Radhanath Swami

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he compared himself to a gardener. He said, “I have come with these fruits, the fruits of love of God. If anyone tastes a single fruit, they will be satisfied forever. And I have so many fruits, unlimited fruits. I cannot distribute them myself.” He requested his devotees to assist him.

Srila Prabhupada had the vision of millions of people coming to Mayapur dham. Srila Prabhupada travelled around the world eleven times to bring the blessings and the mercy of Shri Mayapur to the world.

Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in his very advent, he showed the world an untouchable and a high class brahman, as brothers, intimately in the principle of bhakti, chanting together and it was that combination that Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu surrendered his heart to to come to show compassion to the whole world.

When a dear person in our lives, passes from this world, we understand the feeling of hopelessness and pain that could be there. Because there's affection, the affection, the love between Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and his devotees in Navadwip, Srivasa, Advaita, Haridas, Murari Gupta, Vishnu Priya, and especially his mother, Sachi devi, their love was millions and billions of trillions, in fact unl...

And before boarding the Jaladuta, Srila Prabhupada writes in his diary, he came to Mayapur dham. This is where it all began. And ultimately, this is where he was going to bring people from all over the world. That was his vision.

He was not seeing with material vision. He was seeing that Mayapur is the most powerful place in the world. Because it is the place where we could, people from all around the world, connect with the deepest, most profound manifestation of Krishna’s grace.

And for revealing the dham through literature all over India, he gave that credit to Srila Bhakti Siddhant Saraswati Thakur and for bringing every possible caste and race and religion and every species of human beings to Mayapur to worship Shri Shri Panchatatva, Radha Madhava, Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu gave that credit to our beloved Srila Prabhupada.

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu opened up the gates to invite and welcome everyone into the pastimes of Vrindavan that took place here in Shri Navadwip. Therefore, our Vaishnav scriptures and Acharyas, declare that Navadwip and Vrindavan are absolutely non-different, they are one.

Devotees in those days they talked about, during the monsoons, it was flooded. They were on the roof of the thatched hut and cobras, snakes and scorpions were also looking for shelter on the roof. Who would have conceived?

Sometimes long drives, sometimes hot cement under our feet, sometimes sun, sometimes we are late for Prasad. Whatever it may be, we should simply gladly accept it as an opportunity for spiritual advancement and most of all through hearing and chanting together we can develop spiritual love for each other.

Prahupada, if he would have said that, he would have had hundreds and millions of disciples. But Srila Prabhupada was representing the highest truths. He wasn’t trying to give people a little bit of piety in the name of spirituality; he was trying to show the path of perfection.

The greatest welfare work is to teach people how to purify and cleanse their hearts through chanting God’s names—hare krṣṇa hare krṣṇa, krṣṇa krṣṇa hare hare, hare rāma hare rāma, rāma rāma hare hare.

Why are you going to school? Why not you just flow with your destiny? You have the choice to either study or fail. Only a fool will say, “Why should I study? It is my destiny to fail.” Tell that to your professor. Then when you have you report card, tell your parents that. It is a useless, impractical philosophy.

The solution is to recondition ourselves. We have cultivated selfishness, all sorts of desires for acquisition and enjoyment. The process of sanatana dharma is to recondition our mind, senses and life to purity, to humility, to selfless service and when we engage in devotion to God—the power of God’s mercy upon us when we act in his service is so great, that in a relatively short period of time it...

Just like in material educational system—there is algebra, there is basic arithmetic; then there is mathematics, calculus—they’re all levels of the same subject. Now for those who are in a lesser school, they see that they are very separate. But for one who has a Ph. D. in this subject, he sees that they are all developed, they are all intertwined and developed for the same purpose to achieve the...

Lord Caitanya and the six Goswamis actually taught us how to cultivate separation for Krishna. Lord Chaitanya's ecstasy is that he would cry in separation from Krishna.

Unless we experience this higher taste, we will not be able to give up the illusions of maya. So we should be determined, determined in whatever situation we're in, to cultivate this higher taste of Krishna consciousness by guarding against offenses, by cultivating humility in service of Vaishnavas, by being a real servant of the Lord's compassion toward the living beings, by engrossing ourselves...

The conclusion of all transcendental knowledge and the means by which we can achieve all transcendental realizations is through cleansing our hearts by sincerely chanting Krishna’s holy name, Krishna has made available all the goals which are achieved in various yugas

And to great scholars like Prakashananda Saraswati, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, to them he discussed very deep philosophy of Vedanta and the conclusions of Vedanta which is pure unalloyed devotion. But the conjugal pastimes of Radha and Krishna in Vrindavana, he only discussed with Shri Ramananda Rai and Swarupa Damodar. So, we are not going to go much farther than that following his footsteps.

When the Gopis went to meet Krishna, they had not even the slightest tinge of conception of satisfying their own mind, senses or bodies. They simply went to please Krishna, to give themselves completely for Krishna. There is not a tinge of material desire in the hearts of the Gopis.

He described how in the mood of a servant dasya rasa, one is willing to do everything and anything for the pleasure of the lord, one is willing to surrender his life or her life simply for the satisfaction of the lord and serving with love, ecstatic love.

So many times, even here in India, people come and tell us, you’ll be surprised how many people instruct sanyasis and sadhus of what the goal of life is, and the most common explanation is that ‘one should not renounce anything, one should simply perform one’s prescribed duty to one’s family and to one’s occupation and if one just does that, that is pleasing to Krishna. That is the goal of life.

In this way, the lord who is in a role of a devotee, and his most intimate devotee, they exhibited the qualities of a Vaishnava. A Vaishnava is always taking the greatest happiness in appreciating the service and the devotion of other Vaishnavas. And a devotee is never envious, is never inclined to find faults with others but is always trying to appreciate whatever spiritual qualities are there in...

When Ramananda Rai came out of the Godavari, he saw this sanyasi sitting in the far east and the effulgence was so brilliant and attractive that he came and offered his prostrated obeisances to the sanyasi. And when Lord Chaitanya saw him, both of their love awakened with such pure feeling that Lord Chaitanya lifted him up and embraced him.

There’s not too many Kadambha Munis on the planet today who can do that. There is not that many Devhutis or Kadambha Munis today. But just because we can’t be like that does not mean we can’t learn from what there are trying to teach us. Sukadev Goswami extracted those episodes in history that are for the ultimate welfare of humanity, to learn from.