Gary and Richard (now Radhanath Swami) were at France and wondered where to go now. Richard replied they surrender to God’s will. Hitch hiking, they reached Geneva and befriended Jim. Richard revealed how he had been accidently left out by the draft board. Later Jim’s belongings got stolen and Gary wondered if the both of them were bad luck as others are troubled because of their association; first Frank and now Jim got robbed. Richard assures that everything in life- the draft board making a mistake in keeping out Richard and the bad luck of Frank and Jim, and even their unexpected destinations- are God’s will. Richard exclaimed that God had a beautiful plan behind it all.
The ability to see God’s plan behind everything that happens in our life is very difficult; especially when things don’t work according to our plans. Radhanath Swami says it requires humility to accept that we are not the doers and God is all good. To have faith in God’s goodness in trying circumstances opens the door of unlimited grace. Radhanath Swami repeatedly tells us, “God is our dearest friend and well-wisher, and everything He does is for our highest good.” This reminds me that a favourite saying in many God-centered self-help groups is “Let go and let God.” This is a high ideal for any practitioner of a spiritual path.
Radhanath Swami urges a spiritual seeker to accept the fact that we cannot know what God has in mind for us, and God’s plans are always beyond our comprehension. God’s plans are bigger and broader and more far reaching than our tiny little minds can possibly conceive of.
Radhanath Swami reveals on the basis of scriptures that God resides in the heart of every living entity and He knows our hearts, our desires, our attachments, or needs. He is there guiding us, and directing our lives in such a way as to lead us to Him as surely and truly and quickly as we are willing to accept and come to Him. However Radhanath Swami says we are engrossed in relative matters and hence unable to see God’s beautiful plan unfolding in our lives.
I remembered a famous story about a Taoist farmer that goes like this:
This farmer had only one horse, and one day the horse ran away. The neighbours came to console him over his terrible loss. The farmer said, “What makes you think it is so terrible?”
A month later, the horse came home–this time bringing with her two beautiful wild horses. The neighbours became excited at the farmer’s good fortune. Such lovely strong horses! The farmer said, “What makes you think this is good fortune?”
The farmer’s son was thrown from one of the wild horses and broke his leg. All the neighbours were very distressed. Such bad luck! The farmer said, “What makes you think it is bad?”
A war came, and every able-bodied man was conscripted and sent into battle. Only the farmer’s son, because he had a broken leg, remained. The neighbours congratulated the farmer. “What makes you think this is good?” said the farmer.
The story reveals that instead of being swayed back and forth by the various appearances of so called good and bad fortune in this life, we can become more balanced and realize that everything is relative and we don’t ever really know what is good fortune, and what is bad fortune. Radhanath Swami explains that the only good fortune is to allow God’s plans for us to unfold, and become an instrument for His will, and the only bad fortune is in not doing that.
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Founder-acharya of the International Society For Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)
“Go to India” a sweet but commanding voice; spoke up in the heart of young Richard (later Radhanath Swami) who was immersed in meditation, his search for meaning in life has brought him to the Isle of Crete. Today he was ordered to go to India. Born and raised in the middle class suburbs of Chicago, Radhanath swami grew up in the 1950’s and 60’s era when popular musicians protested war, prejudice and social injustice. Radhanath swami would listen to these songs again and again, but their lyrics referring to God stirred his soul. Peter, Paul and Mary- the folk trio from Greenswich village sang in their debut album
“Early in the morning, about the break of day
I ask the Lord, to help me find my way”
This simple prayer was to guide Radhanath swami in the coming years of his life........
As HH Radhanath Swami says, it is true that God has many plans for us and we can not comprehend what is good and what is bad for us. However, it is also difficult to apply this in our life and take every thing in a positive way unless we have the mercy and guidance by great souls like HH Radhanath Swami, apart from our own endeavour.
View CommentHaving faith in God and understanding that evrything he does for us is best can help us overcome all fear and anxeity.
View CommentHaving faith in God and understanding that everything He does for us is best can help us overcome all fear and anxeity.
View CommentThis is very Correct. Thank you Prabhu.
View CommentAll Glories To H.H Radhanath Swami Maharaj
What an amazing narrative.How naturally did it come to Maharaj that everything is a gods crafted plan for us, and how he implores us to see everything as relative and not get swayed by the occurrences in ones life.
how profound is it for our deeper understanding, and thus only this understanding can help us remain if not undisturbed but make an attempt to maintain tranquility in our day to day living.
Hare Krishna
View Comment‘Radhanath Swami explains that the only good fortune is to allow God’s plans for us to unfold, and become an instrument for His will, and the only bad fortune is in not doing that.’ Thank you for sharing this beautiful teaching with us.
View CommentTo implement what Radhanath Swami has written and has been practicising shows that he has immense conviction and faith in God !
View Commentthis is unconditional surrender to the will of d lord
View CommentH. H. Radhanath Swami Maharaj, with his own experiance, beautifully explain that everthing god does is for our own benefit.
View CommentAmazing article.
View CommentI am reminded of what the Bg in essence says, “Always remeber Krishna, Never forget Krishna’. As suggested by Maharaj, if we see Krishna’s hand in everything happening around us, it becomes easy to remeber Him all the time. Thank you Maharaj for giving us this realization.
View CommentIn conditioned state we plan thingsions. and we want them to go our way, but on spiritual path we should pray to God to gives us the patience and wisdom to follow His plan for us.
View CommentThank you very much for sharing
View CommentThats really true. If just think that we are not the doers and depend totally by surrendering ourself to Supreme lord, we can overcome the anxiety from our life and can mold our conciousness
View Commentvery inspiring article and a must read for all, haribol, bhakti
View CommentHHRNSM has very beautifully explained the importance of GOD’s plans in everybody’s lives, and the statement made here by HHRNSM is so impactful ‘ Let go and Let God!’- is just so true and practical, haribol, rajesh karia
View CommentThank you so much Maharaj.
View CommentSrila Prabhupada says, “Always remember Krishna, Never forget Krishna”. If we can see Krishna’s hand in everything happening around us, it becomes very easy to remember Him all the time. All glories to Maharaj.
View CommentRadhanath Swami has very nicely tried to explain how once we surrender to God, we should not think “Why God is doing this to me” whenever we face difficulties in our lives. God is the Supreme Eternal Father of all of us and we should understand that He can never do any harm to us. Thank you very much Radhanath Swami for sharing this.
View CommentThis meditation of HH Radhanath Swami really increases our faith in God as He is the true well wisher and best friend of all living entities.
View CommentEverytime we becomes panic when things don’t go our way. We try very hard to make our things our ways and in the due course we becomes frustrated since we are not the controllers of anything. Lack of this knowledge puts us in continous distress. This is really an eye opening meditation to try with our heart and soul to execute God’s will. Thanks for sharing this wonderful meditation.
View CommentRadhanath Swami accepted everything that was happening to him as God’s plan. He did that so easily and at that tender age. This is the true sign of spiritual elevation.
View CommentGod’s plan for each and every living entity is perfect. We need to have the faith that God KNOWS BEST.
View CommentVery educative article…..these realisations of Swamiji are really very deep & profound………thanks for sharing/…..
View CommentGod, our eternal father knows exactly what is good for each and every living being, only when we understand & realize this can we see the beautiful plan/will of the Lord. Radhanath Swami has perfectly exemplified this realization at every moment/step of his life.
View CommentOne must learn to see god’s plan in every thing we do.
View CommentRadhanath Swami urges a spiritual seeker to accept the fact that we cannot know what God has in mind for us – this is a very powerful statement
View CommentRadhanath Swami explains that the only good fortune is to allow God’s plans for us to unfold, and become an instrument for His will, and the only bad fortune is in not doing that.Amazing!
View CommentIt is so easy to lose faith when we are tested. Radhanath Swami teaches in beautiful ways to accept the will of the Supreme Lord as our highest good.
View CommentThank you very much for sharing. The only good fortune is to allow God’s plans for us to unfold, and become an instrument for His will, and the only bad fortune is in not doing that.
View CommentKrishna never does bad things. Radhanath Swami training his followers to accept this statement from each situation in the life. it is very good experience for the followers. All glories to Radhanath Swami.
View CommentJust by reading this article gives us so much inspiration to carry on with our lives in grateful manner and the example of the farmer is also prefectly told.
Thank you very much Maharaj
View CommentVery nice example to see everything coming in our life as mercy of the Lord. Thank you very much!
View CommentVery true. We should take every thing in a positive way .
View CommentWhat a wonderful article based on the teachings and life of Radhanath Swami.
I found particularly below statement very inspiring:
Radhanath Swami explains that the only good fortune is to allow God’s plans for us to unfold, and become an instrument for His will, and the only bad fortune is in not doing that
View CommentI wish I am able to understand this knowledge in its true sense. Thank you Maharaj!!
View CommentSuch a amazing understanding of what is real good fortune and real bad fortune with such a lucide example of farmer.
View CommentThe story is a very good illustration of how we are tossed about by classifying each and every event as good or bad according to our myopic understanding and vision of the world. Radhanath Swami is teaching us to allow God unfold His plans for us, because only He knows what is good for us.
View CommentPlans – we are doing this, we have our future secured and so on and so forth that’s how we are conditioned to go about our lives. When things go right, Hey! See what a planner I am, or otherwise there is some situation, some person or then providence to be blamed for that. Our problem is we interfere too much in Gods plans and mess it all up .Radhanath Swamis experiences and teachings help us to get a clearer vision of God’s plans and how we must accept ,learn and rectify ourselves to align with that
View CommentIt iften easy to know the things but very difficult to apply. To accept the God’s Plans means surrender to His will and not acting according to our will and desires. One needs spiritual guidance from exalted and realsied personlities like HH Radhanath Swami to imbibe these principles.
View CommentReminded me of a verse in Bhagavadgita which give the peace formula as understanding God as Supreme Proprietor, Supreme Controller, Supreme Enjoyer and Best Friend of every living entity brings peace.
View CommentIt is said that not even a leaf moves without the sanction of the Lord.Our life is fully controlled and guided by the Lord of couse, based on our minute independence and desires.We can learn this beautiful lesson from the experiance of Radhanath Swami.
View CommentGod’s plan is for our spiritual growth and we should have faith in it…
View CommentReally hope-giving
View Commentas maharaj always says …. any situation good or bad is actually good if it takes us closer to krishna and bad if it takes us away from krishna….
View Commentthank you for the post
View CommentAmazing article. The last sentence is especially powerful.
View CommentBeautiful…the way Radhanath Swami has allowed the mercy of God to flow through his life and touch many more and also the the way the above meditation is written…
We hope one day to develop these qualities and become an able instrument in hand of God and his pure devotees…
View CommentWe must strive to be an instrument-a puppet in god’s plan
View Commentvery thought provoking realization by HH Radhanth Swami Maharaj… and a very nice story to emphasize the point.
View Comment