Radhanath Swami on What is of real value

Krishna in vrindavan

Nimai was very naughty but whenever He was close to Vishvarupa, His elder brother, He became very grave. Vishvarupa was utterly disinterested in any type of material enjoyment. He was always absorbed in serving Vaishnavas, hearing Krishna katha and chanting Krishna’s glories.

When someone develops this higher taste for Krishna consciousness then everything in this world loses its attraction. It has no life, no substance, it’s just a distraction. But to attain that higher taste we have to deliberately cultivate it.

People work for years and years to afford a house or a car or some cloths or some jewellery. People work very hard to get a house, get a mortgage, 25 or 30 years of the life, they’re just trying to feed people and pay for their house, make some money get some reputation, people go to college to get big degrees. There is so much of austerity for people who have a job. Its 8 hours a day sometimes, and they work for sometimes 60 years and in the end what do they get – DEATH!

When Lord Caitanya was told, “You should not take sannyasa at such a young age; You should wait till You are old, He said, “I don’t know if I will live till I’m old so I’m taking now.” Nobody knows that they are going live till they are old.

Lord Caitanya said, just work hard practicing bhakti, just one life time, it’s not much. You’re working hard for getting a house, which will fall apart one day. You’re working so hard for your children. Usually they get older and they just disrespect you. They don’t even care about you. Work hard for this, Krishna Prema, and what will you get, eternal life in Goloka Vrindavan with Krishna, Balarama, Radharani, the Gopas, the Gopis, Cintamani Dham. You’ll have an eternal spiritual body, which is sat cit ananda, which is full of knowledge and bliss. No more suffering, no more trace of suffering for the rest of eternity. Unending, unlimited, ecstatic joy! That’s what I’ll give you.

“Can you just chant 16 rounds, can you just follow these regulative principles, can you just try to be a humble servant of the servant, a few years, and I’ll give you all that. And we think it is so difficult, people do so much more for some fleeting pleasures or possessions.” 

– Radhanath Swami

Krishna in vrindavan