1772: Everyone Worships Something | Free Will and the Object of Our Affection
Release Date: 05/20/2026
1806: Low Self-Esteem and a Big Ego | Mike Tyson and the Keśī Demon
Wisdom of the Sages
Low self-esteem and a big ego are two sides of the same coin. Mike Tyson saw it— there was "Iron Mike," the undefeatable persona built for the ring. And then there was the real confused person underneath. The ego can get you to your destination, but it's going to collapse. The teaching of bhakti goes deeper: play your role — boxer, mother, teacher, father — play it as well as it can be played. But never mistake the role for who you are. You have a true spiritual existence beyond it. In this episode Raghunath and Kaustubha explore that alongside Canto Ten, Chapter Thirty-Seven — where...
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1805: The Humility and Heroism of Accepting Your Fate
Wisdom of the Sages
Mariano Rivera — the greatest closer in baseball history — was willing to teach his rivals exactly how to throw his most devastating pitch. He knew that, regardless of their strength or skill, unblessed they were blessed by God to throw they wouldn’t be able to. The Stoics understood it. They called it “amor fati” — love of fate. There are things within our control and things outside our control. The wise person focuses entirely on what's within their control and releases entirely what's outside. In this episode Raghunath and Kaustubha explore how doing one’s best and then...
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1804: The Love Is Gone | Gandhi on Warped Religion
Wisdom of the Sages
People use religion it to feel superior, or to protect their position. The name and rituals remain. But the love is gone. "What passes as Christianity is a negation of the Sermon on the Mount." Gandhi wasn't rejecting Jesus — he was rejecting what had been done in his name. Something starts with a genuine God experience, rooted in love. Over time it gets warped — In this episode Raghunath and Kaustubha explore that pattern across traditions alongside Srimad Bhagavatam’s telling of Aristiaura, a shapeshifter adopting the form of Dharma but sent to kill. Srimad Bhagavatam 10.36.1-10 ...
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1803: Everything Is Nothing | George Harrison and the Krishna Mantra
Wisdom of the Sages
You need people who have everything to show you that everything is nothing. George Harrison had wealth, fame, mansions, cars — everything material desire could want. And he said just sitting down and chanting the Hare Krishna mantra gives more happiness than all of it. "The response that comes from chanting is bliss — a much higher taste than any happiness found in the material world." Raghunath and Kaustubha explore that alongside the Yugala Gīta — where the gopīs at the highest perfectional stage are doing exactly what George did on a boat with John Lennon sailing through the Greek...
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1802: No One Truly Knows Me | The Loneliness Epidemic and Bhakti Vedānta
Wisdom of the Sages
The majority of Americans say no one truly knows them. Research shows that warm, real connection correlates directly with physical health and peace of mind. We are relational beings by nature. The question is whether we've found the right object of love. Raghunath and Kaustubha explore that question alongside the Yugala Gīta — where Bhakti Vedānta paints a picture of spiritual relations in perfection: Krishna moving through the forest with his arm over the shoulder of an affectionate friend, wearing a garland of Tulsi flowers bearing the fragrance of his beloved, surrounded by cows,...
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1801: The World Responds to Krishna's Beauty
Wisdom of the Sages
Many spiritual traditions lack a personal conception of the Divine. Other’s do, but offer little description of what that means. The Bhakti tradition’s Srimad Bhagavatam goes further — painting an incredibly detailed picture of the Absolute Truth, and doing it through poetic exchanges of love. In this episode Raghunath and Kaustubha enter Canto Ten, Chapter Thirty-Five — the Yugala Gīta. Pairs of verses, each describing Krishna in the forest, followed by the world’s response to his beauty. The rivers tremble. The trees overflow with fruits and flowers. The bees sing to him — and...
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1800: I'm Coming Out!
Wisdom of the Sages
Episode 1800. To celebrate, Raghunath and Kaustubha open the floor to the Wisdom of the Sages community — sharing the stories of the moment they told family, friends and spouses: I'm a Hare Krishna. Funny, vulnerable, beautiful and deeply human. Happy 1800, everybody. ******************************************************************** LOVE THE PODCAST? WE ARE COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AND WOULD LOVE FOR YOU TO JOIN! Go to WATCH ON YOUTUBE: LISTEN ON ITUNES: CONNECT ON FACEBOOK: *********************************************************************
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1799: Give Me a God That Sings and Dances | Was Nietzsche Looking for Krishna?
Wisdom of the Sages
"I would believe only in a God who knows how to dance." Nietzsche didn't reject God — he rejected a God who was solemn, heavy and joyless. What he wanted was a God with joy in him. He had no idea that on the other side of the world, thousands of years before he was born, that God had already been described. Raghunath and Kaustubha explore George Harrison’s idea that everybody is looking for Krishna – some just don't know it yet. Srimad Bhagavatam 10.34.20-32 ******************************************************************** LOVE THE PODCAST? WE ARE COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AND WOULD LOVE...
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1798: Beauty: Blessing or Curse? | Dostoevsky and the Heart of Man
Wisdom of the Sages
Studies show that beautiful people earn more, get hired faster, and receive lighter sentences in court. Beauty is power. But Dostoevsky saw the danger: "God and the devil are fighting there, and the battlefield is the heart of man." Beauty pulls in two directions — one kind inflates the ego and drags the consciousness down without you noticing, another makes you want to be better, kinder, more alive. In this episode Raghunath and Kaustubha explore that distinction — and the two very different ways the Vedantic traditions respond to it. Srimad Bhagavatam 10.34.1-19 ...
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1797: The Diametric Opposite of Lust | The Rāsa Līlā Completes
Wisdom of the Sages
How does meditating on Krishna's romantic pastimes conquer lust? Not through repression — through a higher meditation. In classical yoga, the very first demand is to root out every vestige of erotic thought. With the meditators on Krishna, the romantic mood became the queen of all meditation. The gopīs' love is the diametric opposite of lust — being entirely selfless. Meditating on something so pure reprograms the heart from within — the counterfeit simply loses its pull. Raghunath and Kaustubha complete all five chapters of the Rāsa Līlā. Krishna's pastimes are not the product of...
info_outlineEveryone worships something. The rock star, the ideology, the bottle of wine, the beautiful person across the room. Dostoevsky identified it as an incessant, painful longing: so long as man remains free, he strives for nothing so persistently as to find someone worthy of complete surrender. We have free will — and where we invest our affection becomes our most important choice. In this episode Raghunath and Kaustubha explore that longing alongside the Vedic text’s most sacred passage — where the gopi girls of Vrindavan invest everything in the very source of rasa itself.
Srimad Bhagavatam 10.29.12-19
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