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The Pilgrim's Progress

August 2, 2010 - 1:47am — gauranga kishore

As you can probably see if you're reading this the blog has gone through some big changes over the weekend. I've changed the name, although I couldn't change the URL without starting a whole new blog, which I may do at some point. I started the blog a number of years ago, kind of on a whim, and a lot has changed since then, if I could start over I wouldn't have my name as the website address but at least I wanted to change the tittle.

The tittle The Pilgrim's Progress is the short form of the title of an allegorical Christian work written by Paul Bunyan. It is actually kind of a cool little allegorical story about the spiritual journey as understood from the traditional Christian perspective. If your interested check out the wikipedia entry here.

Srila Prabhupada also uses the term in the third canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam to describe Vidura's pilgrimage to different holy places, that is where I originally came across the phrase and looked it up as I was curious to see what it was a reference to.

Some of the pages are still under construction and I may add a few more as well.

I hope you like the new look and feel. Please let me know if have any suggestions.

Association and the Mind

August 1, 2010 - 2:09am — David Haslan

Association and the mind, who we associate with reflects the state of our mind, who we associate with effects our state of mind, our mind craves attention and causes us so many problems but despite this we continue to listen to it. But in reality we need association, the association of our peers in work, [...]

Japa Workshop From Alachua

August 1, 2010 - 12:24am — RasaRasika108

Download all [File size: 286 MB]

It's a Girl!!!

August 1, 2010 - 12:09am — gauranga kishore

We just found out thursday that we are having a baby daughter. I actually knew the whole time, so for me it was more of a confirmation.

Somehow right from the beginning I was quite certain it was going to be a girl, and then pretty early on I had this incredibly lucid dream, the kind that seems to have more reality than the waking state of consciousness, in the dream this beautiful little child came and kissed me on the nose and I knew that it was my child, and then I thought "I wonder if it is a boy or girl?" I looked down and saw that it was a girl and then I woke up and pretty much knew for sure.

We are planning to name her Rati Keli, that was one of the first names we came up with and after going through lots of different choices that one was the one we both liked the best. The name is taken from the fifth verse of the gurvastakam and refers to the conjugal pastimes of Radha and Krishna.

She is due on October 31st.

Everyone please give your blessings to her and to us in this new phase of our lives.

“Machines” by Michael Donaghy

July 31, 2010 - 5:23pm — Madhava Gosh

Dearest, note how these two are alike:
This harpsicord pavane by Purcell
And the racer’s twelve-speed bike.

The machinery of grace is always simple.
This chrome trapezoid, one wheel connected
To another of concentric gears,
Which Ptolemy dreamt of and Schwinn perfected,
Is gone. The cyclist, not the cycle, steers.
And in the playing, Purcell’s chords are played away.

So this talk, or touch if I were there,
Should work its effortless gadgetry of love,
Like Dante’s heaven, and melt into the air.

If it doesn’t, of course, I’ve fallen. So much is chance,
So much agility, desire, and feverish care,
As bicyclists and harpsicordists prove

Who only by moving can balance,
Only by balancing move.

Filed under: Poetry

Krishna’s Mercy and loneliness

July 31, 2010 - 2:26am — David Haslan

The other day I was repairing the roof of the old tulasi house at the Manor and heard my phone go being unable to answer it I left it to go onto answer phone; however when I was able to see who it was there was a pleasant surprise it was HH Mahavishnu Swami so [...]

The Power Of The Hare Krsna Mantra

July 30, 2010 - 11:06pm — RasaRasika108

Everyone of you should be thoroughly convinced of the power of the Hare Krsna mantra to protect you in all circumstances and chant accordingly at all times without offense. Then advancement will be swift and you will gradually come to see everything clearly so that you may act for the pleasure of the Lord without uncertainty. When one is spontaneously engaged in this way, always in the service of the Lord and anxious to avoid all mundane activities, he is actually experiencing the taste of bliss in Krsna consciousness.

From a letter to Damodara - January 10, 1971

On The Road Again

July 30, 2010 - 7:10pm — Madhava Gosh

I am in Chicago staying at my Aunt Ruth’s on the way to the 2010 National Kidney Foundation Transplant Games in Madison Wisconsin that start this weekend.

I was really busy tying up loose ends before I left and doing conditioning work ergo no posting.

One of my events will be a 20k (12 mile) bike race. I have done several 10 mile practice runs so I feel confident I will be able to do the 12 miles though a collapse may follow it. The first time I managed 10 miles the next day I spent the whole day languishing on a couch unable to perform even clerical tasks, but earlier this week I did 10 miles on back to back days and still was able to do some packing on the second day so I have improved quite a bit.

I am counting on race day adrenalin to push me the extra 2 miles and am allowing for a large chunk of time for recovery.

This is a long ways from when I bicycled 2000 miles (3300 k) from Grand Forks, North Dakota to Daytona Beach, Florida. Then I would  cover 15 miles in an hour, take a short break , then do it again many times a day, then get up and do it all over again the next day, day after day. 

Just see the effects of old age and disease. :-)

I also signed up for a 5k which is Saturday, the 20k bike race is Sunday, then Monday an 800 meter run (1/2 mile) and softball throw.

Yesterday Tulasi and I went to a nearby park, him on a borrowed bike, with two of my aunt’s gandsons, ages 11 and 12. We did an estimated 9 miles but broken up into two chunks with a rest in between.

During the rest, I got a tutorial on how to throw a softball. Even though I  played baseball as a youth and could make a reasonable attempt at throwing, I got some good pointers from these currently active ball players and added 15 meters to my throw by the end of the session.

Today we are going to watch the boys play a water polo game then hit the road to Madison so I can get registered. My aunt  is also going to come to Madison and do the 5K. My sister Laura is coming down from North Dakota and doing the 5K as well and they are both staying on for a couple of days so we will get a chance for a nice visit.

Tulasi brought his laptop so hopefully I will get some internet access in Madison and be able to do some posting from there.

Filed under: Liver Transplant, Sports

Is A blessed State

July 30, 2010 - 7:45am — RasaRasika108

They were hampered by the pain and by a little inattention, but I kept mainly in the groove and did my sacred duty. Chanting early in the morning is a blessed state, and I don’t like to sacrifice it for anything.

From Bhajan Kutir #24

The Wisdom of Imperfection

July 29, 2010 - 9:50am — gauranga kishore

One of the benefits of being married was getting to double the size of my library. One of the books Lacie had was called The Wisdom of Imperfection by Rob Preece. I didn't read the whole thing but I thought this passage was very accurate and it is something any spiritual organization would do well to keep in mind.

"It is evident from my work as a psychotherapist that these spiritual solutions do not always address the root cause. Many people on the spiritual path have more of a problem with their basic identity in the world than they do with their relationship to the divine. Likewise, spiritual organizations often attract distressed people seeking spiritual solutions that do not necessarily address their core suffering. It can take a sophisticated insight to understand the nature of our emotional wounding and the patterns and defenses that crystallize around it. Perhaps, therefore, it is unwise to assume that a spiritual practice will automatically resolve these deep psychological issues"

We often hear that Krishna consciousness is the solution to all our problems, which it is ultimately on a philosophical level, but this is true on a philosophical level, not necessarily on the practical level. While existing in the material world we have to do the needful to take care of our physical and mental bodies, while cultivating Krishna consciousness. Krishna consciousness doesn't automatically replace all these other needs because we have them as long as we have material bodies and dealing with them is often times a pre-requisite for performing devotional service. Krishna consciousness can only be executed from the liberated platform.

Practically speaking we have seen that devotees haven't fared well trying to ignore psychological issues, they usually end up hampering a persons progress in spiritual life, in the similar way that ignoring a physical illness

We shouldn't expect Krishna consciousness to cure a persons mental diseases just as we shouldn't expect Krishna consciousness to cure cure cancer, diabetes or any other physical ailments, yet as the author points out these are oftentimes the reason why a person takes to a spiritual path.

It is an interesting paradox. Many take to a spiritual path to not have to deal with certain painful emotions but we find that we can't really make progress until we do.

Of course Krishna consciousness is the ultimate solution and to loss sight of that and chase other solutions to the myriad of problems we face is pointless because even if we solve them all we still lose in the end. Krishna consciousness is the solution but Krishna consciousness doesn't replace all other social, political, economic, or psychological solutions, it is rather the underlying thread which ties them all together, it encompasses all of them in a way that leads one towards the ultimate solution.

Should Be Done Early In The Morning

July 29, 2010 - 2:34am — RasaRasika108

Chanting japa should be done early in the morning with full concentration preferably during the Brahma Muhurta time. Concentrate fully on the sound vibration of the mantra, pronouncing each name distinctly and gradually your speed in chanting will increase naturally. Do not worry so much about chanting fast, most important is the hearing.

Letter to Radhaballabah das - 6 January, 1972

Janardana's Blissful Kirtana

July 28, 2010 - 3:11pm — ekendra

If 10,000 suns were to rise simultaneously in your heart, I reckon it might sound something like this:

Janardan Kewin - Hare Krishna Maha Mantra by go-run-ga

These recordings are from the 12 hour Kirtan hosted by ISKCON New Govardhana, Australia on the 25th of July 2010, organized by Krishapada Dasa and Sitapati Dasa from Kirtana Australia kirtanaustralia.com. Recordings by Ekendra Dasa (go-run-ga productions).

Check out my Facebook page for more kirtans. I'll upload them as I finish editing.

Amala Kirtan at Sydney's Harmony Centre

July 28, 2010 - 11:23am — sita-pati

Good Japa Produces More Good Japa

July 28, 2010 - 4:43am — RasaRasika108

I was chanting today and had this realisation about good chanting and how it produces more good Japa. Our association with the Lord is achieved through good quality Japa and it's the way we feel the Lord in the morning.
Please chant with great concentration and feel the Lord each day.

Japa Poem

July 27, 2010 - 3:13am — RasaRasika108


Starting a little
late and sleepy,
your prayers move slowly
today. You will have
to catch up later,
but it is no calamity.
Days like this are
less than enthusiastic and
cause some anxiety,
but you have to compose
yourself and do them
later in a good frame
of mind. Tell your self
nothing is lost, and
you will meet
your quota down
the road in the
later morning.

From Bhajan Kutir #20

Lessons from the Road

July 27, 2010 - 2:38am — sita-pati

I have a bunch of realisations from this tour, as well as my world tour that immediately proceeded it. Hopefully I'll get some time to write them down in the next few weeks.

Right now, though, I'd just like to say that the principle realisation from the tour with Amala Kirtan is that ability, or even lack of ability, is secondary to quality as a human being. That was the lesson that I learned from Amala Kirtan.

Radhanath Swami Interview with Joshua Greene

July 26, 2010 - 8:27pm — gauranga kishore

Q: What motivated you to write this memoir?

Radhanath Swami: For many years friends and well-wishers asked me to write this memoir because they heard me tell stories from time to time. But I always resisted because I felt it would be an act of arrogance to write a story about myself. But then something happened that changed my mind.
My very dear friend Bhakti Tirtha was brought up in the ghettos of Cleveland in the ‘50s and ‘60s and rose up to be a Princeton graduate and religious leader of the Bhakti movement and traveled around the world. Such people as Muhammed Ali, Nelson Mandela, Alice Coltrane were taking guidance from him. He wrote many books. He called me to his bedside in Pennsylvania in the last stages of cancer. I went just to offer my love and respect to him. At that time he said something that really changed my life. He said, “I want to die in your arms. Please stay with me.”

Radhanath Swami hugging Bhakti Tirtha Swami

I spent the next eight weeks at his side, discussing spiritual inspirational subjects. And one day he looked at me with very deep concern in his eyes. He took my hand and said, “Why are you hesitating to write this memoir that everyone has asked for?” I expressed my heart. “Is it not an act of arrogance to write about myself?” He said, “This is not your story. This is the story of a young man who was called to try to find the same truths that everyone is searching for in this world. If your story can help other people on their spiritual path, then it would be arrogance not to write it.” Then he took my hand and said, “Please promise me, on my deathbed, that you will write this book.”
Just a few days later, surrounded by hundreds of loving well-wishers and followers, His Holiness Bhakti Tirtha passed away from this world. In honor of his love and friendship I have written this book, “The Journey Home.”

Q: What is it that you would like people to take away from reading your memoir?

Radhanath Swami: I hope that when people read this book that they may be inspired to seek deeper into the experiences of life that really have value. So often we get caught up with superficialities that our life loses deep and fulfilling meaning. But to find meaning in our life, a life that helps us to develop character, meaning, and ultimately love for God—if in some small way “The Journey Home” can help anyone from any religion or background to ask the questions, “What is the most meaningful purpose of life?” then I’ll be satisfied that my service has some merit.

Q: Why did you take such a dangerous journey to India when you were only seventeen?

Radhanath Swami: I was raised in the 1960s in America, in a time of much social and ideological rebellion. At that time there were serious questions in my heart that I felt needed to be addressed. Why is there hatred, cruelty, war? Why so much selfishness and greed? There must be a deeper, higher purpose in life. In the beginning through political reform I participated in the civil rights movement of Dr. Martin Luther King and in demonstrations against the Vietnam War. I entered into the counter-culture of the ‘60s, but in my own evolution of consciousness I came to the conclusion that real solutions have to be found within oneself.
If we don’t transform our own values, then we can’t really do anything substantial in this world. So myself and my friend Gary traveled to different parts of the world to study different points of view and different types of life. Gradually there was a calling in my heart that led me deeper into a spiritual search, until on an island in Greece on a mountaintop I was praying and meditating and I heard a voice that changed the entire course of my life.
It said, “Go to India.” I left my friend Gary, I left my comfortable cave and began to hitchhike from Greece to India. I had no money. That calling, even though I knew it was going to put me into hardships and risks, was so loud there was nothing that could stop me from following that call.
I knew that it would break my parents’ heart that I wasn’t going to come home from the two months of my Europe vacation. But I felt it was really something I had to do in life. Now, when a person really has nothing and puts oneself in mysterious places, it is unbelievable what can happen. In my journey across the Middle East and throughout India I was putting my life in the hands of God. Many dangers, many threats to my life, diseases, and many of the most incredible mystical moments as well.
I was just trying to follow my call. I felt like a leaf floating in the waves in the current of destiny. Wherever it led me, I accepted. And beautiful things can be discovered in life when we let go of our own ego. I think it is a truth of life that when a person really sincerely focuses on a goal, with an open heart, then magical things take place.
I believe that magic is the grace of God, who can empower, perfect and nourish us to overcome all obstacles and find a great treasure within our own hearts. And when we find that treasure in our own hearts, then we have something very valuable and very beautiful to share with others.

Q: The Sixties were an exciting era. What was it like traveling across Europe then?

Radhanath Swami: Gary and I departed from America by taking a flight on Icelandic Airlines. If I remember it was about $65. We flew to Iceland then to Luxembourg. We had a friend Frank who was our beneficiary. He had money, we had no money. He promised to support us through our journey. But the first day in Luxembourg he was robbed and that very day he went back to America. So Gary and I were on our own to learn to live in foreign countries.
Our only way for survival was to make friends with people and gain their trust and try to give our affection and friendship. Often in return we received their friendship and affection, and that was all we needed. At one time we had no money and wanted to go to Crete from Athens. We gave blood in a blood bank in Athens. In those days it was extremely painful. So in the blood bank we were holding our arms waiting for our payment and we noticed there was a guitar player from France and a violin player from Switzerland, and I played the harmonica.
So we decided to form a band. And we went out into the streets. Gary was our percussion by shaking a hat with some coins in it. We became quite popular on the streets of Athens, Greece—except the police did not enjoy our performance. They brought us to the police station and confiscated whatever they could find and told us to never do it again. At that time with whatever little we did hide from the police we took a little boat to the island of Crete. And that’s where the calling to travel to India came into my life.

Q: “The Journey Home” reveals some terrifying moments in that overland travel to India. Why do you think you had to go through so many obstacles on your path to God?

Radhanath Swami: Obstacles are great stepping stones, to prepare us and purify us to make progress toward our goal. This holds especially true in spiritual life. But when obstacles come, especially those that are beyond our control, it helps us to deeply take shelter of a power and a grace beyond our own. Otherwise, the tendency is to become very lukewarm in our spiritual life.
Difficulties, obstacles provide us an opportunity to either give up, find some other alternative, or to go very, very deep, to really take shelter of God on our spiritual paths. Also, those difficulties help us to appreciate the value of what we are striving for on the path of grace, the path of enlightenment.

Q: Were you unhappy with being raised Jewish? Why did you decide to adapt to what most people would call Hinduism?

Radhanath Swami: At that time in my life I had a burning desire to understand truth, to understand who I am, and to understand God. If we look for a purpose, we find a purpose even in the most unlikely places. At that time in my life, I really wanted to know who I was. I wanted to find answers to questions that were so prominent throughout the society. I wanted to know God, to understand how I could love God, how I could become an instrument of God’s compassion in my own life.
That desire burned in me so intensely that it literally evaporated all of my other ideas about what I wanted to do in my life, and it set my feet on that path. My realization at that time was: “There must be an essence within every great religion or spiritual path that has come.” I took note of so much irreligion in the name of religion: hatred on a path that is meant to cultivate love; bigotry and discrimination on paths that are meant to make us forgiving and compassionate. I saw hypocrisy and contradictions, but I had a deep faith that in the original teachings of all these great traditions there was the same essence, the same ultimate goal.
Not to be a Hindu or a Muslim or a Christian or a Jew or a Jain or a Parsi, but to love God and to be an instrument of that love in our life—and to have good character. And the more I saw the problems, the more I really, really wanted to find the essence. So I studied Christianity, I studied Judaism and later in the Middle East I was studying Islam, and I was studying different branches of Buddhism and Hinduism. I wanted to find that essence.
So I began to study various spiritual traditions, and I found universal truths there. And for me it wasn’t a matter of converting from one religion to another. For me it was a matter of becoming religious—of becoming actually spiritual. I wasn’t looking to become this religion or that religion. I was looking to love God and to find a path that would inspire me to love God. When I discovered this path of Bhakti, I found something that philosophically was inclusive, to encompass all the great spiritual teachings and paths that I had encountered in my search.

Q: What is Bhakti and what is that you found in Bhakti?

Radhanath Swami: I found a beautiful, personal conception of God that charmed my heart. I wanted to give my life that. By giving my life to that I felt I was giving my life to the essence of every great spiritual path. Bhakti means the path of unconditional love and devotion to God and to all living beings. Because all living beings are part of God. In the Bible it is said that the first and great commandment is to love God with all your heart and mind and soul. And if we do that, if we understand our personal relationship with the Supreme Divinity and the sweetness and beauty of God, then naturally we will love our neighbor as ourselves because we will see the presence of God in every living being. Every living being is a child of God.
And we will see everyone as our neighbor. You cannot love God and not love every living being. It is the essence of Hindu, of Islam, of Judaism, of Christianity. It is the essence of Buddhism, of all great spiritual paths, according to my discovery.

Q: When you first went to India, the police wouldn’t let you into the country. Then recently you were received by the President. Can you tell us about that and what your thoughts were at that moment?

Radhanath Swami: Earlier this year in January 2010, I was invited to meet with the President of India Pratibha Patel, and as I was being escorted by top security officials through the beautiful, ornate corridors of the presidential palace, I began to reflect about the first day I came to the border of India. I was all alone in December 1970. I had traveled overland—actually I hitchhiked through London, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. It took about six months. I had practically no money at all—in the end, nothing. And many near death experiences, diseases—but finally the land of my dream, India, was steps away. I was dreaming of the sages and the yogis and the lamas in the holy places that I was about to see.
I gave my passport to the immigration agent, and she asked how much money I had. I only had a few cents. She rejected my entry. “We have enough beggars in India. Go back to where you came. You are denied.” I pleaded, I begged, but she became more adamant and more angry as I presented my desperation. I pleaded and I pleaded and I pleaded, and she sent me away, sometimes at the gunpoint of her security officers.
I sat under a little tree praying to God, feeling so desperate. I couldn’t go back into Pakistan because my visa was only one entry. I couldn’t get into India. I was in this no-man’s land between two enemy nations. For six hours I sat under a tree and again and again pleaded with the officer and again and again I was rejected.
Finally, around sunset the immigration agents changed, and a Sikh gentleman took charge. I approached him and pleaded with him, but he said “I have already been warned that you are a nuisance. Go back—or show me two hundred dollars minimum.” I began to cry. Really I was crying. I was desperate. “I traveled six months to get here. I’m covered with dust. I have nothing. But I have a longing to meet your people, to learn about your culture, your teachings and the heritage of your country. Please, just give me a chance and I promise some day I will try to do something good for your people.”
He looked at me in the eyes and said, “Sometimes a man must follow his heart. I’ve been ordered not to let you in, but I’m going to give you the chance you are praying for.” And he stamped my passport. And then he put his hand on my head and said, “Welcome to India.”
I walked, and I was in this very isolated countryside. The sun had set and it had become dark. I was walking through some agricultural fields. I didn’t know anyone in India. I had no money. I didn’t know where to go. I didn’t know anything. But I felt so at home and so grateful. These thoughts were going through my mind as I was walking through the presidential corridors, thinking “What a change. I was rejected at gunpoint by the security guards at the border of India. Now it is exactly forty years later, and I’m being escorted to see the president by her top security officials.”
When I arrived in the president’s office, Her Excellency Mrs Patel was standing with her hands folded to greet me and with a basket of fruit. When I told this story to my father he said, “This is really a story of rags to riches.” But I was thinking, actually I’m a Swami so I still wearing something that is really like rags. And I still have no property, no bank account, not a penny to my name. So I have no riches. But then I thought deeper, that one grain of spiritual truth has greater value than all the things in the universal creation.

Q: So you made good on that promise you made to the border guard?

Radhanath Swami: Over the years I have tried to honor that promise to the immigration agent to do good to the people of India. We started some ashrams, some temples. At this time with the encouragement of the Indian government our ashram is feeding some 260,000 children in the slum schools every day. We have a hospital. We do a lot of charitable eye camps and other such medical work. We have an orphanage and we teach value education in various public schools. And we have many spiritual programs to uplift people’s consciousness and teach them spiritual values and help them on the path to love of God. I’m trying, but I do not feel I could ever come close to repaying the great gifts my guru and the saintly people of India have given to me.

Q: And what is that you learned when you finally got to travel through India?

Radhanath Swami: My spiritual teacher Srila Prabhupada and many of the great teachers throughout history have taught us that pure love of God and genuine compassion for all living beings is dormant within the heart of all of us. It is our spiritual essence. The body and the mind are temporary, they are always changing. But the atma, the soul, is eternal. It is sat-chit-ananda, full of knowledge and full of bliss. And that bliss is the bliss of feeling the inconceivable, unlimited love of God and reciprocating by offering our love to God.
That love for God, that compassion for all living beings is like a seed within our heart. And every great spiritual process is to cultivate and water that seed. Activities that create weeds around that seed, activities that impede the growth of that seed, we are taught to avoid as far as possible. That meaning immorality, arrogance, violence to other living beings, unnecessary greed, illicit activities that are harmful to ourselves and others—if we avoid those things, by experience higher pleasures, spiritual pleasures that invigorate our minds and enlighten our souls, then that seed grows into a beautiful flower: the flower of pure spiritual love, of Bhakti. And that is the fulfillment and pleasure that every living being is looking for.
The most fundamental need of every living being is to love and be loved. And that need finds its perfection in the love between God and ourselves and in the love between the pure spirit in others and ourselves. And really that is the greatest need in the whole world.

Q: This incredible adventure must have taken a toll on your parents.

Radhanath Swami: When my father was expecting me back to return to college in September 1970, and then in October he got a letter from Iran that I was hitchhiking to India in search of enlightenment, my mother and my father’s hearts were broken. By the way, there was no return address on the envelope. They were helpless in communicating their feelings to me. But as I traveled through the Middle East and then living as a sadhu in the Himalayan Mountains of India, living on riverbanks and in caves and jungles, I really had no address where they could write back. A long time passed. Every now and then I sent them letters just to assure them I was alive and remembering them. It hurt me to hurt them. But I really did believe that if I dedicated myself to a spiritual cause, to the cause of God, then everything would be compensated in due course of time.
And by God’s grace it was. Gradually as my mother and father recognized what I believed and was trying to accomplish in my life, they became not only happy but proud. They came to India three times and were crying in joy every day. And today many of my father’s best friends are devotees from India and the West. And when my mother passed away, my whole family decided “Let us cremate her and give her ashes.” They gave them to me to bring to India because they felt she was so proud and happy over what I was doing in India that that’s where she’d want her ashes to be spread.

Q: It’s nice to know that you can be a swami and also remain the son of your parents.

Radhanath Swami: That feeling in my heart was extremely fulfilling, that my parents and my brothers who loved me so much could feel so nice about my dedication to Bhakti or God. My mother and father had to adjust to me coming home an ascetic monk from a tradition they had no conception of—and at the same time I had to open my heart to their position, which was very, very different, apparently very materialistic, or so I was thinking. But because there was affection they really tried to understand me and adjust. And I really tried to understand them and adjust. And something wonderful happened. I realized that for any relationship to develop in this world there must be forgiveness, there must be patience and tolerance, there must be a certain selflessness of adjusting to show respect and honor to each other.
And we always showed respect and honor to each other, despite our differences and in due course of time we both deeply appreciated and loved each other on a level higher than ever before. And in doing so, I didn’t have to compromise my beliefs or values of monastic life. No matter how spiritual we are, we should never give up our humanness, our kindness or compassion or our appreciation for what others have done for us or are doing for us.

Q: What happened to your friend Gary? You and he started out together on this spiritual journey.

Radhanath Swami: Gary and I set out on this journey with a common goal: to find a lifestyle we could live that would make the most compassionate difference in the world. And the book “Journey Home” explains our relationship. But there was a gap of about 18 years when we never saw each other. And when we did meet in a most miraculous way, not planned by either of us, I was a swami living in India teaching people about spiritual values, and he was a bodybuilder who was a physical trainer in a gym in Malibu California. When we first met we had apprehensions: What do we have in common now?
But as we sat and discussed our lives and all the different changes and turns that it took, we realized that that same essential spirit was there in both of us, and we remained through all these changes best of friends.
One day Gary said to me, “Swami, how can we possibly still be friends? My life is dedicated to teaching people that if they have strong and beautiful bodies they will be happy, and your life is dedicated to teaching people they are not the body, they are eternal souls and should seek the happiness beyond physical pleasure, of the love of the soul.” I remember smiling at Gary and I said to him, “My guru Srila Prabhupada taught that the body is a temple of God. So you teach people how to take nice care of their temple, to keep it healthy and clean, and I’ll teach them what to do inside the temple. In this way we can be a team.” And since then we’ve been a team.
Whenever I’m in Malibu I stay with him, and he comes to India every year and stays with me.

Q: What does the title “Journey Home” mean? Where is home?

Radhanath Swami: The title “Journey Home” came from these thoughts: Home is where we find comfort, relief from the troubles of the world. Home is where we find shelter and family and relationships and love. We all need home. The home that we’re all looking for is the home within our heart. When we find peace, love and fulfillment within our own hearts, then we can feel home in any situation, anywhere. And if we do not find that within our own hearts, we can’t really experience home anywhere within this world.
When we find God within our heart and we find home in that love, then we can see that every living being is part of our family and we’re always home. The spiritual path is our journey home.

Q: Why do so many people seem to regard religion as the enemy of progressive human culture?

Radhanath Swami: There is a Sanskrit word saragrahi, which means one who seeks the essence in every situation. If we have an honest and sincere desire to grow in our character, in our devotion, our enlightenment, then we will always find the way to do so.
For those teachers who are honest and pure and true in what they teach and how they live, we can gain great inspiration and great knowledge and wisdom. But when we see there is hypocrisy or contradiction between what a person teaches and the real purpose of the message, there is also much to learn from that: to learn what we should be on guard against, to see how even religious leaders fall into pitfalls, the same essential as for all of us in different ways, and how we should be on guard and careful to protect ourselves from those pitfalls. We can learn and acquire great wisdom from properly applying spiritual truths to the mistakes of others, both today and throughout history. And those lessons are essential.

Q: You met a number of famous spiritual leaders on your travels. Who were they, and are there impressions that have stayed with you from those meetings?

Radhanath Swami: I was 19 years old when I arrived at the border of India, and during those years of traveling the Himalayas and the plains of the subcontinent, I met with the Dalai Lama of Tibet and was deeply nourished by his compassion for his people, his humor and his dedication to his cause even in the face at that time of death threats. And I found the obstacles that came before him only enriched his power to be an instrument of his mission in this world because he never gave up. Mother Theresa in the ghettos of Calcutta—how she was seeing her beloved Jesus even in the poorest and most downtrodden of people and giving her life and soul to uplifting them physically, emotionally and spiritually. Anandamayi Ma was like a mother to me. Neem Keroli Baba, his joyfulness, his enthusiasm to give God’s love and to serve others and to inspire that in his followers through the chanting of God’s names and various other outreach activities…
Swami Rama, Swami Muktananda, J. Krishnamurti, Buddhist lamas, Satyanarayan Goenka-ji of Vipassana meditation teaching, and many, many more, some famous, some unknown. I met with Swami Satchidananda and BKS Iyengar, Muslim saints, Christian saints, Jewish enlightened leaders. And I felt they had all given me such precious gifts. And in Vrindavan, the holy place of devotion to Lord Krishna, I met His Divine Srila Prabhupada. And in him I found a connection and an inspiration. In his teachings I found a wisdom that included all that I had learned from these other teachers.

Q: What was it particularly about Prabhupada that convinced you this person would be your teacher?

Radhanath Swami: His intoxicated love for the sweetness and the beauty of God, and most of all his deep compassion for all living beings. In my own life, his presence invoked a desire to unconditionally to be an instrument of God’s compassion in my life. So I accepted his path, the path of devotion to Krishna. The path of Bhakti. And I accepted him as my guru, my spiritual teacher. I am still trying to share the precious gifts that he gave me and all of these other great saints, what they have given me, through the Journey Home book and any other way I can in my life.

Q: Why Krishna? Doesn’t giving oneself to a particular deity mean excluding other religions or forms of worship?

Radhanath Swami: In the Bhagavad Gita it is said yada-yada hy dharmasya-glanir bhavati bharata abhytanam adharmasya tadatmanam srijyami aham. The Absolute Truth or God descends into this world in many ways and forms throughout the history of the universes. And it is not that one is the true God and one is not the true God. There is one true God—but that one true God can manifest in many ways within this world. So according to the Vedic scriptures—Bhagavad Gita, Srimad Bhagavatam—Krishna means “the all-attractive one.”
One time I met a preacher of another religion who condemned me to go to hell forever because I believed in a false God. I said, “How do you I believe in a false God?” He said, “Because Krishna is a false God.” I asked him, “Do you know what Krishna means?” He said, “No.” I said, “Let me ask you a question. Is your God all-beautiful?” He said yes. “Does your God have infinite knowledge and strength? Is he the proprietor of everything that exists? Is he the all-attractive object of everyone’s love? ” He said yes. “Well, Krishna means the all-attractive object of everyone’s love. So if yes, then your God is Krishna too. Krishna is not a sectarian name. God has eternal form: he is simultaneously all-pervading and also has divine form. According to the Vedas Krishna is the eternal form of God, who reciprocates our love in a personal way. If we love Krishna or if we really love whatever revelation of God we have in our religion, then we will appreciate and love all the other manifestations God has presented to other people.

Q: Over the years, you and your supporters have initiated some highly regarded community service projects in India. How did they come about?

Radhanath Swami: We were teaching courses in value education in the schools in Mumbai, and on one occasion an official for the government approached us and appealed that we feed the children in the slum schools. We found this was one of the greatest problems in all of India, that children due to a lack of nourishment, a lack of food, were really hungry. In the slum schools because of their hunger they couldn’t concentrate. So rather than sit in school suffering, they would rather drop out and become beggars. But in much of Mumbai, the mafia has turfs and if you want to be a beggar anywhere, it is likely you will have to work under a mafia boss…
…where they take much of anything you get, and in many ways you come under their control. Otherwise, many of the young people will go to work as child labor, where they are treated cruelly. But if they had the food and nourishment, they would stay in school and get proper education and find a real career and purpose for life.
So we began in a small way, cooking very nutritious, balanced and tasty meals for the children in some ghetto schools. The word spreads and soon the principals and teachers from other schools were asking please would you feed our children too. And today we’re feeding about 260,000 children in the slum schools every day.
And actually it is an honor that we get to serve. It is not that we are giving to them, but we are being allowed to be instruments of God grace to help his children. And it is a beautiful experience, more beautiful than any amount of profits we could gain for ourselves. The pleasure of selfless giving is so much deeper and more fulfilling than just getting something for ourselves.

Q: You also run a highly acclaimed hospital in Mumbai. How did that come about?

Radhanath Swami: We were giving lectures in some of the medical colleges in Bombay and quite a few of the medical students became followers of our Bhakti path and became members of our congregation. Gradually we encouraged them to get their specialty degrees and they had their practices, young women and young men. And the idea came, why not work together and have our own hospital. So Bhaktivedanta hospital, which is in memory of our guru A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who taught us the spirit of compassion and love for God, we started the hospital and the purpose of the hospital is to heal the body, the mind, and the soul.
The balance of the body, mind and soul is what is required for real spiritual health. For holistic health it is required that we give health to the body, the mind and the soul. And for this purpose we started Bhaktivedanta hospital, named after our beloved guru ACBSP, who taught us to be instruments of compassion for the body, mind and soul.
The body through medicine, exercise—for that purpose we have allopathic, Ayurveda, naturopathic, and other various alternative medicines all working together. For the mind we have a spiritual care department which comes to encourage people, to give appreciation to people. Kindness and hospitality, appreciation and encouragement inspire the mind. And we also, according to a person’s affiliation, we try to elevate people with universal spiritual principles. In this way we find people can be really happy and really healthy. So it is a hospital for the body, mind and soul.
We do many charities, especially we have regular cataract eye camps because one of the causes of blindness in India is untreated cataracts. Poor people simply cannot afford it. So we do one eye camp every year about 700 cataract surgeries and all together several thousand every year. Also, the Bhaktivedanta Hospital does free treatment and gives free medical care in the slum schools in the area of the hospital. And a certain number of beds in the hospital are for charity, for people who can’t afford treatment.

Q: Can you describe some examples of emergency relief that the hospital has provided?

Radhanath Swami: Bhaktivedanta Hospital has helped with emergency problems. On several occasions when there were earthquakes and hundreds of people killed and thousands of people injured, they went in vans and spent sometimes weeks and weeks helping the people there. During some terrorist attacks in Bombay our hospital, all the halls, the rooms, the lobbies, were just filled with wounded people. Many people from our congregation volunteered to help the doctors and nurses deal with the situation.
During the tsunami some years ago also, Bhaktivedanta Hospital was there to help those people both physically emotionally and spiritually. And what we found is what people appreciated the most was the spiritual encouragement and wisdom they were receiving on how to deal with the losses of loved ones and with the injuries of their bodies.
Our spiritual care reaches out not only to the patients but to the relatives and friends of the patients who are so deeply affected by the trauma and tragedies that have come into their lives. And we have found that it had a great help physically and emotionally and spiritually to these people as well.
We have a hospice care hospital in Vrindaban. We are starting that hospice to help people to pass out of this world and into the next with dignity and love and care and a lot of spiritual and emotional support.

Q: You run an orphanage. How did that get started?

Radhanath Swami: Radhanath Swami: During a disaster in Maharastra in the Mumbai area in the 19th century many children became orphans. And one Lady Northcote, who was the wife of a British Lord, started the Lady Northcote Hindu Orphanage. And over the years it was having difficulty, so they asked us to take full charge of the orphanage. Since about 1987 our ashram has taken the responsibility of the Lady Northcote Hindu Orphanage. There are about 50 children we take care of, and giving them a family of our whole congregation who take care of them, also providing a nice education. And many of these children, who came from severely downtrodden backgrounds, are professors in colleges, doctors—many of them work at Bhaktivedanta Hospital, receiving training and responsibilities. Many of them have gone back to the villages they came from and they are leaders of society.

Q: You chose to become a renunciant. Do you recommend the path of renunciation?

Radhanath Swami: Real spiritual life is not necessarily about changing our position in society. It is about transforming our hearts. One can be in business, in education, a mother or father, a farmer, a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, a politician. One can even be a swami. But when we overcome selfishness and learn the beauty and art of selflessness—seva or selfless service—spirituality is meant to transform arrogance into humility, greed into generosity, vengeance into forgiveness, hate into love, criticism into appreciation, hopeless into hopefulness—it is meant to transform us into becoming instruments of the inner peace that is in our heart with God.
That is real journey home. The journey of transformation, of understanding that there is a power beyond our own, the power of God that can enthuse us, inspire us and empower us to be real instruments of change.
About the Interviewer
Joshua Greene is the resident Bhakti teacher at Jivamukti Yoga School in New York. Joshua earned his degree in religion and teaches at both Hofstra and Fordham Universities. His books include a bestselling biography of George Harrison titled Here Comes the Sun and Gita Wisdom: an Introduction to India's Essential Yoga Text.

Please Join The Japa Group

July 26, 2010 - 12:50am — RasaRasika108

Please share your realisations with other devotees from around the world...simply send me an introduction email and I will be happy to make you a member:

rasa108@gmail.com

ys

Rasa Rasika dasa

Getting Sick Eating Peaches

July 25, 2010 - 7:28pm — Madhava Gosh

We were a couple of days late starting peach harvest so some of them have soft spots.  I was freezing some yesterday and whenever there was one with a soft spot I was sorting them out for fresh eating or giveaway (anyone stopping by in the next few days will leave with organic peaches. (consider this an invitation)).

Some were mostly good with a small area of softness. These are fine for fresh eating but the recommendation is to not use them for freezing so as I came upon a soft spot slice, I would eat it.  This is not an austerity because although small these peaches are so sweet and flavorful it is almost like eating candy.

As I had already eaten my evening meal, I soon got to a point where I had eaten so many I was starting to feel a little sick. Remember when you were a little kid and got into the candy stash and no adult around? Remember overeating to the point of  of stomach uneasiness? Well, that is what happened.

After that I was putting them in a bowl for Tulasi to eat, a chore he had no resistance to performing.

Recipe for freezing peaches.

Peaches need to be covered in a sugar solution for freezing according to all the recipes I found. I didn’t want to make a sugar syrup but one alternative was to use white grape juice so I did that. It was recommended to add one tablespoon of citric acid or lemon juice per quart of solution to help keep them from browning.

I sliced the peaches right into the solution so they weren’t exposed to air, then ladled them into one quart freezer bags using a mason jar funnel to make it easier.  The idea is to make sure there is enough solution to cover all the slices and to leave an inch of head space for expansion, then it was off to the freezer.

I know they won’t be as good once they are frozen but they will still be better next winter than the insipid and flavorless peaches that sell in the supermarkets.

Filed under: Cows and Environment

Live Kirtan Audio Stream: New Govardhana 12 hour kirtan

July 25, 2010 - 6:33am — sita-pati


Naveen leading kirtan at 11am at the New Govardhana 12 hour kirtan

Currently broadcasting one of the best streams yet - the 12 hour kirtan in New Govardhana with Amala Kirtan.

Check out the feed on the Kirtan Australia Internet Radio page.

Sunday 25 July, 2010 9am - 9pm 12 hour kirtan New Govardhana

Current time and date in New Govardhana:

Here's the line-up:
11.30am Vrndavanchandra
12pm Binod Bihari
12.30pm Janna Griffith
1pm Jada Bharata
1.30pm Chandra Vallabha
2pm Mallika
2.30pm Mohini Murti
3pm Bhusaya
3.30pm Janardana
4pm Hari Bhakti
4.30pm Amala Kirtan
6.30pm Sridhama Navadwipa
7pm Krishnapada
7.30pm Sitapati
8pm Prema Yogi
8.30pm Vrajadhama

Ekendra is at the controls of the main mixer, a Mackie Onyx 1640i, which is also feeding a multitrack recording via firewire. I'm getting my feed via an aux channel on the desk and piping it through a USB sound card into a laptop running Fedora 11, then using darkice to send it via wireless 3G to a server in Los Angeles running RHEL 5 and Icecast, using Centovacast front end, and then it comes down to you, in whatever client you want, via a link on the Kirtan Australia Internet Radio page.


Ekendra running the main sound and multitrack recording


The computer being used for the webstream, via the 3G key on the left. The Tascam is doing a backup recording of the stream that is going to the web


This is a +12dB gain antenna for the 3G wireless key. I bought this after we had problems streaming the Canberra Maha Kirtan - "never again" ;-) (Krishna willing)

Gaining Strength & Chanting More

July 25, 2010 - 6:28am — RasaRasika108

That’s an important part of chanting, gaining strength and chanting more and more, but it is not the topmost aspect of chanting. The top most is the quality, the feeling of attachment for Radha and Krishna and the deep attention to Nama Prabhu. I had some of that, but it would have been better if I had more. But I’m satisfied I stayed completely awake and finished my quota so early.

From Bhajan Kutir #20

Kirtan with Amala Kirtan

July 24, 2010 - 5:59pm — sita-pati


Amala Kirtan and Tahir Qawwal rock it live at the Byron Bay Community Centre Theatre.


The Yoga Bliss Tour hits Brisbane.


The entire tour was dedicated to Aindra. We learned of his death on the first day of the tour as we sat in the 24 hour kirtan in Canberra.


At the Harmony Centre in Sydney.

Missionary expansion and West Africa a thought.

July 24, 2010 - 12:51pm — David Haslan

Firstly I am ready for a bit of (R in DS) my monthly fix or rest in devotional service; ok my work colleges don’t quite grasp the concept of how what appears to be work can be restful after all kicking off your shoes in front of the tv with a bottle of wine is [...]

Philosopher Kings and Krishna Conscious Political Theory

July 24, 2010 - 8:16am — gauranga kishore

I've been reading The Republic in preparation for starting my philosophy studies, partly just for edification, but also because it is such a classic. Every time I read plato I am just amazed at how Vedic his philosophy is. 

Right now I'm in the section of the books where Plato drops his revolutionary thesis on political life.

"Unless either philosophers become kings in their countries or those who are now called kings and rulers come to be sufficiently inspired with a genuine desire for wisdom; unless, that is to say, political power and philosophy meet together, while the many natures who now go their several ways in the one or the other direction are forcibly debarred from doing so, there can be no rest from trouble, for states, nor yet as I believe for all mankind."

Unless philosophers become kings or kings become philosophers there will be no peace!!!
Of course his idea of a philosopher is not just a philosophical speculator, his idea of philosopher is more akin to what might be described as a liberated soul in the Vedic context.
In his description of what a philosopher is he says, "The name philosopher, then, will be reserved for those whose affections are set, in every case, on the reality."
He will abandon "those pleasures of which the body is the instrument and be concerned only with the pleasure which the soul enjoys independently." He will "be temperate and no lover of money" and "will be the last person to care about the things for the sake of which money is eagerly sought and lavishly spent." And ultimately, "For such a man death will have no terrors."
This concept of a philosopher king would certainly not be foreign to anyone from traditional Vedic culture, they would probably recognized the term as a translation of the sanskrit word Rajarsi (king-sage). The Vedic literatures are full descriptions of lives of such great saintly kings.
At one point in the dialogue Socrates is questioned as to whether this ideal republic that he is describing is possible.
His response, "Is a theory any the worse, if we cannot prove it possible that a state so organized should be actually founded?"
Plato's political theory is based on his overall theory of the world of ideal forms, which means that the best we can hope to do is come closer to the ideal of justice, but not expect to create a perfectly just world.
He writes, "Suppose we do find out what justice is, are we going to to demand that a man who is just corresponds in every respect to the ideal of justice? Or shall we be satisfied if he comes as near to the ideal as possible and has in him a larger measure of that quality than the rest of the world? . . . When we set out to discover the essential nature of justice and injustice and what a perfectly just and perfectly unjust man would be like, supposing them to exist, our purpose was to use them as ideal patterns: we were to observe the degree of happiness or unhappiness that each exhibited, and to draw the necessary inference that our own destiny would be like that of the one we most resembled. We did not set out to show that these ideals could exist in fact."
From here Plato goes on to say the best way to realize this ideal, or to come closest to this ideal, is to have a philosopher king rule the country.
Krishna consciousness political theory is very similar to Platonic political theory, or really it is vice versa as many of Plato's ideas come directly or indirectly from the east. 
I think Srila Prabhupada lays out the basics of a Krishna Conscious political theory pretty clearly in the his Back to God essay which served as his introduction to the back to godhead magazine, which was really his first serious attempt at preaching.

In that article Srila Prabhupada quotes many different Christians, here is just one that nicely summarizes the tenor of the entire article, and it is from this quote that Srila Prabhuapada took the inspiration for the name of his magazine.

"The Archbishop of Canterbury in his recent broadcast in London said, 'In every quarter of earth men long to be delivered from the curse of War and to find in a world which has regained its peace, respite from the harshness and bitterness of the world they have known till now. But so often they want the Kingdom of Heaven without its King. The kingdom of God without God. And they cannot have it. OUR RESOLVE MUST BE BACK TO GOD. We make plans for the future for peace amongst the nation and for civil security at home. That is quite right enough and it would be wrong to neglect it. But all our plans will come to ship-wreck on the rock of human selfishness unless we turn to God. BACK TO GOD, that is the chief need of England and of every nation.'"

The important thing to note about a "back to god" political theory is that it is a political theory that derives from a philosophical system of idealism, which means many things but in political philosophy it means that the ideal will never be realized and that the most we can hope for is to come closer to that ideal.

But just because the ideal can never be realized in this world it does not take anything away from the ideal.

As Socrates says, "Suppose a painter had drawn an ideally beautiful figure complete to the last touch, would you think any the worse of him if he could not show that a person as beautiful as that could exist?"
Given the nature of this world and how it is impossible for a philosopher/devotee to actually realize his ideals the philosopher retreats content simply to keep his own hands free of blood and to cultivate his own spiritual aspirations.

"One who has joined this small company and tasted the happiness that is their portion; who has watched the frenzy of the multitude and seen that there is no soundness in the conduct of public life, nowhere an ally at whose side a champion of justice could hope to escape destruction; but that, like a man fallen among wild beasts, if he should refuse to take part in their misdeeds and not hold out alone against the fury of all, he would be destined, before he could of any service to his country or his friends, to perish, having done no good to himself or anyone else - one who has weighed all this keeps quite and goes his own way, like the traveler who takes shelter under a wall from a driving storm of dust and hail and seeing lawlessness spreading on all sides, is content if he can keep his hands clean from iniquity while this life lasts and when the end comes take his departure with good hopes, in serenity and peace."

The Japa Sailed Smooth

July 24, 2010 - 3:28am — RasaRasika108

A rough start,
with the twinge in the eye.
Gradually came a clearing,
and the japa sailed smooth
like a fast sail boat
with no danger, just
clear going. The mantras
came quickly, with attention
and devotion to the practice.
The first eight rounds
were almost drowning,
but I can’t be blamed
for that. As soon
as the weather cleared,
I was on my way
pushing aside yesterday’s errant
thoughts and diving into
the present moments of
Hare Krishna mantra.
You pray to not be
pained when it’s time to chant.

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