Wisdom of the Sages
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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 ha...
Recent Episodes
1819 episodes
1813: The Philosopher vs the Mystic | Understanding the Passion of the Gopīs
To the philosopher, the weeping of Krishna's lovers looks like ordinary suffering. To the mystics it's the culmination of the highest knowledge. Evely...
1812: The Love Sewed in Every Stitch | Dolly Parton and the Bhagavad Gīta
It's not the coat of many colors that mattered. It was the love her momma sewed into every stitch. Dolly Parton understood something the Bhagavad Gīta...
1811: Proust's Madeleine and Krishna's Footprints | The Power of the Senses to Transport You
A taste, a smell, a place, a song — something dormant rises suddenly from the depths. The Vedic tradition calls this Udīpana — stimuli that transport...
1810: Beneath Every Fear Is the Fear of Death
Anxiety, OCD, eating disorders, panic disorder, depression – beneath the specific symptoms of almost every mental health condition there is a fear of...
1809: The Fish in the Water Is Thirsty | Kabir and the Departure of Gus
"I laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty. You don't grasp the fact that what is most alive of all is inside your own house, and you...
1808: Everything on Earth Has a Purpose | Mourning Dove's Dharma
"Everything on the earth has a purpose. Every disease, an herb to cure it. And every person, a mission." Morning Dove — the first Native American wome...
1807: We're All Kings for a Moment | King Canute and the Force of Time
Commonly people speak of time as measurements – days, months, years, etc. Philosophers speak of time as the force that moves — and ultimately crushes...
1806: Low Self-Esteem and a Big Ego | Mike Tyson and the Keśī Demon
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. A...
1805: The Humility and Heroism of Accepting Your Fate
Mariano Rivera — the greatest closer in baseball history — was willing to teach his rivals exactly how to throw his most devastating pitch. He knew th...
1804: The Love Is Gone | Gandhi on Warped Religion
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...
1803: Everything Is Nothing | George Harrison and the Krishna Mantra
You need people who have everything to show you that everything is nothing. George Harrison had wealth, fame, mansions, cars — everything material des...
1802: No One Truly Knows Me | The Loneliness Epidemic and Bhakti Vedānta
The majority of Americans say no one truly knows them. Research shows that warm, real connection correlates directly with physical health and peace of...
1801: The World Responds to Krishna's Beauty
Many spiritual traditions lack a personal conception of the Divine. Other's do, but offer little description of what that means. The Bhakti tradition'...
1800: I'm Coming Out!
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...
1799: Give Me a God That Sings and Dances | Was Nietzsche Looking for Krishna?
"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 wan...
1798: Beauty: Blessing or Curse? | Dostoevsky and the Heart of Man
Studies show that beautiful people earn more, get hired faster, and receive lighter sentences in court. Beauty is power. But Dostoevsky saw the danger...
1797: The Diametric Opposite of Lust | The Rāsa Līlā Completes
How does meditating on Krishna's romantic pastimes conquer lust? Not through repression — through a higher meditation. In classical yoga, the very fir...
1796: Prabhupāda Made New York a Holy Place | ISKCON at 60
Sixty years ago Śrīla Prabhupāda arrived in New York City — not by accident, but by design. He understood that what happens in New York radiates out t...
1795: The Absurdity of Imitation on the Spiritual Path
When we first find the spiritual path, we imitate. It's natural. We put on the costume before we've done the inner work. We adopt the style before we'...
1794: Jñāna & Bhakti: Both Bring Detachment, One Does It Beautifully
"Love separates all things from the soul." Meister Eckhart — fourteenth century Christian mystic, so radical the Pope investigated him for heresy — ar...
1793: The Highest Transcendence Through Passionate Love | The Rāsa Dance Begins
A first reading of the Rāsa Līlā might suggest the gopīs' love is selfish, irresponsible, even unethical. But looking closer one can find the highest...
1792: How Do You Know What Krishna Wants Next? / Q&A Vol. 299
Live from the Wisdom of the Sages annual Tuscany retreat, three questions that go to the heart of the practice. How do we deepen intimacy in bhakti wi...
1791: Parents, Teenagers, Codependency and Mercy / Q&A Vol. 298
Q&A Live from the Wisdom of the Sages annual Tuscany retreat. How does a bhakti practitioner maintain boundaries with a parent whose behavior has been...
1790: How Do You Know You're Advancing? / Q&A Vol. 297
Live from the Wisdom of the Sages annual Tuscany retreat, Raghunath and Kaustubha take questions from their live audience. Four questions: When Krishn...
1789: The Debt Krishna Cannot Repay | Arthur Ashe and the Signature of Real Love
That is the signature of real love — not what you get out of it, but how impossible it feels to ever pay it back. Arthur Ashe, dying, wrote to his you...
1788: The Gopīs' Love | The Complete, Concentrated Form of Yogic Awareness
The yogī sits for years, disciplining the mind, trying to bring scattered awareness to a single point of focus. In this episode Raghunath and Kaustubh...
1787: What Are You Exchanging Your Life For? | Thoreau and the Gopī Gīta
Henry David Thoreau wrote, "The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it." With every choice, we're trading the moments of our life...
1786: Our Love and Prayers for the People of Venezuela
This episode begins with a sober heart. A dear member of the Wisdom of the Sages community was caught in the middle of the earthquake that struck Cara...
1785: Direction Will Come to You | Phil Jackson and the Heart of Bhakti
Phil Jackson won eleven championship rings — the most of any coach in NBA history. His secret wasn't more effort. It was less noise. "If you have a cl...
1784: "If Creation Is Play of Brahman, Why all the Suffering?" | Bhakti-Vedānta and Līlā
If creation is God's play, why do we suffer? It's one of the oldest questions in philosophy — and the Srimad Bhagavatam answers it through the Rāsa Lī...
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 chec...
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."...
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 Ra...
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...
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...
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,...
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 surp...
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...
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, Raghu...
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 doe...