Join Podcast Farm founder and host of Be On Air podcast, K-Lee and the powerhouse hosts behind a top Apple Spirituality Podcast, Wisdom Of The Sages as they explore the profound wisdom texts of India, and how they created a thriving podcast and community.
On this episode we discuss:
Podcasting
Patreon
Their experience being monks for nearly a decade
What are life’s most important questions
The Srimad Bhagavatam, Bhagavad Gita, and other sacred vedic texts
The 5 aims of life
Kirtan and Yoga
Being on the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast
and more.
Connect with Wisdom of the Sages: https://www.wisdomofthesages.com/
https://www.patreon.com/wisdomofthesages
Instagram: @Wisdomofthesages
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00:00 – Introduction
02:22 – How Raghunath and Kaustubha met?
04:17 – What is Bhakti Yoga?
07:09 – How hardcore punk rock and Bhakti Yoga meet?
09:26 – The power of Kirtan and integrating it into podcasting
18:00 – Seeking spirituality with India’s ancient literature
30:24 – The five aims of life
34:08 – Positive movement in the fifth aim of life
36:27 – How Wisdom of the Sages was created?
44:42 – Exposure through the podcasting platform
54:50 – Upcoming content from Raghunath and Kaustubha
K.Lee Marks: [00:00:00] Welcome to another episode of beyond air. And today’s episode is very special because this is live. So you may be watching this on YouTube. You may be watching this on Facebook, or you may be listening to this in the future, on the podcast app, wherever you are in time and space. Thank you so much for joining us.
Today’s a very special episode because I’ve brought on. Two extraordinary souls. These are both educators who have been monks and they are senior educators in the Bhakti yoga tradition, as well as hosts of a top spirituality podcast. If you know who I’m talking about, then you’ve listened to wisdom of the sages today’s conversation is going to be.
Organic natural. These are two dear mentors and, and, and seniors in my spiritual family, as well as in the podcasting space. And so we’re going to be diving into topics such as you know, how do you, how do you build a podcast that’s actually successful? Um, Raghunath was on Joe Rogan, you know, that’s like the top of the podcast or.
Dream to make it onto that show. So we’re going to be asking him about that, but then we’re also going to be answering and asking some of life’s deepest questions and we will be turning to some ancient Vedic texts in order to do so. So please stick around. We will be right back. I’ve learned more listening to podcasts than I learned in my two years of college right now is a great opportunity to leverage the power of voice.
No one’s going to be able to offer the world, but you can’t. It’s someone else that had a bigger vision than me to be able to sell me the way. And so now that we’re here, we can show others the way, what you can do, what you love to fight, what you hate on air powered by podcast. Farm. Welcome, welcome sages.
I’m so grateful that you’re here and we are all very excited to learn more about you. How are you both doing today? How’s the day? Raghunath you kick it off.
Raghunath : [00:01:58] I’m having a tough day, but you know, the God’s truth, there’s something I could slap something on. I’m sad. I’m mad. I’m having a tough day.
K.Lee Marks: [00:02:05] I appreciate that. And that’s, that’s what we want here. We want the God honest truth. We want the truth to life’s deepest problems. So I appreciate your honesty there and Kaustubha prabu uh, how’s your day going? Is it a hard day?
Kaustubha: [00:02:17] I’m doing fine, but the fact that my friend and I was having a hard days, it’s weighing a little on me too.
K.Lee Marks: [00:02:22] Yeah. One thing that I can sense from both of you is, is a dear friendship. I think everyone who tunes into the podcast immediately kind of, uh, can feel your vibe. And I thought maybe we could just start by, by sharing with my audience, how you two met originally. Cause I know that you’ve been friends for over 30 years.
You both were monks in the Ashrams , uh, in the same tradition. So maybe you could share briefly just what, you know, how did you two encounter each other.
Kaustubha: [00:02:51] Let’s do, um, well, you know, we, um, we, we kind of knew of each other before we knew each other. We were kind of from the same, uh, hardcore punk, like it was kind of an underground New York hardcore punk rock scene in the early and mid eighties.
And so we knew a lot of the same people, you know, we would see each other walking the streets and so on, but, uh, we had, you know, I was kind of hanging out with one group of guys who was kind of hanging out with another group of guys, but, uh, we knew of each other. Um, and, but within. Um, hardcore scene, there was a, uh, I guess you could say like a vein, you know, of, um, Bhakti yoga within that vein of, uh, Krishna consciousness within that.
And so we both started getting into that myself around 86 and then into 87 in Raghunath, roughly the same time. Right. Maybe just a year later. So I got into it, but I didn’t get more serious till till 88 or so. So then in 87 I was invited by a monk named Goswami to travel with him. And that’s kind of where I just split out in New York and, and, uh, started living life as a monk traveling.
And, uh, about a year after that, um,Raghunath us also, um, did the same kind of dropped out of the music scene and the hardcore scene and got into the full-on into the Bhakti scene. And that’s when we really got to know each other and we’ve been close friends ever since.
K.Lee Marks: [00:04:17] So one thing that’s interesting to me. You know, for, for listeners who may not know or be familiar with Bhakti yoga, they might hear that and think that it’s, um, maybe just, you know, a fitness, a fitness thing, or just a meditation thing. Maybe you could briefly explain a little bit around Bhakti yoga.
Raghunath : [00:04:38] Uh, sure. Yo yo Bhakti yoga is like the yoga of devotion.
Yoga means to connect. So we do use, uh, our different faculties to connect with the higher power. It’s the idea of the soul has to reconnect. We feel a little lost. We feel a little disconnected and we want to reconnect. So there’s physical practices and the physical actions are so damn good that they become really popular and they.
Eclipse the other, um, almost like the full meal of what the yoga system has to offer, but actually the more you get into yoga, the more you realize I’m not doing this for fitness, actually fitness is just a side benefit. There’s so many more deeper facets of this tradition, uh, that are changing me that are helping me evolve.
So Bhakti yoga focus is on that connection. Not necessarily with the physical, although it was, I was practicing the physical yoga at the time and physical yoga was also very rare back then in New York city, which is hard to believe nowadays, it wasn’t really in the conversation in New York, in the eighties, if there was a yoga studio, it would be, have a definitely have a spiritual twist.
It was, it was not secular fitness workout, yoga like there is today. So anyway, um, Bhakti yoga is the yoga of devotion. It’s connecting to the heart. We use mantras, we use Cureton, a lot of singing we use, um, basically it’s about taking what you’re good at in this world and using it as a way to serve the center instead of being the center.
And, uh, it’s a whole deep, rich, beautiful culture and philosophy.
K.Lee Marks: [00:06:23] Yeah. So I was listening to one of the clips from your Joe Rogan interview talking about being on stage, right. And not, you know, wanting to be God versus wanting to serve God on from the stage. Right. And so, um, you, you, you both have amassed, quite a large following around wisdom of the sages podcasts and you do this podcast daily.
You do it partly in front of a live zoom audience. Sometimes there’s really people there in the room with you. Uh, but then the whole world at large gets to tune into these daily yoga podcasts where you both are tackling a verse from the book that you, that you read from the Srimad Bhagavatam , which we’ll get into in a little bit, or talking about, you know, something going on for you, for you guys currently.
And, you know, you mentioned the hardcore scene, you met there. It for some, it might seem a little bit like very different vibes than what we think of when we think of yoga and meditation. So how do you, how do you to rec you know, combine those two flavors?
Raghunath : [00:07:24] Maybe we should explain what that is Kaustubha because the hardcore scene, like some people don’t know what it is.
Kaustubha: [00:07:29] Yeah. You know, it, you know, most people have heard of punk rock, so that kind of took off in the mid to late seventies. And then, um, you know, it kind of, uh, people debate of whether it started in New York or started in London, but in any case, it began to really take off in London and, uh, in 77, 76, 77, and, and then it swung back to America, but, uh, in the early eighties, a real kind of American flavor to it developed.
And, uh, that became known as hardcore punk rock a little faster, a little bit Wilder. And with its own each, even every city in America had its own flavor, its own variety of hardcore. But, um, it, you know, to get to your question, the way that I understood that scene was it was a scene that was largely about like misfits, you know, kids that didn’t quite fit in kids that were thinking for themselves, kids that, um, were frustrated or, uh, You know, recognizing hypocrisy and speaking out against it, in that kind of thing.
And so on one hand that world that, um, that hardcore, particularly though in the world of the New York hardcore scene, which was, um, you know, had a real dark side it’s, you know, uh, drug side it’s it’s violent side. It was, it was, it was a pretty wild world. Um, but within that, there was this kind of, um, open-mindedness free thinkingness, uh, that was there that was always searching for something higher, not, not conforming to the norm.
And you know, at that time to get into buckets, Meant you had to share, you have to shave your head. It helped put on robes, you know, uh, it required a lot of, uh non-conformity. So in that sense, it was a, it was a scene where you would find people that were ready to make drastic moves in their lives and the search for truth.
And so that’s, I guess that’s how I would see one way that they would kind of fit together.
K.Lee Marks: [00:09:26] Yeah. I relate to this because, uh, I’m actually an electronic music producer and I got really into kind of heavier bass music, but mixing that with mantra music, and I always ran up against this sort of inner conflict of like, is this, is this real?
Can I worship God with even the heaviest music? And I think seeing some of these bands come out in the devotional movement that are heavier is, is reassuring. It. It almost like gives light to some of the harder, darker, uh, scary, painful parts of life, right? Like at the beginning Raghunath you were saying that today is a hard day, which, you know, sometimes we have hard days and sometimes we need to scream it out.
So maybe, maybe this is a good segue into Kirtan , which is another huge aspect of what you both do. And I know runoff, you do, um, you do pilgrimages to India and, um, Kaustubha , you teach at the Bucky center in, in New York. Is that right? Yes. So maybe we could talk a little bit about Kirtan and the power of sound.
You know, this is a show for any conscious creator with a message to share it. So we do that primarily through podcasting, but also live streaming videos, music, production, anything that lets us use our voice. And I think kirtan is such a pure, uh, expression. So maybe you could share a little bit about what kirtan is and how you to, uh, integrate kirtan into what you do.
Hmm.
Kaustubha: [00:10:54] You want to take it? You want me to say, how about I’ll tell you, can you talk about how we integrate it? Okay. Okay. So, so, you know, um, you, you started by asking a little bit about Bhakti, yoga and all that. And, um, you know, within Bhakti yoga, there’s there, it starts with the premise that we’re not these bodies, that we’re the soul within the body.
The soul is a spark, a spiritual energy that animates the body makes it come alive. When the soul leaves the body, we have a dead body and the soul continues because it’s made of spiritual energy. It’s eternal, it never dies. And it goes on. Um, but we, although we’re this spiritual spark and the nature of spiritual energy is it’s blissful by nature.
It’s happy by nature, but we lose touch with that. And w the yoga philosophy says we lose touch with that because we identify not with ourself not with the soul within, but we identify with the mind and the body. And so there are different yoga. Practices that are meant to help on overcome the interference of the mind.
It’s like a computer that’s been corrupted, but you know, it’s got corrupted files on it. That’s making us think this external thing will make me happier. That external thing will make me happy. And I pursue those external things. Just following the dictation of the programming within the mind, losing touch with my own blissful nature that’s underneath.
So the different yoga techniques or ways to gain control of the mind ways so that, um, practices so that we can take control rather than be controlled by the mind. Now, when we get to cure time, the idea is a lot of the meditational practices that people PR yoga practices that go back ages, you know, go back centuries, go back millennia.
They’re difficult for people to practice in this day and age where we are bombarded with so much sensual overload. Uh, our minds are disturbed, always where we, most people don’t have deeply peaceful minds where we’re not simple people that can be satisfied. Very simply. We’ve got minds with very short attention spans, et cetera, et cetera.
So, so it’s the, those meditation techniques are difficult for us to focus on. But here Tanya said to be the yoga practice for this age, it’s called the yoga Dharma for this age. It’s the Dharma. And it means that we take the same mantras that people meditate. For ages. Um, but you do it musically and you do it congregationally and the combination of those two elements, the musical element helps bring one’s mind to get one’s mind, deeply absorbed into it.
And the congregational, uh, element where you have a group of people, all in one sense, seeing with one voice, uh, it it’s, uh, it’s a very powerful way to bring our mind deeply into it. Uh, it’s it’s a meditation. It also becomes a prayer and one can become deeply absorbed into that practice of the it’s the mind needs to be focused.
And by focusing on this spiritual sound, uh, the mind can be, um, dealt with. We can say, you know, it can, you could say purifies the mind and when the mind is purified, then it’s no longer in conflict with the self there’s no longer tension or discord between the two. There can be harmony between the mind and the self, and that’s what we call yoga.
And we’re all gonna have. Maybe you can speak about how we.
Raghunath : [00:14:11] Hmm. Well, the integration of, uh, well, as far as our podcast goes are, have, how about we just integrate it into our life? Um, what are you looking for? I forgot the original question, K.Lee. Yeah. So I’m sort of wondering how you use in your daily life, but then also, maybe you could talk a little bit about, um, you, you, I know you both tore around.
Maybe you could share a little bit about how you, you literally share Cureton with people and how people could participate in that. We usually have, um, I’m a yoga teacher and I also teach classes on the origins of Vedic philosophy. I’m a storyteller. And as well as doing the podcast. So, um, when I teach yoga, I’m always doing call and response chanting in the class at the beginning of the end of class.
Sometimes I’ll do exclusively chanting and storytelling. Um, and generally there’s like a, you know, there’s like a, there’s a big demographic of people who love Kirtan. And if you’ve been to one they’re they’re, they’re actually very, um, powerful and transformational and paradigm shifting. I think what happens is you get a group of people together and it’s singing.
That’s not like a performance. It’s singing almost like a prayer. And these mantras are very powerful. And I can honestly say they people like break down sometimes in them, you’re just coming together and you’re offering these prayers and it has a transformational effect and you like it and you come back and you tell a friend.
And so sometimes we give little teasers, like I’ll do a little bit in class. Um, and then people would be like, wow, I really liked that chanting. And then they’ll say, well, just come back to our regular Kirtan. We just do Kirtan the entire class. And sometimes I’ll give classes on the significance of Kirtan or classes on ways to improve the quality of your Kirtan.
There’s ways to do that as well. Um, and a lot of that has to do with behavior and how you treat people and how you look at people and how you treat yourself. Um, and, uh, uh, those, you know, those factors can be a blow right through the roof that are limiting our spiritual growth. And this isn’t me because I’m very wise speaking.
This is just how the traditions of the yogis teach us if you want to have some, a powerful effect on yourself and on other people. You have to stay within the parameters of your behavior and your thoughts and what are you going to put in your mouth and what are you going to put in your eyes and what are you going to put in your ears?
Because you’re creating a whole world like that. And if I’m like, if I’m off rail off the rails, my train’s not going to go very far. And a lot of times due to bad habits and bad choices, in bad, the way we were raised and things that we got into, maybe as a kid, I created so much damage with my vehicle.
I’m just sort of like off the rails and I just can’t move forward on my spiritual quest. So all the yoga systems give away to prune those bad habits back and it basically puts us back on the rails. And from there, the endeavor is much more effective. Our spiritual path is much more effective and we can start to glide and fly and float and it’s tangible.
It’s something you actually feel. It’s nothing I have to preach to you about to be. It’s something that you just sort of. Become inspired with and you, you taste it yourself and then you want to go forward because you want to, you want that taste to get sweeter and sweeter. Does that make sense?
K.Lee Marks: [00:17:45] It makes so much sense. And it’s, you know, it’s backed up with modern coaching research. Uh, our, you know, our thoughts influence our feelings, our feelings influence our behavior behavior dictates our results. And then that cycles back our results impact our thoughts. And so it, it, you know, it makes a lot of sense what you’re saying, and I’m, I’m wondering, so all of this information that we’re talking about comes from India, right?
This is the ancient Vedic sonat and Dharm the eternal religion. The Vedic thought and philosophy is really profound and deep, and there’s so many different books and stuff, but in particular, your podcasts, wisdom of the sages revolves around one book in particular. And I was hoping that you could introduce the listeners to what that book is and why it contains not only life’s most important questions, but the answers to life’s most important questions as well.
Raghunath : [00:18:40] What will Kaustubha say about, I want to hear what he is going to say.
Kaustubha: [00:18:44] Well, you know, there’s, as you mentioned, there’s a vast body of literature out of India, very ancient books composing in the Sanskrit language that go back, you know, within the tradition of believes that this knowledge is actually it’s always existed, but it was compiled and edited, you know, 5,000 or so years ago.
And those books become the basis of, uh, what’s called Vedanta an entire tradition of knowledge and really the yoga and Hinduism and all Eastern philosophy actually becomes influenced, um, by these books in a large amount of west of the Western language. And philosophy also becomes influenced by it. But, um, you know, there’s, there’s a vast body of works.
And the D what’s unique about these books is that they don’t, it’s not like there’s simple religious teachings, but it’s, it’s, it’s a broad, um, approach reaching out to people on different levels. So some segments of these, of this broader literature will appeal to certain people on one level and some will appeal to people on another level and others will.
So within that, you have some that some of these books, like the four vedas. Mostly, they teach about how to be a good pious person, be kind to others, respect, nature, respect God or the gods, demonstrate your gratitude and live happily within the material world, you know, um, which is a step up for most people, you know, that level of sensitivity and refinement and so on.
Uh, and then there’s other books like the , you know, they, they more expressed like, Hey, we’re not meant to just enjoy the things of this world. There’s something higher than that. You’re, you’re not made of matter. You are the soul within the body. You are eternal, you can transcend this to an experience, a much deeper level of bliss.
You need to renounce this world, uh, go within. And so there’s a lot of beautiful teachings there. And, um, and then there’s then new comes like the Mahabharat or the great epic of India, which has such an important book, the Bhagavad Gita within that. And it, it begins to. Find a, um, you know, like there’s a thesis.
Okay. Let’s enjoy the material world at antithesis. No, this material world is a trap. You should escape it. And then there’s a synthesis of how we can move through this world, even be happy in this world. Um, but not so much in renouncing it externally, but renouncing our attachments to it internally and focusing on what’s really the highest goal in life higher than enjoying this world or higher than escaping the pains of this world is developing divine love.
And that means that one can develop a love for God, our source, the root of all existence, and through connecting to that root, uh, you know, metaphorically connecting with every leaf, which would mean every living being. And so what, what happens is the srimad Bhagavatam. Which still comes later in this progression of literature is 18,000
versus there you go. Yeah, there it is. Um, yeah. And that must be very thin. That’s one of those one point paper version or rice paper one. Oh, and incredibly tiny print. Yeah. And so, so it’s 18,000 versus that what it aims to do, is it aims to clarify any questions or any confusions that someone might’ve had reading the broader literature and say, this is actually the way the book begins is the author who compiled all of this literature.
Having made such a contribution to the world is still feeling a little bit despondent and he can’t quite put his finger on it. Why his name was Srila Vyasa of the great compiler of, of all the Vedas and the Vedic literature. And he can’t quite understand why am I, I should be feeling really good.
You know, I I’m focused. I live a pure life. I, you know, I I’ve, I’ve given myself to serve others and. Yes,
compose that song in the text and U2 uncovered it. It was like it was coded and they found it. And, um, but, but, but he, he, uh, he was trying to get to what is the root of my despondency. His guru appears to him and says, you’ve been indirect in all of these texts, and now you have to be totally direct. And you have to show that ultimately all of this yoga and all of these practices and all of this tradition, et cetera, it all leads to the highest point where one completely from the heart develops love for God.
And through that love for every living being that’s, that’s where we’re meant to go. That’s what it’s all meant to. At least some books may get you part of the way there and other books may get you another few steps, and then you can, you can argue which one is right, or which one’s wrong. They’re. But they still are mentally to an ultimate conclusion of divine love.
And that’s what we find in srimad bhagavatam which is it’s interesting because, um, I find why it’s so timely and why we’re getting maybe part of why we’re getting such a big response to, to our podcast, which focuses on this book is because it really gets to the essence of things. Uh, it doesn’t get caught up in, um, technical details.
It’s very nonjudgmental. It’s like, no matter how messed up you are in life, no matter we use the term a lot that dented can, you know, like, uh, no matter how much of a dented can you are in life, really what matters most is your intention. And so let’s focus on that attention intention let’s get that spiritual intention, right?
It doesn’t matter if we’re a man woman. It doesn’t matter for grew up in this tradition. If we didn’t, it doesn’t matter if I’ve grown up with good habits or bad habits, but as long as I’m trying to, to focus on that essential message. Um, I’m, I’m moving in the right direction. And the srimad bhagavatam focuses on that essential message.
And so it’s called the cream of all the Vedic literature and the work of Srila Vyasa of in his maturity, the ripened fruit of it all. Uh, it’s really what we’re most people, you know, when people say, um, I’m into spirituality, I’m not into religion. I think the bhagavatam really speaks to that. And perhaps that’s why we’re getting a big response to it.
Raghunath : [00:24:52] I think it’s a thread that ties. All these, you know, Eastern practices together, the idea of meditation or Kirtan or yoga or pranayam or astrology, or, um, uh, temple worship and rituals and fire yagyas and there’s so many different facets of Indian, where are we going with it all? What’s it meant to get us to, is there a final destination?
Is that the goal fitness then I’m fit. Okay. Is that a wind to be fit until I die? Or is it to be very calm and peaceful till I die? Or is it to have all these, you know, people do these thing. It’s like, funkshway Vastu is it to have everything energetically balanced in my house? Is it to eat organic foods or do a cleanse?
Is it to detox my body? And then what I thought I wasn’t the body. Why am I detoxing this body? So where are all these practices leading to? And that’s culminated in this very, very broad gated. Right. Inclusive literature. When I say inclusive, I mean, it’s not to say, okay, we’re going to Trump Christianity here.
We’re going to put it down in a Trump card and bust ya open. We’re not going to Trump Islam. We’re going to Trump. Judaism. It’s not like that. It is the thread that ties it all together. That’s the power of the Bhagavatam. It’s not to convert. Okay. I’m going to convert this Christian and over into a Hindu.
It’s not that what it is is we are going to, the book is speaking. Now I’m speaking on behalf of the book we are going to, the book is going to the yoga system is going to not convert you to something, but help you remember what you already are and what are are , we already, we’re all pure spirits, souls that just forgot.
And I’m acting in many, many material ways. And because of it, I’m dissatisfied. I’m, I’m pleased. I’m unfulfilled. I’m not satiated. And so what can I do? What is the process? What, what are we supposed to be doing while we’re here? And truthfully, that’s the first story of the book. It’s a king who has only seven days to live.
And sometimes we get this idea. We think, well, you know that 1%, that 1% they have everything, they must be really enjoying life. How could anything go wrong for the 1%? And here it is, here’s a king. He is not just a king, he’s an emperor. And he gets cursed to die. And he has to very quickly, seven days in seven days is going to die in seven days.
He’s got a very quickly figure out what the hell to do with his life. And he was not a bad guy. He knew about Vedic rituals and yoga. And, uh, he was a very cultured dharmic person, but he figured now I’m going to die. I got to get somebody to take over my kingdom. I’m going to install my son as the next emperor.
And I’m going to leave everything behind all my wealth, my family, my stuff that I’m so attached to. And I’m going to find a teacher. And he went to that forest. He found a teacher. And he sat down with this very evolved being and said, what is the duty of a man about to die? And it’s so even though it’s sort of like a good way to start a book, it’s actually our book because we’re all men and women about to die.
And it may not be in seven days, like the king, it might be in seven years, 70 years, seven minutes. We don’t know. It’s like a time bomb is strapped to our leg and we don’t know who said it or when it’s going to go off, but we’re all about to die. And so what do we do with that? Because most people who criticize spirituality, they say, you guys are just fakes.
You’re not dealing with reality. Hey, what’s more real than that opening statement of what do you do with your life when you’re about to die, that will really make you prioritize your life. A matter of fact, If we all knew that we are going to die tomorrow morning, that would radically change what we do tonight.
Right? We wouldn’t say, well, I’m going to go to bed early. When I rest up for death, I, we want to do something. We want to stay some I’m sorry’s, forgive me’s,I love you’s we’d probably make a few calls tonight. We’d probably stay up late. We probably get really focused. We’d probably let go of any resentment in the heart.
So these, this is a question for everybody, and this is the way it wraps up. It really concludes the entire yoga process and we dive into it and it’s no small undertaking. This book. It’s 18,000 Sanskrit verses 12 cantos, and we are in canto three.
Kaustubha: [00:29:34] Yeah. Midway through the third.
So at least, you know, you have a lot of podcasts episodes.
Raghunath : [00:29:40] Yeah. It’s a weekly podcast. If it was a weekly podcast, we would never make it through the, we would die before.
No, but
K.Lee Marks: [00:29:48] I want to, I mean, this is, this is so extraordinarily beautiful. And I’m curious if anyone else listening right now, it can feel that energy it’s, it’s pretty edgy, you know, to confront our death.
And a lot of people go through life, trying not to look at death and trying to avoid it. Uh, and then you’ll have maybe the flip of that where it’s like, you get so depressed about the end that you can’t do anything. Right. And so there’s this middle path of keeping death in the end present so that we have that fire to do what we’re meant to do here to really take advantage of our full life force.
And I could just feel the energy as you were talking. And, and so this book, like you said, this is our story. This is our story. We don’t know when we’ll do. But it’s going to come. And then what is it that we do? And so the Bhagavatam , uh, perfectly lays out these really important questions and answers and stories and ways of being.
And so, you know, one thing as you were talking made me think about the five aims of life, the Puruṣārtha, right? Um, maybe, maybe y’all could help me out with them. What are the five aims of life?
Kaustubha: [00:30:54] Well, generally there’s four, they start with right Dharma, but then there’s the fifth. Yeah. Dharma, Artha Kama and Moksha.
So Dharma means, you know, it’s a hard word to translate, but it means like living a good life. Right. And there’s the belief that if you live the good life, it brings you good results. It brings you, um, happiness in life, you know, and it will bring you, you will, those wealth, you know, what, what it brings you includes artha , which you could mean like economic wellbeing and then Kama, the fulfillment of one’s material desires.
But then, um, ultimately that would lead to Moksha, which would mean like letting go of all material desires and letting go of, you know, becoming free of our entanglement in this world. And so, um, there was, you know, traditionally in this yoga tradition and within this yoga tradition, there was, um, the idea that, you know, um, when you’re young, you’re getting trained up in, in learning about life and learning this Vedic knowledge, learning this yoga knowledge, and then you get married.
And, um, if you’ve been living a dharmic life means you given charity, you take care of others, you’re responsible husband, responsible wife, you’re responsible parents, responsible people in society. And, um, you’re, you, you see it all in terms of your, um, duties to God and to your elders, into everyone now that’s that’s Dharma and that should bring.
Economic well-being, you’ll get good karma for that. You can, you know, and then, you know, comma, you know, there’s sexual enjoyment in married life. There’s the, the, the pleasure of re you know, the love that you feel from your children. And, you know, there’s the comforts of family life. There’s a home and, you know, whatever other accoutrements you get and, you know, um, so there’s Dharma artha, the kama, but then as you go through that, as say, a married couple goes through that, uh, they live out their, you know, their material desires and they recognize that with all the material enjoyment left, there’s also pain with all the joy of raising children.
There’s so much anxiety, sometimes disappointment, sometimes tragedies pain. And you begin to see the truth of this material world that is kind of like, it’s a coin with two sides for all enjoyment. There’s also suffering. And then you begin to let it. Hmm. And so that then you approach Moksha becoming free from all one’s material, untangle tanglement, but the fifth one, uh, is called prema.
So sometimes said, what is premā pumartho mahān? Uh, that the fifth one is really what the bhagavatam takes one to write the srimad bhagavatam , it says, but even beyond all that, even beyond becoming free of our material desires and the reactions of this material, world karmic reactions due to our material engagement, there’s, you know, in one could one could achieve this piece of Milky of Moshe, but there’s something more than that, that there’s something beyond that.
There’s, that’s just the negation of our material suffering. But beyond that is prema his love for God. And as we mentioned earlier, you know, love for every living being, so, uh, that’s considered the fifth, the premā pumartho mahān.
K.Lee Marks: [00:34:08] Yeah. And it’s, you know, those first four. I mean for just speaking for myself, like it’s very easy for me to tunnel vision on those first four and not even think about the fifth one and, uh, a teacher in our, in, in the tradition, in the Vedic tradition, Srila Sridhar Maraj has this really great way of explaining kind of a similar thing in a, in a very real way, which is like as a, as a being my, my immediate objective is how do I remove my self from suffering and misery?
Right? That’s like my first one, then the second one is like, how do I help other people do the same? Then after that it’s how do I get knowledge? How do I, how do I have light and remove darkness? Right? Those are the second two. But then the last one, which is the prema, which is how do I taste nectar? How do I taste bliss?
Right? So the, the positive thing, everything else is negating itself. But what is the, what’s the actual positive movement for the, for the living being?
Kaustubha: [00:35:07] Exactly. We were talking about this on the show today, actually, cause they’re saying like Moksha , it’s almost like when you have, someone’s holding your head under the water, you know, like if you’re swimming in the pool or something, you’re a kid, and then some bigger kid comes along and sticks your head under the water.
And you’re when you’re when you’re there. Your mind is full of anxiety, right? Your heads under the water, you’re just suffering and you’re just waiting. What will, when will they let me out? When will they let me out? I need to be free of this anxiety. And then when they let you out, you take a breath of air and all your anxiety, mealy dissipates, and you, and it almost feels like bliss.
Like, oh, this is what, that’s what Moshe is like, but we’re just, we’re, we’re breathing right now. And it’s no big deal. It’s actually just a neutral state. There’s something more to life than just not suffering. And so that’s where prima comes in that actually, um, you know, the there’s a taste, there’s a flavor.
There’s a, there’s a spiritual enjoyment. Um, that comes through love in many different varieties and we’ll, if we can find that love for God, then we can find it for every living being. And that’s the deeper message of the Vedic literature. And again, that’s, what’s revealed in theSrimad Bhagavatam
K.Lee Marks: [00:36:16] and going back to the, the original topic of Kirtan, another form of Kirtan, isn’t just singing it’s it’s, uh, reciting the Srimad Bhagavatam , for instance.
And so that, you know, you two started wisdom of the sages. Did you know that it was going to get as big as it got? Like, was that sort of a plan or was it like, how did, how did the podcast come about? That would be really interesting to know.
Raghunath : [00:36:40] Um, can I take this one? Because it was, you know, it was very organic.
Um, I was in India with a, a, um, a group of students and we were at a, uh, And that was with, uh, one lady I’ll call her my teacher because she teaches me so much and she was going and, but she lives in India and she’s going all your students. They all read the srimad bhagavatam and my students were pretty new to Bhakti.
They just knew me pretty much. And I said, probably not so much. And she started lecturing us about the importance of the srimad bhagavatam and she did it almost a little too much, like going on and on it started getting a little awkward and we, as a charismatic person, she can speak strong. She’s a strong speaker and just started.
I deal with a lot of people who are new to this type of thing, and they’re new to India and they’re new and traveling. They’re new to Bhakti and they’re new to pilgrimage. So I am always very gentle, but she was very, very strong. So anyway, when I got home, I, uh,
Kaustubha: [00:37:45] And she was strong in insisting that everyone should read the srimad bhagavatam.
Raghunath : [00:37:49] Yeah. And that everybody should read the shoe and buy with time every day, every day, not even just a little every day, if you’re reading something else and you haven’t read that yet, what are you doing? What’s why you’re reading any other book, except srimad bhagavatam. And so when I got back to New York city, I ran into Kaustubha and Kaustubha said something similar.
He goes, Hey, you know, I’m going to start reading the srimad bhagavatam every day. And I thought that was very interestingly coincidental because it’s exactly what she told me a few days earlier. And he’s like, yeah, let’s just do it. Let’s make a commitment to just read the Schumer bug with some every day.
And I was like, well, I already have a couple of students that I’ve read with back at our farm in upstate. So I said, yeah, you know what? Let’s we’ve read from different books. Maybe we should just go through the bhagavatam. And as I, um, Went up there. I started to realize, you know what? I actually have a lot of students that are into this, that come, I teach a workshop in New Jersey or in Texas or in Los Angeles or New York and they get into it, but then they don’t hear about it anymore.
They don’t, they can’t follow through with making it a regular practice. Um, so I could put it out there for them. And that way there’s always like a zoom group that can, they can refer to it. Wasn’t really planned to be a podcast. It was more like a zoom study group that you can join live and that’s it.
And so we started off with like eight people, you know, some students and 10 people, 15, 20 people. And it started getting regular and cause stupid was reading the Bhagavad, Tom on his own. And you know, because he made that commitment to read every day. And oh, another thing was in my music days, I used to be in a band and a lot of people got into Bhakti from this band I was in.
And so a lot of them that, you know, they’re sort of out there, you know, and with box it’s something you’ve got to really harness in and bring back. So I thought it would be good for the people who were into my music. It’ll be good to my yoga students. And most of all, it’s just going to be good for me to make a commitment, to re read the bog of it’s the Mary Day.
So we started doing, and then every now and then I’d see Kaustubha’s show up on the screen. I was like, Hey, Kaustubha’s here. Andi’d introduce him and say this is Kaustubha. He’s an old friend of mine. And he helps when we do teacher trainings. He’s one of our guest teachers. Kaustubha what do you think of this verse?
And then, Kaustubha . Uh, you know, he’ll, he’ll give his expression. And so after a few days of Kaustubha joining people were like, man, I really liked the way you, two people would write comments and said, I really liked the way you guys go back and forth. Raghunath you’re so crazy. And you’re out of control and he got such a big mouth because Stuber Christian was very, very steady and he’s systematic and he’s philosophical and you guys just bounce play off each other so nicely.
So I don’t know. When did you officially join that? We call it the super soul sacred sangha.
Kaustubha: [00:40:32] Yeah, I think I joined it like, um, you began it in March of 2019 and I think I joined it a few times, like in June and July and August and by September, I think I was daily. And then, and, uh, the numbers were growing, you know, it was like, uh, this was at 5:00 AM in the morning.
It was, the numbers grew up till about like, by the time it was November. So it was about 80, 85 people that were tuning in at 5:00 AM every morning. Um, we weren’t releasing it that then as a podcast, you had to come on zoom. Some people were downloading it from zoom, but it was basically like an underground thing.
Raghunath : [00:41:09] Um, and then, uh, we decided, you know, we’re going to make a podcast January 1st. Let’s just do it. Let’s make a podcast January 1st because we are going to India to lead a training there. And we were going to travel in India for a few weeks afterwards. So January 1st was our very first one. We had about 60 live students every night and we first 2020.
Yeah. And we just, January 1st 2020 pre pandemic. Pre we even know how to do it. You know, we’ve never done a podcast. We’re just sort of completely winging it. Um, didn’t understand the technical side, how even real it, we just had to learn it. And, um, after doing it, yeah, we branded it. And, uh, after doing it for a month, we started traveling around India and I get this text message from an old friend named Joe Rogan.
And, um, he had no idea I was doing a podcast, but we used to do martial arts together. And then he hired me as his first yoga teacher. And that was about 20 years ago when I lived in Los Angeles. And, um, he called me up and said, you know, I’d really love to get you on my podcast. Now. I didn’t even listen to podcasts.
And, um, I was just like, all I know is, you know, Joe’s super, super smart guy and he’s super sharp and he’s super opinionated. Um, but I didn’t even realize how big Joe Rogan show was. And, you know, later people told me, you’re like, that’s like getting on, you know, uh, Saturday night live and mad TV, what it was like for us when we were younger, growing up, hitting on all the major networks.
Yeah. And, um, so he’s, I said, well, why do you want to interview me? He’s like, everybody does yoga. I do you want to debate me or something? He goes, no, no, don’t be silly. I really want to know about your yoga path because I knew no you’re really into this. And you’re not just got a 200 hour teacher training and you’re like teaching you like live this stuff.
And I said, well, all right, I’ll do it. When do you want me to do it? He goes, how about next week? I go, well, I’m in India right now. He goes, well, when do you get back? I said, I’d get back in a week. And he goes, how about the week after that? I was like, all right, I’m talking to my family, but sure. He goes, okay, I’ll fly you out.
We’ll pick you up. We’ll put you in a hotel and we’ll just get you. You don’t have to prepare for just come. We just really want to hear what you have to say and that, and that really, I mean, I didn’t realize it, but you know, after I got off that podcast, my Instagram following, following was just going. It was like out of control.
K.Lee Marks: [00:43:46] Did you get more downloads, like more listeners on the podcast as well as a result of that?
Raghunath : [00:43:52] Not only did we get more, more for it, but people started reading the Bhagavatam every day. Wow. And so many people just say, yeah, you know, I heard you on Joe Rogan. I thought it was pretty intelligent. I listened to the podcast and now I listen to every day and now I just bought a set of Srimad Bhagavatam’s and. Lots of people
Kaustubha: [00:44:10] you, you, you asked, did we know it would be as big as it would be? We didn’t. And, um, before Joe Rogan, so Joe, Joe, you were on Joe Rogan show. It was about two months in two or two and a half months of our starting. We had about 900 daily listeners at that point, which even that was like, wow, that’s great.
You know, it’s every day, you know? Um, but then after Joe Rogan overnight, it shot up to 10 thousand. Wow. That was like always a good it’s good exposure.
K.Lee Marks: [00:44:42] I mean, it really, it really is the top of the, of the podcast mountain and, and it’s kind of funny that it’s very clear in that interview. Just what a, what a nice connection you two have.
And I think it’s actually a really cool side of Joe to see. Um, and, and it was just, it was, so that was the first time I’d ever actually seen you rugged and kind of started to become more, uh, uh, it wasn’t the first time I’d ever heard about you though. I had heard about you because you came here and you’d done a yoga teacher training that really blew my friend’s mind because you’re able to do Asana really incredibly, but you’re talking about Bhakti and Krishna and doing Kirtans and all this.
And so I had heard about you, but then I saw you and yeah, I mean, it, it, it really is powerful and that is the, that’s the idea with podcasting, right? Like even what we’re doing here by, by me interviewing you two your audiences, seeing our conversation, and maybe some of them end up kind of checking outBe On Air Podcast.
Wait, I can’t get the direction. Right. Um, but, but I mean, it’s, it’s association. It really is association by associating with different people. We can, we can elevate our show, elevate our platform and elevate our voice. And it was just such a, it was a really blissful thing to turn on Joe Rogan and see a conversation about the Bhagavad Gita going on.
Like that, that felt like a big win , you know, having Tulsi Gabard run, uh, even just run, you know, not to get into politics at all, but to have a vegetarian, um, Bhakti, Yogi run for president is just certain milestones that are pretty cool.
Raghunath : [00:46:13] And she’s been on Joe Rogan twice
K.Lee Marks: [00:46:15] and she’s been on Joe Rogan twice.
Raghunath : [00:46:16] So it was pretty impressive to too.
Kaustubha: [00:46:18] But speaking of milestones, the way I, the way I look at Raghunath’s appearance on Joe Rogan, I look at it historically, and I think that in history and when I say history, I mean like all of history, you know, um, I believe is probably the largest platform for one event, um, to present Bhakti or Bhagavad Gita or even Hinduism or whatever, you know, it’s like, um, I don’t know how many, 10 million or more people saw that in one shot.
I say historically, that was the biggest platform ever to present this kind of thought.
K.Lee Marks: [00:46:53] I agree. I agree. And that’s why it was, it was kind of, uh, it, wasn’t kind of, it was very surprising to see. I was like, is this really happening? What, what is going on here? I’m sorry. No, please go, go, go.
Raghunath : [00:47:05] I was going to say, uh, when it gets to be that Mac amplified and you kind think if he would have called me, I mean, I didn’t talk to the guy and I was friends with them 20 years ago.
We had a little catch up maybe 10 years ago, haven’t talked to him and then if he would have called me a month and a half earlier, there would be no facility for people logging in finding me. Because we were just doing a zoom class. There were no back classes. They were just one one-offs, but he called me after the podcast became established for me, we call that a Krishna miracle.
That is one of the areas you can’t there’s the probability is so unlikely. He could have called me anytime within 10. He’s been doing a podcast for 20 years, you know, it was like right into, we got everything set up and yeah. Oh, wow.
K.Lee Marks: [00:47:56] So you had just branded and everything?
Raghunath : [00:47:58] A month and a half before, otherwise you couldn’t.
I wouldn’t. I would imagine to be called me December. Yeah. Let me, let me, and what do you guys do? I do I do, I do a lecture every morning would have been like, okay. There would be no link to a lecture where, you know, I heard something really cool. We had, you know, we had a picnic for a podcast, a wisdom of the sages picnic in central park the other day.
And so you’re doing like sort of a meet and greet with all the people. And some people are on zoom, so we know their faces, but we never met them. And I tell ya, they come every day. So it’s like, they’re my family pretty much, but I’ve never met them personally, but there were a lot of faces. I didn’t know.
And one lady came up to me and I said, how did, so how did you get into this? She said, I heard you on Joe Rogan. I said, well, how did you hear some Joe Rogan? She goes, yeah, I just Google searched the Bhagavad Gita. And Joe Rogan came up with you. Now I don’t know if that’s because maybe she searched Joe Rogan before or something like that.
But if for some reason, Joe is hashtag Bhagavad Gita, and you just come off at the top of the, at the top of the Google searches now, and me, me and Joe Rogan because Joe Rogan so big, that will be quite amazing. If anyone searches, Gita and gets that
K.Lee Marks: [00:49:15] I’m, I’m searching right now, I’m searching right now to try and see it.
And, you know, you can spell Bhagavad Gita in a couple of different ways, but yeah.
Raghunath : [00:49:22] Or at least check YouTube, check out.
K.Lee Marks: [00:49:24] Definitely YouTube you’ll come up for sure. But I mean, that is, it is the, the reason why I’m so excited about the power of voice and podcasting right now. And I think everyone is, is, uh, the old media empire mogul thing is, is slowly kind of transitioning to this distributed.
You know, everyone has their own platform and you, you know, Joe, as a idea of, of what it could be, but then maybe more realistically wisdom of the sages. So you, you all have you built a Patreon , you have merch, you do these meetups, you do the live, uh, the live every morning. There’s some real people there, but then you can also get it after the fact on all the podcast platforms.
So you’ve really built this very big loudspeaker. For these ancient teachings. And it kind of reminds me of a great teacher in our line, you know, when they started using, utilizing the printing press, they called it sort of after the drum that we play the redundant, they called it the . Right. So this is almost like another iteration after that of like, how do you broadcast your message as loud as possible?
Raghunath : [00:50:29] Yeah. It’s the Brea hot Brea hot, the big, big drum it’s amplified. It’s like Slingshot it, podcasting is the way it’s unbelievable. It’s like why? Because it’s not, I mean, imagine the old days when all this stuff was on Palm leaves, and if you want to learn transcendental wisdom, you find a teacher that’s hard enough.
Maybe you hear a reputation. He lives in a cave because they’ve given up the world and they live very simply. So you go to the village and then he’s he, or she reads you from these Palm leaves. And then imagine the time then all of a sudden, wait. We can print these. Oh my God, we can print these. I can take one home.
I just don’t have to go to the cave. I can bring one home and read it. Then I can go to the cave and ask them questions, come back. Yeah. Like amplifies your learning and your focus and your, you know, your day to day regulation and applying spiritual truth. So you take this into the modern age and you’ve got a podcast which you don’t have to purchase.
You just like, listen, and they’re free and they’re on your phone and they’re with you while you’re driving or while you’re walking down the street. And it’s like at any moment, this is the gift of the information age. We know the deficit, the information age, it’s overwhelming. It traps your attention. It takes you down to dark places.
Sometimes it can really ruin your life. Sometimes it can make you addicted. It could get you into all types of inappropriate things. But if you go really deep, if you’re like an archeologist and you’re digging for gold, you can find incredible spiritual, valuable things to consume. And that is incredible.
That’s what YouTube is great for. That’s what audible is great for. That’s what podcasts are great for. Now. I can go anywhere. It could be at the top of a mountain isolated, but I’ve downloaded some valuable information. And by the way, we just want to reiterate that the idea of wisdom of the sages is not that we are some Sage, but we are hearing from great sages.
And we’re just sort of repeating in a sort of modern way what they said to us. It’s not like we’re so great. It’s that th th th the truth or these truthful teachings are so great and they become great, and we become enlivened by applications. So, yeah, you’re in a glorious spot with this information if it’s handled correctly.
Kaustubha: [00:52:55] I would just add one thing to that. And that is that what you’re saying is true. Like we’re in an age where anyone can start their own podcast, uh, and that’s unique because, you know, if you go back a couple of decades, no one could get their own television show or radio show, or, you know, but now you can do it yourself.
But that being said, like the reason why we went from 900 to 10,000 overnight was because Raghunath did a really good job on that show. You know? And the reason why I did a really good job is because he’s dedicated his life to it for decades, you know? So he really gained the knowledge and the experience, the experience of how to present it to people he’s been traveling the world, just, you know, whether it’s concerts or yoga studios, just like, you know, give him putting his heart into, you know, communicating this message and, and, um, and refining that ability to communicate that message.
So when he was on Joe Rogan , He really hit the mark. And so many people are like, I want to hear more from this guy and they came over.
K.Lee Marks: [00:53:53] And so by practicing, speaking about what we love the most, the longest we become qualified to share that we become capable to share that in, in ways that are digestible and, uh, accessible, which the wisdom of the sages podcast is that.
So for everyone listening now, and in the future, this is a podcast that people, if they don’t do any other spiritual practice, they listened to this show in the morning. And I I’ve heard from so many random people in my life who listened to this, that aren’t connected in any way. They’ve they found the podcast and they, they drink from it like water, like a well in the morning.
Right. And it’s part of their spiritual practice. So it’s a really great. Uh, funny, hilarious, like you will laugh your butt off, but you will also, uh, feel deeply soothing truths sometimes, maybe some confronting truths, but the truth can be confronting, uh, but always beautiful, beautiful, loving conversations between you two.
And you know, I know we’re winding down to the end of our time today. Maybe you could share a little bit about what’s coming up for, uh, both of you and for the podcast so that the listeners can know what is coming on the horizon.
Kaustubha: [00:55:05] Uh, well, we’re about to have our 500th episode, so that’s coming up. We don’t know what we’re gonna do.
I want to try to do something special. Okay. Thank you. I think maybe the next thing coming is Raghunath off, wants to get himself one of those things, you know, talking about that for a long time.
I want to get one of those noise machines,
Raghunath : [00:55:24] we’re going to Italy, we’re having an Italy retreat, it sold out and we’re going to go to Tuscany. I’m looking forward to that. We get to meet all these people. A lot of times we don’t, we don’t meet them or we just know each other on zoom. And so, uh, we’re doing retreats around. We did a retreat in New York, one in LA, and now we’re going to do one in Italy and I’m looking forward to it.
Kaustubha: [00:55:42] Yeah. I was going to mention that the timing was really interesting, cause not only did one month in, you know, Joe Rogan contacted Raghunath , but then just after Raghunath was on Joe Rogan
The pandemic set in, set in, you know, in the lockdown set in . And that’s when people were just like, they were so much needed what we were doing and they needed it daily and we were right. We’re already all set up. You know,
Raghunath : [00:56:07] that it’s really a Krishna miracle there too I think
Kaustubha: [00:56:10] yeah because then everyone turned, went over to zoom, but we were already there.
We were already set up, we already had the whole thing I’m ready to go. But that being said, you know, we went a year, year and a half without really being able to meet people in person. And so what we do want to do part of what we want to do is we do want to improve our marketing. So because we believe it’s a message that a lot of people hear it’ll be valuable for them.
And they’ll, they’ll, they’ll take to it. But we also want to try to, um, reach people and provide all kinds of opportunities where someone could say, you know what? This is changing my life. How do I pursue it further? And so we do want to design more kinds of ways to meet and help people train them, connect with them, inspire them in person as well.
So maybe that’s something we’ll be developing more in the future.
Raghunath : [00:56:54] You know, one thing I want to share before we leave is, and one thing I’m, I’m, I’m really happy that it emerged into this, but, you know, we had a Patreon community and on the Patreon community, we make it so anybody can join. If you want to contribute it’s community sponsor, do you go to patreon.com/wisdomofthesages and you give whatever you want dollar a hundred or whatever you give, you get the same thing.
Yeah. But you know, we’ve put on yoga, yoga classes, um, workshops on, ayurveda on health and wellbeing. And another thing that blossomed out of this was this beautiful 12 step Bhakti recovery group. And it’s grown into a full blown multiple meetings per week, every day, 10 meetings per week now, because the idea is that we’re suffering in this material world, trying to put a square peg in a round hole.
Like, I’m trying to find, fulfill my spiritual self. I’m a spiritual being, and I’m trying to fulfill that hole with material desires and it’s just not working. So 12 step programs in Bhakti, yoga go beautifully hand in hand. Um, and, uh, we have a huge community of people that take it very seriously and they want recovery and they want healing and they want growth and they want evolution.
Kaustubha: [00:58:12] And in the context of Bhakti, right?
Raghunath : [00:58:15] Yeah. It’s, it’s really inspiring for me to witness it go. Cause we, we basically just had the idea of doing it and some of our big recovery, uh, students they’ve ran with it and they’ve, they’ve really made a beautiful garden out of the entire thing, so to speak and I’m, I’m really impressed and I’m proud to be part of it.
K.Lee Marks: [00:58:33] Yeah. That’s so beautiful. How can I just real quick one and tell the listeners where they can get that info? Is that all on the Patreon the 12 step .
Kaustubha: [00:58:41] It is. If you write to Bhaktirecoverygroup@gmail.com, you can get all the info. If you go to our website wisdomofthesages.com, you can also find the info and again,
Raghunath : [00:58:52] on mailing lists there to do with.
Kaustubha: [00:58:53] So the phages Sage page, we put out a newsletter now every week as well. And, you know, I was another that you asked, what’s the next thing. And, you know, inspired by, by that, um, it’s inspired by the Bucky recovery group, which was just grew straight out of wisdom, sages people. It’s not that we’re all going off and I do it.
It’s just that it brought the people together that could do it inspired by Bhagavatam and Bhakti. Uh, also we’ve been bringing, you know, from time to time bringing people that are experts in counseling or, um, you know, whether it’s be relationship counseling or psychological counseling or people, uh, uh, chaplains that, that are.
You know, expert in dealing with end of life care and end of life counseling, w cause we do questions and answers. Every, we take questions from our people writing questions and every Saturday we answer those questions. So sometimes we bring in these experts, they practice Bhakti yoga, like us, they’re friends of ours, but they’re expert in these different fields.
And, uh, there’s a team kind of building around these kinds of issues, uh, mental care, you know, um, pastoral care, that kind of thing. And so we’re building a team, uh, just as we speak practically, uh, It was easy for the 12 steps because like 12 steps are the meetings and how they work is already laid out and it snaps right into zoom.
And so this group is getting together and we’re trying to figure out what’s the, what are the best forms by which they can reach people and, uh, people are eager to get it. So that, that maybe that’s the next significant thing to grow out of Wisdom of the Sages.
K.Lee Marks: [01:00:25] That is so inspiring and, and something that I, my father, it was a wish of my father that he, he worked to, to do during his lifetime.
And it’s something that is, uh, important to me as well, which is to provide those services and those that support to our community. And so thank you so much for sharing that on here. So again, people listening, dear audience, you can connect with, uh, on their patreon at patreon.com\wisdomofthesages, also wisdomofthesages.com and what was the, uh, Bhakti recovery.
Bhaktirecovery@gmail.com and of course, every day tune in to wisdom of the sages podcast on all platforms, wherever you get your podcasts. Uh you’re you’re on YouTube as well. Yes. Yep. Okay. So you can get, you can literally tune in wherever you are and get these doses of, uh, extraordinary truth ancient wisdom that has been passed from teacher to student, to teacher, to student, and preserved for thousands of years and truly timeless wisdom.
Uh, Kaustubha, Raghunath Prabhu is so wonderful to have you both on the show, uh, is if there’s anything else that you’d like to share in closing, I opened up the space for you, but it has been an absolute honor to get to spend this time with you both
Raghunath : [01:01:47] keep, keep doing what you’re doing. You’re inspirational yourself, glad to be here and looking forward to connecting with people.
You can reach me @Raghunathyogi and, um, how do you spell RA RA, G H U. Can’t spell my name, and Kaustubha . And what’s your Instagram? Instagram. It’s just costumer. K a U S T U B H .
Kaustubha: [01:02:12] Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, K.Lee. Uh, we love what you’re doing and, uh, w we didn’t mention it, but you know, you’re a bit of a counselor for us and helping us get our act together.
So we’re, we’re so appreciative of you and all that you do
Raghunath : [01:02:25] actually co stupas is K a U. Oh, thank you. Try and do this on the fly sometimes. K a U S T U B H. How’s that that’s it. That’ll do it.
K.Lee Marks: [01:02:37] If you’re watching this, you can grab their Instagram handles otherwise. Uh, you can definitely go to wisdom of the sages.com and thank you so much for sharing that.
Yeah, it has been really an honor to get to learn more about the podcast and share whatever experiences and tips that I’ve picked up from different folks I’ve listened to learn from and my own experience. And I am just so excited that you all are out there sharing these messages every day, uh, that, that exists.
And it really, it, it gives me, uh, endless hope for podcasting for the times that we move in, that there are people that are devoted to sharing such positivity and encouragement and times of, of darkness. Strife honestly. So with that, we shell bid our, our esteemed guests farewell. Thank you so much for giving us that time.
It has been absolutely wonderful if we didn’t get to your question. Uh, I apologize. Thank you so much for tuning in Steve Paulo, Christine from astrology now podcast. Um, yeah. Yeah, she’s there and we shall see you on the next episode of Be On Air . Take care. Thanks so much, K.Lee . Bye.
