Searching For Light with Radhanath Swami | Rich Roll Podcast

Hello everyone, welcome to the program, my guest today is Radhanath Swami, he is a teacher, he is an author, an activist, this guy is a monk, he is an ascetic, a renunciant, a true sadhu, he is also one of the most prominent exponents of world of bhakti yoga, is in the house. here today to share his devotional wisdom we talk about what it means to live a spiritual life the importance of seva or service the importance of a spiritual practice we talk about his community work in ecological conservation the inherent power of love to heal what ails us and many other topics, if you enjoy this channel, it would mean a lot if you could click the subscribe button and hit the notification bell so that you can be properly alerted when each new video is posted.

Thank you very much for that and with that, enjoy my conversation. with the unique rajna swamy

swami

thank you very much for joining me today it is a pleasure to be in your virtual presence my only fear is that we could not do this in person I hope that at some point we will cross paths on the physical plane but for now we are relegated to zoom and I just appreciate that you took the time to talk to me today

rich

I feel very honored very grateful and very happy to be with you today I can feel your presence there are already so many uh so many things I want to talk to you to explore with you, but I think I would like to start spending a little time talking about our present moment.

We feel so divided that currently everyone seems to be isolated in their respective information. Cell emotions are running hot, people spend a lot of time defending their respective positions, signaling to their respective tribes that they are members in good standing, and I'm seeing this collapse in our ability to communicate effectively, listen to each other, understand each other. and All of this, of course, is compounded by the many crises we currently face, both existential and practical, from the pandemic to global warming right now, Greenland is melting, California is on fire, we are seeing hurricanes on the horizon and, of course, amplified by our inflamed political landscape and all of this makes me fear for our sanity and the stability of our future.

I see anxiety rising and am just interested in hearing your insight into our current moment and perhaps how we can find our way to some place of healing as a nation as a global community to unite around our many shared values. Do you know how we raise our collective consciousness and restore some semblance of cultural cohesion so that we can write this beautiful motherland that we call home, that's an important question, it's really important. I'm looking to you for answers, but really, whatever situation the world is in, because it's always changing, you know this is the most important question when things are in a very prosperous situation.

In a pleasant state we know that that is going to change and when things are in a very critical or painful state, we know that that is going to change too, so it is very important that we find the foundation within ourselves and among ourselves that really has meaning. and purpose in life. You know, pain is pain, it is as inevitable as death is inevitable in this world, but there is something beautiful in life, there is something beautiful in creation, there is something beautiful in our own being that is always there and always is. waiting for us and we can do the same.

The greatest good for the world is when we are connected to that and we help each other connect to that. So what is the process of creating that connection? You know, in times like this, we sometimes take the

light

of life for granted. until we are surrounded by darkness then we really look for the

light

and we really appreciate that the light is there and in these particular moments throughout history many of the greatest achievements in art and science and in religion, spirituality, architecture, you know. They have happened in times of great challenges. You know, many times challenging situations bring out the best in people or they can also bring out the worst in people and that is just a choice that each and every one of us can make in the Alcoholics Anonymous organization that I have created.

I have been invited to speak on several occasions. You know that there is a unity, a beautiful unity among people based on the crisis that they have gone through and, to some extent, are going through, because they understand that. mindset is very important in this world, you know, despite the differences in people's background and ideology, there is something urgent that we have in common that we could really focus on and like you said, you are very

rich

, you know the environment and This pandemic and the political landscape there is a lot to worry about. We need to find like-minded people.

We need to find unity in diversity where we can truly nurture and inspire each other because you know unity has the greatest strength. and that unity becomes stronger and stronger as each individual helps others cultivate their own individual strength and purpose and that is where spiritual practice is really important, where we really go to that power, to that grace, to that goodness that is inherent within us. our own hearts within our own souls and tap into that and be an instrument of God's love of spiritual love and share that with one another and it's beyond a sectarian idea, it's beyond a nationalistic idea, it's beyond a racial idea, it's beyond you know where. every living thing is sacred all creation is inherently sacred but we can't really appreciate that unless we understand that I am sacred the living force within me is sacred I don't have to compare myself to anyone or anything I just have to be the best I could be for god and for other people and for other living beings and the more we share this and the more we take this seriously to practice it, the more individually and collectively we can do something really wonderful in this world and There can be positive transformations of light and we have to look for that light and we have to move towards that light together.

I appreciate the optimism and enthusiasm for a better future and I love what you had. To say about how things like compassion, forgiveness, start with yourself, like we can't exude that compassion or that forgiveness for others until we extend it to our own being, is very difficult for a lot of people. I've had my own journey with that. and in alcoholics anonymous, which I also love, you mentioned I've been a member of that community for 23 years, right now they say you can't pass on something you don't have, you can't be compassionate to others unless we're inherently compassionate and that Compassion begins with self-compassion and the beautiful thing about that community is exactly what you said, that it is not about politics or religious inclination, it is about sharing a common experience for the betterment of all, it is about looking beyond our differences and identify the similarities that tell people when they come in don't look for the differences try to identify with what you relate to try to find your own story in the collective stories of the people that share and I try to bring that sensitivity to the world because it is so precious and beautiful and to see so many lives healed and transformed as a result of this collective experience is not only a successful experiment in that subculture but it is a beautiful model that I believe is applicable to everyone I would like to. to see it more widely accepted and explored in mainstream society.

Thank you very much, what you say is very true. There was a great saint in India who wrote something that really had a deep impact on my heart that I refer to when there are moments. of challenge, said that where there is greater need there is greater opportunity to serve and compassion is truly the primary of all human virtues and is the deepest and most inherent nature that is within everyone, where there is love that is expressed as compassion and where There is great need, there is great need. and in you you also referred to alcoholics anonymous, people come together because there is a need for people to support each other, you know, right now in California there are these fires and it really breaks my heart, especially because it is such a blessing the world the redwood forests where these trees have been standing and growing for thousands of years um and there is an underground secret in the redwood forest that I learned from a park ranger when I was there once that despite all the storms and the fires And all things that have happened over these centuries, how do trees continue to grow, especially in loose soils and mountainous regions?

Because the roots of trees, their nature is to extend underground to find the roots of other trees and when they touch, they embrace and wrap around each other. around each other and in this way all the trees in the entire forest directly or indirectly support each other hugging each other's roots twisting around each other the giant ancient trees have the tiny little trees that are just growing their roots They are involved and everyone supports each other and it is true that unity is strength. You know, the whole concept of America is the United States of America and there's the United Kingdom.

You know that togetherness is such an important principle and the basic ideal of that togetherness is that all people are created equal all living beings are children of god how we truly find love within ourselves is how we will respect, honor and be compassionate towards all living beings because life is sacred and in times like this I really need to understand this is a wake up call to wake up to the sacredness of life and let go of our selfish and selfish ambitions because there is a higher principle, there is a principle most importantly, it is beautifully expressed, I love the root system analogy. and how the collective thrives only by accepting that interdependence and when I think of the united states of america I can't help but think of the countervailing force that is rugged individualism, this idea that that responsibility for your success or your failure or how one opens up One's way in the world rests solely on one's shoulders and this kind of elevation of the individual and the responsibility of that person to do it for himself to make his way and become a self-made man is at odds with that fundamental principle.

The central idea of ​​the United States of America and the inherent truth and necessity that we only prosper through our communion with others and our interdependence with the greater whole and the reconciliation of those, I believe, is a battle that we are seeing being played out. culturally at this moment. and I guess I would say that I would like to share your optimism and your enthusiasm that we can get through this successfully and of course, you are a little older than me, your life experience is informed by perhaps the most similar phase in the history of our country , you know, getting through the '60s and late '60s, the civil rights era and all the kind of beautiful chaos that followed there, the trauma and also the progress that was a result of that and I wonder if you see what's happening now. as something similar or different from what you witnessed during that period, the '60s were a very turbulent time, you know, there was a large segment of the younger generation that rebelled against the older generation, the government, politics, you know, the war in vietnam was a very real thing if you were 18 and you didn't have much wealth for a deferment then you had to kill people you saw no reason to harm or you went to jail you know you were they actually put you in that situation.

I know it was a war that a lot of people didn't believe we should be there and it turned out to be right too and the civil rights movement, you know, there were so many atrocities that have always been against the African American community in America, it's so heartbreaking, but we see that you know that through the dark ages and through the conflicts and challenges, many great things have emerged from that, many transformations within the hearts of people and many transformations within society, so I firmly believe in history . I think it echoes this idea that as long as there are individual people who connect with other like-minded people who really seek the light and who really connect with the light within themselves and value the principle of love, compassion and humility. then wonderful things will happen in this world.

Well, I feel nourished by that statement, thank you for that, why don't we take it back? I want to explore your personal journey now that we're talking about the '60s and the civil rights movement that you grew up with. in a middle class Chicago family on the outskirts of the city, right, your father owned a body shop, if memory serves, you grew up, you were like an athlete, you were a fighter, you grew up, you know very well a typical, normal, somewhat suburban Central American home, correct something like that, some version of that you summed it up very, very well, um, yeah, when I was young, my parents were fighting against the middle middle class, you know they were really fighting, you know they came out. of the depression and they were really trying to do what was best for the family at the same time, this is the scenario that we have already discussed, you know, civil rights, the war ofVietnam, the counterculture, were developing while I was growing up, I was born. in 1950 and I couldn't be content with winning some athletic medals or being cool and having nice things inside.

Unless it can be a change, then where do you think that sensitivity emanated from? I know you showed, you know, hints of this when you were young, like a very little child, like not wanting to sit at the table, wanting to sit on the floor. for dinner and avoiding meat and dairy and demonstrating these sodastic impulses as a very young person, which is unusual, where do you think all that comes from? think about that past life that manifested in a transformation through experiences in this life and ultimately I think the grace of God, you know he is all these things that come into play, we may or may not be able to specifically understand the reasons, but we can understand the effects that are happening and there are so many little things that happen in a person's life that gradually create a perception. um I will say one thing: when I was young my dad went bankrupt so when I got a little older, maybe 14. 15 I always had jobs after school and on the weekends so I wouldn't be a burden and my First job was at a place where there were mainly African Americans, it was at a car wash and they came from the south side of Chicago and they were my parents' age and they became my dear friends and I just loved them, I loved their music, I loved the spirit that they had so deeply and I saw how, in those days in the early 60s, they really had almost no chance they were most of them were alcoholics they were in poverty they were discriminated against they were treated unfairly and this disturbed me very much it disturbed me very much I felt that you know we were one in our love for each other and how could I be happy if my brothers are treated like that? um and of course you know I'm my family is of Jewish descent you know from Eastern Europe and a lot of the people in my family that were killed in the Holocaust. uncles, aunts and cousins ​​and things like that so you know that there is a dark side of humanity that needs to be changed.

They say if you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem and I really wanted to be part of the solution and I heard Gandhi's statement that I know the change you want to be in this world so I became a social activist but then I realized that the greatest social activists I admired were people who had a deep spiritual connection, a connection with God. love that really gave them strength against all challenges and unless we change ourselves you know how much we can really change the world so little by little I went on a spiritual quest to find myself and that became the predominant goal of my life. have a spiritual connection, yes, and in my own life I traveled all over the world looking for that spiritual connection, but what I finally discovered is that it is right inside our hearts, inside our own home, wherever we are, if we can't find it there, I really can't find it anywhere, but I had to go through this great journey to come to that discovery, well, there is a beautiful nobility and, you know, a great maturity to developing that kind of consciousness as a person so young to understand like me.

I'm here to be an agent of positive change and to take on that mantle and try to figure it out. In your case, you follow this journey, you describe it in your books and in your many talks, and when I read this I can't help myself. but think about some of the other great spiritual seekers throughout the ages, from paramahansa yogananda to sid you, i think about siddhartha and i think about ramadas and all these people who have had similar versions of your experience and i compare it to my way of thinking about 16 17 18 and it's such a stark contrast that it expanded consciousness, that devotional commitment and that feeling that there is something beyond knowing about athletic medals or trying to be popular in the halls of your high school that is unique and that's why I'm still trying to get to that sensitivity, I understand that you had these experiences when you were young, but there were many people who had experiences like that, they can carry that trauma or that can influence their life in a certain sense, but to get rid of the shackles of Western society completely and to give oneself in this ascetic way to go on this walk, you know, basically penniless, relying on the kindness of strangers and all the adventures that follow, is such a beautiful way of trying to develop consciousness. what you are wearing today I am not so sure what would have happened if you had not experienced the world in that way we all have our calling and in reality it is not so important at what age we have that calling but when that call to goodness, when that call of truth when that call to light when that call to be the change that you want to see in the world and I deeply believe that it is the call of God that comes from within us and that could echo around us through other voices as well, but ultimately it is a calling of Within us, we all have our ways of responding to that calling, but in my life you know that this is how I responded to that calling.

Yeah, I guess to pay attention to whatever calling is happening you have to be present and aware enough to notice that it's arising and and and sometimes situations in the world that are surprising that are worrying even sometimes situations that seem hopeless um alert us to answer that call so you find yourself in london you are walking through europe you are in athens you are sitting on the banks of the thames in london at night soaking in the moon watching the river flow at some point you have this undeniable need or call to go to the india so tell me through that experience well, you know, coming from northern Illinois, I went to Europe with two of my friends we were supposed to be there just for two months and then come back to um go back to college I went to a semester of a university and that was the plan that was our plan um but they stole our first one One day we were in Europe and we had no money and one of my friends returned to the United States that same day and the other, you know, we made a scene in various places and we were very popular and in many ways we saw that there was the world was opening up to us like anything even though we didn't really have a house or money or anything just because you know the interactions with such beautiful people and those opportunities, um but this little whispering call to find a spiritual connection was always there in my heart and it kept getting louder and louder and louder and that's really what started me on this quest.

He spent a lot of time on the banks of rivers and in forests and meditated and read various spiritual literatures of various religions. to synagogues I went to churches I went to cathedrals I lived in Catholic monasteries I was studying I was

searching

I was going to museums to study art to find spiritual clues and finally I was living in a cave on the island of Crete which is part of Greece and I was just praying to God to to guide me. It was there that I had this voice inside my heart saying go to India and I had never met an Indian person in my life.

I had never eaten a chili in my life. I didn't have a map, I didn't have money for a map, but I left my friend the next day and started hitchhiking to India. I just believed that if I went in an easterly direction, you would eventually get there. Eventually, you will travel through Afghanistan. you are immersed in extreme poverty in that situation you are in Pakistan you have this extraordinary story about being trapped on the border between Pakistan and India can you tell that story? Well, I hitchhiked through Turkey and then Iran and then Afghanistan and Pakistan um, the whole trip took over four months.

Now I get on a plane and I'm from London and I do it in nine hours, the same distance, but it's not as educational, but it's a lot safer when I'm finally in Europe. Countries that I was studying Christianity and Judaism when I was in the Middle East, I was studying Islam with some Islamic scholars and very holy people, and when I finally got to the border of India, India and Pakistan, you know, they have been in political conflict, you know. since partition and there is no man's land between the two countries and when I left Pakistan border I had to walk for a couple of hours through this no man's land to reach India and at that time the border post was in a forest near the city of farospor in punjab and when i arrived they asked me how much money i had, as far as i remember i had 26 cents in about four different currencies and the immigration agent was very very angry, he said we have enough beggars in india.

I don't want another one to go back to where you came from and I begged him that I had just hitchhiked from London and that I contracted so many diseases that almost killed me and that people tried to kill me and that I had so many difficulties to get here because I want to. to learn from your people please give me a chance and she wouldn't do it so for hours and hours and hours I sat under a tree and I kept coming back and asking and getting rejected but the problem was I couldn't go. I went back to Pakistan either because I only had a single visa so I was in this no man's land and there were no cell phones in 19, this was 1970. and there were no phone booths there was nova I was just there um and finally alone Around the sunset time, the guards changed and a man from the Sikh community who was a soldier took the post and after the other immigrant left in a jeep, I went towards him and this man told me that my commander had ordered me to be an officer te decline unless you show me at least two hundred dollars.

At that moment I cried and I cried a lot because you know I was 19 years old and I was useless and I begged, I said: "I have left everything." of my life to learn from your country and learn for your people please give me a chance and I promise you that one day I will do something good for the people of India and as an immigration agent he looked me in the eyes with such a questioning look , he was just looking at my mind and my heart for about a minute, he just stared at me and then spoke, he said that sometimes a man must follow his heart and although I have been ordered to reject you, I am going to give you the chance you are crying and then He stamped my passport and said welcome to India.

I love it, that's beautiful. I feel like you need to meet with him. I would like to see you visit him again and tell him that story. I wish we could, yes, but that was the year marking 50 years since that event occurred, and so what was it about this experience in India that was so compelling and transformative for you? Well, I went to the Himalayas and was studying at Yogi's. some of them lived in forests, mountains and caves and I went to different ashrams of different saints or gurus some of them were very famous some of them were unknown to the world I was studying Burmese Buddhism and Zen Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism and I met people who were of the Bahá'í faith.

I was really trying to understand and of course within the Hindu faith there are so many different branches of ways to approach the supreme being, so I was like a little sponge. That was absorbing, absorbing, absorbing and learning, and many situations were such blessings to my heart, some of them were very disappointing and some of them were fascinating and very full of joy and gratitude, but they all moved me forward. in my search and rich I ended up like this I know, look at you, who would have known better, it was part of this, this search, an effort or an attempt to reconcile the hypocrisy of many of the religious traditions that you had developed.

There is something unhealthy about the institutionalization of many of these ideas and faces, but beneath it all there must be some core of shared knowledge and wisdom and the quest is to get to the truth of that. It's a fair assessment. Thank you very much for asking that question. It's a wonderful assessment and I'll echo what you've already said so brilliantly. You know this from my own experience both as a child and as a child. As I traveled in my search I saw so many sectarian ideas, I saw how religion can create or let's say, can feed so much arrogance that I am better than you and we are better than them and that arrogance can lead to prejudice in judging. people on the basis of our own ego and even hate intolerance and violence in the name of god, how could there be hate in the name of a loving god?

Then I came to a crossroads where I had to completely reject religion, like many very thoughtful people I was reading about and knowing personally were rejecting God and religion because of all the things I just said, so either I have I have to reject religion as something very dangerous or very superstitious or there must be something very beautiful, something very wonderful that is at the heart of all the great religions and somehow in my life I believed that that beautiful essence was at the heart of all the true spiritual paths and I wanted to find it and while

searching

I discovered that when people have the insecurities where they need to feel above others they take religion as a justification, sometimes even as a weapon just for that purpose, but in reality the purpose of Religion is about becoming completely humble and free from the ego, it is supposed to free us from our ego, it is not supposed tothat nourishes us. and build our ego, but that is based on free will, like anything, we could use science for destructive purposes or we could use science for very beneficial purposes, we can use academic education to help people or we can use it to exploit to the people for whom we can use force. elevate people or push people down, everything in this world, you know, having a knife is good or bad in the hands of a thief kills someone and the same knife in the hands of a surgeon cures someone saves life of a person then religion is also like that if we really look for the true purpose of religion, what the true saints taught us, what is the core of the scriptures, then we discover that it is to humble ourselves before the love of god and be an instrument of that love and see every living being as children of god, and when I read the bhagavad -gita one verse in particular that I remember when I read it I thought it was this one because in the bible it says that the first and great commandment is not to be this religion or that religion It is to love God with all your heart, mind and soul and love your neighbor as yourself and in reality everyone is our neighbors, not only all humanity but all living beings are our neighbors, if we love God, we will naturally love our neighbor as ourselves if we know ourselves and that was a very important principle and then I read in the bhagavad-gita and I am going to recite the Sanskrit first okay, true knowledge, true wisdom, true enlightenment is to see each living being with the same vision to see that the living force wherever there is life is part of God, it is sacred, it is divine. and when we understand that divinity within ourselves, we can actually recognize it within others and then it's not just about tolerating each other and tolerating our differences, but it's actually about appreciating the unity within the diversity of this world and the more I got into the religion of bhakti or devotion to Krishna that I follow the more I delved into it, the more I loved and appreciated all the other aspects of religion and spirituality because it was what I was looking for the essence of and you discovered that in bhakti yoga I mean you, you know.

The course of your travels and you're searching and you're searching, you've sat at the feet of many Krishnamurti teachers and all kinds of people, but there was something specific about Prabhabot that spoke to you, um, that. he didn't immediately force you to know how to give up everything and follow him you know it seems like you came across him many times before you completely accepted that this would be knowing someone to follow and that this methodology is this approach to spirituality you know the guide to life would become a guiding force in your life, but what is it about Prabhubat's message and specifically bhakti yoga that distinguishes it from many of these other types of spiritual currents that you know and the various paths that you know ?

You could have explored with Hinduism and you know many other currents of religion, from Christianity to Judaism. For me, rich bhakti yoga places its greatest emphasis on both the goal and the practice of cultivating love, love for God, and compassion for all beings. There is a beautiful statement for. du ka duki that one who is truly enlightened in any religion is one who feels the sufferings of others and who feels the joys of others, one who rejoices in the happiness of others and one who suffers in the suffering of another, but when we suffer for the sufferings of others on the basis of compassion it actually creates an inner ecstasy because it connects us with our own natural love and bhakti is that path which is very focused on awakening ecstatic love and whatever our words, whatever our actions, whatever our thoughts.

We were really trying to harmonize that with a spirit of compassion towards others and I discovered that in that sense humility doesn't make you afraid, it actually makes you very brave, but not in a selfish and selfish way, we understand that there is a power higher power that is with us and that higher power is meant to heal us and help us heal others and in bhakti yoga the idea of ​​the supreme truth is very personal. You know that there is an absolute, omnipresent, omnipresent existence of the only supreme, but the scriptures of India. Teaching simultaneously to that, the impersonal and omnipresent truth or light, there is also the supreme, beautiful, loving person of the supreme and that idea that the realization and the meeting with people who were connected with that, just attracted my heart so deeply and when when i met provopod i met him several times and it was in toast where he lived a place where there are more than 5000 krishna temples some of them are thousands of years old when i lived there on the bank of a river the yamuna I happened to meet a professional, but He came there for a few days and I had already accepted the path of bhakti just because of my own experiences and my own studies, this is what I wanted to pursue, but I didn't know who my teacher would be and I remember I was sitting in a room with Srila Prabhupada. and there I heard his talks, I heard about him and it opened my heart a lot and one thing that really had a special effect on me is that there were only a few people in the room.

One day, I think he was a journalist and he asked me are you the guru of the whole world and by then Srila Prabhupad had thousands of disciples and temples all over the world and I was wondering how he was going to respond to this. Sheila was probably sitting on the floor like we all were and when she asked that, when she was asked that question, she looked down and I saw a sense of humility in her eyes and then she looked up and said no, I'm just everyone's servant, that's it and I was thinking about all the people I met, you know, people who could perform miracles.

I saw so many of these supernatural powers and people who had so much knowledge and so many powers in so many ways. I felt this. is what I want to speak to you that expression of genuine humility, that kind of love where you feel so humbled by your love for God, you just want to serve everyone and you could do it as a business person and you could do it as a politician and you could do that as a teacher and you could do it as a technologist or scientist with and and when you have the ambition of compassion in the front of your heart to please God, then you are more motivated than greed Sometimes people think without greed what our motivation will be, but it is only due to the absence of love and compassion that greed comes into our lives when in reality we are even more motivated.

A mother's love for her child, she will do anything. and everything, she will stay up night after night to help her son because there is love and you know, the greatest people who have changed the world have worked tirelessly and risked everything on the basis of compassion and love and it is that principle the one that drew me to the pearl part and drew me to this good path, you certainly exude it and in your story I'm thinking about this distinction between my inclination to intellectualize it as if I understand that it makes sense, I understand it versus its embodiment and the practicing it and exude it in all your interactions and how you know, walking through the world and encountering people and nature, those are two different things and I think in our Western mind we want, we are, we are.

We are prone, we are driven to live in our heads and intellectualize these things and that is very different from the experience of living them and breathing them well. The intellectualization of philosophy is something that has such great value if we have the capacity for it, but if we don't, we could still achieve the same thing, but when the heart and the head are harmonized, then we could really move in a beautiful direction. In our life. Prabhupad once said that philosophy without spirituality is just mental speculation and spirituality without Philosophy can degrade to sentimentalism, superstition or even fanaticism, so harmonization of philosophy and spirituality and when I say spirituality it means that we have a practice where we really strive to live with character.

Yes, I think we are all here. walk that path in our respective unique ways to actualize and more fully integrate that connection between the head and the hearts, and in my own personal experience, pain has been my lever to help me wake up and begin to deal with it. many of these problems and become aware and understand that, although we instinctively know that the material world, such as consumer goods, enhances fame, none of these things are going to fill this void that we all have and that they are not going to tell us . They are not going to sustain us or give us that sense of fulfillment that we crave and seek, and yet, like addicts, we chase these things into the depths of depravity and madness until we find that point of personal pain and then when we reach that we think well, if I get that promotion or if I can lease that new car or I can move from this neighborhood to that neighborhood, then that void will be filled and then I'll feel good, so I think it takes a long time. a little bit to force the human mind to expand and consider the possibility because of the restrictions of our culture and how materialistic it is and the messages that we are constantly being bombarded by that that the true path to happiness and fulfillment is further beyond all this. and and and breaking through that um that denial coming to that awareness is a difficult journey for most so well said it's like we're on a boat at sea um it's really important that we have a compass in the direction we're going from our desired destination, but the compass that they give us is to do well in school, go to the right college, get the right job, you know, work hard and then you can get things and then everything will be fine, that's how The compass is that We calibrate our decision making and yet we know intellectually that this is leading us wrong and yet it is very difficult to recalibrate that compass according to a spiritual principle.

Well, the idea of ​​satsang or the company of enlightened people is important. because then we get a real life compass, you don't know, it's not the wrong compass, we want to have a life compass that really gives our life deep meaning and purpose and you know this is what all the avatars do , the incarnations of God and all the saints. They're giving us a compass and then when we're on the boat there's so many things that it's not like we just follow the compass, there's so many things we have to do simultaneously, you know, sometimes there's a storm and we have to do all kinds of things. things. of adjustments sometimes it's a nice day and we have to keep things clean and we have to think about keeping things and there is a lot we have to do but at the same time we are going in the direction that we really want to be and in the same way that you're saying, we have to pay rent and we want some of us to want new cars and some of us want some popularity and all these things of this world are there, we deal with them, you know, sometimes we have.

We have parents who do not understand us and sometimes we have children who do not understand us. There are so many challenges in life. Being spiritual does not mean neglecting those duties, whether financial, emotional or social. It does not mean that we ignore them. It does not mean that we reject them. It means that we deal with everyone. them but in harmony with the compass of where our life really should be, where we want to go as spiritual beings having a human experience and as much as you are a renunciate, you also live in the material world, dress in a certain way and behave with some consideration and you spend your time in India and do these things, but you are still from the third dimension, you still have to do it.

Trade in 2020 as much as you want to opt out, of course, I'm more immersed in modern culture than you are and that brings its own unique challenges, so the practice becomes how we incorporate these principles. our life and infusing our mindset and our daily actions with that energy is, you know, what is the practice for you, it is ahimsa, it is seva, it is devotion, it is prayer, it is compassion, it is love, it is all these things, how can? do that, how can we incorporate more of that into the daily life experience of the average person who may be listening or watching this and being presented with these ideas perhaps for the first time in Sanskrit?

There are four words and I would like to To explain these four practices, satsang means that if we really want that compass to go towards an enlightened divine destiny, if we really want to connect with the love of God and be an instrument of God's love, we need that compass and That comes to us as regularly as possible. Being with like-minded people Being with enlightened people You know we can choose what we are going to read and who we are going to be with and we need regular nourishment to give us the confidence that this is where I want to go and the second is sadhana, when we really have a purpose. spiritual in our life, it is not just something sentimental, it has to be practical, we have to dedicate some time of the day to cultivate it, in some way or another, whatever we have to do in our life with our families or our occupation we findtime to eat we find time to sleep because without that we become spiritually weak to have spiritual strength in whatever we do we need to nourish ourselves and that is sadhana and in my sadhana we chant the names of God, we chant mantras, we also pray and set aside some time every day early in the morning is a really good time, whenever we focus on our spiritual practice, making it a priority, and then when we go out into the world with the strength and direction of the people we inspire us and our own spiritual practice then we live with integrity we live with character we do not carry out our worldly activities with excessive arrogance or selfishness or greed or envy but actually do it with moral principleswith character and ultimately we are trying to harmonize whatever that we are doing in a way that we can be better compassionate to our family and to the world and then seva, then whatever we are doing in our life becomes part of how we are serving God and serving all of our brothers and sisters of all species of life in this world and that is something totally doable and totally practical for everyone in whatever situation we find ourselves in if we just take it seriously and beautifully make it a priority.

Can we take a couple of minutes to talk about the joppa, the mantra, and what is so powerful about the repetition and sequencing of these words that creates that very particular vibration that I have felt and experienced and that allows me to tap into? something that I don't know how to call it beyond or deeper than my ego that I love to cultivate the word mantra is two Sanskrit syllables mantra man means the mind or the heart and thra means liberate so mantra means a sound vibration that frees the mind from suffering and of pain caused by pollution, that the mind is compared to a mirror and when you look in a mirror you expect to see yourself, but when the mirror is covered by layers and layers and layers of dirt, pollution and debris After so many years of neglect, so what do we see when we look in the mirror?

We only see that dirt and what that dirt is, it is our selfish passions, it is our arrogance, it is our greed, our envy, our anger towards people and things that just don't work. Go the way I want you to go and so many illusions of not understanding who I am, who and what the world is, so this is dirt and a mantra is a sound vibration that actually has the power to clean the mirror of the mind and As it is clean, we really see ourselves and who the self is, that the self is the living force that is seen through the eyes and heard through the ears and tasted through the tongue and thought through the brain that living force that animates a body that gives consciousness and that living force in Sanskrit is this the atma or the soul and that soul is never born and never dies that soul is a sacred part of the supreme soul is full of light its nature inherent is unconditional love without motivation that is the nature of the soul within everyone but due to the various coverings over the mirror of the mind, we do not see our soul, we do not live accordingly, the mind is supposed to reflect the nature of this of the soul person, then this mantra is a cleansing process. a process of awakening as we cleanse ourselves of these anarchist um or unwanted characteristics that we cling to, our ananda or natural innate happiness is awakened and when we are happy inside, nothing in this world can really make us unhappy because our happiness is beyond.

All things in this world are good and then we simply want to be an instrument of that happiness to make others happy. Vedic literatures are beautiful verse. The entire purpose of the religion of spirituality is to allow all beings to be happy by being an instrument of giving happiness. others, that is what this mantra does and it is like a frequency, it is a divine spiritual frequency, a mantra is usually made up of names of god and there are many names of god in all the various religious paths and these mantras or these names of god When sung in the right temperament for the right purpose, they actually tune us into the divinity that is within us and around us, like on a television, there are so many channels and if you press a station you go to a frequency where you see a ball of soccer. game in dallas texas and then you press another and you see the president of the united states giving a lecture and then you see him you press another and you see a soap opera people cry and loved ones are separated and there is depending on the frequency you get a completely different experience, so that in the world today there are so many accumulated frequencies, there is the accumulated frequency of arrogance, lust, envy, anger, prejudice and all these things, and according to what we do and who we are.

We are with ourselves we tune into those frequencies and they affect us a mantra is the frequency of love a frequency of compassion a frequency of inner happiness and peace and when we sincerely chant and our lifestyle does not contradict the progress we make through joppa or chanting the names of God, we actually awaken by tuning into our true inherent potential. Hmm, beautifully said, the irony of course is that most people live their lives, you know, subsumed by the Mayans, their mirrors are obscured and polluted and it doesn't make sense. What it would be like to clean that mirror because Maya is so absorbing, right?

The illusion of our material world and I reflect on my youth and I see the Hari Krishna monks at the airport singing or in the you know. the parks and just thinking that it's another version of humanity that I can't connect with, not only do I not understand what's going on with these individuals, I was a little scared and I remember that was a barrier. When I started opening up to different ideas about spirituality, it was a barrier for me to embrace the practice of joppa, like I was going to chant hari krishna and suddenly I'm like those guys at the airport who I thought were so strange that I couldn't connect with them.

That, I couldn't relate to how you communicate with the average human being who doesn't have experiences with these things so that they can overcome any barriers they may have due to the superficiality of appearance, does that make sense? You know what I mean? I was trying to be very political in the way I described it. It was beautifully expressed. Thank you. Is a reality. Our tendency is to see things according to our external perceptions. without really understanding it, you know, like that beautiful speech that Martin Luther King gave in Washington DC, when will I have a dream that people won't see?

I won't judge a person by the color of his skin but by the content of his character, so, um. You know when I lived in the west You know I had the same experience in terms of strangeness mm-hmm You know the things that are were very different and difficult to understand and looking at you from time to time and when I went to India it was Really not in context of the Western Krishna movement, but it was what I saw, found and discovered within my own life something so beautiful that was so deep and inherent to the culture of India that it was so universal at the heart of all religions. you really know the heart of all humanity and I found that and then when I reconnected in they offered especially a sacred place with the people of the krishna movement the birthplace of krishna yes yes I understood that you know in the west the dress may seem strange and it may Cultural habits may seem strange, but it is what is at the core and there are also many people who simply do not adequately represent, you know, the true spirit, the institutionalization of the teachings, that is true in any path, there are those who really represent the real spirit and those who don't and that's their, you know, we all struggle with it, but when I saw that this is at the heart of what is taught, it's a culture, a philosophy and a lifestyle, that's the core itself. of the vedas at the very core of Indian culture and religion and at the very core of what I believe in, the universe of religion itself and that's why I became like that and there are various traditional cultural ways of expressing it and Um , you know, I find so much joy and so much enlightenment in this way of expressing it, but I understand that there are many ways of expressing it and, in fact, I have lived in India for many decades and you know we have you.

I know several communities that I supervise and there are monks who are like me because this is really the robe and clothing of a monk, yes, but we have tens and thousands of people who have working families, we have a hospital with doctors. and nurses and administrators, we have industrialists, there are CEOs of international corporations, there are farmers, there are professors in universities, there are mothers and fathers and, um, in the congregation you would only know that their Krishna devotees are by their character and by communicating with them that way, but in another way. They look like everyone and they are doing exactly the same things as everyone as far as occupational life goes, but the purpose is to connect with the love of God and to be an instrument of God's compassion and that is a beautiful thing and my mother and father when they came to India and saw people like them who were so deeply devout and then they realized the relief that actually this is really a beautiful spiritual path and not everyone is going to be a monk.

Yeah, I saw an interview on YouTube with your dad, uh, he was talking about the experience of what it was like for him when you left and you were in unknown places and you know the challenges that that presented for you, you know, basically, in a middle class family , but what was undeniable was his love and his pride. because what you finally became is very moving, comforting, yes, it is even more comforting to hear it from you what is the role of the ascetic, the renunciant, the monk in the modern era, how do you see yourself in that kind of context It is a role in our tradition, it is not that being a monk makes you more enlightened or more conscious of God, one could be in politics, one could be in business, one could be an entertainment, one could be an athlete if we follow these principles of being with people who enlighten us and have a spiritual practice that we do with sincerity and live with character and the desire to serve then one can make as much spiritual progress maybe even more as the bible says to be in this world but not of this world and that is truly a universal principle, so being a monk is a service to society.

I'm not a monk because I think I'm making more spiritual progress than other people who live with families and have homes and jobs but not having a family of my own in the sense of being celibate and living according to the traditions that I do is an opportunity in the that I could make the whole world my family and just my function is to have no other purpose except to remind people, enlightened people and try to educate and inspire people, um, beautiful, well, part of that is that you have the ashram and the hospital and you also have this echo village that I wanted to hear a little bit about, can you?

Explain what it is, it is called Govardhan Ecological Village and I will not go into its history, but its principle is that humanity really needs to not only intellectually understand but also see models of how to apply the principle that creation is sacred and all living beings are sacred um we see so much pollution in the world and so much exploitation of the world, you know, there is this, the social crisis that is happening, you know, between races and between prejudices and between religions and there is also you know the ecological, you know the air, the water, the earth that is being contaminated and when we understand that all beings are children of God, all species of life, wherever there is life, there is a desire to be happy, there is a desire to live and you know, I became a vegetarian 50 years ago when I saw a cow and her little calf and how much they loved each other and it was the first time I was that close and I remember thinking that the mother cares about her little calf as much as any mother and that little calf loves to the mother and depends on the mother like any child and why can't we see that they want to live and they want to be happy like us and um, you know, humanity and all beings seek pleasure, our speech, they all seek life. freedom and the pursuit of happiness because we are all children of God and everyone must be respected as children of God and there may have to be justice for people who violate other people's rights, but it must be in that spirit and all the creation says that everything that exists comes from the source of all love we call it krishna or god, then all creation is property of god, how can we misuse, exploit or contaminate the sacred property, the property itself, the environment?

We are all completely dependent on the idea of ​​mother earth, it is a reality. Just like a baby is completely dependent on its mother to survive, whoever we are in this world, we are completely dependent on mother earth for air, food, water, everything our bodies are made up of, so we must be compassionate. with other beings. Being respectful of God is inseparable from being environmentalist. We cannot separate them. It is hypocrisy to separate them because they are all interconnected and all living beings are interconnected and understanding this interconnectivity of creation is the key.basic principle to govern the village, so we have models we have environmental models because we see in India we are in a village environment we see so many problems that there are and we have water collection because we understand the value of water there is so much drought so many people around us is committing suicide because of drought based poverty, but we can teach them how to harvest water and have enough water all year round without changing anything except knowing how to do something and you know, we have people who created a machine that converts the plastic that pollutes in usable oil without any without any trace of contamination in the air, everything is sealed and we make our bricks with the soil we walk on and they are beautiful bricks that, in theory, last hundreds of years, we will see. but they are beautiful and we make organic natural farming, we have an animal sanctuary, a bird sanctuary, a butterfly sanctuary and everything is based on spiritual themes and we take all these various technologies of mulching and creating natural organic fertilizers and pesticides, um and many more things and we go to hundreds of villages and give them the opportunity to see how you can improve your life simply by applying these natural principles, yes, yes, yes, what a beautiful expression of this spirit of unity.

You know the consistency with which I practice the philosophy of bhakti yoga with boots on the ground. I love it and feel that it is a wonderful model that we should bring to the United States. We're seeing this resurgence of regenerative agriculture and soil care and then breaking away from that, you know people who are developing technologies around plastic, etc., but to create a model that's replicable where you're doing all of these things in one place to take care of the earth in this practice of devotion really to gaia to mother earth, I think it is so beautiful, we are really trying it in the village the same, we have the government yoga school where we have teacher training and we have an Ayurveda school and a whole network of Ayurvedic hospitals, which is natural.

Medicine and we also have a college there where we teach these things and we've had universities, Yale University, Harvard University, professors coming to symposia and people coming from all over the world just to see, you know, how we work. We're doing this and oh, that's great, right, we recently received an award from the United Nations because it was like the first place in the world to create a retreat center model that is environmentally very exemplary and that is really helping the villages. and to the communities around us oh, that's fantastic, I want to visit them. Can I go visit them?

Please, we invite you. I would love to do it. I don't want to take up too much more of your time, but there are two things I want to ask you. Before I let you go, the first thing I know is that you've met a lot of amazing people in your life, but I know you had a meeting with Barack Obama and I just want to know what you talked about. about when you met him, I really found President Obama to be a beautiful man, we didn't talk for a long time, but quality is often much more powerful than quantity of time, I sure really felt a deep heart connection and I really felt that he truly and genuinely wanted to do something really good for America and for the world and of course in politics there are so many challenges and so many considerations that someone has to make, but we had a beautiful connection, that's good.

You're not going to tell me what you were talking about actually that's a joke it's not necessary well I'll tell you I'll tell you I think it's better actually it's okay only if you feel comfortable maybe it's better if you don't like it I feel like you want to keep that , like there's something sacred about that that you just want to keep to yourself. I'll tell you which is fine, go ahead. He looked at me. You know I am a sadhu from India. the only person like that, but a fellow guy from Chicago and when I told him I'm from Chicago, yeah, he just lit up, you're from Chicago, you know, from then on we were just brothers, it's okay, I feel better, the last thing and So I will let you go, that is, I want to leave people something practical, something tactile that they can practice or incorporate into their lives and that will help them develop some spiritual awareness if someone is at the starting line of this journey, this adventure and Think well wake up How can I integrate more?

How do I align my heart with my head? These are very ethereal principles. True, they are elusive. It's like well, tell me, just tell me what I should really do. practice that I can start and that will perhaps catalyze some growth or progress in this area; a small spark, if fanned and given the right oxygen, can become a blazing fire, we must not underestimate a spark, so when we come to our life where there is this spark of an inclination to understand who I am and why there is so much suffering and what is the purpose of life what is it that will make my life truly meaningful and if there is a god, do you really know what that connection is when that spark of awakening arrives then look for people who can give oxygen to that spark having a spiritual practice a meditation a mantra chanting of the names of God um really fanning the spark of our spiritual inclination for meaning and purpose and as we do that the light becomes brighter and brighter and brighter and then we can give light to the world beautifully placed thank you for that and thank you for spending this time with me I feel much better than an hour and a half ago how are you feeling? you feel good?

I feel so much better rich you are you are an amazing personality you are so nice to be with and your questions are so insightful and so well thought out and from the heart my ego thanks you there are actually two egos there is the really go and there is the false ego and the true objective is that I am an eternal soul an instrument of love part of god and the false ego is what separates us from everyone else the really going unites us so I you your true ego is something very, very beautiful and we should all know that as the true ego becomes stronger and stronger and emerges, then the false eagle dissipates, yes, well, we can embrace the real ego, I am working on the other part. a work in progress it's like in northern california sometimes there's a really thick fog but when the sun starts to come out then the fog has lifted it lifts yeah lovely promise me if you're in california we can do this in person once further.

I love doing that and I want to thank you so much for including me and I want to thank all of your viewers or listeners for being with us so kindly and patiently today. If people want to know more about you, they should pick up your books the journey home the journey within both fantastic reads uh where is the best place to direct people online who want to learn more? um amazon.com has both, but their website radno

swami

.com, which is on Facebook, also on the website, is there. Well, I'll link all of those destinations in the show notes and until we meet in person, my friend, thank you for spending this time with me.

I really appreciate it and wish you the best and continued health and happiness as you spread your light. all over the world because we need you, we need you now more than ever. Well, if I have brought a little happiness to your precious heart, then my day is very auspicious and wonderful, okay, okay, thank you and with that we conclude, thank you, peace, blatz.