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At the age of only nineteen, Radhanath Swami left his home in America seeking adventure and spiritual knowledge. After trekking across Europe for months, Swami Radhanath reached his long hoped for destination: India. After living there for many years as a sadhu or wandering monk, Radhanath 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 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'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.
The Real Significance of Bhumi Puja
By HH Radhanath Swami Maharaj
At Govardhan Farm, Wada - 2nd October 2009
Tags: Hare Krishna! I wish to offer my gratitude to everyone who has so kindly assembled today on this auspicious occasion of Dusshera. Today all over the world there are millions and millions of people celebrating this day. But like most spiritual occasions not so many know why? - It is a characteristic of kali yuga that even very sacred things are perceived very superficially. Often times religious festivals of all religions are more of an opportunity for some sort of social entertainment than for genuinely cultivating Love of God - which is the purpose of every great religion and the purpose of every spiritual observance. The Srimad Bhagavatam tells “Shram eva hi kevalam” whatever occupation we perform whatever spiritual activities we do if in the end it does not awaken within us a deep attraction to hear about to chant about, to serve and to love God than we miss the point. We have wasted our time. Today Lord Sri Ramchandra is being remembered for his killing of Ravana.
Read moreSrimad Bhagavatam Class
By H.H. Radhanath Swami
Srimad Bhagavatam Class – Canto 8.4.2–4
Title: Accept reversals gratefully without getting disturbed
SB 8.4.2
nedur dundubhayo divyä
gandharvä nanåtur jaguù
åñayaç cäraëäù siddhäs
tuñöuvuù puruñottamam
SYNONYMS
neduù—vibrated; dundubhayaù—kettledrums; divyäù—in the sky of the higher planetary system; gandharväù—residents of Gandharvaloka; nanåtuù—danced; jaguù—and sang; åñayaù—all the saintly sages; cäraëäù—the inhabitants of the Cäraëa planet; siddhäù—the inhabitants of the Siddha planet; tuñöuvuù—offered prayers; puruña-uttamam—to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Puruñottama, the best of males.
SUNDAY FEAST LECTURE
BY
H.H.RADHANATH SWAMI MAHARAJ
DATE: 6TH SEPTEMBER 2009
ABOUT TRIVIKRAMA PRABHU, FAMILY AND SERVICE TO SOCIETY
Hare Krishna! We welcome everyone to Sri Radha Gopinath’s weekly Sunday festival.
Thank you for being with us. This morning, quite early a telephone call came to the temple informing us that our very dear devotee Trivikrama Prabhu was in a very critical condition. A few days ago he had a massive heart attack. This morning his health was seriously declining. According to the doctors there is very little possibility or hope that he will physically survive. I went to the Nanavati hospital to be with him and his family. Govinda prabhu was there telling very beautiful stories. I chanted with him for a couple of hours.
I thank you Bhakti Caru Swami Maharaj for the eloquent, brilliant presentation of the genuine love of your heart for our beloved guru maharaja His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada . Your words were overflowing with realizations born out of deep affection and total surrender. I was thinking that Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, and Bhakti Vinod Thakur were personally from within your heart speaking through you to glorify Srila Prabhupada. Thank you very much.
SRILA PRABHUPADA’S TAKING OF SANYAS THE CULMINATION OF HIS FIRST MEETING WITH BHAKTI SIDDHANTA SARASWATI THAKUR
Srimad Bhagavatam Class by
HH Radhanath Swami Maharaj
05th September 2009
SB 8.3.12
(Word to word transcription)
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TEXT 8.3.12
namaù çäntäya ghoräya
müòhäya guëa-dharmiëe
nirviçeñäya sämyäya
namo jïäna-ghanäya ca
SYNONYMS
namaù—all obeisances; çäntäya—unto Him who is above all material qualities and completely peaceful, or unto Väsudeva, the Supersoul in every living entity; ghoräya—unto the fierce forms of the Lord like Jämadagnya and Nåsiàhadeva; müòhäya—the form of the Lord as an animal, such as the boar; guëa-dharmiëe—who accepts different qualities within the material world; nirviçeñäya—who is without material qualities, being fully spiritual; sämyäya—Lord Buddha, the form of nirväëa, wherein the material qualities stop; namaù—I offer my respectful obeisances; jïäna-ghanäya—who is knowledge or the impersonal Brahman; ca—also.
Sri Radha-Gopinath Temple is here by the mercy of His Divine Grace Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada for the purpose of reviving the lost spiritual consciousness within us. Krishna consciousness is the natural state of consciousness for all living beings but it is temporarily covered by forgetfulness of our true identity in relationship with God. That forgetfulness is the power of Mahamaya. Although we can never be separated from Krishna we are separated only by that illusion of forgetfulness. If you are a wealthy man or woman and you are having a dream that you are in poverty you are not actually in poverty but it is as good as if you are because you have forgotten your fortune. So Mahamaya creates like a dream were the eternal soul which is full of knowledge and full of bliss, the soul which is an eternal associate of the Supreme Personality of Godhead has fallen under the spell of this dream were we think we are this body. We are thinking that what is in relation to the body is mine. We identify with the temporary pleasures and pains of this material existence. Material existence is real. It is the energy of the Lord. This body is real. The dream is that we are identifying ourselves as the body.
On behalf of all of Radha Gopinath temple devotees we welcome you to our Sunday festival. Today I am seeing devotees from so many places have assembled - Pune, Kolhapur, Nigdi, Nasik, Satara, Belgaum, Bombay. This really is a very sacred tradition of our acharyas that devotees come together from various places to perform Nama Sankirtan, to hear Hari katha, to take Prasad together, to associate together and to serve together.
Gaur Purnima festival celebrated in Kheturi
Read moreSrimad Bhagavatam Class by
HH Radhanath Swami Maharaj
30th August 2009
SB 8.3.6
(Word to word transcription)
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SB 8.3.6
na yasya devä åñayaù padaà vidur
jantuù punaù ko ‘rhati gantum éritum
yathä naöasyäkåtibhir viceñöato
duratyayänukramaëaù sa mävatu
Read moreSrimad Bhagavatam Class by
HH Radhanath Swami Maharaj
29rd August 2009
TEXT 8.3.5
kälena païcatvam iteñu kåtsnaço
lokeñu päleñu ca sarva-hetuñu
tamas tadäséd gahanaà gabhéraà
yas tasya päre ‘bhiviräjate vibhuù
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