Started reading "The Journey Home"

Few years back a friend took me to a temple where I met a monk named Radhanath Swami. Actually my friend told me his name before I met Radhanath Swami. I thought he'll be another Indian 'sadhu' or sage as you may say. But to my surprise Radhanath Swami turned out to be an American!! I was curious to know his story. My friend told about his upcoming book. I wondered "Why will a swami write about him self ? What kind of benefit does he want out of that ?"


I came to know later that it was actually a desire of his death-bed ridden great friend Bhakti Tirtha Swami. Bhakti Tirtha Swami himself is a great personality: an African American who rose from the ghetto of Cleveland to become a world spiritual teacher whose admirers included, among others, Nelson Mandela, Muhammed Ali and Alice Coltrane. Bhakti Tirtha Swami was passing through the last stages of melanoma cancer and Radhanath Swami visited him. It was Bhakti Tirth Swami's desire that Radhanath Swami stays with him in his last days. They would talk about mysteries and miracles and enjoyable stories from Sanskrit devotional texts (Shrimad Bhagavatam). Both being life long friends knew each other through and through. Bhakti Tirth Swami knew Radhanath Swami's amazing story of attaining spiritual knowledge and also his hesitation in writing it. He had Radhanath Swami make a promise of writing his story of finding spiritual quest for according to him it was actually a story of how God led a young boy onto an amazing journey to seek the inner secrets that lie within all humans. Few days later Bhakti Tirth Swami passed away and this book 'The Journey Home' by Radhanath Swami is in his honor.