Episode 44

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Published on:

26th Aug 2025

#44 - Change Your Mood Through Spiritual Exploration: Under Maple Trees in Buffalo

Two friends under the old maple trees by St. Louis Church in Buffalo, sorting through the sweetness and struggles of daily spiritual life, sharing quiet joy, simple living, and a soft turn toward vanaprastha. Buffalo’s oldest Catholic church at our backs, prayer beads in hand, we talk sadhana-bhakti, offer gratitude to our teachers, and invite you to breathe and chant along. This one includes a gentle Gauranga practice you can join in real time. Come sit with us, if you’re looking for warmth, slow moments, or just some chanting in the grass while the world hums by, you’ll feel right at home with us. Blessings, peace, and a few ants included.

Transcript
Speaker:

don't sit at my feet I will sit at your feet

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I don't want you to think that people just sit like

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there no

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I'm sitting here that's perfect

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how does that look I think it looks marvelous

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you always pick great places

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can you keep this all in hmm

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can you keep all this what

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this car today it's not this car

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we always keep the beginning inside

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yeah well

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they just have the bell ringing

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and it's nice for people to see

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there's not some giant production crew here

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no it's just us

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okay Haribo Haribo Namaste

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peace be with you and upon you

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uh this is really

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it's nice to see you again

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thanks for tuning in

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this is juicy magic on the daily

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and I'm Mark and I'm Maria

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and it's our pleasure to greet you and welcome you

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um we're in Buffalo

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New York

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of all places of all places

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but you know that the more you learn about Buffalo

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the more you realize what an amazing

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amazing city

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small but beautiful

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and a very important part of American history

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my father my my

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my temporary father

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my dad he was an American

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uh history buff and teacher

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and I've been coming to Buffalo for many

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many decades

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so we're here in the courtyard of a beautiful

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beautiful church uh

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the church of Saint Louis

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I know

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the oldest Roman Catholic church in Western New York

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hmm

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and it is beautiful it's behind us

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unfortunately it's not open to the public right now um

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there's stained glass windows

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but we're sitting in the courtyard under some gorgeous

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gorgeous maple trees

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more than an hour now we've just been hanging out

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we're attempting this aspect of the varnashram system

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uh in this Varna that we're

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this ashram that we're in right now

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is called Varna Prost or is that the

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it's the Varna

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no no

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that's the astral

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the Varna would be hopefully bremenical

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bremenical means of the quality of goodness

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where we're where our whole focus is in

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in hearing and repeating and with

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with experience and wisdom the absolute truth

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so we offer our respectful obeisances

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to all our teachers and gurus in our Sampradaya

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and we're very grateful for this time and place

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yeah we're just lying under the trees

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watching all the creatures

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all the spiders and peace and all the men

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sorry no

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no go

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go go

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I'm just so excited it's nice to be back

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I've missed this process

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I've missed this being a part of my regular life

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we've been very very

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very busy not busy

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busy

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but just engaged in both of our biological families

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and helping them with various estate things and

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and we can really see that after 50

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in the Vedic system

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it's really encouraged to begin to sort of

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pull back

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from all the minutia of family and business life

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we don't abandon or reject

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reject anything but we realize that

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you know

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we're at least halfway through

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we're on the back nine as they say in golf

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you know the last nine of the 18 holes of this chapter

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in this body so it's a really good idea at this point

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if we've made it this far

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because we can leave at any time to really begin to

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Van vanaprasth means forest dwelling

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it's like the prequel to really full renunciation of

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of all the things that are holding us back

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from complete surrender

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unto the supreme personality of Godhead

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Shri Krishna

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he who's all attractive this is not a Hindu

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Demi god or something like that

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we're just talking about the supreme being

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the supreme energy the supreme person God

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our father Abba Allah

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Abba Rovinda

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Adonai Alohim

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so many names Yahweh God

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but the forest Ella

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can also be just sitting under a tree in a courtyard

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which we're doing here reading

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she was reading it was amazing

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we're just switching between chanting and our beads

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and reading scripture and then chanting again

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and reading scripture and sharing

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it's so awesome because you know

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like you get all this incredibly sweet nectar of wisdom

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which you can then right away apply

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and we always try to chant the third prayer of Lord

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Shatanya before we chant

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which is one can chant the holy names of the Lord

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in a humble state of mind

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yeah let's chant it 1

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two 3

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one should chant is it should or could chant

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one should one should 1 2 3 one should chant the

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hey we have some friends Terry and Mritz

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you out and we wanna say hi to you hi

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cause like

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there's like so few people that are actually tuning in

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and we really are grateful for anyone that's tuning in

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too

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because we wanna share this information with the world

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unconditionally and freely and um

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without any force you know

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force and aggression and anger

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those are those are the the um

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fanatical aspects that can occur and you know

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unfortunately in our lives

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all of us are guilty of that

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and you know we're

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we're very grateful for this period of time

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in our life we have a unique time and circumstance

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and situation that's allowing us to live on a very very

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very modest budget oh

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we spent like $2 today

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58 cents per person and still that's like we're like

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that's a splurge do you know what we're

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and in the Vona Vona Prost part of life

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which is we're also really trying to attempting

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you know it's not like we are

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there are so many stories of real mendicants

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and saints

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and people who are so much more advanced than us

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but we're trying

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and what we're noticing is that more and more

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we just try to keep relying on the supreme beings

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Grace and generosity and we get

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we find almost everything we really need

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I just wanted to put the stained glass windows inside

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you know

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I know we're not we're not gonna sleep out here tonight

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we're no

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I mean I I definitely would try that but you know

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there's also I you know we're

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there's two of us and we have to be mindful of that

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so that's why we have the

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the juicy Magic mobile that we use that as our house

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and we got all kinds of cool creatures here

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crawling all over us there's so many good spiders here

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and everybody's hearing this transcendental sound

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vibration through the scripture through the Holy Names

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and um

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uh Terry WhatsApp or sorry

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um Terry congratulations

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we did a successful little business venture together

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that's cool and us Merci

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I'll get back to you on WhatsApp with your questions

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lots of love brother keep on chanting the holy names

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um so we're in Buffalo

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New York and we're on our way to Miami to visit a very

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very uh very

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very special person and to visit a special temple

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and we're very nervous and excited at the same time

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so we thought it was a good idea to make a video

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kind of

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you know

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back a long time ago when I was on the impersonal path

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I I had a moment like this

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with my oldest childhood friend

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and we were going to a Vespasian center

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in December of 1997

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and I really knew that this was like

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the beginning of one life

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and the beginning of

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the end of one life and the beginning

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of another and I remember saying to him

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see you on the other side

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of this 10 day silent meditation retreat

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I'm so grateful to that process and what it taught me

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and also what it lacked for me and what I needed

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what I couldn't get from it

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and and now that

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which LED me to this process of Sadhana Bhakti Yoga

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and the practicing of god

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consciousness and self realization

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it's just so sweet and it's

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it's ever fresh

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it's always making me feel really

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simultaneously small and ineffectual

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but at the same time really satisfied and happy

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I'm so grateful

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I can discuss this matters with a person like you

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likewise likewise

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and we're going down to associate with other people

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who are engaged in this practice

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and we're nervous and excited

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and we're like little kids

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you know we're like 13

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14 again and

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and um

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you know we're trying to find some nice things to bring

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and offer I wanna offer a song

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a very beautiful poem by one of our Sikhs Guru's great

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great great grandfather

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so to speak and

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you know my material mind is I hope I sound okay

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but really

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I just hope that I can offer it from my heart

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with genuine sincerity creep up in the day

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I thought you wanted to sing I Wanna be your friend

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you're playing this

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CD that you showed me oh

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I'd like to be friends with you

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yeah I'd like to be friends with you

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I'm sorry well

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that's one of my other wonderful

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Shakespeare who wrote a beautiful Western English song

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so beautiful

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this album is from the 70s or 80s

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it's very touching

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and it's English and everybody understands it well

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that's okay I think I'll stick to it

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I'm sorry I can't sing that one no no

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um

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yeah so we're

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you know

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we're going down to bring some physical things to offer

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and some donations to this beautiful

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sacred the Vedic

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Sacred Vedic what's the name of the temple

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Sacred Vedic Arts Temple

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Sacred Vedic Arts Temple in Miami of all places

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um I always

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Miami always kind of intimidated me before

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now I can't wait to get there

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you know Miami is always so hot and humid

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and full of glitz and glam

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I like the other side of Florida

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I grew up my grandparents were close to Tampa

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and the golf side and the Atlantic side

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I've never been to temple

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maybe you can take me one day

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there's a really cool

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Salvador Dali museum in Saint Petersburg

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so we're back to Salvador Dali

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yeah

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Mother Teresa and Salvador Dali

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seemed to pop up everywhere we went in Europe

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during our six month journey there

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it's funny these two but I didn't know that

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Salvador Dali was such a devout Catholic

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and he created such beautiful art

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relating to the Bible and to the old and New Testament

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and to the resurrection and to Jesus Christ

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of Nazareth and and

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and then of course Mother Teresa was just so simple

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and plain

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and profound in her devotion to the sick and the poor

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which is so humbling you know

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when you when you think

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when I think of the little bits in life that I've done

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but anyway

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but that no

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but that the thing is

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that's the importance of associating with others

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who are far more advanced than oneself

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is that it helps to keep us really

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in Grace and humility which are the

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I mean all these qualities that we really want to have

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at the time we leave our body

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they're the hardest to develop

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they're so elusive and effusive

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and our false

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perverted ego gets in the way that I am god

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as opposed to real ego I am the humble

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loving servant of the Supreme Being

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I always am and always will be

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so we're in Buffalo

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sitting under trees we spent the whole afternoon here

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in this little courtyard

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only one little tourist came over

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it's we've had the whole courtyard to ourselves

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we didn't get in the church

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but we created a church like atmosphere here

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wherever two or more gathered in my name

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there I am between them so

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this is our practice every day

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in this sort of attempting the retired order of life

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as we try to gradually slowly

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I really like being forest bros yes

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just sitting on the trees

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thank you I know

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so we greet you and it's good to be back

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we're gonna be making our more videos again

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we've sort of boy

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we've been deep into the heart of householder life

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and helping others with and taxation

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taxes and Jeez Louise um yeah

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we've been in the thick of it as they say

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but it's nice we're feeling very

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it's done now today and for the next 10 days

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we're on this little mini pilgrimage

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and we'll be going back to Miami in November

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and it's our commitment to you

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and our community out there

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and all living entities

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that we'll try to make more of these every day again

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like we did when we were over

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on the other side of the ocean and

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and we're we do what

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we have set up things with our mothers and our

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our physical moms and those that are still in our

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you know circle to make things simpler and easier

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less expensive

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and which gives us more time to hear Shravana

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am kirtan and Vishnu Smaran hearing

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repeating and remembering

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which are really the first three stages of 9

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of devotional service to the Lord

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and it all starts with hearing

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especially from the right sources

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so all respects and thanks to our Sampradaya

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our disciple succession and to our Shiksha gurus

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and I'm praying for diksha for initiation

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and to to be a good disciple

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to accept discipline and to stick with it

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it's been 26 years since I was first introduced

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to this process and I've had lots of starts and stops

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and so I want to encourage you out there that

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don't ever give up keep going

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if you if you fell and got dusty and dirty

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pick yourself back up

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or by the mercy of others and association

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get back up and be thankful

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we're in a human form of life

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we have this incredible opportunity to

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actually develop our god consciousness

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and our self realization who

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who am I who is god

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what's our relationship

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what's all this material energy about

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what's my essence

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what's my position and function on the eternal plane

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sat chit Ananda Vigraha

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you know like

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this is what the human form of life is for

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we're not humans we're in a human body

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and this is this gives us great responsibility

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so let's not waste it we're trying

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we're praying not to waste it either

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and we're praying for you out there to not waste it

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and really use it for

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it's like if you have a Lamborghini

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don't just take it to the corner store for a soda

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get out on the Autobahn where there's no speed limits

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and I mean it's

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it's not such a great analogy because there are limits

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in any practice we have

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we actually accept certain limits and limitations

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in order to receive the knowledge is unlimited

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yes it's ever fresh

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every day our minds are being

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our hearts are being blown

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and this is just

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this this amazing process of Sahana Baki yoga

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the practice of reviving our natural

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loving relationship with the Supreme Being

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through transcendental union with him

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through serving him

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so

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on this beautiful day

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in the summer here in the Northern Hemisphere

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in a place called Buffalo

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New York we

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surrounded by some absolutely stunning

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Art Deco buildings the history in Buffalo is incredible

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we could get into you know

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you can see the results of hard sound money before

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that's another one before it was diluted and

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you know and you see proof of work okay

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you wanna put it in no

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no no

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we won't let's

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let's just they built the

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let's just do some garage

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a city hall yeah

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for $7 million

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and it was built to last 500 years

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and it looks incredible yes

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and the doors are the same

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the floors are the same literally 100 years later

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the doors are the same it's just amazing

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one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever been in

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on a material plane like obviously

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wherever the built able to add another 11 stories

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so it's not moving it's stable

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it's it's just marvelous

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mahogany doors oh mahogany

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mahogany mahogany mahogany

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I love how you say mahogany

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every time she makes up a new

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pronunciation of an English word

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I adopt it cause I love it

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you know and that's the thing uh

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especially with a spouse or friends or families

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learn to really love the idiosyncrasies

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of the people you're with

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because it's what makes life joyous and unique

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our differences

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we have more similarities and differences

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at a time of great distress in the world

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please don't get caught up in the bodily designations

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this label that label

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we're all on the same universal team

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there's only one team we're all on it

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there's this universe we're in

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and it's precious life is precious

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from those in with the body of a blade of grass

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up to the greatest life of an ant

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life of the Lord Brahma they're all

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life is precious we wish for world peace

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we wish for peace in your heart and your family

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and your neighborhood and your city and your province

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state and your nation state

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and across all oceans and lands

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across all living entities

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may all beings be happy peaceful and free

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one of the best ways and simplest ways in this age

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to feel that peace and love

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is through a little transcendental sound vibration

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let's do some let's do a little goraonga

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goraonga

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he whose body is more beautiful than molten gold

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the golden one this is referring to the Supreme Being

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and specifically the Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu

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and of whom we are part of

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it's a big one look at that

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hi Bob

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come on me

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let's brush him off

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there he is

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see we try not

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try and try not to commit any

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any unnecessary violence the world is violent

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the mature world is a violent place

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but we just try not to

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every day

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we pray not to engage in any unnecessary violence

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you know which means mostly

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just

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really

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trying to treat everything with respect and care

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everyone and everything

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cause none of it is ours

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it all belongs to the Supreme person

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the Supreme Lord God's the owner

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controller and Supreme friend of every living entity

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and all energies are from him

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material and spiritual energies

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so let's do some goronga we're gonna breathe in

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thinking of the sound goronga and on the exhalation

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the length of our breath when you do this on your own

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you can just time it so that it works for your breath

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but for

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just go along with us for 10 gorongas and then we'll uh

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say haribo namaste and wrap it up for the day

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ready breathing in

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let's bring the mind back to the sound workers

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go

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around

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five more times thinking of the SoundOn the exhalation

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wrong

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thinking of the sound going on on the inhalation

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go

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on

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one more time

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see

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even with all the noise and ants crawling all over me

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you can you can do this

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and you know I got a

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I got my body's been through the ringer

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I've got 31 years of an advanced disease

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and you know it's like

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this is the easiest

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and simplest and most effective process

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actually in this age

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it's recommended by all scriptures and authorities

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since the hearing and repeating

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God's names eventually purify the heart

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so that it's the means and the ends

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you know in the end

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you're chanting God's names in ecstasy

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with tears from your eyes

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that's not where I'm at

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but it also just cleans the heart of all the dust

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accumulated for years together

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gives us this taste of what

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the nectar for which we're always anxious

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we're always looking for nectar happiness and peace

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and feelings of fealty and love and devotion

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this makes us feel us

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the living entity makes us feel really good

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so

523

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any last words my dear one

524

:

I'm just it's just my head is empty after chanting

525

:

I'm just I'm just content where I am content

526

:

no more thoughts that are distracting

527

:

nothing needed to be added or changed

528

:

no

529

:

it's the perfect way it's just enough

530

:

just one name I'm looking forward

531

:

we're about what we live in a right now

532

:

we live in a very interesting Puerto Rican

533

:

kind of influence neighborhood

534

:

and it's very exciting and a little bit

535

:

it's very lively very lively

536

:

and fortunately last night

537

:

our neighbors were settled down after around 10:00

538

:

and that was amazing it was quiet

539

:

it was quite loud reported it had a party

540

:

it had a party on the corner

541

:

there's a guy driving around

542

:

a golf cart with a huge speaker playing

543

:

you know modern Puerto Rican infused music

544

:

and boy what a lively community

545

:

but we there's a grocery store near us

546

:

we're gonna buy a local bread

547

:

gonna make a simple cheese grilled cheese this evening

548

:

it's our offering and um you know

549

:

we like to get in before it gets dark yeah

550

:

it's time to go we got a good day

551

:

very good so thanks for joining us today

552

:

thanks for tuning in we send out our

553

:

our best wishes for all living entities out there

554

:

and peace be with you and upon you

555

:

let us stay in Haribo Hallelujah

556

:

and uh I'm Mark

557

:

and I'm Maria and this is Juicy Magic on the daily

558

:

and we're signing off for now

559

:

we'll see you soon

560

:

maybe from my end

561

:

maybe still some Buffalo little more Buffalo

562

:

more Buffalo

563

:

more cowbell more Cleveland right

564

:

thank you

565

:

have to turn it off in the front

566

:

do it don't worry

567

:

do it old school

568

:

put your thumb ha ha ha

569

:

thank you so much

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About the Podcast

JuicyMagiK On the Daily
JuicyMagiK On the Daily Podcast with Maria and Mark
Freedom, peace and joy from all angles done in a fun way that will evolve your inner and outer wealth in all-ways.

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