Radhanath Swami and Chetan Bhagat

Radhanath Swami and Chetan Bhagat

Radhanath Swami and Chetan Bhagat
Based on a report by Murari Gupta Das --
14 December 2010: Best selling English author Chetan Bhagat joined Radhanath Swami for creating AIDS awareness amongst the youth in a mega event organized by the Bhaktivedanta Hospital Youth Foundation.
Around 800 college students listened as Chetan Bhagat described how it is important to have spiritual guidelines in life. Chetan described his fondness for Krishna and said that the names of all the male leads in his novels are names of the blue God. "It's my way of spreading His name," he smiled. Each of his four books has sold more than one million copies and two were into movies. Chetan regularly visits the ISKCON centers in Mumbai and Australia and often uploads pictures of Deities' darshan on his twitter account that has more than two lakh followers.
"We need good academics, great career and a good partner, but we also need good values," said Chetan, a writer whom The New York Times calls the largest selling English author in the history of India. He described how the massive scale of corruption that India is facing now is because of a crisis of value. We need to understand the values like justice, truthfulness, and lack of greed. These values were available to us, but now we have forgotten them. For this reason alone, there is a place of God in the society. He quoted Bhagavad-gita where Lord Krishna says that He appears to restore values whenever there is increase in sin. "But Krishna may decide to ask you to do some thing and make a change. Maintain good values and become a good person," he implored his audience. "Have a cause," he offered. "It will help you. Protect yourself and make sure that others don't fall in to this (HIV) problem."Radhanath Swami appreciated Chetan's talk and continued the theme of cultivating values. "Without real values and meaning whatever we do has no real substance. Create a revolution of values, a revolution of character, of overcoming prejudice." Radhanath Swami spoke about yoga as harmonization of body and mind with the atma, soul. "Every soul is in touch with God. To honor and respect that is true religion.""AIDS is a symptom of a deeper disease," he said. "Save lives through a life of service than a life of selfishness. One person who takes to spiritual life seriously can attract the power of God to make great changes in the world. Connect to the value of compassion," he requested his audience. A rock concert by the devotee band, Madhavas, the winner or MTV's Rock On concert, brought the event to a grand finale. Meanwhile on the twitter, Chetan wrote: Speaking at a youth awareness program in Kandivili organized by ISKCON's Bhaktivedanta Hospital. Happy to support the good work."

Choosing a Spot for Radhanath Swami

Our little group made a curious sight for the local villagers: though clad in traditional Vedic attire—dhoti and kurta—we had red sports-cap on. We security volunteers wore them to distinguish ourselves from the other pilgrims, during this pilgrimage to Vrindavan.
Rice paddies stretched out on all sides. We scurried—one behind the other—along the narrow bank that enclosed the swampy paddy fields. We were heading towards Malhar Kund, way ahead of Radhanath Swami and the other thousand-odd pilgrims. Before they arrived there we had to search out a suitable location for Radhanath Swami to sit and discourse, Read more …

Choosing a Spot for Radhanath Swami