Wisdom of the Sages
Truths about life from the timeless wisdom of the Bhakti-yoga tradition - fun, relevant, and deep. Learn about dharma, yoga, bhakti, and how it relates to all the basic questions of life. This show is about how to live your best life, let go of the external distractions, and uncover the spiritual happiness that lies within the heart as the true nature of the soul. Raghunath and Kaustubha's connection goes back to their teens in the New York Hardcore Punk Scene of the early 80s, through serving together as Bhakti-yogi monks in the 90's, to sharing their experiences in the world of yoga in the 21st century.
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1733: How Krishna Bhakti Went Global (No Money, No Plan, Just Faith)
02/13/2026
1733: How Krishna Bhakti Went Global (No Money, No Plan, Just Faith)
Krishna bhakti went global not through wealth, planning, or infrastructure, but through faith — the kind of faith that sends teenagers across oceans with no money, no guarantees, and no backup plan. In this episode, recorded at Govardhan Eco Village, Raghunath speaks with Mahāmāyā and Bali Mardana, whose personal memories reveal the unpredictable, humorous, and deeply human early days of the Hare Krishna movement — a time when chanting became survival, surrender became strength, and Śrīla Prabhupāda’s presence inspired ordinary people to attempt extraordinary things. ******************************************************************** 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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1732: Take Back Your Mind: Yoga & Bhakti in the Age of Noise Bad Bunny, Kid Rock & Misplaced Attention
02/11/2026
1732: Take Back Your Mind: Yoga & Bhakti in the Age of Noise Bad Bunny, Kid Rock & Misplaced Attention
In a world engineered for distraction, yoga becomes the deliberate practice of training the mind to place its attention where meaning, clarity, and love actually grow. Raghunath and Kaustubha explore attention as the most valuable thing we possess — and the one thing modern culture constantly hijacks. Drawing from Simone Weil’s insight that attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity, and the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam’s metaphor of glowworms shining when real stars are covered, this episode exposes how noise replaces wisdom, visibility replaces value, and misplaced attention quietly shapes our consciousness — while bhakti offers a radical way to reclaim it. ******************************************************************** 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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1731: How Karma Trains the Heart
02/09/2026
1731: How Karma Trains the Heart
Karma isn’t about guilt—it’s about growth. Drawing from a quote by Keanu Reeves and the timeless wisdom of the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, this episode explores how understanding karma restores agency, dissolves victimhood, and quietly cultivates compassion. Raghunath and Kaustubha clarify why karmic law isn’t meant to judge who’s “up” or “down,” but to help us respond more wisely, act more gently, and move through the world with awareness. When responsibility is understood properly, life stops feeling random—and starts feeling meaningful. ******************************************************************** 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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1730: When “I Already Know” Blocks Spiritual Growth
02/07/2026
1730: When “I Already Know” Blocks Spiritual Growth
This episode begins with the idea that pride must die in you, or nothing of heaven can live in you—and uses it as a doorway into bhakti: not just emptying the mind, but making room for something sacred to actually live within us. Raghunath and Kaustubha reflect on “reentry” after pilgrimage, why holy places and holy people rekindle faith, and how steady practice becomes a shelter when the inspiration fades. Then the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam paints Vrindavan: summer that feels like spring, forest beauty, childlike play, and the sudden intrusion of danger as Pralambāsura appears disguised among the cowherd boys. What could feel like a simple story is revealed as something deeper—how love intensifies through contrast, how devotion becomes vivid through remembrance, and how Balarāma protects the joy of Vraja with swift, decisive strength. ******************************************************************** 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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1729: Are We Seeking Transformation, or Just Validation?
02/06/2026
1729: Are We Seeking Transformation, or Just Validation?
The meaning we find in scripture often reveals more about our motive than the text itself. This episode explores the uncomfortable truth: that we don’t just read scripture—we often recruit it. Nearly any philosophy can be bent in the direction we’re already leaning. Raghunath and Kaustubha examine how two people can read the same teaching and walk away with completely opposite conclusions, why real growth begins with examining our motives rather than merely quoting sources, the difference between being transformed by sacred texts and being justified by them, and how compassion may be the clearest measure of whether a teaching has truly been understood. ******************************************************************** 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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1728: Confront. Process. Transcend. (Real Bhakti Isn’t Bypassing)
02/04/2026
1728: Confront. Process. Transcend. (Real Bhakti Isn’t Bypassing)
This episode is a deep dive into death, vulnerability, and the strange grace that appears when we stop running and start facing reality with the holy name on our lips. A near-death moment in Māyāpur cracks open one of life’s most carefully avoided truths: everything we refuse to face quietly takes control from the shadows. In this episode of Wisdom of the Sages, Raghunath and Kaustubha explore Carl Jung’s piercing insight—“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate”—and why bhakti is anything but spiritual bypassing. ******************************************************************** 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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1727: Trusting God Without Knowing the Outcome
02/03/2026
1727: Trusting God Without Knowing the Outcome
A striking model of surrender emerges in this episode: accepting both mercy and correction as meaningful, purposeful, and transformative. Spoken live from Śrīdhāma Māyāpur, this conversation unfolds around a simple Christian devotional line—“I do not know what tomorrow holds, but I know who holds tomorrow”—and follows it into much deeper bhakti territory. Rather than offering certainty or comfort, the discussion explores what it actually means to trust God when outcomes are unclear and control quietly slips away. Drawing from pilgrimage moments in Navadvīpa, immersive kīrtan, and a revealing section of the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, the episode turns to Kāliya, the serpent whose suffering leads not to resentment but to humility and clarity. His prayer becomes a mirror for our own lives, reframing adversity not as punishment, but as a precise and personal form of guidance. ******************************************************************** 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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1726: Compassion Is the Measure
02/03/2026
1726: Compassion Is the Measure
A quiet morning of kirtan in Mayapur opens into a deeper reflection on what spiritual maturity actually looks like—not as an idea, but as a lived quality of the heart. Using Confucius’ insight on wisdom, compassion, and courage, this episode explores why compassion is not sentiment or softness, but a measure of real growth. Drawing from the prayers of the Nāgapatnīs in the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, the conversation moves into fear, surrender, and why grace does not wait for a perfectly purified heart. Along the way, Raghunath and Kaustubha reflect on Narasiṁhadeva as the remover of inner obstacles, the difference between skill-base. ******************************************************************** 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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1725: Pilgrimage, Mercy & This Fragile Moment in History / Bhakti as a Living, Unfolding Movement
01/28/2026
1725: Pilgrimage, Mercy & This Fragile Moment in History / Bhakti as a Living, Unfolding Movement
As global uncertainty hums in the background, this moment in history feels both fragile and purposeful. Moving between history, theology, and lived experience, Raghunath and Kaustubha reflect on pilgrimage, mercy, and the distinct generosity of Śrī Caitanya’s path. Broadcast from Śrīdhāma Māyāpur, they explore how bhakti continues to shape culture in India and beyond and why spiritual emotion often arises not from sentimentality, but from a sudden recognition of the gift one has received. ******************************************************************** 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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1724: Stop Hugging the Cactus: Why the Soul Is Still Hungry
01/25/2026
1724: Stop Hugging the Cactus: Why the Soul Is Still Hungry
Live from Govardhan Eco-Village in India, this episode unfolds as a grounded, unscripted exploration of why material life grows stale—and why spiritual sound never does. With Kaustubha away, Raghunath is joined by Pranapriya and a circle of pilgrims whose stories naturally reveal how bhakti works in real life: not as blind belief, but as lived, repeatable realization. Drawing from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, Raghunath reflects on the “shadow world” of material attachment, the restless mind that can’t be satisfied by consumption, and the Bhagavatam’s promise that devotion becomes an irrevocable fact through regular hearing and service. Along the way, themes of recovery, responsibility, pilgrimage, and purposeful work weave together into a clear message: happiness doesn’t come from feeding the shadow—it comes from feeding the soul. ******************************************************************** 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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1723: I Love Crying: Finding Faith in Life’s Heaviest Moments / Q&A Vol. 293
01/18/2026
1723: I Love Crying: Finding Faith in Life’s Heaviest Moments / Q&A Vol. 293
Some people avoid pain with distractions. In this episode, the Wisdom of the Sages community does something far rarer: they learn how to move through emotional heaviness with faith—without rushing, bypassing, or pretending everything is fine. From inner churning and grief to confusion about work, purpose, and spiritual,” Raghunath and Kaustubha offer a grounded bhakti lens for processing the darker, harder seasons of life and letting them deepen—not derail—your practice. Recorded live during retreat time at Govardhan Eco Village, this Q&A is a reminder that spiritual life isn’t about having a perfectly curated mind. It’s about learning where to place your shelter when the mind gets loud, when the heart feels tender, and when life forces you to face what you’d rather avoid. Key Highlights: * How to move through emotional heaviness with faith—without trying to fix yourself or rush the process * Why difficult seasons can strengthen faith in Kṛṣṇa and loosen false faith in the material world * Practical guidance for handling spiritual “shoulds” (cultural expectations, opinions, mixed messages) without losing the main thing * What “surrender” looks like in real time: Kṛṣṇa as protector, provider, and the steady center when everything else shakes * Meaningful work vs. paying the bills: how to stay devotional in an imperfect workplace—and keep your integrity intact * The role of community when life gets hard: why you’re not meant to process heavy things alone 🌟 Subscribe for daily Bhakti Yoga wisdom, Śrīmad Bhāgavatam insights, and real-life spiritual practice. 🎧 Tune in now! #ILoveCrying #BhaktiYoga #WisdomOfTheSages #SrimadBhagavatam #EmotionalHealing #SpiritualGrowth #Surrender #Kirtan #KrishnaConsciousness #FaithThroughHardTimes #DevotionalService #GovardhanEcoVillage ******************************************************************** 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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1722: Redirected by Grace: Part 2
01/16/2026
1722: Redirected by Grace: Part 2
Krishna’s “coincidences” didn’t calm down—they escalated. Part Two of Meet the Pilgrims picks up right where the last episode left off: real people, real spiritual detours, and that unmistakable moment when you stop chasing “success” and start getting redirected by grace. Live from Govardhan Eco Village, this continuation brings even kirtanf the Wisdom of the Sages pilgrimage into view—hardcore kids from the punk scene, yoga teachers, musicians, academics, kirtan leaders, and seekers who thought they were just “improving themselves”… until bhakti started improving them. And sometimes it’s a former corporate success story singing kirtan, wandering musicians Googling “kirtan near me” and ending up singing for Radhanath Swami, and a PhD student realizing the ladder of achievement was leaning against the wrong wall. And it’s not just about “how I got here.” It’s about what happens after you arrive—when humility opens the channel, association does its work, and spiritual life stops being theory and becomes transformation. Sometimes the miracle is a “secret temple.” Sometimes it’s a new marriage that begins with a second-date kirtan. And sometimes it’s a former corporate success story singing kirtan on the streets of Mumbai because he finally meant it when he said, “Teach me how to be a devotee.” ******************************************************************** 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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1721: Redirected by Grace: How People Find Their Way to Bhakti
01/16/2026
1721: Redirected by Grace: How People Find Their Way to Bhakti
This one is all about spiritual journeys—the stories that bring people onto the Wisdom of the Sages pilgrimage: unlikely beginnings, messy detours, and those moments where a single step toward bhakti turns into a full-on sprint from the universe. This episode is a rapid-fire parade of the spiritual plot twists of real humans with real backstories… getting quietly (and sometimes loudly) redirected by grace. You’ll meet the community behind the podcast—teachers, therapists, travelers, skeptics, seekers, punks, adult entertainers—each one carrying a different “how I got here,” and somehow arriving at the same place: kirtan, sādhana, and a new definition of what it means to come home. If you love pilgrimage stories, spiritual synchronicities, and the kind of bhakti that sneaks up on you like a monk with a stack of books—this one’s for you. ******************************************************************** 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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1720: People Over Profits: Inside Radhanath Swami’s Bhaktivedanta Hospital
01/15/2026
1720: People Over Profits: Inside Radhanath Swami’s Bhaktivedanta Hospital
Magic happens in the last place you’d expect it: a Mumbai hospital where patients don’t want to be discharged and staff don’t want to go home. Recorded live from Govardhan Eco Village, Raghunath welcomes author Radha Bhakti to unpack the astonishing culture of Bhaktivedanta Hospital on Mira Road—an all-faith, all-heart care facility built on a radical idea: treat the body, mind, and soul… and put people over profits. What started with four idealistic medical students serving Mumbai’s slums has grown into a 300-bed integrative hospital where kirtan can be heard in the stairwells, spiritual care teams befriend patients as their “job,” and even end-of-life care includes the kind of emotional closure most of us don’t realize we’re missing until it’s too late. ******************************************************************** 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: ********************************************************************* Find Radha Bhakti's book here: India: https://tulsibooks.com/product/magic-on-mira-road-stories-from-the-bhaktivedanta-hospital/ Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Mira-Road-Bhaktivedanta-Hospital/dp/1880404621/ Also Bookwrights Press in the US: https://www.bookwrightspress.com/wp1/product/magic-on-mira-road-stories-from-the-bhaktivedanta-hospital/ Canada: https://a.co/d/fz5AlIW Worldwide: AMAZON
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1719: A Reflected Rose Has No Aroma — Why the Bhagavad-gītā Calls This World a Reflection
01/07/2026
1719: A Reflected Rose Has No Aroma — Why the Bhagavad-gītā Calls This World a Reflection
A Bhagavad-gītā-level reality check: the world we experience isn’t “illusion” in the lazy, dismissive sense—it’s illusion like a reflection. Consistent. Coherent. Convincing. And still untouchable. Like an upside-down tree mirrored in water, it looks real enough to reach for… but you can’t taste its fruit. A reflected rose has no aroma. And a reflected life, no matter how intensely we chase it, can’t deliver the ananda we’re actually built for. But the reflection does point to a reality worth pursuing. ******************************************************************** 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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1718: 3 Ferraris, Zero Peace: The Higher Taste Effect (Bhakti & Spiritual Psychology)
01/06/2026
1718: 3 Ferraris, Zero Peace: The Higher Taste Effect (Bhakti & Spiritual Psychology)
A higher spiritual taste doesn’t negotiate with desire—it demotes it. From Govardhan Ecovillage in Maharashtra, Raghunath and Kaustubha riff on William James (father of modern psychology), the bhakti renaissance in India, and the strange way spiritual culture can make renunciation feel effortless: not by suppression, but by a new attraction taking the center of the heart. Along the way: kirtan “clubbing,” deep-rooted devotion that suddenly shoots up like bamboo, and a reminder from the Bhāgavatam that when Krishna’s touches the soul, even heaven, power, siddhis, and liberation start to look like broken glass next to the real thing. ******************************************************************** 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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1717: Where Ego Breaks and Bhakti Begins
01/06/2026
1717: Where Ego Breaks and Bhakti Begins
A modern seeker walks away from a high-pressure career and an ancient Sanskrit text tells a story about giving up one’s egoistic false strength. Recorded live from Govardhan Eco-Village, this episode brings together Grace’s journey from corporate life to devotional service and Krishna’s confrontation with the serpent Kāliya—revealing how inner clarity often arrives when our usual strategies fail. ******************************************************************** 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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1716: Bhakti Changed My Life: The 6-Year Anniversary Show
01/02/2026
1716: Bhakti Changed My Life: The 6-Year Anniversary Show
Six years ago we hit “record” with shaky internet and big dreams—then a lucky break, and a global lockdown helped turn Wisdom of the Sages into a daily lifeline for thousands of listeners. In this special 6-Year Anniversary episode—recorded live from Govardhan Ecovillage, India—listeners step up to share how daily Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, bhakti-yoga, kirtan, and satsang pulled them out of anxiety, addiction, trauma, and spiritual confusion—and into something steady, practical, and strangely joyful. From Berlin to Manhattan to Asheville, you’ll hear how the “sages in the pages” become real when the teachings move from information to transformation. ******************************************************************** 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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1715: Is Self-Care Making Us Less Happy?
12/31/2025
1715: Is Self-Care Making Us Less Happy?
Self-care culture tells us to treat ourselves, embrace our flaws, and obsess over our inner world—but the research on happiness points in the opposite direction. In this episode, Raghunath and Kaustubha explore how bhakti-yoga reframes humility and self-esteem, and why real relief comes from realizing you are not the body, the mind, or the story you’ve been defending. With humor, psychology, and ancient wisdom, they reveal how service, purpose, and spiritual identity dissolve anxiety and comparison—and then pivot into the to Srimad Bhagavatam’s Kāliya-līlā, where the residents of Vṛndāvana become so absorbed in Kṛṣṇa that fear, grief, and love explode beyond anything ordinary psychology can measure. ******************************************************************** 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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1714: Karma Doesn’t Chase You—It Waits
12/29/2025
1714: Karma Doesn’t Chase You—It Waits
A French poet once observed that we often meet our destiny on the very road we take to avoid it—and history seems to agree. Using Napoleon’s failed attempt to conquer Russia as a striking example, Raghunath and Kaustubha explore the deeper logic of karma: why running from discomfort rarely works, how unprocessed lessons repeat themselves, and what the Bhāgavatam offers as a radically different strategy. Instead of fleeing fate, this episode invites us to welcome what comes, stop wasting energy on avoidance, and experience how spiritual growth begins not with escape—but with acceptance and service. ******************************************************************** 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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1713: Can the Angels Lift Raghunath’s Spirits on Christmas Eve?
12/24/2025
1713: Can the Angels Lift Raghunath’s Spirits on Christmas Eve?
Christmas Eve hits different when life feels fractured: broken family emotions, grief, longing, and that uneasy feeling that the world keeps taking what we hoped would stay. Raghunath and Kaustubha let it get real. can Kaustubha cheer up a very Fonzie-alone-with-a-can-of-beans Raghunath—using Christmas carols, classic lyrics, and bhakti logic as the rescue plan? Can they, together, reframe Christmas through a bhakti lens: holidays aren’t just celebrations, they’re yogic instruments—designed to interrupt the daily trance, soften the heart, and pivot us from self-centered survival to love, giving, and forgiveness? ******************************************************************** 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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1712: The Look of Love: Seeing Reality Through Bhakti
12/23/2025
1712: The Look of Love: Seeing Reality Through Bhakti
Bhakti-yoga doesn’t ask us to escape the world—it shows us how to set it right by placing love at the center. This episode begins with a “zoomed-out” perspective on human conflict and confusion, then pivots to a vision of reality grounded in three distinct expressions of divine love. Through a sequence of luminous verses, the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam reveals a theology in which the soul of the universe is present and personal, reciprocating heart-melting love through the songs of His friends, the shy glances of the girls of Vṛndāvana, and the protective, affectionate care of His mothers. As Raghunath and Kaustubha explore these verses, a deeper pattern emerges: when life lacks a spiritual center, even small grievances grow large and divisions harden. When consciousness is centered on bhakti, the heart softens, perspective widens, and love becomes the organizing principle of life. ******************************************************************** 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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1711: Why Vrindavan Bhakti Feels So Alive / Discussing Love & Lineage
12/23/2025
1711: Why Vrindavan Bhakti Feels So Alive / Discussing Love & Lineage
In this episode, Kaustubha shares deeply moving stories from his recent Vaishnava Scholars’ retreat in Vṛndāvana—revealing why Vrindavan bhakti feels so alive and unmistakably different. Through encounters with Goswamis and sacred lineages, visits to the Rādhā-vallabha and Rādhā-ramaṇa temples, and time at the mystic Tatiyā Sthān—where the “soft sand” of Vrindavan is worshiped by off-the-grid sādhus—a vision of devotion emerges that isn’t driven by rules or rituals, but by intimate love that captures Krishna’s heart. With warmth, humor, and insight, Raghunath and Kaustubha explore the four major Vrindavan bhakti lineages, why Śrī Chaitanya empowered the Six Goswamis to ground ecstasy in Vedānta, and how history, politics, and bhakti unexpectedly converged in Vrindavan through figures like Akbar, Aurangzeb, the Rajputs, and Shivaji. ******************************************************************** 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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1710: Amazon Prime Spirituality
12/18/2025
1710: Amazon Prime Spirituality
When devotion becomes a transaction, spiritual life starts to thin out. In this episode of Wisdom of the Sages, Raghunath and special co-host Pranapriya Devi Dasi explore how bhakti deepens not through bigger offerings or louder effort, but through listening, responsibility, and presence. Drawing from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, stories of karma and mercy, and everyday struggles with anxiety, chanting, and family life, the conversation points to a quieter truth: spiritual growth begins when we stop managing outcomes and start showing up with sincerity. A grounded, humorous, and sobering reminder that bhakti isn’t about getting more—it’s about giving attention. ******************************************************************** 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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1709: Knowing the Price, Missing the Point
12/16/2025
1709: Knowing the Price, Missing the Point
Netflix has a price, but what’s the cost of what it does to you? Raghunath and Kaustubha riff on Oscar Wilde’s brutal truth—people know the price of everything and the value of nothing—and trace how modern consumption can quietly make the mind coarse, restless, and spiritually numb. They then turn to the 10th Canto of the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, reading radiant verses of Kṛṣṇa’s Vṛndāvan pastimes—scripture meant to purify the heart and elevate consciousness from crude appetite to the highest spiritual taste. Drawing from Bhagavad-gītā 2.57 and Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s explanation of Dhenukāsura as the ass-like mentality of gross sensuality—overcome by Balarāma as guru-tattva—they show why the greatest wealth in life is finding guidance that reveals the true value of spiritual life, and seeking it with real intensity. ******************************************************************** 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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1708: When Vedānta Becomes Poetry: Kṛṣṇa’s Footprints in Vṛndāvana
12/16/2025
1708: When Vedānta Becomes Poetry: Kṛṣṇa’s Footprints in Vṛndāvana
Bhakti moves like a river between union and separation, carrying the devotee through remembrance, longing, and love. In this episode, Raghunath and Kaustubha explore spiritual experience as it naturally unfolds in devotional life—through divine arrangements, moments of ecstasy, and the quiet ways sacred places awaken the heart. As the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam describes Vṛndāvana, Kṛṣṇa’s footprints are said to make the land auspicious, showing how even a trace can hold both presence and absence at once. Here, Vedānta appears in its most beautiful and poetic expression, where bees, breezes, forests, and dust don’t explain truth so much as embody it—and Vṛndāvana becomes something the devotee learns to carry wherever they go. ******************************************************************** 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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1707: Is a Monk Really Deeper Than You?
12/09/2025
1707: Is a Monk Really Deeper Than You?
Is a monk living in a temple necessarily deeper than someone living an ordinary life in the world—or could it be the other way around? In this episode, Raghunath and Kaustubha explore that question through Brother Lawrence’s realization that you don’t have to leave ordinary life to find God—you only have to bring God into ordinary life. That insight opens directly into the stunning conclusion of Krishna’s childhood pastimes in the Tenth Canto of the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, where after humbling Brahmā with cosmic revelation, Krishna returns to the simplest childhood games, revealing that the deepest exchange of love doesn’t require grandeur at all. ******************************************************************** 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: ********************************************************************* Buy Sega's book here: https://url-shortener.me/2LOA Buy Raghu's book here: https://url-shortener.me/2LOG
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1706: Einstein, Bhakti-Yoga & the Delusion of Consciousness
12/08/2025
1706: Einstein, Bhakti-Yoga & the Delusion of Consciousness
Einstein called it an “optical delusion of consciousness.” The yogis call it forgetfulness of the Self. In this episode, the illusion of separateness gets dismantled—from modern physics to the sacred Bhakti texts—revealing how the love of enlightened people doesn’t shrink to “me and mine,” but expands to everyone. Traveling from Japan to the banks of the Gaṅgā in Rishikesh, Raghunath and Kaustubha unpack radical teachings on love and life. Listen to explore the idea of expanding the sense of self as the key to freedom from fear, loneliness, and the prison of “me and mine.” ******************************************************************** 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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1705: Inferiority & the Comparison Trap / Q&A Vol. 292
12/07/2025
1705: Inferiority & the Comparison Trap / Q&A Vol. 292
In this deeply personal Q&A Volume 292, Raghunath and Kaustubha respond to a listener struggling with inferiority, comparison, trauma, and the fear of being left behind in love and life—unpacking how bhakti can reframe self-worth, karma, and the hunger for validation at the root. Along the way, they touch on how ancient rituals adapt in the modern world, and what it actually feels like to carry the responsibility of being a guru. Honest, raw, and spiritually sharp, this episode exposes why no amount of external success can heal the soul—and where real shelter is actually found. ******************************************************************** 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: ********************************************************************* Watch and support the interview given by our dear Gaby-Capu @CapuYoga on Venezuelan TV about Spirituality and Religion here: https://youtu.be/3jZJlaR69cg?si=FNIKjVarDe2YwYTL
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1704: Doing the Inner Work vs Doing Shrooms
12/03/2025
1704: Doing the Inner Work vs Doing Shrooms
Psychedelics can shoot you to the summit, but they can’t make you a mountain climber. You may get a glimpse of the view, but the glimpse doesn’t change you — you didn’t build the muscles, you didn’t shed the weight, and you didn’t face the inner terrain that actually transforms a person. In this episode, Raghunath and Kaustubha explore the difference between quick-hit “insight” culture and the steady, muscle-building path of Bhakti, drawing powerful lessons from Lord Brahmā’s humility in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. It’s an honest, humorous dive into why real growth means doing the inner work — not looking for shortcuts. From psychedelic detours to Facebook flame wars, from ego trips to genuine surrender, this episode blends ancient wisdom with modern mischief in the signature WOTS style. Key Highlights * Raghunath’s mushroom story is back. * Brahmā: four heads, cosmic mastery, still doing the uncomfortable inner work… one apology at a time. * Why psychedelics may give you the view — but Bhakti builds the muscles to actually live there. 🌟 Subscribe for daily wisdom and join thousands on the journey of Bhakti yoga. 🎧 Tune in now! #Bhagavatam #BhaktiYoga #PsychedelicsAndSpirituality #NoShortcuts #DoTheInnerWork ******************************************************************** 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: ********************************************************************* Join Raghu's Whatsapp channel here: Join Kaustubha's Whatsapp channel here: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbAxNYgJuyAJR8SHhy2j
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