Radhanath Swami on Accepting Austerity

Austerity means to be willing to accept inconvenience for the purification of one’s heart and in the service of God and humanity. Unless one is willing to accept sacrifice or inconvenience, nothing great can be accomplished in life. When it comes to making money to provide for oneself and one's family, one is willing to accept tremendous sacrifice. Just to feed their families and keep them happy, people are willing to do anything. Some people say that spiritual life is very difficult. But life itself is very difficult. The question we have to ask is not whether something is difficult or not, but whether is right or not. If something is true, we should be willing to do anything and give everything for that purpose.

Radhanath Swami on Finding Happiness

The soul is eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss. Because the soul is full of bliss, the soul is constantly looking for unlimited bliss and peace. When the soul is trying to find peace or pleasure through the temporary vehicle of the body that is designed to grow old, get diseased and die, what real peace can we find? What real happiness can we share with another? Some of us may say that death is a long way ahead of us. We are still young, we are still strong, let’s enjoy now. There is nothing to fear. But the way of this world is that everything is uncertain. You can make many guarantees through insurance agencies and other means that everything will be provided so that you are protected. But how much you can protect yourself in this world? By the force of time everything is in the process of destruction. Time is terrorizing everyone’s life.

Radhanath Swami on Worshipping the Deity

The Lord allows Himself to take the form of a deity in which we can touch Him. Just by touching the deity, we can be purified – if it is with proper devotion and service spirit. This is how kind the Lord is to us. A real worshipper of the Lord worries about the deity - he cooks for Him, dresses Him and puts Him to sleep. Does the Lord need someone to dress Him and cook for Him? The Lord never sleeps, but the deity sleeps! A true worshipper will risk his life to protect the deity of the Lord. Does the slayer of mighty demons and the controller of Time itself need our protection? But this is how Bhakti works. God actually takes a position where He is in need, because that sense of need increases our feeling of devotion. The Lord stages certain things in certain ways to have the maximum effect of purifying our hearts and invoking our emotions of love and surrender. The Lord, in His deity form, facilitates this relationship of love.

Radhanath Swami on Milk for The Lord

The Lord takes a subordinate position out of love. He likes taking orders from His own devotee. When Krishna is hungry, He asks Yashoda for milk. Now factually Krishna is the cause of all causes. That means He is the cause of all milk. Every mother’s breast, whether it’s human, or cow or elephant or camel or buffalo, all milk exists only by Krishna’s divine arrangement. He is the cause of all causes. But yet, out of intimacy, out of love, He cries, He is dependent on Mother Yashoda to nourish Him. This is the highest revelation of the Absolute Truth. This is because, beyond even liberation, is the intimate, ecstatic relationships of love between the Lord and His devotees. And this Love is completely transcendental to material conceptions. Without love and devotion, we can never understand why the Lord cries for His mother's milk.