Richard met a thirteen year old ‘incarnation’ of Krishna who dressed with a crown and a peacock feather, played a flute, and stood in the pose of Krishna. But he looked very different from the painting of Krishna Richard had purchased in Delhi. Although Richard believed this incarnation could be an accomplished yogi, he had no inclination to accept him as Krishna. Richard thought God is a serious subject, and cannot be taken lightly.
On another day a man grabbed Richard and stuck a metal stick on his ear, and gouged for some time. Then he took the stick out and showed Richard a big lump of ear wax; he had cleaned one ear of Richard. To clean the other he demanded a rupee. Since Richard didn’t have any money, the man left him with one dirty ear. Richard’s hearing was now like an unbalanced stereo system; he could hear clearly only in one ear. Richard learnt two lessons from this incident:
The dirty wax of egotism accumulated in the heart prevents us from clearly hearing the Lord’s voice within. A guru, with the stick of knowledge, cleans our hearts. It’s really ugly to see what may come out, but by following patiently, we keep cleaning. Another lesson I took from this experience was sometimes the Lord gives us a free sample of religious experience, but for more, we must pay a price with the currency of sincere dedication to the process of cleansing.
This realization of Richard answered a question I had for a long time; why is it that for some practitioners, after the initial excitement in spiritual life, the practice becomes boring and a drag. The Lord gives a free sample, and expects us to now become sincere. Radhanath Swami explains that sincerity means practicing spiritual life even if we do not get regular experiences or visions of God. A practitioner’s faith will be tested by God and a prolonged period of dryness is an opportunity for us to grow in our spiritual lives. Spiritual growth requires us to break the ritualistic barrier and go deeper in our practices.
Radhanath Swami reveals that to go deeper we need to know that spiritual life is not a mechanical set of rituals; rather it’s a moment-to-moment remembrance of God. If we can constantly remember God then the spiritual experience will continue with time. In fact the realizations will grow corresponding to our prayerful remembrance of God. God also puts his devotees through different tests. At such times, although externally we may be facing difficulties, our turning to God gives us a spiritual experience. Life then becomes worth living, for a seeker experiences internal union with God. Radhanath Swami offers studying scriptural prayers as an advice for those seeking divine experiences.
The scriptures are filled with the prayers of great souls. A devotee repeats these prayers, not as a stereotype ritual but with a desire to understand the content and feelings of the pure devotees offering these prayers. With an enthusiasm to access the Lord’s mercy, a seeker of spiritual experience invests his feelings into these prayers, and simultaneously offers his own personal prayers to God. A contemplative study of the scriptures and prayerful connection to God is a small price a devotee pays, in exchange of which the lord fills his heart with divine happiness.
Table of Contents
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........
A devotee should do contemplative study of the scriptures and pray to God for reestablishing the lost connection with Him. This is a small price one pays, in exchange of which the lord fills his heart with divine happiness. What a wonderful statement by Radhanath Swami
View CommentRadhanath Swami has vision of a true Sadhu. He sees hand of Lord in every situation.
View CommentVery nice article. Thank you very much for sharing the same.
View CommentThank you Radhananth swami maharaj for showing us how to see lord everywhere.
View CommentIt is very surprising how Radhanath Swami with his normal day to day incidents got immense realisations that brought him closer to God & his guru…….simply great
View Commentnice article
View CommentVery Good Article
View CommentSuch great realization Radhanath swami has.from such insignificant things he derives great conclusions.
View Commentvery beautiful explanation and experience, thanks for sharing, bhakti
View Commentits very important that we all cleanse the dirt in our hearts and try to hear the inner voice of the lord and see him in everything that we do, its lords way of being anonymous, rajesh karia
View CommentIf we constantly associate with pure devotees like Radhanath Swami, then we can gain spiritual strength even in times of adversity when we are feeling very low.
View CommentThe Lord gives us a free sample of religious experience, but for more, we must pay a price with the currency of sincere dedication to the process of cleansing-wonderful point by Radhanath swami.
View CommentOur sincere dedication & devotion to bonafide gurus such as Radhanath Swami & shelter of their spiritual guidance alone can help us maintain our spiritual practices even in difficult times.
View CommentWow such unbelievable experiences of Radhanath Swami are shared herein. With each ‘seamingly crazy thing / event’, Radhanath Swami has shared priceless and genious realizations.
View CommentHH Radhannath Swami is true Sadhu…
View CommentRadhanath Swami is so true. No Pain No Gain. Krishna is king of Marketing. He wants everyone to come back to him.
View CommentThe small ‘price’ we pay for the tremendous spiritual gains needs to be remembered by us at all times, specially in times of difficulties.
View CommentThe material adversities that we face while treading the spiritual path is a very small price & insignificant in comparision to the eternal life of bliss & happiness that can be attained in God’s kingdom, if we simply do His will and serve His pure devotees like Radhanath Swami.
View Commentthe living example
View CommentRadhanath Swami Maharaj has emphasized reading & that too prayerful reading.
View CommentMany times it happens that we are reading few scriptures or reciting a prayer which we might not undertstand correctly at that point of time,however because of our sincere prayers and our personal inputs later god gives us a chance to understand these prayers as per the understanding of the pure devottess who has composed these prayers…
View Commentwe generally expect the spiritual life to be shock absorber of the material life to get some relief we tend to adopt spiritual path and as soon as the difficulties come we loose the taste and give it up. Lord tests our sincerity and faith in him by putting us in difficult situations, if are through then he gives a higher taste which we are always anxious for.
View CommentReally like the point of remembering the Lord moment to moment through prayerful mood that can be learnt from the prayers of great devotees whose lifes are detailed in the scriptures.
View CommentThe more one advances, the more one realizes what a small price he had to pay for spirituality….
View CommentPatience is one of the important principles in Spiritual life, without which there is no chance for success.
Radhanath Swami’s life is such an amazing example of intergrity, determination and patience to find a Spiritual path and connection to God…
View CommentMaharaj has time and again stressed the importance of prayers!!!
View CommentThey really help.
Also, such a deep realization about the dull phases during spiritual life, its the time to grow and not put a full stop to it.
It is true that in our initial spiritual days, we are more intense in our prayers & in our service attitude. But as we get familiar with the devotees & become regular in attending the congregational programs, we tend to become complacent & even proud at times, ultimately leading to envy of other devotees. Radhanath Swami therefore keeps stressing the fact that as we get mature in our spiritual life, we need to take utmost care not to lose the enthusiasm & humility while doing our service to the temple & devotees. Otherwise, we can ruin our spiritual lives by ending up making offences to Vaishnavas because of our false pride & ego.
View CommentHH Radhanath Swami has drawn such amazing lessons from the incidents. He is so aware of the situations around him and seeing the hand of God happening around. Wow!
View Commentreally to understand god is not so easy. We have to pray the price of sincerity. thank you very much.
View CommentThere will be difficulties , reversals on our path but if we don’t loose the focus … the pearls of wisdom will keep coming in our path and we will be closer to God each time we don’t give up. Thank you Radhanath Swami
View CommentFirst, its amazing to see how Richard learns a lesson or more from every experience he goes through. Second, the lessons mentioned here, especially, the point of sincerity to God and its continuation throughout our life is so very useful to people like me. We think we are sincere, but it is to our own egotistic life that we are sincere, not to the process of cleansing our hearts.
View CommentA devotee repeats these prayers, not as a stereotype ritual but with a desire to understand the content and feelings of the pure devotees offering these prayers. With an enthusiasm to access the Lord’s mercy, a seeker of spiritual experience invests his feelings into these prayers, and simultaneously offers his own personal prayers to God. — We actually experience this when we see Radhanath Swami singing devotional songs.
View CommentSuch a deep understanding given by Radhanath Swami and guiding many to follow the examples of offering prayers to God by the previous teachers, great sages and great personalities from scriptures. As we see from our daily lives to achieve anything material takes so much effort than what to speak of the Spiritual experience. we need to really pay the price of our conciousness always engaged in the rememberance of God.
View Commentmay this article inspire us to always stand up against the tests of time and never turn away from krishna conciousness … a prayful mood devoid of false ego is all that would help us … thank you maharaj for this wonderful instruction
View Comment“why after some time spiritual life becomes boring” Radhaanth swami gives the answer with a graphic analogy of cleaning one ear.Thank you for sharing this expereince from life of Radhanath swami.
View CommentRadhanath Swami Maharaj gave a beautiful analogy – free sample and the price one needs to pay for more spiritual experiences. Thanks also for the importance of prayers and how one should offer them.
View CommentDeep two lessons from apparently not-so-important incidents. Beautiful. Thanks to Radhanath swami
View Commenttouching thoughts by Radhanath Swami.
View CommentThank you for sharing this nice meditation. Nothing comes free in this world
View CommentMaharaj says that Krishna Consciousness is moment to moment and he himself practices it very diligently.Little wonder that his life is an example for all of us.
View Commentvery nice article and beautifully explained by this article, regards, bhakti karia
View Commentone of my favorite articles, thanks for posting this one, rajesh karia
View CommentThank you Radhanath Swami for telling us the unique price we have to pay for spiritual experiences.
View CommentWhenever I read such profound articles based on Radhanath Swami’s book The Journey Home, my heart is filled with renewed determination to try and become more serious in my spiritual endeavours.
View CommentThank you for sharing this truly inspiring article. Narada Muni too in his previous life was advised by the Lord to continue to meditate and not get disturbed by his disappearance. Radhanath Swami ki Jai!
View CommentGlories to Radhanath Swami!
View CommentGood to hear that Sincereity is the price for spiritual experience.
View CommentVery true.
View CommentWonderful article. Thank you very much.
View CommentRadhanath Swami reveals that to go deeper we need to know that spiritual life is not a mechanical set of rituals; rather it’s a moment-to-moment remembrance of God. If we can constantly remember God then the spiritual experience will continue with time. In fact the realizations will grow corresponding to our prayerful remembrance of God. God also puts his devotees through different tests. At such times, although externally we may be facing difficulties, our turning to God gives us a spiritual experience. Life then becomes worth living, for a seeker experiences internal union with God. Radhanath Swami offers studying scriptural prayers as an advice for those seeking divine experiences….I liked this very much .
View Comment