Radhanath Swami explains, In terms of Bhagavad-Gita Krsna explains to the world, the most profound and essential system of management, how to manage our mind, our senses in harmony with the true nature and purpose of the soul, of god in our life.
Radhanath Swami on Big Zero
Radhanath Swami explains, that the educational institutions today, are giving so much knowledge, so much education. But he said, as far as, he was concerned and as far as all the great acarya are concerned, everything you learned and all of your colleges and universities are like so many zeros. If you get BA, MA PHD, you are just adding up your zeros. And if you have hundreds thousands zeros and to put them all together, and what do you get, one great big zero, zero means nothing, zero means useless waste of human life.
Add one to Zero by Radhanath Swami
At the time of death, you cannot take anything with you, but if you put one in front of those zeros however many zeros follows, increase the quality of your life and what you can do for the world. And that one is the knowledge of the self, the knowledge of god, the knowledge of the purpose of life. Then whatever education, we utilize for that purpose, only increases the integrity and value of our life and what we can do for human society. It is the most drastic misfortune in all of creation, that throughout the world, practically all the education institutions are teaching people, how to manage, so many facilities of this world. People are learning biology, chemistry engineering, psychology, and psychiatry computer technology. But no educational system practically, is teaching the virtues of human being, what the soul is, what is god, and what is the meaning of life, therefore, there are so many zeros.
Arjuna v/s Duryodhana
In Bhagavad-Gita we find Arjuna, he went to an educational institution of Dronacarya. And there he learnt, the science of military and political management, how to mobilize forces and armies, how to fight with the bow, how to fight with the club, how to organize political systems within the government. Duryodhana went to that same institution. They both went to the same college, with the same professor. Arjuna heard the Bhagavad-Gita, he understood the truth and purpose of life, and therefore everything he learnt, he used in the service of god, he used in the pursuance of establishing dharma in this world. Duryodana took the same education. And he used it, simply to satisfy his own greed, his own exploitative selfish motives, and what was the result, Arjuna establish dharma, within the world, and achieved the enlighten state of transcendental realization and bliss. Duryodana made a mess of his life, a mess of the world and died a cruel death, with nothing, but regret.
Technology is like Knife by Radhanath Swami
So I am very much impressed and grateful for the principal of this Maharashtra Institute of technology is based upon the knowledge of this world and applying it to the principal real religion of dharma. Teaching young people, how to have good character, how to manage their mind and senses in such a way that they can do real good for this world, which is so full of suffering and confusion. Radhanath Swami says Education is greatest power in the world, and the power in the good hands, it can give the greatest benefits. But when the power is in the wrong hands, it creates the most terrible destruction just a few minutes ago we were having a wonderful discussion, with your respected dean and students, and he mentioned Einstein, who is the greatest scientist, together with other, big, big education, academic scholars, they discovered atomic energy. Their idea, because basically they were religious people, who believed in god, their idea was, they would take, their discoveries, they investigation into subtler and subtler aspect of nature and use it for the benefit and welfare of humanity. But what happened, it came into the wrong hands, it came into the hand of other great scientists, and other big, big PHD, MA and politicians. And they used that knowledge to create devises of messed, destruction and miseries, bombs. The problems in this world are not caused by the simple person who is in their farms and villages, the problems in the world; the real problems are being caused by the people in the highest racket of education and scholarship. They are the ones, polluting the air, polluting the water, polluting the earth, polluting the mind, and creating so many needless facilities simply to try to entertain their bored and frustrated lives.
What is the solution
Radhanath Swami explains If you are not a part of solution; you are simply a part of problem. The solution is we have forgotten our own nature, our own spiritual substance and how to live in harmony with that. And the solution is given by Krsna in the teaching of Bhagavad-Gita that is self-Management.
Krsna says in Gita that the mind can be a best friend or can be a worst enemy and when the mind is simple attached, to trying to fulfill the temporary craving of your senses and mind is your worst enemy. The purpose of your existence will be spoiled, but if you controlled your mind, if you can discipline your mind and use that discipline, to your senses to live in the harmony with truth, according to the real morality, and be exemplary as a servant of god. Then your mind is your best friend. And this is most important thing to understand, I have no doubt, that all of you will get very good marks, and will get good degrees. But my concern is simply this, what will you do, for your lives, for your family and for human society. What is the purpose of life, this what Bhagavad-Gita deals with.
Human vs Animal life
Our Guru Maharaj used to say, that the dog is running on four legs and with all of your advance technology; you are running on four wheels, but what is the difference between you and dog, nothing, just running from one place to another to satisfy the demands of mind and senses. The hog is sleeping in the gutter, and we are sleeping in the nice beds and the beautiful houses. But what is the difference, the quality of our consciousness is simply, to sleep. The hog is eating stool, and we’re eating nice fine foods, the quality of the consciousness is the same simply to eat. Dog and hog is also having their wife and husbands and creating their offspring and protecting them and we also have our family. We also go out and work and maintain them. . Until we understand the human life is meant to inquire to the truth, human life is meant to realize who we are, what our relationship with god is, all of our technology is simply sophisticated animalism, and nothing more, there is no higher purpose in the life of lower species. Who are we? This is the first principle taught by Krsna in Gita, the first principle in Vedanta Sutra janmady asya yato athato brhama jinanasa, Krsna explains that this body is like a temporary place of residence. The body goes to various transformations from boyhood to youth to old age. But who is it, that witnessing the experience by throughout our bodily existence, who are we, at the time of death the body is still there, but who and where are we, the difference between life and death, is consciousness. And that consciousness is the symptoms of the presence of the atma or the soul when we live according to the need of the soul that is real human life, when we live simply according to the needs of the body that is of the same caliber, as the lower species.
Krsna explains the science of the nature of the soul in Gita. The soul is eternal, full of knowledge,, full of bliss, sac, cid, ananda, the soul is part of god, the soul has godly archeries. The nature of consciousness within us, is pure compassion, pure love, pure mercy, pure selfless, willing to give, for the benefit of others, pure love of God and pure love for all god’s creations , that is your nature, that is essence and source of your life. But we have forgotten that. We have tossed away the most beautiful, valuable precious diamonds, to chase after the broken pieces of glass in the forms of the pleasure and the purpose of this world. To come again in that consciousness of our true self, is self management it is purest highest and most essential state.
Purifying Consciousness by Radhanath Swami
Radhanath Swami explains that when water in the form of rain falls from cloud, actually it is pure, like distilled water, but when it comes in the contact with earth, it becomes full of mud, becomes polluted. We were speaking, about how this wonderful university is developing a project in Alandi and they are making a filtration plant to purify the water of the Indrayani River because so many pollutant are put it in. The water originally is pure, what is filtering, filtering simply means, brining the water to its natural state and taking out all the things that everyone else is putting in. And in the same way if we try to purify the water to give health to human .we must learn how to filter our consciousness and bring it back to our original pure state. And then whether you are an engineer, whether you are doctor, whether you are business manager, whether you are housewife or a student, whether you are architect or a farmer or a teacher or a swami, whatever you may be, if you do it in a pure state of consciousness, then you will perform your work, not out of greed like Duryodana, not like a desire to exploit, not based on the foundation of the ignorance. But you can perform your duty in this world, you can use the wonderful education, you are receiving in a spirit of compassion of mercy, of love, we can use it as an expression, of our own ecstatic relationship with supreme.
Religion VS Science by Radhanath Swami
And this is what every great religious teacher has taught. Religion is not just a belief system; religion is the most important science in all the worlds. Our spiritual master used to say, that religion without science or philosophy, is the sentimentalism or fanaticism. And science or philosophy without religion is simply dangerous speculation; the marriage of the two is required within society. You see how the Hindu and Muslim are fighting and killing each other. That is nothing to do with Hinduism and nothing to do with Islam; it has to with a belief system, which has no scientific, philosophical basis in these people’s mind. And they are using their belief system, as an extension of their own egos. And this is going on all over the world and that it has gone throughout the history, between the Buddhist and Hindus, between the Sikh and the Hindus, between the christen and other set of Christianity, the Jews and the christen. Is this religion ?,I was speaking in one university, and one student raise his hand and said, there is so much conflict between the religion, so much blood shed war, I think, best we can do for humanity is that just get off religion, this is not religion, religion is believe or faith, without a philosophical scientific basis is either fanaticism or sentimentalism. Many young students, I speak to, they tell me about their parents, they perform their puja everyday, when they ask their parent what are you doing, they say, puja, “what does it mean, what is it for, ‘do not ask these question, your mother did it your grand mother did it, my great grand mother did it everyone does it so I do it. Because if I don’t do it god may become angry, he may make us suffer. Young people get agitated . They can not accept such a concept of religious life. Sentimentalisms and fanaticism will not help us, neither it will help the world. But at the same time science and philosophy even if we study the scripture very ,very deeply, if we analyze the various branches of sciences very systematically , if it does not change the quality of the action and the thoughts of our life, this is all waste of our time.
Radhanath Swami explains Purpose of Religion
Bhagavad-Gita and other great scriptures books of this world is theory that is meant, to be put into practice. Religion is the way of life. Just like you are going to the university, you don’t go to university, just to stay in the university for the rest of your life, you go to the university collect as much good things, so that you can take it out of the world and use it, for the higher purpose and to help others, to develop higher purpose. So similarly the text books of religions, the temples and the asramas, they are meant to educate people in the highest science, of the science of the soul, the science of your life, the science of your relationship with nature and god and then we must take that and utilize it, according to whatever particular occupation we may have proclivity to perform in our life. We must act in knowledge; this is the greatest need in society. And who is it, that going to pollute this world, even worst than it is, or save this world, it is you, it is the youth of the world.The people in the colleges today are the future leader of human society. Krsna says in Gita, what the leaders do ,the common people will follow and every aspect of society the leaders of tomorrow in the college and the university today. If there is real up liftman of the integrity or character of student today and understanding of truth, how to live in the harmony and truth you can change the world, do not think your influence, can not make a major difference on this whole planet. We were hearing about the Saint Dnyaneshwar, Tukarama,Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Ramanuja Acarya, Madhavacarya, Shankaracarya our own Gurudev Srila Prabhupada, Bhakti Vedanta Swami, these people, they were one man, but because of they have commitment, the faith, the willingness of instrument of god, they transformed millions and million of people’s lives, they transformed history. The power of god is unlimited. If we come in contact with that power of god within our own lives through our purity, our morality and our spirituality, we can actually make this world, a holy place, we can make this world a place where people live in purity and harmony and people can actually progress.So at the time of death we don’t simply leave this body in bewilderment, death can come at any moment, but Krsna explains n Gita yam, yam vapi smaran bhavam tyajaty ante kalevaram, tam, tam evaiti kaunteya sada tad bhava-bhvaitah as the soul is changing different stages of life at the time of death, what happens to the soul, the atma, according to our consciousness, according to our quality of our thinking, our soul is transformed to any of the eight hundred four million species of life, but if our soul is pure. Or let us say our mind is pure, so the pure nature of the soul is not hindered, not covered, by illusion, and then the soul is liberated the cycle of birth and death. The soul is transferred to the eternal loving service of the lord to resume its original state of pure knowledge and pure bliss
So my very, very humble appeal to all of you, is take advantage the opportunity, you have at this special university it is university based on real principal morality, integrity and character and spirituality and make time in your life today to develop your spiritual consciousness, to filter your consciousness, Krsna consciousness and then you will find the most sublime treasure , everyone is looking for it ,but it is right within your own heart and then you can do real benefit for your own self and benefit for others .I thank you very much And if we manage our life in this way, management of our real self then we will actually find the greatest success, and we can give something wonderful to the world thank you very much
Question to Radhanath Swami
1 Why do we worship god?
Radhanath Swami Answers:
Your parents say why you don’t worship god and the younger people say why we worship god. This is very important question. Unless we ask these essential why, we will never have the conviction and faith to do it with the proper spirit, why, because of our nature. It is our constitutional position. We are spiritual, as I was explaining in our discussion, our essential identity is spiritual, people are looking for happiness, everyone, even a little insect, when a mosquito bites you , he doesn’t want to give you malaria, he wants to drink your blood, because that gives him happiness. And then when you go out and see all the amazing things that people do in society today, it is all pursuance of happiness. But what is real happiness. If before we can understand what is real pleasure we have to understand who is it to trying to enjoy. Just like we came here in Maruti automobile, now that Maruti automobile requires certain maintenances, it requires food in the form of petrol, it requires certain types of maintenances in form of oils, so we should take care of that automobile. But what about the driver in the automobile, he has a different need, if you, as the driver, drink petrol and oil what will happen to you, it will not give you pleasure, rather it will ruin your life, it will ruin your health. So similarly this body and this mind have certain needs to be maintained food, sleep, shelter, ,various other facilities but what are the needs of the soul. Human society has practically completely forgotten the needs of the soul , therefore, however, much you get you can’t be happy , no matter what amount of pleasure you get, it ultimately brings about frustration.
FRUSTRATED USA
I am coming from the United State of America, why did I come to a place like India, we have nice telephone system, the best television programmed, every house, so many cars, nice smooth roads, so much development, so much wealth, but no happiness. The wealthiest people in the world, the highest bracket of income, are the most likely; this is statistic, to have psychiatrist psychologist and suicide. They are finding no happiness, in-fact richer you become the more frustrated you become, why, because the more you are afraid that going to loose. The more you have, the more insecure you are that somebody is going to take it away. There is no happiness in that. And we go to so many colleges and universities, I don’t see the PHD, great scholars, writing so many books are any happier than the field that the person picking rice from the field. Everyone is looking for the happiness but everyone is frustrated, and if you are not frustrated now, look around the world and see what you will become in due course of time, why?
FISH OUT OF WATER
If you take a fish out of the water and put him on the sand, whatever arrangement you make for that fish, you can make him the king, you can give him elegant jewelry, you can give him powerful position in society, but will never be happy, because it is not his nature to be in sand. The soul is spiritual. The soul is part of god. The nature of the soul is, to serve god and to love god, through all our action, all our words, all our thoughts in this world that is the real pleasure, the real nourishment of the soul. So you want your happiness based on truth, you must worship god, in every act of life. and if you want to simply remain in the state of darkness trying to be happy by satisfying this body and this mind with all this temporary material facilities like a fish out of water, you may become famous, you may be in the front page of all the news papers in the world but your heart will remain empty, lonely and frustrated Is that answer your question We worship god, because it is truth, it is our essence it is our nature and forgetfulness of that nature is the root cause of all the problems in this world and with your training and management and technology, and software you are learning here, if you can express your love of god through these forces, your life will be really fulfilled, it will be steeped in truth. And I think that’s what everyone is looking for.
2 What it means to have pure mind and how it can be achieved in this world ?
Radhanath Swami Answers:
Mind is like a mirror, the soul is the actual person, the conscious force, the atma is you and the mind is like a mirror that you are seeing through and when the mirror is full of dirt and fulls of dust, what do you, when you look in the mirror, dirt and also dust and everything else. You don’t see yourself. You don’t see who you are what you need you only see dirt and dust, when you clean the mirror, what do you see you see yourself and you see you relationship with the supreme self. The only thing is keeping us from realization our own eternal deathless nature is the dirt in our mind. And how to cleanse dirt in our mind . This is explained by all the great scriptures and this is explained by all the great teachers, one is stop putting any more dirt on your mind, that means live a pure life. According to Srimad-Bhagavatam philosophy there are four pillar of sinful activities , which pollutes the mind, illicit sex , sex outside of marriage, intoxication, taking various types of drugs and alcohol, or such substances, just to infatuated the mind with unnatural condition, gambling and causing violence to others, that means also eating meat, fish or eggs which is violence .So we are praying for these four irreligious activities, then we’re not throwing so much dirt on our mind, to cleanse the mirror there is a simple formula harer nama nam harer nam eva kevlam, kalau nasty, nasty, nasty gatir anyatha to chant the name of god. The name of god is spiritual sound vibration; it is a pure sound vibration. By chanting the name of god Lord Caitanya explains ceto darpan marjanam bhava mahadavaganivarparam, shreya, the name of god is a transcendental spiritual vibration, which very quickly cleanses the mirror of our heart and our mind, and awakens the eternal blissful nature and recognition of our true self. That is why we are called hare Krsna movement, because we are trying to clean the mirror of mind by chanting the holy names of god. And there are many names of gods and all these pure authorize names of gods have the power to clean your heart if they are chanted in a proper mood in service and devotion. We chant
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare,
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama,Hare Hare.
And we have seen, we have seen when our Gurudev went to western world in 1965 this year 1996 is the 100 anniversary of his birth. He was appeared in this world in 1896. I would like to tell you little something about him, for my own purification and I think it will be nice for all of you.
SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF PRABHUPAD
When he was young man, he was initiated through the paramapra of great saintly people, the Gaudya Vaisnava samprdaya, which is teaching purely with the lessons of the Gita. And he was asked by his Guru to take this message all over the world. So when he was seventy year old, he had nothing, he was living in Vrndavana in a small little room. He was great scholar; he was translating Srimad-Bhagavatam and somehow or other he got enough donations to print first three volumes and then he went and he got a free passage on a cargo ship, called the Jalduta. In the ocean he had the two heart attacks, and when he came to the Boston Harbor later on to the New York Harbor , he was wondering how I am ever going to get the message of Krsna into these people’s heart, they are addicted to every type of vice. And he prayed “My Lord let me just be a puppet in Your hands, make my words, penetrates their hearts, he sat under a little in a park in New York city. Someone gave him a little drum, and here was this seventy year old sadhu from India, in the saffron robes wearing today in the middle of Manhattan of New York city, chanting
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare,
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama,Hare Hare.
and people started coming, mostly people of your age, they are inquisitive, mostly educated people, who are looking for higher purposes in life. They understood that material advancement does not bring happiness. And they were looking for something beyond. But these people from the time of their birth, they were eating meat, illicit sex was the just most common and acceptable type of enjoyment, gamblers, most of these people many of them were drug addict, alcoholics . But just by chanting the holy name of Krsna they gave up all these things, they became very pure, and they dedicated their lives in the service of God and humanity. That is the power of the holy name, which we have seen with our own eyes, confirming the teaching of all the great scripture and all the great saints. So by regularly chanting Gods name and living a pure and moral life, this is process of making a heart clean and then with that clean heart, take your education, take whatever God have given you, and use it as an expression of love.
I pray that you go deeply into the most important part of education raja vidhya raja guhyem pavitram idam uttamam the science of the soul. the science of god is the highest, it is the king of education, put that one first in your life and let all else you receive like so many zeros, give real, real value to the service to god and to the world.
