Listen Now

Welcome to Applied Spirituality with Radhanath Swami on devotionalnectar.comThis is Episode 13 – Simple Living High ThinkingSrila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, my param guru, the beloved spiritual teacher of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, emphasised that the foundational quality of a true devotee is – simplicity. Without simplicity, bhakti cannot be real; it cannot be deep.What is simplicity? In one sense, simplicity means that we don’t need a lot of things to be happy. – Radhanath Swami.We’re content with simple things: watching the sunrise, and then waiting sometime and watching the sunset. These are very simple joys in life. Hearing the birds singing in the trees, being on the banks of a river contemplating the messages and wisdoms of nature, simple relationships.Affection is a simple thing. A child is by nature quite simple, especially when they are young, they just want to be loved and they just want to love. These are simple things, doesn’t cost money, doesn’t need scientists to research, and doesn’t need all sorts of technological updates. To love and to be loved, are the simple gifts of life. And ultimately when we connect to our love for Krishna and actually realise Krishna’s love for us, there is nothing more satisfying, then in whatever situation we are in, we can be happy. When we are agitated, lonely, bored from within, then we need all sorts of distractions to cope with it. But however many distractions, like intoxication, it can divert our attention away from the emptiness within, but it can’t fill, it can’t fill that need that we have. And this is a serious problem. Instead of understanding what the re

Welcome to Applied Spirituality with Radhanath Swami on devotionalnectar.com This is Episode 12 – Winning the Game of LifeIn today’s world, people are prone to emphasize in their own aspirations – quantity rather than quality. Quantity of money, quantity of power, quantity of prestige, popularity, these things could be very helpful for ourselves and others, but not at the cost of the quality of our life, of our ideals, of what we live for and what we die for. It is said that, ‘If you don’t have something so important, an ideal so important that you are living for, if you are not willing to die for something, you don’t really have much to live for.’Character and integrity are quality, and we will be tested in the game of life. – Radhanath SwamiWill you be willing to compromise the integrity of sacred ideals that you know are foundational just for some popularity, prestige, or for some profit? Perhaps, one of the greatest reasons for all the problems in the world today is people are doing that. The economic collapse is very much affected by people who were more concerned with their own power, prestige and acquisition of wealth and property, than they were with living according to the foundation of integrity, morality, ethics, and a selfless spirit of service to others. Does a mother find more pleasure in getting a gift, or does she find more pleasure in giving to her children and making them happy? It is an obvious answ

Welcome to Applied Spirituality with Radhanath Swami on devotionalnectar.com This is Episode 11 – Art of ToleranceOne can measure a person’s character by their capacity to tolerate difficulties. We are living in a world of dualities. One cannot escape dualities. One must learn to adjust one’s consciousness and maintain integrity despite dualities. Example is given of a coin; there is a head side and a tail side. If you want one side, you automatically must accept the other. They are inseparable. Distress is inseparable to happiness, pleasure and pain are inseparable, attraction-aversion, honor-dishonour, success and failure, and these dualities will come upon anyone at any time.One of the greatest problems we face in life is we all want to be in control of our destiny, today and tomorrow, but the problem is no one is in control. There are higher powers dictating circumstances upon everyone. We have control over our future destiny by our activities today, that is the laws of karma. But what is coming upon is something that is not always under our control. – Radhanath SwamiUltimately, we are all being controlled by time. No one wants to become old, you lose your beauty, you lose your money, and you lose your physical capacities. Does anyone want to be old? But, can anyone stop the process? It is a humbling experience to live in this world, because we are not the controller. Everyone wants to succeed, but so many people fail. Everyone wants it to be nice weather, but we cannot control intense heat and intense cold. We are all subordinate, depen

Welcome to Applied Spirituality with Radhanath Swami on devotionalnectar.com This is Episode 9 – Vedic Perspective on Climate ChangeCouple of years ago I was in Udipi, a very spiritually holy place in South India. The place I was staying was on a dirt road which was quite away from the city or the town, and every day I would look outside my window and see a little puppy dog, there were two little puppy dogs. And the mother was always trying to protect them, because I had heard from the people in the house I was staying that, two of her other puppies were run over by cars and killed right in front of her eyes. And these were her two surviving children. So you can imagine how fearful, how attached, and how protective she was after seeing two of her own children killed by cars.Now one of these little puppy dogs, very small just like a little ball of fur, was so energetic, he was just running and jumping and leaping, and one day he decided he wanted to dig a hole that he could lay in. So he was working for hours and hours every day just digging on the side of the road, digging, digging, and the mother would come up and lick him and smell him and feed him, and he was just digging; very attentive, intense, determined. For about three four days he was digging until the hole was about a foot deep, and when he finally got that hole really nice, he went inside, crawled up and went to sleep. I walked by and I saw him, and it was like he was in heaven. It was his own custom- made, personally tailored bed.On

Welcome to Applied Spirituality with Radhanath Swami on devotionalnectar.comThis is Episode 8 – STOP WORRYING, START LIVINGThere are numberless reasons within the world that we live: we may be worried about our health, about our wealth, about our loved ones, about our friends, we may be worried about your yesterday, your today, or your tomorrow, and we may be worried about the environment and the situation in the world and politics. The nature of this world is birth, disease, old age and death.The nature of this world is everything is always changing and essentially the biggest problem is we want to control our environment and the eternal reality is you and me we are not the controllers. Things are going to go their own way. We can try our best and to some degree we have influence, but ultimately things are out of our control. So to the degree we are attached to anything or anyone on this worldly platform, there will be worries. Attachment brings worry which is the cause of lack of inner spiritual fulfillment.– Radhanath Swami We have often given the example of the foundation of a building. Externally we see the building: the architecture, the furniture, the painting, the particular building material may be marble, may be plaster; but it is the foundation that holds it up and gives it the strength. Without a strong foundation when a storm comes it will be blown down; with a strong foundation hurricanes or earthquakes cannot harm it.

Welcome to Applied Spirituality with Radhanath Swami on devotionalnectar.comThis is Episode 7 – UNITY IS STRENGTHOne of the greatest powers in all fields of life is unity.  But there is a fundamental problem, that there are so many diversified distinctions between living beings.  Everyone has their own conception of their identity and this creates a natural conflict amongst those who look different, think different, or act different. There has always been conflict between the castes, not only in India but all over the world, and it may go by different names – there is the educational class, there is the administrative class, there is the working class, there is the class of trade and agriculture, there has always been distinctions and conflict between nationalities, between races, between religions, between generations of people’s ages, between sexes, and between philosophers. On practically every level of the world there is reason for conflict, even within a family there is the older brother and the younger brother that creates conflict, because everyone has their separate independent interests.There is an example:  if you throw a stone in a clear pond of water, wherever that stone falls it will create a circle, and that circle will expand, expand, expand. If you put another stone and throw it into another part of that water, it will create another center, and from that center the circle will get bigger and bigger.  However many different places you put stones, there will be different circles, and they will all collide

Welcome to Applied Spirituality with Radhanath Swami on devotionalnectar.comThis is Episode 6 – DYING TO LIVEThe great philosopher from Germany Hegel spoke very strongly the principle “Die to Live,” which is very much in harmony with the essential knowledge of the Bhagavad Gita and the Vedas. If you want to live in truth, you will have to die as you are in your present state of consciousness. Material illusory consciousness is one of exploitation and real consciousness of the soul is a consciousness of service.  Death to the ego is a process; it is the most important process that is the very basis of all spiritual paths. Just like gold, when you put gold in fire, the fire burns away all the gross coverings, and the longer the gold is in fire, the more its original natural shine manifests. It becomes more and more and more beautiful. Sandalwood – the more you press sandalwood or rub sandalwood, the more its natural beautiful fragrance is manifested.Thesis, antithesis and synthesis can be understood from various points of view. From one point of view, we can understand that theoretically we are the eternal soul, part of God.  We are eternal servants of Krishna. However, in our life, and in the process of purification, in the process of making actual progress there will be many challenges and obstacles that are threatening and fighting against the principle of what we want to achieve.  However, if we, with proper integrity and proper spiritual direction pass through those obstacles, they bring about realization. There is jnana, and through the process of overcoming so many obstacles on the path we develop vijnana or rea

Welcome to Applied Spirituality with Radhanath Swami on devotionalnectar.comThis is Episode 5 – THE DESIRE TO LOVE AND BE LOVEDWhen two people say let us make love, what does that mean? It means sexual experience. In the name of love this is the practical idea that people are very much influenced by – kama or lust. It is said in Chaitanya Charitamrita that metal is one, there is gold and there is iron – love is like gold, and kama or lust is like iron. It is very influential in the world. It is the basic theme of the movies; they spend hundreds and millions of dollars on some movies and they make profits, sometimes of billions of dollars on movies, and they are usually love stories.Advertising is one of the greatest ways of promoting any product – whether it is paper or glue, it is with a beautiful woman or handsome man – to somehow or other connect that need to express passion which is with in the heart through that product. Fashions are very much to attract the opposite sex to awaken passion.Krishna says in Gita –kama esa krodha esa rajo-guna-samudbhavah mahasano maha-papma viddhy enam iha vairinam [BG 3.37]“That it is lust, it is kama only Arjuna! This is great symbol of sin which is later transformed into wrath when unfulfilled, which is the all devouring sinful enemy of this world.” The scriptures declare that this material universal creation is maithunya agara, which means everyone, is shackled by these attractions of sex –

Welcome to Applied Spirituality with Radhanath Swami on devotionalnectar.comThis is Episode 4 – THE POWER TO CHANGEThe power to change is in each and every one of our hands at every moment. As human beings we have a most precious gift, a gift that differentiates us from all other species of life: the fish, the insects, the reptiles, the animals, the birds. They are more or less programmed by nature to behave in certain ways. You never see a tiger becoming a vegetarian on ethical grounds, and you never see a cow running as fast as it can to devour a rabbit. It really never has choice, they act according to nature. You never see a mosquito eating berries because he does not want to hurt anyone. They cannot think beyond the way they are karmically programmed by nature. But a human being has free will. That free will could create the worst disasters or the greatest blessings: we could create nuclear bombs and drop them, we can pollute the environment, we can create crime, we can declare wars, we could do terrorism, we could abuse, abuse the innocent, and it is based on free will. Or, we could enlighten ourselves and perform every act, every word and every thought in a spirit of deep compassion for all living beings.So, when we speak of change we are speaking of how we choose to use our free will. – Radhanath SwamiWe all have that. In one sense the way creation has been designed since beginning, it is constantly changing, we can’t stop change. It is a question of what type of change we want to facilitate. Mahatma Gandhi, Subhas Chandra Bose believed in something by their free will, and they were willing to make sacrifices for their ideals. People were willing to be killed, willing to be

Welcome to Applied Spirituality with Radhanath Swami on devotionalnectar.comThis is Episode 3 – FORGIVENESS: THE BASIS OF ALL RELATIONSHIPSForgiveness is a quality that is absolutely crucial in order for there to be any peace of mind, or any peace and harmony within this world because it is the age of Kali, an age especially characterized by the rampant inclination for quarrel and hypocrisy.If we can’t forgive then there is no possibility of any relationships surviving on any level, whether it is God-brother and God-brother, or God-Sister and God-Sister, husband and wife, friend and friend, neighbor and neighbor, between religions, between various ethnic groups and caste, between nations. – Radhanath SwamiThe nature of this world is that it is under laws. There is the law of gravity; law of gravity means everything’s nature is to go down. Yes? For those of who are structural engineers, you know your whole service is somehow or other battling against the laws of gravity, to build a structure that will stay up despite the natural tendency to collapse, and there are so many impediments to keep it up. There are so many stimulants in this world to drag everything down, especially our consciousness.Without the quality of forgiveness everything sacred within life must collapse. – Radhanath SwamiI will give an example of how maintaining resentment, hatred, vengefulness affects our own heart. Someone hurts us and we are angry; we feel that our rights have been violated. We pick up burning hot amber of coal; it’s just bright red from within and without like fire. We pick it up with our hand and hold on to it and hold o