Richard had chosen the life of a beggar, sleeping on riverbanks or under trees, searching for God by exploring holy places, and learning spiritual lessons on the way. He believed God was pushing him to seek more truths. From Varanasi, Richard travelled to Pashupatinath at Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. Being a foreigner he was rejected entry into the temple of Lord Shiva by the guards. Richard was crestfallen as he had travelled long distances in train and rear of trucks, with much hope to discover a spiritual meaning to life. At much risk, he covered himself with sacrificial ashes and attempted to enter the temple again. This time not only the guards didn’t recognize him, they dragged him to the central altar of God and honored him with an exclusive opportunity to see and worship God in the temple. Richard was overwhelmed by this turnaround and felt deeply humbled.
“Did he not recognize me in my disguise or was he aware who I was and simply honoring my determination? This I will never know. Whatever the reason, I was deeply humbled. I had defied human law and deserved to be beaten, but God is merciful. Standing before the altar, my limbs covered with ashes, my drab ascetic robes, and tangled, matted hair awkwardly covered with silks and flowers, I squeezed my tearing eyes shut, joined my palms and prayed that I would be shown my true path as I continued my journey.”
Reflecting on this incident, I felt it’s easy to be humble when we fail, but to be humble, prayerful and grateful during success reveals the substance of a person’s character. Before an important event in my life, like exams, a lecture programme or a critical meeting, I have been nervous and intensely prayerful. However if the event turns out to be successful, I am not as prayerful as before the event. I offer a customary ‘thank you’ to God and riding the wave of success, forget about the desperation I had before the event. There is pride in the heart and a feeling that my hard work and preparation merited the success. Reading Radhanath Swami’s mood of gratitude and humility after he made it to the altar of the temple has taught me a lesson on humility and prayer; it’s equally important to be humble and prayerful during success.
Radhanath Swami celebrates the success of his students but as a loving father guards them from the dangers of pride creeping into the heart. He says, “I become extremely happy when I hear all of you doing well, but I also fear that pride may enter the heart and spoil everything.” Once one of his students gave a series of excellent talks in Mumbai on spiritual science, and thousands attended daily. News of the glory of his student reached Radhanath Swami, who was at the time in America. He promptly wrote a letter to his student, thanking him for the service and congratulating him for the success. He also cautioned at the end of the letter, “Please be humble. Souls greater than both you and me have fallen away from spiritual life, due to arrogance and pride. Carefully guard against pride by cultivating humility, and never think yourself to be better than the most menial servant who washes pots in the temple.”
Radhanath Swami’s tireless efforts have created an excellent community of spiritual seekers in Mumbai. People from all over the world come to Mumbai to learn from him. When he was recently honored for this successful project, he humbly revealed his state of consciousness, “I am not responsible for all this success. I am simply a cheer leader, standing on the side, and watching it all happen. I simply keep cheering as all of you are doing wonderful things”. Despite engineering many successful projects, his consciousness is immersed in giving credit to his guru. “This is my guru’s sense of humor that he is allowing me to be used as an instrument despite my unlimited disqualifications.” Radhanath Swami is a shining example of one striving for excellence in pleasing guru and God, and simultaneously meditating on one’s own disqualifications.
Whether success or failure, Radhanath Swami says we should be humble and make this honest confession to God, “My dear Lord, I was nothing, I am nothing, I will be nothing and You are everything”.
Table of Contents
Founder-acharya of the International Society For Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)
“Go to India” a sweet but commanding voice; spoke up in the heart of young Richard (later Radhanath Swami) who was immersed in meditation, his search for meaning in life has brought him to the Isle of Crete. Today he was ordered to go to India. Born and raised in the middle class suburbs of Chicago, Radhanath swami grew up in the 1950’s and 60’s era when popular musicians protested war, prejudice and social injustice. Radhanath swami would listen to these songs again and again, but their lyrics referring to God stirred his soul. Peter, Paul and Mary- the folk trio from Greenswich village sang in their debut album
“Early in the morning, about the break of day
I ask the Lord, to help me find my way”
This simple prayer was to guide Radhanath swami in the coming years of his life........
“My dear Lord, I was nothing, I am nothing, I will be nothing and You are everything”.
View CommentEvery quality of HH Radhanath Swami is unachievable to me in millions of lifetimes. The determination, the humility, etc., HH Radhanath Swami showed during His entire journey to India and to find real spiritual path is amazing and worth meditating to imbibe atleast a portion of these qualities in our lives.
View CommentHumility is one quality without which all spiritual quests end in a big void.
View CommentRadhanath Swami is forever painstakingly trying to drive home this point.
It is clear that he has been humble from the very beginning, and thus, GOD was happy to use him as His puppet to carry out His will.
HH Radhanath Swami Maharaj’s these 2 quotes are wonderful and worth to be remembered:
View Comment1.”Carefully guard against pride by cultivating humility, and never think yourself to be better than the most menial servant who washes pots in the temple.”
2.“My dear Lord, I was nothing, I am nothing, I will be nothing and You are everything”.
I simply pray that I can learn even a speck of humility from Radhanath Swami. Such profound teachings……illuminates the heart.
View CommentPride is such a danger for humanity. we really need a teacher like Radhanath swami who can remove pride from our heart and give us way to humbleness
View CommentRadhanath Swami has made an absolutely correct assessment that we cannot cultivate humility without first abandoning our false pride. He basically wants us to realise that we can only make endeavours, everything else remains in the hands of God. He is the Supreme Controller.
View Commentthis article will help to develop humility.
View CommentRadhanath Swami is a perfect teacher, he practices what he teaches……..he is very humble & also guides his followers to give up false ego & become humble
View CommentRadhanath Swami has made an absolutely correct assessment that we cannot cultivate humility without first abandoning our false pride.
View CommentKrishna can tolerate everything in a devote, but He cannot tolerate envy and false pride. These have to be given up first. Radhanath Swami is an ideal example who has pure love for Godhead and so He is free from all these material dualities.
View CommentPride comes before a fall – Radhanath Swami as a true well wisher and spiritual guide carefully instructs his followers to not fall prey to false pride. Through his own humble service attitude he serves as a shining exampe for others to follow.
View CommentVery nice meditation. RAdhanath Swami is teaching us a lesson that is rarely to be found in such depth and details in any other place
View CommentI am extremly impressed by the humility of Radhanath Swami. I pray that someday I will be able to attain a small fraction of the humility of Radhanath swami.
View CommentWonderful thanks for sharing
View CommentWonderful thanks for sharing
View CommentRadhanath Swami is himself a shining example of how to practice humility without developing any pride about oneself & one’s achievements.
View CommentMy dear Lord, I was nothing, I am nothing, I will be nothing, YOU are everything. Humility & prayer is equally important to be humble & prayerful during sucess.
View Comment“I was nothing, I am nothing, I will be nothing and You are everything”if one understands this there will be at least no conflicts in his own life.
View CommentThankyou for posting!
View Comment“I am not responsible for all this success. I am simply a cheer leader, standing on the side, and watching it all happen. I simply keep cheering as all of you are doing wonderful things”. I liked this statement filled with humility by HH radhanath Swami
View CommentRadhanath Swami is personification of humility and compassion
View CommentRadhanath Swami by his own example shows how one should be always be giving credit to guru and God for all the success, which is a striking difference when compared with any ordinary and even many famous personalities.
View Commentreal surrender at every step
View CommentRadhanath Swami through out his lectures and in personal actions says one has to be humble like a blade of grass to progress in Bhakti Yoga and attract the mercy of Lord.
View CommentVery nice article. By reading this article i realised that i need to be more humble.
View CommentA humble person is loved by one & all , yet very rarely we try to practice it. Thank you for sharing this wonderful article.Radhanath Swami lives the principles he preaches.
View CommentThank you very much for sharing this meditation. Really radhanath Swami Maharaj shows by his example how to cultivate all spiritual qualities
View CommentIt is very inspiring to know how Maharaj instructs to guard against pride, the biggest obstacle in the path of bhakti. Very enlightening. Thanks for this wonderful meditation.
View CommentThank you very much Radhanath Swami Maharaj for making it very clear that without leaving our pride aside, its impossible to cultivatate humility.
View CommentContrary to belief, Radhanath Swami teaches us how a humble person can also be very successful in life. He can be successful in winning the favor of the Lord.
View CommentRadhnath Swami is very dear to everyone because of his quality of humility.
View CommentFeel like to read it again and again
View CommentWe are trying to cultivate our little garden of devotion amidst this vast jungle of kaliyuga which is the age of Quarrel and hypocracy.
View CommentHumility is like the fence that protects the garden of our devotion from the mad wild elephants (aparadhas) that roam every where in this jungle. If we do not keep the maintenance of this fence as the top priority in our gardening efforts then one day we wont even know when this elephant will jump off -(this)- fence ( off-fence) . And then all our aspirations to reach the final garden of our lives (garden of vrindavan) will be finished.
radhanath swami is the epitome of humility,
View CommentAnything concerning HH Radhanath Swami is so instructive. Such a great soul like HH Radhanath Swami is very very rare.
View CommentA very important lesson I learnt from Radhanath Swami that ‘God is not our order Supplier’ .To approach the Lord with a view of extracting something to fulfill our material desires is a miserly attitude. Our approach should be of serving God in the role of a humble servant through his devotees.
View CommentOne of the best things I have learned in my life: “My dear Lord, I was nothing, I am nothing, I will be nothing and You are everything”. Thanks Maharaj for teaching this wonderful thought.
View Comment“I had defied human law and deserved to be beaten, but God is merciful”. Maharajah’s humility and honesty is beyond words.very soul touching.
View CommentRadhanath Swami’s determination and faith that he will soon find his path is inspiring…
View Commenti really enjoyed reading this article,thank you for post
View Commentits really worth to read this article and statements from HH Radhanath swami maharaj.
View CommentI really needed to read this today. Thanks so much for the timely reminder.
View CommentMahraj is very deep & simple and following the footsteps of his spiritual master Srila Prabhupada.Jai Gurudev!!!
View CommentRadhanath Swami’s humility is not only charming, but disarming as well. His saintly presence makes us feel truly humble.
View CommentLord Pashupathinath wanted to see Radhanath Swami 🙂
View CommentRadhanath Swami is Humility personification!
View CommentImagine the world with people having genuine humility and pridelessness;can you now see some problem,try hard and you will miserably fail.Yes this is the solution to all of our problem.
View Commentgetting genuine humility is possible only when we take shelter of a bonafide guru
View CommentMany of us are suffering with so many anarthas but unfortunately we do not know that we are suffering becauise of that. By hearing to the instructions of great souls only we can know them and by their guidance overcome them. Thanks for this enlightening meditation.
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