When we look at ourselves as human beings, we have to watch our thoughts because our thoughts lead to words. We watch our words: they lead to actions. We have to watch our actions because actions become our habits. We should watch our habits because they become our culture. We want a culture of divinity. not a culture of sectarianism, fanaticism, incarceration, and war. We want a culture of liberation that is about love and service to God and all creation.
Bhakti Tirtha Swami was born John E. Favors in a pious, God-fearing family. As a child evangelist, he appeared regularly on television, and as a young man, he was a leader in Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s civil rights movement. At Princeton University, he became president of the student council and also served as chairman of the Third World Coalition. Although his main degree is in psychology, he has received accolades in many other fields, including politics, African studies, and international law.
Bhakti Tirtha Swami's books are used as reference texts in universities and leadership organizations throughout the world. Many of his books have been printed in English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Macedonian, Croatian, Russian, Hebrew, Slovenian, Balinese, and Italian.
His Holiness has served as Assistant Coordinator for penal reform programs in the State of New Jersey, Office of the Public Defender, and as a director of several drug abuse clinics in the United States. In addition, he has been a special consultant for Educational Testing Services in the U.S.A. and has managed campaigns for politicians. Bhakti Tirtha Swami gained inter-national recognition as a representative of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, particularly for his outstanding work with scholars in the former communist countries of Eastern Europe.
Bhakti Tirtha Swami directly oversees projects in the United States (particularly Washington D.C., Potomac, Mary-land, Detroit, Pennsylvania, West Virginia), West Africa, South Africa, Switzerland, France, Croatia, and Bosnia. He also serves as the director of the American Federation of Vaisnava Colleges and Schools.
In the United States, Bhakti Tirtha Swami is the founder and director of the Institute for Applied Spiritual Technology, director of the International Committee for Urban Spiritual Development and one of the international coordinators of the Seventh Pan African Congress. Reflecting his wide range of interests, he is also a member of the Institute for Noetic Sciences, the Center for Defense Information, the United Nations Association for America, the National Peace Institute Foundation, the World Future Society, and the Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders.
A specialist in international relations and conflict resolution, Bhakti Tirtha Swami constantly travels around the world and has become a spiritual consultant to many high-ranking members of the United Nations, to various celebrities, and to several chiefs, kings, and high court justices. In 1990 His Holiness was coronated as a high chief in Warn, Nigeria in recognition of his outstanding work in Africa and the world. In recent years, he has met several times with then-President Nelson Mandela of South Africa to share visions and strategies for world peace.
In addition to encouraging self-sufficiency through the development of schools, clinics, farm projects, and cottage industries, Bhakti Tirtha Swami conducts seminars and work-shops on principle-centered leadership, spiritual development, interpersonal relationships, stress and time management, and other pertinent topics. He is also widely acknowledged as a viable participant in the resolution of global conflict.
I'm flattered to be able to share a few thoughts with such an important international audience. Today, we live in an age of modernity, with hi-tech communication tools and technology that defies the speed of light. We are in fact already in post-modernity! We can use our mobile phone to uplink onto any website, download any information, and chat with anyone on earth, but does that mean effective communication?
We don't have time to share with anyone. The usual courtesy, basic manners, have given way in the name of workload. We don't have time to talk to our parents and friends except when we need them to serve us! New "scriptures" have been written in this era, and a new world order established!
"Indulge yourself in the material world to the fullest. Welcome to Kali-yuga--the age of quarrel, confusion, and war!" Young people my age do many things. Rarely do they want to fight for a cause, give their time to others, or help this world become a better place. This selfish and egoistic attitude is quickly spreading everywhere. We have to wake up and realize that if this goes on, it is the beginning of the end.
Things are so simple; we complicate everything. Recently, the world has been shaken by the unscrupulous deeds of terrorists who fight a deadly war in the name of peace. The winners call themselves heroes.... of what exactly, no one knows. Many small economies are paying the price of globalization. Only the fittest will survive. Strategies are devised and implemented in this quest for acquiring market share often unethically and immorally. Instead of loving and helping each other out, we are breeding skepticism and hatred. We divide, sub-divide, and invent causes leading to fanaticism and sectarianism.
Leaders, this has to stop. Go out and tell them that they are wrong-that the medals they polish bear the scars of wars that feed the rich and bury the poor. The peace solution is not an illusion. It can be easily reached. We are all citizens of one world. Our differences enrich our potential. We complete each other, like the flowers that make up our beautiful garden, that of humanity. I am blessed to live in Mauritius, a land where all the cultures meet in utmost trust and respect. Unity in diversity is our motto and nation-building our renewed mission. This is the theme of this wonderful and most needed book. Allow me to invite you to share this ideal worldwide.
The Spiritual Warrior series consists of lectures given by His Holiness Bhakti Tirtha Swami (Swami Krishnapada) to a wide variety of live radio and television audiences around the world, over a period of several years. Since the topics were originally presented in spoken form, the style is conversational and informal. In the editing process, we have modified the text to enhance readability, yet sought to preserve some of the verbal nuances that would maintain the mood of the original presentations. By so doing, we hope to create an atmosphere that literally makes you part of the audience so that you can experience the powerful presence of the speaker as he shares essential nourishment for the soul.
We would like to mention several other stylistic considerations. In the course of his discussions, B.T. Swami includes perspectives from many different spiritual philosophies; however, because his audiences are composed mainly of people in the Christian and Vedic traditions, he makes the most extensive references to these scriptures. At times, he uses Sanskrit terminology from the Vedas, a vast body of ancient scriptures originating from the area of the world known today as India. We have endeavored to keep many of these terms and have tried to explain them within the context of the discussion. When coming upon such terms, if you need additional information and clarification, we invite you to consult the glossary. However, there are some terms we would like to initially clarify:
• When His Holiness B.T. Swami refers to the one God that we all know of, he uses different terminologies. Some-times he says the Supreme Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Mother-Father God, or Krishna.
• He often uses the word "devotees." He is drawing attention to those spiritualists who are connected to the Vedic tradition as well as to all aspiring spiritualists who are embarking on the spiritual journey.
• He also uses the term "nine-fold process," which refers to various activities that a person engages in during his or her spiritual practices of devotion to God, such as hearing about the Lord, speaking about Him, remembering Him, praying to Him, serving Him, fully surrendering, and so on.
The end of each chapter includes many of the questions and answers exchanged during the original lectures. We hope that these will respond to some of the concems that may arise in the course of your reading. These discussions between B.T. Swami and the audience may also give you different angles from which to view the topics presented.
I met His Holiness Bhakti Tirtha Swami through a synchronistic meeting with one of his devoted students on a street of Cape Town, South Africa very soon after taking up a position with the Center for Conflict Resolution (CCR). In the usual indomitable way that comes from a deep conviction and I daresay another faculty of knowing, the devotee talked about conflict and peace and the work of his teacher Bhakti Tirtha Swami who was scheduled to visit the upcoming week. I was searching for ways to infuse my work and the field of peace-making with a base of values. I was personally challenged in my work to find a may to create a learning circle that contributed to animating parliamentarians and decision-makers in foreign affairs, and to help extend defense ministries from southern and central Africa from being just adept negotiators to peacemakers. The answer lay I thought in the crucial factor of leadership. The meeting on the street presented me with the opportunity to work with Swami, a "light worker" or in his terms a "spiritual warrior."
Since 2001, Swami has contributed to the work of CCR through his role as a resource person on the Senior Government Project at CCR. And in his annual visit with staff at CCR, he has assisted us to understand what it means to lead and build communities as we grappled with the organizational journey work of dealing with the conflict that comes with organizational and societal change. Yes, even in conflict resolution and peace organizations as in all organizations and societal groupings, the potential for us to respond destructively exists. This is where the work of B.T. Swami is so relevant and empowering.
Drawing on ancient Vedic teachings, he gives as an extended understanding of time and purpose. The view espoused is rooted in the views of the life of the soul. Each lifetime we spend on earth or in the material realm brings with it specific lessons for the soul to learn, and each person in our circle in this Age of Existence known as Kali-yuga has a lesson to offer our soul's learning. In this age, he reminds us that personal transformation is a prerequisite for societal trans-formation; that personal transformation requires more than a pragmatic morality; and that discernment is a spiritual muscle we need to exercise in order to become "spiritual warriors."
Bhakti Tirtha Swami was born John E. Favors in a pious, God-fearing family. As a child evangelist, he appeared regu-larly on television, and as a young man, he was a leader in Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s civil rights movement. At Princeton University, he became president of the student council and also served as chairman of the Third World Coalition. Although his main degree is in psychology, he has received accolades in many other fields, including politics, African studies, and international law. Bhakti Tirtha Swami's books are used as reference texts in universities and leadership organizations throughout the world. Many of his books have been printed in English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Macedonian, Croatian, Russian, Hebrew, Slovenian, Balinese, and Italian. His Holiness has served as Assistant Coordinator for penal reform programs in the State of New Jersey, Office of the Public Defender, and as a director of several drug abuse clinics in the United States. In addition, he has been a special consultant for Educational Testing Services in the U.S.A. and has managed campaigns for politicians. Bhakti Tirtha Swami gained inter-national recognition as a representative of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, particularly for his outstanding work with scholars in the former communist countries of Eastern Europe.
A specialist in international relations and conflict resolu-tion, Bhakti Tirtha Swami constantly travels around the world and has become a spiritual consultant to many high-ranking members of the United Nations, to various celebrities, and to several chiefs, kings, and high court justices. In 1990 His Holiness was coronated as a high chief in Warn, Nigeria in recognition of his outstanding work in Africa and the world. In recent years, he has met several times with then-President Nelson Mandela of South Africa to share visions and strategies for world peace.
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