The nature of Reality

The following essay is based on a lecture by Radhanath Swami entitled ‘Significance of Krishna’s Appearance’, 1995


The living entity is the spirit soul, not the body. The spirit soul provides the spark of consciousness to the body. There are 8 million 4 hundred thousand species of life, which a particular living entity attains due to past conditioning. The living entity does not realize this truth and is engaged in a bitter struggle to survive. The living entity makes futile attempts to enjoy the material energy but meets with disease, old age and death. However, only the body perishes while the soul is eternal. In the conditioned state the soul is caught is this vicious cycle of birth and death. Love of God is the only way out of this entanglements and masses are simply ignorant about this. Out of His causeless mercy, the Supreme Lord decides to descend from His abode and help the living entities out this predicament. The Supreme Lord exhibits his pastimes on Earth in order to annihilate the miscreants and to protect his devotees. How does one recognize who God is? Anybody might claim to be god and say he has come to fulfill this purpose. The vedic scriptures say that God is that person who has all the six opulences in full. These six opulences are – all the beauty, all the fame, all the knowledge, all the renunciation, all the wealth and all the power. The Supreme Lord is understood to be Sri Kriishna, as he descends and exhibits the six opulences in full. Sri Krishna also descends as Caitanya Mahaprabhu and propagates the sublime of God realization by the congregational chanting of the holy names of God – Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare!

Surrender unto Krishna, The Supreme Personality of God

The below essay is based on a lecture Live_By_God’s_Plan_Mumbai
by H H Radhanath Swami 28-10-95/1995-128


The material world has been created by the Supreme Lord, Sri Krishna not for our enjoyment but for our purification. Here, the living entity tries to enjoy as per his desires. However, these plans to enjoy are inevitably frustrated.


The living entity does not have any control over birth, disease, old age and death. The Supreme Lord has spoken Bhagavad Gita to guide human beings on the path back to Him. However, again the living entities misuse their free will to disregard the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita. The Lord has also made arrangements to facilitate the forgetful of the living entities. The living entities work hard to enjoy the material nature as per their nature. The human society is meant to be divided into 4 ashrams and 4 varnas. The division into ashrams is based on the stages of life (Student or Brahmachari, Householder or Grhasta, Forest Dweller or Vanaprastha and Renunicate or Sanyasis), whereas the division into varnas is based on the work inclination (Fruitive Worker or Shudra, Mercantile Class or Vaisya, Administrators or Kshatriya and Learned Class or Brahmana) The present degradation of human society has left the majority of the population in the shudra or fruitive worker category. Most of the population is engaged in trying to enjoy non-regulated sex life with the opposite sex either within a so-called marriage or even without the pretext of marriage. The happiness so obtained, is shallow and transient. The living entity has forgotten his eternal relation with the Supreme Lord, Sri Krishna and is trying to be the proprietor or enjoyer. This results in material bondage and a hard struggle for existence in the visible universe.



When the living entity revives his relationship with the Supreme Lord, he is gradually relieved of all his suffering. Krishna, the supreme personality of God, is ever present with the living entity or atma. He is present as the param atma feature of the Lord. The conditioned living entity does not take direction from the paramata. When the living entity surrenders to the supreme Lord, he comes under the spiritual energy of the Lord and is freed from his material bondage. Krishna is a loving father and is always ready to accept the living entity and to guide him on his spiritual path. The surrendered living entity acts directly as per direction from the param atma. He is thus able to realize is spiritual nature or true identity and comes face to face with the supreme Lord Sri Krishna. He realizes an eternal and loving relationship with the Supreme Lord. This is also known as sat-cita-ananda or eternal truth, consciousness and happiness.

Magic Moments: The Dog and God Story

The following incident happened on June 20, 2010.

It had been a very enlivening day.

I was driving home from after spending the day at Radhagopinath Mandir(http://radhagopinath.com/) at Girgaun Chowpathy, Mumbai.

My wife Sonal was sitting beside me and my five year old son Hrishikesh was at the back seat. Hrishikesh had dozed off. He was lying down sleeping peacefully.Soon, Sonal also dozed off....
After we got home, Sonal ascended an elevator with a few bags while I got my sleeping son to stumble along and get into another elevator. Unfortunately, Hrishikesh passed urine in the elevator while sleeping. This was hardly convenient as I would now have to get it cleaned. Also, the building management and security would chastise me about this, so it was an embarrassing incident.
I got off at the 13th floor at my apartment and delivered Hrishikesh to his mother. I then put my thoughts into cleaning the elevator. I was trying to find a mop when I noticed that a small dog that belonged to one of residents of the building had appeared outside my apartment door. This was a little bull dog. This was highly surprising and perplexing. The owner was nowhere to be seen! I thought I would deal with the dog laterand continued to look for a suitable mop. Meanwhile, the dog entered my apartment and started peacefully looking around. He was not barking or violent in any way. I abandoned my mop search and decided to get the dog out of my apartment and deliver him to his owner. I started talking to the dog in Hindi and to my surprise he started obeying me. I asked him to come out of the apartmentand he did so. I was quite astonished to find that once outside; he lay down flat on the ground. It seemed he was offering obeisances to a picture of Lord Narsimha Deva outside my apartment door...!
I then asked him to get into the elevator and he did so. This happened to be the same elevator on which my son had passed urine. The urine pool was still lying in the elevator.
After we got to the ground floor, I asked the dog to get out of the elevator. He peacefully obeyed me. I asked the security person about the owner of this dog. He informed me about the owner who he said lives on the tenth floor. He also told me that his caretaker Bharat was looking for him. This dog had suddenly run away from Bharat and somehow landed outside my apartment! I then asked the dog to get back into the elevator, so that I could deliver him to his owner. This time he refused to obey me! Meanwhile, another neighborhood dog came by. The bulldog started barking and jumping on him. His meek and humble personality was now gone! Meanwhile, Bharat came down the stairs looking for the bull dog. Bharat is also the cleaner of the apartment building. He was looking highly confused and sheepish. I told him about the dog. I also told him that the elevator had a urine pool. He thought that the dog must have done it and said he would clean it up! He then ran off to deliver the dog to his owner! Sonal and I had a hearty laugh over this entire incident.

Points noted:

1. The dog seemed to be under divine influence when he came outside my apartment. He was not acting like a dog but was meek and humble. He was obeying me in Hindi, while his owner always speaks to him in English. I do
not have any prior experiene with dogs!

2. The appearance of the dog in this manner saved me the botheration of cleaning the elevator myself, as well as lot of embarrassment.

3. The dog ran off at exactly the same time when I was looking for the mop to cleanup and appeared at my door.

4. The dog had offered obeisances to the deity pictures outside my door,including a picture of Narsimha deva.

Such magic moment and incidences are not uncommon amongst the followers of A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder Acarya of ISKCON.