Author Archive



Science and Religion

I read a couple of physics books and am preparing articles on them that deal with consciousness and cosmology from a quantum perspective. I present my position on science and religion in general before I publish these articles in  this excerpt from my Universalist Radha-Krishnaism: The Way of Natural Devotion; A Practitioner’s Handbook, pp 106-109. […]


Universalist Radha-Krishnaism–An Axial Perspective

Rereading The Great Transformation: The Beginning of our Religious Traditions by Karen Armstrong, I saw an affinity between Universalist Radha-Krishnaism and those great ancient traditions. She writes about what “Karl Jaspers called the Axial Age because it was pivotal to the spiritual development of humanity. From about 900 to 200 BCE, in four distinct regions, […]


Download Steve Bohlert on Common Threads Radio

Common Threads A Co-production of WGVU Radio & The Interfaith Dialogue Association www.interfaithdialogueasociation.org Steve Bohlert appeared again on Common Threads September 30 and October 7, 2012 to discuss his new book, An Authentic Life: A Spiritual Autobiography in two half-hour interviews with host Fred Stella. November 20 & 27, 2011 he spoke about Universalist Radha-Krishnaism: The […]


The Tastes of Love

Shloka 2. Bhagavad Gita 4:11: In whatever way one worships me, I honor him in that same way, for in all their various ways men do follow my path, Partha. 19 [Saying] ‘My son, my friend, the lord of my heart’–he who has pure bhakti toward me in these bhavas, 20 who feels himself superior, […]


The Beautiful Women of Braj

68 The Brajadevis are of various natures and forms; they are her [Radha’s] kayavyuha forms and causes of her rasa. 69 Without many consorts there is no enjoyment of rasa; therefore there are many manifestations of lila-companions. 70 There are, in Braj, many different kinds [of women], with many different kinds of bhava and rasa, […]


The Way of Passion

14 The purpose of this avatara [Chaitanya] was to taste the sweetness of the juice of prema-rasa, and to propagate among people the bhakti of the raga-marga. 15 Krishna, the crest-jewel of rasikas, the epitome of mercy and grace, [descended] in the desire to be the source of these two things. 16 “All the world is […]


Developing the Spiritual Body

Natural devotion includes practitioners meditating on their spiritual selves in relationship to Radha-Krishna in the eternal Braj. The identity we develop depends on our unique eternal nature. In the conditioned state, our spiritual identity remains dormant in a seedlike state. As we progress in devotional practice, that seed begins to germinate and grow in consciousness. […]


Radha-Krishna’s Desire

12 “For a long time I have not given the gift of prema-bhakti. Without bhakti the world has no stability. 13 In all the world they have vidhi-bhakti for me. [But] in vidhi-bhakti there is no power to gain the bhava of Braj. 14 All the world is involved in knowledge of my divinity. But […]


Life Affirming

What does it mean that Universalist Radha-Krishnaism is a life affirming philosophy? It means accepting our embodied state and this world as a God-dess given gift. Since we are children of God-dess, he-she only gives us good things. The glories of nature are the best visible manifestations of God-dess we have. Our body-mind-spirit nature is […]


The Inner Teacher

He [Krishna] does not simply appear in the jiva, but as the guru, in the form of caittya, the indwelling guidance; Krishna as the siksha-guru appears in the true form of mahantas, noble devotees. CC 1.1.29 I encourage practitioners of the way of natural devotion to follow their inner guidance. This is difficult because we’re […]