Radhanath Swami.Info

Entangling Web

admin — Tue, 08 May 2012 10:16:00 +0000

The network of material illusion has been created with great sophistication. Every time we deviate from the principle of servitude, we become more and more entangled in the complexities of material bondage. It is a vicious cycle. Every thought, word and deed, performed in an attempt to find happiness apart from our service to God, further binds us, covers us and entangles us in ignorance.

It’s like a fly that is caught in a spider’s web. Somehow or the other it is entangled, but out of ignorance it thinks that it can get itself out of that situation. The more it moves around to free itself, the more it becomes entangled in the web. The enthusiastic fly moves around, struggling hard to free itself. But after some time we don’t even see the fly; all we see is a little web-ball that’s just moving around. The fly is now totally bound and covered.

Human life is meant for self-realization, not for entangling ourselves like that fly in the spider’s web. The only way a fly can get out is if somebody comes and takes it off. And for those entangled in ignorance, that help comes from the saintly people.

As You Sow, So Shall You Reap

admin — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 09:58:22 +0000

Life is so shallow, so superficial and actually very lonely when you have so much, but you don’t really know who loves you and who doesn’t, and who is using you. On the other hand, persons who are loved for their integrity and their compassion, are actually respected. There is substance and realness to that. In order to have actual integrity, we have to build our life on a foundation, that is scientific, logical and philosophical, that is based on truth, that we can turn to for protecting us from selling our souls to the deranged nature of ourselves and others. If we can cleanse our hearts, we realize the great glorious foundation that is within us and upon finding it, we can build our life upon it. Then, we will find the ultimate truth in everything we do and say, and we can lead the world in that light.

Now, it appears, why would one want to be righteous? It is much better to be bad. Some people ask, “Why do good things happen to bad people and bad thingsto good people?” Actually, as you sow, so shall you reap.

As you do, so shall you get the result. It is just a matter of time. Consider the example of a silo, a grain storage container, in which we put the grains from the top and take them out from the bottom. So, people put very good grains in, that is, they do righteous activities, virtuous activities. But then often due to bad association, they lower themselves to their dark side and then they commit deviant acts, greedy acts; they become cheaters, roguesand then it’s the dirty rotten grains that they are putting in. So for now,they may be getting the good grains that they had put in earlier. But in due course of time, all the rotten grains are going to come out. There is another person who might have done impious activities in the past, but having learn this lesson, became very righteous and very good. He may be getting rottenthings now, but the future is very bright, auspicious and glorious for him.

So we can’t judge things just by how they appear to our eyes. We must understand philosophically how the world works, then we will get the understanding of what the future holds based on what a person does and how that person lives.

- Radhanath Swami

Caterpillar

admin — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:21:11 +0000

There is a story of a boy who had a good heart. Once this boy saw a caterpillar in his garden. He began to carefully observe it. He found that the caterpillar was in a difficult situation. It was bound by a cocoon and was struggling to release itself from this cocoon. It strove very hard to come out of it. But try as it may, it was not able to come out of it even by a centimeter. But it never gave up its efforts. It tried and tried.

This boy was moved by the effort of the caterpillar and, having a heart filled with compassion, decided to help the caterpillar in its suffering. He ran inside his house and got a pair of scissors and slowly and carefully cut the cocoon of the caterpillar and released it.

What did he see when he cut the cocoon? He saw that the caterpillar was actually developing wings to become a butterfly. And because he had cut the cocoon before time, the wings of the caterpillar were very weak. They did not have the strength to handle the weight of the caterpillar and so the caterpillar could not fly.

Similarly, sometimes when we struggle in our lives, it may seem painful to someone who is watching. But those very struggles actually make us strong and powerful. Many people ask, “Why does God allow us to suffer?” We can learn from this boy; if he had allowed the caterpillar to suffer a little more, then it would have soared to the sky, flown from one flower to another and been appreciated by the world for its colors and beauty.

- Radhanath Swami

Be Like a Tree

admin — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 08:54:50 +0000

Tolerating the heat of the sun, the cold snow of the winter, the wind and rain in the monsoons, the tree is simply supplying all benefits to others:supplying shade to us, while it suffers in the sun; supplying firewood to warm us, while it suffers in the freezing winter. Although it stands alone without a home, it provides its limbs in the form of wood for us to build houses to live in.

Trees are immersed in the mood of service to all living entities without discrimination. They are compassionate.

This is the standard of a saintly person: to be like a tree, always willing to accept all kinds of inconveniences to bring happiness and relief to others.

A saintly person is not so concerned with his or her own problems, butis more concerned with others’ problems. If we do not care about others’problems, then we drown in our own problems, which are endless and which bring down our consciousness. But if we are concerned with others’ problems,then we don’t have time to think about our own problems.

This is a saint: like a tree, always eager to serve others, in all regards,in every possible way.

- Radhanath Swami

The Honeybee and the Fly

admin — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 11:19:41 +0000

The honeybee flies from one flower to the next, drinking only the sweetness and the essence of the nectar of that flower without disturbing the flower in the slightest, and then going to the next flower and drinking the nectar there. So, we have much to learn from the honeybee; it is teaching us the art of transcending the faults in others.

A honeybee looks for flowers even in a place full of garbage. Not paying attention to all the filth around, the honeybee rushes to even a small flower a midst the garbage and sucks the nectar from it. The qualification of a true spiritualist is that he or she has given up the propensity to find faults in others.

However bad, evil or crooked a man or woman may be in this world, a saintly person can always find something good in them. He magnifies that good quality hundreds and thousands of times, and simply flies over anything that does not provide him nectar, just like the honeybee.

We are living in an age when people are very quick to criticize, to find faults, to gossip, to relish rumors of others’ defects. But a saintly person knows, as Lord Jesus Christ has described in the Bible, “Seek and ye shallfind”, that if you look for the nectar, you will find the nectar. If you look for the faults, the flaws, the disgusting matter, then that is all you will see. For example, the moon is shining beautifully every night emanating volumes and volumes of cooling, soothing rays. Only a fool will look at the moon and condemn it for having so many spots. The honeybee is not concerned with the spots. The honeybee is only looking for the nectar.

So a saintly person should always look for the good in others. Even if there is just a tiny little spark of good in another, the saintly person wants to fan that spark and make it grow and grow until it blazes and devours all the bad qualities.

We can learn something from the fly too. In this world we can learn our lessons from both the good and the bad. The fly is not interested in the flower.

If your body is very healthy and you have one cut that is infected, the fly will zoom right in to eat your infectious pus. It doesn’t care about your healthy parts. It’s simply looking for the pus. This is the life of the fly.How many flies do you see drinking the nectar from flowers, and how many bees do we find eating the pus? So, one whose mentality is like that of a fly is always looking for the pus in others, always quick to find faults, to criticize, to condemn, to discuss obnoxious rumors.

- Radhanath Swami

Swan-like Persons

admin — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 10:15:17 +0000

A swan can separate milk from a mixture of milk and water. Also, its mind is fixed on attaining the nectar in the whorl of the lotus flower. Pure-hearted human beings devoted to serving God are compared to swans because they have the ability to extract the essence from everything they come in contact with, and also because their minds are fixed on attaining the nectar of true love of God.

- Radhanath Swami

Clouds and Moon

admin — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 09:30:27 +0000

During the rainy season, we cannot see the moon because it is covered by the clouds. The clouds, however, are radiant with the glow of the moon’s rays. Similarly, in our material existence we cannot directly perceive the soul, because our consciousness is covered by the cloud-like false ego, the false identification with the material world and the material body.

The Bhagavad-Gita describes that the energy of the soul is consciousness. When this consciousness is manifested through the screen of the false ego, it appears as dull material consciousness in which there is no direct vision of the soul or God.

We think that material consciousness is full of hope and happiness. This is comparable to thinking that the luminous clouds are lighting up the night sky. Actually, the clouds are dark and they hamper the moonshine; they appear luminous only because they are filtering the brilliant rays of the moon.

Similarly, at times material consciousness appears pleasurable or enlightened because it is filtering the original bliss and enlightened consciousness coming directly from the soul. The false ego hampers and obstructs the real spiritual consciousness, which is fully enlightened and peaceful.

- Radhanath Swami

Radhanath Swami.Info

Entangling Web

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