Categories
Blog Relationships

Thank you God for everything!

Radhanath Swami - Thank you God for everything!‘It doesn’t take a great person to blame others or to complain, but it takes a very very great person to thank god in difficulties.’ – Radhanath Swami

According to our karmas (manifest/unmainfest effects of our actions), we have a particular destiny. But however good our karma is, there will be honor and distress, pleasure and pain, success and failure, heat and cold etc because this is a world of dualities. You cannot have one without the other. But if you become attached to the positive side, to that degree you will suffer when the negative side inevitably comes before us. The solution to this is given by Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, He tells us that we should transcend the dualities of life. But, how to transcend dualities of love/hate in a marriage or happiness/ distress in the work place or pride/humility when we have competition or pleasure/pain while raising children?

We can transcend dualities by seeing the Lord in everything, by looking upon circumstances in our lives as His mercy that has come to help us grow into a beautiful person, beyond our vision. And when we learn to offer the fruits of our action as an act of service for god, we can instantly transcend the dualities of material existence and enter the divine realm, beyond love/hate relationships and we are then able to see the other person as a gift of God who has come to us to help us get over our own anarthas (contamination’s) that block our spiritual growth.

tat te ‘nukampäà su-samékñamäëo

bhuïjäna evätma-kåtaà vipäkam

håd-väg-vapurbhir vidadhan namas te

jéveta yo mukti-pade sa däya-bhäk.

(Srimad Bhagvatam 10:14:8)

Radhanath Swami explains,“When a person is undergoing serious tribulations, and in that condition with folded palms and tears of sincerity in his heart he thanks god saying I deserved worst, but I know my lord you have a purpose behind this and I am grateful.”

– Mrs. Preethi Dhiman

…Read Articles in preethi’s Blog

Categories
Appreciate

Remember the Mantra

Remember the MantraBeneath the veneer of superficiality if we look, we will rightly understand the situations that come in our life—Radhanath Swami

When we marry our partner, we look forward to an exciting journey of togetherness. At first, we are able to see the other person’s love and care in his/her daily acts and we appreciate it. Every time we appreciate each other, love seems to grow and the happiness seems boundless.

But gradually, with passing time, this infatuation fades away and instead of counting the loving ways of our partner, we catch ourselves counting their intolerable faults and picking up fights based on it. What happened to that ‘exciting journey of togetherness’ that we had dreamt of?

Radhanath Swami says, “Beneath the veneer of superficiality if we look, we will rightly understand the situations that come in our life, especially the conflicts—we will know that they are meant to purify our existence.” In the Vedic marriage ceremony the mantra, “Om apavitra-pavitro-va sarva-vastam gato api va yah smaret pundarikaksham sah bhayabhyantara suchih.” is chanted. In essence, this reveals to us that the purpose of human life as well as the purpose of marriage is to purify our hearts and our existence. When we forget this as the purpose of marriage and see our partner as a mere instrument to satisfy our senses, trouble arises.

The Vedic principle suggests that one must see the spouse as a gift of God for purification from conditioned existence. When we rightly understand this purpose, we are better able to appreciate our partner and weave in happiness once again into the marriage.

 “dampatyoh kalaho nasti tatra srih svayam agatah”. When there are no fights between husband and wife, the goddess of fortune automatically comes to the home -Canakya Pandita