Spiritual Questions and Answers with Radhanath Swami
Question to Radhanath Swami: Can’t we practice spirituality without accepting a guru? Can’t we make spiritual advancement based on knowledge from scriptures and what we have learnt from others?
Radhanath Swami Answers: We can make progress to some extent. But whether we admit or not, we do have gurus: people who inspire us, people from whom we gain knowledge.
Question to Radhanath Swami: 1) How important is the role of a guru? 2)Also, to develop character, isn’t it important to start early in life? Radhanath Swami Answers: Importance of a guru has been sung throughout the ages – in tradition and scriptures – because gurus preserve the essence of a spiritual tradition. Otherwise, our… Continue reading Radhanath Swami answers, ‘What’s the right age to build character?’
Question to Radhanath Swami: Today’s youth is becoming indifferent to spiritual education. How will you appeal, as a Guru, this generation to be spiritual and yet be cool?
Radhanath Swami Answers: I see a tremendous potential among the youth of India to go seriously to the roots of their spirituality. But in our society religion is sometimes based on superstition and sentiment without a real scientific philosophical understanding.
Question to Radhanath Swami: When one Vaishnava, a devotee of the Supreme Lord, praises another devotee’s devotional qualities, what should be the mood of one praising, and what should be the mood of one accepting the praise?
Answer by Radhanath Swami: Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur condemned flattering. .In the material world people praise others because they want to get something in return for that praise: one sometimes praises a politician because one wants help from that politician’s political powers; one sometimes praises a rich man because one hopes to get some money from that rich man.
Question to Radhanath Swami: Is this beautiful world really anxiety ridden as the saints say?!!!!
Radhanath Swami: Srila Prabhupad, our Guru, often expressed in his writings how material life is actually full of anxieties. And the less selfish we are, the more we understand that reality. Sometimes we maybe so happy and it may seem that there is no anxiety in the world, “I am happy.
Question to Radhanath Swami : We know how to strengthen the foundation in engineering, but how do we strengthen the foundation of our spiritual life?
Radhanath Swami : How did you learn to strengthen foundations in the field of engineering? You learn from authorized books and from authorized professors. In the same way there are holy scriptures and there are the holy teachers.
