This happened in 2000. My daughter, age six, played with her friends in the courtyard of Radhgopinath Temple, while my wife and I socialized in a nearby garden. Radhanath Swami, while passing through the courtyard, stepped right in front of my daughter. His face radiating a smile, and his fingers pointing to her, he announced to no one in particular, “She is my friend.” Then he walked away.
My little daughter felt assured that Radhanath Swami knew her and loved her.
In 1998, I often rode Radhanath Swami from an Ayurvedic Clinic in suburban Mumbai to Bhaktivedanta Hospital. He seldom spoke during these journeys, for he would be exhausted after his treatment at the clinic.
On one ride something interesting happened.
From 1993, when I was nine, to 2007, Lady Nothcote Hindu Orphanage was my home. At the time it was located close to Radhagopinath temple, in the heart of Mumbai. Recently, it is moved from there to a village named Galtare, so the students can be raised in an environment free from the pollution and dangers of the big city.
While at the Orphanage, every morning before I went to School, I was drawn up the staircase to Radhanath Swami’s room
Radhanath Swami’s unconventional advice to us Bhaktivedanta Hospital leaders was, “Eat with the hospital staff in the same place where they eat, and the same food as they eat. Also, you should be seen mopping the floors and cleaning the toilets. The hospital staff will then be proud of their leaders.” While we discerned in it a brilliant management strategy, its application intrinsically required application of Radhanath Swami’s teachings: everyone is equal, as spirit souls,
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.