Wisdom of the Sages

if you don't accept an insult it stays with the one who spoke it / don't accept an insult by granting it an emotional reaction/ Lord Vishnu is the root / nothing is independent of Krishna - that is oneness / food with love and devotion brings no karma / all of our thoughts and duties can be an offering to God / we're not interested in good or bad karma (we want akarma) / turn back to Krishna to br...

every thing has a purpose & every person has their dharma / our unique, temporary dharma connects us to our shared, eternal dharma / we're perfect & pure, we are just covered / see everything in connection to Vishnu to see peace / you can't win the competition in the material world / Krishna isn't Judge Judy shaming us, he's the supreme benevolent friend / we all benefit when we offer to the root...

on India / on pilgrimage / on mentors / on beauty / on food / on the body / on family / on love

Why and how are certain verses selected as invocations before classes in the Bhakti tradition? / The term "plenary portion" is used throughout the Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam commentaries. What exactly does this term mean? / Can you suggest a good book about Krishna's childhood days? / How important is the observance of Ekadashi in one's Bhakti-yoga practice?

Daksha's new beginnings / get off the Hate Express / don't cheat yourself out of growth and evolution by solidifying your partial truth / what do we do when we make a mistake? learn and accept full responsibility / we're here to evolve, not to extend our prison sentence SB 4.7.45-53

What's more important, the precision of our ritual or our mood in performing it? In this episode Raghunath and Kaustubha discuss recent reports of how the Catholic Church deemed invalid twenty years of Baptisms preformed by a priest who unintentionally changed one word in administering the sacrament. In some Vedic paths the precision of ritual and mantra chanting is emphasized. But as the paths ri...

hearing Bhagavad-gita & Srimad Bhagavatam is the easy way to get out of illusion / even the powerful & strong are vulnerable to suffering & fear / the 4 paths of yoga conclude with hearing (Bhagavad-gita 13.26) / hearing is the nectar which delivers one from death / sthāne sthitāḥ - (fixed in your position) we don't need to give up anything, just add bhakti / deep love is higher than peace https:/...

the materialistic dream has failed / we need an adult in the room / every object is radiating 1 of 3 influences / letting go of destructive habits / we've got a false sense of freedom / Bhakti is the formula for freedom from the modes of material nature / understanding the gunas is the first step to transcending them /  get some shlokas in your head / what does it look like to be free from the gun...

On the 31st anniversary of their initiation ceremony in Vrindavan, Raghunath and Kaustubha reminisce about the day, discuss the meaning of initiation into a Bhakti lineage, samskaras, and the power and purpose of Bhakti-yoga culture.

on friendship / on aging / on marriage / on being a good man / on prayer / on forgiveness / on love

In this special Q & A episode Raghunath & Kaustubha answer four questions from Karuna, an 8 year old girl, and daily Wisdom of the Sages listener from Lebanon.

Why did Krishna show us an example of doing his duty when he could just tell us to do it? / When I was reading Srimad Bhagavatam I thought that was how many humans are on this Earth, but are there always more coming? / In Narada-Bhakti-Sut...

extract spiritual substance from the mundane / move straight like a bullet train with your service, detached from the results / we must go on struggling to be sadhus - recognize & resist the urge towards animosity & anger / the more we think that we are in control the less able we are at recognizing who is / Kaustubha's confession / mindfulness & peace with a purpose / the Hare Krishna's didn't ma...

what will we shove in the hole of our loneliness? / secrets & duplicity in ashramas / it's ok to be vulnerable / Daksha's wife shares a joke! / pramanas - ways of gaining knowledge / this knowledge is descending / direct perception has it's limitations / Bhagavatam is giving us windows into another dimension / discipline of the senses expands our insights / those who see God in everyone are very,...

the company you keep creates you / Krishna is your soulmate / a wise person realizes that happiness is an inside job / don't keep Lakshmi, keep Krishna and Lakshmi will stay / the attractiveness of detachment / finding shelter from the forest fire in the river of Krishna's pastimes SB 4.7.32-35

Was the goddess Sati in illusion when she took her own life? / How important is sangha --even if it is only online sangha? / How to set up an altar in one's home?

trade in expectations for appreciations / Ben Franklin nugget / saragrahi = essence seeker / spiritual reality lies beyond the scope of the material senses / we don't know what we don't know / who was Sankaracharya? / "just worship Govinda you fools" / reality is revealed through devotion - the problem is we want the purple pill / spiritual greed / the power of love is more powerful than God SB 4....

If your path of self-improvement is making you hate, you're doing something wrong / don't focus on religious rituals and throw away God / we're gonna trip up on our spiritual path - pick yourself up and keep going / time is a snake, the world is full of ditches & the fire of lamentation is blazing / our material happiness is in a very precarious position / Raghu is thinking like Lord Shiva again /...

a David Bowie birthday nugget for Kaustubha / aging brings either horror or wisdom / aging is working for our spiritual life, if we don't identify with body / the trauma of aging can make us humble / letting go of the facade / we are trying to be controllers of the material world- just be tolerant / the prison warden analogy / Raghu is thinking like Prabhupada again / it's not us - Krishna said al...

what do we mean by spiritual not religious? / ritualism, intolerance & dogmatism / Krishna didn't demand Arjuna's obedience, he asked for his deep deliberation / focused on differences vs focused on commonality / regulation is success vs regulation is the means / motive of salvation vs motive of transformation / spirituality as a state of mind, spirituality as a state of reality, spirituality as a...

How to explain Radha to a non-devotee? / From an ethical point of view, how do you decide what clothes and shoes to wear? / what does Krishna mean by the phrase "giving up all their activities unto Me"?

Marcus Aurelius zooms the hell out / cleaning out the spam folder of the mind / the Yoga system is meant to get the soul back on track / false ideas impressed within our minds are the cause of our losing touch with our true nature and seeking happiness externally / hitting the warning bumps in the material world / asking the "big why" in life / Daksha had the right lifestyle, but the wrong sentime...

sing your death song & die like a hero going home / what will it take in our life to die nobly? / burning is learning / no longer blaming the world for your shortcomings is the dawn of liberation / my gluetraps are my blessings / does my speech pass the hot mic test?  / honor every being (they could be a deva in disguise) / the stumbling blocks are tests of our sincerity / Bhagavad-gita is anti ca...

we all can be death doulas / Srimad Bhagavatam is one long death doula session / No Raghunath - you're not a death Doula /  Who do I need to say "thank you", "I love you" and "I'm sorry" to today? / the brain is just hardware - consciousness is generated from the soul / Daksha's goat-headed remorse / Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam purifies the heart like autumnal rains upon pools of muddy water / God is percei...

if equal affection cannot be, let the more loving one be me / selflessness doesn't deny the need for adherence to dharmic principles / Sri Chaitanya's unconditional love / there will never be enough validation from others to make me feel whole / Xenotransplantation - is it possible to transplant a goat's head to a human? / is it possible that past civilizations were more advanced? / we've got to t...

no blame, no reasoning no argument, just understanding / rewire & recalibrate the vehicle by hearing wisdom daily / we're doing time in the material world & hopefully learning lessons / tread with care with everyone you meet / taking offense is the first domino / the beauty of a tapasvi is forgiveness / we're all strapped a time bomb that's about to blow / you can't use the energy unless you know...