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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.
aham evāsam evāgre
nānyad yat sad-asat-param
paścād ahaḿ yad etac ca
yo 'vaśiṣyeta so 'smy aha
TRANSLATION
Prior to the cosmic creation, only I exist, and no phenomena exist, either gross, subtle or primordial. After creation, only I exist in everything, and after annihilation only I remain eternally.
PURPORT
Tags: “A person interested in transcendental knowledge must therefore always directly and indirectly enquire about it, to know the all pervading truth “.
“ bhutesu chavateswarum pravistanya pravistani tatha tesu natesvyahum”
As the material elements enter the bodies of all living beings and yet remain outside of the world. I exist within all material creations and yet I’m not within them.
Read more“While carrying the form of Supreme Personality of Godhead within the core of his heart, vasudev wore the Lord’s transcendentally illuminating effulgence and thus he became as bright as the sun. He was therefore very difficult to see or approach through sensory perception. Indeed he was unapproachable and unperceivable even for such formidable man such as kamsa and not only for Kamsa but for all living entities”. Purport by His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prahupad.
Read moreåte ’rthaà yat pratéyeta
na pratéyeta cätmani
tad vidyäd ätmano mäyäà
yathäbhäso yathä tamaù (CC Aadi Lila 1.54)
What appears to be truth without Me is certainly My illusory energy, for nothing can exist without Me. It is like a reflection of a real light in the shadows, for in the light there are neither shadows nor reflections.
In the Chaitanya Charitamrita by Kaviraj Goswami there is an important verse.
Sloka: naprathimethetwani madadivyatha tat mayan mada bhasha tatatmana
What appears to be the truth without me is certainly is my illusory energy, wherever nothing can exist without me. It is like reflection of real light to the shadows with in the light. There is no shadows nor reflections.
çraddhäväl labhate jïänaà
tat-paraù saàyatendriyaù
jïänaà labdhvä paräà çäntim
acireëädhigacchati
[BG 4.39]
A faithful man who is absorbed in transcendental knowledge and who subdues his senses is eligible to achieve such knowledge, and having achieved it he quickly attains the supreme spiritual peace.
Purport by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhuapada.
Read moreSB 10.1.42
(yato yato dhāvati daiva-coditaṁ)
mano vikārātmakam āpa pañcasu
guṇeṣu māyā-raciteṣu dehy asau
prapadyamānaḥ saha tena jāyate
TRANSLATION
At the time of death, according to the thinking, feeling and willing of the mind, which is involved in fruitive activities, one receives a particular body. In other words, the body develops according to the activities of the mind. Changes of body are due to the flickering of the mind, for otherwise the soul could remain in its original, spiritual body.
tatas ca vah prcchyam imam viprcche
visrabhya vipra iti krtyatayam
sarvatmana mriyamanais ca krtyam
suddham ca tatramrsatabhiyuktah
TRANSLATION
O trustworthy brahmanas, I now ask you about my immediate duty. Please, after proper deliberation, tell me of the unalloyed duty of everyone in all circumstances, and specifically of those who are just about to die.