Radhanath Swami: Initial Impressions

I was told about Radhanath Swami a little more than 3 years back, by some of my friends. As he was not in India back then, his initial impression in my mind was only through what I heard from them. To be honest, I couldn't really imagine what he would be like (back then, I wasn't aware that pages like Radhanath Swami - Wiki existed :P). While there was a chance that he would resemble the many mystical yogis and other sadhus that we often see on the streets, I also knew that he was an American and so probably he would not be dressed in the same attire. Images of the spiritual gurus of today would spring up in my mind. Probably he dressed in complete white, and had long hair and a beard, like Sri Ravi Shankar known to people his Art of Living Foundation, or he had just short hair like, like Sudhanshiji Maharaj and looked just like an ordinary person. All kinds of images were drawn in my mind, and so after a while I simply stopped imagining :P. After a few months, I finally managed to see Radhanath Swami in person, when he returned to Mumbai. While my drawn-up image was not too far from what he looked like, I could make out one thing for sure - he was definitely not an ordinary person.

It was a Saturday morning and Radhanath Swami was scheduled to give a discourse. Along with some of my friends, I was sitting close to the dais, with a lot of anticipation since this was the first time I would see him and hear from him in person. He walked in with two other people who were accompanying him, all of them wearing saffron robes, which I thought were typical of sadhus in India. His figure wasn't a tall or a hefty one, yet it was imposing. He carried a simple smile on his face, and yet looked very grave. He slightly bowed to the audience and then came forward and took his seat, ready to begin the discourse.

I don't really remember much about what he spoke in that assembly, but I remember having liked the way he spoke, the way he presented grave subjects like life and death - that I'd earlier read in the Bhagavad Gita - so succinctly, and every once in a while having light moments, making everyone laugh. It was different from my past experiences of spiritual/religious discourses in the fact that he kept me interested! Unlike these past experiences, I wanted to hear from him again, about the various things that I was so curious to find out about - origin of the universe, meaning of life, purpose of life, what happens after death. I'd already developed some idea about most of these, since I'd started reading the Bhagavad Gita. But I wanted to hear him talk about them, since he made it really easy to understand them.

While I'd always been interested in philosophy, wanting to know more about life, I'd never really expected to find a person who could answer my questions, or at least do so in a way that I would be able to accept them and apply them. So all of this was quite unusual for me, but I had a good feeling about it, and so I continued. I guess that's where the series of changes began, more or less .

Inception

My fascination with words, and the desire to express thoughts and emotions through them have been old companions. There must be hundreds of thoughts going on in my mind at every moment, and 99% of those are simply ways in which I can express the remaining 1%. Being slightly reserved in nature, however, I've held on to them too closely to discuss them on such a public platform as a blog. 

But my life has been rather eventful lately and I realize that I'm changing in many ways, for the better. While there are many people that I'm grateful to for these recent developments in my life, there's one in particular who want to dedicate this blog to - Radhanath Swami. Taking inspiration from his life, I've come to realize that it's very important to share with others what we appreciate, as it can bring them to appreciate those good things as well. And so this blog, where I plan to share how my perspective on many things - such as character, relationships, behavior, global events and routine activities - has been positively affected by his presence.