Radhanath Swami Making Better Individual Lives

Better Life from Better Health

Does a better life necessarily follow a better health? The World Health Organization positively defines health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. In 1984, the WHO resolved to add a fourth dimension, the spiritual dimension, to the scope of health. Putting both together, one can claim to be healthy only when the necessity of one’s physical, mental, social and spiritual well being are met. Wouldn’t such ‘real’ health be naturally followed by a satisfying life?

Helping Others with Better Life

To delight in facilitating better health, and thus better lives for others—even in the face of personal inconveniences—it’s that consciousness that’s revered by all the religions of the world. And it’s divinity alone that can induct such lofty consciousness in commons. If one scours the history of Radhanath Swami, one can clearly see that divinity acting through his person, soaring up the consciousness of whomsoever he has closely associated with. Radhanath Swami redirects all that credit to the grace of his Guru, Srila Prabhupada.

When Radhanath Swami landed in Mumbai, in 1986, hardly anyone knew him there. Slowly, fascinated by his divine qualities, some gravitated closer. Like a touchstone he made their lives more valuable: they were now experiencing a better life under his care. Radhanath Swami next prodded them to do as he did—stretch out to help humanity with as much physical, mental, social and spiritual care that could be possibly provided. “Let more and more people have better lives.” Initially, it was their love for him that spurred them to go out of their comfort-zones in that endeavor—they wanted to make him happy. But once off the ‘comfort-ground’, with that divine love acting as the ‘runway’, they discovered a special kind of joy in ‘mid-air’, the joy of selfless service. Now, no longer was Radhanath Swami alone; he had his dedicated army sharing his vision—a world with happier lives. With this vision, as the army marched ahead, it grew with every step. Today his army-base in Mumbai has approximately six thousand people, ever hungry to devour the unhappiness of the world—through personal care.

The Hospital

Amongst Radhanath Swami’s initial following was a group of medicos who chose to help people through their profession. Even as undergraduate students, they held free medical camps in the slums and villages. Steering clear of allurements of flourishing careers, they remained united after graduation to accomplish their mission—to help people have better lives. It was incredible: doctors who could make a fortune travelled from slum to slum, village to village, like homeless derelicts—holding free medical camps. Driven by the same motivation, the group gradually evolved into a nursing home and finally the Bhaktivedanta Hospital.

The Bhaktivedanta Hospital was opened on 11 January 1998. The hospital, in addition to providing free treatment to the physical body of millions of underprivileged, also pledges to provide free spiritual care for all—the privileged and the unprivileged alike. The Hospital, now known for the quality of its community outreach programs, has become the first hospital in history to be awarded by the Government the complete District of Thana, for conducting free medical camps. The Community Health Centre of the hospital conducts these camps. Apart from camps held in the immediate vicinity, the hospital also conducts the annual Barsana Eye Camp and the Pandhar Camp in far-off places. And for providing spiritual care, the hospital has a department exclusively devoted for that purpose—The Department for Spiritual Care—making it unique in the entire world.

Lifestyle Counseling

In the first few years after 1986, those within the net of Radhanath Swami’s close association in Mumbai were fortunate to be counseled personally by him regarding their physical, mental, social and spiritual well being. Then, as the little group expanded into a community, it wasn’t practical for Radhanath Swami to counsel everyone personally. He then trained some followers in lifestyle counseling. Combining that training with their mature experience with balancing their own lives, they now extended themselves to counsel others. In time, they also trained others to become Lifestyle Counselors. Now the community at Mumbai hosts more than a hundred lifestyle counselors who help thousands in making their lives better. And the concept of Lifestyle Counseling is wafting to different corners of the globe.

Once when a lifestyle counselor questioned Radhanath Swami about the essence of counseling, Radhanath Swami replied, “To be a counselor means to be willing to give one’s life for helping your counselee.”

Child Welfare

Radhanath Swami is one of the inspiring forces behind the Mid-day Meal Project. This project is about providing free lunch to the underprivileged children all over India. Food is prepared in hygienic conditions in ISO certified kitchens and transported to the schools by lunch hour.

Mid Day Meal has proved effective in increasing attendance in schools. Many poor children are forced by circumstances to labor just to for a day’s meal. Consequently they miss out on going to school. But when nutritious and tasty food is provided at school, it provides an impetus for children to come to school, and relieves the poor parents the burden of having to make the child work for the day’s meal.     

The project started on 16th August 2004, with Dr. Radhakrishna, a student of Radhanath Swami, feeding lunch to 921 children of Maratha High School, Mumbai. Today, all over India, 6,60,000 children are fed every day under this scheme, and in Mumbai the figure is 1,00,000.

Radhanath Swami speaks on the Universal Principle of a True Saint: