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In 1970, at the age of only nineteen, Radhanath Swami left his home in America seeking adventure and spiritual knowledge. After trekking across Europe for months, he reached his long hoped for destination: India. After living there for many years as a sadhu or wandering monk, he 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 he 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 (San Rafael, CA: Mandala Publishing, 2009). 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. His 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 spiritual activist, 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.
Srimad Bhagavatam
Accept Reversals gratefully without getting disturbed
Srimad 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.
SB-03.14.19 Laguna Beach
SB 3.14.19
yäm ähur ätmano hy ardhaà
çreyas-kämasya mänini
yasyäà sva-dhuram adhyasya
pumäàç carati vijvaraù
TRANSLATION
O Respectful one, a wife is so helpful the is called the bet half of the man’s body, because of sharing of all auspicious activities, a man can move without any anxiety. Entrusting all responsibilities to his wife.
Purport
By the Vedic injunctions a wife is accepted as the better half of the man’s body because she is supposed to be responsible for discharging half of the duties of the husband. A family man has responsibility to perform 5 kinds of sacrifices, called Panchayagya, in order to get relief from all kinds of unavoidable sinful reactions incurred in the course of his affairs, when the man becomes qualitatively like the cats and dogs he forgets cultivating spiritual values and thus he accepts his wife as a sense gratificatory agency. When wife is accepted as sense gratificatory agency, personal beauty is the main consideration and as soon as there is a break in personal sense gratification, there is disruption or divorce.but when husband and wife aim at spiritual advancement, by mutual cooperation, there is no consideration of beauty or the disruption of so called love. In the material world there is no question of love. Marriage is actually a duty performed in cooperation as directed in scriptures. Therefore marriage is essential in order to avoid the life of cat and dog.
Seeing everything in relation to Krsna SB Class Mumbai
yatredam vyajyate visvam
visvasminn avabhati yat
tat tvam brahma param jyotir
akasam iva vistritam
My dear Lord, the impersonal Brahman spreads everywhere, like the sunshine or the sky. And that impersonal Brahman, which spreads throughout the universe and in which the entire universe is manifested, is You.
PURPORT
In Vedic literature it is said that everything is Brahman and nothing else. The whole cosmic manifestation rests on the Brahman effulgence. The impersonalists, however, cannot understand how such a huge cosmic manifestation can rest on a person. Thus this inconceivable power of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is not understood by the impersonalists; therefore they are puzzled and always denying that the Absolute Truth is a person. This wrong impression is cleared by Lord Siva himself, who says that the impersonal Brahman, which is spread all over the universe, is nothing but the Supreme Lord Himself. Here it is clearly said that the Lord is spread everywhere, just like the sunshine, by virtue of His Brahman feature.
Seeing everything in relation to Krsna SB Class Mumbai
yatredam vyajyate visvam
visvasminn avabhati yat
tat tvam brahma param jyotir
akasam iva vistritam
My dear Lord, the impersonal Brahman spreads everywhere, like the sunshine or the sky. And that impersonal Brahman, which spreads throughout the universe and in which the entire universe is manifested, is You.
Read moreWhat Exactly is Non Violence SB-02.07.37
When the aethists after being well versed in the Vedic Scientific knowledge annihilate inhabitants of different planets flying unseen in the sky on well-built rockets prepared by the great scinetist Maya. The Lord will bewilder their minds by dressing himself attractively as Buddha and will preach on subreligious principles.
Puroport by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada
This incarnation of Lord Buddha is not the same Budha incarnation we have in the present history of mankind. According to Srila Jiva Gosvami, the Buddha incarnation mentioned in this verse appeared in different age of Kali Yuga. In the duration of life of one Manu there are more than 72 Kali Yugas and in one of them the particular type of Buddha mentioned here would appear. Lord Buddha incarnates at a time when the people are the most materialistic and preaches commonsense religious principles such as ahimsa.
Read morePrthu Maharaj an Ideal Responsible King SB-04.21.06
A responsible king was always approachable by the citizens. Generally the citizen’s great and common, all had an aspiration to see the king and take benediction from him. The king knew this and therefore whenever he met the citizens he immediately fulfilled their desires and mitigated their grievances. In such dealings a responsible monarchy is better than a so called democratic government in which no one is responsible to mitigate the grievances of the citizens, were unable to personally meet the supreme execute. In a responsible monarchy, the citizens had no grievances against the government and even if they did they could approach the king directly for immediate satisfaction. Both the important citizens and the common citizens welcomed the king very heartedly and he also bestowed upon them their desired blessings. We are reading today from Canto 4 of Srimad Bhagavatam Chapter 21 entitled Instructions by Maharaja Prthu Text 6.
SB-03.24.40 Los Angeles
PURPORT by his divine grace a.c. bhaktivedanta swami prabhupad
Kardama muni was anxious about his good wife devahuti while leaving home and so the worthy son promised that not only would kardama muni be freed from the material entanglement but devahuti would also be freed by receiving instruction from her son; a very good example is set here. The husband goes away taking the sannyas order for self-realization; but his representative son who is equally educated remains at home to deliver the mother; a sannyasi is not supposed to take his wife with him. at the vanaprasatha stage of retired wife, or the stage midway stage between householder life and renounced life, one may keep his wife as assistant without sex relations; But in the sannyas order of life, one cannot keep his wife with him; otherwise, a person like kardama muni could have kept his wife with him and there would have been no hindrance through the prosecution of self-realization; kardama muni followed the Vedic injunctions that no one in sannyas cannot have any kind of relationship with women; but what is the position of a woman who is left by her husband ?
SB-03.24.43 Los Angeles
Purport by his divine grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
Whenever there is bhakti there must be three things present, the devotee, the devotion and the Lord. Without these three
1.Bhakta
2.Bhakti
3.Bhagavan
There is no meaning to the word Bhakti.
Kardama Muni fixed his mind on the supreme brahman and realized him through bhakti or devotional service. This indicates that he fixed his mind on the personal feature of the Lord because bhakti cannot be executed unless one has realization of the personal feature of the absolute truth. “Gunebhyas ca” he who is beyond the three modes of material nature but it is due to him that the three modes of material nature are manifested. In other words although the material energy is an emanation of the supreme Lord he is not affected as we are by the modes of material nature. We are conditioned souls but he is not affected.
Compassion of Narad Muni on King Prachinibarishat SB-04.25.08
Ete tvam sam pratikshante, smaranto vaisha santava. Sambharetam ahaiko tai. Chindan tu ti aha manyava.
All these animals are awaiting your death. So that they can avenge the injuries that you have inflicted upon them. After you die, they will angrily pierce your body with iron horns.
Purport by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Narada Muni wanted to draw king Prachinibarishat's attention to the excesses of animal killing and sacrifices. It is said in the shastras that by killing animals, in a sacrifice one immediately promotes them to human birth. Similarly by killing their enemies on a battle field, the Kshatriyas, who fight for a right cause are elevated to the heavenly planets after death. In Manu Samhita, it is stated that it is necessary for a king to execute a murderer so that the murderer will not suffer for his criminal actions in his next life. On the basis of such understanding, Narada Muni warns the king that the animals killed in sacrifices by the king await him at his death in order to avenge themselves. Narada Muni is not contradicting himself here. Narada Muni wanted to convince the king that over indulgence in animal sacrifice is risky because as soon as there is a small discrepancy in the execution of such a sacrifice, the slaughtered animal may not be promoted to a human form of life.
SB-03.24.43 Los Angeles
He fixed his mind upon The Supreme Personality of Godhead Param Brahman, who is beyond cause and affect, who manifested three modes of material nature, he is who is beyond those three modes and who is perceived only through unfailing devotional service.
Purport by his divine grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
Whenever there is bhakti there must be three things present, the devotee, the devotion and the Lord. Without these three
1.Bhakta
2.Bhakti
3.Bhagavan
There is no meaning to the word Bhakti.
Kardama Muni fixed his mind on the supreme brahman and realized him through bhakti or devotional service. This indicates that he fixed his mind on the personal feature of the Lord because bhakti cannot be executed unless one has realization of the personal feature of the absolute truth. “Gunebhyas ca” he who is beyond the three modes of material nature but it is due to him that the three modes of material nature are manifested. In other words although the material energy is an emanation of the supreme Lord he is not affected as we are by the modes of material nature. We are conditioned souls but he is not affected. Although the material nature has emanated from him he is the supreme living entity and is never affected by maya but we are subordinate minute living entities prone to be affected by the limitations of maya. If he is in constant contact with the supreme Lord by devotional service, the conditioned living entity also becomes freed from the infection of maya. This is confirmed in Bhagawad Gita “Sagunan samatityaitan” BG.14.26 “A person engaged in Krishna consciousness is at once liberated from the influence of the three modes of material nature. In other words once the conditioned soul engages him in devotional service he also becomes liberated like the Lord”.
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