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Battle between the mind and the heart
August 11, 2010  |  radhanath-swami

Meditation on Radhanath Swami’s Book – The Journey Home Book

At the Bombay festival, a gigantic pandal, tent was erected and over 25,000 people attended the programme, eager to hear from the guru. Richard was seated at the rear end of the pandal. Richard saw the guru call over one of his disciples and spoke in his ear. The disciple then gazed into the massive crowd, signaled someone to come up onto the stage, but when nobody came, he finally came down and walked right up to Richard. He smilingly told Richard, “Srila Prabhupada wants you to sit with him on the stage.” Richard was stunned that of the thousands, Srila Prabhupada had picked on him to sit next to him.

As Srila Prabhupada spoke, Richard heard a voice within his heart proclaim, “This is your guru.” But the mind couldn’t accept, and a battle ensued between the mind and the heart. His mind won and he dismissed the idea that he was ready to choose a guru. After the lecture Richard extended his hand to touch Srila Prabhupada’s feet. A disciple tried to stop but Srila Prabhupada gently spoke that he could touch his feet. Meanwhile the other Western disciples of Srila Prabhupada became good friends with Richard but he was still fearful of a commitment. During one class, Richard felt Srila Prabhupada’s eyes penetrating into the depths of his soul, and silently urging him not to waste his precious time, for Krishna was waiting for him. Richard trembled:

“It is said that a saintly person is so pure that he or she acts like a spotless mirror. When we come in the presence of such a mirror-like soul, we can see both the beauty and ugliness of our inner life. Our faith and doubts, virtues and sins, strengths and weaknesses are revealed. It is both a joyful and painful experience, one that I had in the presence of Srila Prabhupada.”

Although the association of a saint fills our heart with spiritual joy, it also positively disturbs. A true saint doesn’t flatter his followers with platitudes. While he exudes warmth and affection, he also speaks the harsh truth of life, some of which may be unpalatable for the ego. The ego fears that commitment to a spiritual path may restrict our freedom. Radhanath Swami narrates the example of an uncleaned room. A room that isn’t cleaned for years may be dirty, and an attempt to clean the room only raises more dirt. However, if the cleaner persists, the room will become attractive for a person to stay. Similarly, a genuine well wishing guru attempts to clean the heart of a disciple. The process appears painful, but if the seeker persists and allows the transcendental instructions of the guru to enter his consciousness, the room of the heart once again illuminates and attracts God to reside in the heart. A God centered life then fills our lives with freedom and happiness.

The pain occurs in the initial days of our spiritual life because we hear the special position of God and our position in the cosmos as inconsequential. A genuine guru teaches that God is indeed special and we are insignificant only to the extent we are disconnected from God.  A soul that endeavors to reestablish the relationship with God becomes special, and he or she then experiences a level of happiness that transcends ordinary bodily pleasures.

Radhanath Swami cites the example of a finger which is insignificant when separated from the body. However when connected to the hand, it has a special place. A screw when separated from the machine is useless but when reconnected enjoys a unique function. Likewise, separated from the Lord, no endeavors in this world can actually make our lives significant. In a loving relationship with God alone, we can be blissful. Besides, prayerful contemplation on our insignificance compared to the all great Lord and His numerous servants, makes us humble. This humility softens our heart and captures God’s heart. Radhanath Swami enlightens us, “A spiritual approach to life that is based on humility and service transforms even unknown servants to glorious recipients of Lord’s love and mercy.” Richard was one such special recipient.

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134 Comments


  1. Radhanath Swami was very lucky to have got his Guru’s blessings even before he accepted him as Guru…….very nice……

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  2. radhanath swami’s book has wonderful pastimes to relish and inspire from ….

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  3. His Holiness Radhanath Swami has expounded a very valuable point. If we tolerate and persist in our spiritual lives, then the God centeredness fills our lives with freedom and happiness.

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  4. As mentioned, genuine sainly people will expose our shortcomings and encourage us on the path of proper understanding simultaneously. What rare gems such sainly people are!

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  5. Dr Yuvaraj J Bhosale

    thanks radhanath swami for this -A spiritual approach to life that is based on humility and service transforms even unknown servants to glorious recipients of Lord’s love and mercy

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  6. How nicely Radhanath Swami is explaining the need of commitement on the path of spiritual life. It’ll be difficult at start but if we persist, glories future is awating us. The example of cleaning of room is so appriopriate.

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  7. Neha Viral Chaglani

    Thank you Maharaj for sharing your realizations and experiences..

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  8. Excellent !!!!!!!

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  9. Maharaj is pointing here the benefit association of a pure soul, even a momentary association the doors of deliverance gets open. As explained here that by such a contact we able to understand our +ve and -ve aspects which inspires us to work on them to better serve guru and Krsna.

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  10. Very nice artilce elucidating Maharaj’s stress on taking the association of Mahatmas even though it may initially cause some pain to our ego and hard for the mind to accept

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  11. We are fortunate that we have access to such saintly persons as Radhanath Swami to guide and encourage us on our spiritual path. Thank you

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  12. Nice. Srila Prabhupada could see Radhanath Maharaj way back then. Jai Srila Prabhupada.

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  13. A soul that endeavors to reestablish the relationship with God becomes special, and he or she then experiences a level of happiness that transcends ordinary bodily pleasures- HHRSM
    Every statement every word gives hope !

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  14. Even Radhanath Swami is one such great saint in whose presence nothing remains hidden; our good and bad is at once revealed for us to see and act upon – for the better.

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  15. The last statement is hard to follow. But it works……

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  16. Radhanath Swami has a great incluence of God as we can see in his life.

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  17. Very inspiring for me to read Radhanath Maharaja experiences

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  18. Wonderful incident.. Srila Prabhupada could easily recognize Maharaj. This shows that the relation of Spiritual Master and disciple is eternal

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  19. Radhanath Swami emphasises the necessity of humility in spiritual life again and again and again… hoping that one day all of us would be transformed.

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  20. Thank you Radhanath Swami for teaching us to work with God in the center.

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  21. It is amazing to see the battle between heart and mind, how Radhanath Swami took the correct decision before completely convinced himself of accepting a spiritual master.

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  22. Thank you Radhanath Swami

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  23. Maharaj, you have connected us to the great powerhouse of mercy & compaasion & made something valuable out ofus.

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  24. Simply Wonderful to hear from Radhanath Swami!

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  25. Jagannath Dham Das

    Radhanath Swami Maharaj so very nicely describes the analogy of cleaning a room & comparing it with cleaning our heart !
    This also shows how Srila Prabhupada recognized Radhanath Swami out of thousands of people !
    Hare Krishna !

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  26. Thank you very much for sharing, really very meaningful.

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  27. A startling revealation from Maharaj ji. They are fortunate & very special pepole who have received benedictions from such great soul.

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  28. Kalpana Kulkarni

    A spiritual approach to life that is based on humility and service transforms even unknown servants to glorious recipients of Lord’s love and mercy.” Radhanath Swami was lucky to be the recipient’s of his gurus Srila Prabhupad’s mercy and we in turn are so fortunate to have gurus like Radhanath Swami to guide and inspire us on our spiritual path.

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  29. Very very touching article..HH RNSM is really a special personality descended from Goloka for deliverance of mass of kaliyuga people

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  30. Very instructive article….

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  31. This pastime shows how H.H. Radhanath Maharaj was a true vaisnava on a highly spiritual platform from the beginning only and therefore Prabhupada recognized him out of thousand of people

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  32. The spiritual master is a very important part of our spiritual lives as only he can purify us to develop love for the Lord.

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