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The Journey Home Book - By Radhanath Swami

 

At the age of only nineteen, Radhanath Swami left his home in America seeking adventure and spiritual knowledge. After trekking across Europe for months,  Radhanath Swami reached his long hoped for destination: India. After living there for many years as a sadhu or wandering monk, Radhanath Swami returned to America in order to share the sacred knowledge and wisdom he had learned from the many holy men and women he had met there. It was an extraordinary choice, given what Radhanath Swami had survived to get there: a journey filled with bizarre characters, mystical experiences, and dangerous adventures. The story is recounted in his recently published memoir The Journey Home - Autobiography of an American Swami. Reviewers have called Radhanath Swami's saga  "at once an engaging yarn, a love story, and the evocation of a transcendent paradise in all its savagery, solitude, and splendor.

Radhanath Swami emerged from his years of travel wanting to explain for others the beauty and rewards of a life devoted to God, and therein lay a dilemma. Radhanath Swami's many followers and friends describe him as completely selfless and consequently unwilling to take credit for his work and restless when a spotlight is focused on him. By choosing A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami (1896-1977), a Bengali Vaishnava Saint, as his guru (after declining offers of initiation from several tyagis or renunciants in the Himalayas), Radhanath Swami cast his fate to the wind, cut his matted locks, and entered back into the society.

RadhanathMaharaj.net gives us a complete collection of the teaching of Radhanath Swami. Teachings consists of Transcriptions of lectures delivered by Radhanath Swami at various places. This website is to inspire the followers of Radhanath Swami to practice the philosophy of Vaishanavism.

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Radhanath Swami On Unmotivated Love For God

              Maharaj Nimi continued mayavadis generally want freedom from accepting a material body because they fear having to give it up again but devotees whose intelligence is always filled with the service of the lord are unafraid indeed they take advantage of body to render transcendental loving service.

                        Purport by His Divine Grace A.C.Bhakti Vedanta Swami Prabhupad:
            Maharaj Nimi did not want to accept the material body which will be a cause of bondage because he was a devotee he wanted a body by which he could render devotional service to the Lord. Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur sings:
janmāobi moe icchā jadi tor
bhakta-gṛhe jani janma hau mor
kīṭa-janma hau jathā tuwā dās
    
      My lord if you want to if you want me to take birth and accept material body again kindly do me this favour allow me to take birth in the home of your servant, your devotee i do not i do not mind being born there even as insignificant creature like an insect. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also said like this:
na dhanaṁ na janaṁ na sundarīṁ
kavitāṁ vā jagad-īśa kāmaye
mama janmani janmanīśvare
bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī tvayi
      
        O Lord of the universe i do not desire material wealth, materialistic followers, a beautiful wife or furtive activities described in flowery language all i want life after life is unmotivated devotional service to you by saying life after life janmani janmanīśvare lord referred not to a ordinary birth but birth in which to remember the lotus feet of the Lord such a body is desirable a devotee does not think like yogis and jnanis who want to refuse with the material body and wants to become one with the impersonal Brahman effulgence. A devotee does not like this idea on the contrary he will accept any body material or spiritual but he wants to serve the Lord .This is the real liberation. If one has strong desire to serve the lord. Even if he accepts material body there is no cause of anxiety since the devotee even in the material body is the liberated soul this is confirmed by Srila Rupa Gosvami:
Iha yasya harer dasye
Karmana manasa gira
Nikilasv apy avasthasu
Jivan muktah sa ucyate
    
       For a person acting in Krishna consciousness or in the other words in the service of Krishna, his body, mind, intelligence and words is liberated even within this material world although he may be engaged so called material activities the desire to serve the lord establishes one as  liberated in any condition of life whether in  spiritual body or in material body  the spiritual body the devotee becomes direct associate of the Lord but even though the devotee may superficially appear to be  in the material body his is always liberated and engage in the same duty to the service to the Lord as devotee in the Vaikuntha Loka there is no distinction.
      It is said Sadhu jivo maro va whether devotee is alive or dead he is only concerned with the service of the Lord. tayktva deha punar janma naiti mam eti sa arjuna when he gives up his body he goes directly to become an associate of the lord and serve him although he does the same thing even in the material body in the material world for a devotee there is no pain, pleasure or a material perfection one may argue at time of death devotee also suffers because of giving up this material body but in this connection example may be given that a cat carries a mouse in it mouth and also carries a kitten in his mouth but mouse and the kitten both the mouse and the kitten are carried in the same mouth but the perception of mouse is different from that of kitten when devotees gives up his body tyaktva deham he is ready to go back home back to Godhead thus his perception is certainly different from a person being taken away by Yam raj for a punishment a person whose intelligent is always concentrated upon the service of lord is unafraid of accepting the material body where us non devotee having no engagement in the service of the lord very much afraid of accepting material body or giving up his present one. There for we should follow the instruction of Sri chaitanya Mahaprabhu
                            
                                mama janmani janmanīśvare  bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī tvayi
 

      It does not matter whether we accept material body or spiritual body our only ambition is to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead translation:
 

      
     Maharaj Nimi continued mayavadis generally want freedom from accepting a material body because they fear having to give it up again, but devotees whose intelligence is always filled with the service of the lord are unafraid indeed they take advantage of body to render trancedental loving service.
oṁ ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā
cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ
sa vai pumsam paro dharmo
yato bhaktir adhoksaje
ahaituky apratihata
yayatma suprasidati
      
        In the Srimad Bhagvatam Suth Gosvami tells us the supreme occupation for all humanity is that which awakens the transcendental loving service to the Lord such service must be unmotivated and uninterrupted in order to completely satisfy the self so this is the unique feature of the quality of the pure devotees is there desire to serve the lord is unmotivated and uninterrupted they do not concern  for there for own pleasure in this world or even in the next there are many wonderful example of this. we read of  when Lord Krishna’s messengers wanted to demigods, to the sages in the forest, to the great learned sages of Vedas, appealing to them to give some dust from there feet because this would be the only the medication that would heal the headache of Lord Sri Krishna and they all refused because they understood this is the great offence to put the feet on the head of the Supreme Lord and they would go to hell Krishna on one level pleased that they were so respectful to him but on another level his headache continued so he sent his messenger to Vrindavan to appeal to Gopis the Gopis immediately began to collect the dust from there lotus feet and when they were worn do you know that you will go to hell for this they  said yes of course we will go to hell for this but the dust from our feet on the head of Sri Krishna let us go to hell forever, if that will give Krishna one moment of relief from his headache we are willing to suffer for all of the eternity this is the spirit of unmotivated uninterrupted devotion to the lord the same spirit we find in the Srimad Bhagvatam in the story of Maharaj Chitraketu
    
     When he was flying over the aboard of Lord Shankar he saw very unusual site that there was a congregation of great learned sages all in the renounced order of life and Lord Shiva was giving them a lecture on detachment from material sense enjoyment and on the spirit of true renunciation and while he was giving a lecture his beautiful consort Parvati was affectionately seating upon his lap in His embrace and Maharaj Chitraketu considered this is very very unusual and he began to laugh what is this He is talking to great sages about renunciation this celibate monks with his wife on his lap and Parvati became very furious who is he to question the authority of Lord Shiva Vaishnava nama Yatha Sambhu He is the greatest vaishnava. Vaishnaver Kriya mudra vijnya na bujay, one can never understand try to judge the mind of great vaishnav so she became very angry Chitraketu because of your great wealth and opulence being a king you have become so proud and arrogant you lost your intelligence to criticize great soul like Lord Shiva therefore i curse you to go to hell and become a demon and when this curse came crashing upon head of Maharaj Chitraketu he was quite grateful to her with the peaceful mind he came down and he offered his obeisance’s at the feet of mother Parvati and Lord Shankar and explained his heart that actually i really did not mean any offence to him i was glorifying him in different type of words but in my heart i was not doubting the great Lord Shankar i believe you misunderstood me but that is all external internally this is all the will of Lord nothing can happen by chance without the divine arrangement of the supreme Personality of Godhead therefore mother Parvati you have curse me to go to hell and  become a demon i will be glad to do so if this is what Lord wants now with the permission i will go on with my next service to the Lord then he very great fully and humbly bow his head at the feet of mother Parvati when Lord Shiva saw this He was very much pleased and he spoke to His voice:
-S.B.6.17.28-
Narayana parah sarve Na kutascana bibhyati
Svargapavarga-narakesv Api tulyartha-darsinha
      
 
           Just see quality of the devotees of Lord Narayana they are so unmotivated to the loving service to the Lord that they do not care whether they are in heaven whether they are in hell or  whether they are librated makes no difference to them they are simply concerned to the service to the Lord and that service any condition can never be stopped. Srila Prabhupad he left Vrindavan the holiest place in the all of creation and in vridavan he was in most sanctified atmosphere of Sri Sri Radha Damoder mandir the very place were Sri Rupa Sri Sanatan Sri jiva gosvami Gopal Bhatta gosvami Raghunath Bhatt gosvami Sri Raghunath dasa gosvami they would meet practically daily have kirtan discus the past time of the Lord discus the mission of spreading the mercy of Sri Chaitanya mahaprabhu throughout the world it is not they did it 500 years ago but it is a past time that is eternally being enacted Srila Prabhupad was seating amongst this most celebrated and  greatest and purest of  vaishnavas the manjris of Krishnas lila such a pleasurable place to be but His spiritual master wanted him to go to that place which is of the utter opposite to the united states of America to the most hellish city of New York there you don’t find Six gosvamis you find murders, thieves, rapist, meat eaters, drunker, drug addicts not only in New York but he was in the heart of those activities with in New York the bowery the lower east side practically everyone was (--16:35--) drunks, drugs and  alcohol and having illicit sex every day at least on twice three times nourishing there body and meat two three times a day no facilities dirty filthy place polluted. Srila Prabhupad saw no difference all he saw that is whether i am in vridavan with this six gosvamis whether i am in new York with all this drug addicts my service to the Lord is  my only concern in life this is where i can serve  therefore this place is vridavan for me later on after some years after he came out from his poverty stricken condition and new York city he had wonderful temples and some places they were buying big castles places and mansions and they were giving him the best most wonderful decorated rooms and he seat in his rooms sometime (--17:42)expensive drugs and all sort of beautiful furniture his disciple will give him to just to meet people and he was the same simple Prabhupad there was no difference one day he looked at Kirtanananda maharaj while he was in his beautiful (----18:03) saw quarters in los Angeles the world head quarter he said you see all this beautiful paintings, beautiful wallpapers, beautiful sandier nice furniture, sober plates they are giving me Prasad he said i am simply longing for that simple atmosphere on the banks of Yamuna in Vrindavan, Radha Damoder was so nice that was sense gratification this is austerity but for preaching i accept but any condition he was same because he was not concern where he was he was only concern where he could best serve Srila Prabhupad in this purport is quoting from   the beautiful story: sadhu jiva maro va in this story it is told that  there was one prophet who came to one kingdom and various people came to him for benediction and for some vision of future so first the prince came to him and the prophet gave benediction to prince better you live forever better you just continue living, and then a Brhmachari came to him and he gave benediction better you die now and then butchers came to him he gave benediction better you neither live nor die and then the sadhu a vaishnav came to him and he said better you either live or die. so there are people they wanted to hear explanation so he spoke that this price he is enjoying so much today he is living in beautiful palace and he has so many nice facility for sense gratification because he has so much facility therefore naturally he will engage in sinful activity better he lives because now he is enjoying like anything but when he dies he is going to have to accept all the sinful reaction from all of his karmic activities and he is going to have suffer and suffer and suffer better you live and the brahmachri is torturing himself he is sleeping on floor, he is eating food with practically no sour or spices living in a hellish condition no he is not allowed to tell anyone what to do everyone telling him what to do even gruhasta come and ordering them around and he has to always be humble and obedient to all he is living very very severe life of suffering given up his family given up his home and society laughs at him rebukes him thinks crazy impractical lazy yet he is struggling so hard harder than anyone just to do some work for the spiritual upliftment of society menial service to his Guru he has no prestige he has no respectability painful life. prophet said to the brahmachari better you die because for the sacrifice you are doing your supreme lord and guru when you die you are guaranteed to go back home back to godhead to live an eternal life with bliss and knowledge with Krishna what about the butchers they ask butcher in his life all around him is screaming of torched animals the smell of deck the site of blood it is hellish condition all around and when he dies he will have to pay  the consequences for all this bloodshed, pain and death that he is committing to others therefore his life now is nothing but a miserable condition of suffering and in the future only give worst better he neither lives nor dies and the great vaishnav sadhu ahh he said just see he is simply immersed loving service of the Lord he is simply tasting the sweet ecstasy of pure devotional service in this material body now where ever he is and after he dies he will just continue this service at another place where ever Krishna wants him. so therefore for a vaishnava whether he lives or dies makes no difference he his doing the same thing sadhu jiva maro va whether devotee live or dead he is only concern is to serve the lord and Srila Prabhupad here is quoting Srila Bhakti Vinod thakur:
janmāobi moe icchā jadi tor   bhakta-gṛhe jani janma hau mor
 
      My dear lord if you want me to accept material body again i do not mind i will be very happy to do so but please grant me one favour that i be in the house of your devotee and he goes on to say if you offered me body of Lord Brahma the manger and superintendent of universe living in most opulence condition of brahmaloka if i cannot be your devotee as Lord Brahma i reject that birth but i will be most happy and grateful if i can take birth as an insect  in the house of your devotee because there i will always hear your holy name sometime i will secretly eat nice mahaprasad and in this way i will be very happy better to take insect birth in the house of your devotee than to take Brahmas birth without the association of vaishnavas. Srila Prabhupad what is explaining hear difference between death the inevitable faith for all living being for one who is devotee and one who is not a devotee death strikes everyone. within our vaishnav calendar every week or so we find the disappearance day of great vaishnavas. The disappearance day of Ramanujacharya, Madhvacharya,Svroop damodar gosvami, disappearance day of  Rupa gosvami, santan gosvami, Raghunathdas gosvami, Krishnadas kaviraj gosvami, Gopal bhatt gosvami, the disappearance day Vishvanth chakrati Thakur, Baledev vidhya Bhusan, Jagnathdas babaji, Bhakti vinod Thakur,Gaur kishoredas babji, Bhakti Siddhant Sarsvati, A.C.Bhakti Vedanta swami Prabhupad, all the great vaishnavas who are most celebrated in our tradition we are celebrating disappearance day what does that mean means physically  they died but ones those did not physically died we don’t celebrate there disappearance like Lord Sri Krishna He just simply ascended to Vaikuntha, Goloka. Sri Cahitanya Mahaprabhu His body  simply merged into the body of Tota Gopinath we do not celebrated such disappearance but those devotee they just give up there lives apparently like ordinary people so a devotee is eternal and  if a devotee does not have to circum to death why is it that all this great devotee died  and we been camemberts(27:50) it is described here by Srila Prabhupad yes under the laws of material nature this material body must die but a devotee he has a different consciousness then an ordinary men death is compared to a cat and an ordinary person is like a mouse and when mouse is in the mouth of cat it knows it is his destruction and therefore the mouse is exceedingly afraid and willing to do anything to struggle to try to escape the mouth of the cat is the death personified for mouse but the kitten who has surrender itself to cat the mouse does not surrender the mouse is always trying to get away from the cat and acting independent of cat but the therefore there is a fear but because the kitten  is surrender to the cat is fully dependant on the love of cat that same mouth when it holds her she sees that cat as the most loving protector so similarly when a devotee is face with death he simply sees Krishna with love and gratitude he is feeling the divine protection the divine love of Krishna at death he sees that death is simply the door opening to the spiritual world therefore there is no fear it is a promotion it is like graduating therefore a devotee welcomes birth and welcomes death he welcomes another birth in material body in this world if it is an opportunity to serve the lord and he welcomes death for he could that service in the spiritual world where you want me Krishna i will come mam janmani janmeshvare bhavtad bhakti ahituki tvyi i do not want wealth, i do not want beautiful women, i do not want followers, i do not even want liberation from suffering i only aspire one thing that i may be engage in loving service wherever you want me even if it’s in another material body even or it is in heaven or hell makes no difference so some devotees they like to get away from the hectic situation of the devotional service to their spiritual master and got to a peaceful place like Vrindavan where they can just seat and chant the holy names alone not be bothered by any one that is nice sentiment but they will never will understand what is vridavan by that process Vrindavan is not such cheap that you can just go the holy name is not so cheap it is through surrender and devotion you can truly understand Vrindavan as it is it is when you make the order of spiritual master life and soul it is the when we cultivate this attitude of being willing to do anything anywhere in the service of our spiritual master that Vrindavan is fully revealed to us because Vrindavan is only revealed to the heart that is pure and unmotivated by the mercy of guru and Krishna not by our own efforts not even by our own pursuit in chanting the holy name, performing austerities, we can ever understand what is Vrindavan Narottam das thakur has sung: viṣaya chāriyā kabe śuddha ha ‘be mana  kabe hāma herabo śrī-bṛndābana  only when i give up all selfish independent desires will i understand  Vrindavan Narottamdas Thakur himself was living in Vrindavan with Jiva gosvami Lokhnath gosvami, Bhugarbh gosvami, Raghunath das gosvami, but he was sent on the preaching mission for the rest of his life throughout Bengal and all the other places but because he was humbling and obediently serving his spiritual master in fact he was always in Vrindavan so we can realize Vrindavan by devotional service by humbling serving the order o spiritual master and Krishna it might be difficult , it will be difficult if it was not difficult it will not be purifying therefore Srila Bhakti Sidhanth Sarsvati Thakur they teach do not try to imitate Paramhamsa
 
         Just accept your real position humble menial servant of spiritual master and through the process only we can really get the realization of Krishnas mercy and understand the truth of the divine aboard of the therefore a devotee is simply concerned how cani best serve you now gopi bhatur pad kamalyor das das dasanu das and Maharaj Nimi so wonderfully and eloquently revealing the heart of the great soul of a great vaishnav he is not attach not attach to his kingdom and hi is not attach to do not going back to his kingdom i remember one time Srila Prabhupad explained that some devotees they are like sadhus they like to live under trees other devotees they are coming to the wealthier atmospheres they are very attach to living in a palace Prabhupad say you should not be either attach to place or a tree if Krishna wants be living in place you should be happy live in a place if Krishna wants to under a tree you should be happy living under a tree i remember when i first came to Vrindavan i was just coming from Vrindavan and we were living in a farm house it is old broken down farm house but to me it was such sense gratification because i never slept under a roof  in India i was always under the sky whether it was raining, whether it was freezing cold, i would never sleep under a roof i was seeing this is a sense enjoyment so i told Bhakti Parayan i will leave New Vrindavan because you no i like to leave in Vrindavan which is austere this is to much shelter to much comforts Bhakti Parayan quoted Prabhupad he said Prabhupad said not to be attach to be live in a place or a tree he said you will never go back  to godhead as long you are attach living under a tree if your Guru wants you to living in a place renunciation means to leave in a place if your guru wants you to leave under a tree renunciation means to leave under a tree  renunciation means simply to fulfil the order of spiritual master not to attach to our own conception, what is spiritual life what is Spiritual advancement just be the humble servant . Is there any question?
 
     Question not audible
  From the core of your heart you are not on the platform of unmotivated uninterrupted but there is a process of following of the instruction of higher authority of sadhus we can gradually come to that consciousness that means tapasya. Tapasya means whether i have motivation or do not act on those motivation i preferred to act on the order of Krishna and guru and i put aside my own motivations through process we show Krishna we want serve him we don’t want to serve our own mind and senses and then Krishna cleanses all material motives from our hearts,
Raga-dvesa vimuktais tu
Visayan indriyais caran
Atma-vasyair vidheyatma
Prasadam adhigacchati
      
 
        By following the regulative principle to freedom one becomes detach, by the mercy of Lord one obtains complete mercy of the Lord and thus becomes detach from attraction and aversion it is only by the supreme mercy of the lord that we can become free from motivations material motivation it’s not by our own endeavour but how to attract mercy of the Lord by simply making order of our guru our life and soul by putting all other things aside and only engaging in the service he wants us. He wants us to chant attentively but we are willing to perform the sacrifice of chanting attentively to serve him to please him he wants to do menial task we would rather do something else so by acting in this way by praying for this by praying in the mood of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu if you want Krishna me you can kick me away if you want you can embrace me i am your servant you can do you want to do with me by living discipline life under the guidance of the great devotees of the Lord and by offering our for realization Krishna will you that unmotivated uninterrupted consciousness. It is not a heap thing it is not we already have it we can search our heart thoroughly we may not find the even a space of unmotivated desire  it does not matter if we simply please Krishna by this process he will cleanse all of our anarthas all of our unwanted desires and reveal the pure nature of soul which is unmotivated uninterrupted loving desire to serve lord comes by the mercy of Krishna is there any other questions?
                        Hare Krishna Thank you very much.

  |  Tags: god, love, Radhanath Swami, unmotivated

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