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| Edited By: Ashish Virmani |Source: DNA |Updated: Nov 21, 2013, 01:44 PM IST
He survived death-defying odds in order to travel overland from Chicago to India nearly 40 years ago. ISKCON devotee Radhanath Swami is now settled in Mumbai, and his autobiography The Journey Home tells of the intense and unusual search of a counter-cultural American teenager who found the answers to life in Indian spirituality.
Can you describe the moments of your ultimate enlightenment and what it meant to you?
My enlightenment took place after a journey among various spiritual disciplines — Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism to name a few — when I discovered that the essence of people everywhere is the same whatever their external denomination may be. And that essence is a great love that emanates from the inner soul. I awakened to that in Vrindavan in 1971 when I encountered His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
You believe in socially engaged spirituality. What are the things you do?
Our mid-day meals for schoolchildren in Mumbai’s slums reach out to about 150,000 kids everyday. We also have a Bhatkivedanta hospital for charity, a hospice and also run an orphanage. I’ve practised a socially engaged spirituality since the mid-1980s and today am more so than I’ve ever been. I also teach and propagate the ISKCON philosophy that God’s love resides within the self.
