Radhanath Swami is a Vaishnava sanyassin (a monk in a Krishna-bhakti lineage) and teacher of the devotional path of Bhakti yoga. He is author of The Journey Within, which explores the path of Bhakti. His teachings draw from the sacred texts of India such as The Bhagavad-gita, Srimad Bhagavatam, and Ramayana, and aim to reveal the practical application of the sacred traditions, while focusing on the shared essence which unites apparently disparate religious or spiritual paths. Get more information at: RadhanathSwami.com

Show Summary

4:26 How Radhanath Swami find Bhakti yoga?
9:37 What is God according to Bhakti yoga?
11:11 How does Bhakti yoga apply to your material life?
14:26 How do you carry love in your heart when you are in conflict with another person?
19:13 How do we break our unskillful old habits we developed in the material world that lead us to maya (illusions)?
25:09 How do you learn to surrender to a higher power? How can surrender become easy?
28:02 How do we reach a place of faith and release into a deeper truth of divine love?
32:16 What is our true nature? How do we find it?
33:30 How do you discern your ego’s voice from your God-like voice?
35:35 How a guru and community can help you find your path and overcome your weakness?
37:13 What is humility?
39:44 Why is perseverance, courage, and determination are needed to accomplish our highest path? How we avoid being arrogant and condescending, about accomplishments or depressed or jealous of other’s accomplishment?
40:15 Why it’s sincerity of our effort to please God, to be an instrument of compassion, to live in harmony with your spiritual principles the real success in life?
41:38 What are advice for seekers? What are seekers seeking?

Monk, Author, and Speaker – Radhanath Swami

Born Richard Slavin, on December 7, 1950, in his teens he came to confront a deep sense of alienation from suburban Chicago life and the civil injustices of mid-century America. At the age of nineteen, while on a summer trip to Europe, his internal struggles culminated in a commitment to search for God wherever it might lead him. Meditating on the Isle of Crete, he felt a supernatural calling and the next morning set off alone to find spiritual India. The Journey Home documents his odyssey as a penniless hitch-hiker though Greece, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and finally India. There he lived as a wandering ascetic, first amongst the forest dwelling Himalayan yogis and later amongst a wide variety of gurus and spiritual practitioners throughout India and Nepal. Ultimately, he was led to the holy town of Vrindavan, where he found his path amongst the Bhakti-yogis.

In Vrindavan he found the teacher he was searching for in A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977) the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), and representative of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, (the Krishna-bhakti tradition stemming from the 16th century mystic avatar Sri Chaitanya). In choosing Bhaktivedanta Swami, as his guru, Radhanath Swami felt compelled to shear his matted locks and reenter Western society with a mission to share the sacred wisdom he had received. This return exemplifies the form of devotional yoga which is at the heart of Radhanath Swami’s teachings, a spiritual practice expressed as tangible action meant to bring about personal fulfillment and benefit the world.

At the the age of 31 he took the monastic vows of a Vaishnava sanyassin and became known as Radhanath Swami.

Today Radhanath Swami travels regularly throughout India, Europe and North America, sharing the teachings of Bhakti-yoga. He resides much of the year at the Radha Gopinath Ashram in Chowpatty, Mumbai. For the past twenty-five years he has guided the community’s development and has directed a number of acclaimed social action projects including Midday Meals, which daily serves more than 260,000 plates of sanctified vegetarian food to the children of the slums of Mumbai. He has also worked to establish missionary hospitals and eye camps, eco-friendly farms, schools and ashrams, an orphanage, and a number of emergency relief programs throughout India.