person weeps and cries in sorrow to see the poor man loitering in the street without food to eat, but weeps and cries perhaps even more to see the big executives in their offices who are spiritually starving in their hearts. Giving transcendental knowledge and spreading the congregational chanting of the holy names of God is actually the highest quality and more inclusive form of welfare. It satisfies the hunger of the heart. If you change the hearts of the people, if you make greedy, selfish people into compassionate instruments of God’s love, then everyone will be happy and internally satisfied. People will transcend their egoistic materialistic lives and will harmonize their concerns with the goal of spiritual enlightenment.