1808: Everything on Earth Has a Purpose | Mourning Dove's Dharma

Wisdom of the Sages - Raghunath Cappo & Kaustubha Das

In this heartfelt episode of Wisdom of the Sages, Raghunath Cappo and Kaustubha Das reflect on life's deeper purpose amid personal grief over their dog Gus's declining health. Drawing from Native American

Key takeaways

• Every being, including animals and seemingly useless organs like the appendix, may have a hidden purpose within the greater cosmic design.
• Passion alone does not equate to dharma; true purpose connects personal talent with spiritual growth and service to others.

Main topics

• The concept of dharma and purpose in life
• Spiritual significance of suffering and loss

Notable quotes

'Every disease, an herb to cure it. In every person, a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence.' – Mourning Dove

Conclusion

True dharma transcends personal passion and material achievement—it is the conscious alignment with

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) There's four categories of stages of life. You find your dharma through that. And there's four different occupations. You find your dharma through that. And we live in a world where that's not well established. Speaker 2 (0:13) Although the stages of life, we can learn from that. I'm meant to be a student now. I'm married now. I'm meant to be a good spouse and be a good parent. Now I'm a retired person. I'm meant to be letting go. I'm meant to be going deeper into spirituality. I think we can borrow from that. And when we know... When we really know that our deepest purpose is to awaken that divine love, is that divine love, and we're meant to awaken it, then it can give meaning to our life no matter what we're going through. Even if our world is upside down and untraditional and messed up and dented, if we know that, even if I'm doing a job that my psychology is really not well designed for, let's say I somehow got stuck in that just by the way the world works. If I know that deeper purpose, then whatever is awkward about the rest of my life can be tied, as you were saying, right? It can be tied to that deeper meaning. Let me awaken that divine love, which is my ultimate purpose, which is my ultimate dharma, and everything can become meaningful. Speaker 3 (1:45) Come on! Live from Super Soul Farm, this is Wisdom in the Sages, a Bhakti Yoga podcast with your host Raghunath and co-host and senior educator of the Bhakti Center in New York City, Coach Stubidas. Welcome to the show, everybody. It's Tuesday, August 18, 2026. It's episode 1808. Good morning, beautiful people. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. Speaker 2 (2:13) Here Speaker 3 (2:13) with Pranapriya. Speaker 3 (2:16) We had a great sweet baby Speaker 2 (2:17) Krishna last night. Speaker 3 (2:18) Oh, Speaker 2 (2:19) yeah, yeah. Speaker 3 (2:19) Very good. Very, very good. It's so nice to read Krishna Leela right before you go to bed. We have some sad news. I went to the vet because my dog had a rash on him. Speaker 2 (2:33) Oh. And Speaker 3 (2:34) the vet was like, you've got to put your dog down. Speaker 2 (2:35) Oh. Speaker 3 (2:36) So much pain. Speaker 2 (2:38) He's suffering. Speaker 3 (2:39) He's suffering. And, you know, he says they're stoic and they're not going to complain. But he does complain. He whimpers a lot. But his just legs don't work. Speaker 2 (2:49) He Speaker 3 (2:49) barks Speaker 2 (2:49) a lot sometimes, too. Speaker 3 (2:50) Oh, he barks uncontrollably. And he can't get up to go to the bathroom to defecate. And because of it, it's sort of like they're screwing up their internal organs. They favor leaning on one side. Dogs of that size have to move. And it's this whole thing. You know. Speaker 3 (3:09) As in, yes, anyway. That's always Speaker 2 (3:12) one of those questions that people write into us occasionally about. And it's one that we've always been hesitant to answer, right? I don't Speaker 3 (3:21) have a good answer. I don't even have a good answer for my 12-year-old who is in tears all day. Speaker 2 (3:26) And Speaker 3 (3:27) so, I don't know. Speaker 3 (3:33) If I have chronic pain, I want Pranapriya to put me down. It sounds funny, but I'm serious, too. It's like I can't think of Krishna when I'm constantly in pain. And I will say, the dog has lived a very auspicious life. He's met so many saints and sadhus. He's licked the feet of great souls. Visiting devotees, he sits and watches our puja. Speaker 2 (4:00) I mean, there are examples in our Shastra of people choosing to leave their body when... Well, that's what I told Speaker 3 (4:08) my son. That's what I told my son. I was telling him the story about Shabari's guru, who they made their bodies just... Their bodies become worthless, and they made their bodies self... What's that called? Emulate. Emulate. Burst into flames. Yeah. Spontaneous combustion. Speaker 2 (4:27) Combustion, yeah. Speaker 3 (4:28) Yeah. Or people, they just choose, you know, this is my time. I'm going to fast till death. But to do it to the dog, then I feel almost like I'm a dog murderer. You know? I don't know. It is really. But all I'm going to do is, you know, all day yesterday we bathed him with Ganges water and gave him lots of sweets and flowers from the deities. And the whole thing was sort of sad. Yeah. Speaker 2 (5:01) Okay, Rogan. This is going to be hard to lift this show up from this point. Sorry about that. Yeah. No, we do love Gus. He's a great dog. Speaker 1 (5:11) He's a great dog. Speaker 3 (5:13) He's a great dog. Speaker 1 (5:14) He's the best. Speaker 3 (5:15) I even complained to the vet. I was like, I don't know. He seems very healthy. His appetite is great. He's like, yeah, their appetites will be great until their last breath. They're hardwired to have a great appetite. Speaker 3 (5:29) So anyway, that's what we're going through. On a lighter note, me and Prada are going to Vermont tomorrow. Tomorrow, okay. Tomorrow. Speaker 1 (5:39) Yeah, we'll be at the Bhakti House tomorrow night for a program at 6 p.m. Speaker 3 (5:42) Looking forward to that. Speaker 2 (5:44) And that affects our schedule, correct? Speaker 1 (5:46) Our next show will be Friday. Friday morning. Yeah, we'll be back on the podcast at 6.30 a.m. Eastern time. Speaker 2 (5:51) Yeah. Note that down. Speaker 3 (5:53) How can we advertise a sweet baby Krishna? Maybe we want to do a sweet baby Krishna when we're there. Speaker 1 (5:59) Maybe you can send it out Speaker 2 (6:00) on the platform. All right, Speaker 3 (6:01) we'll figure it out. I think Speaker 1 (6:02) Kishore is already doing a Zoom program going on. Oh, Speaker 3 (6:05) yeah, we're doing a program. We're Speaker 1 (6:06) doing Speaker 3 (6:06) a program. Okay. Anyway, we'll figure something out. But we had such a good sweet big Krishna time last night. We're going to just do it again. Speaker 2 (6:12) So good. Speaker 2 (6:15) Oh, any other announcements, Speaker 3 (6:16) Prada? Speaker 1 (6:18) Yeah, pre-sale for your new classes on your Inversions class and Harmonium class start tomorrow, right? Oh, yeah. That's when we launch the pre-sale. 25 % Speaker 3 (6:27) off of two new courses. Speaker 1 (6:29) Rogging off that yoga. Speaker 3 (6:31) Come on down. Okay. There you go. Speaker 2 (6:35) Ready for the nugget? Let's do it. You ready for the nugget, Roganath? Speaker 3 (6:41) I'm ready. Speaker 1 (6:42) Okay, this comes from Morning Dove. Crystal Quintasket. Speaker 2 (6:47) That's morning like... You're sad. Like you're mourning your dog dying. Exactly. Morning Dove. Who's Morning Dove? Interesting that you should ask, Roganath. She was born around 1888. on the Colville Reservation in eastern Washington state of Okanagan father and Colville Salish mother. She's credited as one of the first Native American women to write and publish a novel called Kogowei, the Half-Blood, which was published in 1927. A groundbreaking work that drew on her experience as a mixed heritage woman navigating two worlds. She also collected and published traditional Okanagan stories and coyote stories and her personal reminiscences. were published posthumously as Morning Dove, a Salish autobiography in 1990, 54 years after her death. Speaker 3 (7:52) Okay, so she writes, Speaker 1 (7:54) everything on the earth has a purpose. Every disease, an herb to cure it. In every person, a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence. Speaker 3 (8:05) What about wasps? Wasp. They Speaker 1 (8:08) have a purpose. They have a purpose. Speaker 2 (8:10) I wonder what their purpose is. Speaker 1 (8:11) Rudolph Steiner Speaker 2 (8:12) says they have no purpose. Morning Dove Speaker 3 (8:16) takes Speaker 2 (8:17) issue with that. Speaker 3 (8:20) What do you think? Speaker 2 (8:26) Morning Dove, Rudolf Steiner. Which is it going to be? Speaker 3 (8:29) I don't know. Really? Rudolf Steiner was pretty deep. Do some things just come and cause chaos? Maybe there's a deeper purpose behind that. Anyway, getting back to this. Speaker 2 (8:48) Nugget? Speaker 3 (8:49) Nugget. I believe there's a difference between something you're passionate about and something's purpose, especially when we talk about dharma or purpose in life. A lot of people don't even know what they were born to do, and so they move through life. Speaker 3 (9:08) Where do I fit? What will make me money? What is my calling? They don't even sometimes answer that. They end up just working a job. And they never even ask those questions. Where do I fit? What am I good at? What is my calling? They just get caught in a cycle. Caught on almost like a conveyor belt. And working some job they don't really even care about. They're not excited to go back at, you know, to go to work in the morning, to wake up and do it. They, um... Speaker 3 (9:39) maybe get depressed because that lack of purpose. And they've never really had time, maybe even had time to just think about who am I, why am I here? Then, on the other hand, then you've got these people who do find their passion. They discover what they're naturally good at. They find their particular lane. And maybe they even become incredibly successful at it. But that doesn't also necessarily mean they've found their purpose. Because if your passion is only connected to your own success or even the particular success of your tribe, it's still not going to necessarily satisfy you. The concept of dharma, it just goes much deeper. It means finding your calling and connecting it to something higher, to your own spiritual growth and the benefit of others. Speaker 2 (10:32) This is sort of what I, this is Speaker 3 (10:34) my understanding of dharma, and I'd love to hear your opinion, but I feel like there's plenty of people that are great at what they do. Or perhaps were great at what they do. But it was for a less than worthy purpose. Like someone like Al Capone. Completely effective organizer. Managed an incredible criminal operation. Or Bernie Madoff. Or the guy who created the Ponzi scheme. Charles Ponzi. It's just like they were charismatic. And they were very, very charming. Very, very trustable. until they pulled out the rug from everybody and stole everything. So they were good at what they did, but being good at something doesn't make the thing good. Being good at something doesn't make the thing good. And then there are plenty of successful people that both you and I know who are perhaps maybe at the top of their game and very good. They're like living their potential. Speaker 3 (11:41) But they're just dissatisfied because it hasn't been connected to spirit. And I think that's where I want to go with this. We are spiritual beings. If our work in this world doesn't have that spiritual purpose, there's no amount of success that will fulfill our heart. Speaker 1 (12:04) Yeah, Speaker 2 (12:06) thank you. You know, this reminds me of, and I think we've discussed this on the show before, but the idea that the appendix has no purpose. Speaker 3 (12:19) Yeah, no purpose. Tonsils. Speaker 2 (12:23) I liked her quote, everything on the earth has a purpose. Speaker 2 (12:29) It's a lens to look at the universe through. And the question is whether it's truthful or not. Every disease has an herb to cure it. Every person, a mission. What's the purpose of the appendix? Doctors would tell us it has no purpose. In more recent years, they say, oh, actually, we did discover it has a purpose. What's the purpose of the Speaker 3 (12:52) appendix? Can you search that up, please? Speaker 2 (12:55) I can tell you, Raghunath. Speaker 3 (12:57) Oh, you know? Yes, I do. Or tonsils. Speaker 2 (13:00) The purpose of the penis is like, you know, certain disease like dysentery or something may empty your colon, I guess. You know, it kind of flushes your digestive system. And in doing so, you lose healthy bacteria. Speaker 3 (13:19) Okay. Speaker 2 (13:20) But if what that... What that appendix does, it's like a little, just like when you make yogurt. Like if you make yogurt regularly, you make a batch and then you take a little bit out of it and you set that aside so that you can make the next batch of yogurt. You have the bacteria there that you need. Speaker 3 (13:40) And Speaker 2 (13:40) so that appendix holds a little stash of the bacteria. Speaker 3 (13:45) So Speaker 2 (13:45) if your colon just flushes all the healthy bacteria out, it can restore it. Speaker 3 (13:52) So Speaker 2 (13:52) it did have a purpose. Speaker 3 (13:53) Okay. Speaker 2 (13:56) And so, but this is, you know, this is a, the book that Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur wrote called Jiva Dharma, one of his most important works. This is kind of built on this foundation that every object has a purpose, has a dharma, right? Every object has a dharma. Speaker 2 (14:20) I find that when I do these question and answer things, like in Rishikesh, I go for an hour and a half every night just answering questions of people passing through Rishikesh, different people practicing yoga and seekers. I find the most common question they ask me is, how do you know what your purpose is? They have some intuition. Speaker 2 (14:47) that I have a purpose, I have a dharma, but they're