Category: Insights

What’s the Importance of Fasting on Appearance and Disappearance Days? Radhanath Swami Enlightens…

Question to Radhanath Swami: It is recommended that we fast on the birthdays (usually called the appearance days) of great acharyas or spiritual preceptors. Similarly, it is recommended that we fast on the anniversaries of their departure from this world (disappearance day.) What is the importance of this fasting?

Radhanath Swami: Ultimately, it’s to show our love and appreciation for what that great acharya or spiritual preceptor has done for the world. Performing tapasya or austerity is a way of showing love on the path of bhakti.

Sometimes Spirituality Leaves us in Mid-air….

Question to Radhanath Swami from a Student: When we are introduced to spirituality, we realize that what we learn in academics has little relevance from an absolute perspective. Therefore we lose passion for learning mundane things. But after a while, sometimes, we lose passion even for spirituality. So we are left nowhere. Are you getting my point?

Radhanath Swami: That is a very distinguished way of saying that you are lazy (audience laugh.) We shouldn’t be lazy.

“How to control and purify the senses?” Radhanath Swami Answers…

Question to Radhanath Swami: How to control and purify our senses?

Answer: That is a very important question. It’s the essence of life. That question and its answer is the path of perfection. Krishna tells in the Bhagavad Gita that by engaging our senses and our mind, which is our sixth sense, in the service of the Lord, we become purified of all illusory designations.

How to get the ‘Higher Taste’ in Spirituality?

Question to Radhanath Swami: I have heard that bhakti yoga provides a ‘higher taste.’ But how do you define ‘higher taste’? And how to get that ‘higher taste’?

Answer: If you want to taste a gulab-jamun (an Indian sweet), what do you do? Do you chemically test it? Do you see it from all directions under a micro-scope?

Why go on pilgrimage? Radhanath Swami sheds light…

Question to Radhanath Swami: I am planning to go on a pilgrimage to Chitrakoot. So, I’d like to know how attending these pilgrimages will enhance our spirituality.

Radhanath Swami: One of the most sacred traditions of all religions is pilgrimage.  In our Vedic religion we go to Vrndavana, Badrinath, Kedarnath, Yamunotri, Gangotri, Tirupati, Ramesvaram, Chitrakoot, Ayodhya, Dwarka, Pandharpur, Kolhapur, Udupi, Varanasi, Kashi, Mayapur, Jagannatha Puri, and so many other places.

What’s the Need of a Spiritual Society?

Question to Radhanath Swami: Ultimately, we die alone. I have also read that our relationship with God is individual, which is unique to every soul.  So, being the member of a spiritual society, how does that enable one to reach that potential individual relationship with God?

Radhanath Swami: Yes, ultimately at the time of death we have to turn to God ourselves.