# 1752: Why Your Spiritual Checklist Might Be Working Against You

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Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/wisdom-of-the-sages-611126/1752-why-your-spiritual-checklist-might-be-working-against-you.md
Podcast: [Wisdom of the Sages](https://stenobird.com/podcast/wisdom-of-the-sages-611126)
Published: 2026-04-02T13:38:00+00:00
Episode link: https://wisdomofthesages.libsyn.com/1752-why-your-spiritual-checklist-might-be-working-against-you
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Duration seconds: 3150

## Resource

In this episode Raghunath and Kaustubha ask a question that cuts to the heart of any serious spiritual practice: is my practice actually changing me. Goodhart's Law states that when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. The classic example: British colonial officials in India offered a bounty on cobra skins to reduce the cobra population, only to find that enterprising citizens began breeding cobras to collect the bounties. The measure designed to solve the problem made it worse. The Srimad Bhagavatam, an ancient Sanskrit text on Bhakti-yoga, offers a startling example through the story of the Brahmanas — learned priests who had checked every box, performed every ritual, and met every external standard yet remained spiritually shallow, while there wives, simple village women who had done none of those things, had quietly surpassed them in the spiritual depth. ******************************************************************** LOVE THE PODCAST? WE ARE COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AND WOULD LOVE FOR YOU TO JOIN! Go to https://www.wisdomofthesages.com WATCH ON YOUTUBE: https://youtube.com/@WisdomoftheSages LISTEN ON ITUNES: https://podcasts/apple.com/us/podcast/wisdom-of-the-sages/id1493055485 CONNECT ON FACEBOOK: https://facebook.com/wisdomofthesages108 *********************************************************************

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