Wisdom of the Sages

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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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