In Search of a Lost Love – Lessons From the Musk Deer
Establishing The Kingdom of Rama Within – Thoughts for Rama Navami
Russian Yoga Journal Asks About Yoga’s Benefits
Gaura Purnima – Kirtan Teachings on the Day of the Appearance of Sri Caitanya
The Power of Intention
New Year’s Address 2012
Following the Great Saints of the Bhakti Tradition
Within Every Heart Dwell Two Dogs
Vrindavan Pilgrimage – We Truly Enter a Holy Place Through Hearing
On Marriage
April 9, 2012
Mother Nature is always speaking. She speaks in a language understood within the peaceful mind of the sincere observer. Leopards, cobras, monkeys, rivers and trees; they all served as my teachers when I lived as a wanderer in the Himalayan foothills. They shared the kind of lessons that elevate the spirit. One particularly illuminating lesson from the forest comes in the form of the Himalayan musk deer. The musk deer is referenced in Sanskrit poetry and philosophy owing to its peculiar behavior. Prized by the perfume industry for its exceptional...
March 31, 2012
On Rama Navami we celebrate the appearance of Lord Rama. And most important for all of us to understand about the appearance of the Lord, is how to cultivate the appearance of the Lord within our own hearts. Until people establish the Kingdom of Ram within, there is no possibility of doing so without. In other words until our hearts are restored to their natural state -full of devotion – there will always be the difficulties of corruption, and quarrel. The Lord descended to this world as Lord Ram to...
March 26, 2012
Radhanath Swami arrived in Moscow on March 21st. The following day he was interviewed for the Russian edition of Yoga Journal magazine. Yoga Journal’s reporter mentioned that often, western people do not know which type of yoga they should practice or whether they will benefit from yoga not only bodily but spiritually as well. Below is his response. “There is a verse in the Bhagavd-gita – “ye yatha mam prapadyante tams tathaiva bhajamy aham“, which means, “as we approach the Lord, the Lord reciprocates accordingly”. So according to what we want we...
March 8, 2012
This evening we, the devotees of the Gaudiya Vaishnava Sampradaya (linage), are celebrating the most sacred and auspicious of all evenings of the year. It is the evening of Gaura Purnima, the night when the Lord incarnated in this world as His most munificent and merciful of all incarnations, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is accepted as the Lord Himself by the followers of the Gaudiya Vaishnava Sampradaya. Many people consider Him simply to be a great saint or a great devotee. But there are many references in sacred texts...
January 21, 2012
Below is an excerpt from a talk Radhanath Swami gave at the Prerna Festival (a monthly gathering of approximately 1000 young men) in December 2011, at the Radha Gopinath Temple in Mumbai. “These days, I think almost everyone is ‘in tension’ (laughter). The only way that individually and collectively we can come out of this tension that we are in, is to understand how to develop good intentions and to apply them in our lives. An intention is the purpose or the attitude that is behind our actions and our...
January 11, 2012
“A new year is a land mark in our lives and a time for reflection on where we have been, where we are and where we want to go. It’s also time to ponder on our failures and mistakes in our spiritual lives. In the path of Bhakti every occasion and every thing is for the purpose of transformation. If the previous year bought sufferings in our lives we can take solace in the fact that all sufferings and punishments in this world are for our healthy rectification. Today we...
November 25, 2011
By the grace of our Srila Prabhupada and those exalted compassionate teachers of our parampara (lineage) the doors have opened for all of us to spend this priceless time together in Sri Vrindavan dham, where the opportunity to access the higest treasure of bhakti is being given to all of us. The ahankara, or false ego, puts us in a state where we want to be important in the eyes of this world. And in that state, if someone is given more importance than ourselves we become envious. And we...
November 19, 2011
I once heard an old analogy from the Native American Indians regarding character. It is said that within every heart dwell two dogs, a bad dog and a good dog. The bad dog represents our debased tendencies of envy, anger, lust, greed, arrogance and illusion. The good dog is our divine nature, represented by forgiveness, compassion, self control, generosity, humility and wisdom. These two dogs are at battle with one another. Which dog will win? The one we choose to feed! Virtue is to keep the bad dog away and...
November 17, 2011
Entrance into a holy place is only really possible when, by the Lord’s mercy, our hearts are opened with faith and devotion. Then we can access and genuinely appreciate the unlimited good fortune that we have. premanjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santah sadaiva hridayeshu vilokayanti yam syamasundaram acintya-guna-svarupam govindam adi-purusham tam aham bhajami “I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is Syamasundara, Krishna Himself with inconceivable innumerable attributes, whom the pure devotees see in their heart of hearts with the eye of devotion tinged with the salve of love.” Sri Brahma Samhita 5.38 The...
November 16, 2011
When I was about eight years old my parents were considering divorce. I remember my mother putting mascara on in front of a mirror and I was sitting on her bed watching her. I thought it was a very strange thing, women putting on mascara, so I was watching. And my mother said to me very seriously, “everyone likes your father and everyone likes me, but we no longer like each other, so we are going to separate”. I cried, it was very painful, just the thought of it. Some...