How to connect to another generation?

Question to Radhanath Swami: How do you communicate with the younger generation? How do you make them believe your message is good?

Radhanath Swami Answers:  One thing that resonates with people is our living example. Young people are often tired of just listening to older people talk. I am from America. I grew up as a teenager in 1960s along with my dear friend Garry; that was the time of the counter culture, and we were very much part of it. It was a time when the youth were rebelling against the older generation; we had a mantra, a slogan: “Never trust anyone over thirty”. Why? Because we were hearing about freedom for everyone, but if you were born with black skin, an African American, 95% chances were that you would live and die in the ghettos; there was practically no way out, they did not have equal rights. And I saw that with other minorities too.

I think youth are always like that. They are idealistic; they see more than they hear. And if they feel we are genuine about what we say, that we are walking our talk, they take it seriously.

And we should somehow connect with them, with what they are going through right now. This was a problem in my own youth; the teens were suffering anxiety and despondency over situations of society and the older generation could not understand it. We have to really understand what the young people are going through. And people respond to love, people respond to the message of compassion, people respond to universal principals.

Question to Radhanath Swami:

Radhanath Swami Answers: Now in Mumbai we are undergoing the monsoon rains. It is very inconvenient.

Most people don’t like when it is raining, and that is a universal principle all over the world. Rainy seasons bring austerity; you practically cannot do anything outside. Children cannot do their sports, adults cannot have open parties. And whatever else they do to get from one place to another becomes very difficult.

However, the rain nourishes the earth, provides grains, foods, vegetables, flowers. Without rain there is no life. There is a song of the 1940s from America: though April showers may come your way, they bring the flowers that bloom in May…. So when we see rains coming, our mind should be focused on the flower that they would bring.

When difficulties, obstacles, pressures and even failures come into our lives, we should always be seeing the invisible, feeling the intangible, so we can achieve the impossible. We may not exactly understand why? But if we have faith, if we have hope, we can always be looking at that flower that will grow from this rainstorm. That is the substance of a successful man. When opportunity knocks, most people complain at the noise. We should see an opportunity in every situation; we never really lose until we stop trying.

Question to Radhanath Swami:

Answer by Radhanath Swami: Since time immemorial we have conditioned ourselves to certain misconceptions. The Srimad Bhagavatam teaches that the origin of all misconceptions is janasya mohoyam aham mameti. We are thinking, “I am this body and all things in relationship with this body are mine.” But actually, I am the spirit soul and what is really mine, is the opportunity to serve and to love. That is the constitutional nature of the soul, but when we fall into this misconception, we act to serve our ego than to serve God. Whatever we then do has a karmic reaction.

Karma is both gross and subtle. Everything we do or say, not only will incriminate us in physical, mental and emotional reaction, but also conditions our consciousness to be more and more attached in a way that develop a deeper proclivity or inclination to that type of thought or activity. Thus, we are the conglomerated sum total of all the conditionings that we have put upon ourselves through this life and through many countless lives. Even when we take to a path of pure spiritual life and thus have noble aspirations, our conditionings are still lurking within our mind ready to haunt us like ghosts. The mind is filled with the sum total of impressions, attachments and desires from all our previous lives and we are able to see only a few desires that come up at a time. Just like there may be countless fish in the ocean but we only see a few jumping up every now and then, there are millions of desires and attachments in the mind and every now and then a few come to the surface.

The solution is to recondition ourselves. We have cultivated selfishness and all sorts of desires for acquisition and enjoyment. The process of sanatan dharma is to recondition our mind, senses and lives through purity, humility and selfless service. When we engage in devotional service to God, the power of God’s mercy upon us is so great, that in a relatively short period of time it purifies us of all the conditionings. Therefore Lord Caitanya prayed, cheto darpan marjanam bhava maha devagni nirvapanam: the pure water that falls from the sky turns muddy on falling to the ground but comes back to its natural state on being filtered. Similarly, when we filter our consciousness of the conditioned attachments and desires, it comes back to its natural constitution. The simplest most effective way of purifying the mind is by fixing our consciousness on God. In the age of Kali the most highly recommended process of bringing the consciousness back to its pure natural state is remembering the Supreme by chanting His holy names.

Two things are required to filter the mind – one is filtration and the other is to stop poring junk in it. In spite of having the best filter, the water can never be purified if we keep throwing pollutants and mud in it.

täni sarväëi saàyamya

yukta äséta mat-paraù

vaçe hi yasyendriyäëi

tasya prajïä pratiñöhitä

“One who restrains his senses, keeping them under full control, and fixes his consciousness upon Me, is known as a man of steady intelligence.” (Bhagavad Gita 2.61)

The great acharyas have taught us regulative principles and we must follow them very strictly. Violating these regulative principles simply pours more and more dirt in our mind and we get addicted to the materialistic concept of life. If we want to give up something negative we have replace it with a positive alternative. It is very difficult for one to stop something one is habituated to for a long time. But it becomes relatively easy if we engage our mind, senses and life’s energy in something positive. It is said that an idle mind is a devil’s workshop. We want to eliminate the negative through the process of replacing it with positive. Simply negation of these desires will not do since the soul is pleasure seeking. Therefore Lord Krishna did not tell Arjuna to go to the forest and do nothing, say nothing and speak nothing, but (he told him) to act with mobility, integrity and devotion to Him.

Question to Radhanath Swami

Radhanath Swami Answers: We have to associate with people who have confidence, and become inspired and enthused. We were speaking about Srila Prabhupada. He had such a burning compassion for other beings that he was willing to go to the most impossible, incredible places. By associating with him, even simple people who just grew up with no conception of Dharma, no conception of Bhakti, they were going to countries without any money, without knowing anyone there, and were reaching hundreds and thousands of people and giving them bhakti, giving them Krishna. Where did they get that confidence from? From Prabhupada.

The greatest confidence, according to the Gita, is to understand that we are not the doers. We should simply aspire to be instruments of God’s grace. Then we can have incredible confidence, incredible enthusiasm, incredible fearlessness and most importantly, incredible character, integrity and dignity (because we feel the responsibility to be an instrument of grace, a power so much more than ourselves.) I am a very small person, I went to one semester of a junior college and I didn’t do well either and that’s the extent of my education and here we have all these people with PhDs and master’s degrees in IIT asking me questions. Do I have confidence to answer your question? No. But if I am just surrendered to be an instrument of God’s grace, my Guru’s grace, then there could be unlimited confidence beyond our own abilities. And that’s within all of us and that comes when we associate with people who access that grace.

Question to Radhanath Swami:

Answer by Radhanath Swami: He doesn’t need anything; Krishna is Ätmäräm. Let’s take the example of the Ganges. When you take water from river Ganges, you say a prayer and offer the water to the Ganges. Does the Ganges need that handful of water from you? Is she going to dry up if you don’t give that handful of water? Is her current going to be diverted back to the Himalayas if you don’t give that handful of water? There are unlimited liters of waters in the Ganges and you have hardly an ounce in your hand, but we need to offer that handful for our spiritual purification. And the Ganges doesn’t need anything, but she wants our love. So when we take that water from her and offer it back with love she is happy.

If a child takes a rose from the mother’s garden for her birthday and offers it to the mother, is the mother happy with the flower? She had already grown the flower; the flower belongs to her; but is she pleased when the son gives her that flower? The mother is probably more pleased with that flower offered with love than if someone else buys a diamond necklace to impress her or to get some favor. Similarly, it’s love that pleases the heart of Krishna.

Krishna doesn’t need anything. He has given us our body, our mind and our intelligence. He has given us the world with all the facilities. But the purpose of this body, the purpose of this mind and purpose of the whole world is an opportunity to reciprocate love.

So God doesn’t need anything, but God wants us to be happy, and our happiness is in love.

Question to Radhanath Swami:

Answer by Radhanath Swami: GodisSat-cit-ananda, he is eternal, full of knowledge, and full of unlimited happiness. He is called ‘Rama’, the reservoir of all pleasure. His happiness is supreme love, and part of that happiness is to be unhappy to see if we are unhappy. He is absolutely happy, but in that happiness there is unhappiness to see you and me unhappy. So we can make God happy by being happy, but by the right kind of happiness (i.e. spiritual happiness).

Radhanath Swami Answers: This is a very important question. Unless we ask this essential ‘why’, we will never have the conviction and faith to do it with the proper spirit.
Everyone is looking for happiness. For example, when a mosquito bites you, he doesn’t do it to give you malaria; he just wants to drink your blood, because that gives him happiness. Similarly, all the amazing things that people do in society today, it is all in pursuance of happiness.
But what is real happiness? Before we can understand what is real pleasure we have to understand who’s trying to enjoy. The person trying to enjoy is different from this body. If the body is compared to a vehicle, the person who’s trying to enjoy, the soul, can be compared to the driver in the vehicle. The vehicle requires certain maintenances; it requires food in the form of petrol, it requires certain types of maintenances in the form of oils. But the driver in the automobile has a different need. Drinking petrol and that oil will not give him pleasure; rather it will ruin his health.
Similarly, this body and this mind have certain needs: food, sleep, shelter, and various other facilities. But what are the needs of the soul? Human society today has practically forgotten the needs of the soul. Therefore, however much you get you can’t be happy; it ultimately brings about frustration.
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 actions, words and thoughts. That gives real pleasure and real nourishment for the soul. So if you want your happiness based on truth, you must worship god in every act of life. We worship god because it is the 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.

Question to Radhanath Swami: How do we know when we are ready to be a leader? And what do we do in the meantime?

Answer by Radhanath Swami: Really, our aspiration should be to serve. Leadership is just a very-very wonderful opportunity to serve. We shouldn’t be attached to be a leader; we should be attached to the service that we can render. Sometimes people strive to be a leader because they think they can really do great service to the society. And sometimes people don’t have any inclination to be a leader, but because of their self less service others put them in the position of leadership. Yes. That often happens. Sometimes the most qualified person to be a leader doesn’t want to be a leader.

Whether we are leading our a family, whether we are leading in the circle of a small friends, whether we are leading a business or whether we are leading an entire nation, we should all cultivate and strive to be leaders by the examples—by the words we speak and by the examples that we live. I have even seen humble street sweepers whose character and virtues are so good.  The real thing is to lead by setting an example of high ideals and high identity. And whether or not we come to the top of a particular field that we are working in, we can be a great leader if we live with character integrity and devotion.

Question to Radhanath Swami

Answer by Radhanath Swami: By loving God, Krishna. When you water the root of the tree every part of the tree is nourished by that water. So when we learn how to love God, naturally our love extends to every part of God, which is every living being. The example is also given that if we want to feed the various limbs and organs of the body we must give food to the stomach. When we give the proper food to the stomach it is naturally distributed to the hands, the eyes, the brain, the feet, and every tissue of the body. When we learn how to love Radha and Krishna, naturally our love will extend to all living beings without discrimination of sex, sect, caste, religion, nationality or even species. paëòitäù sama-darçinaù.

We cannot love God and not love every living entity. The testimony of the authenticity of our love for God is how it extends to everyone; when we love God, we see a part of God in every heart beyond the superficial differences we saw earlier. But also, in order to achieve that love of God—through the chanting of  God’s names and the practice of bhakti—it is an elementary practice of bhakti to be amäninä mänadena—to honor and respect others and feel oneself the servant of all beings.

Question to Radhanath Swami: Thank you. Swamiji that was really really execellent lecture. Just one small point how would you define the difference between a religion and spirituality?

Answer by Radhanath Swami: If we try to understand the actual meaning of religion, we will find that there is no difference. But if we view the way religion is often followed in the world today, there is a big difference. The word religion comes from the Greek word religio, which means ‘to bind back’ or ‘to reconnect’—to reconnect our hearts, our consciousness, with God. The word Yoga means exactly the same—to reunite the atma with the Paramatma, to reconnect our consciousness with the Supreme, and to reconnect our consciousness with each other through our connection with God.

Religion is the path of purification. We understand that love of God is dormant within the heart of everyone. The mind is like a mirror. When you look in a clean mirror, you see yourself. But if the mirror is covered with dirt, dust, pollution, and all sorts of other coverings, all you see in the mirror is the dust, the dirt and the pollution—and you think that’s me. Similarly, when the mind is clean, we see Krishna, the all beautiful all loving object of our love, and we see our own eternal soul as the lover of Krishna. But when the mind is covered by arrogance, greed, envy and passion, we think that’s me.

What is religion? My Gurudev Srila Prabhupad would say that real religion is not about being a Hindu or a Muslim or a Christian or a Jew or a Jain or a Sikh or a Parsi or anything else. Real religion is about awakening love of God. And the first commandment of the Bible is to love God with all our heart, mind and soul. And if you love God with all your heart, mind and soul, what comes next? Naturally, spontaneously, we love our neighbor as ourselves—and every living being happens to be our neighbor. Every living being is our neighbor because every living being is a part of God.
Krishna tells in the Bhaghavad Gita:

sarva-dharmān parityajya
mām ekaḿ śaraṇaḿ vraja
ahaḿ tvāḿ sarva-pāpebhyo
mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ

He says, “Abandon all varieties of dharma, (sometimes dharma is translated as religion) and just surrender to me.” What is ‘surrender to me’? It doesn’t mean surrendering in defeat. The mother surrenders to the baby, doesn’t she? In the middle of the night when the mother is sleeping and the baby goes aaahh… the mother surrenders to the baby, she gets up to take care of the child. That’s not surrender of defeat, that’s the surrender of love. Unselfish love is to surrender in love to God and be an instrument of God’s love in this world; that is religion. That is the spirit, that is the essence of religion, and that is the essence of spirituality.

As far as the various rituals are concerned, when we become attached to those things and forget what it is for, it becomes what we today know as religion, where there are so many differences. What are we doing pooja for? Do we really know what it is? It’s meant to tune us into the grace of God. It’s meant to help us focus on the divine power of God’s love. And why do we study scriptures? I have seen people who have studied scriptures and have memorized thousands and thousands of slokas, but their ego and their envy and their greed is as much as anybody else’s. The purpose of studying scripture , the purpose of pooja , mantra , yantra , tantra, mudra, the purpose of all these things is to clean the mirror of the mind and reconnect us to the divine grace.

Becoming religious is about becoming saragrahi. Saragrahi means one who seeks the essence; that is real religion. When we seek the essence of all religions, then we see what is in common. In my book The Journey Home, I give one analogy. When I was living in Patna, I was 20 years old. I stayed with Ramasevak Swami who was about 85, and there was another man who was over 85; his name was Narayan Prasad. Everyday about 11 ‘O clock in the morning he took me to his best friend. His best friend lived at the Magadha X-ray Clinic and his name was Mohammad. Interestingly, Narayan Prasad would speak to him about Bhagvad Gita, Mohammad would speak to him about the Quran, and I would speak about all the different stuff that I knew. One day I asked Narayan Prasad, “How is it that in a place like India, where there is so much conflict between Hindus and Muslims that you and Mohammad are best friends and you are sharing each other’s scriptures like this?” He said, “If a dog has a master, the dog will recognize the master in whatever way the master dresses. Sometimes he may be in a suit and tie, sometimes he may be in t-shirt and jeans, sometimes he may be wearing a dhoti or a lungi , sometimes he may not be wearing anything, but the dog will recognize. If we cannot recognize our beloved Lord when he comes in different times, in different dresses, with different names, then we have much to learn from the dog.” Saragrahi means to seek the essence. Even though there may be differences, if we seek the essence, we will understand what we really have in common, and then there is no difference between spirituality and religion.