Wisdom of the Sages

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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Go to https://www.wisdomofthesages.com
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