Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Prabhupada Katha

As they walked together under a steel bridge, Prabhupada pointed upward with his walking cane, "Look"-a sign under the bridge read UNALLOYED STEEL-"they have unalloyed steel, and we have unalloyed devotional service.
"What if people don't want to hear our message?" Pradyumna asked.
"The people might not understand our message, but Krsna will be pleased," Prabhupada replied. "And that is our mission. They thought Jesus Christ's mission was stopped. They killed him. But his mission was attained. He preached three years only, but so many followers. He pleased Krsna. We must not be disappointed that no one is hearing Krsna consciousness. We will say it to the moon and stars and all directions. We will cry in the wilderness, because Krsna is everywhere. We want to get a certificate from Krsna that "This man has done something for Me.” Not popularity. If a pack of asses says you are good, what is that? We have to please Krsna's senses with purified senses."

Spiritual Questions and Answers with Radhanath Swami

How to keep the mind steady?
Question to Radhanath Swami: I wanted to know how to keep the mind steady; usually we have contradictory ideas and thoughts going in mind.
Radhanath Swami Answers: The nature of the mind is like that of a monkey, it jumps from branch to branch. It goes to one branch, then to the next branch, then to the branch next to that, then again the first branch—2nd, 4th, 10th,1st, 9th, 3rd. It’s the way the mind works. But when you give the monkey a nice ripe banana, it’s happy. Similarly, Bhakti is about giving the mind a deep and fulfilling experience.
Though we may not get that higher taste immediately, but since we know it’s there waiting for us, that helps us keep the mind steady. Coming back to the analogy of the monkey, if the monkey has the banana, it will stop jumping from branch to branch even before it has tasted the banana; it stops jumping in order to go through the process of pealing the banana.
Our spiritual practice, our sadhana, is like pealing the banana. We know that the higher taste is there – inside – just as the monkey knows that the banana is there inside the peal. And just knowing that it is there, and keeping our mind focussed on the process, our mind can be kept steady.
So when we are chanting the holy names the mind will go here and there; do not worry about it; just bring it back. Bring it back to the divine sound vibration, to that object of our meditation. Try to keep it there, and if it runs away – and it will surely run away–we bring it back as soon as we realize it has run away.
While we do seva, if we realize our mind is wandering, we just bring it back. ‘I am doing this for Krishna; let me do it in the best possible way.’ The more we take responsibility to do something wonderful for God – sweeping the floor, cooking a meal or doing our business – if we are really doing it for Krishna, for God, we are going to be attentive to whatever details we can, and that keeps our mind focussed.

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Question and Answers with HH Radhanath Swami

Today's Q&A
----
Maharaj I have a question from one of the student here… he says Maharaj one of my friend is asking me If Krishna can have so many wives why cant I have at least 2 or more? I tried to answer him Maharaj but he is not satisfied, please tell me Maharaj what do I have to say to him.
HH RadhaNath Swami Maharaj:
How many wives he has now? If he has two or more wives, then he already know the answer. In fact if he has one wife also he would have got the answer.
Lord Krishna had 16108 wives and he expanded himself to 16108 forms to give company to each wife all day all night, and all of them were perfectly satisfied with his love, devotion care and protection. That’s Lord Krishna, he is the supreme whole, he is all perfect, he is maintaining and nourishing the whole universe. There is no problem for him to have 16 thousand wives, or 16million wifes or 16 billion wives. He is maintaining every living entity in all creation. I am 52 years old, I have travelled around the world many times, and to be very honest to you, I have not seen a man perfectly satisfied with even one wife. So be honest my friend, …many of them become Bramhachari’s (everyone start laughing)… that means they don’t see point in even trying.
But actually the reason they have become Bramhachari’s is much more noble cause than that. The person does not become Bramhachari or Sanyasi, because he does not want to take responsibility of wife and family. The person becomes a Sadhu, because he is willing to make a sacrifice to uplift the whole human society. Gouranga Prabhu ki Jai, Gour Gopal Prabhu ki jai.
It's Radhastami eve 🌟💫
Krishnas feet burn from hot milk offered to Radharani:
Many, many years after leaving Vraja, Krishna met the Vrajavasis at Kurukshetra.
Of course, srimati Radharani and all the Gopis had come too.
At night, after they retired to their respective tents, Krishna told Rukmini that Radharani loves to have milk before sleeping, so please go and give her milk.
Now Rukmini was not too happy about this but she had to do Krishna’s bidding of course.
So she brought hot milk for Radha.
She asked Radharani to drink it fast, so that she could go back to her tent and tell Krishna that Radharani drank the milk.
She obeyed, although the milk was still so hot that it burnt her throat. But Radharani did not say a word.
Rukmini went back to the tent, and as was her usual Service to Krishna, she started massaging His Lotus Feet.
t was then that she noticed that His Feet had sores all over it and she was shocked and asked Him what happened.
He told her, you asked Radharani to drink very hot milk, and as she always meditates on my Feet, it was not Her throat, but it was my Feet that got burnt. Rukmini wept!!!
It was then only that she realized how pure and how complete Radharani's love for Krishna was!...
HK🙏🏽

Tuesday, September 15, 2015


Question and Answers by HH Radhanath Swami

Self Confidence vs. Over Confidence
Question to Radhanath Swami: How will you distinguish between self confidence and over confidence?
Radhanath Swami Answers: We should be willing to take risks and have courage to go beyond what we feel we can do. But is has to be realistic. Enthusiasm and patience are necessary for real achievement on the spiritual platform.
In one sense we should not be afraid of being over confident, if it is based on the proper foundation of confidence and faith. However, we should not be stupid. Srila Praphupada, our Guru, used to say that you shouldn’t go to the forest and embrace the tiger, even though you know that God is in the heart of the tiger; you shouldn’t lovingly kiss the lips of a cobra, even though you know that he is a child of God. That is a type of over confidence, because it’s just beyond your level of reality. You have to be intelligent.
So there must be proper utilization of intelligence and at the same time enthusiasm and patience, devoid of arrogance. But don’t be afraid to strive for things beyond the horizon of your ideals.