Accomplishments, they come, they go. They can’t touch our heart. But the accomplishment of love, the accomplishment of living by our values, the accomplishment of actually sustaining compassion and growing higher and higher and higher and higher with affection among each other, that’s something beautiful. – Radhanath Swami
A Global Conference is organized by the Milken Institute in Beverly Hills every year. It is attended by many influential industrialists, business people, investors, politicians and entertainers. A few years ago I was invited to give a morning meditation session every day at the conference.
Radhanath Swami speaks of Joe Torre
I also attended one particular event at the conference which was quite interesting. There were about two thousand people in this beautiful ball room of a hotel in the Beverly Hills. The panel discussion was among some of the most accomplished people in their fields: Steve Wynn, Chairman and CEO of Wynn Resorts; Susan Desmond-Hellmann, CEO of a pharmaceutical company that patented more cures and remedies for cancer than anyone in world history; Steven Burd, President and CEO of Safeway foods; Mike Milken, big investor and philanthropist; and Joe Torre, previously the manager of the New York Yankees, an American professional baseball team. The topic of the conference was, ‘Leadership in Business’.
What amazed me was that Mahatma Gandhi was quoted five times during the talks: his values – values of compassion and caring – are what American business has to embrace.
There was one instance that moved me. They had a screen that showed the life accomplishments of each person on the panel before that person spoke. And this Joe Torre, he was a ‘Hall of Fame’ baseball player. Later he was a manager. They showed on the screen how the New York Yankees were not in a playoff for eleven years, and then they hired him. All the press was saying the nastiest things about him, because they felt he was useless and he couldn’t do it. But in the next ten years they were in – I think in six World Series – and they won three. Torre was voted one of the five Greatest managers in baseball history. He was asked during the discussion, “What was the greatest accomplishment that gave you the most fulfilment in your life?” And he said, “Compared to this lady next to me who cures people of cancer, I haven’t done anything.” The moderators said, “Well, you may think that. But probably most of the people in the audience are New York Yankee fans. And we think that you did do something.” So he said, “Well, if I have to say the greatest thing I ever did in my life…When I was a child, I came from a home where there was terrible abuse. There was always fighting, always violence. It was total suffering. Going out of my home was like escaping prison. And when I played baseball, all my frustration, all my anger, all my pain, I would take out on the baseball. That’s how I became such a great baseball player. I found shelter, I found release in baseball. I could forget the problems of home. The most fulfilling thing I have done is not being one of the greatest baseball managers or being on the Hall of Fame. I started an organisation where we go into the inner city schools of New York and help the kids who are from abusive homes. When I see these children suffering the same way I did, we give them counselling, we give them encouragement, we give them skills. When I see them smile, when I see them successful and when I see them have confidence, that’s the greatest joy of my life.” And he said something interesting. He said, “And this whole organisation wasn’t my idea. It was my wife’s idea. I am just helping her.” He got a standing ovation from all of these politicians, business people and investors, because he touched their hearts.
When it really comes down to what really is valuable in life, the most fundamental need of every living being is to love and be loved. There is a saying, ‘An evolved human society is a society where people love people and use things. But unfortunately, all too much in this world today, people love things and use people to get them.’ – Radhanath Swami
Bob Dylan’s Wisdom
Couple of years ago I saw an article. All the rock and roll musicians from the nineteen fifties to today, they voted on what was the greatest rock and roll song in history. How many thousands of rock and roll songs have there been! And the number one song was ‘Like a rolling stone’ by Bob Dylan. So they interviewed Bob Dylan. “This is the greatest honour a musician could ever have. You wrote the song, you sang the song. It’s the number one song in history. What are your feelings?” He said, “I don’t feel the slightest bit of satisfaction. Next year they’ll probably vote for another song. So why should I be attached to this award?” There is truth there.
Accomplishments, they come, they go. They can’t touch our heart. But the accomplishment of love, the accomplishment of living by our values, the accomplishment of actually sustaining compassion and growing higher and higher and higher and higher with affection among each other, that’s something beautiful. – Radhanath Swami
Radhanath Swami at a Basement in Chicago
Not long ago I was in Chicago. The son of a person I know took me into his beautiful home. He had a basement, and he must have had about twenty thousand dollars’ worth of toys and all sorts of computerised games for his son. The son always wanted something else! The parents told me, “Whatever we give him, after a week or two he gets tired of it, and he wants something else. And we get him something else.” I discovered that they had no time for him. They were working and the child was lonely. The child was starving for affection, for care, for Love and trying to divert his attention away with things.
The heart is starving and sometimes in order to cope with that, instead of actually going within to find that love within us and to share that love with others, we try to pacify it by just preoccupying our mind with things and more things and more things. – Radhanath Swami
Radhanath Swami quotes Mother Teresa
Forty two years ago in Kolkata I met Mother Teresa. And I remember her speaking, “The greatest problem in this world is hunger, but not hunger of the stomach. You give some food, you could resolve that. It’s hunger of the heart. And only love can nourish the heart. The origin of that love is the love between the soul and God. When we are nourished with that love, we become an instrument of that love in whatever we do. Even in Calcutta, sometimes these people in the ghettos who have nothing, they die in my arms. And I see a light in their eyes. When I travel the world, even some of the greatest, most successful people in London, in Los Angeles, in New York, in Nairobi, in Paris, in Bombay, I rarely see that light in their eyes.” The heart is starving and sometimes in order to cope with that, instead of actually going within to find that love within us, and to share that love with others, we try to pacify it by just preoccupying our mind with things and more things and more things.
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