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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1783: Keeping the Bhakti Romance Alive / Q&A Vol. 296
06/13/2026
1783: Keeping the Bhakti Romance Alive / Q&A Vol. 296
How do you keep bhakti fresh, sweet and progressive for the rest of your life — fueled by genuine love rather than institutional guilt or a rigid checklist? In this special Q&A episode recorded live in Torgau, Germany with the Shelter crew, Raghunath and Kaustubha tackle that question alongside two others that go just as deep. What remains of our relationship with Krishna when everything we identify with falls away? And what is your favorite place in Vrindavan — and what made it that? The answers range from practical to profound. ******************************************************************** 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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1782: Nothing Can Remain Hidden | Da Vinci, Manu and Radharani
06/10/2026
1782: Nothing Can Remain Hidden | Da Vinci, Manu and Radharani
The wheels of justice grind slow, but fine. The truth eventually rises to the top. "Truth at last cannot be hidden. Nothing is hidden under the sun." Leonardo da Vinci wrote those words in his notebooks. Thousands of years earlier, Manu arrived at exactly the same place — the sky witnesses, the earth witnesses, the waters witness, and the God within the heart witnesses. There is an anxiety that comes with secrecy — a low-grade unease that will not go away. Whatever is true will find its way through. Raghunath and Kaustubha explore that principle alongside one of the most extraordinary moments in the Srimad Bhagavatam — where the name that the Vedic tradition has been building toward through thousands of verses finally rises to the surface, hidden inside a single Sanskrit word, like butter churned from yogurt. Radha. Churn the practice long enough and the essence always rises. ******************************************************************** 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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1781: The Hunger for Beauty | A Signal from the Soul
06/09/2026
1781: The Hunger for Beauty | A Signal from the Soul
Every beautiful thing we encounter is a signal pointing somewhere. Our hunger for beauty isn't random — it can be read as a signal. In this episode Raghunath and Kaustubha explore where that signal leads — through the Srimad Bhagavatam's Rāsa Līlā, where the gopīs of Vrindavan lose themselves so completely in love for Krishna that they begin acting out his pastimes, declaring to one another: I am Krishna. This is the highest limit of transcendental love. And unlike every beautiful thing in this world, it never fades. Srimad Bhagavatam 10.30.12-23 ******************************************************************** 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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1780: Bhakti's Sacred Longing | In Separation, the Beloved Is Found Everywhere
06/04/2026
1780: Bhakti's Sacred Longing | In Separation, the Beloved Is Found Everywhere
How can longing be ecstasy? How can absence be the deepest form of presence? This is one of the great mysteries of love — and bhakti yoga illuminates it. When Ram banished Sita, it looked like abandonment. When Krishna disappeared from the Rāsa Dance, it looked like cruelty. But a saint follower of Rama revealed the secret to Radhanath Swami: love driven inward by separation reaches special depths. In union the beloved is found in one place. In separation the beloved is found everywhere. What looks like pain from the outside is the most profound bliss from the inside. Srimad Bhagavatam 10.30.7-11 ******************************************************************** 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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1779: Divine Madness | The Samādhi of the Gopīs
06/03/2026
1779: Divine Madness | The Samādhi of the Gopīs
What looks like madness from the outside is the whole goal of yoga from the inside. Jacopone da Todi — Crazy Jim from Todi — found that every door of the senses leads straight to God. The gopīs of Vrindavan, wandering through the forest after Krishna disappears from the Rāsa Dance, singing his name, asking the trees if they've seen him, declaring to one another: I am Krishna — they found the same thing. This is not madness. This is samādhi. This is what love does when it takes over every sense. Srimad Bhagavatam 10.30.1-6 ******************************************************************** 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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1778: No Monopoly on God | Exclusivism and the God Who Withdraws
06/02/2026
1778: No Monopoly on God | Exclusivism and the God Who Withdraws
The moment you think your group owns God is the moment He begins to slip away.understood this. When Bill Wilson, founder of AA and a devout Christian, wrote the program that would help millions get sober, he kept it simple: we have no monopoly on God. We merely have an approach that worked for us. In this episode Raghunath and Kaustubha bring that insight into conversation to it’s esoteric pinnacle: the Rāsa Līlā — where the moment the gopīs feel proud of their closeness to Krishna, he disappears. Not as punishment but as mercy. In union you see your beloved in one place. In separation you see him everywhere. Srimad Bhagavatam 10.29.41-48 ******************************************************************** 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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1777: Nothing Compares 2 U | The Gopīs' Message of Surrender
05/29/2026
1777: Nothing Compares 2 U | The Gopīs' Message of Surrender
William James — the father of American psychology — spent years studying mystical and religious experiences across every tradition. What he found surprised him. When a person is seized by something bigger than themselves, suffering loses its sting, death loses its victory, and everything is swallowed up in a higher denomination. Nothing compares. The gopīs of Vrindavan knew this. Raghunath and Kaustubha arrive at the apex of the Rāsa Līlā — where the gopīs finally open their hearts completely. We have abandoned our families and our homes. We have no desire other than to serve you. Our hearts are burning with intense desire generated by your beautiful smiling glances. Please make us your servants. The Srimad Bhagavatam confirms it: a person who has once relished the taste of the lotus feet of the Lord can do nothing but remember that ecstasy again and again. Once you've tasted this, nothing of this world can satisfy you. Nothing compares 2 U. ******************************************************************** 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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1776: Authority Descends from the Author | The Gopīs Reveal the Highest Dharma
05/26/2026
1776: Authority Descends from the Author | The Gopīs Reveal the Highest Dharma
The Vedic tradition lays out dharma with remarkable precision — the duties of a wife, a husband, a parent, a child, a citizen. The gopīs of Vrindavan take it deeper. In this episode Raghunath and Kaustubha explore the idea that authority is derived from the author of all existence. All the dharmas of this world, all the figures of authority in our lives, gain their legitimacy from the supreme source. And when the soul recognizes that source directly, then dharma goes beyond piety, to unveiling the purest nature of the self. Srimad Bhagavatam 10.29.31-35 ******************************************************************** 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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1775: When Krishna Closes One Door He Opens Another / Q&A Vol. 295
05/24/2026
1775: When Krishna Closes One Door He Opens Another / Q&A Vol. 295
Sometimes the thing that feels like a loss turns out to be the setup for something far better. In this special retreat Q&A from Super Soul Farm, Raghunath and Kaustubha share stories of how previous chapters in their own lives ended before the birth of the podcast. Both stories point to the same truth: when Krishna closes one door, he opens another. The episode also tackles one of the deepest questions in Vaishnava philosophy — where did we come from and why are we here? — with a humble, practical and reassuring answer. Plus Tulsi is taking over someone's Brooklyn garden and nobody's complaining. ******************************************************************** 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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1774: What is a Pure Devotee? / Q&A Vol. 294
05/23/2026
1774: What is a Pure Devotee? / Q&A Vol. 294
Recorded live at the Wisdom of the Sages retreat at SuperSoul Farm, this Q&A episode opens with a question that sits at the heart of bhakti — what does it actually mean to be a pure devotee? From there, Raghunath and Kaustubha move through honest questions from the room: how to begin worshiping Tulsi Devi and the deities at home, how a bhakta thinks about hunting and the stewardship of animals, and how to hold firm boundaries with people whose behavior we can't condone without slipping into condemnation. Threaded through it all is a recurring theme — that behind every warped mind is a pure soul, and that the devotees who touch our hearts are the ones who change our lives. ******************************************************************** 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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1773: Let Your FOMO Be for the Divine | Saint Augustine and the Gopīs
05/21/2026
1773: Let Your FOMO Be for the Divine | Saint Augustine and the Gopīs
There is a restlessness in the human heart that nothing in this world can satisfy. Saint Augustine called it the clue to our true nature — we were made for God, and until we find that, the searching never stops. Every object has its dharma, its purpose. The sages of the Bhakti yoga tradition say the dharma of the soul is divine love. It’s what we’re made for. In this episode Raghunath and Kaustubha explore that human restlessness alongside the Srimad Bhagavatam's Rāsa Līlā — where the gopīs of Vrindavan surrender to the calling of what they were made for. Let your FOMO be for the divine. Srimad Bhagavatam 10.29.21-30 ******************************************************************** 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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1772: Everyone Worships Something | Free Will and the Object of Our Affection
05/20/2026
1772: Everyone Worships Something | Free Will and the Object of Our Affection
Everyone 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 ******************************************************************** 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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1771: The Weakness of Willpower & The Power of Attention
05/19/2026
1771: The Weakness of Willpower & The Power of Attention
Willpower is fundamentally the wrong tool for inner transformation. French philosopher and mystic Simone Weil argued that attention — not discipline or force of will — is the true engine of inner change. Raghunath and Kaustubha bring this insight into conversation with the Gopīs of Vṛndāvana, whose loving meditation on Kṛṣṇa accomplished what no effort of will could. The Bhagavad-gītā's method of inner transformation is simple: turn your attention toward Kṛṣṇa. And the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam promises that faithfully hearing about the Gopīs' love for Him is itself enough to conquer material lust, the deepest disease of the heart. Srimad Bhagavatam 10.29.9-11 ******************************************************************** 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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1770: The Mind of the Buddha, The Mind of the Gopī
05/14/2026
1770: The Mind of the Buddha, The Mind of the Gopī
Buddhism and Bhaktivedanta share a lot of common ground. Both embrace the same radical insight — that the mind is the architect of our experience, and that what we feed it determines the life we live. But in this episode Raghunath and Kaustubha explore where Bhakti takes it one step further. Buddhism negates the names and forms of matter, freeing the mind from attachment, pointing toward liberation. Bhakti provides the positive side. Not just improved wellbeing. Not just liberation. The prema prayojana — the full awakening of divine love. The Srimad Bhagavatam shows us what that looks like through the gopis – always focused on the meditation’s highest object. When they hear Krishna's flute they leave everything behind and refuse all callings to turn back. Srimad Bhagavatam 10.29.5-9 ******************************************************************** 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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1769: Answer the Call of the Heart | The Bhaktivedanta Path of Renunciation
05/13/2026
1769: Answer the Call of the Heart | The Bhaktivedanta Path of Renunciation
Life is kind of empty if there is not something so meaningful and beautiful that we feel a calling to give everything out of love. We spend our lives looking for that higher cause — or feeling empty if we haven't found it. The total giving of the self is what Thomas Merton calls a blind spiritual instinct. And when you actually follow it, people may think you've gone crazy. Raghunath and Kaustubha explore that calling alongside Krishna's flute-song call of love to the gopis, instigating a "terrible act of thievery" by stealing their sobriety, shyness, fear and discrimination. Through this pastime the Bhaktivedanta tradition shares one of its most radical teachings — that true renunciation can only be the result of pure love, and that renunciation is artificial if it is not a derivative of such devotional love. Srimad Bhagavatam 10.29.2-5 ******************************************************************** 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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1768: From Beauty to Absolute Beauty | Plato, Krishna and the Rāsa Dance
05/12/2026
1768: From Beauty to Absolute Beauty | Plato, Krishna and the Rāsa Dance
Most people think of God simply as a witness or facilitator of their own romantic affairs. The Bhaktivedanta tradition reveals that the conjugal love experienced by human beings is a mere reflection of a spiritual reality in which the same love exists in an absolute, pristine state. So we don't need to turn away from beauty and love in this world. We just need to see the source and origin behind it. Raghunath and Kaustubha explore Plato's ladder of beauty alongside the bhakti path — and find they are pointing in the same direction. Every spark of beauty in this world springs from the same source. Use it as a stepping stone, not a dead end. And at the top of that ladder, the Srimad Bhagavatam opens the most sacred passage in all of Vedic literature — the Rāsa Līlā. Krishna, lacking nothing, takes shelter of his own internal potency and enters the most intimate of all loving affairs. The unconquerable is conquered by love. Srimad Bhagavatam 10.29.1 ******************************************************************** 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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1767: Entering the Rāsa Dance with the Eye of Love
05/07/2026
1767: Entering the Rāsa Dance with the Eye of Love
Every love story ever told — the Song of Solomon, Layla and Majnun, the Bollywood heroine running toward her true love — is a shadow of this. The desire for intimacy with the divine is the deepest longing in the human heart. And after six and a half years of reading through the Srimad Bhagavatam, Raghunath and Kaustubha have arrived at its most sacred passage — the Rāsa Līlā. The essence of the essence of the essence. Five chapters describing Krishna's circle dance with the gopis, considered the pinnacle of all Vedic literature and the ultimate expression of divine love. But this is not a romantic story in any ordinary sense. The Bhagavatam itself declares that hearing it properly frees the soul from lust rather than inflaming it. To see it rightly requires what the tradition calls prema netra — the eye of love. Raghunath and Kaustubha introduce the Rāsa Līlā through Professor Graham Schweig's landmark study, The Dance of Divine Love — exploring what these five chapters contain and how the Bhagavatam's vision differs from the greater Vedic tradition out of which it arises. Rather than forced renunciation, it offers something far deeper — renunciation that arises naturally, spontaneously, out of love. When you taste the highest taste, everything else falls away on its own. ******************************************************************** 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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1766: When the Ego Steps Back | The Existential Sense of Being Blessed
05/06/2026
1766: When the Ego Steps Back | The Existential Sense of Being Blessed
"The gift of gratitude. In order to feel it, your ego has to take a backseat.” A shift that happens when the ego stops driving. In this episode Raghunath and Kaustubha explore how gratitude isn't just an etiquette — it's a marker of spiritual depth and the default setting of the self. When the false ego dissolves, the rising of gratitude appears as a natural effect of the soul understanding itself correctly in relation with God. The conversation then moves into fascinating territory — exploring a ladder of spiritual consciousness, and how its some of its highest expressions manifest not in the powerful mystics, but in the simple, pure hearts of the cowherd men of Vrindavan, ordinary farmers who love Krishna without pretense or pride. Srimad Bhagavatam 10.28.11-17 ******************************************************************** 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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1765: Robert De Niro, Vedanta and the Art of Being Chill
05/05/2026
1765: Robert De Niro, Vedanta and the Art of Being Chill
"Just be calm. When things are going well, be calm. Don't think you're on top of the world. Everybody is dispensable." The Bhagavad-gita calls it samathvam. Robert De Niro calls it being chill. Evenness of mind, steady in both the highs and the lows. Fame, wealth, prestige — they come and they go. And when that truth settles not just as a concept but as a genuine inner recognition, something shifts. Detachment arises — not as resignation, not as indifference, but as the fertile ground in which deeper contemplation and bhakti-yoga can take root. In this episode Raghunath and Kaustubha explore that teaching alongside the Srimad Bhagavatam, where the cowherd men of Vrindavan — hearing that Varuna himself worshiped their little boy — begin to wonder: will he bestow his transcendental abode upon us? Srimad Bhagavatam 10.28.8-11 Find Nityananda Chandra's course here: https://www.sanskritverses.com/wots ******************************************************************** 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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1764: Speaking Truth to Power with Love
04/30/2026
1764: Speaking Truth to Power with Love
On the appearance day of the fascinating Avatar Narasimha — the ferocious half-man, half-lion form of Krishna — Raghunath and Kaustubha explore the life and teachings of his most celebrated devotee, Sri Prahlad, the child saint who spoke truth to power without apology, yet never bore animosity toward the person trying to destroy him. His core teaching, drawn from the Srimad Bhagavatam, is more relevant than ever: except for the uncontrolled and misguided mind, there is no enemy in this world. That's not passivity. That's spiritual vision. ******************************************************************** 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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1763: Let Go But Don't Give Up | Bhakti, Business and the Art of Surrender
04/29/2026
1763: Let Go But Don't Give Up | Bhakti, Business and the Art of Surrender
After twenty years of living in an ashram, Divya Alter opened a restaurant — and her spiritual practice tested new ways and taken to a whole new level. Divya — Ayurvedic chef, Sanskrit scholar, and founder of New York City's beloved Divya's Kitchen — discovered that separating her spiritual life from her business life created nothing but internal war. The moment she saw the restaurant as her devotional service, everything shifted. Raghunath and Kaustubha sit with Divya for a conversation about what a decade of serving prasadam in the most competitive restaurant city in the world teaches you about surrender, letting go, and trusting Krishna with the outcome. The Srimad Bhagavatam then raises a question that stops everything: who exactly is this cowherd boy? Add Krishna to anything and everything becomes auspicious. Even, it turns out, an alien abduction. Help Support Divya’s Kitchen: https://gofund.me/81358219c Srimad Bhagavatam 10.28.1-7 ******************************************************************** 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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1762: No Pride Allowed | Muhammad Ali on the Hereafter
04/28/2026
1762: No Pride Allowed | Muhammad Ali on the Hereafter
"If you've got one ounce of pride, you can't enter the hereafter." From the man who called himself the greatest, that statement lands differently. Ali understood something that took a lifetime to learn — that the gifts we're given are on loan, not owned. The strength, the beauty, the wit, the fame. None of it is ours. And the moment we claim it as ours, we cut ourselves off from the very source it came from. Raghunath and Kaustubha explore that teaching alongside one of the most tender moments in the Srimad Bhagavatam — where Krishna tells Indra directly: I stopped your sacrifice out of mercy. I wanted you to always remember me. The Bhagavad Gita makes the same point with striking precision — those absorbed in material opulence and sense enjoyment cannot attain samadhi, the focused clarity of mind needed to perceive the truth. One ounce of pride blocks the signal entirely. Do the inner work and salvation comes naturally. Reframe the crumble Srimad Bhagavatam 10.27.14-28 ******************************************************************** 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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1761: Dethroning the Ego | The Existential Apology
04/23/2026
1761: Dethroning the Ego | The Existential Apology
An apology can be the turning point on a spiritual path. Through apology the ego is gently dethroned. And strangely, we feel not smaller — but freer. That insight sits at the heart of this episode, where Raghunath shares an excerpt from his upcoming book, The Six Pillars of Bhakti, on why apologizing is one of the non-negotiables of spiritual life. The longer we delay, the more the ego rewrites the story — softening our role, magnifying theirs, reframing events until we are no longer the person who caused harm but the misunderstood one. And that rewriting doesn't just damage our relationships. It keeps us existentially stuck. The Srimad Bhagavatam illustrates this through Indra's apology to Krishna — which dissolves his illusion and brings him to a deeper recognition of his true self. This is the great existential apology — the breaking point of countless lifetimes in samsara. Verses: Srimad Bhagavatam 10.27.5-13 ******************************************************************** 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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1760: Our Challenges Are Here to Reform Us
04/22/2026
1760: Our Challenges Are Here to Reform Us
What's standing between us and our genuine happiness isn’t our circumstances, it’s our false pride. Bhakti Yoga has a radical insight into this — and that the difficult moments of our lives, the humiliations, the losses, the things that knock us off our pedestal, are not punishments. They are invitations to let go of the false sense of self that was blocking us from what we actually want. In this episode Raghunath and Kaustubha explore that teaching through a stunning passage in the Srimad Bhagavatam, where Indra — the powerful king of the heavens — comes to Krishna in shame after his pride led him to his worst moment. And Krishna, in a gesture of remarkable tenderness, arranges their meeting privately so that Indra is not further humiliated. What Krishna was actually destroying was not Indra but his false pride — his failure to grasp his own true spiritual identity, which the text describes as throwing us into the violent currents of material existence. Our challenges are not punishments. They are here to reform us. Verses: SB 10.24.1-4 ******************************************************************** 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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1759: Human Potential and The Fire of Knowledge
04/21/2026
1759: Human Potential and The Fire of Knowledge
A thousand grams of iron is worth about $100. Make it into sewing needles and it's worth $70,000. Turn it into precision laser components and it's worth $15 million. Same iron. Completely different value. The question this episode keeps returning to is simple and urgent: what are you going to make of this rare human life? Your raw material isn't the whole story. It never was. Raghunath and Kaustubha explore that insight alongside one of the most transformative teachings in the Bhagavad Gita's fourth chapter — where Krishna describes transcendental knowledge as a blazing fire that burns away everything obscuring your true nature. The zeros of material life — wealth, beauty, talent, education — line up and add up to nothing on their own. But place a one in front of them and everything changes. That one is Krishna. Connection to the divine doesn't change your raw material. It reveals what it was always worth. ******************************************************************** 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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1758: The Joy of Being an Instrument | Bhakti and Creative Flow
04/15/2026
1758: The Joy of Being an Instrument | Bhakti and Creative Flow
The best thing you ever created — you probably didn't create it. Bob Dylan said he could never write a song like Blowin' in the Wind again. Marvin Gaye told Smokey Robinson that What's Going On wasn't his — it came through him. Every great artist eventually arrives at the same humbling, liberating realization: the music doesn't come from you. It comes through you. The Bhagavad Gita names this directly — Krishna says from him comes knowledge, remembrance, and forgetfulness. Whatever ability we have to create, to compose, to lift a single finger — it's being granted. And when we truly recognize that, the pressure drops and the joy deepens. Raghunath and Kaustubha explore that teaching alongside the conclusion of the Govardhan Lila, where the gopis walk home singing — spontaneously composing kirtan straight from their hearts, overwhelmed with love. The means and the end are the same. In bhakti, we call it Krishnifying your 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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1757: Staycation | Marcus Aurelius, Bhagavad-gita and the Peace Within
04/14/2026
1757: Staycation | Marcus Aurelius, Bhagavad-gita and the Peace Within
You can pack your bags, book the flight, and still bring every anxious thought with you. Emperor Marcus Aurelius writes in his Meditations that escaping to the country, the beach, or the mountains is idiotic. The peace you're looking for is already available, anytime, by going within. The Bhagavad Gita's fifth chapter speaks of how the self-realized person enjoys unlimited happiness not because their circumstances changed, but because their direction did. Raghunath and Kaustubha explore that teaching through the Govardhan Lila, where Indra — king of the heavens — had every external blessing and was still miserable. His problem wasn't his circumstances. It was an internal issue — his ignorance of his own true nature. The escape hatch was never a location. It was always a direction. ******************************************************************** 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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1756: A Divine Light Struggling Inside This Flesh Machine
04/13/2026
1756: A Divine Light Struggling Inside This Flesh Machine
Underneath every arrogant person is a frightened one. That's the insight Desmond Tutu — Nobel Peace Prize winner and moral architect of post-apartheid South Africa — pointed us toward: arrogance doesn't come from too much self-love. It comes from too little self-knowledge. It's the mask we wear when we can't bear to feel small. And the pendulum swings — from "I am the greatest" to "I am worthless" — and back again. Neither is true. In this episode Raghunath returns from a week working with a recovery community in Dayton, Ohio, where men coming off the streets were asked one simple question: who are you? The answers stopped him cold. "I am a divine light covered in a fleshy body." "I am a pure soul struggling in this flesh machine." That clarity — born not from comfort but from hitting bottom — is exactly what the Srimad Bhagavatam points toward. And when you can see the scared person underneath someone's arrogance, something shifts — you stop being offended and start feeling sympathy. That may be the most practical thing this episode offers. ******************************************************************** 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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1755: Krishna Doesn't Punish. He Liberates.
04/10/2026
1755: Krishna Doesn't Punish. He Liberates.
False pride might be the one thing standing between you and genuine happiness. We protect it, defend it, build our identity around it — and all the while it's quietly keeping us from the love, the freedom, and the ecstasy we're actually looking for. In the Govardhan Lila of the Srimad Bhagavatam, an ancient Sanskrit text on consciousness and devotion, Krishna shuts down the worship of Indra — not out of rivalry, not out of anger, but because he loves Indra too much to keep enabling what's keeping him small. The difficult events of our lives can be understood the same way. Not as punishment. As liberation. Krishna is not taking something from you. He's removing what's in the way. Because on the other side of false pride is something the Srimad Bhagavatam describes in vivid detail — a heart so open it can feel genuine ecstasy. Wisdom of the Sages exists to help you get there. ******************************************************************** 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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1754: You're Not Unlucky. You're Unexamined. | Karma and Carl Jung
04/08/2026
1754: You're Not Unlucky. You're Unexamined. | Karma and Carl Jung
The unexamined stuff in us — today — is shaping our external experiences tomorrow. We might think of karma like a cosmic scorekeeper out there keeping tabs on us. Like the universe is going to get us back eventually. But Carl Jung saw something more insightful: your inner life doesn't stay inner. Whatever you haven't faced, whatever you haven't worked through — it leaks out and becomes your circumstances. It becomes the people who drive you crazy. It becomes the problems that just seem to follow you around. In this episode Raghunath and Kaustubha explore a passage from the Srimad Bhagavatam — an ancient Sanskrit text on consciousness and devotion — where Krishna, as a little boy, explains karma as a universal law that reflects our inner world with perfect precision. Wisdom of the Sages exists to help you look within — before life does it 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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