1693: Bhakti for Beginners: Doing It Right & Keeping It Real / Q&A Vol. 290
Wisdom of the Sages
David Ramella
4.9 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 6 November 2025
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Recorded live in Jaipur, this Q&A episode dives into real beginner questions on the path of bhakti—with Raghunath and Kaustubha responding with both insight and humor. What exactly is bhakti? How do you know if you're practicing it right? Can other forms of yoga or breathwork support your devotion? What's the deal with chanting "16 rounds"—and what if you're not there yet? Through conversations with first-time pilgrims and new practitioners, this episode reveals what genuine spiritual growth looks like: personal, flexible, joyful, and deeply human.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | if you had just discovered a Bhakti guru living in Vrindavan or somewhere in India or something like that, |
| 0:07.0 | you know, in a traditional context, they would have just met with you and said, let's see where you're at. |
| 0:13.0 | Let's see, okay, you know, one person they're going to advise, walk away from everything. |
| 0:18.0 | This is the time in life that you should do that and chant 64 rounds a day and read Bogotam the whole rest of the day and don't do anything else. I'm going to see to it that you get the food that you need and you get the hut to live in and you're going to be just fine. And someone would just walk away from everything. And another person say, oh, stay in your family, take care of your family. but, but, you know, install the deedy in your home, make the deedy at the center of your home, go to work, you know, be responsible socially and in terms of your family, do all of that. And you're going to have time to chant, I think, eight good rounds a day. That's what I want you to do. I also want you to read Bob and Tom for half an hour a day. And then you do that for some time. |
| 0:58.8 | And then they would reevaluate that with time. And in this way, they'd be tailoring a Bhakti sadhana practice for you. |
| 1:09.5 | So that's what you need. Whatever it is, that's what you need. And you need it |
| 1:13.3 | in a way that it's always moving forward so that you, you know, that you're always taking that |
| 1:19.0 | next step. You're always aware of, you know, mastering the step that you're at, going deep as |
| 1:23.7 | what Raghinaw is saying, do less but do it better doing better what you do and then you'll |
| 1:28.5 | see that you'll you'll start to want to chant more yourself and and christian will change things in |
| 1:35.4 | your life in ways that you never knew would happen and and so so we need to find you like a good |
| 1:42.1 | bhakti sada for you to practice you know a good amountaktisadna for you to practice. |
| 1:48.7 | You know, a good amount of Japa that you're going to chant. |
| 1:53.7 | We need to make sure that you're reading and learning and absorbing yourself in these texts. |
| 1:56.8 | We need to make sure that you're getting good association somehow or other. |
| 2:24.0 | Even if you live really isolated, we have our sage groups and things like that now. We need to make sure that you have some time in the holy places that'll be a huge game changer in your life and you're doing that right now so like if there needs to be a little daily ritual in your life we need to find where that works that works for you and in this way you take the most potent practices of buckley and you make them a part of your life wherever you are right now, wherever you're at. And you're not worried that, oh, |
| 2:31.2 | I'm not chanting 16, so I'm not worthy, I'm bad. That we need to understand that that's not, |
| 2:34.8 | I'm not initiated. We need to understand what these terms mean and how they're coming down but let's let's find you a good practice and let's get you practicing |
| 2:41.0 | that better and better and then at a certain point it's going to come from you I want to do more |
| 2:46.2 | you know then we're going to figure out you know hey what's the next thing for Claire |
| 2:50.5 | that's really helpful and that ever ends you know it's not like now I've chanted 16 rounds, now I'm initiated, now I'm complete. The cup is, it's not like that. Where you are now, to where you are then, to where you are 10 years from there, you'll always fear, how can I add more, how can I refine, how can I polish? |
| 3:08.5 | Guess what? I've got some great news for you. You want to join the club? You don't have to wait. |
... |
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