Wisdom of the Sages

Latest Episodes:

1721: Redirected by Grace: How People Find Their Way to Bhakti Jan 16, 2026

Show notes

This one is all about spiritual journeys—the stories that bring people onto the Wisdom of the Sages pilgrimage: unlikely beginnings, messy detours, and those moments where a single step toward bhakti turns into a full-on sprint from the universe. This episode is a rapid-fire parade of the spiritual plot twists of real humans with real backstories… getting quietly (and sometimes loudly) redirected by grace.

You'll meet the community behind the podcast—teachers, therapists, travelers, skeptics, seekers, punks, adult entertainers—each one carrying a different "how I got here," and somehow arriving at the same place: kirtan, sādhana, and a new definition of what it means to come home.

If you love pilgrimage stories, spiritual synchronicities, and the kind of bhakti that sneaks up on you like a monk with a stack of books—this one's for you.

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1720: People Over Profits: Inside Radhanath Swami's Bhaktivedanta Hospital Jan 15, 2026

Show notes

Magic happens in the last place you'd expect it: a Mumbai hospital where patients don't want to be discharged and staff don't want to go home.

Recorded live from Govardhan Eco Village, Raghunath welcomes author Radha Bhakti to unpack the astonishing culture of Bhaktivedanta Hospital on Mira Road—an all-faith, all-heart care facility built on a radical idea: treat the body, mind, and soul… and put people over profits. What started with four idealistic medical students serving Mumbai's slums has grown into a 300-bed integrative hospital where kirtan can be heard in the stairwells, spiritual care teams befriend patients as their "job," and even end-of-life care includes the kind of emotional closure most of us don't realize we're missing until it's too late.

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LOVE THE PODCAST? WE ARE COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AND WOULD LOVE FOR YOU TO JOIN!

Go to https://www.wisdomofthesages.com

WATCH ON YOUTUBE: https://youtube.com/@WisdomoftheSages

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Find Radha Bhakti's book here:

India:

https://tulsibooks.com/product/magic-on-mira-road-stories-from-the-bhaktivedanta-hospital/

Amazon US:

https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Mira-Road-Bhaktivedanta-Hospital/dp/1880404621/

Also Bookwrights Press in the US:

https://www.bookwrightspress.com/wp1/product/magic-on-mira-road-stories-from-the-bhaktivedanta-hospital/

Canada:

https://a.co/d/fz5AlIW

Worldwide: AMAZON

1719: A Reflected Rose Has No Aroma — Why the Bhagavad-gītā Calls This World a Reflection Jan 07, 2026

Show notes

A Bhagavad-gītā-level reality check: the world we experience isn't "illusion" in the lazy, dismissive sense—it's illusion like a reflection. Consistent. Coherent. Convincing. And still untouchable. Like an upside-down tree mirrored in water, it looks real enough to reach for… but you can't taste its fruit. A reflected rose has no aroma. And a reflected life, no matter how intensely we chase it, can't deliver the ananda we're actually built for. But the reflection does point to a reality worth pursuing.

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LOVE THE PODCAST? WE ARE COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AND WOULD LOVE FOR YOU TO JOIN!

Go to https://www.wisdomofthesages.com

WATCH ON YOUTUBE: https://youtube.com/@WisdomoftheSages

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1718: 3 Ferraris, Zero Peace: The Higher Taste Effect (Bhakti & Spiritual Psychology) Jan 06, 2026

Show notes

A higher spiritual taste doesn't negotiate with desire—it demotes it. From Govardhan Ecovillage in Maharashtra, Raghunath and Kaustubha riff on William James (father of modern psychology), the bhakti renaissance in India, and the strange way spiritual culture can make renunciation feel effortless: not by suppression, but by a new attraction taking the center of the heart. Along the way: kirtan "clubbing," deep-rooted devotion that suddenly shoots up like bamboo, and a reminder from the Bhāgavatam that when Krishna's touches the soul, even heaven, power, siddhis, and liberation start to look like broken glass next to the real thing.

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LOVE THE PODCAST? WE ARE COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AND WOULD LOVE FOR YOU TO JOIN!

Go to https://www.wisdomofthesages.com

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1717: Where Ego Breaks and Bhakti Begins Jan 06, 2026

Show notes

A modern seeker walks away from a high-pressure career and an ancient Sanskrit text tells a story about giving up one's egoistic false strength. Recorded live from Govardhan Eco-Village, this episode brings together Grace's journey from corporate life to devotional service and Krishna's confrontation with the serpent Kāliya—revealing how inner clarity often arrives when our usual strategies fail.

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LOVE THE PODCAST? WE ARE COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AND WOULD LOVE FOR YOU TO JOIN!

Go to https://www.wisdomofthesages.com

WATCH ON YOUTUBE: https://youtube.com/@WisdomoftheSages

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CONNECT ON FACEBOOK: https://facebook.com/wisdomofthesages108

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1716: Bhakti Changed My Life: The 6-Year Anniversary Show Jan 02, 2026

Show notes

Six years ago we hit "record" with shaky internet and big dreams—then a lucky break, and a global lockdown helped turn Wisdom of the Sages into a daily lifeline for thousands of listeners.

In this special 6-Year Anniversary episode—recorded live from Govardhan Ecovillage, India—listeners step up to share how daily Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, bhakti-yoga, kirtan, and satsang pulled them out of anxiety, addiction, trauma, and spiritual confusion—and into something steady, practical, and strangely joyful. From Berlin to Manhattan to Asheville, you'll hear how the "sages in the pages" become real when the teachings move from information to transformation.

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LOVE THE PODCAST? WE ARE COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AND WOULD LOVE FOR YOU TO JOIN!

Go to https://www.wisdomofthesages.com

WATCH ON YOUTUBE: https://youtube.com/@WisdomoftheSages

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CONNECT ON FACEBOOK: https://facebook.com/wisdomofthesages108

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1715: Is Self-Care Making Us Less Happy? Dec 31, 2025

Show notes

Self-care culture tells us to treat ourselves, embrace our flaws, and obsess over our inner world—but the research on happiness points in the opposite direction. In this episode, Raghunath and Kaustubha explore how bhakti-yoga reframes humility and self-esteem, and why real relief comes from realizing you are not the body, the mind, or the story you've been defending. With humor, psychology, and ancient wisdom, they reveal how service, purpose, and spiritual identity dissolve anxiety and comparison—and then pivot into the to Srimad Bhagavatam's Kāliya-līlā, where the residents of Vṛndāvana become so absorbed in Kṛṣṇa that fear, grief, and love explode beyond anything ordinary psychology can measure.

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LOVE THE PODCAST? WE ARE COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AND WOULD LOVE FOR YOU TO JOIN!

Go to https://www.wisdomofthesages.com

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1714: Karma Doesn't Chase You—It Waits Dec 29, 2025

Show notes

A French poet once observed that we often meet our destiny on the very road we take to avoid it—and history seems to agree. Using Napoleon's failed attempt to conquer Russia as a striking example, Raghunath and Kaustubha explore the deeper logic of karma: why running from discomfort rarely works, how unprocessed lessons repeat themselves, and what the Bhāgavatam offers as a radically different strategy. Instead of fleeing fate, this episode invites us to welcome what comes, stop wasting energy on avoidance, and experience how spiritual growth begins not with escape—but with acceptance and service.

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Go to https://www.wisdomofthesages.com

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1713: Can the Angels Lift Raghunath's Spirits on Christmas Eve? Dec 24, 2025

Show notes

Christmas Eve hits different when life feels fractured: broken family emotions, grief, longing, and that uneasy feeling that the world keeps taking what we hoped would stay. Raghunath and Kaustubha let it get real. can Kaustubha cheer up a very Fonzie-alone-with-a-can-of-beans Raghunath—using Christmas carols, classic lyrics, and bhakti logic as the rescue plan? Can they, together, reframe Christmas through a bhakti lens: holidays aren't just celebrations, they're yogic instruments—designed to interrupt the daily trance, soften the heart, and pivot us from self-centered survival to love, giving, and forgiveness?

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LOVE THE PODCAST? WE ARE COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AND WOULD LOVE FOR YOU TO JOIN!

Go to https://www.wisdomofthesages.com

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1712: The Look of Love: Seeing Reality Through Bhakti Dec 23, 2025

Show notes

Bhakti-yoga doesn't ask us to escape the world—it shows us how to set it right by placing love at the center. This episode begins with a "zoomed-out" perspective on human conflict and confusion, then pivots to a vision of reality grounded in three distinct expressions of divine love. Through a sequence of luminous verses, the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam reveals a theology in which the soul of the universe is present and personal, reciprocating heart-melting love through the songs of His friends, the shy glances of the girls of Vṛndāvana, and the protective, affectionate care of His mothers.

As Raghunath and Kaustubha explore these verses, a deeper pattern emerges: when life lacks a spiritual center, even small grievances grow large and divisions harden. When consciousness is centered on bhakti, the heart softens, perspective widens, and love becomes the organizing principle of life.

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LOVE THE PODCAST? WE ARE COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AND WOULD LOVE FOR YOU TO JOIN!

Go to https://www.wisdomofthesages.com

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