Swami Padmanabha

SIMPLICITY AFTER COMPLEXITY: THE MATURATION OF BHAKTI | The Free Radical Podcast # EP 74 — Vraja Kishor 7/15/26
2026-07-15 10:00 - 11:30 (America/New_York) | YouTube
Join us on The Free Radical Podcast for a reflective and deeply human conversation with artist, author, Vaishnava scholar, and astrologer Vraja Kishor.
Having joined ISKCON in 1990, Vraja Kishor pursued formal studies at the Vrindavan Institute for Higher Education and spent several years immersed in devotional life and study. His path has also taken unexpected turns—most notably through his time with the Krishna punk band 108, where he helped integrate devotional themes into alternative music culture. Alongside his spiritual and artistic work, he has built a diverse professional background spanning software development and language teaching, before dedicating himself fully to Vedic astrology. He is also a translator of key Vaishnava texts, including work on the Bhagavad Gita, four cantos of the Srimad Bhagavatam, and ongoing translation of the fifth canto as well as the Yoga Sutras.
In this episode, we explore themes drawn from his memoir Train Wrecks and Transcendence—including the arc of spiritual life, relationships, early enthusiasm and later grounding, and the challenge of integrating depth with simplicity. The conversation moves through questions of responsibility, devotion, friendship, family, and the evolving relationship between rigidity and maturity on the spiritual path—arriving at a vision of wholeness that finds the profound within the ordinary.
Tune in for a thoughtful and open exchange that traces a life lived at the intersection of devotion, creativity, and lived experience.
on Youtube! Swami Padmanabha – YouTube

THE TRANSFORMATIVE LIFE OF ETTY HILLESUM | The Free Radical Podcast # EP 75 — Patrick Woodhouse 8/5/26
2026-08-05 10:00 - 11:30
On this episode of the Free Radical Podcast, we are joined by Anglican priest, author, and former Canon of Wells Cathedral, Patrick Woodhouse. Our conversation unfolds through faith, suffering, and the possibility of transformation within life’s most difficult experiences. We discuss the search for meaning beyond fixed religious boundaries, including the ways in which faith can emerge in unexpected forms and settings.
Much of the discussion is shaped by Woodhouse’s engagement with the life and writings of Etty Hillesum, particularly through Patrick’s book Etty Hillesum: A Life Transformed, alongside his work Life Transformed and Life in the Psalms: Contemporary Meaning in Ancient Texts (Bloomsbury). Through these texts, he explores how ancient spiritual traditions and modern testimony can speak into questions that remain urgently present today: how to live with grief and tragedy, how to understand hope without denial, and how praise and lament can coexist within a single life.
At its heart, this episode invites reflection on how Etty Hillesum’s witness, along with the enduring voice of the Psalms, continues to offer language for both despair and hope in a complex and unsettled world.
on Youtube! Swami Padmanabha – YouTube
