The Journey Home Book
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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.
Compassion
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.
Being Compassionate to all Living Entities
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.
Compassion Melts Heart SB-06.01.01
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