Excerpt transcribed from an interview Radhanath Swami gave to Rick Archer -
Rick Archer: I exchanged a Facebook chat with someone the other day who had had what she called a 'non-dual' realization. If you're kind of in tune with the current atmosphere around, there are a lot of teachers espousing non-duality and non-dual realizations and I hear very little talk of God among them. But in any case this girl said that, you know what, there was no sense of personal self and all is one, but there was no bliss. And she said, well is that all enlightenment is. It's hyped up to be this great blissful thing and I'm hardly even interested now. It didn't have the allure that I expected it to have. I suggested to her that perhaps that little glimpse she had had was not necessarily the full blossoming of what enlightenment or realization or awakening can be and that she should keep persevering as there's more to it. I just want to throw in one more point and I want you to respond, and that is that interviewing lots and lots of people, a new one every week, I encounter a great number of people who don't say much or speak much of God. They almost seem to think of God as a human concept, and yet they have a sort of a realization, a non-dual realization of some sort. And I'm always kind of needling them a bit to suggest that perhaps there's further progress yet to undergo and that the whole thing will become richer, fuller and more with a Divine quality to it as time goes on. Very often they say, no, no, I don't see how there can possibly be any further progress. So it's a pity in a way. It seems like, to me anyway, it's only half the package and there's more to be known. Radhanath Swami: (chuckles) You're expert, Rick, at extracting deeper and deeper understanding. To be honest with you, I had the same dilemma on my journey and I have written about in my book 'The Journey Home' that I met people that I saw such incredible character of compassion ans self-control and enlightenment. And some of them were talking about the Absolute being a very all-pervading impersonal experience and others, a very intimate loving personal experience. And I loved my teachers in both of these schools, and the many variations among these schools. I was only 19 or 20 years old at the time and I was really seeking. And I couldn't just accept superficial answers some people gave me when I questioned. "Is the Absolute dual, or is the Absolute non-dual is the Absolute personal, is the Absolute impersonal?" And sometimes I would get very vague answers. And sometimes I would get very conflicting, combatting answers against the apparent opposing side. And I was really looking to understand. And on the path of Bhakti I found what I felt to be the synthesis of the two, and it's based on the Shrimad Bhagavatam, the Upanishads, the holy scriptures and a whole line of great saintly people who teach this principle. And I'll share with you a little piece of it. Rick: Please. Radhanath Swami: There's a beautiful verse in the Vedas (recites verse in Sanskrit then explains it as follows): There's one Absolute Truth we can call God, we can call Nirvana, but there's one Absolute Truth. And according to the Vedas, this one Absolute Truth eternally, simultaneously has three features: Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagawan. Brahman is the all-pervading formless, impersonal Absolute, which is... the realization of that Brahman is to merge with that one Absolute. Paramatma is that one Supreme same Absolute who is situated within the heart of every living being, giving guidance, giving intuition when we actually connect to it. And Patanjali and many yogis really tried to connect to that Paramatma, that Absolute within the heart who can give power, who can give wisdom, who can give everything. And then there is Bhagawan which is the Absolute with persnoal form. Rick: The Personal aspect of God. Radhanath Swami: Yeah, the Personal aspect of God just like the sun and the sunshine. The sunshine is like Brahman. It's all-pervading, it's everywhere, it's light. And the sun is simultaneously existing with the sunlight and the sun has form. So God simultaneously exists, but God is infinite. When we say that form limits God, to say that God has no form is also a limit of God. So the Bhakti scriptures teach that the form of the Lord, or Bhagawan is eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss. It's not material. It's not conceivable. Like I have eyes, and because my eyes can only see a certain distance, my eyes are limited. So some will say for God to be unlimited he has to have no eyes. The Bhakti scriptures say that God has eyes but God's eyes can see all things at all times everywhere. Now we may say, how is that possiblebut the Bhakti scriptures say that the Absolute is beyong the limits of what we consider possible otherwise what's the use of Him being the Absolute? So, for those who seek this mukti, or this eternal freedom from all suffering, from all pain, from all ego, the ecstacy of mukti is the goal of those who seek the non-dual aspect of the Absolute. And the goal of those who seek the personal aspect is 'prema' which means Divine love based on intimate, loving relationships which are forever. The Vedas explain that beyond this material creation there's the spiritual sky which is the all-pervading Brahman. Then there is many many spiritual planets within the spiritual sky where there are the different aspects of God; Ram, Shiva, Krishna. These different aspects of God are eternally existing and exchanging eternal unlimited loving relationships with their devotees. Radhanath Swami recites a verse and explains it as expressing that we are inconceivably one with God and different from God. God is inconceivably personal and impersonal and according to how we approach the Lord, the Lord will reveal accordingly. And this was very important to me because I met people who worship Ram, who worship Krishna in a very very personal way and their goal in life was to have eternal loving relationship with the person of God. And I met others who wanted to go beyong all form and enter into this all-pervading Oneness. And both sides, they were great saints. But in my heart, I was pulled toward prema toward this eternal sweet, loving relationship that we can eternally have with Bhagawan. ~~ The complete interview along with a brief bio of Radhanath Swami can be seen here: http://batgap.com/radhanath-swami/ <http://batgap.com/radhanath-swami/>
