If you’ve ever felt the urge to pause and breathe in the middle of life’s messiness, this is your kind of sangha. Mark and Maria settle in on the couch, books and malas at the ready, sharing one of the Bhagavad Gita’s most poignant verses. No scripts, no polish, just honest talk about what matters when loss comes knocking, and how practice makes the weight softer somehow. The energy is loose and real as Mark goes off on a memory trail about a Zen godfather and finding hope when things felt too heavy. There are laughs, stumbles, deep sighs, and long, friendly silences that let you sit with it all.

The episode weaves Gita wisdom with bhakti practice, random stories (happy, sad, and a little weird), and a gentle unraveling of suffering, chanting, even a TV show about King David that somehow fits right in. Join in on mantra, sing or listen along, and know you’re welcome here however you show up. Peace, love, and a little chaos—just the way it is.

hello and welcome hello hello hello and welcome

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and peace be with you and upon you

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I'm Mark and I'm Maria

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and this is Juicy Magic on the daily

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so I just wanted to start the

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you know the reading from the Bible

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Gita as it is

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if you get a chance to buy this beautiful book

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it's by his divine Grace

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Sri

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S

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Christopher speaking to his dear friend and disciple

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Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra

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I was just I love to read it from start to finish

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and then start over again

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but sometimes it's nice just to turn to a

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it's good to have a good understanding of it

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or a basic understanding to start the foundation

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but there are some

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slokas or stanzas that are just

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they just blow my mind every time I read them

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this is from the contents of the Gita Summarized

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Chapter 2 12

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never was this is Krishna speaking to Arjuna

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never was there a time when I did not exist

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nor you nor all these kings

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oh

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it's an offering of respect to

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to the compiler of the betas

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and please start again so Chapter 2:12

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never was there a time when I did not exist

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nor you nor all these kings

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nor in the future so shall any of us cease to be

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you know that's

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that's really beautiful we have so much

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I know even you know

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my life recently we've had so many friends and family

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members and relatives leaving their bodies

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shh they're gone

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get the message in the morning

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oh your uncle so and so passed away

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and it's really amazing to

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sometimes we need to hear about this

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that this even this knowledge exists

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this understanding this revelation

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this truth

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to accept it or to begin to actually inquire it

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is that true can that be true

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who am I what am I really made up of

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am I am I matter

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am I just this body

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am I just

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these thoughts floating past the screen of my mind

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I had a next door neighbor who was my godfather

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who was an amazing Japanese Zen master named Paul

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in the Katsu and he

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he you know

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I was fortunate enough to be

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he was he was at my christening

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and he lived beside my parents in Newmarket

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and I grew up with him he passed away

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and I remember going to see the Grateful Dead in Vegas

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in 95 and I stayed with him for three nights

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it was just after

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I've been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes

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and I was really searching hard

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and you know

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he took me out to the desert and he said to me

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do you know have you made your decision

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I was like

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he knew I was thinking of

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you know maybe trying to smash my body or end my

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leave my body or end my life

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or commit suicide or whatever

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it's pretty it's pretty

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shaken up and I said and he knew and I

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I I kind of knew

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he knew that I was thinking some of these thoughts

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I said yeah

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I am I'm gonna stay he said good

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the best is yet to come he said

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so much is coming for you

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and he knew that I've been into that

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this physical illness kind of helped me accelerate my

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I'd always been interested in in the non material

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as a little kid I used to

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I was really fascinated by skulls on the beach

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and you know when I was 3 and 4

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when we go camping I find these

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dead bodies of creatures

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their skeletons and I was just fascinated by that so

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but yeah this

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the physical suffering can be horrible

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if it has no meaning

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but once we start to understand what suffering is

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and what it's for

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it's here to remind us that this is not our true home

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this is not our our bodies are not really us

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they're our vehicle

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they're temporary they appear

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they grow they stay for some time

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they produce by products

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they dwindle and then they disappear

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it's pretty much it the nutshell

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you know and rather than get depressed by that

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we can really start to to meditate on that

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and we're reading the Geeta every day

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and reading other scriptures

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and engaging in sivanabhakti and in practices of

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of of mantra meditation on beads

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and doing garam breathing

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and also uh kirtan chanting

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it's a great incredible way to taste

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uh the knowledge

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the understanding

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the experience of what we just read here

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that there will never be a time when I cease to exist

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there's so much

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I mean depending on our perspective

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if we're heading in the wrong direction

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then you know

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that's not so good but if we're

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if we realize that we have this choice we can make

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you know

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choice that we can make to focus on transendental

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information Transcendental Science

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then things get really exciting and interesting

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I mean I can hardly wait for the day to begin

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it's it's really

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despite all the challenges and difficulties of our

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of the outside world

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the inner world is really quite something

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and we were watching a show recently

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um we try not to watch too much

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you know modern media

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that you take in

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the consciousness of the people writing this stuff

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this was interesting to us

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because it was based on an ancient story of King David

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David of Israel and um

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it's just really impressed upon me that

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that I'm so grateful to the guide and to my teachers

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and to this process

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because it's really helped me understand

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I didn't really understand the world's scriptures

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when I was growing up I tried to read a lot of them

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I read them

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and sometimes they seem so confusing and strange

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and weird stuff in them

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but there's so many great things in them too

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um we noticed in the episode that what the king saw

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one of the kings of Israel

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king of Israel this is the Shepherd David

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is in his castle and he's

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he's the only one that can really help the king

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the king is possessed by demons

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and he's had a curse put on him by

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you know someone using black magic

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dark magic and his

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his mind is really troubled

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he's seeing things he's hallucinating

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or at least he's experiencing this demonic possession

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and um

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and I was taught that you know

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no matter where you are if you chant God's names

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that it will completely expel and banish

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you know demons or ghosts or

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or those that are envious in nature

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and that's really cool to see

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you know where he's being troubled

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and immediately

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David starts playing his harp and he starts singing

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you know Adonai

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that's the name of god in Hebrew

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Adonai Elohim you know

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he's singing this beautiful song

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he's chanting the names of god on this show

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on prime television and and immediately the king

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his he

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he the

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the demons sort of disappears and he

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he becomes calm and centered

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you can see the life returning to him

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you know that scene

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and it's so beautiful

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I was so glad that they put that in this

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you know that that's

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that's in the Bible that's in the Old Testament

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hold on I should check if I can get the soundtrack

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oh to David yeah

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yeah he's the

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that's like the most beautiful thing on the show yes

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he's chant

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it's what he's chanting and really what is chanting

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chanting is like

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hearing and repeating any of God's names

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or sometimes there's descriptions of God's beauty

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or his wonderness or describing his

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his

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his messengers or his avatars or his devotees or his

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him he himself coming

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descending himself or these are descriptions

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they're transcendental descriptions

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yeah I don't

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I don't like listening to the radio anymore yeah

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oh yeah it's like being vomited on basically

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but you know uh

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that's a harsh image sorry

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yeah or normal t v or advertisements or news I

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I I don't turn that on anymore

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but music like that

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you can have it in the background the whole time

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and it's it's really nice

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should I have a little chant then for today

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yeah we'll do a little

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it's three in one session yeah

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let's do more ha ha

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okay

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we'll start with this really great prayer

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it's the third prayer of Lord Chitanja

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he left eight prayers in this world

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they're very powerful

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I love singing this one with Maria

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before we do a little change

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Haribo Haribo

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Haribo Haribo

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Haribo Haribo

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I never know what comes ha ha ha

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never stay

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how do you pull we know the Holy Names are coming yes

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one of them so peace be with you

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many of them thanks for tuning in today

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and I'm Mark and I'm Maria

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and this is Juicy Magic on the daily

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see you tomorrow

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see you good night