Purpose of Yoga – Radhanath Swami Devotional Mellows

By the sun of grace, then we see everything as it is.

nitya-siddha krishna-prema ‘saadhya’ kabhu naya

shravanaadi-suddha-citte karaye udaya

(CC Madhya 22.107)

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, He gave this beautiful verse.

That this love for God, for Krishna, this love for all living beings who are part of Krishna is the nature of our true being. It’s within us. It’s what we are looking for. What we are searching for, what we are crying for, is the fulfilment of connecting to that love.- Radhanath Swami

But because of this fog, we are going all in the wrong places trying to find it and we keep crashing into each other in the fog. Yes? Whenever we have battles, ego battles, whether it be with our husband or our wife or with our friends or with people we work with or between nations or between religions, it’s because of this fog, we are just crashing into each other. And it hurts. So when the fog is there, we all crash into each other.

You see, in this fog, in Jharikhanda forest, the deer were thinking, “I am a deer”, and the tigers were thinking, “I am a tiger”. And the deer were running in fear from the tigers and the tigers were leaping on the deer and sucking their blood and eating their flesh. But actually, they were not deer or tigers. They were pure atma, pure souls. They are pure lovers of God. It’s only the fog that gives them those misconceptions. It’s only the fog that creates such antagonism between them. But when Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu glanced upon them and induced them to chant the holy names “Hari”, then the fog was lifted. And what happened? The deer saw the tigers as their lovers. Instead of running from the tigers, the deer were running to the tigers. And instead of the tigers eating them, the tigers were embracing them and protecting them, “Just stay with me, I’ll protect you. If anybody comes to hurt, you just tell me”. They were embracing, they were kissing. Not romantic kissing, but with spiritual love.

Yoga is meant to lift that fog so that we actually learn how to love ourselves. – Radhanath Swami

Who is the true lover? We understand who I am? I am sat-chid-ananda, I am eternal, I am full of knowledge, I am full of bliss. Why? Because I am part of Krishna, who is sat-chid-ananda vigraha. And everyone is. You see, there can’t be false ego when we understand the beauty.

steven gonzalez says:

April 23, 2015 at 6:19 am

very true we really need to see through the fog clearly …..!!!

Sumit Sharma says:

March 9, 2015 at 3:59 am

Thanks for sharing this.

Anand Patil says:

March 5, 2015 at 2:30 am

beautiful explanation of ‘meaning of Yoga”. Thank you HH Radhanath Swami. Otherwise we see nowadays people using the term “Yoga” for anything and everything other than the meaning explained in this article. Thanks Maharaj for clearing the fog which was blocking us from the real meaning.

Sumit Sharma says:

June 7, 2021 at 12:58 am

So true. Real yoga means to connect back to the grace of the Lord. And once we get connected, we can experience real love manifesting from our heart for anyone and everyone. However, in order to keep getting inspired to love others, we must associate with pure devotees like Radhanath Swami, who are sacrificing their whole life for the real welfare of others. This welfare is not at the material level as most of the materialists expect, but at the level of the soul (who we are in reality). That way they are touching the heart of sincere people and bringing them close to God, so that He can take care of them, and they may go back home back to Godhead.

Wonderful message from Radhanath Swami.

Piyush Singh says:

February 13, 2015 at 12:12 pm

Beautiful narration from HH Radhanath Swami. Purpose of Yoga is to gi above the level of Body and cultivate real Love of God. Thank you.

Kalpana Kulkarni says:

February 13, 2015 at 9:54 am

Such powerful revealations of how we are in deep ignorance of our true nature! This fog of ignorance can be slowly lifted by chanting the holy names of the Lord and hearing from realized spiritual masters.