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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.
Bhagavad Gita
The Essence of the Meaning of Bhagavad Gita
I am very grateful to be here this evening. A special gratitude to Anil, Kiran, Agvinesh, Priya for opening the doors of their home for us together. When we first came in this evening, Anil prabhu to three different people was very enthusiastically speaking the story of King Ashok. So since you already started the class, I will give some commentary to what you spoke with your permission. Anil was explaining how Ashok was a very powerful king, who was very aggressive in his conquering but then he came in contact with the teachings of the Lord Buddha who the Vedic scriptures had prophesised two thousand five hundred years before his appearance as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu and when that transformation of heart took place his whole life changed. Because kings are generally very aggressive, often times egoistic but Buddha was teaching humility, ahimsa, non-violence and what Anil was saying, was with the same enthusiasm, with the same aggressiveness that he was conquering and ruling kingdoms, he was sharing the gift of Lord Buddha with the people. Yes? And Anil was so enthusiastic that he keeps talking and talking about the subject. But actually throughout history this has been one of the ways great spiritual teachings have been spread to the common people.
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