Radhanath Swami
Radhanath Swami
Radhanath Swami is a guide, community builder, activist, and acclaimed author. He has been a Bhakti Yoga practitioner and spiritual teacher for more than 40 years. He is the inspiration behind ISKCON's free midday meal for 1.2 million school kids across India, and he has been instrumental in founding the Bhaktivedanta Hospital in Mumbai. He works largely from Mumbai in India, and travels extensively throughout Europe and America. In the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, he serves as a member...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionClergyman
Date of Birth7 December 1950
CountryUnited States of America
I we are looking for God or an opportunity to learn and enrich our lives in every situation, we will find that, but if we are looking for how am I enjoying or suffering, we are subject to endless frustration
If there is no enjoyment in this world, there would not be so much suffering. As suffering really is the frustration of our attempts to enjoy.
Do not think that if you surrender to God you will be loser. You will not lose anything except bondage, frustration and suffering. That is all you will lose.
In our conditioned nature we do not understand value of something until we lose it.
The only way we can make this world a better place is to transcend it.
Parallel to our vast strides in technology, there is a dangerous rise in unemployment, foreclosures, and degrading education. Millions of people are stricken with hopelessness and strife. Sadly, in the name of progress we have polluted the air, water, soil and the food we eat.
Humanity evolves when we realise that animals have the same rights to the Earth as we do.
Whether we fear pain and suffering or not, pain and suffering will come to everyone. Why not keep our minds focused on where we want to go?
How can our hearts not break? How can we hold our tears? How can we bear the pain of losing those loving children and their guardians, who were slain in Newtown, Conn.? Why can't we face the reality of our times and restrict deranged people from having these destructive powers?
When spirituality is the basis of your life, it gives you the strength, wisdom and courage to surmount the many storms of life that could destroy a weaker person who doesn't have this foundation.
When people unfortunately use religion to facilitate their envy, arrogance and hate, communalism surfaces.
Religion is meant to teach us true spiritual human character. It is meant for self-transformation. It is meant to transform anxiety into peace, arrogance into humility, envy into compassion, to awaken the pure soul in man and his love for the Source, which is God.
One who loves God sees everything in relation to God. Therefore, their love flows spontaneously toward everyone, at all times, everywhere. They even love those who wish them harm. If you love God, you can't hate anything or anyone. If the love one offers is met with hate, it doesn't die; rather, it manifests in the form.
We have the tendency to judge others by their surface appearance, and to find only their negative qualities. But if we search beneath the surface we discover that a myriad of strains mix together to create a particular person's nature. The faults we perceive are likely to be the effect of circumstances, the psychological response to trauma, abuse, rejection, heartbreak, insecurity, pain, confusion, or disease.