May 27, 2025 • 26 mins
This week on A Really Good Cry, I’m sharing what I learned from spending time with Radhanath Swami—a monk, teacher, and someone whose presence teaches more than words ever could.
I first met Radhanath Swami over a decade ago, and in that time, simply observing how he lives—how he speaks, how he treats others, and how he holds presence in every moment—has quietly answered so many of the questions I’ve wrestled with on my spiritual path.
This episode is about alignment—how our daily actions reflect our values, and how small, consistent practices shape our sense of purpose. We’ll explore what integrity really looks like in daily life, how rituals help create emotional stability, and why love isn’t just a feeling—it’s a choice we make again and again.
Whether you’re deep in your own journey or just beginning to ask the bigger questions, I truly believe these reflections will offer something meaningful to your heart, too.
What We Discuss:
- 00:00 Introduction
- 01:24 Who is Radhanath Swami?
- 04:27 The moment I first heard the meaning of true integrity
- 05:31 Why embodiment inspires more than advice ever could
- 06:19 The truth about religion
- 09:58 What is Sadhana?
- 11:27 Prayer is not a routine
- 12:17 Being conscious of God’s presence all the time
- 14:56 Why we all need role models in life
- 17:52 The power of silence and soul-to-soul connection
- 20:32 How can to be a vessel of grace and compassion
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
While his words were filled with wisdom, it's honestly how
he lived that taught me the most. Watching him move
through the world was like witnessing someone in constant prayer,
through presence, through humility, and through joy. You can only
truly touch someone's heart if you live in full integrity.
And integrity means your thoughts, your words, and your actions
(00:21):
are all in alignment. I'm Radi Wukiah and on my
podcast A Really Good Cry, we embrace the messy and
the beautiful, providing a space for raw, unfiltered conversations that
celebrate vulnerability and allow you to tune in to learn,
connect and find comfort together. Hey everyone, and welcome back
to this week's episode of A Really Good Cry. Now,
this week, I'm going to do something a little bit
(00:43):
different because for the past two weeks, we have had
our spiritual teacher, his Holiness, rather than Swami, living with us,
and I feel so incredibly blessed and so deeply fortunate
that I got to spend this time with him, and
so I wanted to share some of the lessons that
I learned from him, his his words, his wisdom, and
honestly just the reflections that I've had from being in
(01:04):
his presence, and I feel like sharing these things is
part of my reciprocation and my way of showing gratitude
to him by sharing his words, his wisdom and everything
that I've learned with other people in hopes that it
helps to connect them to their own spiritual path. And
I really think that the things that I will share
will hopefully help you do that. So let me give
(01:25):
you a little bit of background about rather Thanaswami, because
I know I've spoken about him a lot, but if
this is the first time you're hearing about him, he
has been among for over fifty years. He is a
spiritual teacher, an author, a philanthropist and a humanitarian. He
has a food distribution initiative called Anamorta that serves a
million meals every single day to people in India. His
(01:48):
social initiative Godvid and Eco Village. This is actually the
Ushrom that me and Jay visit every single year. We
go there to start our new year and it is
just one of the most beautiful places ever. It's what
I imagine India used to be in like back in
thousands and thousands of years ago. It is in the
middle of a forest, there is a beautiful ushroom where
(02:10):
you can meditate with monks, where you can learn from them.
But there's also a beautiful Arababic spa where you can
get physical treatments done. But on top of that, the
United Nations have actually recognized the eco village as a
model of sustainable living. So what they do is they
create all these amazing processes, and they create all these
systems because a lot of the monks there are actually
from it, which is the equivalent of MIT in the US.
(02:33):
So they are so smart, so accomplished, and they use
all of their skills in service to others. So whether
it's turning sewage water into drinkable water and teaching villages
around the area how to utilize that, or whether there's
different sustainable farming systems that farmers in different villages can
use to make money for their family. They kind of
use this as the hub of creating that technology and
(02:55):
creating those systems, which is actually amazing. But honestly, beyond
all these accolades and all these accomplishments, what makes him
truly extraordinary is just the way that he lives. He
lives with such deep compassion, radical humility, and unwavering service
to other people. So rather Than Aswami is also the
author of A Journey Home, and he tells his story
(03:15):
about being born Jewish in Chicago during the counterculture and
deciding to go on a journey of self discovery all
across the world from Chicago, traveling to Europe, through Iran,
through Pakistan. He's been through so many places and all
the way to India where he was mainly hitchhiking his
way across and really with the desire to explore and
(03:39):
dive into different religions and practices and paths, with the
deep desire to just find himself, to understand the divine,
to understand what his spiritual connection was, and what his
purpose in life is. And I won't give too many spoilers,
but rather Than Aswami and his book have significantly changed
and impacted my life in a way that nothing or
nobody else has. It really changed the trajectory of my
(04:01):
life once I read that book. But while he was
living here, every single night we'd walk together or sometimes
we'd just sit, sometimes in silence, sometimes in deep conversation
for hours, and while his words were filled with wisdom,
it's honestly how he lived that taught me the most.
Watching him move through the world was like witnessing someone
in constant prayer, through presence, through humility, and through joy.
(04:26):
I remember one time in a class years ago, when
I first started listening to him speak, he said, you
can only truly touch someone's heart if you live in
full integrity, and integrity means your thoughts, your words, and
your actions are all in alignment. At that time, I
understood that intellectually and theoretically, but it was only when
(04:46):
I got to observe him that I realized that it
is actually possible, Like it's actually possible to connect your
thoughts to your words and then have actions that represent both.
And sometimes for myself when I reflected on that, many
times where my actions don't meet my thoughts or the
thoughts that I'm having, even if I have a deep
intention to do something, my actions will show something different.
(05:08):
And actually, when all those three have been in alignment,
you know, in ebbs and flows. In my life, I've
noticed such a shift in energy, so such a shift
in focus and a shift in the ability to truly
connect to people. But imagine living with that day in
day out, having that true integrity every single day. How
deeply you can live your life, but then also how
deeply you can impact other people's lives too. And the
(05:31):
one thing that I absolutely love, and I think is
what attracted me to his way of living from the beginning,
was that he's never preached. He doesn't tell people how
to behave He just embodies it, and in doing so,
he makes you want to be better. He makes you
want to live a better life, to be better to
other people, not out of guilt or pressure, but from
pure inspiration. And so his entire life has been devoted
(05:54):
to sharing God and goodness in every single breath and
every day that he lives, in every moment when he's
interacting with people. And I don't know about you, but
I've never seen that around me, and so when I
experienced that, it was like a breath of fresh air,
but also felt like a glimpse into what the possibilities
are when you truly deeply connect to God, to nature
(06:16):
and devote yourself to practices that allow for that. And
so on one of our walks we start talking about
the true meaning of religion and spirituality and how a
lot of the time, unfortunately religion ends up separating people
and causing turbulence between people rather than uniting them, and
sometimes when being part of something like that, you end
up losing sight of what true divinity means. And so
(06:39):
he said that true religion and true spirituality isn't about
claiming superiority through your label. It's not I'm Hindu, or
I'm Christian or I'm Muslim, and therefore I have love
of God. It's about actually striving for that love and
living a life that makes you worthy of that love,
not by perfection but through sincere effort. And you know what,
(06:59):
I feel like that makes so much sense because if
you decide to hang around with a whole bunch of accountants,
it doesn't make you an accountant. You have to do
the work to actually become one. And so in the
same way, when you belong to a religion, it doesn't
mean that you've arrived spiritually. It doesn't mean that you've
become enlightened once you join that community. But sometimes our
spiritual identity can actually distance us from the essence of
(07:21):
the teachings because we end up confusing group belonging with
personal transformation. And so the question isn't do I belong
to a community? It is this community helping me to transform,
and that can be applied into a religious community, a
spiritual community, a friendship group. But I think that's really
important when it comes to practicing a religion. I think
(07:42):
if there's a community or group that's constantly telling you
you're better because of this designation, it's not necessarily sharing
the word of God in that way. Because you know,
one thing I also really appreciate about rather Naswami is
he always quotes and shares from different religions, not ever
to criticize them, but in a total sense of adoration
(08:04):
and love and understanding of that practice and actually wanting
to take on those teachings and imbibe them in his life.
And he was sharing about how the number one kind
of principle of Christianity is to love God and the
second one is to love your neighbor, and one cannot
be true without the other. And so if you are
(08:25):
not loving to the people around you, no matter what religion, past,
or race they are, then how are you able to
love God? Because through loving your community is the opportunity
you're being given to actually show your love for God.
And so I thought that was really interesting because a
lot of the time when you look in the world,
a lot of things are done in the name of God,
(08:47):
but sometimes it's because there's been mistranslation of what loving
God actually looks like, and it's been taken and put
into a sense of superiority rather than connection how to
actually love everybody around us. And so I think that's
a really important lesson to learn and something I always
(09:07):
reflect on whether my community is creating connection with people
or whether it's taking me away from people or creating
anger or aggression or negative emotions towards another group of people.
And if it is, then it's a place for me
to reflect and think, maybe this is not actually doing
what I want it to be doing, and maybe this
(09:27):
community isn't the community for me. Maybe the path is,
but maybe the community isn't. And so I think that's
a vital part of when you're trying to find your people,
or the religion or the spiritual path that you are
going down, or a spiritual teacher. Is this person helping
me to love others more or to dislike other people more?
(09:50):
And I think that's a really simple way of being
able to tell whether it's something that is for you
or not for you. I'm that's saying, well, rather than
Sam started speaking about the word spiritual and that the
word spiritual is obviously spirit and ritual. And he said
that these days many people focus only on the spirit,
the intention, and the feeling, and they dismiss ritual. Many
people are turning away from going to churches, going to
(10:11):
places of worships, doing the process it required to actually
build commitment and love for gods. But both are actually essential.
Ritual is actually what grounds our spirit and it anchors
us in practice. Without it, intention can just float away. Sometimes.
You know, you can have the intention for a lot
of things, but how can you take intention and create action. Well,
(10:33):
taking intention and creating action is in the ritual. And
he stopped in front of a set of solar panels
and he started smiling, and we were just looking out
these solar panels and he says, you see those solar
panels over there, and we all said, yeah, we see them.
He said, they just sit there, open and exposed to
the sun. They absorb its energy and then they distribute
it as power in the form of heat or light.
(10:55):
He said, that's what sadna is. Sadna is our spiritual
practices or our ritual that we do daily, he goes
these spiritual practices are how we absorb divine energy and
our character and our service. That is how we distribute it.
He reminded us that even in the simple act of
saying a prayer before eating, no matter what tradition your
part of, it's actually not just a ritual. It's a
(11:18):
conscious way to set the heart to enter into devotion
before we receive anything. And I've really gotten into the
habit of praying or trying to pray, or remembering to
pray before I receive anything. So whether I'm receiving an
award or whether it's on a daily basis where I'm
receiving the food that I'm about to eat, or waking
up in the morning and taking a breath and before
(11:39):
you receive the air that goes into your lungs, remembering
that it is a gift from nature, from God, from
the plants around us. If we are present and if
we're able to see it, and we take a moment
of prayer before receiving anything, we realize how much we're
actually getting in our life. And so this practice of prayer,
it's not just let me just say it really quickly
before I eat, because it's something I've been told to do. No,
(12:01):
it's how it sets the consciousness of our heart. It
sets the intention in our mind to actually receive it
with gratitude and with devotion and appreciate it in the
right way. One thing that was actually so incredible to
witness was the way he associated every single thing with God.
In some way. It was a much needed reminder that
what you surround yourself with becomes you. He has immersed
(12:25):
himself fully, so deeply in service and into the Divine
that his mind naturally links everything back to God. Whether
it's a tree, whether it's a solar panel, whether it's
a song, His heart seems to find meaning, reflection and
connection to the Divine in some way. It's like when
you love someone so much, every little thing reminds you
of them. His love for God is like that. He's
(12:45):
fully immersed and so he's fully in a God conscious
mindset every single moment of the day. So whether it's
relating back to a story that he read in scripture,
whether it's relating back to a lesson that he's learnt
through his practices, every single thing, even when we're driving,
there'd be a billboard and somehow what's written on the billboard,
he'd connect back to the scriptures in some way, And
(13:09):
so it made me reflect, what is my consciousness, where
is my head at most of the time, what is
my mind link things to? What kind of conversations am
I having? What am I reading? What am I listening to?
Who am I spending time with? And weighing that up
the positives and the negative influences on me. And that
was the other thing. Every morning when he would wake up,
we would hear as soon as he woke up, he'd
(13:30):
be listening to a class on scripture while he was
in the shower, while he was getting ready, setting his
intention for the day, absorbing himself in scripture and practice
throughout the day, being so mindful about how much he eats,
what he's eating to fuel his body, eating for fuel,
not for a desire or sense of gratification, and not
because he has to, not because he feels like he's
forced to, but because that is how he wants to live.
(13:53):
And it was incredible to be able to see someone
who isn't doing the meditation practice or reading or doing
all the things that I'm trying to do because I
know it's good for me. But watching someone do it
because they've got this full taste, this full excitement and
joy for doing it. And obviously that comes from consistency,
It comes from showing up every single day, It comes
from making all the conscious choices every single day towards
(14:16):
living that life's choosing the things that support that practice,
support that ritual, supports that way of living, versus going
against it. But honestly, just seeing that joy in practice
is possible and that it doesn't just always feel like
this slug against something, this resistance, that it doesn't just
feel like a ritual, but it becomes a joyous part
(14:38):
of your day that is actually desired. Was everything. I
feel like sometimes we need to see what's possible and
see someone at the end of the tunnel or the
light at the end of the tunnel to help encourage
us to keep doing that. And we all need role
models in different parts of our life, whether it's in work,
whether it's in family, whether it's in spirituality. Finding somebody
(14:59):
who bodies those qualities but also who gives us that
glimpse of what's possible by doing what we're doing, doing
the practices and rituals that we're doing, and you know,
if you're saying there thinking I don't know any monks,
I don't know any Swamis, I don't know anybody who's
religious or spiritual like that. I don't have any connection
to somebody like that. Or if you're trying to increase
your association with people like that, people who have an
elevated mindset, it really doesn't have to be a physical connection.
(15:22):
I think that's where sometimes we go wrong. I can't
access this person, so how will I learn from them?
But association doesn't have to be physical. If you think
about how much you might adore a singer that you've
been listening to. All you've done is hear their words,
hear their songs in your car at home, you've just
been listening to them. Or if there's a book that
you've read, if you're a huge fan of let's say
(15:43):
Harry Potter, you've read all the Harry Potter books. You've
had created a connection to Harry Potter or the author
just by reading, and so association doesn't have to be physical.
That is such a myth. You really can learn from
people just by hearing their words, listening to classes, reading
their books, and creates such a deep connection with them,
I remember rather Notaswami was telling a story about his
(16:06):
spiritual teacher, Shilaproapad, and he said that he only really
interacted with his spiritual teacher in person a couple of times,
but he stayed connected purely through listening to his classes
and reading his books. So even watching someone online, you
can start off by watching classes, listen to their words,
reflect on them, journal about them. It can influence you
(16:26):
so deeply. And that's when I see how I stay
connected to him even when he's not here physically. I
feel like I get even a deeper connection to him
when I'm listening to him every single day online or
when he's having classes in different places, because he travels
a lot as part of being a monk. He's a
traveling monk, so on top of everything that he does,
he goes where he's needed and he supports the community there,
(16:48):
and so he'll give classes there or share words of
wisdom there and they record them and we're able to
listen to them online. When Ratheransami described meeting his spiritual
teacher for the first time, he actually says, I'm just
going to read this because it's so beautiful and it
really represents how I felt when I met him, which
is a lovely affirmation, or it really affirmed the way
(17:09):
that I connected to him and that he was the
right person to connect to. He said, when I first
saw schilaproa Pad, he was sitting on a simple cushion,
speaking so humbly, yet his words pierced through all my
doubts and fears. It was the first time I saw
someone live what they preach with such purity. I wept
without knowing why. He described, feeling overwhelmed by Schulerpropad's humility, clarity,
(17:33):
and love, qualities that he hadn't seen in any other
spiritual figure. And that is honestly how I felt with
rather than Asami when I met him. It really, really
deeply affirmed how I felt about him and showed me
that I was on the right path. You know, one
thing I've struggled with quite a bit has been this
ability to be truly present with people in the moment.
(17:53):
It's something that I've really been working on. But I
can be in a place really trying to look into
someone's eyes, trying to deeply connect and listen to what
they're saying, but sometimes my mind just finds it really
hard to stay focused and be attentive. It can just
be all over the place physically here, but mentally somewhere
completely different. But when anyone, any single person, meets rather Naswami,
(18:14):
it's like he is looking deep into your soul, so
intensely present in the moment with whoever he interacts with,
And each person that I've spoken to has had the
same feeling from the moment they meet him. He doesn't
rush to fill silences. He's not uncomfortable with stillness, and
that in itself taught me something that silence is a
form of trust. You can only be quiet with someone
(18:36):
you're truly comfortable with. And for him, he is so
deeply comfortable in himself but also comfortable in the connection
of soul to soul, heart to heart, not with all
the layers that cover us up. But he's not meeting
you as a human or as a physical body, where
there's so many things that create invisible barriers between us
(18:56):
before we even speak words. He just sees the soul
to soul connection, and so I feel like he's just
so comfortable because he sees God in the other person
and the God in him, and the God and the
other person are connecting. He also wastes no words, and somehow,
in that quiet, whether he says words or doesn't, his
presence says more than most people say in hours. And
(19:18):
on the day before he left, we actually gathered a
group of friends to meet him, and I remember reflecting
on how different everyone received his words. He spoke, you know,
for about half an hour, and it was amazing because
when I spoke to everybody afterwards, the same sentence landed
differently for each person, depending on their heart, depending on
what they were going through, how much work they had
(19:39):
done previously internally, how much therapy they'd been in, and
what they were ready to actually hear. And I think
it's because spiritual truth doesn't scream, It just meets you
gently where you're at. And that's really what the whole
situation showed me. When I heard everybody's different reflections on
the same class that they heard, the same words that
they were all hearing, the amount of people that came
(20:00):
to me and said, you have no idea, how much
I needed that, how much clarity I got, or I
really felt like he was speaking to me after everything
that I've been through, And I was like, Wow, every
person's experience has been so different. Not one person has
been through the same thing, but they feel like he
is talking directly to them, that it's literally affected their
hearts so deeply. And that's so magical, isn't it. I
(20:23):
just I loved hearing that. It just it was really special. Actually, So,
if we really had to summ up what I've learned
from being around him in one short phrase, it would
be this, when you're deeply connected to the divine, to love,
to patience, and to the right energy, you overflow. You
are overflowing with the capacity the ability to just give
(20:46):
to others. And there's never a point in time where
he says he's tired of being around people helping people.
You know, usually you go to a social environment and
you're like, oh God, I need like two days to recover. No,
he will talk to one hundred people and give them
just the same amount of attention. He will talk to
one hundred people and care deeply. You see the compassion
in his eyes. And I would always say, how is
(21:07):
he doing this? How does he have this patience to
listen to people over and over again? How does he
have the tolerance to accept all the things that people
say at him? Or to him or around him? How
does he have that capacity? And I realize it's not
what he's eating, it's not what that amount of sleep
he's getting, it's not all those basic human needs. It's
(21:28):
actually this deep connection to a divine power. It's almost
like he's got a he's plugged in. You know, he's
plugged in. He's got this unlimited energy that's being that's
flowing through him. So it's not actually him, He's just
an instrument. He is a divine, pure instrument of God's
message and he's choosing to open himself and be a
vessel for that. And when I thought about that, I
(21:51):
was like, Okay, so what does that require? Yes, you
can be plugged in, but have you opened up all
your channels, all your heart? Are you an open book
to be able to actually be a full, open, clear
vessel for God to send his message through? And what
does that look like? And so think about that yourself.
What does that look like for you? And I think
(22:11):
that's really important because it's it's almost like when they
say you could be receiving all the blessings in your life,
but do you have the hand your hands open to
be catching them? And in the same way God may
be ready to make you, God, the universe, whatever you
want to call the bigger energy that is the force
of life. It's all available, ready for you to receive.
But how are you preparing your body? How are you
(22:34):
preparing your mind to be a vessel of that and
to be able to actually handle that energy, to be
able to handle that message and share it in the
right mindset with the right people, in the right mood.
Because what is inside of you will come out of you.
It's literally, just like simple biology, what you've eaten will
come out at the other end, what you've absorbed in
(22:55):
your mind, through your body, through every single sense that
you have, what will eventually collect in you and also
overflow through you and out of you. And so really
it made me think, I've got a lot of work
to do. We're not in a scared way, in like
an excited way of Wow. If I do the right things,
if I channel the right things, if I read the
(23:17):
right things, if I surround myself with the right people,
of course, there are going to be so many things
that come in the way. But with the right intention
and the desire, He's given me a beautiful insight into
what that can look like to be a constant, flowing
instrument of God's love, grace, energy, vitality, energy like you've
(23:39):
never seen it before. I can't even explain it to you,
but I've never seen someone with that much energy. He's
seventy five years old, and he has more energy than
I've seen most like eighteen year olds have, you know,
more capacity than I've seen anybody have, and more compassion
than the whole of America. But together, you know, that's
just what I continue to strive for to pray for.
It's like when you don't have it, pray for it,
(24:01):
kind of like fake it till you make it, but
don't fake it, practice it, practice it till you make it,
and pray for it till you get it, and pray
for the intention to receive it in the right way.
There's so much we can pray for. I've stopped praying
for things. I've started praying for, like the vision to
see the right things, or the intention to be pure
(24:21):
when I do things. So not just to talk about
spiritual life, we could talk about things all day, but
to live one that is so sincere that one day,
maybe like him, we can become quiet. Invitations for others
to remember their own spiritual path, and that's really what
it's about, right, How can I help others see the
goodness in themselves? How can I help others see their
(24:43):
own spiritual path, whatever that may be different to mine,
the same as mine. But how can I help them
connect to the divine? How can I help them love
themselves more and others more? How can I help them
see the world with wonder because every single part of
the world is so wonderful? And how can I just
constantly be a vessel of grace and compassion for others,
(25:05):
what beautiful desire and intention to have? And then trying
to align our life to support that sounds so easy,
much easier than it actually is, I'm sure, But we
can always hope and try, And I think that's the point,
Always have hope and always keep trying. So I could
go on about rather Naswami for days and days and hours,
but I think these lessons are I'm sure, giving you
(25:27):
so much to think about, and I really recommend going
through each point and reflecting in your life how it applies.
Thank you so much for listening and sending your so
much love. If you want to, you know, find rather Notaswami.
He is obviously not on his own social media, he
has a team that looks after it, but he has
classes on YouTube. He has given talks in so many
different places, luckily they've been recorded, and his team shares
(25:51):
a lot of his wisdom on Instagram. And there's also
this beautiful app called Rise where a lot of his
teachings live. Try and connect to him and I would
love to hear your reflections on this as well. Send
me a DM. I love to receive them. Thanks so
much guys, and sending you so much love. Have a
great week.
While his words were filled with wisdom, it's honestly how
he lived that taught me the most. Watching him move
through the world was like witnessing someone in constant prayer,
through presence, through humility, and through joy. You can only
truly touch someone's heart if you live in full integrity.
And integrity means your thoughts, your words, and your actions
(00:21):
are all in alignment. I'm Radi Wukiah and on my
podcast A Really Good Cry, we embrace the messy and
the beautiful, providing a space for raw, unfiltered conversations that
celebrate vulnerability and allow you to tune in to learn,
connect and find comfort together. Hey everyone, and welcome back
to this week's episode of A Really Good Cry. Now,
this week, I'm going to do something a little bit
(00:43):
different because for the past two weeks, we have had
our spiritual teacher, his Holiness, rather than Swami, living with us,
and I feel so incredibly blessed and so deeply fortunate
that I got to spend this time with him, and
so I wanted to share some of the lessons that
I learned from him, his his words, his wisdom, and
honestly just the reflections that I've had from being in
(01:04):
his presence, and I feel like sharing these things is
part of my reciprocation and my way of showing gratitude
to him by sharing his words, his wisdom and everything
that I've learned with other people in hopes that it
helps to connect them to their own spiritual path. And
I really think that the things that I will share
will hopefully help you do that. So let me give
(01:25):
you a little bit of background about rather Thanaswami, because
I know I've spoken about him a lot, but if
this is the first time you're hearing about him, he
has been among for over fifty years. He is a
spiritual teacher, an author, a philanthropist and a humanitarian. He
has a food distribution initiative called Anamorta that serves a
million meals every single day to people in India. His
(01:48):
social initiative Godvid and Eco Village. This is actually the
Ushrom that me and Jay visit every single year. We
go there to start our new year and it is
just one of the most beautiful places ever. It's what
I imagine India used to be in like back in
thousands and thousands of years ago. It is in the
middle of a forest, there is a beautiful ushroom where
(02:10):
you can meditate with monks, where you can learn from them.
But there's also a beautiful Arababic spa where you can
get physical treatments done. But on top of that, the
United Nations have actually recognized the eco village as a
model of sustainable living. So what they do is they
create all these amazing processes, and they create all these
systems because a lot of the monks there are actually
from it, which is the equivalent of MIT in the US.
(02:33):
So they are so smart, so accomplished, and they use
all of their skills in service to others. So whether
it's turning sewage water into drinkable water and teaching villages
around the area how to utilize that, or whether there's
different sustainable farming systems that farmers in different villages can
use to make money for their family. They kind of
use this as the hub of creating that technology and
(02:55):
creating those systems, which is actually amazing. But honestly, beyond
all these accolades and all these accomplishments, what makes him
truly extraordinary is just the way that he lives. He
lives with such deep compassion, radical humility, and unwavering service
to other people. So rather Than Aswami is also the
author of A Journey Home, and he tells his story
(03:15):
about being born Jewish in Chicago during the counterculture and
deciding to go on a journey of self discovery all
across the world from Chicago, traveling to Europe, through Iran,
through Pakistan. He's been through so many places and all
the way to India where he was mainly hitchhiking his
way across and really with the desire to explore and
(03:39):
dive into different religions and practices and paths, with the
deep desire to just find himself, to understand the divine,
to understand what his spiritual connection was, and what his
purpose in life is. And I won't give too many spoilers,
but rather Than Aswami and his book have significantly changed
and impacted my life in a way that nothing or
nobody else has. It really changed the trajectory of my
(04:01):
life once I read that book. But while he was
living here, every single night we'd walk together or sometimes
we'd just sit, sometimes in silence, sometimes in deep conversation
for hours, and while his words were filled with wisdom,
it's honestly how he lived that taught me the most.
Watching him move through the world was like witnessing someone
in constant prayer, through presence, through humility, and through joy.
(04:26):
I remember one time in a class years ago, when
I first started listening to him speak, he said, you
can only truly touch someone's heart if you live in
full integrity, and integrity means your thoughts, your words, and
your actions are all in alignment. At that time, I
understood that intellectually and theoretically, but it was only when
(04:46):
I got to observe him that I realized that it
is actually possible, Like it's actually possible to connect your
thoughts to your words and then have actions that represent both.
And sometimes for myself when I reflected on that, many
times where my actions don't meet my thoughts or the
thoughts that I'm having, even if I have a deep
intention to do something, my actions will show something different.
(05:08):
And actually, when all those three have been in alignment,
you know, in ebbs and flows. In my life, I've
noticed such a shift in energy, so such a shift
in focus and a shift in the ability to truly
connect to people. But imagine living with that day in
day out, having that true integrity every single day. How
deeply you can live your life, but then also how
deeply you can impact other people's lives too. And the
(05:31):
one thing that I absolutely love, and I think is
what attracted me to his way of living from the beginning,
was that he's never preached. He doesn't tell people how
to behave He just embodies it, and in doing so,
he makes you want to be better. He makes you
want to live a better life, to be better to
other people, not out of guilt or pressure, but from
pure inspiration. And so his entire life has been devoted
(05:54):
to sharing God and goodness in every single breath and
every day that he lives, in every moment when he's
interacting with people. And I don't know about you, but
I've never seen that around me, and so when I
experienced that, it was like a breath of fresh air,
but also felt like a glimpse into what the possibilities
are when you truly deeply connect to God, to nature
(06:16):
and devote yourself to practices that allow for that. And
so on one of our walks we start talking about
the true meaning of religion and spirituality and how a
lot of the time, unfortunately religion ends up separating people
and causing turbulence between people rather than uniting them, and
sometimes when being part of something like that, you end
up losing sight of what true divinity means. And so
(06:39):
he said that true religion and true spirituality isn't about
claiming superiority through your label. It's not I'm Hindu, or
I'm Christian or I'm Muslim, and therefore I have love
of God. It's about actually striving for that love and
living a life that makes you worthy of that love,
not by perfection but through sincere effort. And you know what,
(06:59):
I feel like that makes so much sense because if
you decide to hang around with a whole bunch of accountants,
it doesn't make you an accountant. You have to do
the work to actually become one. And so in the
same way, when you belong to a religion, it doesn't
mean that you've arrived spiritually. It doesn't mean that you've
become enlightened once you join that community. But sometimes our
spiritual identity can actually distance us from the essence of
(07:21):
the teachings because we end up confusing group belonging with
personal transformation. And so the question isn't do I belong
to a community? It is this community helping me to transform,
and that can be applied into a religious community, a
spiritual community, a friendship group. But I think that's really
important when it comes to practicing a religion. I think
(07:42):
if there's a community or group that's constantly telling you
you're better because of this designation, it's not necessarily sharing
the word of God in that way. Because you know,
one thing I also really appreciate about rather Naswami is
he always quotes and shares from different religions, not ever
to criticize them, but in a total sense of adoration
(08:04):
and love and understanding of that practice and actually wanting
to take on those teachings and imbibe them in his life.
And he was sharing about how the number one kind
of principle of Christianity is to love God and the
second one is to love your neighbor, and one cannot
be true without the other. And so if you are
(08:25):
not loving to the people around you, no matter what religion, past,
or race they are, then how are you able to
love God? Because through loving your community is the opportunity
you're being given to actually show your love for God.
And so I thought that was really interesting because a
lot of the time when you look in the world,
a lot of things are done in the name of God,
(08:47):
but sometimes it's because there's been mistranslation of what loving
God actually looks like, and it's been taken and put
into a sense of superiority rather than connection how to
actually love everybody around us. And so I think that's
a really important lesson to learn and something I always
(09:07):
reflect on whether my community is creating connection with people
or whether it's taking me away from people or creating
anger or aggression or negative emotions towards another group of people.
And if it is, then it's a place for me
to reflect and think, maybe this is not actually doing
what I want it to be doing, and maybe this
(09:27):
community isn't the community for me. Maybe the path is,
but maybe the community isn't. And so I think that's
a vital part of when you're trying to find your people,
or the religion or the spiritual path that you are
going down, or a spiritual teacher. Is this person helping
me to love others more or to dislike other people more?
(09:50):
And I think that's a really simple way of being
able to tell whether it's something that is for you
or not for you. I'm that's saying, well, rather than
Sam started speaking about the word spiritual and that the
word spiritual is obviously spirit and ritual. And he said
that these days many people focus only on the spirit,
the intention, and the feeling, and they dismiss ritual. Many
people are turning away from going to churches, going to
(10:11):
places of worships, doing the process it required to actually
build commitment and love for gods. But both are actually essential.
Ritual is actually what grounds our spirit and it anchors
us in practice. Without it, intention can just float away. Sometimes.
You know, you can have the intention for a lot
of things, but how can you take intention and create action. Well,
(10:33):
taking intention and creating action is in the ritual. And
he stopped in front of a set of solar panels
and he started smiling, and we were just looking out
these solar panels and he says, you see those solar
panels over there, and we all said, yeah, we see them.
He said, they just sit there, open and exposed to
the sun. They absorb its energy and then they distribute
it as power in the form of heat or light.
(10:55):
He said, that's what sadna is. Sadna is our spiritual
practices or our ritual that we do daily, he goes
these spiritual practices are how we absorb divine energy and
our character and our service. That is how we distribute it.
He reminded us that even in the simple act of
saying a prayer before eating, no matter what tradition your
part of, it's actually not just a ritual. It's a
(11:18):
conscious way to set the heart to enter into devotion
before we receive anything. And I've really gotten into the
habit of praying or trying to pray, or remembering to
pray before I receive anything. So whether I'm receiving an
award or whether it's on a daily basis where I'm
receiving the food that I'm about to eat, or waking
up in the morning and taking a breath and before
(11:39):
you receive the air that goes into your lungs, remembering
that it is a gift from nature, from God, from
the plants around us. If we are present and if
we're able to see it, and we take a moment
of prayer before receiving anything, we realize how much we're
actually getting in our life. And so this practice of prayer,
it's not just let me just say it really quickly
before I eat, because it's something I've been told to do. No,
(12:01):
it's how it sets the consciousness of our heart. It
sets the intention in our mind to actually receive it
with gratitude and with devotion and appreciate it in the
right way. One thing that was actually so incredible to
witness was the way he associated every single thing with God.
In some way. It was a much needed reminder that
what you surround yourself with becomes you. He has immersed
(12:25):
himself fully, so deeply in service and into the Divine
that his mind naturally links everything back to God. Whether
it's a tree, whether it's a solar panel, whether it's
a song, His heart seems to find meaning, reflection and
connection to the Divine in some way. It's like when
you love someone so much, every little thing reminds you
of them. His love for God is like that. He's
(12:45):
fully immersed and so he's fully in a God conscious
mindset every single moment of the day. So whether it's
relating back to a story that he read in scripture,
whether it's relating back to a lesson that he's learnt
through his practices, every single thing, even when we're driving,
there'd be a billboard and somehow what's written on the billboard,
he'd connect back to the scriptures in some way, And
(13:09):
so it made me reflect, what is my consciousness, where
is my head at most of the time, what is
my mind link things to? What kind of conversations am
I having? What am I reading? What am I listening to?
Who am I spending time with? And weighing that up
the positives and the negative influences on me. And that
was the other thing. Every morning when he would wake up,
we would hear as soon as he woke up, he'd
(13:30):
be listening to a class on scripture while he was
in the shower, while he was getting ready, setting his
intention for the day, absorbing himself in scripture and practice
throughout the day, being so mindful about how much he eats,
what he's eating to fuel his body, eating for fuel,
not for a desire or sense of gratification, and not
because he has to, not because he feels like he's
forced to, but because that is how he wants to live.
(13:53):
And it was incredible to be able to see someone
who isn't doing the meditation practice or reading or doing
all the things that I'm trying to do because I
know it's good for me. But watching someone do it
because they've got this full taste, this full excitement and
joy for doing it. And obviously that comes from consistency,
It comes from showing up every single day, It comes
from making all the conscious choices every single day towards
(14:16):
living that life's choosing the things that support that practice,
support that ritual, supports that way of living, versus going
against it. But honestly, just seeing that joy in practice
is possible and that it doesn't just always feel like
this slug against something, this resistance, that it doesn't just
feel like a ritual, but it becomes a joyous part
(14:38):
of your day that is actually desired. Was everything. I
feel like sometimes we need to see what's possible and
see someone at the end of the tunnel or the
light at the end of the tunnel to help encourage
us to keep doing that. And we all need role
models in different parts of our life, whether it's in work,
whether it's in family, whether it's in spirituality. Finding somebody
(14:59):
who bodies those qualities but also who gives us that
glimpse of what's possible by doing what we're doing, doing
the practices and rituals that we're doing, and you know,
if you're saying there thinking I don't know any monks,
I don't know any Swamis, I don't know anybody who's
religious or spiritual like that. I don't have any connection
to somebody like that. Or if you're trying to increase
your association with people like that, people who have an
elevated mindset, it really doesn't have to be a physical connection.
(15:22):
I think that's where sometimes we go wrong. I can't
access this person, so how will I learn from them?
But association doesn't have to be physical. If you think
about how much you might adore a singer that you've
been listening to. All you've done is hear their words,
hear their songs in your car at home, you've just
been listening to them. Or if there's a book that
you've read, if you're a huge fan of let's say
(15:43):
Harry Potter, you've read all the Harry Potter books. You've
had created a connection to Harry Potter or the author
just by reading, and so association doesn't have to be physical.
That is such a myth. You really can learn from
people just by hearing their words, listening to classes, reading
their books, and creates such a deep connection with them,
I remember rather Notaswami was telling a story about his
(16:06):
spiritual teacher, Shilaproapad, and he said that he only really
interacted with his spiritual teacher in person a couple of times,
but he stayed connected purely through listening to his classes
and reading his books. So even watching someone online, you
can start off by watching classes, listen to their words,
reflect on them, journal about them. It can influence you
(16:26):
so deeply. And that's when I see how I stay
connected to him even when he's not here physically. I
feel like I get even a deeper connection to him
when I'm listening to him every single day online or
when he's having classes in different places, because he travels
a lot as part of being a monk. He's a
traveling monk, so on top of everything that he does,
he goes where he's needed and he supports the community there,
(16:48):
and so he'll give classes there or share words of
wisdom there and they record them and we're able to
listen to them online. When Ratheransami described meeting his spiritual
teacher for the first time, he actually says, I'm just
going to read this because it's so beautiful and it
really represents how I felt when I met him, which
is a lovely affirmation, or it really affirmed the way
(17:09):
that I connected to him and that he was the
right person to connect to. He said, when I first
saw schilaproa Pad, he was sitting on a simple cushion,
speaking so humbly, yet his words pierced through all my
doubts and fears. It was the first time I saw
someone live what they preach with such purity. I wept
without knowing why. He described, feeling overwhelmed by Schulerpropad's humility, clarity,
(17:33):
and love, qualities that he hadn't seen in any other
spiritual figure. And that is honestly how I felt with
rather than Asami when I met him. It really, really
deeply affirmed how I felt about him and showed me
that I was on the right path. You know, one
thing I've struggled with quite a bit has been this
ability to be truly present with people in the moment.
(17:53):
It's something that I've really been working on. But I
can be in a place really trying to look into
someone's eyes, trying to deeply connect and listen to what
they're saying, but sometimes my mind just finds it really
hard to stay focused and be attentive. It can just
be all over the place physically here, but mentally somewhere
completely different. But when anyone, any single person, meets rather Naswami,
(18:14):
it's like he is looking deep into your soul, so
intensely present in the moment with whoever he interacts with,
And each person that I've spoken to has had the
same feeling from the moment they meet him. He doesn't
rush to fill silences. He's not uncomfortable with stillness, and
that in itself taught me something that silence is a
form of trust. You can only be quiet with someone
(18:36):
you're truly comfortable with. And for him, he is so
deeply comfortable in himself but also comfortable in the connection
of soul to soul, heart to heart, not with all
the layers that cover us up. But he's not meeting
you as a human or as a physical body, where
there's so many things that create invisible barriers between us
(18:56):
before we even speak words. He just sees the soul
to soul connection, and so I feel like he's just
so comfortable because he sees God in the other person
and the God in him, and the God and the
other person are connecting. He also wastes no words, and somehow,
in that quiet, whether he says words or doesn't, his
presence says more than most people say in hours. And
(19:18):
on the day before he left, we actually gathered a
group of friends to meet him, and I remember reflecting
on how different everyone received his words. He spoke, you know,
for about half an hour, and it was amazing because
when I spoke to everybody afterwards, the same sentence landed
differently for each person, depending on their heart, depending on
what they were going through, how much work they had
(19:39):
done previously internally, how much therapy they'd been in, and
what they were ready to actually hear. And I think
it's because spiritual truth doesn't scream, It just meets you
gently where you're at. And that's really what the whole
situation showed me. When I heard everybody's different reflections on
the same class that they heard, the same words that
they were all hearing, the amount of people that came
(20:00):
to me and said, you have no idea, how much
I needed that, how much clarity I got, or I
really felt like he was speaking to me after everything
that I've been through, And I was like, Wow, every
person's experience has been so different. Not one person has
been through the same thing, but they feel like he
is talking directly to them, that it's literally affected their
hearts so deeply. And that's so magical, isn't it. I
(20:23):
just I loved hearing that. It just it was really special. Actually, So,
if we really had to summ up what I've learned
from being around him in one short phrase, it would
be this, when you're deeply connected to the divine, to love,
to patience, and to the right energy, you overflow. You
are overflowing with the capacity the ability to just give
(20:46):
to others. And there's never a point in time where
he says he's tired of being around people helping people.
You know, usually you go to a social environment and
you're like, oh God, I need like two days to recover. No,
he will talk to one hundred people and give them
just the same amount of attention. He will talk to
one hundred people and care deeply. You see the compassion
in his eyes. And I would always say, how is
(21:07):
he doing this? How does he have this patience to
listen to people over and over again? How does he
have the tolerance to accept all the things that people
say at him? Or to him or around him? How
does he have that capacity? And I realize it's not
what he's eating, it's not what that amount of sleep
he's getting, it's not all those basic human needs. It's
(21:28):
actually this deep connection to a divine power. It's almost
like he's got a he's plugged in. You know, he's
plugged in. He's got this unlimited energy that's being that's
flowing through him. So it's not actually him, He's just
an instrument. He is a divine, pure instrument of God's
message and he's choosing to open himself and be a
vessel for that. And when I thought about that, I
(21:51):
was like, Okay, so what does that require? Yes, you
can be plugged in, but have you opened up all
your channels, all your heart? Are you an open book
to be able to actually be a full, open, clear
vessel for God to send his message through? And what
does that look like? And so think about that yourself.
What does that look like for you? And I think
(22:11):
that's really important because it's it's almost like when they
say you could be receiving all the blessings in your life,
but do you have the hand your hands open to
be catching them? And in the same way God may
be ready to make you, God, the universe, whatever you
want to call the bigger energy that is the force
of life. It's all available, ready for you to receive.
But how are you preparing your body? How are you
(22:34):
preparing your mind to be a vessel of that and
to be able to actually handle that energy, to be
able to handle that message and share it in the
right mindset with the right people, in the right mood.
Because what is inside of you will come out of you.
It's literally, just like simple biology, what you've eaten will
come out at the other end, what you've absorbed in
(22:55):
your mind, through your body, through every single sense that
you have, what will eventually collect in you and also
overflow through you and out of you. And so really
it made me think, I've got a lot of work
to do. We're not in a scared way, in like
an excited way of Wow. If I do the right things,
if I channel the right things, if I read the
(23:17):
right things, if I surround myself with the right people,
of course, there are going to be so many things
that come in the way. But with the right intention
and the desire, He's given me a beautiful insight into
what that can look like to be a constant, flowing
instrument of God's love, grace, energy, vitality, energy like you've
(23:39):
never seen it before. I can't even explain it to you,
but I've never seen someone with that much energy. He's
seventy five years old, and he has more energy than
I've seen most like eighteen year olds have, you know,
more capacity than I've seen anybody have, and more compassion
than the whole of America. But together, you know, that's
just what I continue to strive for to pray for.
It's like when you don't have it, pray for it,
(24:01):
kind of like fake it till you make it, but
don't fake it, practice it, practice it till you make it,
and pray for it till you get it, and pray
for the intention to receive it in the right way.
There's so much we can pray for. I've stopped praying
for things. I've started praying for, like the vision to
see the right things, or the intention to be pure
(24:21):
when I do things. So not just to talk about
spiritual life, we could talk about things all day, but
to live one that is so sincere that one day,
maybe like him, we can become quiet. Invitations for others
to remember their own spiritual path, and that's really what
it's about, right, How can I help others see the
goodness in themselves? How can I help others see their
(24:43):
own spiritual path, whatever that may be different to mine,
the same as mine. But how can I help them
connect to the divine? How can I help them love
themselves more and others more? How can I help them
see the world with wonder because every single part of
the world is so wonderful? And how can I just
constantly be a vessel of grace and compassion for others,
(25:05):
what beautiful desire and intention to have? And then trying
to align our life to support that sounds so easy,
much easier than it actually is, I'm sure, But we
can always hope and try, And I think that's the point,
Always have hope and always keep trying. So I could
go on about rather Naswami for days and days and hours,
but I think these lessons are I'm sure, giving you
(25:27):
so much to think about, and I really recommend going
through each point and reflecting in your life how it applies.
Thank you so much for listening and sending your so
much love. If you want to, you know, find rather Notaswami.
He is obviously not on his own social media, he
has a team that looks after it, but he has
classes on YouTube. He has given talks in so many
different places, luckily they've been recorded, and his team shares
(25:51):
a lot of his wisdom on Instagram. And there's also
this beautiful app called Rise where a lot of his
teachings live. Try and connect to him and I would
love to hear your reflections on this as well. Send
me a DM. I love to receive them. Thanks so
much guys, and sending you so much love. Have a
great week.
Host
Radhi Devlukia
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