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Tolerance

Systematic Torture on Radhanath Swami

As a doctor, day in day out I see people in pain. Some, I see, can tolerate only a little of it, and some a lot. But I am yet to meet another person as tolerant to pain as Radhanath Swami.

Radhanath Swami once had a frozen shoulder. I called our Dr. Chako to be his physiotherapist. Sitting on pins and needles I watched every session of the exercises, in burning anticipation of Chako over-stretching the frozen shoulder, which he often did. And whenever he did, my heart quaked to see Radhanath Swami grimace with pain. I would then jump to rein in the situation. “Chako! This is enough. Don’t stretch the shoulder so much.”  But only occasionally did Radhanath Swami himself utter, and every time that he did, it was in favor of Chako’s treatment. Once he said, “No pain. No gain.” Another time he even made a quip. “I am undergoing systematic torture.”

After eight long months of treatment the shoulder recuperated.

A few weeks rolled by and I asked Radhanath Swami, “How’s your shoulder? How’re you feeling now?” He wrinkled his brow. “Which shoulder was it?” I simply smiled. There was no need to answer that question.  It looked like the whole eight month experience wasn’t for him—painful enough.  If it where, how could the arm that caused it, fade off in his memory?   Perhaps this pain was trivial in comparison to the pains, both physical and mental, which he underwent while he was on his spiritual quest, and which he underwent now for helping others in their quest.

— Dr. Girish Rathod

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151 replies on “Systematic Torture on Radhanath Swami”

The lesser one concerns with pleasures of the body to that extent one could be detached from the pains as well. The best example is Radhanath Swami.

HH Radhanath Swami exhibits greatest tolerance levels. In his book ‘The Journey Home’, there were many incidents where HH Radhanath Swami underwent so many difficult situaltions where He exhibited gret patience and tolerance levels.

This incident is fact gives us the glimpse of the tolerance shown by HH Radhanath Swami towards pain and how he maintains his optimistic attitude even in painful situation. Exemplifying the verse “…taror api sahishnuna…”. Thank you for sharing this story

Shri Radhanath Swami is known on several occasions to have exhibited great tolerance. I have heard of an account where he conducted an entire lecture with a fractured leg. He went to a doctor only after the lecture was given.

As HH Radhanath Swami has himself mentioned in many of his lectures- One’s greatness is estimated by one’s ability to tolerate the provoking situations.

Maharaj considers every situation to be the gift of Krishna and accepts it. It is his sheer tolerance and hardwork that has helped the community at Radha gopinath reach where it is.

” No pain, No gain ” applicable in all aspects of life be it spiritual or material.

Only a saint like Radhanath Swami can be so oblivious to bodily pains and discomforts. He truly teaches us by such personal examples.

More humble than a blade of grass more tolerant than a tree is what Radhanath Maharaj teaches…..but practices personally as well….this is a real acharya

Maharaj always says the greatness of a devotee is judged in a way how he tolerates provoking situations. He is living by his example of tolerating and adjusting in all situations of life. This we alse learn from his experiences in the life’s journey for search of God in his autobiography ” The Journey Home”

Just to make people happy and to get a smile on their face Radhanath Maharaj can do anything.

It is not the question of how much physical or mental tolerance one can display, it is about the approach this we can often Learn by just hearing Radhanath Swami’s discourse wherein he emphasis a point-“Pain is inevitable suffering is optional” thus indicating that when we have this body and the way we are conditioned pain has to come, but how we react to it determines the level of our suffering.

This is a one of the quality which maharajn posses & we have to learn from him how to tolerate by teaching trinadipi sunichen…

Only a person carrying lot of spiritual strength, can show such level of tolerance.

By asking “which shoulder was it”, HH Radhanath Swami teaches by personal example that the body should not so important than the soul and its eternal activity of serving………

Thank you very much for sharing this. Maharaj really extends himself to any extent for the sake of others.

Radhanath swami lives by what he speaks, I now recollect some lectures where he spoke about Tolerance

Amazing how maharaja tolerated the pain for so long.
I had the same problem and the pain was unbearable.
Maharaja, I do hope that I can learn to be tolerant and pray during such times and all other times.

Thank you so much for sharing! Each moment of pain is Krsna’s gift to us because it is in those moments that we are sure to chant His name and experience bhakti better.