1746: When Religious Externals Kill Spiritual Life

they're missing the force for the trees. Right. Right. And that happens in spiritual life.

We need, we spiritual life and what to speak of, we call it like religion. Right. It's so full of

ritual. It's so full of practices. It's so full of etiquette. It's so full of morality and ethics.

And it's got, you know, books and books of, of external things that are there for purpose.

That are there for the purpose of helping us go deeper into the internal thing, you know,

but it's very common. It is very common that the external things over that they kind of hide.

We get so caught up in the external things that we can't even see the internal thing anymore.

And we begin to think that that's all about the external things. Right. In the Vedic context,

doing the ritual properly, doing the intonation properly, you know, you know, you're not respecting

me properly. You're supposed to do this. Hey, sit down over there. Don't sit over there. Hey,

stand up there. Where do you, you know, it's like all the, it's not that the details aren't important,

but you know, sometimes people become cruel in the name of carrying out these externals when

really it's all supposed to make us really soft-hearted and compassionate and kind.

Om nao, Bhagavate, Vasudevaya, Om nao, Bhagavate, Vasudevaya, Om nao, Bhagavate, Vasudevaya.

Live from Super Soul Farm. This is Wisdom in the Sages of Bhakti Yoga podcast with your host

Raghunath and live in Rishikesh. Koho Senior Educator of the Bhakti Center in New York,

Kostuba Doss. Welcome to the show. It's Wednesday, March 18th, 2020, 2026. It's episode 1746.

Good morning, beautiful people. You're live with Pranapriya and we are gearing up for

I am gearing up to go to California tomorrow. I'm going to cure Tom tomorrow in San Francisco.

Then Carlsbad, California, which is like in your San Diego. Yoga on State. There's another

Kierton. Then up to Kumi Studio. Yoga beta yoga for some workshops and Kierton. And then back to

Carlsbad for all day immersion. Quite a weekend. Are we planning on going out to California?

Is that the player? Maybe. Maybe.

Kumi, that stink guy right there. What is that right there? Maybe that look.

You don't have to pace my year because I'm doing so much traveling. That's why I'm asking.

Because I know you've booked your schedule so much. I've got a life over here too. I need to know

we'll put our little heads together. And then I got like Sammy from Mitha today in shelter of

like let's do this show. Let's do this show. It's just like I'm a little overwhelmed. He's

booking all the shows. Here's a deal. Certain people are born to play music. And it's like if

they don't play music, it's a lot of you guys listening are like your musicians and you need to

play music. I'm not a musician. He's a manager too. He's got a manager too. And they get inspired.

And so these call me have you got a gig here. We got to offer here. And I like playing the

guys. I think it's fun. Parmin others a full on musician. You know, that means that's what I'm

saying, but he's probably happy in their life unless they're playing music. I'm more of a speaker.

I like to speak. Are you listening to me at all? Am I lagging or something? I don't know. We're

like on top of each other. I think you're on top of me, but I was just saying I think it was up

to Parminanda. Maybe the shows wouldn't get booked, right? Because he may not have that managers.

Side to it. But you know, that's a good point. Yeah. But he likes to play the shows all the time.

Right. And you I like to do it, but sort of like peppered into my life. Right.

Yeah. I like doing what I do. I like giving sungas. I like doing kirtons. I like teaching yoga.

I like if I could do like 15% of my work all year of doing shows, that would be good.

I think there's so many shows we do this coming here. We got a tour in Europe. We're going to

South America. We're going to where else? South America. I got a New York City show in April.

Detroit show. Um, a Toronto festival. Yeah. It's just like a parade around. Yeah.

Yeah. Anyway. All right. Anyway, that's that's life. We also have an Italian show. It's the

rock and I think it's stupid show. And Mara, Prada Priya, it's our Italian retreat. And I'm

very excited for this year. I'm excited because every every one time we've done it, it's just been

great joy and great fun. And I love Italy. But I don't because I do like to travel, but I like

I do like Christian consciousness. So I don't like what my travel or vacation takes me away

for my consciousness. So I feel like it's a beautiful blend of both. And of course we get that

more in India because we're surrounded by temples and holy places and holy peoples. But you know,

sometimes a vacation can take you right off your rails, you know, right off your in personal

integrity. But this is, uh, this is different, you know, it's sort of contained. It's like the

whole package. So we have a couple more spaces and we're putting it out there because we need to close

this soon. But uh, people can go to wisdom of the stages dot com to register for that. Yes.

July 4th through 11th. Yeah. Castula. Yeah. Yes.

Any other announcements? Prona Priya. Mara. Come on, guys. Let's get this show rolling.

Next round of sage groups. Registration starts on Monday at 9 a.m. Eastern time.

Got to listen to that. Oh, so like this is the last time we have to announce it.

I believe so. Yeah, we can announce it on that day. Yeah, we can announce it on that day too.

We can announce it on that day. Oh, uh, well, then we're not doing the show on Monday because

Roger's traveling, but we'll have the show Tuesday, Wednesday, and I think on Thursday.

Oh, Tuesday. So we won't be able. So this is the last announcement, everybody.

Yes. Of course. In other words, if you want to get in fast, you'll still be opportunity,

you know, for some time to sign up after Monday. But the groups are small.

And so if you want to get into a particular group, you're always better off getting in there as

early as possible. Yeah. And so Monday morning, 9 a.m. Eastern time. If you want to get into

a particular group, you want to get into, that's the time to show up and sign up.

All right. Yeah. And we'll have no show on Monday, but our next show will be Tuesday at 6 30 a.m. Eastern time.

Travel and Monday. Yeah.

All right, guys. Let's dive into Zenugat. All right. This nugget comes from Albert Einstein.

He's very smart. He says, perfection of means and confusion of goals seem, in my opinion,

to characterize our age. The perfection of means and the confusion of goals, in my opinion,

to characterize, to characterize our age are age. You know what I love about that line? It's so simple,

but it exposes a trap that human beings fall into again and again, right? We really get good at

the how of something. And slowly, we forget the the why of something, right? We perfect the system,

refine a technique, memorize the procedure. We debate the details, right? But somewhere along the line,

the original purpose quietly slips out the back door. You see this everywhere. It does happen.

People get focused on the rules of the game that they forget the joy of playing the game,

or the why? People get so caught up in the mechanics of communication, they forget the purpose of

the connection, the purpose of the communication is the connection. And even in our spiritual life,

our spiritual world, this can happen. We become experts in external forms while the heart of the

practice can be left untouched. We see that again and again. You really got to, in the same way,

we zoom out about our life. Sometimes you got to zoom out about our spiritual life as well.

You know, it's like someone who spent, right? It's like someone who spends years polishing their

musical instrument, but never actually plays the music. I think Einstein is talking about modern

civilization, but that observation lands just as deeply for my own personal inner life. Sometimes

the very things that were meant to bring us closer to truth, or meaning, or love, can become

technical exercises that just distract us from them. It's a factor of enough. And I think what

you're talking about, the inner life. Again, you know, Einstein, I did a little research. He was,

this was something that he wrote for for opening of a student conference in Berlin in 1930.

And he was speaking about acknowledging that humanity had become extraordinarily skilled at

developing tools and systems, such as engineering, machines, bureaucracy, industrial production.

But he worried that society had not developed the same clarity about what those tools should

actually serve. And I think you're right about like the inner life. In other words, spiritual life,

you know, we, in modern, like in the modern really superficial sense, and maybe like we think

it means wearing certain clothes, or belonging to the right yoga studio, or going to the right

retreat, or whatever kind of, you know, following the whatever, you know, latest guru, you know,

who was popular on the internet or something like that. But I think like in the more traditional

sense, it's also, there's a lot of externals, you know, yoga is like this that it's all meant to

affect the mind in a particular way, it's to lose extra, there's affect the internal, like

asana for instance, you know, through asana, all of the channels in the body can begin to flow smooth,

all of the different system, the respiratory system, the circulatory system, the digestive system,

the endocrine system. When all these systems are flowing smooth, then it gives you a peaceful

mind. And with that peaceful mind, you can actually meditate, you can go within. But we get all

into the asana, and I'm doing these tricky asanas, and I'm learning how to, you know, I'm trying

to move faster through a particular sequence of asanas, or I want to show the world that I can do

this scorpion thing, or whatever. And we're never even actually getting to having a peaceful

mind imitating, you know, it's like, maybe we even harm the body, you know, so it's like,

you got all into the detail, but you never, you know, you got all into the means, but you totally

lost touch with the goal, you know, so yeah, oftentimes we don't even get there. Yeah,

like we get to like, we don't even get to the point where like I want a peaceful mind,

which is very long learned that that was the goal. We didn't even really, and that was the goal,

and now in Bokti we're saying, actually, there's even more than a peaceful mind. We don't just

want to be peaceful. We want to be have a heart filled with love of God. We're even above the,

yeah, truthfully, the entire yoga practices to get us to suttva so the mind becomes very peaceful

because there's a wide behind the peaceful mind also. Right, even even that's a means,

in one sense, right? Even the peaceful mind is a means. I mean, nowadays we're so wrapped up in

the cacophony of material existence. You like that? Cacophony, you say?

Cacophony. Cacophony of material existence. We're so wrapped up in the cacophony.

A cornucopia. A cornucopia of material clashes. We're so wrapped up in that that we just think,

if my mind could just be peaceful, that's not even the goal of it. We want the peaceful mind

to get us to get us love of God. It's not interesting.

Right. And if you happen to do, and I'm reminded of a story. Oh, tell me, tell me why is

me? Buddha and Dwarfing. You tell me. I'm the mind story that I first heard. I heard from

Satchinandaswami about this person. I think he was like a Muslim. I don't know if he was like

some kind of Muslim wise man or Sadhu or he was definitely a character. Muslim character.

His name was Nasrudin. Nasrudin. Are you familiar with that? I know Bostrudin, the mixed martial

artist. I don't think that's what you're talking about. This is Nasrudin. Okay. No, it's different.

Nasrudin began crossing the border every day riding a donkey. He's crossing this border. He's

riding a donkey. And the border guards knew Nasrudin had a reputation for clever tricks.

So they were convinced that he must be smuggling something. You've heard this?

Tell me. So the border guards, so they were checking him. Every day they're inspecting and

searching. He's crossing the border every day. And they're inspecting his bags. They're checking

his clothing. They're looking underneath the saddle. There's blanket on top of the donkey.

They're taking the blanket off. They're shaking the blanket. They're not finding anything.

And day after day, this continues. Every day he's coming. Every day they're checking him.

And meanwhile, they noticed that he's like clearly making a lot of money because he's

kind of building a whole beautiful house in this town that you know that he's

crossing the border. He's definitely smuggling something. He's off to something.

And so this is making them more suspicious. You know, what is he doing? And so what did they do?

They intensified the searches, right? They started examining like the donkey's hooves.

And they're tearing up the saddle and the every strap and everything.

Still, they don't find anything. And years passed like this. And then afterwards,

some years later, finally, one of the guards was retired. And one day he met this,

Nasrudin in the marketplace. He bumped into him. He said, Nasrudin, now that I'm retired,

you can like tell me what was going on. You know, you're not in trouble. But you had to be

smuggling something. What was it? And Nasrudin was a donkey smuggler. Thanks for stealing

the punchline. I don't punchline. Thanks. Thanks. I was smuggling. I just got my honkies.

He was smuggling donkeys, right? He was smuggling donkeys. So they were they were searching every

what was what should have been obvious and right in front of their face. It was right in front of

their face. They're missing the force for the trees, right? And that happens in spiritual life.

We need we spiritual life in what to speak of we call like religion, right? It's so full of

ritual. It's so full of practices. It's so full of etiquette. It's so full of morality and ethics.

It's got books in books of external things that are there for purpose, that are there for the

purpose of helping us go deeper into the internal thing. But it's very common. It is very common

that the external things over that they kind of hide. We get so caught up in the external

things that we can't even see the internal thing anymore. And we begin to think that that's all

about the external things, right? In the Vedic context, you know, doing the ritual properly,

doing the intonation properly, you know, you know, you're not respecting me properly. You're supposed

to do this. Hey, sit down over there. Don't sit over there. Hey, stand up there. Where were you?

You know, it's like all the, it's not that the details are unimportant. But you know, sometimes

people become cruel in the name of carrying out these externals when really it's all supposed

to make us really softhearted and compassionate and kind, right? It's not unusual, right? You have

to bring it back to that. Or else, yeah, you get caught up on this. Yeah, it's like a steam roller

of the international society of rules and regulations. Yeah. There's always got to be someone that

gets it so deeply that they keep trying to create that's where you come in. You know,

there you go, Pranapriya. Keep us on track. I think this is, this reminds us me and

Pranapriya, myself, we did the final edit yesterday of Dix Pillars. Doesn't it remind you of

Six Pillars? It does. Yeah. Because it's, it's one of these things that people want the highest thing.

And they figure out, I've just got to go, I've just got to bang my fist harder against the vault.

You don't. You know, the vault's not going to open unless you get these lower things, right?

And these lower things are those Six Pillars that turn out a piece in Uchena. You can't, those

are non-negotiable. I've got you. You got it. Right. To be more humble, to not hold resentment,

to see good and other people, to treat other people with dignity, to not criticize people.

These are non-negotiables, not just in our spiritual path, in any spiritual path. But we always

want to hear in our tradition. We're always talking about a gopibob or we're trying to go into

this deep esoterica without first understanding the combination to the vault. We're not going to

get it. It's not going to make sense to us. We're going to get in that vault. We're not going to

get in that vault. We're just going to be performing. And spiritual life is not meant to be a performance.

Spiritual life is meant to be lived. You don't even have to preach spiritual life. You just have to

apply spiritual life. And that is the preaching. If you apply it to your life, then I see, oh,

look at Kostuba. I want to be like this guy. Look at Pranapuri. I want to be like her.

Right. You don't have to preach to me. I see how you live. I like you. I want to be like,

it's that simple. Right. And you know, I was actually speaking about something very similar to

this last night because in the Q&A, I was asked, you know, about like, how do we go deeper into

chanting this whole ending? You know, and I say, you know, there are things like techniques and so

on. And I'm not putting techniques down. You know, hey, you know, here's an affirmation, say before

every time you chant around, tell yourself, oh, yeah, great, great point. Oh, I like this. I like

where you're going. Just keep going. Keep going. Just don't steal a punch line. I'm not going to

set this all up for you to go and steal the punch line. Okay. You're like, set it up. Set it

up. And then you come over. So I can knock it all down. No, but yes. So like, you know, I'm not

putting those things down. And even greater chariots have shared techniques for like, say,

chanting the holy name, but really far more emphasis is given to the broader way that you live,

right? Trinata piece in each end up. Be more tolerant. Be more humble than a blade of grass.

Be more tolerant than a treat. Like as you're living your whole day, not just when you're

chanting, right? But like as you're living your whole day, learn to respect every living being.

Let go of the need for any kind of recognition or respect for yourself. Don't let your mind get caught

up in all of these loops. Leave bandwidth in your mind by letting go of all of that so that you can

absorb your mind and chanting. Then when you sit down to chant, you'll be able to go into a state of

unwavering, you know, meditative absorption. If you don't do that, you can just try all these

different techniques and they're not going to really do all that much for you, right? And then

you can make it a world of techniques. Yeah. And never really get into to the actual depth of it all.

And you know what Lila, we've read today, Roganath. It's the ultimate example of this.

It's the ultimate example of that is forget all the high, this technical, our concept of high

technical spirituality. They failed, right? They failed. They failed. And who won? Who won? The people with

the softest heart. The simple hearted. Yeah. This story is so important and it's a bit of a spoiler,

but the idea that here were these men that were very expert, very learned at the techniques,

you know, you're really going to spoil the story. I'm going to spoil it. Why?

Let's just read the story. Yeah. I mean, I think people kind of heard it anyway, but because it

can take days down fold, but but but in the conclusion, they realized exactly as you're saying,

we're not by their preaching, but by their example, they saw in their own wives. We're into all

the techniques. We're into all the externals and we miss the essence of it. They were honed in on

the essence of it. So then they say to hell with all our mantras, to hell with all our rituals,

to hell with all the learning and the austerities that we did. What good is it? If we just if it just

makes us proud and we completely miss the whole point of it all. And so this, this, um, Lila,

this story here and thought that very important, right? Very important one. Love it.

All right, Ryan and the masquerade, I'm chai, vana, rota, mam, devim, saraswa, timya, santa, toja, yam,

mudire, yet, before we start in the shimabagwa time, which is our very means a conquest, one should

offer respectful obeisances to the supreme Lord Narayan, unto Nara, Narayan, Rishi, the supermost

unto Mother Saraswati, the goddess of learning at the Shulaviyasaday of the author.

Tuz my ashi, go to Veda, maha. I was born, the darkness of being there and some of my teachers

are opening my eyes with a towards side of knowledge. I offer obeisances at their lotus feet,

reading from the Shri Mabagwa time, can't attend chapter 23, text one, text one, the Brahmin's wives

title. Brahmin's wives blessed. The Brahmin's wives blessed. Really exciting here.

The cowherd boys said, oh Rama, Rama, mighty armed one. Sometimes, oh that's balleram they're talking.

Yeah, Rama, mighty armed. That's a way of saying you're pretty strong, you mighty armed one.

Oh Krishna, oh chastiser of the wicked. We are being harassed by hunger and you should do

something about it. Now remember in the purport, the last purport of the chapter previously,

they said they actually weren't that hungry, but they could sense that Christian balleram were

hunger hungry, so they fained hunger, so they could get some food for Christian balleram.

Sookadego Swami. Yeah, go for it. Sookadego Swami said,

hey, thus entreated by the cowherd boys, the supreme personality of Godhead, the son of David

replied, as follows, desiring to please, certain of his devotees who were Brahmin's wives,

Lord Krishna said, please go to the sacrificial arena where this group of Brahmins

learned in the Vedic injunctions are now performing the Ungirasa sacrifice to gain promotion.

Can we look that up? Prana. She's like, I'm not a Ungirasa. Ungirasa. So they're doing some

sacrifice. So this is for materialistic purpose to go to heaven, meaning to go to higher planets

in the universe and enjoy longer lives and greater pleasures. It's interesting because they're

there's fire rituals, there's japa rituals, they're that all do different things. It's not like,

they all look in one sense the same, but they're all different, their intention is different.

The Ungirasa sacrifice is where divine seers and flames of Agni perform a ritual to destroy

darkness and recover the cows, which are the symbols of light and truth hidden by Vala.

That was pretty good. This is the performers, the Ungirasa are the seven original

sages or human fathers who assist gods in destroying Vala.

Okay, so I guess that was there. These Brahmins are kind of

following that that must have been described in earlier text and they're following that and

trying to do it on their own. They're in Vrndavana and they're trying to go on the heavenly planet.

They're in Vrndavana with Krishna and they're looking right over them. They're looking right

over his head to go to something higher. Isn't that interesting?

Thus, entreated by the Coward Boas, text four please.

Text four. Okay, there we go. When you go there, my dear Coward Boas,

simply request some food. Declare to them the name of my elder brother, the Supreme Lord

Balaram and also my name and explain that you have been sent by us, right? So go to these

high priests say, I've been sent by Krishna and Balaram for some food. Now, if you see these beautiful

sacrifices, those those sacrifices are they're surrounded by pious and bananas. I'm not sure if that's

what this was. You know, let's read. Let's see. I think it's okay. Well, I'm not saying what

was no fruit. But I think that's just revealing that whenever you're at one of these events,

you're looking at that food. You're looking at the fruits. Oh, look at you. Look at Panafria laughing

with the soup jointly at me. You're looking at that. That's a nice looking papaya over there. Oh, you too.

It's thus instructed by the Supreme Persona of God. Had the Coward Boas went there and submitted

their request. They stood before the Brahmanas with palms joined in supplication and then fell flat

on the ground to offer respect. Okay, they came with respect with respect. You know,

yeah, they weren't arrogant. They were little Coward Boas. The Coward Boas said,

oh, earthly gods, please hear us. That's a pretty respectful way to address someone. Oh, earthly

God. Oh, earthly gods, please hear us. We, Coward Boas are executing the orders of Krishna. And we

have been sent here by Balaram. We wish you all good. We wish all good for you. Please acknowledge

our arrival. Imagine how they were very sweet little coward children. Why don't you read the

commentary on this? Okay. Now, the term Bumi Deva gods of earth refer to the Brahmins who are

supposed to closely represent the will of the Supreme Lord. The philosophy of Krishna consciousness

is not a primitive polytheistic doctrine holding that human beings on the earth are gods. Rather,

it is a science that traces the descent of authority from the absolute truth, Krishna himself.

Very interesting. The authority and the power of God naturally extend along with the

with the extension of his creation. And on the earth, the Lord's will and authority are represented,

are represented by purified and lightened men called Brahmins. This account will illustrate

that the originalistic Brahmins approached by the Coward Boas were not at all properly

enlightened and thus could not appreciate the position of Krishna and Balaram or that of their

intimate associates. In fact, this pastime exposes the pretentious position of so-called Brahmins

who were not faithful devotees of the Supreme Lord. Very powerful stuff here. Okay. So they

started turning. I was just going to say here that it said that it's not used this term

Bumi Deva. You're the gods of earth. And then in the commentary, it's being carefully pointed

out that it's not saying that these are actually like gods, but rather they were representing

and actually being empowered by the authority of God due to the ideally due to the depth of their

realizations, right? That someone realizes who they are, who God is, what this world is so clearly

that they become a living representative of that truth and they naturally carry a type of

authority, a type of, you know, when they speak, they speak truth. It's not clouded by Mr. Perst's

tabtion. It's not clouded by selfishness in any way. And so the boys are going up and they're

assuming that because of their Brahmins that they embody this, right? Now of course they didn't

in the long run, but that was the assumption, right? That we're going to respect you just,

you know, assuming that playing this role in society that you're really living up to it.

Very interesting concept that there's a demographic of person that purifies their consciousness

that they become like an access point to higher truths. Yeah. Right? No, interesting. Yeah.

We need people like that. Yeah, of course. And we search for people like them. They are the

real heroes. We've replaced them with like Marvel comic book heroes that are like almost fantastic

because we want to go higher and almost like instinctually we want to be more empowered.

But these modern day ones are not going to give it to us. We replace it with sport stars or movie

stars or red carpets or Oscar winners or blah, blah, blah. But there are people who have refined

their life. Now they're also imitations. There's also people who don't represent that. And this

is what we're getting to in this. And that happened even back then. There you go. False

romans. Yeah. Oh, Lord Rama. It's the false prophets because still remember the false prophets.

Yes, I do. Step on the monkey skull.

Lord ramen. Proud of me. There's no idea what we're talking about.

The toxic name of the song. You and Christopher are living in our own private 1981 hardcore world right

now. It's the only one to listen to all the people in the world. There's only a tiny sliver

of demographic who knows what we're talking about. And you do. You need. We know we're going

out. We understand one another. See? That's why we're just there's a band. Maybe I would love to

understand who you and I were in our last life that we've been bound together. Even before

our spiritual life. That was sort of like we were meant to come together and then you know

and then interesting and then come together again. Maybe we were brothers.

Maybe. Maybe maybe you maybe you might be older brother. Maybe you were married.

Could be married. You're bigger. Oh, no. A couple perhaps. Maybe that's why we're

hard keeps calling out for like like embracing you know. Yeah. I missed the way it used to be.

I missed the way he used to look at me. You're like that husband like I'm over this. I'm

over her. But there was this band called the false prophets. How can we recreate that romance?

Costuba. We don't need to recognize we're in different forms now. Just let it go. Just let it

go. Don't try to go back. You can go forward. Okay. But there was a band called the false prophets.

And the guy Steph von who is the you see I was 15 years old. We're going to I walk an urban plaza.

I've never seen anything like this. Everybody like these are like real punks like real punk rockers.

Like he had like a long leather trench coat. He carried. Now he's a monkey skull on it.

He had a Hitler mustache. He had a Hitler mustache.

Such a crazy kind of like a leather and and I thought

and I'm looking at him. You know, he's like I don't know like 30 years old or something at that time.

Maybe there's 25 but you look but that's seem like really old. And and I'm looking at him.

They say, well, these guys are scary. Like it didn't take me long to realize the guy you got to be

afraid of in this scene. But but at first glance, I was like, this is like if what's he going to do?

He's got to like, I swore with him. It seems like he put a whip down a sword or some type of a

medieval weapon. Anything. Yeah. Anyway, very few people know about him except maybe you,

me, Parmin and a handful of other listeners out there. All right.

All right. It's like these little things bond us.

Cutter, Casuba and make us respect the old memories. That's right.

Make me want to embrace it. It's meaningful. It's deeply meaningful.

You know, I miss you. I miss the way it was.

Okay.

All right. Text number seven.

Text seven. Lord Rama and Lord Achuta, Krishna, are tending their cows not far from here.

They are hungry and want to and want you to give them some of your food.

So obviously there were some fruits and vegetables around their fire.

Therefore, I'm sorry. I'm I'm I'm lagging here. So I didn't hear this. It said that they

there are cows. They're hungry. Give them promise. Best of nos religion. If you have faith,

please give them. So what do you talk about? How do you know that that's the thing about?

What do you think they had a little lunchbox with them?

I think they make offerings of food as part of the ritual.

Maybe. How's that for possibly? Well, I think it can also be fruit. How many fire sacrifices have

you seen? What's filled with papayas and bananas and coconuts? We haven't even heard that there's

a fire there yet. They're performing sacrifice. What else do they do?

Well, why don't we read it? Why don't we read the commentary? Let's see if we can figure this out.

I've been meditating on this past time for 36 years and now you're about to shatter the whole

vision. That's why I want to clear this up. I want to clear it off. In the Agni-Sira. No, they said

it's Agni. It's called the Agni. What's it called? The Agni-Sira sacrifice. There's fire in there.

Regardless, it doesn't mean that there's fruits run. Agni-Ross.

Let me finish reading it. You cut me off with your lag.

I'm sorry. Lord Rama and Lord Achoota are tending their cows.

They are not far from here. They are hungry and want you to give them some food, some of their food,

and they want you to give them some of your food.

Therefore, O Brahminas, O best of the knowers of Dharma, knowers of religion. If you have faith,

please give some food to them.

The Coward boys doubted the generosity of the Brahminas. And thus, they used this word

babuk shitao, meaning that Christian and Balarama are hungry. The boys expected the Brahminas to

know the Vedic injunction, anasya, suditam, paparam. Anyone who is hungry is a fit candidate

for receiving food in charity. But if the Brahminas would not recognize the authority of Christian

and Balarama, their title of Dhuija, the Brahmin, would be taken to mean merely born from two

parents, Dvija. So Dvija means high born, like or twice born, almost like your bar mitzvah,

right? You're getting your second birth. But you could break the word down to meaning

born from two. Dvija, born from two. So when the Brahminas did not respond to the Coward boys'

initial request, the boys addressed the Brahminas with a slight trace of sarcasm.

As dharma vittamaha, O best of the knowers of dharma.

Okay, sarcastic little coward boys.

Except during the interval between the initiation of the performer of the sacrifice and the actual

sacrifice of the animal. What? The sacrifice of an animal? Yeah. I don't like that. I do not like that.

Me neither. All my animal rights activist stuff flags went up. Almost pure Brahminas.

It is not contaminating for even the initiated to partake of food. At least in the sacrifices other

than the Sotramani. What the hell's going on here? Commentary.

The Coward boys anticipated the possible objection from the Brahminas that they couldn't give

the boys any food because they themselves had not yet eaten and that a priest initiated to

perform a sacrifice should not eat. Therefore, the boys humbly informed the Brahminas that various

technical technicalities of ritualistic sacrifice. The Coward boys were not aware. We're not unaware

of the formalities of their culture. We're not unaware of the formalities of their culture,

but their real intention was simply to render loving service to Lord Krishna. Let's not be naive

here. Within what we call Hinduism is a whole varied idea of rituals, sacrifices. When you get

into Krishna Bhakti, it's all very satvik and high level. But there's very dark ones as well

within what we call Hinduism. There's ones where you're sacrificing animals. The intentions aren't

as pure. There's black magic. That's all part of Sanatana Dharma. We're not waving the flag,

supporting it, but it's there as well. The first time I went to India and went to Maipur,

I went during the Kali Pooja, so the worship of Kali, and I was like, oh, worship of the God

is how nice. I went alone across the river to Navajwip, and like, wow, look at all these goats,

how nice. It's like a petting zoo. No, they were sacrificing all these goats to Kali. It was like

my animal rights flags, all of them. It was shocking. It was really, really like horrific,

and I had to realize, okay, this is not my path. This is some other path. I'm not into this.

I'm not judging them for doing it. I don't think it's cool, but there's a lot of things within

Hinduism that looks externally like Bhakti. They've got Dodion, they've got a robe on,

they've got a cheddar on, they've got some tea lock markings on their forehead, but this isn't

what I practice. Did you ever see those goat sacrifice? I've never seen a goat sacrifice,

but I've seen the place of sacrifice afterward. It wasn't a pretty sight. It's a pretty.

It's a pretty. We're not into that people. We're not into that.

Okay, and I'm sure they are, I don't know, I'm not sure. I'm not sure, but it's for some type of

material powers or something. Okay, I think. Well, you have material boons of some sort or

another. A boon, yes, a boon. Okay, the Brahmin has heard this application.

The Brahmin has heard this application from the Supreme Personality of Godhead,

yet they refuse to pay heed. Okay, indeed, they were full of petty desires and entangled

in elaborate rituals, though presuming themselves advanced and Vedic learning,

they were actually inexperienced fools. Okay, there's a lot different than the

Christian book translation. I'm appreciating this right now. Well, you know what, Ronath,

just what if we just, you know, and I have to guard myself? You better. Thank you.

Please. When I hear stories involved with Tom, my natural inclination is to always assume

that I'm on the side of the people that are Godhead straight, but really, you know, we're meant to

hear these in such a way to look within our own heart and see how much we embody the, you know,

the ones who have something to learn, you know. Oh, I like this. I like this goes to that. Like

you're saying, you, how much am I one of these Brahmin? How much are you one of these Brahmin? You

know, you walk around and you're dode and you're locked, you know, giving, you know, answering

people's questions, but how wrapped up in your own rituals? Are you a very,

a lot of rituals, you got rituals, you got rituals. Okay. But, but, but hear this out and think

about this, all of us can think about this. The Brahmin has heard this supplication from the supreme

personality of Godhead, yet they refuse to pay heed. Do we hear this? I assume the word

supplication means I call, right? Brown period, could you look up the word supplication?

I need to figure that out first before we make any assumptions, right? Supplication,

supplicated Brahmin itself beneath another to make a humble and treaty to ask humbly and earnestly

of. Yes. So the Brahmin has heard this supplication from the supreme personality of Godhead,

yet they refuse to pay heed. How much are we being supplicated by the supreme and we refuse

to pay heed? You know, whether it's coming through scripture, whether it's coming through

you know, the Vaishnavas inviting us to serve in some way, inviting us to step up to higher level

of service, a higher level of awareness, a higher level of consciousness, that supplications

there all the time. How often do we refuse to pay heed to it? And could it be that our reason is

because we are full of petty desires that we've become more distracted, involved with other things

that just are preventing us from hearing that supplication? So these men were so, it says they were

entangled in elaborate rituals. They were presuming themselves advanced, right? But they were

actually an experience. They didn't, they've never really experienced what it's like to give yourself

entirely to God. They're doing all these rituals that are, they're designed, they're full of hymns

that are like God, I am yours, right? But and they're saying those words and chatting those hymns,

but they've never done it from the heart. They've never actually really given themselves,

they're refusing to pay heed to God's supplications, and they're entangled in their petty desires.

Why don't you read the comment you had this one, Ravana?

The childless Brahminas were full of petty desires, such as the desire to attain material heaven.

And therefore, they could not recognize the golden transcendental opportunity offered them by the

arrival of Krishna's personal boyfriends. Right. Presently throughout the world, people are

madly pursuing material advancement, and thus cannot hear the message of the Supreme Lord Krishna

that is being broadcast through the missionary activities of the Krishna conscious movement.

Times have hardly changed, and proud materialistic priests are still prevalent on the earth.

There you go. Let me interesting. I think we're out of time, Ravana. And that means we don't

come back again until Monday. Tuesday. Tuesday. Whoa. I'm going to miss everybody.

All right. Well, everyone, remember that sign up for Sage Group on Monday morning,

9 a.m. Eastern time. Get in a good, get in your favorite group, right?

They fill up quickly. They fill up quickly. Yeah. They fill up quickly.

And a memory to get on my mailing list, because I'm going to figure out, once Katie gets here,

I'm going to figure out how to get out my, uh, um,

yeah, we're of instruction. Yeah. Workshop. Figure that out yet.

But yeah. All right. Ready for some takeaways? Please. I'm ready, Prana.

Sometimes the things meant to bring us closer to truth can distract us from it.

Think, yeah, good, good. Don't lose touch with the goal. Don't lose touch.

There's a why behind our peaceful mind. Why? That'll make you cry.

It's all intended to bring us to love and soft hardness, not to rules and regulations.

Yeah, Kastuba. What was that right there? I just said, yeah, Kastuba.

Now you're lying about it, you see? On top of it.

Spiritual life isn't a performance. It's not a performance.

You don't need to preach. You just need to apply spiritual principles and live.

Yeah. Should we just keep putting each other's names at the end of the week?

What else you got? Don't miss the essence because of the rituals and techniques.

Prana Priya.

Hey, Ann.

Are we like the petty and experienced ritualistic Brahminas?

I think you're going to have something about me because you'd be married.

That wasn't a take away.

Are we like Richard Petty or are we like Tom Petty?

What? What's Tom Petty?

Tom Petty? Oh, Tom Petty, like being petty. Don't be petty.

Tom Petty, Richard Petty. Don't forget who Richard Petty is, right?

Who's Richard Petty? I see. You forgot.

NASCAR driver or something? There you go.

Oh, all right. I got that. Thanks everybody for joining us.

Ah, another beautiful.

There's a Wednesday.

All right.