Radhanath Swami on Greatness of Character

Who is a great person? People come to adore great people or envy great people. And people like to become great in their own way somehow or the other, but what is actual greatness? What are the actual qualities of a great soul? Is it greatness to have a lot of money? Some of the most degraded people in the world are billionaires and millionaires. We see very wealthy people are funding terrorism and cruelty to innocents. Is that great? Is greatness fame, being a good singer, being a great dancer or having a beautiful body or being very strong and athletic or being heroic? According to the universal principle of all spiritual paths, one's greatness has to be estimated by one's ability to tolerate provoking situations. It is easy to make a show of being great, but when you are challenged, when provoking situations face you, then is the actual test of the substance of your character.

Radhanath Swami on A Humbling Experience

The great problem we face in life is that we all want to be in control of our destiny, today and tomorrow. But the problem is, no one is in control. There are higher powers, dictating circumstances upon everyone; we have control over our future destiny by our activities today. That is the law of karma. But what is coming upon us is something not always under our control. Ultimately we all are being controlled by time. You loose your beauty, you loose your memory, you loose your physical capacities, does any one want to be old? But can anyone stop the process? It is a humbling experience to live in this world, because we are not the controllers.

Radhanath Swami on Relations with God

The Lord has inconceivable potencies. An ordinary man may deal in one way with one person and in a completely different way with another in order to make profit or maintain a particular friendship. Each personality of every human being has many diversifications. A police officer, when he catches a criminal, is very harsh and very severe. When he comes home to his children, he is very soft, very warm, very loving. And when he comes under the subjugation of his wife, he is like a pet dog! In this way one single man can have many, many different personality faces according to his relationships in this world. God is the supreme personality. And therefore, His inconceivable opulence is that, of all living entities, which are innumerable, He can reciprocate, can relate to each and every one of them uniquely, individually and personally. He does not have the same relationship with any two spirit souls.

Radhanath Swami on Getting Better

When we go to the hospital, as soon as we walk in, we are not free from disease. Usually after we walk in, there is more pain than before we walked in. They may cut us up, stitch us, do so many painful tests and exams. They will give us as many painkillers as we want. There is a lot of pain, many restrictions and many problems. So when we go to a hospital as a patient, expect things to get worse before they get better. Because that is the process of taking out the disease - restrictions of diet, restrictions of movements and medication. You are not even allowed out until they discharge you. Similarly spiritual life is like coming into a hospital for the heart. There are going to be a lot of difficulties that we wouldn’t have to deal with if we just remained in the diseased condition, without trying to get better.