Radhanath Swami on Time Running Out

As soon as we wake up, we remember everyone and everything we have a relationship with. Similarly, by coming in touch with the Lord through his devotees, we have now woken up from our slumber of ignorance and have been reminded of our relationship with God. In every other life, we had so many relationships; the only one missing was with God. But now, despite getting a human birth, even after being woken up, if we don't genuinely take shelter of God, then we willfully commit suicide. Time is running out; we must take shelter of God - now.

Radhanath Swami on Choosing Our Thoughts

You can conquer the whole world, but if you cannot conquer your mind and senses, you are defeated in life. The scriptures explain that a successful person is one who conquers his mind and senses. For this, you must divert your attention away from thoughts of enjoying sense objects using the free will. Many thoughts and many desires may just awaken from your sub-conscious mind or be stimulated by the external environment around you, but you have the choice of what to contemplate upon.

The idle mind is the devil’s workshop. Unless you fill your mind with higher thoughts, it will certainly contemplate on the seeds of your degradation.

Radhanath Swami on The Monster Striking Back

We should not feed an envious venomous serpent; that will only increase its venom. Due to its natural envy, it will eventually strike us. This is what we do in our lives. We put our precious energy into selfish egoistic activities without serving God. Eventually the monster of our own karma comes back to strike us. We are left wondering why, despite being so nice, bad things are happening to us.

Radhanath Swami on Renunciation

There are two processes - enjoyment and renunciation. Both are artificial. The natural, complete and healthy understanding of the world is to see everything as the divine energy and as a utility for serving the divine with devotion. Rejecting something as material is incomplete renunciation because the existence of a distinction between material and spiritual is our perception. Anything seen in relation to God is spiritual. It is not that the world is an illusion. Our perception of this world as meant for our pleasure is an illusion. When we see everything as the beautiful aspect of God and when we see every situation as an opportunity to express our love for Him then we truly renounce our illusion and make spiritual progress.

Radhanath Swami on Attention

Attention manifests our consciousness. Attentive chanting means to put everything else out of our consciousness, and to use our consciousness to attend to God alone. Thus, attentive chanting of the holy names of God is the most powerful and effective way of surrendering to the Lord; because in doing so, we surrender to him the very essence of our life - our consciousness.

Radhanath Swami on Practicing Philosophy

Putting philosophy into practice, to the best of our abilities – that’s real spiritual life. Some people get so caught up in the mere intellectual aspect of philosophy that they don’t really take any of it seriously. They just want to know more and more, without applying any of it in their lives.

But even if we know only a few fundamental principles of spiritual life, and seriously apply them in our lives, follow them ardently, without hypocrisy or ulterior motives, we will attain spiritual perfection – of this there is no doubt.

Radhanath Swami on The Key to Loving All

Loving the centre of all existence, God, spontaneously enables us to love every living being because every living being is a part of God. When we realize the love for God that is within our own heart then we naturally see everyone as our kith and kin, being parts of God just as every ray emanating from the sun is a part of the sun. The inseparable part of God can be seen in every living being regardless of gender, nationality or caste. Once we understand our own relationship with God, we can see that every living being has similar relationships. This sense of commonality unifies us and there is love and compassion towards every one.