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For the Love of Yoga with Nish the Fish — Alternative Health
For the Love of Yoga with Nish the Fish

The world of Yoga is wide and varied. In this podcast, yogi Nish the Fish shares the deeper dimensions of Yoga, Vedanta and Tantra, asking the big questions: why do we practice? What is meditation? What is the purpose of a human life? What is Beauty? What is Death? Nishanth Selvalingam studied various South Asian philosophies with his Shaivite grandfather in an ashram in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and moved to Los Angeles to study philosophy, teach yoga and play guitar in a rock band. Join him and special guests as they explore Yoga, in all its splendours. For more episodes and instruction, and to support this humble offering of the heart, visit me on Patreon: patreon.com/yogawithnish

Copyright: © 2021 For the Love of Yoga with Nish the Fish

Latest Episodes:

What To Do On Shiva Ratri Feb 20, 2025

It's that time of the year again! Many might be asking:
1. what is Shiva Ratri?
2. When is Shiva Ratri? And most importantly:
3. What should I do to celebrate/ why would I even want to celebrate Shiva Ratri?
To answer these questions, we plunge into a discussion of the five modes of Tantra: puja, japa, homa, yoga and vrata, making a case for why vrata is so important and for viewing it as an act of spontaneous freedom.
The TLDR of all this is: you are already Shiva. There is nothing you need to do to be "More" Shiva and nothing you can do to be "Less" Shiva. As such, nobody can tell you what to do or what not to do on any night much less on Shiva Ratri! May all be absorbed in Shiva!

PS: Here is our playlist on all things Shiva!

Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Support the show

How To Prepare for Shiva Ratri, the Great Night of Shiva Feb 19, 2025

Next week is Shiva Ratri, which is among the biggest (if not THE biggest) events in our community! This is a night when we really plunge into Shiva with the whole of our being, fasting all day, staying up all night, signing, dancing ecstatically, performing ritual worship and above all, meditating and opening up to the totality of all things! However, "one does not simply walk into Mordor." Just like climbing a mountain or wading into icy water, just like courting a lover or practicing Hatha Yoga, we must ease into Shiva Ratri, gradually and skillfully. As such, in this short little discourse, we say a few things about "how to Shiva Ratri" and how to use the week ahead to prepare yourself body, mind and spirit for this complete immersion into Shiva!
I cannot contain my excitement! Jai Bhole!
PS: Here is our playlist on all things Shiva!

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Realizing Non-Duality Through Music Feb 18, 2025

Earlier this year on Swami Vivekananda's birthday we decided to do three back to back lectures focusing on different aspects of the Swami's teaching: the innate divinity of the soul, the oneness of all existence and the harmony of all religions.

We start with the idea of one-ness, Advaita which is so wonderfully expressed in Shankara's song "The Six Stanzas on Nirvana" (which you can find the Sanskrit lyrics for here) which Swami Vivekananda himself was very fond of and which he himself translated into English.
As such, in this first of three lectures we sing and contemplate the Six Stanzas on Nirvana using Swamiji's translation (which you can read here) making a case for why music is such an important method for practicing and realizing Advaita, Non-Duality!

For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Support the show

The 12 Secret Kālīs | & The Most Closely Guarded Secret in Tantra Feb 11, 2025

This might be the most closely guarded secret teaching in non-dual Tantra!
First, we discuss some of the non-dual, "left" leaning traditions within Tantrik Shaivism with an emphasis on the Kaula marga and its profound liturgy and philosophy.
Then, we introduce the "formless Kali who is pure Void", the "point in Shiva which even Shiva cannot objectify" and the 12 Kalis that are the threefold expressions of the Four Goddess of the Trika!
Lots of exciting Non-Dual Tantrik material! Let's have at it!
Here are a list of the secret Kali's presented in the lecture:

aparā (prameya)

Sṛṣṭikālī = manifesting an object internally, she then
Raktakālī (bahirmkuhī) = becomes passionate towards that object
Sthitināśakālī = wishes to reabsorb it and starts to internalize it
Yamakālī = manifests and dissolves a "vighna" (obstacle) to re-absorption

parāparā (pramāna)

Saṃhārakālī = reabsorbs the object
Mṛtyukālī = and contemplates "svabhava": my very nature is to reabsorb!
Rudrakālī = perceives a subtle impression left over from perception + also Pure Consciousness
Mārtaṇḍakālī = reabsorbs the solar-mandala of 12 faculties into the "Lord of the Circle" (ego)

parā (paramātr)

Paramārkakālī = reabsorbs the Lord of the Circle (ego)
Kālāgnirudrakālī = reabsorbs the separation of one purusha (individual knowing subject) from another (mayīya-mala)
Mahākālakālī = reabsorbs the Universal Subject (Shiva) into full expansion
Mahābhairavacaṇḍograghorakālī = reabsorbs even that fully expanded ground into...what? void unspeakable!

For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Support the show

How Jnāna, Philosophy Leads to Bhakti, Love | Swami Vivekananda, Bhakti Yoga Feb 06, 2025

One of my favorite classes in the series so far! We've been reading from Swami Vivekananda's Bhakti Yoga at our Friday evening Bhakti satsanghs and together exploring some of the most refined concepts at the uppermost reaches of the devotional tradition known as Parā Bhakti, Supreme Love. In this talk, we reconcile the idea that Jñāna Yoga, the Way of Philosophy and Bhakti Yoga, the Way of Devotion or somehow incompatible or categorically distinct, as is the commonly held assumption. We also show how Jñāna, Philosophy can lead to ecstatic love and vice verse proving that these two paths are not different but are rather aspects of one Reality: God or Pure Consciousness.

For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Support the show

How To Actually Change The World? Feb 04, 2025

This year, Swami Vivekananda's birthday happened to fall on a Monday, a day sacred to Shiva which also happened to MLK day here in the United States! Of course the two figures, Swami Vivekananda and MLK are both quite similar in a few ways. In his talk on loving your enemies, MLK is famous for having said “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” In exactly the same vein, Swami Vivekananda tells us how we can go about creating actually change in the world along spiritually enlightened lines in his masterpiece address "My Plan of Campaign" delivered in Madras upon his return to India after his triumphant sojourn in the West.

In this video, we read out the transcript for this mighty and earth-shattering talk (which is full of Swami Vivekananda calling out those forces which have opposed his mission) and make a few comments here and there.

This is the third in a series of three back to back lectures we gave on behalf of Swami Vivekananda Jayanti this year, the two other being Realizing Non-Duality Through Music | Adi Shankara's Nirvana Shatakam and How Do Tantrik Rituals Work? which explore Swami Vivekananda's core teachings on Advaita and the Innate Divinity of the Soul respectively.

Jai Swamiji!

For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Support the show

7 Reasons To Keep Tantra Secret & The Secret World of Kaula Feb 04, 2025

One of the most secret (and perhaps misunderstood) traditions in Tantra is the Kaula, the path of radical embodiment. "Kaula" which is the adjectival form of the Sanskrit word "kula", means "the body" and as such presents a spiritual approach that divinizes the body, seeing embodiment (along with all the energies thereof like lust and anger and greed) as an opportunity for spiritual progress and not as an obstacle. More esoterically, the "kula", body here refers to the philosophical view that God in Her fullness is "embodied" as this entire Universe. As such, Kaula is a transgressive, radically non-dual, Goddess-oriented Tantrik tradition. Because of this, utmost secrecy is required and so a third connotation of the world "kula" is "family" either biological or spiritual in which these spiritual teachings are offered in strictest confidence.
Over the next few weeks, I want to explore the Kaula with you in both theory and practice and work our way up to study the Adi Yajnya or the "Kaula Ritual" which Abhinava Gupta presents in Chapter 29 of his Tantraloka. This talk is a bit of a soft introduction to the origins of the Kaula and how it fits into the wider context of Indian Tantra.
This lecture follows closely on the heels of the discussion we had last week on Why is Tantra A Secret? We review some of the ideas from that talk and also make a few new points about the value of secrecy.
Also, because this talk was given on the 6th day of Magha Gupta Navaratri, we say a few things about Mātangi Mā, the Tantrik Sarasvatī in order to express our gratitude for Sarasvatī who appears in the form of teacher, teaching and also our desire to learn!|
Jai Mā Nīlā Sarasvatī Ki Jai!

For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Support the show

Why You Should Know About Swami Brahmananda Jan 30, 2025

Today is a special day for us because it is Raja Maharajji’s (Swami Brahmananda) birthday! He is my guru’s guru’s guru and his energy is of course the foundational spirituality of the Ramakrishna Mission after Ramakrishna-Sarada; it’s an energy that is very palpably felt at our Hollywood Temple which was founded by his disciple, Swami Prabhavanandaji.
Today would be a good day to contemplate his life and teachings (which you will find in the books “The Eternal Companion” and “Guide To Spiritual Life”) but it is also a good day to do any spiritual practice since it is said that on auspicious days, “a special grace” flows!
Naturally, at our 6:30pm PST puja class, we reflect a little bit on Raja Maharaja to make a few claims about why he's so important to know about and connect to!
We also say a few words about our puja tradition which has a lot to do with Swami Brahmananda and the Hollywood Vedanta Temple.

For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
And if you feel moved to donate to support me and this work, you're welcome to here:
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/jaimakali

Support the show

Why is Tantra A Secret? Jan 28, 2025

Two weeks ago we gave the talk called "how to perform the best Tantrik ritual & overcome superstitions in Tantra" where we referenced Swami Vivekananda saying in the Introductory Chapter of Raja Yoga that mystery-mongering and superstition weakens the mind: everything that is could she be taught openly, and preached in the street in the broad daylight of reason. In that lecture, I argued that in some case the secrecy of Tantra was the attempt of an unscrupulous few "to keep the power all to themselves", to borrow Swami Vivekananda's phrase.
But perhaps there are indeed good reasons for keeping things secret!
While in the worse cases secrecy is a tool for hegemonizing Tantrik discourse, most of the time, it is an expression of compassion and a necessary tool to create an authentic spiritual community where practitioners are practicing in a meaningful and safe way. As such, to balance out the view I presented in the aforementioned lecture, I'd like to make a case for the importance of secrecy in the Tantrik tradition.
We can think of a few reasons, some of which I briefly mentioned towards the end of the talk and a few others that are coming to mind now:
1. Because these practices can be exceedingly powerful, they can sometimes backfire and cause a reaction in students who are not ready.
2. Because these practices confer tremendous power, a student with the wrong motives might misuse this power to further entrench themselves in samsaric attachment, thus retarding their spiritual growth.
3. Secrecy ensures the student will seek out a guru to get access to the tradition thus protecting them from the #1 and #2
4. Tantrik practices can be controversial and even transgressive and as such when done openly, there is the risk of public censure and misunderstanding
5. That which is secret is sacred. Secrecy reaffirms the intimacy and privacy we enjoy with God and also helps cultivate reverence and sanctity in the practice.
6. It helps students value what they have more, increasing enthusiasm and reverence for the mantra and for the practice.
For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Support the show

How Do Tantrik Rituals Work? Jan 27, 2025

How do Tantrik rituals work, really? Is it the intercession of spirits and divinities? Or perhaps something far more profound?
IIn this talk, I want to make the case that there are no gods or spirits outside Consciousness. The entire Universe and all the powers in it are contained within the Mind, which is an expression of Consciousness, with reference to verses 160 onwards in Abhinava Gupta's Tantrāloka, Part I, and with special reference to Swami Vivekananda's emphasis on strength and non-duality.
You are Consciousness and as such, all power is within you! All the gods and demons, all the spirits and energies, they are all in YOU, expressing themselves as body and mind. Harnessing these energies is what Tantra is all about. As such, any time your "prayers have been answered", it is only you gracing yourself. You are God, in every sense of that word.
A Tantrik ritual functions only to create the suggestion, through sound and symbol, to call forth that Power inherent in the Self!
For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Support the show

How To Love Everyone & Everything Jan 21, 2025

There is nothing quite so wonderful as hearing great master of Non-Duality talk about God! After all, for far too long The Path of Devotion (Bhakti) has been considered as categorically distinct from The Path of Philosophy (Jñāna).
For instance, the common view is that devotion tends to favor duality while philosophy favors non-duality; devotion prefers to think of God in a personal sense, with form whereas philosophy tends towards the impersonal, formless God which is the Self, Pure Consciousness which is more of a principle than a person.
However, in this stunning presentation, Vivekananda not only reconciles the two paths but also shows how the devotion of God with form can lead to the non-dual ideal of universal love, i.e the ability to see the Divine in everyone and everything and more importantly, the ability to love everyone and everything like the Buddha did!
This is perhaps one of my favorite ideas in the entire world of devotional literature!
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Support the show

How To Perform The Best Tantrik Ritual | & Overcome Superstitions in Tantra Jan 21, 2025

This lecture, which follows closely on the heels of How To Become A Bhairavi, A Tantrik Adept and also The Best Tantrik Ritual explores the puraścarana from Chapter 15 of the Kularnava Tantra in much more detail.
We present a few different strategies for practicing puraścarana which in the Tantra Lord Shiva describes as the "supreme ritual" (i.e best of all practices). While this is the main feature of the talk, we also offer a reading of the Introductory chapter of Swami Vivekananda's "Raja Yoga", to make a point about the purpose of puraścarana and its true purpose.
Also, we respond to degenerating influences on the mind of the aspirant (superstitions, secrecy and mystery-mongering) that we often find in the Tantrik world and present a strategy for getting the most from Tantrik practice while avoiding the aforementioned elements.
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Support the show

Swami Vivekananda's Mad Love Jan 21, 2025

Some time ago we gave a talk on Divine Madness in Why is Kālī Crazy? where we looked at the fervor that comes upon the devotee when she is truly in love with God.
Now, in this short talk, we present a portrait of that Divine Madness in the form of Swami Vivekananda specifically with regard to his 1896 letter to "Frankincense", one of my favorites!
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
And if you feel moved to donate to support me and this work, you're welcome to here:
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/jaimakali

Support the show

How To Really Love Jan 18, 2025

To love is the essence of what it means to be human.
Love is the sweetest, most meaningful experience in embodied existence and it is for this love that we do everything.
But what does it mean to really love?
We have all of us been disappointed in love. This is because we don't know how to truly, really love. We are content with our little loves and little attachments and as such, we are all of us likely to miss out on the real thing!
Bhakti Yoga, the path of Devotion, is the science of higher love.
In this talk, we give perhaps one of our most lucid interpretations of real, higher love based on Swami Vivekananda's book "Bhakti Yoga". We first discuss the two phases of love, love with form vs ecstatic love. And then, we have a discussion about renunciation, why it is so central to love and how it is naturally produced through love itself, reviewing the material we covered in this talk: How To Get Renunciation | Bhakti Yoga, Swami Vivekananda and then finally, we offer a Tantrik reading of two works by Swami Vivekananda: "The Bhakta's Renunciation Results from Love" and "The Free Soul" from Volume III of the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda.
This is my favorite talk on Bhakti yet! Thank you all who came live and all who are watching the recording! May we become enflamed with awakened Love for the Infinite!

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Religion is for the Strong! Jan 18, 2025

Religion is only for the strong! No weakling can realize God!
Some time ago, we gave the lecture called "Do I Have To Be Vegetarian To Practice Spirituality" based on some of the remarks Swami Vivekananda makes in his Bhakti Yoga book, in chapter 10 called "Methods and Means".
In this chapter, Swamiji takes up the question of ethics and diet in the practice of spirituality. In this lecture, we pick up the threads of that aforementioned discussion to make the point that only rule in religious life is "keep with you that which makes you strong; disregard that which disempowers you."
Whatever diet and whatever ethical code strengthens you, that is the right thing to do. And whatever diet or moral code disempowers you, however "holy" society says it is, throw that away!
But of course, first we have to ask the question: "what exactly is strength?"
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Support the show

3 Ways To Avoid Spiritual Burn-out Jan 16, 2025

Those who are very serious about spiritual life will find that from time to time, they get a reaction from doing too many spiritual practices. Usually it's the case that when we clean out the mind with mantra, meditation etc. all sorts of repressed complexes come out to be reviewed, compassionately digested and dissolved.
So it's only natural that as we practice, we can feel like we are regressing because of all this stuff that comes up when in truth, that's precisely what's supposed to happen!
But also, in other cases, it really is possible to do too much, too soon like lifting weights that are too heavy for us in the gym. Because the practices of Tantra are very powerful and because they can have such a profound effect on the body, on the nervous system, on the hormonal system and on the psyche, we must ensure our practice proceeds systematically and sensible, so that we may avoid a reaction or backlash.
In this short piece, we provide 3 keys ways (by no means an exhaustive list) for avoiding spiritual burnout:
1. Practice consistently and intensify your practice gradually and slowly over a period of time.
2. Diversify your practice with the four yogas.
3. Exercise, eat well and sleep well. But perhaps best of all: practice Hatha yoga regularly to prepare the nerves for the shock of spiritual realization!

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Māyā vs Śakti | & How To Be Free Jan 15, 2025

In October of 1896, in London, Swami Vivekananda gave a series of three lectures on the ancient concept of Māyā, that which causes the One to appear as Many, the Eternal to appear as the Changing and the Real to appear as the Unreal.
Naturally, since Māyā is synonymous with "Ignorance" in the Advaita Vedanta system of Srī Shankara, it is a very, very elusive concept that has eluded even some of the brightest minds of India and abroad.
As such, Swami Vivekananda's treatment of Maya over three lectures might be the most comprehensive and illuminating to have ever been given in the history of philosophy. Sister Nivedita considers the Swami's best work.
In this talk, I focus on the third of the three lectures, "Maya and Freedom". The first on is called "Maya and Illusions" and the second, "Maya and the Evolution for the Concept of God" and all three can be found in Swami Vivekananda's Complete Works, Vol II or in the Jñāna-Yoga book.
Particularly in my commentary of this lecture, I would like to compare the Shankarite notion of Māyā as illusion to the Tantrik concept of Śakti, as the playful power of God to hide Herself from Herself (Paramārthasāra, Verse 15) to compare Vedantic Idealism with Tantrik Realism, making the case that Swami Vivekananda's reading might lean closer to the Tantrik notion.
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Support the show

Be Your Own Religion! Jan 15, 2025

Swami Vivekananda's Message on Individuality in Spirituality: when a seed is planted, it is nourished by soil, sun, air, light and rain. And yet the seed does not "become" soil, or sun, or air, or light or rain.
The seed becomes a plant, growing according to its own sva-dharma, its own unique law of growth.
Similarly, while the seed of spiritual aspiration is nourished by the the various "isms" of the world: Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Taoism etc., the point is not to "become" a Hindu or a Christian or a Muslim or a Taoist or what have you!
The point is to be free and realized!
Books, dogmas, rituals, forms...these are the kindergarten of religion, necessary tools for the "coming up" of the burgeoning saint but they are but secondary details. As such, there should be as many sects as there are people; each person ought to be a religion unto themselves!
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Support the show

How To Be Devoted to God? Jan 14, 2025

In this talk, we give a comprehensive overview of the Path of Devotion:
00:00:00 How Bhakti Yoga Works: Vaidhi Bhakti (Devotion with Rules) vs Para Bhakti (Ecstatic Love)
00:04:30 The full moon of Bhakti, the scorching sun of Jñāna
00:05:47 An outline of Swami Vivekananda's "Bhakti Yoga":
00:07:10 The definition of Bhakti: " the genuine and earnest quest for God that begins in Love, continues in Love and ends in Love."
00:10:30 The philosophy of Ishvara: the formless pure non-dual Consciousness (Impersonal Absolute), which is the ideal of Jñāna and Buddhism, is exactly the same as the form of God with qualities (Personal God), which is the ideal Bhakti.
00:13:20 Swami Vivekananda's definition of God: unfathomable love. God is Love itself, i.e L.O.V.E Personified.
00:15:00 Bhakti is about realization and for this we need a guru to transmit the wordless, invisible "quickening impulse"
00:16:30 Qualifications for aspirants: what kind of a student is required? Pining, patience and perseverance!
00:17:35 Qualifications for teachers: grounded in the spirit of the scriptures, pure in character and teaching for the right reasons (not for material profit)
00:19:10 The role of the Avatar in Bhakti Yoga in providing a concrete form for the mind to focus on in Devotion
00:26:03 How mantras work in Devotion (and the meaning of OM)
00:30:34 Technical Difficulties!
00:31:32 Technical Difficulties ends...
00:34:00 Invocation of Swamiji
00:34:23 The Worship of Substitutes and Images (and why its so important)
00:47:30 How this idea leads to the Harmony of All Religions
00:49:17 Ishta Nishta, Steadfast Devotion to the Chosen Ideal: while all forms are equally Brahman, we should choose one and dive deep into It without hating any other forms
00:53:19 depth vs breadth in spiritual life
01:02:22 worshipping all deities through your Ishta and worshipping your Ishta through all deities
01:08:00 How to practice Bhakti Yoga, the path of Devotion: the methods and the means.

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What Was It Like To Hang Out With Vivekananda? Jan 13, 2025

Today, on the 12th of January, we are celebrating India's National Youth Day, to commemorate the birth day by Gregorian Calendar of Swami Vivekananda, who was born on the 12th of January 1863.
Of course, in the Hindu tradition, we celebrate birthdays by tithi, that is, by moon day so this year (2025), Swami Vivekananda's birthday will be celebrated in earnest on Monday, the 20th of January.
But nevertheless, to commemorate this very auspicious day and to get us all revved up for Swamiji Puja that's coming up, I thought I would read you a few excerpts from letters from American disciples describing what it was like to be with the Swami in New York and at the Thousand Islands Park retreat, which was when the Swami was allegedly at his finest.
Over the next few days, I will be unleashing a slew of "Vivekananda content" here so brace yourselves! May my entire breath and being be offered to the Swami's work and mission. I stand ever ready to lay down life and limb for his message!
Ever yours in Vivekananda,
Nishanth
For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Where Did Tantra Come From? | The Story of Shaivism Jan 10, 2025

We gave this lecture some time ago, in July of last year on Swami Lakshmanjoo's birthday. However it occurred to me that it would be a very good start to 2025 if we could not only review the fundamentals of spiritual life in general but also revisit the foundations, historical, philosophical and spiritual the underlie our Tantrik tradition.
Note: around 14:00 I mention a lecture I did called "Texts and Lineages in Kashmir Shaivism". I never actually got around to uploading that one but if you stay tuned for the video called "Our Tantrik Lineage", I go over the same material with albeit more detail.
Anyway, in this talk, we make a few points about Tantra and texts like the Vijñāna-Bhairava Tantra and then plunge into what I consider, on perhaps a more anecdotal note, to the be the essential flavor of Shaivism and how it developed throughout history.
For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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The Best Tantrik Ritual Jan 10, 2025

After we gave the two fiery lectures on Why You Need To Realize God Now! | The Urgency of Spiritual Life and also on The 2 Most Important Things In Spiritual Life & 7 Ways To Get Them we are all fired up to make some genuine headway into our spiritual life that we may realize God and enjoy eternal blessedness!
But how do we make spiritual progress?
In this short talk, we introduce the idea of Puraścarana, the Tantrik ritual par excellence which Lord Shiva calls the "best of all rituals" in verse 3 of Chapter 15 of the Kulārnava Tantra.
For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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The Non-Essentials of Religion: God, Books and Prophets Jan 09, 2025

After making a few comments about calendars and the power of new beginnings, we make a few points from Swami Vivekananda’s very radical lecture in San Francisco “Is Vedanta The Future Religion” to show how God, books and prophets are not actually essential to religion and if taken too seriously, can all become serious hindrances to genuine religion!
Using Swami Vivekananda’s definition of the Vedas (“by Vedas, no books are meant”) as eternally existent spiritual truths that anyone with refined spiritual perception can access, I contest that Hinduism cannot be defined as a four-book religion the way other religions define themselves according to their books but must instead live up to its name of “Sanātana Dharma”, which includes all religions in all places and at all times.
Also, we discuss some goals for the upcoming Gregorian calendar year as a spiritual community!
For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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The 2 Most Important Things In Spiritual Life & 7 Ways To Get Them Jan 06, 2025

What are the most important things in spiritual life?
In Patañjali's Yoga Sutra, we find:
अभ्यासवैराग्याअभ्यां तन्निरोध:
abhyāsa-vairāgya-ābhyāṁ tan-nirodhaḥ
"Through yearning and renunciation, the mind can be stopped (i.e samādhi can be attained)"
And in the Bhagavad Gita 6:35, we find:
श्रीभगवानुवाच |
असंशयं महाबाहो मनो दुर्निग्रहं चलम्
|अभ्यासेन तु कौन्तेय वैराग्येण च गृह्यते || 35||
śhrī bhagavān uvācha:
asanśhayaṁ mahā-bāho mano durnigrahaṁ chalam
abhyāsena tu kaunteya vairāgyeṇa cha gṛihyate
The Lord said:
"Undoubtedly, O mighty armed one, the mind is difficult to control and restless but by practice (I.e intense yearning) and by detachment, it can be controlled, O son of Kunti."
And all throughout the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, we find the Master emphatically stressing this point over and over: through yearning and renunciation, God can be attained!
Perhaps this point is the very essence of practice, the very heart of spiritual life? Having discussed what yearning and renunciation really mean, let's now talk about how to cultivate these!
As such, at our last online gathering of 2024, we discussed the two most important things in spiritual life: yearning for realization of the Infinite + renunciation for the finite and then rattled off a few different ways to cultivate that including but not limited to:
Visiting sacred places like temples and nature which are associated to great spiritual masters (yatra)
Spending time with spiritual people or at least with spiritual ideas through books and media (sadhu-sangha)
Finding a guru and learning under them (parampara)
Consistency in spiritual practice
Pacing so as not to burn out
Ample time in solitude to practice and integrate.
A moderate, simple and ethical life. (Yama/niyama or acāra)
For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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What Did Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus and Ramakrishna All Have In Common? Dec 31, 2024

While every person and every place is invariably God according to our Non-Dual View, certain places and certain people are particularly strong manifestations of God. Everything is the same in type but different in degree. For example, while every part of the cow is indeed a cow, it is really only from the udder that milk flows. As such, the Avatāra is like the udder and the entire Universe the cow. The Avatāra, Divine Incarnation, is a unique nodal point of Reality through which the very highest can be accessed. In short: the avatāra is the strongest manifestation of God in immanence, in nature.
But what makes an Avatāra(a Divine Incarnation) and Avatāra?
In Hinduism, the idea of the Incarnation is very ancient. We find it in the Bhagavad Gita (Chapter IV, verse VII) and also in texts like the Bhāgavatam dated between ~1000b.ce to 600bce.
The claim is that while various forms of gods and goddesses are each of them emanations or aspects of the One God capital G, the one Divine Reality, the Avatar is a specially concentrated manifestation of that Reality that exists in historicity as an actual person. The gods and goddesses like Kālī, Shiva, Vishnu etc. are all entirely Divine but the Avatāra uniquely is also mortal and like any mortal suffers mortality: birth, old age, sickness, dying etc.
Unique to the Avatāra Doctrine is the idea that God can be a person and a person can be God which when you think about it is a startling challenging idea! Swami Vivekananda could never quite accept Sri Ramakrishna as an Avatāra until the latter's dying breath in 1886. Because for any thinking person, this claim is ludicrously challenging! It is one of the deepest mysteries of spiritual life. It takes a special kind of subtle insight, or a special kind of grace to have some semblance of an understanding of this mystery.
But it is my conviction that anybody who is sincerely attracted to spirituality will also be attracted to the avatāra because they will feel in them (in their lives and teaching) intuitively the strongest dose of spirituality. But notice how I am using the plural! According to the Hindu view, there is not just one Avatāra. In Christianity, the idea is that there is just one Divine Incarnation who came in the form of Jesus and that's that. But in Hinduism, we understand that to teach a particularly stubborn student, you often have to give the teaching over and over in different ways. Repetition is at the heart of all learning! And so the thing about the Avatāra is that She comes again and again each time teaching the same message in slightly different ways.
In this talk, I wanted to tease out some of the similarities in that message between various Avatāras. Also I wanted to continue last week's theme of the emphasis on renunciation and sincerity that we find are at the heart of all genuine spiritual life and also on the warning against affect and pretense in spiritual life. One thing we find about all these avatāras is that they were genuine, simple and willing to give direct answers to sincere questions without any affect or pretense! And because they were free, they did it all for free!
From freedom unto freedom a gift of freedom is made!
May this be an offering to all Avatarās, past, present and future, who are each and every one of them "L.O.V.E personified."
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Why You Need To Realize God Now! | The Urgency of Spiritual Life Dec 30, 2024

As we come to the end of another Gregorian calendar year, and as our body-mind rapidly comes yet another step closer to death and disintegration, we ought to reflect: what have we really accomplished in spiritual life thus far?
Undoubtedly, a lot.
But have we really attained the highest? Have we realized God? Do we feel the ineffably bliss divine flowing uninterruptedly in the chamber of the heart in each and every moment? Have we really attained to truth and truly integrated it into every living moment?
Often we will find that however far we've come, there is always still same ways to go. And precious little time for it too!
In the past few lectures, since it is, after all, the end of the year, we've tried to focus on the very essentials of spiritual life. "Books, churches, dogmas, rituals are all but secondary details."
And what is the very essence?
Yearning for infinite + renunciation for the finite!
But often, the engine of spiritual life, the driving force, is a sense of urgency! As the Stoics call it: "momento mori"! Remembering that this body will die, and recognizing the invaluable opportunity this body presents for spiritual realization will fire us to be up and doing always in spiritual life!
Ultimately, that's what this lecture is: a call to action!
May we all be spiritually illumined!
May we all plunge into intense (but sensible and gradual) spiritual practice now itself as a reflection of your sincere yearning for Truth!
"Arise! Awake! Stop not till the goal is reached!"
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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What Did Vivekananda & Buddha Value Most? Dec 29, 2024

There are of course innumerable similarities between the life and message of the Buddha and Swami Vivekananda: in a future lecture, I hope to sketch this out in much more detail. I think there is a particularly strong resonance between Swami Vivekananda's various spiritual experiences and realizations (and also his highest ideal of serving God as man) and the Boddhicitta/Boddhisattva ideal of Mahayana Buddhism.
One day, I will make a strong case for the Mahayana Buddhist interpretation of Sri Ramakrishna's life and teaching. Of course, in terms of modality, Sri Ramakrishna emphasized a Tantrik, deity-oriented approach which leads us into exciting Vajrayana territory too. A discussion comparing Nirmanakaya, Sambhogakaya and Dharmakaya to Vaikhari, Madhyama and Pasyanti Vak is of course fore coming.
And I have a desire to do a short biography on Milarepaji also, perhaps on his Parinirvana which is the full moon of Bumjur Dawa (by the Tibetan Lunar Calendar) I believe. It will be around Shiva Ratri time!
Naturally all these links between Shiva, Swami Vivekananda and the Buddha are particularly pronounced in Varanasi, especially near Sarnath where the Buddha spoke the words that would resound timelessly through eternity!
There is a striking resemblance to what he spoke about and what Swami Vivekananda spoke out, a resemblance that is of course more tangibly felt in this place than intellectually cognized.
Since I happen to be in Sarnath on Christmas Eve, I thought I'd reflect a little on that in this talk.
Jai Jesus Christ!
Jai Buddha!
Jai Swami Vivekananda Guru Maharajji Ki Jai!
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
And if you feel moved to donate to support me and this work, you're welcome to here:
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/jaimakali

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What Is The Goal of Spiritual Practice? Dec 26, 2024

Before we start walking a path, we should have some idea at least about why we are walking it and about where it leads. In the Buddha's eight-fold system, this is called "samyak drshti", the right view.
When we consider the lives of great masters like Swami Vivekananda and Sri Ramakrishna, we are not only fired up by their fervor, intensity and renunciation but we can also learn something about what is to be valued in spiritual life and what is to be aimed for (and perhaps also what is to be avoided).
In this lecture, as we come to the end of the year and wrap our 5th circumambulation around the sun together as a community, I thought it would be good to have a cutting conversation about the essentials in spiritual practice!
I want to explore Sri Ramakrishna's central practice modality: yearning and sincerity, the sole means by which he was able to attain the direct perception and constant communion of Mā Kālī. As you know, Sri Ramakrishna first had the vision of Kālī and then only did he set out to practice spirituality in a formal way. And then years later, when instructing disciples and devotees, he would constantly return to this theme of yearning (vyakulatā) and sincerity as the principle method for realization, which was of course true in his case. In exploring this idea, we can ask a few questions:
1. Often it is said that Sri Ramakrishna had no formal spiritual practice, only yearning at first and by that alone he attained Kali. But is that really true? I'll challenge this idea a little bit by discussing the two main initiations that Sri Ramakrishna had before he developed his yearning for God-vision.
2. What does it really mean to "see" Kālī? Is this a goal everyone aspires to? Why would this even be a valuable goal to achieve in spiritual life? Here we can explore Sri Ramakrishna's first experience of Kālī as formless Pure Consciousness and then what happened after.
3. Why did Sri Ramakrishna do spiritual practices after the vision of Kālī? What could spiritual practice accomplish after a profound spiritual experience like this? Here I want to make a very important point about integration and maybe we can have a slight digression exploring the "dangers of Bhakti and sentimentalism." Perhaps we can read a litle Swami Vivekananda excerpt on this!
4. What does Sri Ramakrishna have in common with the Christ? Well...lots of things but mainly this one: the emphasis on prayer, yearning and the spontaneous renunciation that follows. May this be an offering at the altar of your spirituality!
Jai Mā!
For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Tantrik Techniques for Overcoming Addiction Dec 16, 2024

Giving in to our desires (which is to say: following them into externalized action) can sometimes be just as repressive as avoiding them altogether. In either case, the energy of desire is not fully experienced:; it is instead dissipated through repression or expression. One wonders: what would it be like to simply sit with the energy of agitation or inspiration, breathing into it and following it back into its point of origin?
In the Vijñāna-Bhairava Tantra, there is a very subtle technique that falls into the category of "Śambhavopaya", the Way of Śīva because it is a practice centered on icchā, the creative desire of Non-Dual Consciousness to bloom outward into expression. The source of all expression is Consciousness and it is back into Consciousness that all expressions dissolve.
As such, any urge, inspiration or desire that we experience has its origin point and resting point in Awareness. By experiencing fully the blooming of any icchā, creative outpouring we can "guide it" to a still point and thereby experience enlivened Awareness!
We took a first pass at this practice here but because we didn't have as much time as I would have liked to discuss it, we decided to revisit it in this short discussion before we took up a Hatha Yoga practice, which you can watch here.
Our Vijñāna-Bhairava Tantra series:
https://www.patreon.com/collection/143200
Classes meet live every Thursday at 6:30pm PST. You can sign up to attend the zoom meetings here:
https://yogaworldheart.com/schedule
Also, lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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How To Become A Bhairavi, A Tantrik Adept Dec 14, 2024

On this auspicious Mrgaśīrsha Pūrnimā (full moon) to which is ascribed Bhairavi Jayanti, Annapurna Jayanti and also Dattatreya Jayanti, we decide to say a few words about just who Mā Bhairavi might be. She is one of the most mysterious of the mahāvidyās (the ten terrifying forms of Mā). In this video, referring to the meditation mantra below, I make the case that Bhairavi is a euhemerized Tantrik adept! We of course discuss Bhairavi Brāhmani, Sri Ramakrishna's Tantrik guru and we spend the first half of the talk discussing what makes Tantra, Tantra in order to clearly indicate the path upon which we ourselves must trod to become a Bhairavi/Bhairava!
उद्यद्भानुसहस्रकान्तिमरुणक्षौमां शिरोमालिकां
रक्तालिप्तपयोधरां जपवटीं विद्यामभीतिं वरम् ।
हस्ताब्जैदधतीं त्रिनेत्रविलसद्रक्तारविन्दश्रियं
देवीं बद्धहिमांशुरक्तमुकुटां वन्दे समन्दस्मिताम् ॥
udyad-bhānu-sahasra-kāntim-aruṇa-kṣaumāṃ śiro-mālikāṃ
raktā-lipta-payodharāṃ japa-vaṭīṃ vidyām-abhītiṃ varam .
hastābjaidadhatīṃ trinetra-vilasad-raktāravinda-śriyaṃ
devīṃ baddha-himāṃśu-rakta-mukuṭāṃ vande samandasmitām
Radiant like the splendour of a thousand suns, clad in red garments, garlanded in heads
Breasts smeared with blood, holding a rosary and a book, assuring fearlessness and granting boons
With her lotus like hands, Her third eye shining with the beauty of blood-red lotus flowers,
She is the Goddess who wears a red crown in which is tucked the moon- I worship Her who is smiling gently!
For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Kālī = The Lady of Guadalupe Dec 13, 2024

Today we are celebrating the feast day for a very important Marian apparition that occurred on the site of a former Tonantzin temple: The Lady of Guadalupe!
This is among my favorite occurrences in Catholic history and it gives us a nice opportunity to talk about Mā beyond any one cultural context (i.e the Universal "Mā" as opposed to the particular).
As such, in this class we discuss the distinctions between the sthāna-devatā (deities of the region), grāma-devatā (village deities), kula-devatā (family deities) and Ishta-devatā (ones chosen ideal).
These are exceedingly important categories of thought in the Tantrik ritual worship context, the "pūjā world" and these are distinctions I would have done well to discuss sooner in our series. In any case, we will take up the topic in the first of two lectures tonight with a special reference to how the Lady Guadalupe, the patron deity of Mexico, fits into all of this! We'll draw a bit from the material in this lecture on Mā Kālī in Other Cultures.
Since I'm back home in Kuala Lumpur, this will give me an opportunity to discuss some unique regional deities also like Pechy-Amman, Muniswaran, Karappan etc.
For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Mary of Magdala & The Feminine Approach to Spirituality Dec 12, 2024

Some time ago, we gave a talk on Mary of Magdalena, who I argued was the śakti (power) of Christ in the same way that Rādhā is for Krishna, Sīta is for Rāma and Sārada Mā is for Sri Ramakrishna. This argues for a "dual-aspect" to the avatāra (divine incarnation) as being both Shiva (Consciousness) and Shakti (Energy) embodied.
This is of course one lecture in a series of talks on Mary. We did one where we compared Mā Kālī to Mā Mary and we did one called Mary Magdalena, the Śakti of Christ also this would perhaps be the third in the series!
In this video, we look at all the references to Mary in the Gospel and work out a few Tantrik ideas based on them. We also draw from Bourgeault's wonderful work "The Meaning of Mary Magdalena" which I highly recommend for all.
The emphasis in this talk is on articulating a different approach to spirituality that one might consider "feminine" in a sense as opposed to the more mainstream from of spirituality which I am choosing to label as "masculine" in this video. Of course, these gendered labels should be held as lightly as possible: they are not to be taken as hard and fast categories since that would (a) be manifestly against the thesis of this video that argues for a softer approach and (b) be against the idea of God as including the entire spectrum of sex and gender and yet transcending all such categories!
In any case, I figure this comparative might validate many and allow for a more spacious, embodied approach to spirituality that resonates with the ideals of this age.
Naturally, I argue that the life and teaching Sri Ramakrishna are the best examples for this mode of spirituality and so I draw a lot from Swami Bhajanananda Puri's reflections on Sri Ramakrishna's unique brand of spirituality (which I'm calling "feminine) from the book "Light of the Modern World", which I also could never recommend more highly!
Anyway, for whatever reason I've just been sitting on this video. I have been waiting for an auspicious day to upload it. Somehow or rather, the Feast of Mary Magdelana came and went this year and I was unable to upload this then as I had originally intended.
However, today we are celebrating the feast day for a very important Marian apparition that occurred on the site of a former Tonantzin temple: The Lady of Guadalupe!
I figured today was as good a day as any!
"¿No estoy yo aquí que soy tu madre?"
"Am I not here, I who am your Mother?"
Jai Mā! Guadalupe Devi Ki Jai!
For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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What's Our Lineage? Dec 11, 2024

As we come to the end of our 5th Gregorian Calendar Year since we started coming together as a community, I thought now would be a good (and fairly sentimental) time to do a little retrospective.
Often, when we look back at where we've been and where we've come from and when we look forward to where we're going, we feel a deeper appreciation for this present moment, a moment which is in and of itself the confluence of all pasts and all futures, which contains within it all history and futurity, which is full of actualized and yet only potential manifestation: the seed and tree all in one!
By way of saying thank you to each and every one of you for being a part of this worldwide movement of making genuine spirituality free and accessible to all sincere seekers everywhere, we do a short survey of the~9000 year old (by conservative estimates) tradition of which we are a part. By contextualizing our lineage in the galaxy of spirituality that is the Indian subcontinent over the past 9000 or so years, we come to revere those who have come before us and we also salute those who are coming after and embrace the ones who are here now.
And because all of this is by the will of the Divine Mother, we close our little talk by sharing a profound prayer to Mā Kālī that appears at the end of the 16 item worship (śodashopacara pūjā) in our ritual book (paddathi):
vandanam (prayer to Ma)
oṁ mahāmāye jaganmātaḥ kālike ghoradakṣiṇe।
gṛhāṇa vandanaṁ devi namaste parameśvari॥

oṁ gṛhāṇa vandanaṁ mātaḥ sadā vijayavardhini।
pādapadmaṁ sadā vande sthānaṁ dehi padāmbuje॥
praṇāmaḥ (sāṣṭāṅga, full prostratation after or during this mantra)
oṁ śrīmatsurāsurārādhya-caraṇāmburuhadvayāṁ।
carācarajagaddhātrīṁ kālikāṁ pranamāmyaham॥
May all of this be an offering to Her and to you!

For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Those Who Hate God Will Also Realize God Dec 10, 2024

In this talk, we discuss something very edgy and maybe even quite dark: hating God as a legitimate mode of worship!
This is lesser known bhāva is called vipaksha or shatru-bhāv, the "mode of the enemy" and applies to great devotees like Mahishāsura in the Candi, Hiranyāksha, Hiranyakashipu, Kamsha and Sishupāla in the Bhāgavatam and even Jacob in the Old Testament.
Importantly, a discussion on how "hating God" can help one to realize God takes us into deep Tantrik waters regarding the use of all emotions, even darker ones like anger, pride, hatred, jealousy, greed and lust to make spiritual progress!
I think tonight's conversation will reveal something very essential and profound about how spiritual practice works with regard to the centrality of intensity and consistency in sādhana.
As we see in a few select Ramprasad poems and taking Sri Ramakrishna's idea of "tāmasic Bhakti" (dark devotion), we learn that this attitude of "frustrating" or "annoyance" with God actually only implies real intimacy, not distance.
Naturally, this is a continuation of last week's excting 6 hour satsangh on madhura bhava, the romantic mode in Kali worship which you can watch here.
Here are some of the references we made towards the end of the talk:
In Bhāgavata Purāna, Jaya-Vijaya, Vishnu's doorkeepers were cursed by Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatana, and Sanatkumara (mind born sons of Brahma) to etiher be born 3 times as enemies or 7 times as devotees. They chose the former and became, in three respective ages:
Satya Yuga: Hiranyakashipu, Hiranyāksha
Treta Yuga: Rāvana, Kumbhakarna
Dvāpara Yuga: Sishupāla, Dantavakra
Also Kamsha/Chānura, Duryodhana etc.
In Skanda Purāna, we find Tarakāsura whose boon is to be slayed only by Shiva's unlikely son (this is where we get the Shiva burning Kāmadev story), in Brahmānda Purāna we get Bhandasura, born of the ash of Kamadev who is then slain by Lalitā Devī. In Shiva Purāna, we get Andhakasura who is born from Parvati's sweat after the world is darkened and then born to Hiranyāksha, who does penance and who then gets the boon to be killed only when he lusts after his own Mother. This is also a matrka origin story and resembles the motif from Raktabījā. Which brings us to the Candi demons:
"Ebhirhatair jagadupaiti sukham tathaite
kurvantu nāma narakāya cirāya pāpam
sangrāma mrtyumadhigamya divam prayāntu
Matveti nūnamahitān vinihamsi devi" (4.18)
For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Can God Be Your Romantic Partner? Dec 09, 2024

In this talk, we discuss a very subtle, high-level and easily misunderstood mode of spiritual practice: madhura bhāva, the practice of seeing God as your lover!

In Vaishnava literature this is considered the highest mood because it contains all the others and is itself the most refined and passionate of the moods. The whole soul goes to God in fiery yearning!

There is actually quite a precedent for this in the Christian tradition. It's called "bridal mysticism." Nuns in the Catholic faith see themselves, in some orders, as "brides of Christ." The whole idea is the transformation of eros!

But this mood isn't just for monks and nuns. Householders can practice it too by seeing their spouse/partners as the embodiment of the Divine and serving them as they would God.

The idea of ”making love to God" is of course very challenging because of narratives of shame and sin around sexuality so the first step in this kind of practice is to recognize the innate innocence of that energy, which is a form of spiritual energy, Kundalini. Then, through loving acceptance, we attempt to "divinize" that energy by directing it towards God in a gradual process of sublimation.

Sri Ramakrishna literally worshipped his wife as the Divine Mother though you might say this came under the category of vātsalya-bhāva since Ramakrishna looked upon all women as his Mother. Note also that they had a completely chaste marriage meaning that’s it's possible to practice this mode even without physical intimacy (There are much deeper and more refined versions of intimacy with a partner than the merely physical, after all!) though it certainly can include it in the case of having a partner.

The best example is of course Rādha and her passionate, all-consuming love for Sri Krishna. Meerabai felt herself to be “married to Krishna” and actually had a ceremony performed. We also find this mood in Shaiva saints like Mahadevi-Akka. Sri Ramakrishna even told M. in the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (in the entry on Thursday, August 24th 1882) that through devotion one develops a “love sexual organ” implying that, mystically speaking, it is possible to quite literally make love to God.

While this mood is mostly found in the Vaishnava traditions (as love for Sri Krishna) some versions also exist in the Shaiva world.

After all, many people often ask me about whether it’s okay for them to think of Shiva/Devī as their romantic partner. I hope to address that question tonight!

This is of course a natural continuation of our lectures on “Why is Kali Desirous?” and “What Does Kali Really Want?” and perhaps the subtlest of the series!
Wish me luck!
For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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How To Realize Kali | Ramprasad's Backstory Dec 03, 2024

On the eve of the Mrgaśirsha (9th month of the Vedic Calendar) Amāvasyā (New Moon), we take up a reading from the beautiful book by Swami Buddhananda called "Ramprasad, The Melodious Mystic" which gives us the life story of one of the greatest devotees of Kali of all time. We didn't get all the way through the little book as I intended because we spent a lot of time commenting on the "bhāvic" succession (to borrow a phrase from Swami Ambikananda Saraswati) of Āgamavāgīsha Krishnānanda, Ramprasad, Ramakrishna and Vivekananda to explain how Kali worship became popularized and how it has come here to the West.
This lecture is the third in a series on the saints of Kālī. We first introduced Sri Ramprasad in this lecture and then we introduced Kamalakanta, Vamakhepa and Raja Ramakrishna in this lecture on the ecstatic saints of Kālī.
Here's the Vivekananda quote from early in the video:
"But I have clear light now, free of all hocus-pocus. I want to give them dry, hard reason, softened in tile sweetest syrup of love and made spicy with intense work, and cooked in the kitchen of Yoga, so that even a baby can easily digest it."
- Swami Vivekananda
For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Introduction to Tantrik Non-Duality Dec 03, 2024

Many people are becoming increasingly familiar with Advaita Vedanta, the classical Non-Duality of Adi Shankaracharya but fewer people are aware that there are indeed other versions of Non-Dual spiritual philosophy and practice. In this video, we do a cursory introduction to my favorite form of Non-Duality: The Tantrik Non-Duality of Abhinava Gupta which is sometimes called The Kaula Trika, the Pratybhijñā Vada (Recognition School) or more commonly, just "Kashmir Shaivism".
We start the lesson by exploring the idea of "Bhairava", in his fierce (ugra) form and also in his more, esoteric formless aspect as pure Non-Dual Consciousness which is the interpretation Abhinava Gupta often has in mind when he uses the term "Bhairava".
Then, we explore some of the drawbacks and delusions of Neo-Advaita/Direct Path Teachings and well as some of the difficulties of Bhakti with a reading from the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna which teaches us how to realize the Formless God!
Finally, we take up Verses 10 and 11 from the Non-Dual Tantrik introductory manual, Paramārthasāra of Abhinava Gupta to offer a teaching on the nature of the Highest Reality, the Supreme Principle in Non-Dual Shaivism which you can call Paramaśiva of which I tend to call "Kālī."
And here are the Bhairava lectures we mention early in the talk:
Secret Mantras for Bhairava and His 8 Forms
The Secret Teaching of Bhairava
How To Pray To Kāla Bhairava
Here's the German compound word we mentioned in the lecture:
Donau-dampfschiff-fahrts-gesellschaft
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
And if you feel moved to donate to support me and this work, you're welcome to here:
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/jaimakali

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What Does Kālī Really Want? Nov 26, 2024

Time to ask a very important question: what does Mā really want? Last week, we started discussing themes of sensuality and desire in Ma Kali’s iconography alongside the equally controversial motifs of intoxication and madness. We introduced the concept of “yamala”, the sexual union of Shiva and Shakti! You can watch that lecture here:
But besides sketching out a few practices from the Vijñāna-Bhairava and reading a few sections from the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna that address sexuality and spirituality, we didn’t really a get a chance to do a theological and philosophical treatment of the concept, especially with regards to a serious question: if God has desires, can She still be God? After all, isn't God whole and complete and perfect and doesn't desire imply some kind of lack or incompleteness or imperfection? Is there a different between "desiring FROM fullness" as opposed "desiring TO fullness?"
And if she does have desires, what are they? And why are they often described in erotic terms?
Ah, so much to explore! May all this be an offering.
PS:
This is the fourth lecture in the series on Mā’s bhāva following the “Why is Kali drunk?” https://youtu.be/OAOxpwtjmtA?si=CzXDMdBfpY96_kHo and “Why is Kali Crazy”https://youtu.be/zXvggDB4fLQ?si=ZDjvOu2z1oAmcEVD lectures!
For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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How To Pray To Kāla Bhairava Nov 26, 2024

For the auspicious occasion of the Kāla Bhairava Jayanti which also happens to be Mā Siddheśvarī Jayanti, we offer a rather free and somewhat loose translation of the Kāla Bhairavashtakam, the 8 Verses Praising Bhairava attributed to Sri Shankaracharya to explore some of the non-dual implications of certain phrases in the hymn.
We make a few observations of Rāga Bhairava and how this hymn is connected to Mahishasura Mardini and also to Ravana, the famed antagonist of the Ramayana. We make some passing remarks about Abhinava Gupta's Bhairava Stava and also Kshemarāja's verse to Bhairava in his commentary on the Vijñāna-Bhairava Tantra.
But most importantly, we talk about what it means to "pray". All prayer, all approaches to God are wonderful and valid, suiting different devotees of different temperaments who are all equally great! Having said that, I make a case for "self-less prayer" that cares for neither worldly nor even spiritual reward which I argue, can be accomplished through chanting hymns like the Kālabhairavāshtakam with fervor!
Here's the hymn:
कालभैरवाष्टकम्
To him whose holy feet is worshipped by the king of the Gods
Who wears a serpent as a sacrificial thread and who is adorned with the crescent moon, who is the giver of grace
Who is praised by a retinue of yogis and sages like Nārada
To Him who is the Supreme Lord of the city of Kāshi, I offer my praise!
To Him who is resplendent with the radiance of innumerable suns!
Who is transcendent and who rescues us from the ocean of worldliness!
Whose throat is blue and who is quick grant all wishes!
Who is imperishable, the Death of Death with lotus eyes who upholds the three worlds with His trident!
To Him who is the Supreme Lord of the city of Kāshi, I offer my praise!
To Him who holds in His hands the trident, axe, noose and club!
Who is the Primordial Cause of the Universe!
Who is the imperishable void that is prior to all the Gods!
Who is the Terrifying Lord who delights in the strange Tandava dance!
To Him who is the Supreme Lord of the city of Kāshi, I offer my praise!
To Him who gives both worldly happiness and final liberation!
Whose form is most auspicious!
Who loves his devotees! Who is the immovable Lord of the Worlds!
Who is adorned with shining jingling golden bells around his waist!
To Him who is the Supreme Lord of the city of Kāshi, I offer my praise!
To Him who protects the bridge of Dharma and destroys the path of Adharma,
Who destroys the fetters of Karma!
Whose limbs are adorned with circles of golden serpents!
To Him who is the Supreme Lord of the city of Kāshi, I offer my praise!
To Him whose two feet are adorned with sandals studded with shining gems
Who is eternal, non-dual, who is the stainless and pure essence of all divinity!
Who humbles death and liberates us! Who has terrifying fangs!
To Him who is the Supreme Lord of the city of Kāshi, I offer my praise!
To Him whose terrible laughter destroys the universe emanation forth from Brahma!
Whose terrible glance rends asunder the net of illusion!
Who bestows the eight occult powers, Who is garlanded in skulls!
To Him who is the Supreme Lord of the city of Kāshi, I offer my praise!
To Him who is the Lord of Ghosts! Who bestows great glory!
Who frees all the residents of Kāshi from karmas good and bad!
Who is the Lord of the Universe, the Ancient One and in the innermost guide in every being!
To Him who is the Supreme Lord of the city of Kāshi, I offer my praise!

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The Secret Teaching of Bhairava Nov 22, 2024

After we did our class on how to worship Bhairava (which you can watch here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/secret-mantras-8-116490016?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link) we hopped into this inspired discussion about the deeper meaning of the word "Bhairava" in the context of the subtlest non-dual Tantrik teaching.
Then, after exploring a few nuances in the name itself, we then review a profound practice that Bhairava reveals secretly in the Vijñāna-Bhairava, a practice that we are all of us quite familiar with by now but that we can hopefully take up again with fresh perspective as a result of this evening's discussion!
भैरव उवाच।
Bhairava Uvāca
ऊर्ध्वे प्राणो ह्यधो जीवो विसर्गात्मा परोच्चरेत्।
उत्पत्तिद्वितयस्थाने भरणाद् भरिता स्थितिः॥ २४॥
ūrdhve prāṇo hy adho jīvo visargātmā paroccaret |
utpatti-dvitaya-sthāne bharaṇād bharitā sthitiḥ: || 24 ||
Bhairava said:
Goddess Parā (Vāk, the Transcendent-Immanent Goddess) expresses Herself in a visarga as (the transcendence) of exhaling upwards (into spacious dissolution) and (the immanence) of inhaling downwards (into embodiment). Should one fix (one’s attention) at the two places of their origin (i.e where the breath emerges), and fill them (with attention), one becomes established in fullness.
For more detailed instructions for how to perform Tantrik pūjā, watch this playlist:
https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Why is Kālī Desirous? Nov 19, 2024

In the first verse of dhyānam (meditation mantra) in the Kālikāshtakam, a hymn to Kālī attributed to Adi Shankara we learn that Mā Kālī is ever desirous to have union with Her husband, Mahākāla (महाकालकामाकुला कालिकेयम्) and in the 8th verse of the dhyānam (meditation mantra) from Āgamavāgīś Krishnānanda's Tantrasara, we learn that Mā Kālī desires to unite with Her husband in the "reverse position" (महाकालेन च समं विपरीतरतातुराम्).
How are we sensual imagery that often comes with Mā Kālī? What exactly is the nature of this "sexual union" of Shiva and Shakti which features so prominently in the Kashmir Shaiva tradition under the names "yamala" and "sanghatta" and which also appears in the iconography of the Yab-Yum Buddha in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition?
In this talk, we first explore four mantras that express the idea of "yamala" (union), then I go on a long digression exploring why many are attracted to Kālī in today's day and age and finally, using the Gospel, of Sri Ramakrishna, we explore some ideas regarding sexuality in spirituality! Let's explore the transgressive and very often misunderstood and misrepresented themes of arousal and sexual union that come with Mā Kali’s imagery.
This is the third lecture in the series on Mā’s bhāva following the “Why is Kali drunk?” and “Why is Kali Crazy” lectures!
For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Why is Kālī Crazy? Nov 12, 2024

The image of Mā Kālī alone is unfathomably powerful in its symbolic richness! Having discussed Mā's iconography at some length in this lecture series.
we now go a little deeper by investigating her bhāva, her mood which emphasizes three things, usually: intoxication, madness and arousal.
Last week, we discussed Mā’s divine drunkenness (you can watch that lecture here) we now turn to the second of these three motifs: Her divine madness!
We make three points about Her madness: first with regards to her svatantra, Her inherent freedom that defies the tyranny of reason and sanity, second with regards to Her very eccentric saints like Ramprasad, Kamalakanta and Ramakrishna who were all seen as mad in their day and third with regards to how we ourselves can actually practice this "divine madness" in a sustainable and meaningful way.
What is it to be mad for God?
And how does this compare to the other forms of mental illness that can sometimes be damaging and harmful to oneself, one's spiritual life and also to others?
If you want to explore the topic of divine madness vs harmful mental instability some more, do watch this lecture.
For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Everything is Consciousness Nov 11, 2024

In this class, we first explore Yogarāja's mangala-śloka (opening verse), in addition to Abhinava Gupta's own mangala-śloka from the profound text, Paramārthasāra which teaches us some of the subtle nuances on Tantrik non-duality in all of its life-affirming, realist glory which of course sets it apart from classical Sāmkhya and also from other forms of non-duality like Advaita Vedanta.
We introduce the 5 powers and 5 acts of Awareness, which from as it were two central doctrines in Tantrik Non-Duality and of course, no conversation about this subject can be complete without saying something about the 36 tattva model! So we introduce that briefly by showing Rudhiji's beautiful art work! We close with a discussion about whether or not AI is conscious!
This is part of a larger series on the Paramārthasāra of Abhinava Gupta which you can watch here. https://www.patreon.com/collection/106196
The class meets live every Friday at 11am PST via this link:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
Lectures also happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again Friday at 6pm PST, via the same link.
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Tantrik Tips for Realizing Non Duality Nov 09, 2024

In this lecture, given on the auspicious ashtami of Jagaddhātri pūjā, I first take a moment to express gratitude for our community, let you in on what's upcoming and also make an important point about the threefold epistemological model of learning: sat-guru, sat-tarka and sat-āgama!
While the Guru is central, the role of the teacher in spiritual life is always checked and balanced against sound reasoning/philosophical understanding which is itself guided and refined through taking recourse to texts, "sat-āgama". I try to make a strong case for the centrality of primary sources (i.e the Sanskrit literature) in Tantrik study to offset the idiosyncrasy of teachers and also the proliferation of new-age nonsense on the internet and renew my commitment to you, our beloved community, to always try to stay close to these primary sources so we just don't spin off and make stuff up on our own! Let us always stay grounded!
Also, I talk about how to work with texts like the Paramārthasāra especially with their mangalā-ślokas (opening verses) that can be treated like philosophical bīja mantras to attain not only non-dual awakening but also integration. Integration is the key! Anyone can have an experience. The key is holding and assimilating that experience until it becomes a consistent reality with us. Because I make a strong case for approaching the Formless Non-Dual through God with Form, and because we were discussing dīkshā and bīja mantras and what not, I decided to call this talk "Tantrik Tips for Realizing Non-Duality." But really it is just another installment in our Paramārthsāra series which you can follow along with here:
https://www.patreon.com/collection/106196
The class meets live every Friday at 11am PST via this link:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
Lectures also happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again Friday at 6pm PST, via the same link.
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Surrender to the Will of the Divine Mother and Be Free! Nov 06, 2024

In the introduction to this morning's Hatha Yoga classes, we say a few things about determinism and the illusion of free will, offering a few stories from the lives of Vivekananda, Sarada and Ramakrishna to demonstrate how liberation (jīvanmukti), at least outside of sāmadhi, is simply the recognition that Mā's will is absolute, that She is alone is the Do-er.:"Mā, I move as you make me move; I speak as you make me speak. You are the charioteer, I am the chariot! You are the operator, I am the machine!"
As such, we should be, in Swamiji's words: "mad with joy, even at evil, seeing it all as the Mother's play!" Seeing the world as a picture, knowing that nothing affects us, let us step back and enjoy its beauty!
Jai Mā Kālī
For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
And if you feel moved to donate to support me and this work, you're welcome to here:
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/jaimakali

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Why Is Kālī Drunk? Nov 06, 2024

The iconography of Mā Kālī is unfathomably powerful offering us an important tool for philosophical reflection:
For example, the 50 heads in Her garland represent the 50 letter of the Sanskrit alphabet, showing us that the Universe is a manifestation of Mantra, the Word that was with God, that was God etc., Her black skin is a symbol of tamas (darkness), and Her red protruding tongue held between two rows of white teeth make a case for rajas (power) channelled and harnessed by sattva (wisdom). Her nudity presents Reality, stripped of all pretense, innocent and guileless as formless, pure non-dual Consciousness. Her and Her husband, Shiva, together symbolize the two principles of Sāmkhya, Purusha (Spirit) and Prakriti (Enegery), the Subject and the Object, here reconciled in inseparable unity. The blood and jackals remind us that with Kālī, there is no such thing as high and low, pure and impure and that all things, without exception are equally divine expressions of Her non-dual Being. She is always aroused because She is Kundalini Shakti, the primordial power in the mūlādhāra, that is always seeking samādhi, always craving wholeness, constantly desirous of union with her Playmate in the Sahasrāra cakra.
The cremation ground signifies the ultimate joy of renunciation, of recognizing the impermanence of all things. All the world is the cremation ground for Her devotee for She is Time Herself, the All-Devourer. Her bloody sword aimed for our neck and the evered head invite us to contemplate the spiritual process: how suffering and grief are the ultimate forms of grace, deepening and purifying us until we realize our non-dual nature. Her full, motherly breasts, her boon-bestowing and fear-dispelling hasta-mudrās (gestures) and her sweetly, smiling face remind us that thought She is a madwoman reeling under the spell of divine intoxication, She is ever our benevolent Mother that does every thing only for our spiritual growth, for our highest good even when we ourselves might not see it that way at the time.
We explore all of this in much more details in our lecture series on Kālī which you can watch here: https://www.patreon.com/collection/266524
In this lecture, we go a little deeper, beyond the external appearance and all of its symbolic richness, into the "Bhāva", the "mood" of Mā Kālī. Almost always, She is depicted as drunk, mad and aroused. Now, what's all that about? In the first of three lectures in this mini-series on Mā Kālī's mood, we explore the motif of inebriation and intoxication.
DISCLAIMER: many people around the world are struggling with series substance abuse issues and if at any point in this video, I sound flippant about these issues, do forgive me. I am making the case that spirituality is much finer vintage than any wine in the world, a much deeper high than any drug. That being said, there might be some elements of this conversation that those with substance abuse problems might find triggering. Be forewarned!
Jai Mā!
For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Ecstatic Saints of Kālī Nov 05, 2024

To know something of Mā Kālī, we have to know something of Her saints, those luminaries who like moths into a flame plunged into ecstasy of love for Mā and as such have become one with Her. As it says in John 14:16, "none can see the Mother except by the way of the child!"
Of course, Mā's most ecstatic child is Ramakrishna. In our community, we talk a lot about Ramakrishna and about his ecstatic love for Kali and we of course talk a lot about Sarada Devi and Vivekananda too who were themselves great devotees of Kali. Last year, during Śyāmā Kālī Pūjā, we gave an inspiring lecture on Ramprasad which you can watch here.
But while we know something of Ramakrishna, Ramprasad, Vivekananda, Sarada, we might not know very much about the other ecstatic saints of Kali like Kamalakanta, Raja Ramakrishna (a different Ramakrishna) and Vama Khepa who are actually quite unknown outside of Bengal. So to inspire you to worship Kali with fervor and intensity, in this lecture, we read a few passages from Usha Harding's book "Kali: The Black Goddess of Dakshineshwar" which introduce us to Mā's saints and the ecstatic and wild lives that they lived!
May we have even one fraction of their divine inebriation!
Jai Mā!
Oh! PS: there are some really beautiful black and white 1950s Bengali films about these ecstatic saints. Here they are:
Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD1TsRBZnn8&t=60s
Sadhak Kamalakanta
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm3q3l3vavY
Sadhak Bamakhepa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSV9PnTdJd8
For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Support the show

Is Kali Worship Devil Worship? Nov 04, 2024

Swami Vivekananda, in his English poem "Kali The Mother" and in his Bengali poem, "And Let Śyāmā Dance There", highlights the Worship of God as the Worship of The Terrible: God might cure our cancer but She is also the one who gave us cancer! If God is truly all powerful then She must also be responsible for all the evil in the world as well as all the good. If God is truly non-dual and all inclusive then She must contain both the auspicious and the inauspicious!
Ah, what a challenging theology!
On this auspicious Hallowe'en which also happens to be Śyāmā Kālī Pūjā, the day when we worship Mā in her terrible aspect as radiant darkness, we gave a special talk on embracing evil as equally divine, in the name of the most radical and inclusive non-duality!
This lecture of course references many of the ideas in our Theodicy Trilogy, one of our signature lecture series which you can watch here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfGGe32PDNMZe_6Yju87nv0rvxnSW2ub_&si=-GtdSqUZl-t-SOc3
For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Support the show

How To Practice The Left Hand Path of Tantra Oct 31, 2024

Last week we gave a talk on the very often misunderstood and misrepresented vāma-cāra, "the Left Hand Path of Tantra" you can watch that here and then we went over some "left leaning" aspects of Kālī pūjā like the cremation ground Bali as well as the candālinī pūjā which you can watch here.
Sri Ramakrishna once described this path as entering the mansion (of God realization) through the scavenger's door (i.e the back door). What did he mean by that? Also, is there a way to integrate the modalities of this path into our daily sādhanā in a safe and sustainable way? In this lecture, we explore some of these ideas in the context of interpreting the Kālī dhyāna śloka, with the translation by Swami Mahayogananda:
ॐ क्रीं करालवदनां घोरां मुक्तकेशीं चतुर्भुजाम्।
कालिकां दक्षिणां दिव्यां मुण्डमालाविभूषिताम॥१॥
सद्यश्छिन्नशिरःखड्गवामाधोर्ध्वकराम्बुजाम्।
अभयं वरदं चैव दक्षिणोर्ध्वाधः पाणिकाम्॥२॥
महामेघप्रभां श्यामां तथा चैव दिगम्बरीम्।
कण्ठावसक्तमुण्डालीगलद्रुधिरचर्चिताम्॥३॥
कर्णावतंसतानीतशवयुग्मभयानकाम्।
घोरदंष्ट्रां करालास्यां पीनोन्नतपयोधराम्॥४॥
शवानां करसङ्घातैः कृतकाञ्चीं हसन्मुखीम्।
सृक्कद्वयगलद्रक्तधाराविस्फुरिताननाम्॥५॥
घोररावां महारौद्रीं श्मशानालयवासिनीम्।
बालार्कमण्डलाकार-लोचनत्रितयान्विताम्॥६॥
दन्तुरां दक्षिणव्यापिमुक्तालम्बिकचोच्चयाम्।
शवरूपमहादेवहृदयोपरिसंस्थिताम्॥७॥
शिवाभिर्घोररावाभिश्चतुर्दिक्षु समन्विताम्।
महाकालेन च समं विपरीतरतातुराम्॥८॥
सुखप्रसन्नवदनां स्मेराननसरोरुहाम्।
एवं सञ्चिन्तयेत् कालीं धर्मकामार्थमोक्षदाम्॥९॥(सिद्धिदाम्)
dhyānam oṁ krīṁ karālavadanāṁ ghorāṁ muktakeśīṁ caturbhujām। kālikāṁ dakṣiṇāṁ divyāṁ muṇḍamālāvibhūṣitām॥1॥ sadyaśchinnaśiraḥkhaḍgavāmādhordhvakarāmbujām।
abhayaṁ varadaṁ caiva dakṣiṇordhvādhaḥ pāṇikām॥2॥ mahāmeghaprabhāṁ śyāmāṁ tathā caiva digambarīm। kaṇṭhāvasaktamuṇḍālīgaladrudhiracarcitām॥3॥karṇāvataṁsatānītaśavayugmabhayānakām।
ghoradaṁṣṭrāṁ karālāsyāṁ pīnonnatapayodharām॥4॥
śavānāṁ karasaṅghātaiḥ kṛtakāñcīṁ hasanmukhīm। sṛkkadvayagaladraktadhārāvisphuritānanām॥5॥
ghorarāvāṁ mahāraudrīṁ śmaśānālayavāsinīm।
bālārkamaṇḍalākāra-locanatritayānvitām॥6॥
danturāṁ dakṣiṇavyāpimuktālambikacoccayām। śavarūpamahādevahṛdayoparisaṁsthitām॥7॥ śivābhirghorarāvābhiścaturdikṣu samanvitām।
mahākālena ca samaṁ viparītaratāturām॥8॥
sukhaprasannavadanāṁ smerānanasaroruhām।
evaṁ sañcintayet kālīṁ dharmakāmārthamokṣadām॥9॥(siddhidām)
For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
And if you feel moved to donate to support me and this work, you're welcome to here:
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/jaimakali

Support the show

Kālī & The Left Hand Path of Tantra Oct 31, 2024

Here is our pūjā vidhi (ritual manual):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pV3lkIQpB75iNfadw3uJwaCpK-S8k50VvGTsoEjKxk4/edit?usp=sharing
For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist:
https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
The Secret Worship of Mā Kālī
https://www.patreon.com/posts/secret-worship-111280272?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link
A Complete Sādhanā, Spiritual Practice for Mā Kālī:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/complete-sadhana-111343082?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link
How To Worship Mā Kālī
https://www.patreon.com/posts/how-to-worship-105659438?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link
How To Perform Kālī Pūjā:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/how-to-perform-113071076?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link
The 15 Kālīs | & How To Worship Them:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/15-kalis-how-to-111826734?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link
How To Worship The Kali Yantra:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/how-to-worship-113360571?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
And if you feel moved to donate to support me and this work, you're welcome to here:
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/jaimakali

Support the show

How To Celebrate Śyāmā Kali Puja/Diwali Oct 29, 2024

We have a big week coming up!
This Thursday, 31st of October, on the new moon of the Vedic month of Kartik, we are celebrating Śyāma Kālī Pūjā, my favorite day of the year! Here are a few thoughts on what this night represents along with a few suggestions as to how one might celebrate it!
Here is our pūjā vidhi (ritual manual).
The Secret Worship of Mā Kālī
A Complete Sādhanā, Spiritual Practice for Mā Kālī

How To Worship Mā Kālī
How To Perform Kālī Pūjā
The 15 Kālīs | & How To Worship Them
How To Worship The Kali Yantra

For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist.
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
And if you feel moved to donate to support me and this work, you're welcome to here:
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/jaimakali

Support the show

The Tantrik Laxmī Oct 24, 2024

On the 31st of October this year (2024), we will be celebrating Kālī Pūjā. But this Kartika new moon is also Diwali/Dīpāvalī and many will be worshipping Laxmī, who is light embodied!
Last week, on this day, we celebrated the Sarat-Pūrnimā, the Autumn Full Moon which is considered to be the most auspicious, most beautiful and most charming of the full moons. Naturally, then, the full moon of autumn (which is in the month of Ashwin, following the Sharada Durgā Pūjā/Navarātri) is associated to the Goddess Laxmī.
As such, on the occasion of Laxmī Pūjā last week, and to set you up for the upcoming Dīpāvalī, we gave two lectures on the Goddess in her Tantrik aspect. This first lecture deals with some of the specifics in worshipping Laxmī in a Tantrik context which you can watch here: https://youtu.be/F0jwaTkWfdw and now in the second lecture, we make a few observations about the esoteric aspects of Mā Laxmī as per the Caṇḍi, Srī Vidyā and Daśamahāvidya traditions with a reference to Parā/Sarasvatī from the Trika tradition!
Jai Mā Laxmī!
For more detailed puja instructions, watch this playlist:
https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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How To Worship Laxmī Oct 23, 2024

Last week, on this day, we celebrated the Sarat-Pūrnimā, the Autumn Full Moon which is considered to be the most auspicious, most beautiful and most charming of the full moons. Naturally, then, the full moon of autumn (which is in the month of Ashwin, following the Sharada Durgā Pūjā/Navarātri) is associated to the Goddess Laxmī. As such, on the occasion of Laxmī Pūjā this year, we gave two lectures on the Goddess in her Tantrik aspect.
This first lecture deals with some of the specifics in worshipping Laxmī in a Tantrik context. Inevitably, we also have to talk about wealth and how to attract it, which I imagine is a topic of particular interest to many haha
Enjoy!
Jai Mā Laxmī!
For more detailed puja instructions, watch this playlist:
https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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How To Succeed At Tantra & The Worship of The Terrible Oct 22, 2024

Many people all over the world are diligently chanting Tantrik mantras and hymns and yet are not getting any results whatsoever. In fact, many people are doing sādhanā, spiritual practice rather consistently and still they find no real progress!
Why is that?
In this lecture on "How To Succeed At Tantra", we take up this question and offer a few "troubleshooting" solutions to make sādhanā, especially of the Tantrik kind, more meaningful and effective.
Naturally, then, we have to talk about what "effective" looks like! So we reflect a bit on the goals and aims of spiritual life.
Because I was in a mood (what with Kālī pūjā coming up in 11 days and all) we went on a nice, long tangent on Swami Vivekananda's Bengali poem "And Let Śyāma Dance There", to make the case for Kālī worship as "the worship of the Terrible".
For more detailed puja instructions, watch this playlist:
https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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The Most Popular Hymn to the Goddess | Mahiṣāsura-Mardinī Stotram Oct 18, 2024

Navarātri is never quite complete until we all get together and chant the Mahiṣāsura-Mardinī Stotram! This hymn is sometimes attributed to Adi Shankarācharya (as many, many hymns in the Sanskrit tradition tend to be) but it is also sometimes attributed to Rāvana, the antagonist of the Ramāyana! I like the second account much better for reasons I get into in the beginning of this discussion!
After discussing the "bhāva" of this song (and making a case for "rajas in the service of sattva" while we're at it), we discuss Rāga Bhairava and some music theory before taking a stab and singing the hymn together.
I made many, many mistakes and my rendition: I hope you can forgive me! Also, I made a mistake in saying Raga Bhairavi is a "night time rāga". Actually it's considered the "queen of the morning rāgas" but since I worship Mā usually at night and since I hear it most around then and also since it is sometimes used to close out a musical performance (which for me usually ends at night), I somehow made the association between this Rāga and the nighttime. Whoops, pardon the misinformation!
All my mistakes are entirely mine and everything that I have said that is helpful is by the Grace of Guru!
Jai Guru Kripa Ki Jai!
For more detailed Kali puja instructions, watch this playlist:
https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Here's the chanting document:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N1pEDmWZWdJq5Q27dGiZb9DQFrr1Ouq2FC85jIwQ66c/edit?usp=sharing
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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A Secret Tantrik Hymn | Siddha Kuñjika Stotra Oct 18, 2024

Be forewarned:

This is quite a powerful mantra so one's experience of it can be quite intense, especially after chanting it in such a sustained way like this. As always, it is better to receive it from a qualified guru in the context of Tantrik initiation, dīkshā and of course, it is always recommended that you practice out of simple devotion and sincerity with no desire to "get something out of the practice" besides knowledge, devotion, renunciation and a connection to Mā!
Here's the mantra:
ōṃ aiṃ hrīṃ klīṃ chāmuṇḍāyai vichchē ।
ōṃ glauṃ huṃ klīṃ jūṃ saḥ jvālaya jvālaya jvala jvala prajvala prajvala
aiṃ hrīṃ klīṃ chāmuṇḍāyai vichchē jvala haṃ saṃ laṃ kṣaṃ phaṭ svāhā ॥ 5 ॥
Now you might be familiar with this whole mantra or just a part of it, which is sometimes called the "navarna mantra", the 9-syllable mantra which is very secret and held to be very, very powerful. But you might not be familiar with where this mantra is from! As such, to explain the origins of this much beloved mantra in the Śākta tradition, we reverently go to the Siddha Kuñjika Stotram to explain the context in which this mantra lives. The recitation of the whole Stotram daily is a powerful practice that conveys all the benefits of the daily recitation of the Devī Māhātmyam, the 700 verses devoted to Mā!
Jai Mā!

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Cāmuṇḍā Chanting + Kirtan Oct 14, 2024

On Navami last week, for our final online Navarātri celebration, we chanted one māla of the siddha-kunjika mantra together, which as it says in the Rudra-Yāmala Tantra is itself equivalent to chanting the whole Caṇḍi! Be forewarned: this is quite a powerful mantra so one's experience of it can be quite intense, especially after chanting it in such a sustained way like this. Here's the mantra:
ōṃ aiṃ hrīṃ klīṃ chāmuṇḍāyai vichchē ।
ōṃ glauṃ huṃ klīṃ jūṃ saḥ jvālaya jvālaya jvala jvala prajvala prajvala
aiṃ hrīṃ klīṃ chāmuṇḍāyai vichchē jvala haṃ saṃ laṃ kṣaṃ phaṭ svāhā ॥ 5 ॥
Then, of course, we plunge into some kirtan! To sing and clap and celebrate God is Sri Ramakrishna's preferred prescription for worldliness! Kirtan begins at 00:48:45 with the first and third hymns of the Caṇḍi, Shiva kirtan begins around 1:08:30 and at 1:17:10 Eliotji leads us in the Kāmākhya Ārati centered around the daśa-mahāvidyas:
Namo Kāmākhya Namo Kāmākhya Jaya Jaya Māta Namo Kāmākhya
Śakti-pīṭha Namo Namah, Ādi Śakti Namo Namah
Māta Kālika Namo Namah, Tāra Mā Namo Namah
Tripura-Sundarī Namo Namah, Bhūvaneśvarī Namo Namah
Chinnamastaka Namo Namah, Māta Bhairavī Namo Namah
Dhūmavatī Mā Namo Namah, Bagalāmukhī Mā Namo Namah
Mātangī Mā Namo Namah, Kāmalātmika Namo Namah
Also, forgive me for the very sludgy and distorted sound of the guitar . When I was playing in punk bands, that was exactly the kind of tone I wanted but for this video, it sounds very muddy! I think the gain is on too high on the microphone! I'll do a soundcheck next time :'(
And also, the video quality is kind of wonky so if you'd prefer just an audio version of all of this to chant along to, I've attached the audio-file with this post!
Special thanks to Danielji and Eliotji for the percussions and thank you to all who came online and in person to celebrate Mā on Navami!
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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The Slaying of Mahiṣāsura Oct 14, 2024

Whenever we think of the Goddess Durgā, the image that almost invariable comes to mind is of Her standing on her lion of Dharma with Her right foot, stepping on a buffalo with Her left foot and, spear in hand, stabbing the mustachioed villain-turned-devotee through the heart, an otherworldly smile on Her beautiful face. This image of Mā is called Mahiṣāsura-mardinī (The Slayer of the Buffalo Demon) and it is the central story of the Devī Māhātmyam in the sense that it is
(a) literally, in the middle of the text, the "Madhya carita" and
(b) most commonly referenced in Śākta literature and iconography.
There is just something so very compelling and so very ancient about this image! We see parallels in the image of Archangel Michael stepping on the head of the serpent with sword or spear in hand. What exactly is being depicted here?In this video, we chant Chapters 2-4 of the Devī Māhātmyam to enter into the gory and lurid story in which this scene appears.
As we chant and read out the translations from Swami Jagadishwaranandaji, we also offer some commentary and explanation exploring the deeper, subtler meanings of the narrative.
This was arguably the "main event" in our celebration together online!In the coming Monday evening satsangh, we will chant the Mahiṣāsura-mardinī Stotram together, Mā willing!
Jaya Jaya He Mahiṣāsura Mardini Ramya Kapārdini Śaila Sute!
For more detailed Kali puja instructions, watch this playlist:
https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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How Tantrik Mantra & Visualization Works Oct 13, 2024

The calling card of Tantrik spiritual practice is creative visualization on rich, complex and thoroughly symbolic imagery along with the repetition and chanting of subtle sound patterns or speech formulae known as "mantras." After all, Tantra is a highly aesthetic tradition and it is as much of a literary and artistic movement as it is a spiritual one! If you want to learn more about Tantrik art and spirituality you can check out these two videos here and here.
Anyway, the heart of Tantra is connecting to a particular form of Divinity, an aspect of Non-Dual Consciousness, through visualizing that Deity's specific form while chanting the Deity's mantra. Many often wonder: "how does all of this work? What is the inner mechanism behind the process? Is there a psychological explanation for why simply visualizing something and repeating something can induce a full-blown mystical experience?
Also, if you are regularly chanting a mantra or something like a kavacam (Tantrik hymn of protection) but not enjoying the desired effect, we say a few things to (a) troubleshoot why this might be the case and (b) resolve the issue for better, more meaningful and more effective chanting!
Of course, this discussion is centered around the Mahalaxmī-Dhyānam (meditation on the Warrior Laxmī) which we also talked about in the previous podcast episode/ video here.
Laxmī pūjā (the upcoming full moon after Sārada Navarātri) is coming up so it's nice to contemplate Mā in this form as much as we can around this time!
Jai Mā!
For more detailed Kali puja instructions, watch this playlist:
https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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The Warrior Laxmī Oct 13, 2024

The full moon after Sārada Navarātri (Autumn Goddess festival) is known as Laxmī pūjā, the day where we celebrate the Goddess of Beauty, Elegance, Auspiciousness and Wealth!
Of course we'll have many, many more things to say about the "Tantrik Laxmī" in the days to come, but I thought I would just go ahead and get the balling rolling with this video which presents Mahalakshmī from the Devī Māhātmyam not as she is commonly depicted but rather as fierce and aggressive Warrior-Goddess.
This video presents a technique for meditating on Laxmī in her Aries aspect as opposed to her Aphrodite one, to use a Hellenestic allegory since we compare this depiction to a very similar one of Pandora in Hesiod's hymns, making the case that the Goddess belongs to all cultures, beyond just India!
This meditation takes place between Verses 10-33 in the second chapter of the Devī Māhātmyam. We open with a few broad, overarching statements about the Caṇḍi chanting sādhanā and how to stay safe practicing Tantra in cremation grounds before plunging into the chanting!
Jai Mā!
For more detailed Kali puja instructions, watch this playlist:
https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Here's the chanting document we showed in the video:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N1pEDmWZWdJq5Q27dGiZb9DQFrr1Ouq2FC85jIwQ66c/edit?usp=sharing
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Who are the Aṣṭa Mātrikās (The 8 Tantrik Mothers)? Oct 09, 2024

The Aṣṭa mātṝkās (the 8 mothers) are so central to Tantrik theory and practice and oh so mysterious! We first meet these 8 fierce, blood drinking, intoxicated Goddesses in the third act of the Devī Māhātmyam! And so, in this lecture, we'll take up that hymn and we'll list them one by one and consider their dhyāna ślokas (meditation mantras) so that we'll be able to visualize them. Of course, we'll discuss how to worship and why you want to worship them!
Most importantly though, I want to discuss some very subtle Tantrik linguistic mysticism concerning the nature of the Sanskrit language and how to it maps on to/ mystically explains Reality! Abhinava Gupta has a really interesting section in chapter 3 of his Tantrāloka on this which we discuss a little bit in this lecture. We open with a comparison of Shankara's Kevalādvaita (classical non-duality) system with the Tantrik version of non-duality (Advaita Śaiva or Śāktadvaita Vāda) to compare Māyā to Śakti to make the case that language is the power of Consciousness to reveal Herself to Herself!
Devī Kavacam 9-18

1. Cāmundā on corpse

2. Vārāhinī on buffal

3. Indrānī on elephant

4. Vaishnavī on Garuḍa (eagle)

5. Narasimhinī mahāvīrya

6. Śivaduti mahābalā

7. Maheśvarī on a bull

8. Kaumarī on a peacock

9. Lakṣmī on a lotus, holding lotus flowers

10. īsvarī on a bull, wearing white

11. Brāhmī with ornaments on a swan

Aṣṭamodhyāyah (Chapter 8), verses 12-21 describes their origin and appearance and verses 33-63 describes what they do!
In Ekādaśodhyāyah (Chapter 11), verses 13-21, they are praised
Kali Yantra (inner lotus petals)

Brāhmī
Vaishnavī
Maheśvarī
Cāmundā
Kaumarī
Indrānī
Vārāhinī
Narasimhinī

Srī Cakra (in bhūpura)

brāhmī,
māhēśvarī,
kaumāri,
vaiṣṇavī,
vārāhī,
māhēndrī,
chāmuṇḍē,
mahālakṣmī

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Who is Cāmuṇḍā? Oct 08, 2024

First, we take a look at the Caṇḍi (Devī Māhātmyam) to see all the different forms of Mā:
1. Mahākālī from chapter I who is described as being blue like a jewel with ten hands holding various weapons, ten legs and ten heads ,
2. Kālī who springs forth from Parvatī in Chapter 5, Verse 88 after the aparājita hymn and of course,
3. Kālī who springs forth from Ambika's furrowed brow, a personification of her rage, in Chapter 7, in verses 7-27 to slay two demons named Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa thereby receiving the moniker Cāmuṇḍā, who is Herself one of the Aṣṭa Mātrikās (The 8 Tantrik Mothers) which you can learn more about here.
And then we ask this question:
In what way are all these forms of Kālī in the Devī Māhātmyam related if at all? How is Kālī different from Durgā/Ambika? And in what way are these Kālīs different from or the same as
4. Dakṣiṇā Kālī?
To answer it, we offer the Tantrik theory of sarvākara nirākara: the Absolute Reality is formless and without attributes and therefore She can include ALL forms and attributes. Ultimately, I make the argument that all these aspectsa and forms that we see in Tantra are not themselves different Goddesses but just different sarees that the One Being, Pure Non-Dual Consciousness, wears to play!
For more detailed Kali puja instructions, watch this playlist:
https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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A Simple Way To Worship The Srī Yantra | Khaḍgamālā Stotram Oct 07, 2024

On this auspicious day of Lalitā Pañchami, I pray to the Divine Mother Tripurasundarī, the beauty of the three cities (of waking, dreaming and deep sleep), who soaks the states of Consciousness with beauty like oil soaks a cloth, that we may successfully approach Her and have Her vision!
Many people want to worship the Srī Cakra/Srī Yantra but are overwhelmed by its stunning complex and sophistication! Where to begin? In this class, we do a brief and cursory introduction for the Khaḍgamālā Stotram, the Garland of Swords Hymn from the Vāmakeśvarī Tantra, arguably among the most powerful Tantrik hymns ever. After the nyāsas (consecration) and dhyānam (meditation), the hymn runs like a nāmavali (a list of names) listing all the deities of the Srī Cakra one by one from the bhūpura (outer gate) through the āvaranas (various levels or "coverings", nine in all including the bhūpura) such that chanting this stotram is itself equivalent to performing the very complex (and often time consuming) Srī Cakra pūjā proper. As you say the names, you can offer flowers or flower petals, vermillion (sindura) or even just spoonfuls of water into the bindu and trust that the energies of the cakra (i.e the cakreśvarīs) will naturally carry the offering to the appropriate point in the cakra corresponding to the name of the Goddess you just chanted so that you don't have to figure out where they all are in the diagram!
Of course, this hymn acts as a kind of "gateway drug" to the Srī Cakra pūjā. After we become fluent with the krama (sequence of deities), and after we have become acquainted with the texture of the energies of these deities (and after we've acquired their grace to some extent), we will naturally come into a Srī Vidyā dīkshā and naturally, we will take the next steps if we so desire. But for now, let us chant this stotram with great ardor!
Jai Mā Lalitāmbika Devī Ji Ki Jai!
You can find the hymn towards the end of this document but it's also quite readily available on the internet.
For more detailed Kali puja instructions, watch this playlist.
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there.
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here.

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The Slaying of Madhu and Kaiṭabha | Devī Māhātmyam, Chapter I Oct 07, 2024

Last week, on Tritiya, the third day of the nine nights of the Autumn Goddess festival (Navarātri), we got together to chant some Devī Māhātmyam! Having already chanted the preliminary verses when we got together in the morning (you can follow along with that here.
We now take up the Chandi proper and dive right into the first chapter (prathamo'dhyāyah) where we hear all about the slaying of the demons Madhu and Kaiṭabha.
Besides chanting together, we do a running commentary of the deeper meaning of this story within a story within a story!
Here is the chanting document for our daily Navarātri sādhana.
(it's still a work in progress!)
You'll find all our content on Navarātri and the Chandi in this collection.
For more detailed Kali puja instructions, watch this playlist:
https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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How To Worship The Kālī Yantra Oct 04, 2024

Last week, we went over an abridged ritual worship of the Goddess Kālī with some detail (watch that here) and we also suggested some wonderful resources to help you get started with your pūjā, or Tantrik ritual practice like Swami Bhajanananda Saraswati's "Simple Kali Puja" book which you can find here.
Now, we go in with some finer brush strokes! You'll recall that after the worship of Mā Kālī, and right before the worship of Mahākāla Bhairava, in our ritual manual, there's a section on "worshipping the auxiliariy/attendant deities" (āvaranadevatā pūjā). Well, interestingly, this section actually refers to the Kali Yantra, the sacred geometric pattern of Consciousness that corresponds to Kālī and her various emanations!
In this class, we talk a little bit about the parivāra (the family of deities) which is a very Tantrik concept and after listing them and offering their worship mantras, we discuss how to map them on to the yantra going from inside out (srsthi krama) for the purposes of your meditation and worship.
PS: there are technical difficulties at 00:26:38 forgive me! The internet dropped. The content resumes around 00:33:10
The mantras can all be found in written form here.
For more detailed puja instructions, watch this playlist.
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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How To Perform Kālī Pūjā Sep 30, 2024

Tomorrow (October 1st, 2024) is a very, very special day: a new moon night on Tuesday, the eve of Navarātri, the 9 nights of the Goddess!
Mā Kālī tells us in the Tantras that this is the best time to worship Her!
Naturally, those of you who might want to worship Her will ask "well how do I worship Her?!" Of course, the worship of Mā Kālī is some very high level Tantra being that She is the Goddess of the Tantras! But there are some wonderful resources out there for beginners to get started:
For example, Swami Bhajanananda Saraswati's beautiful book "Simple Kali Puja", which you can pick up on the internet or find on the Kālī Mandir website: https://www.kalimandir.org
If you're totally new, I recommend starting here. As with all things, start small and slowly expand according to capacity and interest. Pujya Swamiji's book is very complete as it is concise, walking you through all the main mantras in Kālī worship which for so long has been kept secret!
Some time ago, on the new moon night of Phalahārinī Kālī Pūjā, we gave this talk on How To Worship Mā Kālī which focused more on the "internal worship" (mānasa Kālī pūjā):
https://www.patreon.com/posts/how-to-worship-105659438?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link
Now, we present an abridged, abbreviated external worship in 16 steps/sections!
The mantras can all be found in written form here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/how-to-perform-113071076?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link
For more detailed puja instructions, watch this playlist:
https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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What To Do For Navarātri | Rules for Chanting The Candi Sep 29, 2024

Starting this upcoming Tuesday, on the New Moon, we will be entering into a very sacred and transformative period!
Perhaps the most exciting and intense time in our community, Navarātri (The 9 Nights of the Goddess) typically features:
1. collective sādhanā that many of us opt into doing together according to our capacity and interest
2. many lectures on the various aspects of the Divine Mother as usual and of course
3. copious Candi recitation!
Last year, we did an Introduction to the Devī Māhātmya, The Most Sacred Texts of the Śāktas which you can watch here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/introduction-to-91791288?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link
For this upcoming Navarātri, some of you have expressed a desire to perform the Candi (recitation) sādhanā in addition to or as an alternative to the mantra-japa sādhana described here:
A Mantra Recitation Practice for Navarātri
https://www.patreon.com/posts/mantra-practice-113025541?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link
In this video, we go over a few preliminary things you might like to do and tiknow regarding this type of chanting practice which when done with devotion, can be a real game changer, a total singularity in the aspirant's life and spiritual practice!
Jai Srī Durgā!
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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How To Get Renunciation | Bhakti Yoga, Swami Vivekananda Sep 26, 2024

In this class, we read from "The Preparatory Renunciation" from the Parā-Bhakti (Supreme Devotion) section of the Bhakti Yoga book in Volume III of the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda to learn how we may "cultivate" renunciation which as we'll learn, is a necessary pre-requisite for higher spiritual life! But first, we make a few opening remarks about renunciation, about what it is and what it is not and most importantly, what it is for!
Here is a playlist of videos for classes in this series on Swami Vivekananda's Bhakti Yoga:
https://www.patreon.com/collection/728434
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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How To Contact The Spirit World & Not Go Insane Sep 20, 2024

I know the title sounds new agey and off the wall but only because it is. I intend to discuss cremation ground sadhana a little and present three or four reasons for it, focusing on the concept of “spirit traffic”. This is a bit of a pre-Hallowe’en Hallowe’en talk I suppose!
Today will be the last talk of our “summer semester” before we shift gears for the fall!
You’ll recall the project this summer was to cover some foundational concepts in Sadhana and we started with "How To Get Started In Spiritual Life" exploring some basics and then we discussed “right motive” in spiritual life and suggested an attitudinal shift that can make for a long term and sustainable sadhana to prevent burnout in "How To Enjoy Spiritual Life"
In Should Worship One Deity or Many, Chant One Mantra or Many? we looked at the underlying reality behind every mantra and deity-form to make the argument for one-ness and to show a way to work with many different mantras and murtis without losing a sense of that one-ness!
Then of course we had to take up the question of the all-too-necessary living spiritual guide in How To Choose A Guru & What To Do If You Don't Have One
Then we thoroughly analyzed Tantrik subtle anatomy to explain the dynamics of sadhana, spiritual practice.
We explored some basic puja techniques and then we took all of those foundational ideas into the signature lecture of the summer The Secret Worship of Mā Kālī which we gave on Kali Jayanti and which presents a rather complete Sadhana for Mā Kālī.
So now that you have everything you need to begin an intense and productive and complete Sadhana, there’s only one question left to ask: “how do I stay grounded and not go insane?”Sadly “spinning out into madness” is something that happens far too often to sincere spiritual aspirants who go about things in the wrong way. So today, we’ll cover that as a nice closing sentiment for summer semester!
Enjoy!
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Do I Have To Be Vegetarian To Practice Spirituality? Sep 14, 2024

This lecture is undoubtedly going to be somewhat controversial for some! Brace yourselves!
In this week's Bhakti Yoga lecture, we take a few excerpts from Swami Vivekananda's "The Methods and the Means (for practicing Bhakti Yoga)" from Volume III of the Complete Works to explain the role of diet, ethics and other preliminaries in spiritual life.
"If I want to practice spirituality, then, should I become a vegetarian? How important is a vegetarian diet to spiritual life, anyway? Should I avoid onions and garlic and other rājāsic foods? Should I stay clear of mushrooms and leeks and such tamasic foods? What really qualifies as a "sattvic" diet, after all?"
These questions naturally come to mind when we take up spiritual life, especially within the context of Sanātana Dharma.
Also, a naturally related question to vegetarianism is the ethical question of Ahimsā, non-violence. The Buddha and Mahavīra, the founder of Jainism made this ideal the very heart of their respective traditions and everywhere it is emphasized: one should not harm others in word, thought or deed. But what does that really mean? And do I have to be perfectly non-violent before I can take up spiritual life?
As we explore these dietary and ethical pre-requisites, we discover that there is only one real pre-requisite to spiritual life which Swami Vivekananda emphasizes towards the end of the reading: strength! Physical and mental strength!
May Swami Vivekananda bless us all with strength!

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Goddess Mantras for Protection Sep 13, 2024

This is perhaps the most new-agey title we've ever given for any of our videos but bear with me! It's appropriate, I promise!
In this lecture, we explore the exciting world of Kavaca (spiritual armor), devices or mantras which serve an apotropaic (protective) function. We say a few things about physical kavacas that can be worn and which are often made out of specific metals, stones and yantras before introducing three forms of "mantra-kavaca", mantra-armors you can start using immediately to protect yourself from all harm whether physical, psychical or spiritual!
Finally, I make a comparison between the Devi Kavaca from the Chandi and the Old Irish prayer "St. Patrick's Breastplate" to introduce some Kavacas in the Christian mystical tradition also!
May you be safe and protected always!
Jai Mā!
Our pūjā class meets live every Thursday evening at 6:30pm PST via this link:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
If you want to follow along with the "How To Do Tantrik Puja" course, you can watch or rewatch previous lectures here:
https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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The 15 Kālīs | & How To Worship Them Sep 12, 2024

In the Tantrik worship of Mā Kālī, after She is worshipped, we then worship Her āvarana devatās, attendant/auxiliary deities which can be each of them conceived of as emanations of Her Being.
Among these emanations are the 15 yoginīs, also known as the Nitya-Kālīs, often described as banshee-like dākinī figures that make up her retinue. There is very little on the internet about these yoginīs/dākinīs/nitya-kālī because their worship is rather esoteric and quite guarded.
In this lecture, I first make a few broad overarching comments about spiritual life and particularly about how to gauge your progress in spiritual life just so that we can get clear on the goal and the proper motivation behind worshipping Mā in this Tantrik way.
Then, we offer a brief description of the 15 Kālīs and what they represent in the context of Tantrik embodiment. Finally, I suggest a simple way to worship these energies in the context of your daily pūjā. Below is their meditation mantra which can also be used to invoke them:
ध्यानम्
ॐ सर्वाः श्यामा असिकराः मुण्डमालाविभूषिताः।
तर्जनीं वामहस्तेन धारयन्त्यः शुचिस्मिताः॥
दिगम्बरा हसन्मुख्यः स्व–स्व–भर्तृसमन्विताः।
dhyānam
oṁ sarvāḥ śyāmā asikarāḥ muṇḍamālāvibhūṣitāḥ।
tarjanīṁ vāmahastena dhārayantyaḥ śucismitāḥ॥
digambarā hasanmukhyaḥ sva–sva–bhartṛsamanvitāḥ।
"They are all black, holding swords, garlanded in heads; they are each holding out their index finger of their left hand and they are all smiling sweetly. They are naked, joyful and filled with the bliss of the self/self-satistified."
To offer a flower to the whole group of 15 simply chant:
OM ete gandha pushpe kālī devyāmbādi-panca-daśa-yoginībyho namah:
or you can offer each one a flower (or a flower petal) individually as follows:
OM ete gandha pushpe srī kālī devyāmba srī-pādukam pūjāyami namah
OM ete gandha pushpe srī kapalinī devyāmba srī-pādukam pūjāyami namah
OM ete gandha pushpe srī kullā devyāmba srī-pādukam pūjāyami namah
OM ete gandha pushpe srī kurukullā devyāmba srī-pādukam pūjāyami namah...
etc. Just work your way down the list of names! Notice the mantra is pretty much the same for each offering; it's only the name of the nitya-kālī in question that is changing!
Here are all their names, perhaps published for the first time for the general public on the internet as far as I know:
1. Kālī
2. Kapālinī
3. Kullā
4. Kurukullā
5. Virodhinī
6. Vipracittā
7. Ugrā
8. Ugraphrabhā
9. Dīptā
10. Nīlā
11.Ghanā
12. Balākā
13. Mātrā
14. Mudrā
15. Mitā
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Swami Vivekananda's 9/11 Message Sep 11, 2024

As is our tradition in this community, to commemorate today's auspicious anniversary of Swami Vivekananda's 1893 address at the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago, I make a few comments about why this is such a special moment before reading out to you can excerpt from Sister Nivedita's reflections. Finally, we read the speech and celebrate this moment as being inextricably linked to that one when on the 11th of September in 1893, Swami Vivekananda changed the world!
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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What Are The Different Forms of Kālī? | & How Can I Worship Them? Sep 10, 2024

Unity delights in diversity! While there is only One Reality, called Kālī, She plays in a myriad ways, appearing in a dazzling display of forms! Taking the 10 mahāvidyās for example, the 10 aspects of Kālī, they each of them have their own vigrahas (anthropomorphic descriptions), yantras (geometric representations), mantras (vibrational formulae) etc. giving us at least 30 different ways to conceptualize Kālī who is Herself beyond all conceptualization! In this class, I talk a little about the 33 Kālīs, making an argument for 3 additional forms to the 30 sketched out above. This lecture was given on Tuesday, on the new moon night, so we open with a few statements as to why that's such a big deal in our tradition. Also, we cover many foundational aspects of the practice like Tantra like where to get a legit mantra, the qualifications of the Guru etc. Finally, we offer a few simple practices you can take up right away to start propitiating Mā and we make a few points about the Kālī yantra as a symbol of the body!
Jai Mā!
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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The Tantrik Gaṇeśa Sep 07, 2024

On Gaṇeśa Chathurthi, the auspicious day when we worship Gaṇeśa, the elephant headed God who is so beloved by one and one, we gave a talk on the "Tantrik Gaṇeśa", that is to say, on the more esoteric dimensions of the veneration of this Lord of Wild Forces!
Gaṇeśa Pañcharatna Stotram
मुदाकरात्तमोदकं सदाविमुक्तिसाधकं
कलाधरावतंसकं विलासिलोकरञ्जकम् ।
अनायकैकनायकं विनाशितेभदैत्यकं
नताशुभाशुनाशकं नमामि तं विनायकम् ॥
"(Salutations to Ganesh) who holds in his hand the modakam (sweetmeat) representing divine joy who always helps devotees achieve liberation (and that sweetness) who holds the moon as his ornament and who playfully protects the world who has no Lord over himself but is himself the Lord of All and his devotees, protecting them by destroying their demons/bondages. To those who surrender to him, he destroys all inauspiciousness. I salute that Vināyaka and bow to him!"
नतेतरातिभीकरं नवोदितार्कभास्वरं
नमत्सुरारिनिर्जरं नताधिकापदुद्धरम् ।
सुरेश्वरं निधीश्वरं गजेश्वरं गणेश्वरं
महेश्वरं तमाश्रये परात्परं निरन्तरम् ॥१॥
He takes a frightening form for those who do not bow down to him and he shines like a freshly risen sun, who is eternal and unchanging, worshipped by Gods and seers, he delivers all those who bow down to him from calamities! He is the Lord of the Gods, the Lord of Wealth, the Lord of Elephants and the Lord of violent forces! He is the Supreme Lord who is Beyond Transcendence in whom I unceasingly take refuge
समस्तलोकशंकरं निरस्तदैत्यकुञ्जरं
दरेतरोदरं वरं वरेभवक्त्रमक्षरम् ।
कृपाकरं क्षमाकरं मुदाकरं यशस्करं
मनस्करं नमस्कृतां नमस्करोमि भास्वरम् ॥२॥
He is the auspiciousness of the whole world, who casts out demons, who has a huge belly, who gives boons and whose face represents the Imperishable Reality, who gives grace, forgiveness, joy and glory, the maker of the mind who exaclts those who bow to him! I bow to him!
अकिंचनार्तिमार्जनं चिरन्तनोक्तिभाजनं
पुरारिपूर्वनन्दनं सुरारिगर्वचर्वणम् ।
प्रपञ्चनाशभीषणं धनंजयादिभूषणम्
कपोलदानवारणं भजे पुराणवारणम् ॥३॥
He easily brushes aside all suffering; he is the receptacle of praises since time immemorial/who is praised by the Immortals! He is the first born son of the enemy of Tripurāsura and he devours the pride of the enemies of the Gods! He himself assumes the terrible form of the devourer of the world, adorning himself with fire and other powers! His cheeks give/are full of the liquor of grace...I praise him with the liqour of the purānas!
नितान्तकान्तदन्तकान्तिमन्तकान्तकात्मजं
अचिन्त्यरूपमन्तहीनमन्तरायकृन्तनम् ।
हृदन्तरे निरन्तरं वसन्तमेव योगिनां
तमेकदन्तमेव तं विचिन्तयामि सन्ततम् ॥४॥
The exceedingly beautiful, single tusked son of Shiva who puts an end to death, your form is inconceivable, limitless and destroys all divisions/obstacles. You are always present in the cave of the heart of Yogis! Like this, I contemplate the single-tusked one!
महागणेशपञ्चरत्नमादरेण योऽन्वहं
प्रजल्पति प्रभातके हृदि स्मरन् गणेश्वरम् ।
अरोगतामदोषतां सुसाहितीं सुपुत्रतां
समाहितायुरष्टभूतिमभ्युपैति सोऽचिरात् ॥५॥
Those who recite these great five jewels of Gaṇeśa, those who chant this contemplation and who remember Gaṇeśa in the heart in the early morning will be free of disease and impurity and will have good company (spouses and children) and will soon get long life and the eight occult powers!
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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The Secret Worship of Mā Kālī Sep 03, 2024

This talk was given on the sacred 8th day of the waning moon that just went by, which as you know, is not only Kālī Jayanti but also Krishnajanmasthami, the birthday of Kali-Krishna. And I am releasing this midnight on a new moon on Tuesday, the moon sacred day and time for worshipping Mā.
This is a very special video to me because it makes many things that have been very secret for so long available to the viewing public. I trust that if you take up the practice and do it sincerely with no desire but to lose yourself in Her love, then She Herself will send a guru to guide you! Or rather, She Herself will appear in the form of the human guru, if such is needed (as I often recommend) or She will instruct you in dreams or from within.
I want to make an offering to you, you who are Kālī embodied: may all of these words be red hibiscus flowers placed one by one and Your feet! This video should give you everything you need to worship Mā!
Let's get to it:
In the (often very secret) tradition of Kālī-kula (Kali worship), there is a hymn that captures the very essence of how Mā likes to be approached. This hymn details the mantra, the yantra and the form of Mā Kālī (specifically, Dakshina Kālī) that is to be meditated upon. More importantly, it stresses the bhāva, or mood in which to call upon Mother and some of the important elements of ritual worship that is enjoined by the Kali Tantra including animal and human sacrifice, cremation ground meditation and various other transgressive elements.
We already gave a talk exploring this very excellent hymn to Kālī here
You can read the hymn in Devanagri, Roman transliteration and a some other scripts here: https://stotranidhi.com/en/sri-kali-karpura-stotram-in-english/
The book that we reference for translations in this and the other video is "Hymn to Kālī" by Arthur Avalon and Swami Vimalananda.
But before we discuss the hymn and the Kālī mantra, which is of course the main offering in this video, we say a few things about the similarities and differences between Kālī and Krishna.
Happy New Moon! Jai Mā

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Staying Safe with Kundalinī Aug 29, 2024

Kundalinī is real (and very powerful)! In this brief talk, we sketch out a few of the basic ideas regarding the experience of Kundalinī śakti in the context of spiritual life and then go on to suggest 4 or 5 different ways to practice safely to minimize some of the more, let's say, dramatic effects of spiritual awakening:
1. Have a qualified guru (living spiritual guide)
2. Have a devotional, personal relationship to Kundalinī in the form of your Ishtā, Chosen Ideal (i.e practice Deity Yoga)
3. Live a healthy and balanced life in terms of sleep, diet, time in nature etc.
4. Practice Hatha Yoga.
5. Cultivate "sakshi bhāva", that is, be the witness and watch joyfully and patiently as experiences come and go!

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What Are Chakras? Aug 21, 2024

In this lecture, we are going into the Tantrik subtle body with even finer brushstrokes following our last discussion on the subject, "The Tantrik Body" which you can watch here:
https://youtu.be/-rsfpR2SY9c?si=wJl7KFbwa1L-4td_
In this lecture, we look at the sapta dhātus (the 7 constituents of the physical body), which are very important in Ayurveda and compare that to the 7 trunked elephant in the mulādhāra cakra!
Of course we will do a comprehensive survey of the various cakras along the susushumnā nādi, comparing the 3 cakra model of classical tantra to the 5 and 6 cakra model in yoga and with the 7 planes of Vedanta vs what I call the “new age traffic light chakra model” of the Theosophist. What is a traditional chakra model and how does the modern "new age" version compare?
We’ll of course consider all the color schemes, beeja mantras, matrikas and symbology of the cakras and suggest a few different practices you can do oriented around that!
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST, Friday 10am PST and again Friday 6pm PST.
There's Q&A right after the lectre.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Is Artificial Intelligence Conscious? Aug 20, 2024

Many people are concerned that AI is at present Conscious or will become Conscious at some point. And if so, will they turn then on their human overlords? Or worse, they might remain calm and continue to be helpful at which point we would have on our hands a huge ethical issue: forcing intelligent beings to do slave-like work without any compensation or protection? The problem with most conversations about AI and consciousness is that most of us them are premised on a very poor understanding of Consciousness, founded upon very shaky and outdated materialist reductionist foundations. So I thought let's just set the record straight by offering a few perspectives from Sāmkhya, Advaita Vedanta and Tantra to answer this most pressing of questions!
On this very auspicious day of Raksha Bandhana, the day when we honor our brothers and sisters and siblings, I want to firstly say to each and every one of you, you who are my dear brothers, sisters, siblings: I love you immeasurably!
Thank you.
No words will express my reverence to you, you who are Goddess embodied!
May all my words be so many flowers offered in devotion and surrender at your lotus feet!
May these words be themselves like the thread that I wrap around your wrists! (Because today many siblings and friends will be tying a thread or amulet around each other’s wrists to signify their bond and mutual protection of one another!)
Also today’s pūrnimā (full moon) is Hayagrīva Jayanti, when we celebrate that divine emanation of Godhead with the horse’s head who returned the Vedas after they were stolen (I.e who revived the Vedas with his Tantrik transmission) and who revealed the secret names of Lalitāmbika to the sage Agastya in the Brahmananda Purana!
He is the Tantrik Guru par excellence and so today, in the name of discussing the subtlest and most esoteric of Tantrik doctrines, I want to explore what I consider to be among the most profound ideas expressed which we find in aphorism in Vasugupta’s Śiva Sūtra: drśyam śarīram, “the entire universe is your body.”
We have been exploring Tantrik subtle anatomy together for some weeks now, discussing nādis, cakras, prāna, Kundalinī etc. But in the background of all of this is this profoundly radical notion of embodiment, a metaphysical claim about the true nature of our essential being that once heard, can grant enlightenment immediately! It is precisely this claim that we will explore today.
But you know, I noticed there was a very thrilling discussion in the Discord the other night about Artifical Intelligence and its role in spiritual communities! Amanda Mā suggested I say something about Consciousness and AI and since I can never refuse her (especially not on Raksha Bandhana!) I’ve decided to name tonight’s talk “is AI Conscious?” In answering this question from the Tantrik point of view, we can explore the aforementioned aphorism, drśyam śarīram!
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST, Friday 10am PST and again Friday 6pm PST.
There's Q&A right after the lectre.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Tantra vs Hatha Yoga vs Modern Postural Yoga Aug 16, 2024

As we study the Paramārthsāra of Abhinava Gupta, a wonderful introductory work on the foundational metaphysics of the Svatantrya Vada (Kashmir Shaivai) system, I felt it would be good to ground ourselves in the other schools of Indian philosophy like Nyāya, Vaisheshika, Sāmkhya, Yoga and Mimāmsa in Purva and Uttara forms as well as Buddhist and Jain schools which were popular at the time when Abhinava Gupta was composing his work so we could really feel into the context in which this profound spiritual tradition has its being. Having already studied Sāmkhya at some length in previous classes, I intended to take up the classical Yoga system of Patañjali in today's class.
But then I realized that when we say "yoga", these days, what comes to mind is "modern postural yoga" which has much more to do with the Post Classical Tantrik tradition known as Hatha Yoga founded by the Nath sampradaya than it does with Patañjali's tradition. So I took the opportunity to discuss just how Hatha Yoga fits into the Tantrik world and how it creates our modern understanding of yoga in an attempt to compare and contrast the two different uses of the word "yoga". We talk a little bit at the end about Swami Vivekananda's seminal "Raja Yoga" which I argue is, although certainly a commentary on the Yoga Sūtra, a more syncretic text dealing with Advaita Vedanta and Tantrik Shaivism than with Yoga proper, as per Patañjali's transmission.
And also since today is the auspicious day of Varalakshmī Vratam, I thought it would be good to go over the Kamalā Devī Dhyāna mantra:
न्त्या काञ्चनसन्निभां हिमगिरिप्रख्यैश्चतुर्भिर्गजैर्
हस्तोत्क्षिप्तहिरण्मयामृतघटैरासिच्यमानां श्रियम् ॥
विभ्राणं वरमब्जयुग्ममभयं हस्तैः किरीटोज्ज्वलां ।
क्षोमाबद्धनितम्बबिम्बललितां वन्देऽरविन्दस्थिताम् ॥
kāntyā kāñcanasannibhāṃ himagiriprakhyaiścaturbhirgajair
hastotkṣiptahiraṇmayāmṛtaghaṭairāsicyamānāṃ śriyam ॥
vibhrāṇaṃ varamabjayugmamabhayaṃ hastaiḥ kirīṭojjvalāṃ ।
kṣomābaddhanitambabimbalalitāṃ vande'ravindasthitām ॥
Beautiful like gold, bathed by the golden nectar poured from four pitchers from the four trunks of four elephants, she is the Goddess Srī who holds a pair of lotuses in her two hands and with her other two hands shows the vara (boon giving) and the abhaya (fearlessness) mūdras whose head is shining with the splendour of a bejeweled crown whose lovely round hips are raimented in linen/silk...I worship that Lalitā, that playful Goddess who abides in the lotus.
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST, Friday 10am PST and again Friday 6pm PST.
There's Q&A right after the lectre.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Support the show

The Tantrik Body Aug 12, 2024

Last week we gave this lecture comparing two seemingly different views, the Vedantic claim that “you are not the body nor is the body yours” and the Tantrik position that the “body is a sacred site in which the universe occurs”.
At first glance, these seem like contradictory views: transcendence vs immanence. But in actuality, they are complimentary. A better formulation would be this: “you are not just this limited and transient body; you are actually the entire universe embodied!”

Having thoroughly proved this point using two texts, the Tattīriya Upanishad from the Vedantic tradition and the Virupaksha Pancashika from the Tantrik tradition, it is now time to take the discussion further and paint with some finer brush strokes:

As promised last week, we will take tonight’s lecture to discuss the cakras, nādis, kundalinīand how to harness and channelize prāna…all that fun Tantrik stuff!

At the end of the talk, we suggest 5 Tantrik embodiment practices that you can take up right away!

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Snakes, Dragons & Nāgas in Tantra Aug 09, 2024

Today is a very sacred day: Nāga Panchami, the Day of the Serpents!
Vishnu reposes on a serpent couch named Ananta. Ananta means "un-ending", i.e Infinite. In the Taittīriya Upanishad, Brahman, the Absolute Reality is described as सत्यम् ज्ञानम् अनन्तम् ब्रह्म "satyam jñānam anantam Brahma": that which is Existence, Consciousness and Infinity.
Now you might have heard a different formulation of Brahman: Sat-Cid-Ānanda, Existence-Consciousness-Bliss. Notice how Infinity is synonymous with Bliss?
As we learn in the Chandogya Upanishad, यो वै भूमा तत्सुखं नाल्पे सुखमस्ति "yo vai bhūmi tat sukham, nalpe sukham asti!": Joy is vast-nes, joy is Infinity!! There is no joy in limitation!
Now, taking all of this from the perspective of Shaiva Tantra: this Infinitely Free Awareness which is Innately Blissful is Śiva! God is Vimarśa-Śakti, Śiva's self-reflexivivity, i.e Awareness Reposing in Itself. This is why Vishnu (i.e, God, I.e Vimarśa) "reposes" in his serpent couch, who is called the Infinite (Consciousness). In a Shaiva sense, he is in a state of svātmaviśrantih: self-respose. This is liberation!
Patañjali, the founder of Yoga philosophy is considered by our tradition to be the incarnation of the Ananta, Vishnu's serpent couch and so he is the perfect yogi, reposing in his svabhāva, his essence nature and from that arises his profound teachings on Yoga, Grammar and Medicine. Abhinavaguptapada, is known as the "new" (abhinava) serpent (guptapada) because building upon the foundations of Yoga and Samkhya, he takes the Shaiva tradition to whole new heights with his unique presentation of the Trika doctrine! Lakshmana, Rāma's brother and Rāmanūja, the founder of Viśishtadvaita Vada are also both seen as incarnations of Ananta, this Great Serpent.
On a personal note, my kula devi on my Mother's side is Nageshwarī, a form of Mariamman (Kālī) to whom my grandfather was deeply devoted. He was a lifelong practitioner of Shakta Tantra who took mahāsamādhi (i.e kicked the bucket!) in the sanctum sanctorum of our family snake temple.
योगेन चित्तस्य पदेन वाचां ।
मलं शरीरस्य च वैद्यकेन ॥
योऽपाकरोत्तमं प्रवरं मुनीनां ।
पतञ्जलिं प्राञ्जलिरानतोऽस्मि ॥
आबहु पुरुषाकारं।
शङ्खचक्रासि धारिणं॥
सहस्र शीरसं श्वेतं।
प्रनमामि पतञ्जलिम्॥
yogena cittasya padena vācāṁ ।
malaṁ śarīrasya ca vaidyakena ॥
yo’pākarottamaṁ pravaraṁ munīnāṁ ।
patañjaliṁ prāñjalirānato’smi ॥
ābahu puruṣākāraṁ
śaṅkha cakrāsi dhāriṇaṁ
sahasra śīrasaṁ śvetaṁ
pranamāmi patañjalim
Yoga, for the mind
Grammar, for the speech,
Medicine for the impurities of the body,
I bow to that great sage Patañjali who has given all these!
Pure spirit incarnate in form,
Holding the conch, discuss and sword
I bow to Patanjali, that thousand headed white (cobra)!
अनंतं वासुकीं शेषं पद्मनाभं च कंबलम्
शंखपालं धृतराष्ट्रं च तक्षकं कालियं तथा
एतानि नव नामानि नागानाम् च महात्मन:
सायंकाले पठेन्नित्यं प्रात:काले विशेषत:
तस्य विषभयं नास्ति सर्वत्र विजयी भवेत्
anaṃtaṃ vāsukīṃ śeṣaṃ padmanābhaṃ ca kaṃbalam
śaṃkhapālaṃ dhṛtarāṣṭraṃ ca takṣakaṃ kāliyaṃ tathā
etāni nava nāmāni nāgānām ca mahātmanah:
sāyaṃkāle paṭhennityaṃ prātakāle viśeṣatah:
tasya viṣabhayaṃ nāsti sarvatra vijayī bhavet
Ananta, Vāsukī, Śesha, Padmanābha and Kambala
Śankhapāla, Drstarāshtra, Takshaka and Kāliya:
These are the 9 great Serpents: I bow to them all!
If (this mantra) is recited always, especially at dusk and at dawn,
all poisons and fear will be destroyed and one becomes victorious everywhere!

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How To Transcend The Body Aug 05, 2024

This body inevitably grows old, becomes sick and dies. But do I die with the death of the body? In what sense is this body really "me"? In what sense is it really "mine"? In almost every spiritual tradition in the world, the answer to those questions is "no! You do not die with the death of the body. You are an eternal spirit, One with God, and in no sense are you the body nor is the body yours!"
What a liberating teaching!
If I know this about myself, then, I know this about others too and so I will no longer mourn the death of the body as the death of my loved ones! This is of course Krishna's opening philosophical teaching to Arjuna in the beginning of Chapter II of the Gītā.
To prove that you are not the body nor is the body yours, we gave no less than 19 arguments to demonstrate this fact for you, right now, right here, in the light of your own experience:
https://youtu.be/7b7g9mDWnLM
But you know, if this teaching is not properly understood, it can easily lead to a kind of repression or a sort of dissociation. So to distinguish genuine spiritual realization (and the freedom that arises therefrom), from an unhealthy dissociation/spiritual by-passing, we gave this lecture:
https://youtu.be/ClXyxXccBss
Now, those of you who have been studying the Tantrik tradition probably know that the body is emphasized as a sacred site of spiritual opportunity. In Tantra, the body is seen as a microcosm representing the macrocosm. Nay, the body IS the macrocosm in which the entire universe appears.
How then do you resolve the seeming contradiction between these more "transcendalist" notions that "you are not the body/the body is not yours" vs the more "immanent" Tantrik claims that you are embodied as the whole Universe?
In this lecture, we review some of the material from the previous lectures we gave on this subject (links above) and then present two models of embodiment, a Vedantic one from the Taittīriya Upanishad and a Tantrik one from the Virupaksha Pancashika to make the case that "you are not THIS body that you take yourself to be; you are in fact, the entire Universe embodied!"
Finally, we offer 4 yoga practices to help you transcend this limited embodiment in favor of a more genuine one!
This lecture is for Jaanam, who requested it! I hope you enjoyed it Mā!
Jai Mā
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST, Friday 10am PST and again Friday 6pm PST.
There's Q&A right after the lectre.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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How To Practice Guru Yoga Jul 31, 2024

Since 2020, we've given quite a few lectures on the Guru Tattva (Guru Principle) since this is indeed of the main features of the Tantrik tradition.
But what exactly is lineage based transmission?
Some people feel, because of the influence of modernism and individualism, that they don't need a Guru and because of this they get into trouble or waste time in spiritual life going around in circles.
Others on the other end of the spectrum become too attached to their guru's physical form and personality and as such end up making a cult-figure out of their human gurus, become too dependent and as a result, fail to make appreciable spiritual progress!
As you can see, Guru-Yoga, the art of practicing spirituality under the guidance of a human teacher, is a rather subtle and delicate art with many nuances!
Anyway, over the years, most of the material I've presented in my lectures on the subject have been drawn from a series of lectures by Swami Vivekananda which appear in Volume III of his Complete Works. In this talk, in celebration of the Guru Purnima that just happened, I read out these talks to you so we can hear Swamiji's own thoughts on Guru-Yoga, in his own words!
We first open with a philosophically nuanced reflection on God and just what that means.
You can watch all our previous lectures on the Guru here:
https://www.patreon.com/collection/666741
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
Our hatha yoga class is Monday 5pm PST with Amrita and Wednesdays at 11am PST and again at Friday 5pm PST with me via this same link also.
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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How To Become More Energetic Jul 25, 2024

Many people feel down in the dumps and lethargic often. This is to me particularly tragic because in each and every moment we are each of us swimming in a veritable ocean of energy and enlivenment!
Only, most of us don't know how to tap into it and be charged by it!
You see, this entire universe, this magical display of phenomena that you experience within and without is nothing but a manifestation of Prāna, nothing but so many different forms of one and the same field of energy called Prāna.
This body and mind that you experience is also a manifestation of Prāna.
Tantra then is a kind of "prāna-śāshtra": the science of working with the energies of embodied existence but within and without.
In this class, we explore 8 or so ways you can increase and refine the prāna (i.e energy) that flows through this body-mind so that you can experience deeper levels of enlivenment and fullfilment!
May all of this be an offering to Prāna-śakti!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
Our hatha yoga class is Monday 5pm PST with Amrita and Wednesdays at 11am PST and again at Friday 5pm PST with me via this same link also.
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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How To Choose A Guru & What To Do If You Don't Have One Jul 24, 2024

This is our special Guru Purnima talk, this time on the subject: How To Choose A Guru
Of course we’ll discuss just what the Guru Tattva (Guru Principle) is and why it is absolutely necessary in spiritual life but more importantly we’ll focus on the question of how to find a guru and evaluate them to protect yourself from charlatans and cults etc.!
At the end of the talk, we’ll discuss a very powerful practice you can do right now even if you don’t have a living teacher as of yet!
On behalf of the auspicious occasions of Veda Vyāsa (Guru) Pūrnimā and alas Shrāvan Mas (the sacred month of Shiva which began the day we gave this lecture (July 22nd and goes till August 19th), let us all remember always that God alone is the Guru. As it says in the Guru Gītā:
ब्रह्मानन्दं परमसुखदं केवलं ज्ञानमूर्तिं
द्वन्द्वातीतं गगनसदृशं तत्वमस्यादिलक्ष्यम्
एकं नित्यं विमलमचलं सर्वधीसाक्षिभूतं
भावातीतं त्रिगुणरहितं सद्गुरुं तं नमामि
“Brahmānandam Paramasukhadam kevalam jñāna murtim…bhāvatītam trigunarahitam sad gurum tam namami”:
That true guru is the bliss of Brahman, the transcendent joy of non-dual knowledge, that reality beyond all name and form, beyond the touch of the three gunas. To That we bow!
ईश्वरो गुरुरात्मेति मूर्तिभेदविभागिने ।
व्योमवद् व्याप्तदेहाय दक्षिणामूर्तये नमः ॥७॥
I salute that Dakshinamurthy Shiva, the sky of Consciousness which appears in the form of teacher, student and transmission!
May He bless us all with knowledge and devotion!
We honor all teachers of all traditions who through their perfect discipleship have each of them embodied what it means to be spiritual in this world. I bow to the servants heart in all teachers who are each of them God’s grace personified!
Let us never forget the teaching from the Kaula Sutra:
avicchinam ovalli-kramāyāta-marīci-saṅkramaṇam evaiko guruḥ (1)
tad-upalabdham eva tattvam eko devaḥ (2)
tasyaikā sahajāhambhāva-bhūmiś cicchaktiḥ (3)
There is only one Guru: the unbroken ray of transmission that flows through the lineage.
There is only one God: the Reality to which one awakens (as a result of that transmission)
There is only one Power: the Power of Consciousness which is the ground of the spontaneous and natural “I-sense”
You can watch all our previous lectures on the Guru here:
https://www.patreon.com/collection/666741
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
Our hatha yoga class is Monday 5pm PST with Amrita and Wednesdays at 11am PST and again at Friday 5pm PST with me via this same link also.
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Should I Worship One God or Many, Chant One Mantra or Many? Jul 19, 2024

Two weeks ago, we discussed how sādhanā works in a non-dual Shaiva Tanttra context, providing a few foundational practices you can do right away (you can watch that lecture here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/how-to-get-with-106871859?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link).
And then the week after, we discussed how sādhanā is an expression of your innate freedom and not some desperate attempt to attain it! We then offered a few ways to keep spiritual life fun, engaging and interesting so you can become increasingly absorbed in the joy of the life divine. (you can watch this lecture here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/how-to-enjoy-107896090?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link).
Now, in this lecture, I want to continue last week's discussion on diversity and variety in spiritual life by discussing whether its better to worship one deity or many, better to practice with one mantra or many, better to do one practice or many different ones. Naturally, I'm going to make a case for the latter by arguing for non-duality, i.e all mantras are just names of the same Being and that Being is You! This will help folks who are torn between two or more deities, two more traditions etc. mostly but it is for every sincere sadhaka and sadhvi who wishes to understanding something deeper about the unity behind seeming diversity. In my opinion, tonight's discussion is at the very heart of Tantra and Ramakrishna's theology.
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
Our hatha yoga class is Monday 5pm PST with Amrita and Wednesdays at 11am PST and again at Friday 5pm PST with me via this same link also.
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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The Definition of Bhakti + Q&A Jul 17, 2024

In this talk, we take up Swami Vivekananda's very powerful reflections on Bhakti Yoga, the practice of Devotion from the talk "Definition of Bhakti" which appears in Volume III of the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. Then, after making a few comments about it, we plunge into a Q&A session exploring broader themes in spiritual life.
But first we open with some remarks about the three types of Navarātri or Goddess festivals in the calendar year!
Enjoy!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
Our hatha yoga class is Monday 5pm PST with Amrita and Wednesdays at 11am PST and again at Friday 5pm PST with me via this same link also.
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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How To Enjoy Spiritual Life Jul 17, 2024

Sādhanā, spiritual practie is an expression of your innate freedom and not some desperate attempt to attain it! Many people have such a sour face when they are sitting for meditation. How strange! Are you not meditating on the Divine Effulgence within? Are you not meditating on Bliss Itself embodied as your Ishta Devī, your chosen form of God? Shouldn't your face then be beaming with joy?! For many, spiritual life is a bitter struggle but that's only because we often approach things in the wrong way, founded upon a misunderstanding about why we are doing spiritual practice in the first place.
In this talk, we offer a few ways to keep spiritual life fun, engaging and interesting so you can become increasingly absorbed in the endless joy of the life divine!
PS: we gave this talk in Jayanti and Jayanta's beautiful home shrine in Zurich. Behind me you can seen Sarvesvarī Kālī who was awakened on the new moon (mahālaya) of the recent Chaitra Navaratri.
May this talk be an offering at Her Lotus Feet.
Jai Mā Sarveshvarī Kālī ki Jai!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
Our hatha yoga class is Monday 5pm PST with Amrita and Wednesdays at 11am PST and again at Friday 5pm PST with me via this same link also.
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
If you'd like to support us, you can do so here:
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/jaimakali

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The Tantrik Gāyatrī Mantra Jul 16, 2024

This lecture was given on the exceedingly special day of Gāyatrī Jayanti, the day we celebrate not only the most important Goddess of the ancient Vedic tradition but also the most famous mantra to have ever come out of India. In this video, we make a few comments about caste in the Vedic world, the "twice-born" dīkshā into the Gāyatrī, the democratization and popularization of the mantra by reformers and of course gloss the mantra and its meaning along non-dual lines and make some Tantrik interpolations about it.
ॐ भूर्भुवः स्वः
तत्स॑वि॒तुर्वरे॑ण्यं॒
भर्गो॑ दे॒वस्य॑ धमह।
धियो॒ यो नः परचो॒दया॑त्॥
oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ
tat savitur vareṇyaṃ
bhargo devasya dhīmahi
dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt
Ṛgveda 03.062.10
"OM I dissolve my intellect in my own Self, that Supreme Light, the splendour of all the gods in Whom arises the three worlds! May She guide me from within!"
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
Our hatha yoga class is Monday 5pm PST with Amrita and Wednesdays at 11am PST and again at Friday 5pm PST with me via this same link also.
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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How To Meditate on Kālī Jul 10, 2024

This morning I saw this little clip from the black and white Bengali movie "Sadhak Kamalakanta" on YouTube and it inspired me to say a few words on the Tantrik approach to meditation. Here is the mantra that was chanted in the video and that we used for the meditation:
dhyānam
oṁ krīṁ karālavadanāṁ ghorāṁ muktakeśīṁ caturbhujām।
kālikāṁ dakṣiṇāṁ divyāṁ muṇḍamālāvibhūṣitām॥1॥
sadyaśchinnaśiraḥkhaḍgavāmādhordhvakarāmbujām।
abhayaṁ varadaṁ caiva dakṣiṇordhvādhaḥ pāṇikām॥2॥
mahāmeghaprabhāṁ śyāmāṁ tathā caiva digambarīm।
kaṇṭhāvasaktamuṇḍālīgaladrudhiracarcitām॥3॥
karṇāvataṁsatānītaśavayugmabhayānakām।
ghoradaṁṣṭrāṁ karālāsyāṁ pīnonnatapayodharām॥4॥
śavānāṁ karasaṅghātaiḥ kṛtakāñcīṁ hasanmukhīm।
sṛkkadvayagaladraktadhārāvisphuritānanām॥5॥
ghorarāvāṁ mahāraudrīṁ śmaśānālayavāsinīm।
bālārkamaṇḍalākāra-locanatritayānvitām॥6॥
danturāṁ dakṣiṇavyāpimuktālambikacoccayām।
śavarūpamahādevahṛdayoparisaṁsthitām॥7॥
śivābhirghorarāvābhiścaturdikṣu samanvitām।
mahākālena ca samaṁ viparītaratāturām॥8॥
sukhaprasannavadanāṁ smerānanasaroruhām।
evaṁ sañcintayet kālīṁ dharmakāmārthamokṣadām॥9॥(siddhidām)

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Ramakrishna & Ma Bhavatārini Kālī at Dakshineshwar Jul 08, 2024

This is a very important discussion regarding our backstory as Kali worshippers in the West. How is it that we are all of us in this room right now, hearing this lecture and resonating with its ideas? How did we come to worship Kali and practice Tantra, especially those of us who grew up in the West? Isn't this a profound mystery and blessing that we find ourselves here in this place at this time? How did this strange and miraculous phenomena come to be? Who brought Kālī to us? In answering this question, I'd like to trace the current upsurgence of Kali worship in the world all the way back to a moment on 31st May 1855. Since this lecture was given on Snān Yatra, the anniversary of this significant day, we say a few words about Rani Rasmani, Ramakrishna, Vivekananda and of course Mā Bhavatārini Kālī of Dakshineshwar.
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
Our hatha yoga class is Monday 5pm PST with Amrita and Wednesdays at 11am PST and again at Friday 5pm PST with me via this same link also.
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Who is Mā Dhūmāvatī? Jul 07, 2024

About a month ago, we celebrated Dhūmāvatī Jayanti. Of the 10 esoteric forms of Kālī known as the Daśamahavidyās, Dhūmāvati, the widow is perhaps the most mysterious, misunderstood and feared of all the Tantrik Goddesses.
She bears a striking resemblance to the Morrigan and the Cailleach in Gaelic/Celtic traditions and her dhyāna mantra (presented below) might remind you of the (albeit often somewhat cartoonish) caricature of the "witch" you find at department stores around Hallowe'en. No coincidence there!
In this video, we talk all about this and more! Also: Before we gave our lecture on just who this mysterious Tantrik Goddess is and what she represents, we first went and performed her worship using her dhyāna mantra (presented below) in a guided meditation.
You can practice that here.
विवर्णकुन्तला रूक्षा विधवा विरलद्विजा ॥
काकध्वजरथारूढा विलम्बितपयोधरा ।
शूर्पहस्तातिरूक्षाक्षी धृतहस्ता वरान्विता ॥
प्रवृद्धघोणा तु भृशं कुटिला कुटिलेक्षणा ।
क्षुत्पिपासार्दिता नित्यं भयदा कलहप्रिया ॥
Pale and restless, irritable and old
Clad in soiled garments
Pale-haired, dry-skinned
A widow with few teeth
Mounted atop a chariot whose flag is a crow
With drooping breasts and surpassingly cruel eyes
Who holds a winnowing basket
Who shows the boon bestowing gesture
A crone with crooked nose and crooked eyes
Who is always hungry and thirsty, quarrelsome and fearsome.
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
Our hatha yoga class is Monday 5pm PST with Amrita and Wednesdays at 11am PST and again at Friday 5pm PST with me via this same link also.
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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The Best Time and Place to Worship Mā Kālī Jul 06, 2024

The Ultimate Reality is beyond time, all pervasive, formless and inexpressible.
And YET in the day to day practice of Tantra, there are certain times, places, forms and words (mantras) that are considered to be especially sacred.
How is that?
Is it not a paradox to say that the One Eternal Reality which is everywhere and all the time immediately available is "more" available at this or that time, in this or that place?
In this very deep discussion (if I may say so), we talk about the best times and places for practice (especially for the worship of Mā Kālī) while explaining carefully, in a direct-path pointing sort of way, the timeless and all pervasive nature of Consciousness.
This class is part of a lecture series on puja, a step by step, mantra by mantra guide to daily tantrik worship of any deity, with a focus on Kali. You can watch the previous lectures in this series here:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
And of course, you can always come to the live puja classes which happen every Thursday at 6:30pm PST via this link:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
Our hatha yoga class is Monday 5pm PST with Amrita and Wednesdays at 11am PST and again at Friday 5pm PST with me via this same link also.
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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How To Get Started with Spiritual Life Jun 25, 2024

With the changing of the seasons, there is a particular kind of Prānā available. Usually in the summer, with longer days and freer schedules, and generally uplifted moods, many are now ready to plunge into deeper, more meaningful Sādhanā (spiritual practice).
This is also true of the winter when there is more time indoors and all of nature seems to conspire with you for inward-ness, contemplation and reflection.
And what to say of the monsoon seasons where the raw power of Mā Kālī dancing as the storms forces you to consider what is eternal amidst all that is changing around you!
नौमि देवीं शरीरस्थां नृत्यतो भैरवाकृतेः।
प्रावृण्मेघघनव्योमविद्युल्लेखाविलासिनीम्॥३॥
Naumi devīṁ śarīrasthāṁ nṛtyato bhairavākṛteḥ|
Prāvṛṇ-megha-ghana-vyoma-vidyul-lekhā-vilāsinīm ||3||
Salutations to that Goddess, the pure energy that abides in the body of the dancing Śiva who is playful and beautiful like a streak of lighting flashing across the cloudy sky in the monsoon season!
With all of that said, in this lectures we will focus on “how to practice” and the foundations for a spiritual practice along the lines of the Four Yogas of Swami Vivekananda. I will share a few simple techniques and practices that my teachers have passed down to me with a reflection on Śaktipāta from Abhinava Gupta to give you everything you need to get your practice going or to revitalize a practice that might have fallen to the wayside or even just to refresh yourself on the foundations of Sādhanā so that you may energize and enliven an already thriving practice.
My prayer is that this lecture will meet you where you are in your spiritual life and inspire you to intensify your practice whether you are a beginner or a long time practitioner!
Happy Summer to our friends in the Northern Hemisphere and Happy Winter to those in the Southern Hemisphere and Happy Monsoon Season to those in the tropical parts of the world!
May you become increasingly absorbed in spiritual practices and find more and more joy in them! May you be aflame with awakened Consciousness!
Jai Mā
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
Our hatha yoga class is Monday 5pm PST with Amrita and Wednesdays at 11am PST and again at Friday 5pm PST with me via this same link also.
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Who is Abhinava Gupta? Jun 18, 2024

Today is a personally special day for me: the birthday of Mahāmaheśvarācharya Rājānaka Abhinavaguptapada, the foremost Shaiva philosopher-saint of our Kaula Trika tradition!
Abhinava Gupta is, in my opinion, the brightest mind and the biggest heart India has ever produced and the most brilliant philosopher the world has ever seen, on par with Shankara and the Buddha. Importantly, there are striking parallels between Abhinava Gupta's theistic, devotional non-dualism and that of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. In this lecture, we do a brief biographical sketch of this great master and point out some of the things that make him so admirable and important and above all, relevant for the needs of modern day spiritual aspirants.
May this be an offering placed lovingly at his feet, he who is Bhairava incarnate.
विमलकलाश्रयाभिनवसृष्टिमहा जननी
भरिततनुश्च पञ्चमुखगुप्तरुचिर्जनकः।
तदुभययामलस्फुरितभावविसर्गमयं
हृदयमनुत्तरामृतकुलं मम संस्फुरतात्॥१॥
Vimala-kalāśrāyabhinava-srsti-mahājananī
Bharita-tanuś ca pañca-mukha-gupta-rucir janakah
Tad-ubhaya-yāmala-sphurita-bhāva-visarga-mayam
hrdayam anuttarāmrta-kulam mama samsphuratāt (1)
May my heart, filled with the nectar of the embodied Absolute, which has emerged from the ecstatic union of the Mother who is the radiant and pure ground of ever new creation and the Father who is the five faced Shiva ever expressing and delighting Himself in that creation shine forth!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
Our hatha yoga class is Monday 5pm PST with Amrita and Wednesdays at 11am PST and again at Friday 5pm PST with me via this same link also.
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Why Practice Aghora? Jun 13, 2024

In this lecture, we discuss one of the main purposes of Aghora Sādhana by referring to the “8 fetters” from the Pashupata Sutra to explain the cremation ground practices of the early Shaivas. I’m going to explain the value and meaning behind these practices which often get seen with disgust some circles and with a morbid fascination in others! Whether we are averse to this aspect of Tantra or attracted to it, that we are fascinated by it is undeniable. And as such: after having thoroughly investigated the purpose of such sādhanas, I want to give you a few "Aghora" practices you can immediately apply.
उपायजालं न शिवं प्रकाशयेद्घटेन किं भाति सहस्रदीधितिः।
विवेचयन्नित्थमुदारदर्शनः स्वयम्प्रकाशं शिवमाविशेत्क्षणात्॥६॥
Upāyajālaṁ na śivaṁ prakāśayedghaṭena kiṁ bhāti sahasradīdhitiḥ|
Vivecayannitthamudāradarśanaḥ svayamprakāśaṁ śivamāviśetkṣaṇāt || 6
“The various techniques and practices cannot reveal Shiva! Does a pot illumine the thousand rays of the sun? By thus discerning, in a single instant, the broad-minded aspirant becomes absorbed in Śiva who is one's own Self-luminosity!"
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
Our hatha yoga class is Wednesdays at 11am PST and again at Friday 5pm PST via this same link also.
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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How To Worship Mā Kālī Jun 05, 2024

Today's Amāvasyā (new moon) is exceedingly important because it is the Phalaharini Kali Puja! Since its such a special occasion, I'll spend a few moments reflecting on what this day means for devotees of Kālī and then as an offering to Her in the form of You, I'd like to share the guided meditation for Mānasa Pūja, the Mental Worship of Mā Kālī.
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
Our hatha yoga class is Wednesdays at 11am PST and again at Friday 5pm PST via this same link also.
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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The Very Heart of Tantra | Introduction to Tantrasāra of Abhinava Gupta Jun 04, 2024

Today is the monthly śivarātri (the day before the new moon) and the Wednesday Amāvasyā (new moon) features a very special celebration, the Phalaharini Kali Puja, one of the Big Three for Kali in the calendar year!
Naturally, I wanted to do something special in this lecture to mark the occasion:
I felt like we should discuss the very highest, the very essence, the very heart of the Tantrik tradition. And the best way to do this, I humbly propose, is to introduce you to one of the most important Tantrik texts ever composed: The Tantrasāra of Abhinavagupta.
In this lecture, we discuss the four things that Abhinavagupta points out as the defining features of this tradition that make it so awesome. I want to share with you the central insight from this text which has the power and potential to totally liberate us in a single instant! Also we can talk a little about “Kashmir Shaivism” as the scholars are calling it these days, and discuss what it means to be part of this lineage
विमलकलाश्रयाभिनवसृष्टिमहा जननी भरिततनुश्च पञ्चमुखगुप्तरुचिर्जनकः।
तदुभययामलस्फुरितभावविसर्गमयं हृदयमनुत्तरामृतकुलं मम संस्फुरतात्॥१॥
विततस्तन्त्रालोको विगाहितुं नैव शक्यते सर्वैः।
ऋजुवचनविरचितमिदं तु तन्त्रसारं ततः शृणुत॥२॥
श्रीशम्भुनाथभास्करचरणनिपातप्रभापगतसङ्कोचम्।
अभिनवगुप्तहृदम्बुजमेतद्विचिनुत महेशपूजनहेतोः॥३॥
Vimalakalāśrayābhinavasṛṣṭimahā jananī bharitatanuśca pañcamukhaguptarucirjanakaḥ|
Tadubhayayāmalasphuritabhāvavisargamayaṁ hṛdayamanuttarāmṛtakulaṁ mama saṁsphuratāt || 1
May my heart, filled with the nectar of the Embodied Absolute and pervaded by the emissions of the ecstatic union of my Mother who is the stainless ground of ever new creation, and my Father who is the five faced Shiva who in fullness is always delighting himself in that creation, shine forth!
Vitatastantrāloko vigāhituṁ naiva śakyate sarvaiḥ|
Ṛjuvacanaviracitamidaṁ tu tantrasāraṁ tataḥ śṛṇuta || 2
Not everyone is capable of diving into the the oceanic Tantrāloka Therefore, listen, all of you, to this Tantrasāra which is written in simple language!
Śrīśambhunāthabhāskaracaraṇanipātaprabhāpagatasaṅkocam | Abhinavaguptahṛdambujametadvicinuta maheśapūjanahetoḥ || 3
If you want to worship Śiva, please pick one by one these lotus petals of the the heart of Abhinavagupta in which contraction has been for ever ended, which has bloomed open through the touch of the rays from the feet of his guru, the revered Sun, Shambhunatha.
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
Our hatha yoga class is Wednesdays at 11am PST and again at Friday 5pm PST via this same link also.
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Kālī and the 5 Levels of Void May 30, 2024

Last week, to mark the auspicious occasion of Cinnamastā Jayanti and also the Thrice Blessed Day, Buddha Pūrnimā, we gave a few talks on Tantrik Buddhism with an especial focus on Goddess worship within the context of Vajrayāna deity-yoga.
We picked up the Cinnamunda Vajravārāhi Sādhanā, attributed to the mysterious Srī Matī (Laksmīnkarā Devī) who, like Cinnamunda herself, is said to have decapitated herself in act of yogic perfection (siddhi). This text (really, a paddathi or ritual manual) is featured in the Tengyur, a text in the Tibetan Buddhist commentarial tradition.
There we saw enough similarities between so called “Buddhist” Tantrik ritualism and the “Hindu/Śākta” form that we were able to make a few general and universal claims about the principles of Tantra in practice! You can watch that talk here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/104859531?utm_campaign=postshare_creator
Today I want to zoom out even more and discuss the philosophy as it evolves from the time of the Buddha to modern day Vajrayāna practices to make a comparison between Kali as she is described in the more radical śākta texts like Maharthamanjari, Mahanayaprakasha & Mahanirvanatantra and the concept of the Void in Buddhism!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
Our hatha yoga class is Wednesdays at 11am PST and again at Friday 5pm PST via this same link also.
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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The Dark Side of Tantra May 28, 2024

One of my favorite things about the Tantrik tradition is how vast it is. On one hand, you have the most refined non-dual philosophy wedded to aesthetically heightened and exceedingly subtle systems of practice for the attainment of the highest liberation in life. And on the other hand, you have midnight ghastly rituals in cremation grounds to hex your enemies, take control of spirits, amass wealth and get people to fall in love with you…
Such range!
And my favorite thing about Tantra?: as Swami Vivekananda so boldly declared before a western audience in 1893, we regard the “highest absolutism as well as the lowest fetishism as both equally valid attempts at grasping the Ineffable.” My favorite thing is how very inclusive and accepting our tradition is to every form of spiritual practice from the so called “lowest” to the “highest”. Everyone is approaching the divine each in their own way according to their own understanding and predispositions. And so every approach is valid as just another way to reach and express the Ineffable Reality which is non other than non-dual Consciousness reposing in Her innate bliss endowed with the ecstatic powers of willing, knowing and doing, joyously projecting Herself outward into manifestation in each and every moment.
As the Tantrik master Prabodha once said: “There is nothing so high that I can conceive that you have not transcended nor is there anything so low that you have not permeated completely!”
So in the name of embracing both highest and lowest, in this lecture, we will be discussing “the dark side of Tantra”. Yep. Cremation ground rituals, spirit possession, fierce blood drinking goddesses etc.
Enjoy!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
Our hatha yoga class is Wednesdays at 11am PST and again at Friday 5pm PST via this same link also.
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Is Cinnamastā a Fierce Goddess? May 27, 2024

To mark the auspicious occasion of Cinnamastā Jayanti which we celebrated earlier this week, here are a few words on the mysterious and profound Self-Decapatating Goddess, Vajravairochinī. May this be a prayer to Her and to you, who are the Goddess embodied!
Pratyālīddhāpadām sadaiva dadhātīm cinnam śirah:karttrkām
Digvastrām
svakabandhashonitasudhādhārām pibantīm mudā
Nagābaddhashīromanim trinayanām hrdyutpalālangkrtām
Ratyāsaktamanobhavopari drddhām
Dhyāyejjapāsannibhām
Whose left foot is stepping forward
Ever, always
Holding a severed head,
Naked
Whose severed head
Is joyfully drinking
The nectar of Her own blood
Streaming
Who has a gem
Bound by a serpent
on her head
Who has three eyes
Who’s heart is ornamented by a lotus
Who is firmly standing above
The mind attached to sensual delights of the world
One should meditate upon this Goddess
Who is red like a hibiscus!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
Our hatha yoga class is Wednesdays at 11am PST and again at Friday 5pm PST via this same link also.
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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An Invitation to Tantra | Tae Lee's Art Show at Wonzimer Gallery May 26, 2024

Here's a slightly different episode for you on this auspicious Sunday, on the third day of the waning moon in the month of Vaiśakh:
Last night, I did a Kālī Pūjā at my beloved friend Tae's art show. It was his intention to feature a Kālī Pūjā at the celebration alongside his favorite musical artists. Here is a little excerpt from the evening's worship which features a few opening remarks regarding just what Tantra is and what it can be for you followed by Priti's incredible bhajans (devotional songs) on harmonium while I chant mantras to Mā!
Above all, I just want to bring you into this wonderful Tantrik ritual world of worship! Come, come.
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
Our hatha yoga class is Wednesdays at 11am PST and again at Friday 5pm PST via this same link also.
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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The Buddha and Why You Should Learn Tantra May 23, 2024

Tonight on Buddha Pūrnimā, by way of celebration, we did a talk on Tantrik Buddhism: specifically, the worship of Chinnamastā/Chinnamunda in the Vajrayāna context. (I'll upload this talk soonest!) But before we plunged into that topic, I was moved to say a few general things about the Buddha and his legacy and how that applies to us in this day and age who are studying and practicing the up-until-now very esoteric traditions of Śakta Tantra or Goddess Tantra.
You see: both the Buddha and Vivekananda felt that what was kept secret and made available to only the elite few needed to be made publicly available as the common property of every man, woman, (person) and child and they both made it their mission to do just that. Just like that, great saints and mystics like Āgamavagīsha, Ramprasad, Rāja Deva Nanda Singh, Ramakrishna and countless others have mainstreamed Kālī (to borrow a phrase from Ācharya Timalsinaji) so that what was once enjoyed by only a few can now. be cherished and worshipped by many! I am so, so delighted to be part of that process with all of you!
May this be an offering to the Buddha, the embodiment of compassion.
May this be an offerings to all beings who are turning towards awakening,
who are awakening
And who are awakened!
Jai Mā!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
Our hatha yoga class is Wednesdays at 11am PST via this same link also.
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Bagalā and Black Magick in Tantra May 21, 2024

Today is Chinnamastā Jayanti and last week we had Bagalāmukhī Jayanti.
Since both of these are fierce and very esoteric forms of Kālī, I thought I would take this occasion to discuss some of the "darker" aspects of our Tantrik heritage since both of these deities, as well as many of the other Daśamahāvidyās are associated with magical practices of um, let's say, a less than savory nature according to the views of some more right-leaning practitioners. And Bagalā Devī especially has a strong association to cults that practice black magic with the purpose of binding, stunning and confounding enemies.
What's all that about?
In this talk, I want to make a case for why we should accept those aspects of our tradition but also strongly suggest a more devotional reading of these mantras and these forms of the Goddess. We do this by discussing Bagalāmukhī's dhyāna-ślokas (her meditation mantras), her origin story as per some śakta upa-puranas, the practices associated to her cult of worship and most importantly a story from the life of Sārada Devī where she actually manifested her Bagalā aspect to smite Harish, a devotee who had gone crazy because of his wife's black magic! This lecture is part of a series on the daśamahāvidyās which you can watch here
Later today, Mā willing, I'll upload a lecture called "The Dark Side of Tantra" exploring this idea more fully but here is my first swipe at it!
Jai Mā! Jai Pītāmbara-Devī Ki Jai!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
If you'd like to support us, you can do so here:
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/jaimakali

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Mātangī and the Daśamahāvidyās May 19, 2024

The day that we gave this lecture was an exceedingly important day: Akshaya Tritiya! Because the sun and moon are in very exalted positions and because of the association of this day to a series of auspicious events in Puranic Hinduism (the day Mā Ganga came down into the earth from the heavens, the day Vyāsa began dictating the Mahābhārata to Ganesh, the day Yudishthira received his unlimited food bowl, the day that Parvati appeared as Annapurna to feed everyone among other things), today is typically regarded as a great day to buy gold, begin new projects, embark on new ventures and most importantly, do spiritual practice. Whatever is started on this day while endure for a long time, if not forever and whatever spiritual practices are performed go extra hard and have a bigger impact in our lives. The TLDR of this is: it's max XP day, kula.
But also what's especially important for us is that this day was also Mātangī Jayanti.
So to honour the occasion, we decided to say a few things about Nīla Sarasvatī/Mātangī and the Daśamahavidyās as a whole as our humble prayer to the goddess in her auspicious Candāla form!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Akshaya Tritiya, Mātangi Jayanti and The Highest Non Dual Shaiva Teaching May 10, 2024

Today is an exceedingly important day: Akshaya Tritiya! Because the sun and moon are in very exalted positions and because of the association of this day to a series of auspicious events in Puranic Hinduism (the day Mā Ganga came down into the earth from the heavens, the day Vyāsa began dictating the Mahābhārata to Ganesh, the day Yudishthira received his unlimited food bowl, the day that Parvati appeared as Annapurna to feed everyone among other things), today is typically regarded as a great day to buy gold, begin new projects, embark on new ventures and most importantly, do spiritual practice. Whatever is started on this day while endure for a long time, if not forever and whatever spiritual practices are performed go extra hard and have a bigger impact in our lives. The TLDR of this is: it's max XP day, kula. Have at it!
But also what's especially important for us is that today is Mātangi Jayanti. In this video, we say a few things about Akshaya Tritiya, about Mātangi and also about the Paramārthasāra of Abhinava Gupta with specific reference to Swami Vivekananda and also Swami Lakshman Joo whose Jayanti (birthday) it was yesterday.
Today (May 10th 2024) at 3pm PST we're having a special Akshaya Tritiya puja on zoom followed by a Maha Mritunjaya and Candi recitation. We'll probably have the zoom room open form 3-7pm PST so feel free to drop in any time. After the puja and chanting, with whatever time we have remaining, we'll have a satsangh about Mātangi and the daśamahāvidyās, the ten forms of Devī.
Here's the link:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Mā Kālī & Tantrik Puja | Swami Bhajanananda Saraswati May 07, 2024

In this special satsangh, we host our mentor and dear friend Pujya Swami Bhajanananda Saraswati of the Kali Mandir, the foremost authority here on the West Coast and perhaps in the world on all things Kali, Tantra and Puja.
Some years ago, I asked Pujya Swami Bhajanananda Saraswati at the Kali Mandir in Laguna a beach: “why is it that some people say worshipping Kālī is dangerous?” He said in his characteristic warmth and humor something to the effect of: “worshipping Kali is like mac and cheese. I love Mac and cheese. But if some people eat it, they’ll die!”
We laughed for a little while and then he proceeded to carefully point out the differences between a Bhakti practice and a properly Tantrik one in approaching Mā.
I tell you this story to give you some sense of what kind of teacher Swami Bhajanandaji is: indescribably profound and yet simple, grounded, direct and honest; seriously funny; academically rigorous yet supremely practical…ah how rare is such a person in this world!
Most importantly, he is an expert ritualist and so is uniquely able to transmit the Tantras from within the tradition.
And now we have the wonderful good fortune of grilling him with questions! Hearing from him is an opportunity that no sincere student of our āgamas would ever want to miss!
In a world where the principle Goddesses of the Tantras like Kālī and Tripura Sundarī have moved into a broader devotional context and have attracted a wider audience who for the most part are befuddled by the twilight language of the primary texts, confounded by misinformation and mischief on the internet and bored by the dry academic speculations of secondary sources who take the philosophies out of their original ritual context, Swamis Bhajananandaji and Ambikanandaji and Usha Devī’s Kali Mandir are guiding lights of inestimable value.
Usha Devī and Swamis Bhajanandaji and Ambikanandaji have been our teachers and dear friends for years now and if ever I have imparted to you any cool Tantrik secrets, I probably got it from them!
Check out their work at the Kali Mandir, a temple of the awakened Kali here:
https://www.kalimandir.org/
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Who is Lalitā Devī? | Lalitā Jayanti Lecture Apr 26, 2024

Today on this auspicious Friday (Fridays are very sacred to Tripura Devī) I'd like to offer you who are the embodiment of Devī these reflections on Lalitā and the Lalitā Sahasranāma. We gave this talk on a Friday on Lalitā Jayanti earlier this year as a sort of preamble before our Paramārthasāra lecture. May it inspire you to chant the thousand names of Beauty and Power Personified!
Jai Tripura Devī Ki Jai!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

00:00:00 Opening Invocations
00:01:54 Auspicious Days in Hinduism: Full Moons and New Moons and Ashtamis
00:06:20 Who is Lalitā? (An aside on the different schools of Devī Tantra)
00:11:40 The Thousand Names of Lalitā (Sahasranāma)
00:16:00 Lalitā in the context of Kaula Trika Tantrism (Kundalinī)
00:22:24 Lalitā Origin Story (Bandhāsura's Slaying)
00:28:00 Why Lust is Helpful in Spiritual Life
00:30:50 Who are Devas and Asuras (Gods and Demons) Really?

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The Tantrik Hanuman Apr 23, 2024

On the auspicious occasion of Hanuman Jayanti today, we say a few words about Tapasvī Rāja from a Tantrik point of view. Since Hanuman, the Son of the Wind, is Prāna embodied, we say a few words about the Five Faced Hanuman with regards to the five types of prāna. Then, we talk about siddhis, yogic powers and how Hanuman embodies the proper use and place of siddhis in genuine spiritual life. Most of all, we discuss our ideal of Bhakti: devotion from a place of strength and fullness and not from a place of fear or lack which Hanuman exemplifies perfectly. Here we make a few notes as to how one might attain this state of perfected Bhakti. The most interesting part of this talk to me though is the comparison we make between Hanuman and Swami Vivekanandaji. We close it all of with a rendition of Tulsi Das' Hanuman Chaleesa by our beloved Satyaji.
Jai Mahavīraji ki Jai!

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Is God Formless or With Form? Apr 22, 2024

Why does God look like a lion riding woman with ten arms holding various weapons slaying a buffalo demon on the field of battle?
Why does God look like a ash besmeared yogi on the tiger-skin mat telling his beads in the highest reaches of the Himālayas?
Why does look like a flute playing mischievous boy who steals the hearts of cowherd-girls?
Or does God "look" like anything at all?
Some schools of Indian philosophy insist that God is formless and impersonal (Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism etc.) and others that God is a person but is formless (Abrahamic faiths etc.) and yet others that God has a form and a particular form at that (Most forms of Vaishnavism, some forms of Shaivism and Shaktism etc.).
Ramakrishna's position with regards to these is most radical: he insists that God is all of the above and so much more besides!
At any rate, in this lecture I try to make a case for God with form. Since God is both formless and with form, it might be better for us, given our mind's predilection for form, to work with the latter! Those of you who are committed to the formless (which is also perfect and valid!), give me a chance to convince you! This lecture happened around the Fall Navaratri last year, I think!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Art and Aesthetics in Tantra Apr 05, 2024

Chaitra Navaratri (the Spring Goddess Festival) is about to come up in only a few days! To usher in these coming 9 nights of the Goddess, I wanted to upload this throwback to the Fall Goddess Festival last year when we had a wonderful discussion on the intersection between art and spirituality, and specifically, on the role of aesthetics (poetry, music, dance, theatre, sculpture, visual art etc.) in the very refined and rich world of Tantrik spirituality. When I was cleaning out. my hard drives I came upon this lecture and couldn't believe that I hadn't uploaded it yet! But I suppose Mā was saving it for the Spring and for Chaitra Navaratri! In any case, here you go! May Mā illumine us.

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Sensuality and Sexuality in Non-Dual Tantra | Kaula Aesthetics Apr 04, 2024

One of the central questions we ask in spiritual life is, "what about sexuality?"
On one side of the spectrum you have world-negative traditions (which seem to be in the majority in classical times and whose effects can still be felt today) which reject sexuality wholesale and on the other side of that same spectrum you have world-affirming traditions that often get abused as a license for hedonism, mitigating greatly their spiritual value. This second type seems to be on the rise in todays consumerist culture (no surprise there: sex sells!) and this often gets linked to Tantra. So then:
Is Tantra really about sex? Like not at all? Not even a little bit?
Well, the answer is both yes and no. The answer is very nuanced.
And in this discussion, Mā willing, I hope to explore that nuance in several ways. This discussion will take us into the heart of Vedic culture, into the Upanishads, into the Candi, into the Tantras and into the traditions around the Goddess and so I felt like it would be a perfect lecture of this auspicious second day of Navarātri!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Reflections on Ramakrishna and My Grandfather Mar 14, 2024

We haven't missed a single Monday night satsangh since we started in 2020. That's a four year streak for our community? Isn't that wonderful? Thank you all for your continued support over the years!
Anyway, we had a bit of a close call the other day since due to some circumstances, I was not able to start the lecture until 11:30pm that Monday night! Here is the late night "after hours" lecture that saved our streak:
This talk was given on special day, a day that marks the anniversary of my grandfather, my first guru kicking the mortal coil which also incidentally happened to be the birthday of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsadev by tithi puja (moon calendar)!
And not to mention we are still vibrating off the buzz of the shiva Ratri festivities!
As such, in this lecture, we say a few words about these things.
Thank you all who came even though it was so late at night.
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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The Most Important Shiva Mantra | Shiva Panchakshara Mar 14, 2024

On the occasion of Maha Shiva Ratri 2024, the great night of Shiva, we say a few words about the central mantra of Shaivism known as the Panchakshara. First, we explain the mystical significance of "akshara", phonemes (Sanskrit letters) and then we consider the esoteric significance of the number 5 in Shaivism, in a few different ways. Then, we put this all together to explain the hidden meaning of the Panchakshara mantra and conclude by commenting upon and ultimately rocking out to the Panchakshara Stotram.
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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How To Worship Shiva Mar 08, 2024

In this talk on the occasion of mahashivaratri 2024, we say a few words about the Tantra in general, the Vijñāna-Bhairava Tantra in particular and Shiva puja in theory and practice. What do we do on shivaratri and why do we do it? We discuss the unique and wonderful features of Shiva Puja. May this be my offering to you, you who are Shiva embodied.
OM Namah Shivayah!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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How to Jñāna Like Vivekananda Feb 29, 2024

Not only was it just Swami Vivekananda’s birthday weekend but also at the time of this lecture it was the anniversary of the composition of Abhinavagupta’s Bhairava Stava, one of my favorite non dual hymns of all time!
As such we’ll celebrate by exploring Swamiji’s highest, edgiest most powerful non dual teachings and more importantly his advice on how to live them alongside a running commentary on the Bhairava Stava!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
00:00:00 Opening Invocations
00:00:35 Swamiji's Edgiest Teachings and Emphasis on Jñāna
00:05:09 Swamiji's Central Message to the West: Religion is Realization
00:08:00 Bhairava Stava of Abhinava Gupta which was composed on this day around 993 AD
00:15:00 How Jñāna-Yoga, the "Direct Path", Works: Shankara Vedanta vs Ramanuja Vedanta vs Vivekananda Vedanta
00:30:25 How Ramakrishna trained Vivekananda to be a Non-Dualist
00:35:45 A Direct Path Teaching for Instant Awakening Here and Now: You Are God, Here's Proof.
00:58:00 How To Practice Jñāna-Yoga: Hearing, Contemplating, Meditating and Stubornness!
01:06:13 Vivekananda's Tantrik Non-Duality: The Power of Consciousness
01:09:22 Real Devotion and Worshipping Kālī as Non-Dual practice.

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The Three Most Important Things to Understand in Spirituality | Vivekananda's Message to the West Feb 17, 2024

As Buddha had a message for the East, so too did Swami Vivekananda have a message for the West, if not for the whole world. What was that message? While it is of course a very multifaceted, variegated and nuanced message, three core principles stand out; we explore them in the course of this lecture, as part of our Vivekananda Jayanti celebrations earlier this month. These principles are:
1. Religion is a matter of Direct Experience, not dogma.
Inspired by his teacher Ramakrishna who daily experienced God for himself in all of Her aspects, the central thrust of Swami Vivekananda's teaching is that spirituality is a matter of verification. Placing an emphasis on yoga (the means for acquiring experience) and on an individual's own perception of God here and now, Swami Vivekananda transforms religion which was even then at his time becoming an antiquated, useless bundle of beliefs from a hoary past into a living, viable method that is strikingly in keeping with the most modern notions of the scientific inquiry, rationalism and verificationism.
2. You are innately divine.
Inspired by Ramakrishna who felt that "the wretch who considers himself a sinner verily becomes one; as you think so you become", Swami Vivekananda took the Christian West to task for its fixation on original sin. Most religions begin with a disempowering view of the human condition, i.e "you are broken in need of fixing, lacking in need of growing, sick in need of healing" etc. But the vision of Non-Dual Hinduism is: "you are already free, you are already pure, you are infinitely strong as you are for your very nature is divine!" This is the truth and Americans at once recognized it as it was spoken, thus breaking their centuries long dream of being spiritually fraught. Anyway, it is only the person who has this latter attitude who will have the self-confidence to really progress with their spiritual practices!
3. All existence is One.
Swami Vivekananda stressed above all Non-Duality. But his was a far more radical and inclusive non-duality than Shankara's Advaita Vedanta or Ramanuja's Qualified non-duality. His view, in my opinion, comes closer to the Shaiva Non-Dual view of masters like Abhinava Gupta: everything is God. Matter is non-dual, thought is non-dual, spirit is non-dual, all are just various reading of the one indivisible Consciousness-Bliss-Absolute that is both Formless and with Form, that is both Impersonal and Personal. And that One Existence is your very own Self! It is from this non-duality that we derive the 2nd principle sketched out above and also the notion of "harmony of all religions," which is the idea he is perhaps most famous for but which, as you can see, is just the natural consequence of the must more fundamental and far deeper principle of absolute, uncompromising non-duality!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Swami Vivekananda's Highest Non-Dual Teaching Feb 06, 2024

I have quite the treat for you: we’re going to be looking at Swami Vivekananda’s highest teachings from a series of lectures he gave in San Francisco. I thought of calling the talk “Swami Vivekananda in San Francisco”, to reference the series of three talks that Swami Ashokananda gave in 1946 and 1949 at the Old Temple and 1965 in the New Temple on the subject. I wanted to say a little about what kind of person the Swami especially while he was here in California and also reflect a bit on his life prior to coming America. But more than that, I want to cut right to the chase and share with you what he taught, the ideas of which he was a living embodiment, ideas of power and freedom that you can never un-hear, that will immediately and instantly awaken you to the one fact: you are God!
As such, in this elevated mood of contemplating on Swamiji in honor of his upcoming birthday on February 1st, let us discuss the very highest until our very blood tingles with the power of the truth of Non-Duality!
You are God!
Everything is God!
Stand up and declare it!
Down with the “sky fairy” God of superstitions!
Dethrone that old man and claim your true place as God of the Universe! (And ps: how does Kali fit into all of this? We’ll explain in the lecture!)
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Sārada Devī as Tantrik Guru Jan 31, 2024

Last week, we attempted to ask the question "Who is Sarada Devi?" and we ended up with the answer, "who knows?" Svārupam tvadīyam na vindanti devah! Even the Gods do not know your true nature, Mother! In any case, in that previous lecture (which you can watch here), we attempted a sketch of the early years of this great life and today, we're going to go in for a second pass at this most inscrutable and yet most intimately accessible of lives but this time we're going to pay particular attention to Ma Sarada's role as a guru, or spiritual teacher!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
00:00:00 Opening Invocations
00:00:58 What will we talk about today?
00:05:07 The Imitation of Christ and how to learn from Incarnations
00:11:00 What is Sarada Devi's spiritual wealth?
00:16:40 What does "real" spirituality look like? A story about my guru.
00:25:40 How to deepen your spiritual attainments
00:30:50 Sarada Devi as the Ideal Karma Yogi
00:35:10 Sarada Devi's Lesson on Practicality and Spiritual Bypassing
00:38:22 Sarada Devi's Lesson on Consistency in Spiritual Practice
00:38:53 The Guru as Mother
00:45:32 Sarada Devi's First Disciple, Beej mantras and Dīkshā
01:02:06 Holy Mother and Lord of the Rings...?!
01:06:36 Sarada Devi's Yatras, Austerities and Spiritual Practice (And qualifications for Guru)

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Who is Holy Mother Sārada Devī? Jan 17, 2024

Who knows? Who could ever know?
As Shankara put it in his Kalikāshtakam: "svarūpam tvadīyam na vindanti devah: not even the Gods know your true nature!"
With this in mind, humbled and awed, we approach this profound mystery of the Divine Mother of the Universe who is at once inscrutable and yet easy of access to us. She is at once Kali, the Mistress of Maya who confounds the Universe as well as our very own Mother, appearing in the form of a very nondescript, traditional Brahmin housewife.
In discussing this most exalted and wonderful of topics, we first take up some philosophy to make the case that it is the Feminine Principle, Prakriti or Maha Mayi, that is responsible for the appearance of the Avatara, the Incarnation of God. And further, not only is the Incarnation therefore wholly Female in principle whether it is Jesus or Krishna or Rama etc. but that, additionally, the Avatara often comes with a consort who is really his power in the world and the true facilitator of his mission. For example, for Rama it was Seeta, for Krishna, Radha and for Jesus, Mary of Magdala. For Sri Ramakrishna it is Ma Sarada Devi, the Holy Mother.
Then, after some philosophical contextualizing, we go into. a brief and short biographical sketch of the Holy Mother's early years.
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Mary Magdalena, the Śakti of Christ Jan 04, 2024

This discussion is a long time coming: Who is Mary of Magdala and what is she to the Christ? Is simply Christ's foremost and most advanced disciple? Is she fallen woman who was redeemed through the Christ as Pope Gregory claimed in the late 6th CE? Or was she much, much more? I want to make the case in this lecture for Mary as being the Shakti of Christ, the power by which the Incarnation and His holy Gospel was properly understood and spread, the power by which he is able to do what he does. I'll claim that she is to him what Sarada Devī is to Ramakrishna, Nitayananda is to Chaitanya, what Radha is to Krishna, Seeta to Rama etc.
I'll do this by appealing to the philosophical principle of the Divine Feminine as first articulated by the Sāmkhya school and then refined by the Non-Dual Tāntrikas. Next week, we can perhaps have a more historical discussion about Mary Devī but today, I want to stick to the overarching philosophical principles of the Avatar and the Avatar's śakti!
PS: I mentioned a book on Mary and said that it was written by Karen Armstrong but I was mistaken. It was actually the book "Mary Magdalene: Women, the Church, and the Great Deception" by Adriana Valerio that I was referencing. Forgive me!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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A Prayer to the Goddess | The Four Hymns of the Candi In Sanskrit and Translation Jan 03, 2024

Today on Sārada Devī Jayanti, the auspicious emergence of Holy Mother, I'd like to offer this recitation of the four hymns of the Candi at your feet, you who are Mā embodied. Before each hymn is chanted in Sanskrit and translation, we make a few preliminary remarks about the hymn to contextualize it in the wider narrative of the Candi or Devi Māhātmyam. These hymns are very powerful. They are charged with unimaginable mantric force! To even listen to them is to affect a profound transformation of our entire being. I pray you will feel the power and poetry of these mantras and be absorbed in the ecstasy of devotion to Mother who is in truth your very own essence.
I can't help thinking that is the most wonderful way to start the year. There could not be a better subject to start the year of podcasting off with than this! Jai Mā
Mā Sārada is the total embodiment of the creative energy, śakti, inseperable from non-dual consciousness, śiva. The same snake when wriggling and moving about and hissing is called śakti and when it is still it is called śiva. It is one and the same snake, one and the same reality, and she is That!
She is the Divine Mother of the Universe in every sense of that word. All that Sri Ramakrishna is able to do, she does through him for she is the inseparable power of Ramakrishna, as heat is the inseparable power of fire. I consider her worship the very highest worship! And the most exalted form of that worship is to worship her in the temples of every being, sentient and insentient in this world, as Swami Vivekananda taught. To worship Mā as she is embodied as other people…ah, there is no finer worship than that. But aside from the exalted and refined form of worshipping the Vishvarūpa of Mā in everyone as everyone, the can also do the equally exalted and refined form of worship of Mā in the image as per the injunctions of the Tantras.
I pray to Mā Sarada Devī that She may, through her unconditional grace and limitless mercy, deepen our absorption in worship both inside and outside the temple. May her living presence imbue the image and may that same presence reveal itself in everyone, everywhere! May we feel her in every circumstance and situation in life!
Mā, our play is done! We want to come home and play our heads upon thy lap! Take us in. Remove all our worldly cravings that keep us running about in Thy maya. In vain do we wander thy three worldly! O sorceress and confounder of the universe, by your magic alone is all this play going on! Thou art the one who holds the keys to both liberated and bondage! Therefore, be thou gracious and grant us pure love for thee! May I drink deeply from the cup of thy love’s wine that I may come to regard this entire universe and all that live in it as verily my own, as indeed it is.
Jai Mā!
PS: Although I typically use the Swami Jagadishwaranandaji translations in our talks, in this one I use the Devadatta Kali translation from his excellent book, "In Praise of the Goddess."
PSS: We chanted this after a formal worship of Holy Mother and Mā Kālī which you can watch on our Patreon here https://patreon.com/yogawithnish?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=join_link
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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How To Be In The World As a Spiritual Aspirant | Cārya Pada (Tantrik Code of Conduct) Dec 31, 2023

As you know, a tantra is often divided into four parts:
1. jñāna-pada, the philosophical transmission,
2. Yoga-pada, the section of esoteric practices like meditation and mantra repetition
3. Kriyā-pada, the manual for pūjā or ritualistic worship
4. Cārya-pada, the section on how to live your life in the world as a practitioner!
Having discussed the first three parts quite extensively it’s now time to turn the next question: “how do we move about in this world as a genuine spiritual aspirant?”
How do we set up boundaries against those who might do us harm in a skillful and yogic way? How are we to make a living? Etc.
What I intend to do tonight is read to you from some sections of the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna where the Master offers some very profound cārya-pada-esque instructions for how to be in the world as an aspirant, especially as householders with families and jobs without losing your spiritual momentum and depth of practice!
Here's what we derived:
The Master would say: bhakti shār: Bhakti, devotion, is the essence. The purpose of life is to cultivate love for the Divine. As such, for creating this kind of spiritual intoxication, the following is suggested:
Cārya-Pada (Code of Spiritual Conduct)/ The Ten Commandments of Ramakrishna:
1.Revere everyone, especially all women as the living embodiment of the Divine Mother.
2. Pray to God fervently and constantly with a yearning heart for faith, devotion, knowledge and renunciation.
3. Go into solitude often and think of God.
4. Do you duties but keep your mind on God (through repeating the mantra, chanting/singing God's glories etc. and above all by remembering that the person you are serving is none othert than God, i.e Karma Yoga in the Vivekananda sense.)
5. Love everyone intensely even as you renounce them fully knowing they belong not you but to God. (i.e live in the world like the maidservant in the rich man's house)
6. Practice discrimination. Ask: "did I get from this experience what I wanted? Did this really fulfill me?“ i.e "Education through Experience". The more you think of worldly things, the more you will be attached to them. Shake off impermanent objects from your mind by practicing discrimination.
7. Regularly spend time In holy company (sadhu sangha)
8. When dealing with the "tiger God" (worldly people), "bow from a distance". That is to say, have love and respect for them but do not have further dealings with them. Avoid their company as far as possible.
9. Remember the Mahut God: be practical in worldly dealings.
10. Don't be like the snake: you can hiss to set boundaries and protect yourself without injuring others.
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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What is an Avatar? Dec 26, 2023

God is inscrutable and mysterious for the most part. What then to say of the Incarnation, that is, the appearance of God as a specific person in history?! Perhaps the mystery of the Avatar, the Incarnation of God is one of the deepest mysteries of religion and it is by no means unique to Christianity. Long before the Christ, we find in the Bhagavad Gita the following, which represents the first articulation of the notion of Divine Incarnations by Sri Krishna, one of the first Incarnations to leave us with a teaching:
यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत |
अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदात्मानं सृजाम्यहम् || 7||
yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata
abhyutthānam adharmasya tadātmānaṁ sṛijāmyaham
Whenever there is a disturbance in Dharma, and an increase in Adharma, I incarnate on this Earth, O Arjuna!
The idea here is that if an Incarnation comes to teach us the right way, then the Incarnation most likely most come more than once and give us the teaching in different ways each time suited to that particular culture with its unique needs and problems.
Naturally, since Hindus are already familiar with Rama and Krishna as Incarnations, it's easy for them to accept Buddha and Jesus as Incarnations too. But hang on a moment. What makes an Incarnation an Incarnation? What stops a person from, in their very valid guru bhakti (devotion to their personal teacher), attributing "avatar-hood" to their respective teachers if indeed there are many avatars?
In this lecture, we attempt to triangulate on the profound mystery of the Avatar from a non-dual point of view. How can a truly non-dual philosophy which holds that God is Consciousness (i.e You) and as such is non-different from the world accommodate an Avatar doctrine? In the course of doing that , we take a tour down the annals of history to pick out a few key teachings from a few avatars to implement in our own spiritual lives. The central thrust of this lecture is that the most important thing about an Avatar is not necessarily the avatar but the message!
Merry Christmas!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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What is Prayer? Dec 25, 2023

Usually when we think of prayer, we picture kneeling by the bedside with hands clasped and being thoroughly disappointed. Usually, we feel prayer as some kind of contrived, forced, inauthentic attempt to connect with a barely articulated idea of "God" and often to be met with silence and a feeling of being kind of silly. Is prayer talking to God? What do you even say in a conversation that often feels so one-sided? What do you pray "for", if anything? How does prayer compare to other spiritual practices like japa, meditation, ritual worship etc?
In this lecture we take up all of these questions in honor of Ramakrishna and Christ this Christmas season, both of whom valued prayer as the central features of their message.
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
If you'd like to support us, you can do so here:
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/jaimakali

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Mā Kālī and Mother Mary Dec 23, 2023

At last week’s satsangh we had a wonderful conversation about the Tantrik principles in Christianity: guru paramparā (lineage based transmission), dīksha (initiation rituals), mantra japa (repetition of sacred words), pūjā (ritual worship) and vigraha (the immanent and embodied aspect of God).
In this lecture, I intend to discuss the relations up between Mother Mary and Mā Kālī not just in matters of iconography and history (I.e Sara La Kali/Black Madonna etc.) but also with regards of practice and philosophical principles!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Tantrik Christianity and The Bhairava Nature of Jesus Christ Dec 14, 2023

In this lecture, we discuss “Tantrik Christianity”, that is, elements of Tantra like
1. guruparamparā (lineage based transmission),
2. ritual worship (pūjā)
3. emphasis on mantra repetition (japa)
4. profileration of deities/icons
5. emphasis on direct, personal experience of the Divine
6. the Immanence of God etc.
that are also present in Christianity to make the case that Tantra is a spiritual approach not exclusive to any one cultural but is founded upon universal spiritual principles that are equally present in every tradition! I also want to point out how Jesus Christ as an Incarntion is murti/vigraha, the Tantrik term for the embodied, immanent aspect of the Transcendent Divine which can be used as a doorway to the Absolute, who is in-and-of-itsef, that same Absolute manifest.
Since December is a time when in our community we turn or fervor towards Shakti in the form of Christ and Mother Mary, I pray this lecture will delight you!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
OM Tat Sat

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Mā Kālī in Other Cultures Dec 12, 2023

In this lecture, we take a comparative look at the Divine Feminine as it is worshipped in the Mesopotamian, Aztec, Spanish, Celtic, Gaelic and Hellenistic cultures to show that Mā Kālī is not confined to any one culture or religion. Though Her worship and veneration is perhaps most articulated and most visibly extant in Hinduism, She is indeed the Primordial Power that was worshipped by all peoples in all places as perhaps the first religious intuition/revelation of the human race in all its diverse civilizations.
Before we make these anthropological points though, we will first feel into Mā Kālī’s non dual aspect as Pure Consciousness, the Formless Brahman who certain transcends all name and form what to say culture and creed! Upon this philosophical basis of Kālī as non dual consciousness (supported by a few verses from the Chandi), we will make the case that Kālī is more than a Goddess in a pantheon; She is the One Reality, Consciousness-Bliss, who alone exists and who is worshipped by all people!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Ramprasad Sen, Mā Kālī's Mystic Poet Dec 08, 2023

Last month, we celebrated my favorite time of the year, Kālī Pūjā!
The pūjā itself was on Sunday the 12th of November, the new moon night but on the Friday just before I couldn't at all contain my excitement and felt inspired to do a special class on Ramprasad, the great mystic and saint of Mother Kālī.
His story is a truly remarkable tale of the highest devotion, of the most reckless absorption, of the most unparalleled intoxication in Mā, replete with wonderful legends of mystical visions and encounters with the Goddess in myriad forms. No wonder Sri Ramakrishna loved his songs so much, perhaps more than any other poet-saint. In many ways, to understand Ramprasad is to get a glimpse into Ramakrishna, because the two were so alike!
So please do come to this class and learn about this Kālī mystic!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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How To Be A Shakta 101 Nov 27, 2023

We start our evening's Q&A with some book recommendations for the study and practice of Tantrik Shaktism, that is, devotion to the Divine Mother. (00:00-07:00)
Then we discuss some precautions around the Devī Māhātmyam sādhanā with regards to "fierce grace" with an excursus on the Power of Mantra/the Power of the Written Word. (07:00-16:00)
But to soften that, we then talk about Mā's non-dual nature as ultimately compassionate, even towards supposed "demons"! At 19:00 we discuss the importance of Guru and Lineage in Tantrik practice.
At 20:36 we talk about a "doxographic hierarchy": Samkhya then Advaita Vedanta then Non-Dual Shaiva Tantra which might roughly correspond to Sri Ramakrishna's "ajnana (ignorance)" to "jnana"(knowledge) to "vijnana". In the course of this discussion (20:36- 37:00) we talk about some of the risks and dangers that can come from improper sequencing of philosophy and practice (i.e narcissism, hedonism, complacency etc.) and how we might guard against that.
At 28:00 minutes we discuss the attitude of Mathura Bhava, "god as my Lover" in the context of Shaivism and then at 30:00 I argue against that in favor of the parivatsalya bhava, the attitude of "god is my Mother" with an emphasis on strong, demand, self-assured devotion as opposed to a self-effacing devotion. This discussion is particularly valuable since devotion is at the heart of this community's approach to spiritual life.
At 37:00, we reflect on the seeming paradox of how the Mother of the Universe (signifying mind-blowing transcendence and abstraction) can be my very own mother (in a very real, immediate and immanent sense). How to reconcile God's grandeur against Gods immediacy? We talk about Yashoda, Krishna's Mother, Swami Vivekananda and Anuradha Paudwal, the famous sangeet singer to explore various modes of devotion towards the Divine, as possible answers to the aforementioned question, so central to the devotee's life.
At 44:20, we talk about the playful, "little girl" aspect of the Divine Mother before reviewing all the different modes of devotion (handmaid, parent, servant, child, awe/fear etc.) before closing out what I feel was one of our most inspired discussions yet. Thank you for the stimulating conversation Ishānt-ji and thank you Jess Devī for the excellent question!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Mā Kālī's Non Dual Aspect & Tantrik Sādhanās to Attain It Nov 26, 2023

After two back-to-back Kālī pūjās and a few all nighters, we plunge into a discussion of Mā Kālī's non-dual aspect, to commemorate the Shyama Kali Puja of 2023. My idea was to explore the role of the ferocious iconography around Mā, a few verses of the Candi indicated Her non-dual nature as Pure Consciousness and some similar iconography and motifs from other world spiritual traditions to present the idea that Mā is more than a Goddess in a pantheon but rather the Principle of Creative Power par excellence, the energy of Consciousness inseparable from Consciousness Herself, that is worshipped all over the world beyond the cultural confines of India.
She alone exists as the sole reality.
But alas, at many points in this lecture, stunned by the sheer magnitude of Mā Kālī's formless nature (and perhaps also a little fried from the back-to-back pujas), I lapse into silence and resort to the third hymn of the Candi to make some preliminary passes at the topic. Then, when I recover from my little episode, we explore the first idea: the mortuary imagery to make a point about Tantrik sādhanās aimed at attaining Mā's non-dual darshan!
Art by Vijayā (http://www.birthlessdeathless.com/)
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Songs to Bhairava and Bhairavi | Macabre Elements in Tantrik Iconography as Non-Dual Sādhanā Nov 26, 2023

Prior to our Hallowe'en lecture on ghosts in the Tantrik world, we recite a few hymns and poems to Mahākāla Bhairava and Mā Bhairavi (Abhinava Gupta's Bhairava Stava and the two Kālī poems by Swami Vivekananda) that feature similar macabre elements to make a point about radical acceptance, non-duality and overcoming fear.
Art by Vijayā (http://www.birthlessdeathless.com/)
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
00:00:00 Different Types of Ghosts in the Tantrik World
00:03:34 Poetic Meters in Sanskrit Spiritual Literature
00:12:20 A Tribute to Swami Lakshman Joo
00:18:55 Bhairava Stava of Abhinava Gupta
00:30:20 Brief Commentary on the Bhairava Stava
00:31:00 Introduction to Swami Vivekananda's poems to Kali
00:32:07 "Kali, The Mother" by Swami Vivekananda
00:33:30 Commentary on "Kali, The Mother"
00:40:33 And Let Syāmā Dance There (Swamijis Bengali Poem to Kālī)
00:49:20 Commentary on "And Let Syāmā Dance There"

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Ghosts, Ghouls and Goblins in Tantrik Spirituality | Hallowe'en Special Oct 31, 2023

Tonight’s lecture is a Hallowe’en special! After all, Śaiva and Śakta Tantra is chock full of ghoulish mortuary iconography: Mā Kālī’s garland of skulls, Lord Śiva’s garland of snakes, their retinue of ghosts, goblins and vampires, their home in the cremation grounds (ghat), fierce fanged dākinī and yoginīs and so much more.
It’s no wonder Hallowe’en is my favorite holiday!
Tonight, to celebrate, let's discuss Tantrik demonology and the role of mortuary and gory iconography in texts like Bhairava Stava of Abhinava Gupta, Candi and Swami Vivekananda’s poems to Mā Kālī.
The first part of this lecture is just an introduction to the zoology of supernatural beings mentioned in Indian literature and spiritual texts like the Purānas, Rāmāyana and Mahābhārata etc. (listed below for your convenience) and the second part of the lecture is a discussion on 4 or 5 ways to "exorcise" or at least banish the influence of these spirits in your own home so that you may practice safely and uninterruptedly.
Dangerous Supernatural Beings
पिशाच, Piśāca
वेताल vetāla as seen in the वेतालपञ्चविंशति, Vetala Panchavimshati
राक्षस Rākṣasa (like Rāvaṇa, Hidimba and Hidimbi, Ghatotkacha, Bakasura, Alamvusha)
असुर Asura (like Madhu and Kaitabha, Mahishasura, Shumbha and Nishbumbha in Candi)
Somewhat Dangerous but Mostly Just Mischeivious and Often Good Supernatural Beings
अप्सरा Apsarā (story of Menaka and Vishwamitra as told by Shakuntalā, story of Arjuna and Urvashi)
गन्धर्व Ghandarva (like Pushpadanta who composed the Shiva Mahimna stotra)
यक्ष Yaksha यक्षिणी Yakshini (Fairies)
Happy Hallowe'en!
Jai Mahākāla!

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Instant Enlightenment | Anupaya in Kashmir Shaivism Oct 12, 2023

We'll explore how it might be possible for a person to be instantly free here and now, as suddenly and as effortlessly and easily as one "falls from a tree after losing one's footing".
Naturally, this will take us into a discussion on anupaya, the notorious "no path path" of instant liberation and jīvanmukti, the somewhat paradoxical doctrine of being free of the world/body while remaining in it!
Some schools of spirituality, dualistic theistic traditions foremost amongst them, wholeheartedly reject this idea, preferring instead a post mortem salvation, and a "there" and "then" God as a opposed to a "here" and "now" one while other schools, like Advaita Vedanta and Kaula Trika (Non-Dual Shaivism) see jīvanmukti not only as a theoretical necessity given their reasoning, but as a practical guarantee!
In so many words: at the end of today's lecture you could very well, by śiva's grace, leave enlightened, completely and irrevocably because as you will see from the citations below, bondage and liberation are nothing but the Lord's play - i.e your play! We will explore, Mā willing, exactly the mechanism by which this kind of instant liberation comes about to induce it (or at the very least prepare for the possibility of it) in our own immediae experience.
Citations (from Paramārthasāra of Abinava Gupta):
paramaṃ yat svātantryaṃ durghaṭasaṃpādanaṃ
maheśasya devī māyāśaktiḥ svātmāvaraṇaṃ śivasyaitat ( 15 )
The supreme Lord's great freedom, which is capable of accomplishing the most difficult task, is called the Goddess Maya-sakti. It serves Paramasiva as a veil to hide Himself.
svajñānavibhavabhāsana - yogenodveṣṭayennijātmānam |
iti bandhamokṣacitrāṃ krīḍāṃ pratanoti paramaśivaḥ (33)
Lord Paramaśiva liberates himself from bondage by loosening its grip through the glory of knowledge of the Self. Thus bondage and liberation are his divine play.
tadvat kañcukapaṭalī -
pṛthakkṛtā saṃvidatra saṃskārāt |
tiṣṭhantyapi muktātmā
tatsparśavivarjitā bhavati (86)
In the same way, Consciousness once its been separated from its complex of sheaths (kañcukas) is forever alien to their touch, even though as a liberated self, it remains there due to impressions (samskāras).
tīrthe śvapacagṛhe vā
naṣṭasmṛtirapi parityajandeham |
jñānasamakālamuktaḥ
kaivalyaṃ yāti hataśokaḥ (83)
Whether he departs from his physical body in a holy place or in an outcaste's hovel, and even if he loses his memory, he obtains liberation immediately upon receiving knowledge thus overcoming sorrow.**
ādarśe malarahite yadvad vadanaṃ vibhāti tadvad ayam |
śiva - śaktipātavimale dhītattve bhāti bhārūpaḥ ( 9 )
As a face shines forth in a spotlessly clean mirror, in the same way the supreme Lord who is of the nature of illumination shines forth in the buddhi (intellect) tattva that has been purified following the descent of divine grace by the Lord.
We'll also continue to explore our list below with an emphasis on grades one and two which guarantee instant, spontaneous, and permanently abiding realization.
note also iśopanishad 6 & 7:
yas tu sarvāni bhūtani atmany'eva'nupasyati
sarva bhūteshu catmanam tato na vijugupsate
He who sees everything in himself and his Self in everything, never hates anything
yasmin sarvāni bhutāni atma'iva bhūdvijānatah:
tatra ko'moha kah shoka ekatvam anupaśyatah:
When a person knows that he Himself has become everything and he knows the Oneness of things, how can he hate or love anything

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How To Receive God's Grace | Śaktipāta in Kashmir Shaivism Sep 25, 2023

There are few theories regarding God's grace in Indian philosophy:
1. It is earned through good works (karma)
2. It is earned through devotion (bhakti)
3. It is earned through renunciation (tyāga)
4. It comes as a result of two equally strong samskaras bubbling up at the same time and checking one and another, thus artificially stalling all future karmas from fructifying (karmasāmya) Using some arguments from Abinava Gupta's commentary on the Mālinīvijaya Tantra, we'll show why all of these are absolutely wrong.
We'll demonstrate how:
(a) grace comes from the independent, playful will of Divine Mother.
(b) since all this is verily śiva, God is really ever gracing Herself.
We will also, Mā willing, respond to a few objections regarding grace:
1. If there is such a thing as grace, then, surely God is partial to some and not to others? Why would she keep some in bondage and liberate only a few?
2. If God is playfully enacting her will a bondage and liberation, then, why bother? Why go through the trouble of bondage at all?
3. If God's grace is the only operant factor in a person's liberation and if God's grace cannot be earned through spiritual practice, why bother to engage in practice at all?
Naturally, we'll review the 9 grades of śaktipāta (grace) in Abinava Gupta's classification. This will help us gauge what level of spirituality we are currently at so that we can better enjoy our time as aspirants!
Also, we get to talk a little about enjoyment and renunciation in spiritual life and why renunciation is an absolutely natural, easeful and effortless process, like we started talking about last week! (anādara virakti).
And finally, if there's time, I want to share some quotes from Utpala Deva's Shivastoravali to show how Devotion is the highest attainment in Kashmir Shaivism (i.e. bhakti is the total ripening of jnana, which is itself synonymous with liberation itself) thereby linking it so Sri Ramakrishna's views on the same!
The 9 Levels of Śaktipāt:
1. Tīvra tīvra = Intensely intense = videha mukti
2. Madhya tīvra = Moderately intense = jīvanmukti
3. Manda tīvra = Weakly Intense = jīvanmutki
4. Tīvra madhya = intensely moderate = krama mukti
5. Madya madya = Moderately moderate = krama mukti
6. Manda madhya = Weakly moderate = krama mukti
7. Tīvra manda = Weak but Intense
8. Madya manda = Moderately weak
9. Manda manda = Weakly weak
Quotes from Abinava Gupta's Paramarthasara
ādarśe malarahite yadvad vadanaṃ vibhāti tadvad ayam |
śiva - śaktipātavimale dhītattve bhāti bhārūpaḥ ( 9 )
As a face shines forth in a spotlessly clean mirror, in the same way the supreme Lord who is of the nature of illumination shines forth in the buddhi (intellect) tattva that has been purified following the descent of divine grace by the Lord.
paramaṃ yat svātantryaṃ durghaṭasaṃpādanaṃ maheśasya devī māyāśaktiḥ svātmāvaraṇaṃ śivasyaitat ( 15 )
The supreme Lord's great freedom, which is capable of accomplishing the most difficult task, is called the Goddess Maya-sakti. It serves Paramasiva as a veil to hide Himself.
kambukamiva taṇḍulakaṇa - viniviṣṭaṃ bhinnamapyabhidā |
bhajate tattu viśuddhiṃ śivamārgaunmukhyayogena (18)
The husk existing on a grain of rice, though existing separately, appears inseparable from the grain. But [the fettered being, who similarly seems attached to his fetters] attains purity by turning towards Siva through Yoga and treading on his path.
svajñānavibhavabhāsana - yogenodveṣṭayennijātmānam | iti bandhamokṣacitrāṃ krīḍāṃ pratanoti paramaśivaḥ (33)
Lord ParamaSiva liberates himself from bondage by loosening its grip through the glory of knowledge of the Self. Thus bondage and liberation are his d

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Life as Yoga | The Tantrik Approach to Spirituality Sep 07, 2023

We have an exciting series of lectures ahead of us: How To Practice Kashmir Shaivism
We've been discussing the theory of Kaula Trika non-duality for some time now, which is, in and of itself, a type of practice. However, it's time now to discuss practice proper!
In this lecture, I'm going to
1. make a case for why so-called "worldliness" is itself a very noble kind of spiritual practice, echoing Chapter I of the Bhagavad Gita (vishadayoga).
2. Discuss a graded approach to spiritual life (progressive renunciation, i,e anādara-virakta) that allows for a life-affirming, enjoyment-positive approach, contrasted against Patañjali and Gorakshanāth's systems of more ascetic yoga in the light of Sri Ramakrishna.
And finally,
3. quote from Tantraloka and some other sources within the tradition to see what masters like Abinava Gupta themselves had to say about practice!
If we have a little time in the end, I want to discuss with you a very interesting (albeit somewhat dangerous) practice: enjoyment itself as yoga!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Ābhāsa Vāda | The Doctrine of Reflection in Kashmir Shaivism Aug 23, 2023

In this lecture, we are going to discuss the Abhāsa-Vada (Reflection Model) of Kaula Trika Tantra: how is it that the one Unchanging Absolute, śiva, manifests playfully as this dazzling display of phenomena called the world without
(a) losing pristine transcendent nature
(b) while actually literally and really manifesting as everyone and everything?
This sounds like a flat out contradiction. What's more, tonight I'm going to show how Kaula Trika Śaivism gives us a worldview that is neither Realism nor Idealism (as we carefully introduced last week), but something that is better and more satisfying than both! Naturally, to demonstrate this, we'll compare Trika to Ramanuja's parinama-vada (real transformation model) and Shankara's vivārta-vada (illusory appearance model).
Then, at the very end of the lecture, I'm going to offer the mantra OM Namah Shivāyah and Mā willing, explain its esoteric significance in light of what was discussed. This understanding is intended to empower your practice and allow you to experience everyone and everything as nothing but God!
Now, this discussion is extremely philosophically subtle. As Abinava Gupta himself says in Tantrāloka II.28:
Durvijñeyā hi sāvasthā kimapyetad anuttaram
"It is very difficult to understand this state and hence it is called the Absolute (anuttara)"
Nevertheless, let me offer one reason why it is very important to understand this idea:
In Indian philosophy, to know is to become (brahma veda brahmaiva bhavati). A darśana, or philosophical view, is about realization and experience. The words that describe that realization are secondary and yet because the words carry with them the power of the realization, they can act as a doorway through which one realizes for themselves the state to which they point. That's probably why Abinava Gupta uses the term āvastha here in the quote, to mean "state".
So ideally, by the end of tonight's lecture, you won't leave with merely understanding but with realization.
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lectures.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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The God Solution | A Critique of Materialism and a Defense of Theism Aug 17, 2023

We gave this lecture on the full moon celebrating the Guru, guru-pūrnimā the day when we honor our teachers and our lineage.
You are all of you my guru, my teacher.
And it is at your feet that I offer all of these words, like so many meagre flowers.
You have all taught me and are continuing to teach me and will go on teaching me so much!
I am eternally indebted to each and every one of you.
A hundred thousand pranams at your feet! What could I possibly say to you now or offer you that can express my gratitude and devotion?
To celebrate the occasion, I intended to give a lecture on the major schools of Indian philosophy in overview: cārvāka (materialist hedonism), dvaita Vedanta (dualistic theism), vishishtadvaita (qualified non-dualism), kevalādvaita (pure non-dualism), paramadvaya (Shaiva non-duality), acintya bhedabheda (Caitanya's devotional Vaishnavism) etc. I wanted to tell some stories of the great gurus of India: Ramanuja, Nimbarka, Madhava, Vallabha, Shankara, Abinava Gupta etc. But alas, we only really managed to discuss Rāmānuja's very sophisticated form of Theism: Qualified Monism, the in-between ground straddling Duality and non-Duality.
Most of the lecture though turned out to be, as per our inspiration that evening determined, a sustained critique on materialism and a defense of theism (that is, the existence of God).
As such, I thought I'd call the lecture "The God Solution" which is of course a subtle dig at the title "The God Delusion"!
00:00:00 The Indian Spiritual Heritage: A Thaali Meal
00:07:00 Material Reductionism: "God is Unreal, Matter and Energy is Real"
00:11:30 Why Did Indian Spiritual Masters Respond to Material Reductionism?
00:16:40 Critique of Material Reductionism #1: 2 Axiological Issues
00:23:40 Critique of Material Reductionism #2: 3 Epistemological Issues
0:30:06 An Aside on Consciousness: What Is First Person Subjectivity?
00:36:55 An Aside on Mystical Experience, i.e Verifying Spiritual Claims
00:38:20 Critique of Material Reductionism #3: Metaphysical Issues
00:42:20 The God Solution
00:49:50 Epistemological and Metaphysical Issues With Dualistic Theistic Religion (And Some Responses)
01:06:10 An Aside on Skeptical Theism (And Why It's Problematic)

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The Message of Spiritual India | Happy Independence Day! Aug 15, 2023

Prior to the British occupation of India, there was no such word as "Hinduism". There was really only a very diverse range of spiritual attitudes all coexisting alongside one another in a spirit of not only tolerance, but celebration.
Notice the tremendous resilience India has demonstrated through her 5000 year old (by conservative Western estimates) civilization. The fundamental truths she articulated in the Upanishads at the very dawn of human civilization continue to be chanted by millions of Hindus all over the world. Many of these Hindus are illiterate and yet you will find them throouhgly educated and cultured, immersed as they are in India's epics the Rāmāyana, the Mahābhārata and the Purānas. These spiritual ideas remain ever strong and ever vital and ever able to inspire even after all those shocks and blows and instabilities that India has faced in the last ~5000 or so years. Not only has she brushed off these things as minor inconveniences in the steady march of her civilization, but she regards no one as an enemy; she has deep love for every nation and its ideals and above all, she is willing to share freely and unstintingly of her cultural wealth with anyone and everyone who sincerely comes seeking it. All of this was perhaps best demonstrated by the late 18th century phenomena of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, a priest of Kālī in the Dakshineshwar temple who demonstrated in light of his own spiritual experiences that all religions were true. He had such a spiritual appetite that in the course of his life, he practiced all the sādhanas of Hinduism at the time (Shakta Tantra, Vaishnavism, Vedanta etc.) as well as Islam and Christianity. As a result of this, he felt that God, being infinite can be reached and enjoyed in infinite numbers of ways and as such, cannot be confined to any one religion.
On September 11th, 1893, at the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago, Swami Vivekananda, the foremost disciple of the aforementioned Sri Ramakrishna, spoke before an American audience on the ideals of India. Above all, he stressed the primacy of the spiritual question, the innate divinity of the soul and the harmony of all religions as so many valid attempts to grasp the One Ineffable Truth. I think that all the developments in the American and European New Age which its emphasis on syncretism and its renewed faith in spiritual verities can be traced back to that one speech in 1893 where Swami Vivekananada declared in a voice full of power:
"my sisters and brother of America!"
".....I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions of all nations of the earth. I am proud to tell you that we have gathered into our bosom the purest remnants of the Israelites, who came to Southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to a religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation"
May all of these words be a "a vindication, a declaration to the world of the wonderful doctrine peached in the Gita":
ये यथा मां प्रपद्यन्ते तांस्तथैव भजाम्यहम् |
मम वर्त्मानुवर्तन्ते मनुष्या: पार्थ सर्वश: || 11||
ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāns tathaiva bhajāmyaham
mama vartmānuvartante manuṣhyāḥ pārtha sarvaśhaḥ
Whosoever comes to Me, through whatsoever form, I reach him; everyone is struggling through paths which in the end all lead to Me (the One Non-Dual Truth).
Jai Bhārata Vāshya-ji Ki Jai!

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God's Face Is Your Face! | The 5 Faces of Lord Śiva in Kashmir Shaivism Jul 28, 2023

Is there anything quite so joyful as thinking in terms of eternity and infinity? Perhaps that’s why coming together every Monday night for our 7pm PST Satsangh remains ever fresh and ever blissful even after all of these years together. There is just such a sweetness to holding these profound and refined conceptions of the Absolute. By holding and contemplating vast concepts, you taste the vastness of our own being to which those concepts can only point!
Tonight’s lecture will explore “The 5 faces of Lord Śiva”, that is, the subtlest and most refined concept of “God” (Pure. Non Dual Awareness) articulated by the Kaula Trika Tantra tradition. I want to ask;
What does God want? If this is God’s play (līla) then what is the nature of the game? How can we take spiritual life seriously without taking ourselves too seriously?
We’ll continue our study of the 36 tattvas by considering the very highest to make the claim that God's face is Your face, God's dance is Your dance!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lecture.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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What Does Enlightenment Feel Like? Jul 24, 2023

Sri Ramakrishna, like the Buddha before him, often held that what the Absolute Reality, Brahman is cannot be described. It is "ucchishta", meaning, undefiled by the tongue. As such, it is beyond the Vedas, the Puranas, the Tantra or any sacred book. Further, because the ultimate Reality is "one without a second", that is, non-dual, It cannot be compared to any other thing, It being all there is.
What does ghee taste like?
Well, Sri Ramakrishna would say, it "tastes like ghee!".
In saying this though, the Master points out that there is a "rasa", a taste or a qualia, a subjective experience that comes with being absorbed in that Absolute Brahman. And he often compares that feeling to the feeling of a fish let loose into the ocean or the feeling of a bird soaring high in the sky.
In this video, we take up Sri Ramakrishna's descriptions of what it feels like to be absorbed in Brahman, compare them to Chandogya Upanishad 7.23.1 (yo vai bhūma tat sukam, nalpa sukham asti = there is no joy in the limited, only the vast is joyful) and then come up with a few analogs from our day to day lives to give you a taste of what enlightenment feels like.
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lecture.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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What is a Mantra? Jul 15, 2023

Today I feel quite inspired to talk about mantra and Deity yoga: what is a deity and in what way is a mantra connected to a deity? How does one properly chant a mantra? What should we visualize? (featuring a brief excursus on yantra, sacred geometry!) and why would we even want to do a mantra practice? etc.
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lecture.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
00:03:45 Discussion starts: The Non-Dual View
00:05:54 What is a Deity in the Non-Dual View?
00:09:30 What Bootsy Collins said to me
00:11:50 What is Consciousness? (A Direct Path Teaching)
00:22:40 Jungian Archetypes and Gods and Goddesses
00:26:30 What Does A Deity Look Like? (Mantra, Yantra, Murti)
00:49:33 Practice

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Rogue Gurus and Fallen Yogis | How To Practice Guru-Yoga Jun 27, 2023

Guru-Yoga is the central practice of the Tantrik tradition. In fact, I would go so far as to say that in any genuine mystical tradition, the role of a living teacher is highly emphasized: in Christian mysticism, its the spiritual perception/director/elder; in Sufism its the Affendi; in Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism its the Guru. My guru likes to say: the human Guru is a matchmaker who marries you to God, who alone is the Guru, and Who, in Truth is what You are at the essence of your Being.
Yes, the Guru is certainly IN you AS you but long before you can benefit from inner direction, you'll need a human teacher to mirror for you, model for you and instruct you in spiritual life.
Like with all things in life, we need teachers.
But what qualifies a person to become a spiritual teacher?
Some time ago, we had a talk where we explored Swami Vivekananda's criterion for a genuine teacher that appears in the Bhakti Yoga book. And long before that, on Guru Purnima some years ago, we offered a lecture on Guru Yoga in general where we explored a few Tantras like the Kula-Arnava Tantra to get a sense for what guruhood really is according to the Tantrik tradition
Since Guru Purnima is coming up yet again, I thought it'd be nice to revisit that discussion, especially since last week we had such an extension discussion on the importance of shāstra, scriptures and also since we're currently discussing the Nārada Bhakti Sutra in which we find this profound set of verses:
भवतु न चयदा याद ू व शा र णम्।१२-१.१२
अ यथा पा त यश कया । १३ - १.१३
"Until one is unshakeably enlightened, one should follow the scriptures." (12) "Otherwise, there is a fear of fall (from spiritual life)." (13)
What does it mean to "fall"? In this talk, I make the case that "falling" for both a practitioner and a more importantly, a practitioner who teaches others is non-adherence to or general disrespect/irreverence for the tradition's scriptures. Remember, this conversation is the follow up to last week's discussion on the importance of scripture (which features a very clear definition of what we mean by "scripture")
This is one lecture in a series on the Nārada Bhakti Sutra which you can follow along with here
These classes meet live every Friday evening at 6pm PST via this zoom link: https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here:

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What is Scripture? | Nārada Bhakti Sutra Jun 21, 2023

Every spiritual and religious tradition in the world has some sort of scripture. One very interesting thing about South Asian spirituality (Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and others) is that there is no one authoritative scripture but rather a vast commentarial tradition of scripture that features a peer-reviewed and corroborated account of mystical experiences and the subtlest, most refined truths of spiritual life that are gleaned from them.
More importantly, the central claim of the South Asian scriptural tradition is a very scientific one: anyone anywhere if they follow the injunctions of any of these scriptures can verify for themselves, through direct experience, the truths claimed by the scriptures. As such, for many of these scriptures, dogmatic belief (though it can be in some cases nourishing for a certain type of person) is discouraged or at the very least, must be transcended.
So what really are the scriptures? In this lecture, I make a comprehensive defense of śāstra (scripture) and advocate for their importance in spiritual life. This is one lecture in a series on the Nārada Bhakti Sutra which you can follow along with here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/narada-bhakti-80688555?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link
These classes meet live every Friday evening at 6pm PST via this zoom link:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
OM Tat Sat

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How To Attain God | Kashmir Shaivism Jun 16, 2023

What is "God" and what does it mean to "attain" That?
In this lecture, we discuss discuss "The Absolute" on a few different levels from a philosophical perspective but more importantly, we offer a few practice methods for "attaining", that is "recognizing, integrating and acting/thinking/feeling according to" that Absolute Truth.
This lecture is part of a series on Kashmir Shaivism which you can watch here https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfGGe32PDNMb9bvgn4Vfn1mtrfF7JPZQn
In this installment, we hint at the metaphysical explanation behind the Shiva līla (God's play) idea which is central to this tradition by explaining the 5 powers of God with an emphasis on Vimarśa or ānanda-śakti!
At the end of the lecture we read a beautiful poem by Shankara that Swami Vivekananda sings to M. towards the end of the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna.
And I'd like to share with you what is for me one of the most moving moments in the Gospel, the final scene where M. smiles and Narendra talks about the ultimate in spiritual life, in one concise sentence. And then I'd like to share the final line of the Gospel and its significance which changed my life and I pray, will change yours too!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lecture.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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What Is The Purpose of My Life? | The 36 Tattvas of Kashmir Shaivism Jun 13, 2023

Does your life have a purpose or meaning? In order to ask the question, "what is the purpose of my life?" you have to first take a few steps back and ask "what is the purpose of the Universe?" Since you are an active participant in and a veritable fraction of (if not entirely) the Universe, your purpose must be in some what articulated along with and according to the purpose of the Universe. But does the Universe even have a purpose? Or is it just insentient matter? Is there a God who created the Universe as in dualistic theistic religion? Or is God embodied AS the Universe as in pantheistic and panentheistic religion? If so, what is God's purpose for creating/becoming all of this? And what does any of that have to do with you?
But again, before asking "why the Universe" or "why God", we must first ask "what"! WHAT is God and what is the Universe?!
In this lecture, we sketch out the map of Reality as per the Sāmkhya, Advaita Vedanta and Trika-Krama (Kashmir Shaiva) systems of philosophy before offering a teleology (a raison d'etre) for all of it.
Ironically, right as we got to the "why" question", my internet connection cut out and the recording stopped. And since I have no idea how to do video editing whatsoever, this video ends in somewhat of a cliff-hanger. You can watch the final ten or so minutes of this lecture for absolutely free here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/true-purpose-of-84533452?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link
I promise this is not some clever marketing scheme to direct traffic from here to Patreon! Its only because I felt the last section was too short and out of context to upload unto YouTube as a stand alone video or as a podcast!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lecture.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Why Do Personal Tragedies Happen? | Theodicy Trilogy Jun 11, 2023

Every theists (those who accept the existence of God), no matter how strong their faith, will one day have to reconcile for themselves what philosophers have been calling, the "problem of evil": if God is all-good and all-powerful, then, why is there evil in the world? The existence of evil, both natural and man-made seems obvious. Natural disasters, famine, disease, genocides, petty acts of violence etc. So either is this means God is not all-good, because God can intervene but chooses not too or worse still, that God is not all-powerful because even if God wants to intervene, God is powerless to (perhaps because there is something like the "devil" or "karma" which limits God power) which of course make God, well, no longer "God", in the fullest sense of the word. Even non-theists (those who don't believe in God) must come to terms with the suffering their own lives and the general suffering of the world.
So what are we to do?
In the first three lectures of this series, "What is Evil?" we first challenge the existence of evil point blank by calling into question the duality of "good vs evil" and reconciling that with a powerful idea from the Advaita Vedanta, or Hindu Non-Duality there is only One that various not in type or kind, but in degree. We prove that evil doesn't actually exist thereby solving the problem of Evil.
In the next lecture, "Is God Evil?", we accept the existence of evil but prove that God is not all-good because (a) She cannot be confined to our narrow concepts of good and evil (i.e this position in philosophy is called "skeptical theism") and (b) Her ultimate value is creative self expression that includes all possible events in a spirit of infinite self exploration (the Shaiva Tantra view of "Shiva Lila" or God's play". In this lecture, we walk through a few responses from Sri Ramakrishna to Hari Maharaj (later Swami Turiyananda) regarding the problem of evil to advocate for the "God's play" idea on p.g 436 of Swami Nikhilanandaji's translation of the Kathamrita by M., The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
Then in the third lecture completing the "Theodicy Trilogy", "Why Do Personal Tragedies Happen?" we go even deeper into Sri Ramakrishna's response to offer a kind of teleology to this theodicy. That is to say, we explain why evil happens at all, ultimately to make the claim that God is not evil but ultimately good and since the ultimate good is spiritual liberation while embodied (jivanmukti), all the so-called evil in life, from personal tragedies to macrocosmic events, have a deep meaning and purpose, i.e: saint making!
You may watch the series here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfGGe32PDNMZe_6Yju87nv0rvxnSW2ub_
Notice that some of the claims of one lecture might contradict another: in the first lecture, we denied evil altogether. In the second, we accepted evil but denied God's goodness in favor of God's all-powerful nature. Then, in the third lecture, we accepted evil and God's all-powerful nature but advocated for God's ultimate goodness in light of "saint-making." You might ask now, "well, which is it?" It's all three! A complex inquiry like this can be approached in many ways to yield different insights. But it is my prayer that those who watch the lecture will find an internal consistency to the reasoning presented and will henceforth feel free and empowered in their theism!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lecture.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish

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5 Reasons To Have A Spiritual Ego | Kashmir Shaivism Jun 02, 2023

If you'll allow me to be a little controversial, I'd like to make a case in this lecture for why you should have a spiritual ego. I'm going to explain what I mean by "spiritual ego" on a few levels in order to transmit to you strength, self-reliance and confidence. I'm going to say that "weakness" (which typically disguises itself as false "humility") is the ultimate obstacle in spiritual life. To combat that, I want to assure you of your own power, your own indomitable strength! And to do that, I'm going to try to convince you to have a very robust sense of ego, a "spiritual" ego!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lecture.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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The Power of Words in Kashmir Shaivism May 20, 2023

This lecture is going to be an exciting one: Can You Become Enlightened From Watching YouTube Videos?
Despite the cheeky title, we're going to explore some of the subtlest linguistic mysticism ever: the Kashmir Shaiva development of the 5th CE sage Bhatrhari's claim of the śabdabrahman, the "sound Brahman".
Interestingly, it is a beautiful commentary on the opening of the Gospel of John, "in the beginning was the logos, the word."
What does it mean for the "word" to be "with" God and BE God? etc.
Then, using this linguistic mysticism as a foundation we'll expound on the "four levels of the Word", a central model in Non-Dual Shaivism which teaches us how to:
1. benefit truly from lectures, reading, studying etc.
2. "rewrite" limiting beliefs
3. empower mantas/do japa
And so much more!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lecture.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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How To See God Even In Horrific Tragedy | Q&A 5.8.23 May 12, 2023

This Q&A from our recent Monday satsangh was so rich especially after Richard asked the beautiful question about learning to see God even in those places and people where its especially hard to see Her!
I suspect this discussion will be particularly valuable to those struggling with theodicy, or the problem of evil in theism: "if God is all-good and all-powerful, why does She permit so much suffering?"
We also make a rather nuanced point about "karma" being the Indian version of "the devil". Either everything is God's will or it isn't! And if isn't...what kind of God you got?!?
The theodicy discussion begins at 00:33:53
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lecture.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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5 Signs of Enlightenment in Kashmir Shaivism May 10, 2023

We are about to have a very fascinating discussion: how do I know if I am enlightened? First of all, while there are certainly different conceptions of realization among the various spiritual traditions, there is a universal principle that is common to the all. We first discuss this and offer a few insights about why this discussion would even be valuable to have from the point of view of spiritual practice. Then, we take up the unique conception of realization offered by Kashmir Shaivism and derive about 7 symptoms or signs of enlightenment. Essentially, this is a Kashmir Shaiva take on the "stitha prajnya" (stabilized wisdom) conversation between Krishna and Arjuna at the end of Bhagavad Gita Chapter II.
May this be an offering to Swami Lakshman Joo whose birthday it is today! (9th May 2023)
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lecture.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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How To Make A Living In An Enlightened Way | Tantrik Career Advice May 02, 2023

How do I bring in the abundance that I need to support myself and my loved ones while still remaining aligned with my spiritual values?
What should I do with my life? How do I "make a living" without making myself into the "living dead"? For so many of us, "making a living" involved doing the kind of work we might not want to be doing but feel like we have to be doing to get by!
Interestingly, the tradition of Paramadvaya or Non-Dual Shaivism, offers some very interesting insight into why work might feel like a drag and more importantly, what I can do to change that and come to live my highest calling! In this discussion, we explore what I like to call, "Tantrik career advice"!
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lecture.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish

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How To Overcome Cravings Apr 15, 2023

Sooner or later, in spiritual life, we find that there are certain habits, patterns and attachments that are getting in the way either because they prevent us from practicing as much (or as well) as we'd like or because, for whatever reason, they are obstructing the natural joy and peace that should radiate from the depths of your being.
Naturally, then, we become interested in "renouncing" these things! And these things might take various forms: TV, substances, workaholism, sensual indulgences etc. So how do we do it? How do we wean off of these things in a way that is effortless, easeful and natural and not in a way that in violent and repressive? Can we learn to renounce in a way that is mental fortifying and not mentally debilitating?
This a follow up conversation to our discussion last week on "Is Religion Just Sexual Repression?" which you can watch here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/is-religion-just-81268681?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link
This is one lecture in a wider lecture series on the Bhakti Sutra of Narada. You can watch the other lectures in this series and keep up with the upcoming ones here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/narada-bhakti-80688555?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link
OM Tat Sat

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How To Be Free | Kashmir Shaivism Apr 14, 2023

What is the ultimate goal of spiritual life? I’m going to propose that it’s freedom, however we choose to articulate it.
But what is that exactly?
And does freedom mean the categorical end of all suffering and the attainment of the supreme bliss?
What’s so blissful about freedom?
Today we’re going to articulate the Kashmir Shaivism position on freedom and contrast it against the freedom of other systems like Samkhya and Advaita Vedanta to show that ultimate freedom requires ultimate agency and absolute infinitude, i.e non duality.
Remember, not all freedoms are the same. Different schools of spiritual philosophy offer different versions of freedom. As such, I hope to have a nuanced conversation regarding the goal of the various paths. Let's compare the concept of freedom of Cārvāka with that of Sāmkhya, Advaita Vedānta and finally, Kashmir Shaivism.
Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday at 6pm PST. There's Q&A right after the lecture.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Is Religion Just Sexual Repression? Apr 09, 2023

This lecture is an exciting one: we’re going to discuss sex and more specifically sexual repression! To what extent are all spiritual experiences just hallucinations caused by repression, narcissism and grandiosity as the Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysts suggest?
As spiritual practitioners we must take these kinds of critiques seriously and really engage thoughtfully with them since they can show us the deepest aspects of spirituality as it relates to very complex human psyche!
We're discussing 10 different Western scholars, including Freud and Lacan to consider 4 arguments from the materialist for why all religion is repressed sexuality, drawing from Swami Tyagīshananda's commentary on the Bhakti Sutra.
Then we are going to offer levels and levels of analysis in response to all for arguments making the case for the existence of a distinctly "religious" instinct common to all life and manifest to a greater degree in certain "genius" type individuals.
Then, I'm going to try to use some Freudian reductionist language to say to the materialist: all instincts reduce to the sex instinct but the sex instinct must itself ultimately reduce to, what I'll call, the Urge to Transcendence.
This is one lecture in a wider lecture series on the Bhakti Sutra of Narada. You can watch the other lectures in this series and keep up with the upcoming ones here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/narada-bhakti-80688555?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

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Shaiva Non-Duality = Non-Judgement, Service, Power Mar 22, 2023

In this lecture, we do a lot of philosophical work to show, at least for the sake of theoretical understanding, that everything you see in this world is nothing but Consciousness.
From this, we come away with three insights:
1. To judge, criticize or resent anyone is to judge, criticize and resent God.
2. To serve and help anyone is really an act of worship to God.
3. You yourself are God so you have infinite strength and potential to do anything, including overcoming #1 and doing #2 above!
Of course, this is the central teaching of the Ramakrishna movement: "shiva jnane, jiva seva": knowing that everyone is Shiva, serve them as an act of worship. In this lecture, we explore the metaphysical foundation for such a teaching in light of the insights of Paramadvaya Vada, or Kashmir Shaivism.
Here is an abstract of what was discussed:
What is Consciousness? None other than your very own Being, your own essence. Consciousness is You! And also, because of its Transcendent nature and its innate Freedom, Consciousness is God. Wait a minute! Doesn't that mean...you are God? Yes! Absolutely, yes! But of course here in Advaita Vedanta, or Classical Non-Duality the God that you are is the Impersonal God, Brahman without Attributes. What about the Personal God who creates, maintains and destroys? Non-Dual Shaivism, in its radically reconciliatory attitude shows that the Impersonal God is also the Personal God and such, Consciousness/You is/are also, like the Personal God, performing all the divine acts of God: creation, maintenance, destruction, self-revelation/grace, self-concealment/judgement. You can never be parted from God because you ARE God, in both the passive and dynamic aspects! But then why don't I have any control over what happens to me? Ah, because God is Consciousness and Consciousness is distinct. from and prior to the mind which is where our preferences live! Naturally, then, the preferences of our mind and our inability to exercise personal will to meet them is not a rebuttal against our essential nature as Consciousness, God, who wills sometimes independently of the mind in a spirit of play!

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What is Mahashivaratri, the Great Night of Lord Shiva? Feb 17, 2023

On Saturday, Feb 18th 2023, millions if not billions of people all over the world will be pulling and all nighter to celebrate the great God of renunciation and yoga, Lord Shiva.
But what's all the fuss and hullabaloo about anyway? In this video we discuss what mahashivaratri, the Great Night of Shiva is and what about it makes it special.
Lord Shiva is the symbol of meditation, renunciation and asceticism. These ideals are at the heart of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism. And this same blazing renunciation and surrender to God can be felt in Sufism and Christian hesychasm or asceticism. As such Shiva, as a symbol, belongs not only to Hindu thought and culture but to every spiritual tradition where inwardness, meditation, renunciation and devotion can be felt. This is a night for all, whatever path you may be on.
All night long, there will be singing and dancing, chanting, meditating and spiritual fervor all around in celebration of this spirit of renunciation and yoga.The atmosphere in positively electric and wherever in the world you might be, whatever your practice and path might be, as a spiritual practitioner you can tap into the tanmatras (spiritual vibrations) in the air to supercharge your practice!
OM Namah Shivaya!
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST. There's Q&A from 8-10pm PST right after.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
If you'd like to support us, you can do so here:
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/jaima...

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What is Shiva? Feb 17, 2023

In Non-Dual Shaivism (paramadvaya) the word "shiva" doesn't always refer to the blue fella sitting atop a tiger skin mat meditating in the Himalayas.
While "shiva" literally means "blessing" or "auspicious", the word "Shiva" in this context comes closer in meaning to Satchidananda Brahman, which means pure, Formless Awareness...but with a few nuances!
In order to show how the Satchidananda Shiva of Tantra differs in some respects from the Satchidananda Brahman of the Vedas, we first have a discussion about Consciousness Itself (Shiva) and demonstrate what exactly makes it "shiva", a blessing. In what sense is Consciousness and Bliss the same? In this lecture, we make the claim that the more aware you are, the happier you feel since Happiness Itself is intrinsic to Awareness Itself.
Ultimately, the Saguna Sakara form of Shiva as the God of Meditation/Renunciation (the blue fella on the tiger skin mat) is nothing other than the Nirguna Nirakara form of Shiva and Formless Awareness. In a different lecture, we'll demonstrate this claim. For now, we'll continue to dwell on the Formless aspect some more which is at the heart of Non-dual Shaivism.
Next week while we're on the topic of Formless aspect of Shiva, we will have a discussion about how this Formless Awareness is playful.
Lord Shiva, that is, the very Awareness that you yourself are, by which you are made aware of all the varied phenomena of your life, performs 5 divine acts in His sacred dance: Creation, Maintenance, Preservation, Self-Revelation and Self Concealment.
It's almost as if Consciousness, in a spirit of play, manifested Itself as a world in order to play hide and seek in. This is one of the foundational ideas that is unique to Non-Dual Shaivism (Paramadvaya/ Advaita Shaiva Darshana) and we'll take it up in earnest in the next class.
This the second lecture in our new series exploring foundational concepts in Kashmir Shaivism.
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST. There's Q&A from 8-10pm PST right after.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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How To Practice Spirituality | The 9 Principles of Genuine Spirituality Jan 21, 2023

Happy New Moon!
Because this is the first New Moon of the year and an important puja to the Divine Mother (Ratanti Puja), I thought it would be nice to discuss an important approach to spiritual life!
This is a rather foundational topic and with Mother’s grace, I pray I can do it some justice: How To Practice Spirituality.
My only prayer is that something in this lecture inspires you to start practicing now and if you've already been practicing, then to intensify your practice. Give your entire being to your practice! Devote your whole mind and heart to your practice. Dive in! Plunge deep!
Spiritual life is about doing. It is about becoming. It is about being. It is not enough to watch from the sidelines.
You can attend all the lectures you want, you can read all the books you want, you can even write books and give lectures and talk about spiritual ideas ad infinitum but until you practice to make these ideas your own, until you integrate the teachings into the fabric of your being, until the teachings shine forth in your life and become manifest in each and every moment, what have you got, really?
It can never hurt to be reminded; spirituality is about a lot more than book learning!
But naturally, we must then ask, if spiritual life is about practice and integration, how then should I practice? What does spiritual practice really look like?
No one way is the only way. There are an infinite number ways to reach Truth which is Itself Infinite and each of them are as good as any other, according to predispositions and capabilities of each individual practitioner.
With that being said, in this lecture, we read through the first chapter of Way of a Pilgrim to illustrate a few very important general principles about spiritual practice. Then, we make the case that across several different mystical traditions, japa or recitation of mantra is the central practice of choice!
OM Tat Sat.
May all of this be an offering.
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST. There's Q&A from 8-10pm PST right after.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
If you'd like to support us, you can do so here:
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/jaimakali
Chapter markers here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC8t9saTixE

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What Does God Look Like? | A Plea for Religious Harmony Jan 04, 2023

Many people feel like their path is the only path to salvation and that their God is the only God.
However, if you wanted to get to the beach, aren't there many routes, each unique in their own way and yet each equally capable of taking you to the same destination?
Further, if God is an infinite being, then shouldn't such a being express Itself in (and allow Itself to be reached by) an infinite myriad of ways?
One thing is clear: the saints of all the major religions all the world over have demonstrated through their experiences that every religion works to create peace, blessedness and virtue.
Every religion then is just so many ways of describing the one truth.
Every religion is just so many paths to one goal.
And while people might argue and bicker and even kill each other over what to call water, the mystics of the world understand that whether you call it "Self" or "No-Self," "Allah" or "Yahweh", "Krishna" or "Jesus", it will quench your thirst all the same.
This idea is of course at the heart of the life and teaching of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa. His has always been a message of the essences of things, a message of harmony and universality. Interestingly, this sentiment is also present in the teachings of Tantra especially in the exegetical works of great Shiva masters of the 10th and 11th CE in the Kashmir Valley.
In this lecture, we take up the question: "what does God look like?" to illustrate the above sentiment and make a plea for religious harmony!
NOTE: I wrongly titled the text Svabodhodaya Manjari authored by Viranatha as Shivabodhodaya Manjari, forgive me!
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST. There's Q&A from 8-10pm PST right after.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish

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How To Pray | Christ's Message on Practice Dec 28, 2022

Since prayer is at the heart of the Christ’s sadhana (and also that of Sri Ramakrishna) we’re going to ask the question “How To Pray?”
What is prayer exactly and how can I do it?
In this lecture, we first have a discussion on the centrality of prayer in spiritual life before defining prayer and then asking "who should I pray to?"
We present the theory of the Ishta Devata, or Chosen Ideal to demonstrate that what you are praying to is not at all as important as the power of the prayer itself, i.e the object of your love is not as great as that love itself for God is Love. Then, we discuss about 5 different types of prayer.
Over the past couple of weeks we’ve explored two aspects of Christ’s life and teachings: Renunciation (which is in some ways, the start of genuine spiritual life) and Forgiveness (which he achieved as a result of perfection in spiritual life, that is to say, the end).
Today we’re going to discuss the middle: Christ’s message on practice!
As such, this is the third installment in our lecture series on Christ, if you don't include the Q&A! You can watch the previous videos in this series here:
5 Reasons to Renounce Everything for God | Christ's Message of Renunciation
https://www.patreon.com/posts/5-reasons-to-for-75977191?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link
How To Forgive Your Enemies | Christ's Message of Forgiveness
https://www.patreon.com/posts/how-to-forgive-76171233?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link
Christianity vs "Church"-ianity | A Yogi Discusses the Bible
https://www.patreon.com/posts/christianity-vs-76358722?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link
Next week I hope to expand the discussion a bit and suggest five or so more ways to pray!
Remember:
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST. There's Q&A from 8-10pm PST right after.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815

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Christianity vs "Church"-ianity | A Yogi Discusses The Bible Dec 25, 2022

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays one and all!

Your very nature is Love, Purity and Simplicity.
The Christ as such is a perfect mirror to reflect back to you the truth of your being.

That’s what a perfect Master is: a reminder.
He is an invitation to be what you already are and yet have forgotten. We see in Christ, the Buddha, Ramakrishna the highest possibility of humanity. Perhaps that’s why we love them so much.
Who is Christ? Well, who knows. To me:

He is Purity personified .

He is Love incarnate.

He is Simplicity embodied.

He is the Self of your Self!

May the Christ force awaken in you today and every day.

May today be your birthday, that is, the birth of the rest of your life in the spirit!

May you die to the past and be born to the present right here, right now.

May you live forevermore the life divine starting today!

In this Q&A discussion following our Monday night lectre last week on the topic "How To Forgive Your Enemies | Christ's Message on Forgiveness" we take up the very important question of "what is the Bible, really?" and "why do so many Christians insist against harmony of all religions in the name of the Christ?" and "why do many Americans claiming to be Christians come off as judgement and exclusionary when Christ himself was all-embracing and infinitely loving to one and all?" Ah, forgive them Father they not know what they do!

Then, we have a discussion on some other spiritual themes as well. May this serve you!

Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST. There's Q&A from 8-10pm PST right after.

It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!

Use this link and I will see you there:

https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815

For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:

https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish

To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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How To Forgive Your Enemies | Christ's Message of Forgiveness Dec 20, 2022

My intention tonight is to ask the question: “did Christ suffer on the cross?” Some would argue that he did and only then is there value in his sacrifice. I’m going to argue rather that he didn’t suffer at all and therein lies the real teaching. After all, how else could he have had the strength to forgive his oppressors? I’m going to suggest that he could forgive them because they were not really oppressors, at least not to Him.
As such, in studying this very important episode in the Christ’s Līla, we’ll ask the question: “how to forgive our enemies?” We'll present four ways that we can immediately start practicing to learn so suffer better, that is, with more compassion and forgiveness.
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST. There's Q&A from 8-10pm PST right after.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
If you'd like to support us, you can do so here:
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/jaimakali

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5 Reasons to Renounce Everything for God | Christ's Message of Renunciation Dec 15, 2022

This is the first of a three part lecture series on the teachings of the Christ in the light of Vedanta, Yoga and Tantra. Today, we take up Jesus' message of renunciation. Above all, the Christ, like all the avatars before and after him, exemplified total absorption in God and uncompromising renunciation. What is renunciation, anyway?
You see:
We all want to be happy. The goal of life is happiness and fulfillment.
Now consider this carefully:
We do so many things in a day. But if take the time to stop and carefully consider why it is that we do what we do, most of us will find that we are motivated by pleasure, money, power and name and fame. We work to make money because we crave financial security and because we think that money will bring us new experiences, new pleasure. We seek out company that increase the overall pleasure we feel in our life. We work to increase our followers or find praise and validation to feel a sense of belonging. And we pursue learning because it is a subtle form of pleasure and power. Notice, our motivations are most “worldly”. That is to say, our fundamental orientation towards life is to look for fulfillment and happiness. What good has that done you? Did you actually get what you were looking for from acquiring all of these things? By studying your own experiences and also the lives of people who are successful in a worldly sense (top professors, billionaires, rock stars etc.) you come to learn that an increase in pleasure, money, fame and power don’t at all mean an increase in happiness. Often the opposite! So then, understanding this, why continue to pursue things you know won’t make you happy?
Contrastingly, the happiest people in the world are often holy men and women who have renounced their fascination with the trinkets of the world and instead spend all of their time enjoying the inner fulfillment of spiritual life. These people devote their time to spiritual practice and study and when they work in the world, they do it as an act of worship, not to make money or be praised. And as a result, they are free, happy and genuinely fulfilled in a way that most of us aren’t! Understanding this, we must resolve to devote every single hour of our day to spiritual life. We should radically redefine our orientation to life. The goal of your life is enlightenment, not pleasure, not wealth, not power, not name and fame. If you have this conviction, yours will be a beautiful life. The only fulfillment here is in the Spirit.
In this video, we sketch out the two "axiological" arguments above as well as three more arguments, one from the point of view of epistemology, the other from metaphysics and the final one is an appeal to a corroborated claim by all the major world religions for a total of 5 arguments in favor of devoting every single moment of your life to spiritual practice.

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Introduction to the Bhakti Sutra of Narada Dec 10, 2022

If you have ever felt love for anybody or anything, in any capacity, then, you have felt God. God IS love. And the essence of all love, however worldly or misdirected, is ultimately divine. As such, Bhakti Yoga (the Path of Divine Love) is the refinement of and the conscious cultivation of our capacity to love until it reaches an all-consuming, one-pointed intensity for that which is most sacred, the self of our self, the indwelling essence of our being: God.
But does love for God come so easily?
Many say they love God but is it truly love? Or is it simply a superficial assent to a cultural belief system? Others, inspired by the ecstatic love of true devotees of God, very much want to want God but are honest enough to admit that such longing doesn't come naturally to them.
Fortunately, there is an art and science to loving God and it is spelled out in great detail in the Bhakti Sutra of Narada. What the Yoga Sutra is to the Path of Meditation (Raja Yoga), what the Bhagavad Gita is to the Path of Selfless Action (Karma Yoga) and what the Upanishads are to the Path of Philosophy (Jnana Yoga), the Bhakti Sutra is to the Path of Devotion.
These classes meet live one a week every Friday at 6pm PST here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7028380815
We'll discuss the Bhakti Sutra of Narada for the first 30 minutes and then right after, we will pick up a verse or two from a Jnana text, like Sri Shankara's Aparoskhanubhuti for the remaining 30 minutes. It is my firm conviction that studying a Bhakti text alongside a Jnana text will bring out the best of both and ensure that we are developing holistically as spiritual practitioners!
Then we have a Q&A session right after the lecture for about 30 minutes!
You'll find the recordings from previous lectures and also the Q&A sessions in our Patreon lecture library:
www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
And if you feel moved to donate to support this work, you're welcome to do so here:
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/jaimakali
"Mother make me mad with Thy love!"
May all of this be an offering to Sri Ramakrishna.
00:00:00 Opening Invocation
00:02:28 How Yoga Makes Us Happy
00:06:14 How Jnana Yoga Works
00:11:24 How Raja Yoga Works
00:13:02 How Karma Yoga Works
00:15:06 The Bhakti of the Buddha
00:18:40 The Tantrik Approach to Bhakti: Shiva Drsti and Shakti Dristi
00:22:54 Doing Bhakti and Jnana Together
00:26:35 Who is Narada?
00:37:50 The Story of Dhruva: Asking God for Worldly Things
00:45:40 The Bhakti of Sri Ramakrishna
00:49:54 Bhava, Mahabhava and Prema: The Three States of Ecstasy
00:52:50 You Can Actually See and Talk To God
00:57:16 Vaidhi/Gauni Bhakti vs Para Bhakti
00:58:27 How To "Read" The Bhakti Sutra

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Kashmir Shaivism and the Vijnana Vedanta of Sri Ramakrishna | Swami Medhananda Puri Dec 06, 2022

To what extent do the life and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna embody or even exceed the vast and oceanic philosophy of Kashmir Shaivism, that is, to be precise, the Tantrik exegetical writings of various Shaiva masters in the Kashmir Valley between 900-1050 AD who for the most part seem to have embodied similar mystic experiences and articulated similar philosophies to the ones we find in the Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, or the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna?
Many scholars have argued that Sri Ramakrishna's position (for instance, regarding the inseparable nature of Brahman and It's Shakti, that is, It's power to create, maintain and dissolve a seemingly manifold world while embodying Itself as that very world) departs from the traditional schools of Vedanta and perhaps comes closest to the Prakasha-Vimarsha/ Shiva-Shakti model of Kashmiri Shaivism as articulated by Abinava Gupta, Kshemaraja and others.
But while there are glaring similarities here, there are also some key differences. To highlight some of these nuances, we have Swami Medhananda of the Ramakrishna Order walk us through his take on Sri Ramakrishna's position, which he articulates beautifully in his book, "Infinite Paths to Infinite Reality" as "Vijnana Vedanta". We then contrast that view with Kashmiri Shaivism, at least according to my understanding of it.
In the course of this conversation, our commitment was to stay as close to the source literature as we could and offer ample citation for viewers to come to their own conclusions on these matters. You are all invited reason along with us as part of a greater exploration into the deeply exciting world of spirituality!
May all of this be an offering.
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST. There's Q&A from 8-10pm PST right after.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Thanksgiving Dinner as Spiritual Practice Nov 24, 2022

I believe it was Ram Das who said: "if you think you are so enlightened, try spending a week with your parents!"
Getting together with family is an opportunity many people in the world do not get to enjoy. Nonetheless, time with parents, children, siblings etc. can be grating in its own way! As many have discovered over the holidays, there is something about family that can push certain buttons and revive certain patterns. Especially for spiritual aspirants who are keenly aware of this kind of backsliding, family get togethers can be tricky territory! Why is that we can all become like adolescents around the dinner table, quick to forsake all of our spiritual training?
In the first part of this lecture, we try to diagnose this situation to make the case that attachment is what makes time with family uniquely challenging. Then, we present 5 ways of looking at the world that can hopefully turn family dinners into beautiful, meaningful affairs, even when (or especially when) there's drama!
00:00:01 Why Are Having We Having This Discussion?
00:07:38 Why Do Parents/Siblings/Children Push our Buttons
00:11:27 An Aside on Work vs Play
00:16:18 An Aside on Scam Accounts
00:17:54 Work Like The Elves, Not Like Sauron!
00:22:37 Is Your Spirituality A Reaction To Your Parents?
00:27:01 Your Kids Are Not Your Kids
00:30:00 Forgiveness = Forebearance
00:36:15 Thanksgiving Dinner Is Not Even Real (Why Waking is Unreal and Dreaming)
00:47:00 Everyone At The Dinner Table Is YOU
00:52:26 How Do You Set Boundaries if Everyone is You? + Why You Shouldn't Try To "Fix" Your Parents
00:57:48 What If You DO Get Triggered At Dinner?
01:01:59 Closing Chant
01:03:22 Announcements
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST. There's Q&A from 8-10pm PST right after.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish

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Lord Bhairava and the Yoga of Fear | Halloween Special Nov 01, 2022

Bhairava in Indian spiritual iconography is often depicted as somewhat of a marginal figure who lives far beyond the pale of society. He dwells in the cremation grounds, wearing nothing but ash, garlanded in skulls and snakes. His companions, much like him, are outcastes: a black dog that nobody wants, ghosts, ghouls, goblins, banshees and of course, a flock of yogis who are his devout disciples.
Naturally, he is the perfect figure to discuss in our Halloween Special! After all, Bhairava is not just a mythological bad boy: his name is also synonymous with the highest non-dual teachings of Tantrik Shaivism and stands for no less than Sat-Chid-Ananda Shiva, Consciouss-Bliss Absolute which is already your very own essence nature beyond body-mind-ego!
There is so much we can discuss here but today we decided to focus on the "fear" aspect embodied by Bhairava. We take up Kshemaraja's invocatory verse from his commentary on the Tantrik masterpiece, Vijnana-Bhairava Tantra to see why Bhairava is the "fear of remaining in the dream-state", the one whose roar is the death of death and the one who is the master of the flock of yogis desiring Moksha, liberation. Essentially, we ask the question: "what role does fear play in spiritual life?"
00:00:00 Who is Lord Bhairava? + Lecture Outline
00:03:12 Mā Kāli's Gayatri Mantra
00:08:50 Kshemaraja's Invocation of Lord Bhairava
00:22:06 Opening Invocation: Aghora Mantra
00:24:27 Why This World Is So Terrifying
00:31:05 Why Suicide is Not An Escape
00:38:06 Why The Net Total Evil in the World Is The Same Always
00:40:03 The Fanatics of the New Age
00:42:19 Why Fear Is The Start of Genuine Spirituality
00:47:09 How To Deal With The Suffering in the World
00:51:40 Why Spirituality Cannot Be About Physical and Mental Longevity
00:55:36 Why You Need To Meditate NOW. Like, RIGHT NOW. Go. Seriously.
01:01:25 The Hidden Meaning of Cremation Ground Rituals in Tantra
01:12:44 Becoming Bhairava
01:15:26 Yogi Ghost Stories
01:27:10 Utpala Deva's Graveyard Dance
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST. There's Q&A from 8-10pm PST right after.
It is free and open to the public. All are welcome!
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lectu

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The Goddess of the Tantras | Navaratri Special Sep 27, 2022

On the auspicious occasion of Navaratri, we launch into an exploration of Shakti, the Divine Goddess of the Tantras.
By Her grace I hope to share with you some deep insights from Ramprasad, Ramakrishna and Vivekananda regarding the worship of Ma and its important in spiritual life.
I am going to take an approach that is entirely like Ramanuja in that I will attempt to show, by Her grace, how we can use Jnana, Raja and Karma Yoga to attain to Bhakti Yoga, the highest.
Faith and devotion. These alone are everything. But do they come easily and naturally? Hardly! We'll discuss Bhakti for those to whom Bhakti does not come naturally. It does not come naturally to anyone and those who say they they have it might only be making pretences! Who can truly Love the way a devotee loves?! May tonight’s lecture address that directly!
We’ll discuss how the Motherhood of God offers a unique opportunity to deepen Bhakti.
All this is Her play.
"Mother! Mother!
My boat is sinking, here in the ocean of this world;
Fiercely the hurricane of delusion rages on every side!
Clumsy is my helmsman, the mind;
Stubborn my six oarsmen, the passions;
Into a pitiless wind I sailed my boat and now
It is sinking!
Split is the rudder of devotion;
Tattered is the sail of faith;
Into my boat the waters are pouring in!
Tell me, what shall I do?
For with my failing eyes, alas!
Nothing but darkness do I see.
Here in the waves I will swim, O Mother
And cling to the raft of thy name!"
- Swami Nikhilananda's translation of Ramprasad.
This is the follow up discussion: How To Connect to Ma Kali
https://www.patreon.com/posts/how-to-connect-q-72564494?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator
00:00:00 The Most Fascinating Icon of India
00:03:00 What Today's Lecture Is About
00:05:58 Swami Vivekananda's Early Experiences of Ma Kali
00:22:25 Swami Vivekananda's Endorsement of Mother Worship
00:34:13 Introducing Prakriti: The 24 Cosmic Principles
00:47:49 Purusha: The Pure Spirit
00:50:20 Shiva-Shakti
00:52:24 Why Does Prakriti Create?
00:55:12 Moksha and the Movies: The Aesthetic Theory of Shaivism
00:59:18 The Two Gifts of Ma Prakriti: Bhoga and Yoga
01:08:21 Prakriti as Maha Mayi as Mother
01:15:25 How Do I Get Bhakti: Love for God?
01:19:44 Why Does Ma Kali Look So Terrifying?
01:21:22 Sri Ramakrishna on How To Realise God (Hint: Worship Mother!)
01:28:27 Ramprasad's Poems on Kali
01:37:46 Closing Poem

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Renunciation, The Secret of Happiness Aug 30, 2022

Today's lecture is about Renunciation, the ultimate ideal of Indian philosophy and the secret to happiness in life. You will learn the Four Principles of Non-Duality (Advaita Vedanta) which are:
1. Upadhi : mistaking yourself to be something you are not as the cause of suffering)
2. Sakshi : developing the Witness to create more intimacy with experiences in life)
3. Adishtana : recognising Awareness as the ground and substance of the world to awaken agape, all-encompassing love)
4. Viverta : recognising the world as an appearance in Awareness and thereby recognizing your own innate purity and invulnerability. This creates a tremendous fearlessness because you know whatever the scenes of the movie, you, the movie screen, will remain unchanged/untarnished/unharmed.)
Even the mere intellectual understanding of these Four Principles can radically alter one's life to make room for more spaciousness, peace and joy.
However once you go beyond an intellectual understanding to truly internalize and manifest these principles in life, you will awaken to fearlessness, perfect compassion, perfect non-attachment and unspeakable bliss that is your birthright
The philosophers of ancient India certainly saw the quest to understand (and master) the natural world as valuable however much more interesting to them was the quest to understand the "inner" world, the psychological landscape of what it means to be human. As early as 2000bce, the philosophers of India dared to ask "what is the secret to happiness? How can a human being come to live in a meaningful and purposeful way in a world of impermanence such as ours? Is there more to life than the fleeting pleasures of the body and ego?"
And over the millenia, we have developed subtle and profound (and most importantly, effectual) systems describing what a human life is for. The ultimate teaching, the essence of all this inquiry is...
(drumroll please)
RENUNCIATION!
Renounce the world and you will come to enjoy it in a way you could never have expected!
OM Shantih Shantih Shantih
These lectures happen Live every Monday at 7pm PST. It is open to the public. Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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The Ideals of Spiritual Life and What To Do When We Fall Short Aug 17, 2022

Why do we such high ideals in spiritual life? What is renunciation and why is it important for genuine spirituality? Once we understand why these ideals are the way they are, we will naturally take up and attempt to live according to them.
Naturally, we will also fall short time and time again. The temptation here might be to drag the ideal down to make excuses for our weakness. Or conversely, our tendency might be to be overly critical of ourselves for failing and thus render our spiritual practice wholly unsustainable. What then are we to do?
This class first establishes what ideals exactly are valuable in spiritual life by studying the teachings of Jesus next to the Buddha. We read a little from a transcribed talk from Swami Ashokananda. Then, we offer some suggestions about how to deal with falling short of these ideals with reference to the standing balancing poses of Hatha Yoga as a metaphor.
I hope this talk will be some encouragement to you as you endeavour to live a genuinely spiritual life, a life lived insight of the Highest.
After this little talk, we all go into a Hatha Yoga class called "The Spiritual Ideal", to apply some of these ideas in real-time. You can follow along with that class here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/spiritual-ideal-70669024?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator
OM Tat Sat

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Shravan and the Ecstasy of Lord Shiva Jul 27, 2022

In this mini-episode, we say a few words about the Vedic calendar month of Shravan and what makes it so auspicious for the study and practice of Non-Duality. Then, we ask the question: "why is Lord Shiva so blissful all the time?" The answer reveals a lot about the context in which live our hatha yoga and meditation practice.
For more classes like this, visit our lecture library here: https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
OM Namah Shivay!

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Tantrik Non-Duality vs Classical Non-Duality | Q&A Jul 26, 2022

Here is a wonderful Q&A discussion comparing Classical Non-Duality with Tantrik Non-Duality to show that despite what pandits might say, they are actually ultimately one and the same and perfectly complementary!
00:01:06 What Is It To Be a Human Being? Does Buddhism/Advaita Invalidate My Personhood? Yes. All Religion Does! Here's Why!
00:12:14 Kashmiri Shaivism and "Playing the Character of Me"
00:14:20 Tantrik Non-Duality vs Classical Non-Duality: Iccha-Shakti, the Role of Desire in God
00:19:18 The Role of Creativity in Enlightenment
00:23:35 Why Is There Suffering in The World? The Tantrik Response to the Problem of Evil
00:28:55 How Is One Thing Different From Another In Tantrik Non-Duality? 00:30:00 Non-Dual Worship in Tantra and Abinava Gupta's "Devi Stotra", Hymn to the Goddess
00:34:11 Advaita Vedanta, Prasangika Madhyamika Buddhism and Tantrik Non-Duality Are The Same and Complementary and Why I Don't Teach Tantra To The Public
00:36:25 The Dangers of Tantra and Kali Worship and some Precautions 00:41:55 Some Resources To Study Tantra
00:53:17 Live Lectures Throughout the Week
00:55:00 How To Set Up Boundaries If You Are Not The Body?
01:02:53 How Are Things Different If Awareness Is One? What Is A Jiva, Individual?
01:09:27 The Erotic Metaphors of Tantra and the Role of Embodiment
01:22:30 Does Tantra Contradict Classical Non-Duality? They are actually the same! Here's why.
01:32:11 How Does Reincarnation Work? And the End of the Mahabharatha 01:41:06 The Role of Renunciation in Spiritual Life
01:47:11 "Walking Each Other Home?" and the Story of Sukadeva
01:55:30 Discernment in Tantra vs in Classical Vedanta (The Doctrine of the 7 Perceivers in Shaivism)
02:07:20 Should I Be A Monk? Householders vs Renunciants and the 4 Ashramas
02:30:30 Does The Brain Produce Consciousness? Or Does Consciousness Produce The Brain? How Do You Know Spirituality Isn't Just Chemicals?

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Why Aren't You Enlightened Yet? | Q&A Jul 22, 2022

In one of our most productive Q&A sessions of all time (in my opinion, at least!) we ask the central question: "why aren't you enlightened yet?" "why have you not seen with clarity that you are Awareness, ever free?" "what is keeping your from claiming with conviction your essential nature as the Self, which is even now the case?"
00:00:00 Introduction: Why Aren't You Enlightened Yet?
00:00:30 Awareness vs Mind: Does Awareness Change? It Seems To!
00:08:45 The Role of Discernment/Intellect in Spiritual Life (And It's Limits)
00:14:30 After Enlightenment, What Do You Do?
00:34:00 How Does Jnana, Knowledge support Bhakti, Devotion and Raja Yoga, Meditation?
00:59:16 What Is Samadhi?
01:08:53 Brett's Success! + How Mantras Mysteriously Work To Liberate Us
01:23:00 Spiritual Health vs Physical Health: Does Spirituality Mean The Body-Mind Will Always Be Healthy? + The "Sin" Narrative In The New Age
01:56:35 Channelising the Power of the Avatar
02:03:13 How To Maintain Spirituality in the Midst of Busy-ness and Overwhelm
02:14:00 The Joy of Monday Night Sangha/ Celebrating Our Community!
02:17:08 Does Enlightenment Go Away? and Flow States vs Meditation
02:26:10 Closing Prayer

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What Is A Guru? Jul 13, 2022

Who (or what) is a Guru? Today we talk about the role of a Guru in our spiritual life as the living embodiment of scripture, as an initiator or empowerer of mantras, as a "broadcaster of reality" and as a living example of the full possibilities of a human life.
What qualifies the Guru to be a Guru? And when/how does one find one's Guru in this life? Must the Guru have a body?
All this and more in today's class!
This lecture is from our program "Journey Into Tantra"! It is an 18 part, college-level lecture series in audio and video featuring ~44 hours of content with Q&A + a guided meditation. The idea was to create an interactive learning environment in which these ancient and transformative teachings come to life! I'm very excited to share that with you! You can pick up a copy here!
https://nishthefish.gumroad.com/l/journeyintotantra
A Poem to my Guru:
Better than a hundred ministers who preach
Are the lessons that Silence can teach.
A mountain’s instruction unceasing
Is better than the pastor’s wheezing!
And yet how many among us who yearn
For God’s vision can profitably learn
From the Sphinx-like silence inscrutable?
How many are truly able
To draw from the rock it’s sacred teaching
In a way that is stable and far reaching?
A precious few, I say, a precious few!
And even among them there is need too
Of a living emissary between Spirit and matter
Otherwise we remain enmeshed in the latter!
But whence forth comes the one who can teach like the mountain?
Who is truly fit to serve as God’s fountain?
of unfaltering Grace and Wisdom unstinting
To be a holy jewel, glimmering and glinting?
A previous few, I saw, a previous few!
But this I can guarantee to you:
If you are sincere in your search
And if you practice some,
Then to you this true Teacher will come.
A teacher who is strong and infallibly pure.
Of this my friend, you can be sure!
God is drawn to the devotee
Who is pure at Heart
God years for such a one –
She cannot keep apart!
To the one who has no thought
For pleasure or for money
God is drawn like a bee to honey.
After all, the Guru is God in a mortal frame.
The Guru is God’s first name.
Like lightning flashing in the dark of the storm
The Guru is Silence clothed in form.
The Guru is a tree with roots reaching deep.
The Guru is the Witness in dreamless sleep.
The key to meditation
Is the Guru’s face.
The key to liberation
Is the Guru’s grace.
Oh, my friend, haven’t you heard?
The key to your freedom
Is the Guru’s word.
So he who hath ears, please listen well
To what Nishanth has to tell:
The Guru is God in a mortal frame.
The Guru is God’s first name.

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The 9 Types of Tantrik Awakening Jun 27, 2022

What is it that turns someone away from the shallow, fleeting pleasures of the world and towards genuine spiritual life? Obviously, it is grace. Abinava Gupta, in his masterwork, Tantraloka takes up the very nuanced work of articulating the science of Grace: how did this Grace come about and who is "worthy" of receiving it? Are there practices you can do to invite this grace? And where does this grace come from and why? All these questions are taken up and brilliantly answered in Chapter 13 of Abinava's Tantraloka and in this lecture we sketch out his reasoning so that we can truly understand the Tantrik doctrine of Shaktipata (Descent of Power/Grace/Sudden Awakening). From our discussion of Shaktipata, we learn the 9 different "grades" of awakening which sheds light on Chapter 2 of the Tantraloka, on Anupaya (The Wayless Way) which consequently contextualizes the Anava Upaya we get in Chapter 5 and onwards.
If any of the above discussions on the practice and theory of Tantra are exciting to you, you should know that we do a weekly live class every on zoom every Thursday at 7:30pm PST on the Vijnana-Bhairava Tantra, the central practice manual of non-dual Tantra. In these classes, we discuss together some of the subtlest nuances of our Tradition. All are welcome. You can sign up for these classes by clicking on my name and reserving your spot in the Yoga World Heart website here: https://yogaworldheart.com/schedule

You can of course access all the previously recorded classes in our lecture library here: www.patreon.com/yogawithnish or pick up this introductory program: https://nishthefish.gumroad.com/l/journeyintotantra
(PS: Right now, I’m working on a shorter introductory Tantra program that is not as in-depth, thorough and long as the one linked above. Kind of like a crash course on Tantra. By Mother’s grace, I expect to have that one out by our next newsletter!)

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The Way of Shakti | The Zen Koans of Tantra Jun 23, 2022

Who or what is Kali? In what form does Shakti create this Universe? And how can I (a) interact with that and (b) BECOME that?
In perhaps one of our deepest discussions yet, we explore the ultimate nature of Reality: the mantric body of Shiva, i.e Shakti. Everything that you see around you is a mantra, a subtly vibrating phoneme that gives rise to thought structures in the mind which in turn produce language structures in speech which ultimate filters down into your subjective and intersubjective realities as you perceive it and negotiate it against others. Does that sound philosophical and obtuse? Necessarily it must! Because today we are discussing the subtlest and highest of Tantrik philosophies. In this lesson, we unveil the "Way of Shakti", a particularly subtle and exciting approach to spiritual practice. We contemplate verses 99 and 102 of the Vijnana-Bhairava Tantra.
May your contemplations of these two verses flower into the full bloom of Enlightenment, the attainment of your own innate Shiva-nature of Pure Consciousness.
Jai Maa Kaali!
OM Namah Shivay!

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How To Meditate Like Lord Shiva Jun 11, 2022

In 10th CE Kashmir, there were a slew of Tantrik masters who wrote brilliant commentaries on principal texts in Tantra and in so doing developed a wholly unique, thrilling and sophisticated approach to spirituality. These masters wrote within the tradition of Shaivism, the spiritual philosophy centered around Shiva as the principal divinity. Naturally then, their approach came to be called "Kashmir Shaivism." While this is a broad and far reaching school with many technicalities and subtleties, I wanted to share with you one particularly striking feature of Kashmiri Shaivite meditation, namely, the Shambava Upaya (Way of Shiva) approach that attempts to seize every day moments of ordinary cognition as profound opportunities to recognise the deepest Truth of your own being. If you properly master this technique, the idea is that in each and every moment of your embodied existence, you will constantly be reawakened to the ever-fresh joy of rediscovering your essence nature as Lord Shiva himself.
If you'd like to come and have your question answered, LIVE lectures happen every Monday at 7pm PST on Zoom. It is open to the public. Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction, access to our lecture library, and to support this work, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Buddhism and Hinduism (Q&A) | Buddha Purnima May 19, 2022

In this Buddha Purnima special, we celebrate the birth, death and enlightenment of one of the world's greatest spiritual teachers, Gautama the Buddha by having a Q&A discussion on various themes in Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and spiritual life in general.
00:01:16 Is Buddha's Enlightenment and Sri Ramakrishna's Enlightenment the same?
00:07:46 Nagarjuna's "Nirvana = Samsara"
00:12:15 The Buddha as an Avatar of Vishnu?
00:21:45 How is Advaita Vedanta different from Soliplism/Subjective Idealism?
00:34:51 Westopher's Firm Footing
00:50:30 Why Is There Suffering In The World?
01:09:25 Dzogchen and Tantrik Buddhism with Orion
01:45:50 What Is Bhuta Shuddhi, The Essence of Tantrik Puja? + Kundalini
01:56:03 How Stay Motivated On The Path
02:03:29 "Let He Who Hath Ears Hear" (The Importance of Reviewing)
If you'd like to come and have your question answered, LIVE lectures happen every Monday at 7pm PST on Zoom. It is open to the public. Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction, access to our lecture library, and to support this work, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
OM Tat Sat

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Sri Ramakrishna's Mission | Celebrating 125 Years! May 03, 2022

On May 1st this year, the Ramakrishna Mission turns 125 since Swami Vivekananda established it in 1897, in Balaram Bose's house in Calcutta.
As an offering to my Guru, I say a few words about the central theme of this mission that to me represents the Highest Ideal of Spiritual Life: service to our brothers and sisters, not out of the delusion that we can "help" them or that they are in need of "our help", but out of the recognition of the innate divinity of the soul. As such, our service to others is really nothing but worship of the Divine as She appears to us in this or that person. Really, this is conversation about turning every moment of your life into spiritual practice.
May this words serve you.
Jai Shri Ramakrishna!
Jai Maa Kaali!

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The Bhagavad Gita Rock Opera + Q&A | Lissa Coffey May 03, 2022

When you surrender your life to the Divine Inspiration arising from deep within you, then, you no longer live your life. Your life lives you.
In this sangha Q&A discussion, we interview celebrity author and sister-disciple, Lissa Coffey (Parama) to talk about:
Why don't we do the things we know we want to do? What is holding us back? And what will happen when we surrender our life to our inspiration, that is, to our Svadharma, our Personal Mission?
In this moving discussion, we hear about Lissa Coffey's new project, the Bhagavad Gita Rock Opera, and how following her inspiration has created positive changes in her life and spiritual practice. Her testimony proves to us that if we surrender to the Divine, we will always be provided for and that our lives will be filled with genuine joy and ease-fulness. Then, we answer some questions on how to find motivation for spiritual practice, reincarnation, the obstacles to spiritual practice and many other important themes in spiritual life.
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction, access to our lecture library, and to support this work, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
LIVE lectures happen every Monday at 7pm PST on Zoom. It is open to the public. Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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What Is Freedom? Apr 19, 2022

When people talk about freedom, they usually speak about the freedom to be a slave to their own impulses. The million year tyrant of our biology has kept us entangled in its own survival and reproduction motives, using us as pawns in a much larger game that we cannot win. Every now and then we wake up to this reality and ask if there are other motives by which we might live our lives, motives more meaningful and fulfilling than simply the dressed-up drives of sex and survival?
00:00:00 What is the Purpose of Life?
00:04:12 The Test of Truth (Don't Believe A Word I Say!)
00:06:15 What Do People Commonly Want Out of Practicing Yoga?
00:12:15 What Does A Mature Spiritual Desire Look Like?
00:15:05 What does "Dukkha" (Suffering) really mean?
00:17:59 The Danger of Immature Spiritual Practice (The Dragon of Biology)
00:28:40 Why Don't Pleasures Satisfy Us? (The Bondage of Kama, Artha and Dharma)
00:42:41 The Freedom Paradox: Common Conceptions of Freedom and Why They Don't Work vs The Spiritual Ideal of Freedom from Lust and Greed
00:59:12 The Peace that Passeth All Understanding (Ananda)
01:11:11 Freedom in Kant, the Christian Mystics and the Tarot
01:18:12 How To Achieve Freedom?
01:22:11 The Central Thrust of Indian Philosophy (Polytheism to Monotheism to Monism)
01:35:22 An Argument to Show You Your Freedom (You are God!)
01:46:34 If I Am God, Why Do I Incarnate and Forget?
01:53:34 Stanzas on Freedom (Nirvana Shatakam)
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction, access to our lecture library, and to support this work, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
LIVE lectures happen every Monday at 7pm PST on Zoom. It is open to the public. Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815

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What Is Evil? Apr 04, 2022

Theodicy or "The Problem of Evil" is as follows: if God is omnipotent (all-powerful) AND omnibenevolent (all good), why is there suffering/evil in the world?
Either this means God is not powerful enough to stop evil even if She wanted to OR it means God could stop it but won't and as such is not all "good" by human standards.
Today, we explore some ideas from Advaita Vedanta (Hindu Non-Duality) to offer a fresh perspectives on the Problem of Evil. Advaita argues that there is no such thing as "evil" in the world. What appears to be "evil" is simply a contracted state of love. How can this be?
Let's find out together!
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction, access to our lecture library, and to support this work, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
00:00:00 Introduction: What Is Truth?
00:08:05 What is "Evil"?
00:14:00 Does the appearance of Evil imply the existence of Evil?
00:16:00 "Sociopath"/"Psychopath"/"Narcissist": Do These Words Mean Anything?
00:18:00 The Approach of Scientific Materialism to Evil and It's Drawbacks
00:22:00 Can We Study Evil "Objectively"? (A Methodological Point)
00:26:00 What Is Advaita Vedanta's view of Science?
00:29:00 Can Science help us face the "evil: in the world? (Hedonism and Humanism)
00:32:50 What is "God" according to Dualistic Religions?
00:36:00 If God is all-good and all-powerful, why is there Evil?
00:41:47 Why does God value "Free Will?" (The Story of the Fall)
00:46:19 Zoroastrianism and The Origins of Dualistic Religion
00:50:26 If there is Good, there has to be Evil, right? Here's the Problem!
00:55:55 Kali Worship: A New Way of Looking at God
01:00:45 How To Look Evil in the Eye With Love?/How To Overcome Guilt
01:03:50 Samkhya, Advaita and Buddhism: A Mature Approach to "Getting On With It"
01:08:19 The Story of Milarepa: A Tantrik Approach of Evil and Guilt
01:18:43 The Advaitic Approach to Evil (The Main Course for Tonight!!!)
01:29:50 The Ultimate Ethical Project of Spirituality: Cultivating Selfless-ness/ Pacifism?
01:32:00 Give Your Enemies a Sandwich! (The Wisdom of Bootsy Collins)
01:37:40 Kant on Evil: Can Anybody Will Evil in-and-of-itself?
01:44:17 The Bhagavad Gita on Evil

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Sri Ramakrishna, Modern Day Avatar Mar 07, 2022

For more videos, guided meditations and instruction, access to our lecture library, and to support this work, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
LIVE lectures happen every Monday at 7pm PST on Zoom. It is open to the public. Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
What is for a human to literally be God? It seems counter-intuitive!
One can of course study the life of the great Avataras like Buddha, Jesus and Ramakrishna and see a remarkable similarity. All the stories are almost replayed, almost word for word. But even then the mind has room to say "well, they are just stories, maybe they were intentionally crafted to mirror Avatars of the past to gain credibility. I mean after all, wouldn't everyone like to claim their Guru as the Avatara of the Age?"
The mind is powerless to comprehend. But for some reason, this heart feels what it feels!
Now the interesting thing is that when young Narendranath (later Swami Vivekananda) met Ramakrishna, he didn't care at all whether he was an Avatara or not. He had heard such implications but it was enough for young Naren that before him was a genuinely spiritual man with a deep love for God and a powerful penchant for teaching spirituality. He was ready to learn from such a man once he felt the depth of feeling and wisdom housed in that slender frame. Ramakrishna was a Guru for Vivekananda at first. But then, as time went on and Naren saw more and more of Ramakrishna, he begin to feel intuitions that of course waged war with his keen, rational, Western-trained intellect. He doubted Ramakrishna up to the very last moment, when Ramakrishna was about to die from throat cancer. Vivekananda thought "is this really the Avatara of the modern age? If he can affirm it now, even amidst all this pain, I might accept it". It was jut a thought but on cue Ramakrishna said "do you doubt it even now, my boy? The one who was here as Rama and the one who was here as Krishna is now here as Ramakrishna. But not according to your Vedanta!"
That last response is very important to me because it expresses that there are many ways of looking at a phenomenon like Ramakrishna and that all these ways are legit. Each must come to an understanding according to their own predispositions.

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Secrets of the Dancing Shiva Mar 01, 2022

For more videos, guided meditations and instruction, access to our lecture library, and to support this work, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
LIVE lectures happen every Monday at 7pm PST on Zoom. It is open to the public. Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
Nataraja, the Dancing Shiva is among the most riveting and mysterious symbols in South Asian spirituality. What does it mean? Who is Shiva and why is he dancing? In this lecture, we explore the subtlest and most sublime esoteric teachings of the Tantrik tradition of Shaivism, teachinga that are given life and expression in this symbol of the Dancing Shiva that has captured the hearts and imaginations many!
To hear this teaching even once can radically alter the way we see ourselves, others and the world such that we live a joyously and fearlessly, relishing each moment in life, even grief, as the Divine Play of Shiva!
May this teaching trigger in you a recognition of what you already are at your esence nature!
Jai Shiva Shambho! Jai Maheshwara!

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The Great Night of Shiva Mar 01, 2022

For more videos, guided meditations and instruction, access to our lecture library, and to support this work, visit me at:
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LIVE lectures happen every Monday at 7pm PST on Zoom. It is open to the public. Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
A lecture exploring the mythology, symbology and philosophy of Shiva, the Benign God of Yoga.
The New Moon is a very significant time for yogis. Yoga is about diving deep into the essence of one's being and coming face to face with primordial fears like the fear of death, only to overcome them. The New Moon is the darkest night of the month and as such offers a profound opportunity to look fear in the face and smile. The New Moon is a time for introspection and spiritual practice and these nights are sacred to Shiva, the Formless Aspect of the Divine, personified as the Yogi Par Excellence! Every New Moon night then is called "Shiva Ratri", a Night of Shiva because it is an auspicious time to do what Shiva does best - spiritual practice!
But of all the New Moons in the year one is particularly important. And that is the New Moon of the Vedic month of Maaga: Maha Shivaratri, The Great Night of Shiva!
What makes it "Great"? Certain astrological considerations make this night the most auspicious night for spiritual practice of any kind!
And so:
The best way to celebrate Shiva Ratri is just to practice your practices. Whatever spiritual work you do is trebled in meaning because of the various astrological considerations of the day. But even better than this is to feed the homeless for the homeless are all Shiva incarnate and the wandering mendicants of the world are particularly dear to this benign God of Yoga.
Almost everything that we love about Yoga comes from the tradition of Shaiva Tantra. The mantras, the symbolic depictions of the various deities (which are all just patterns of Awareness, the Awareness-Bliss Absolute that you are!), the sacred hand gestures, the yoga postures, the initiation tradition of lineage based education etc...
all of this is what is being celebrated on this auspicious New Moon!

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Four Schools: Hindu Non-Duality vs Buddhism vs Dualistic Religion vs Scientific Materialism Feb 22, 2022

In what might be one of our most philosophically rigorous discussions yet, we explore the four main orientations to life: Scientific Materialism, Dualistic Religion, Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta (Non-Duality). In this "compare and contrast" style lecture, we attempt to evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of each school of thought with the view that they are all incredible paths appropriate for different times suiting different dispositions.
“Truth is One, though sages call it differently. (Rig Veda 1:164:46)
And, sometimes it is only through studying the context in which a school of thought emerges and through studying its opposition, that we can truly come to understand it.
Chapter Markers:
00:00:00 Introduction: How Does Indian Philosophy Work?
00:04:30 Meet The Players On The Stage: The Four Streams of Thought
00:09:50 What is "Advaita Vedanta" (Hindu Non-Duality)?
00:19:03 History of Scientific Materialism (Charvaka)
00:27:00 Galen's "Hard Problem of Matter" and Chalmer's "Hard Problem of Consciousness"
00:31:07 Promissory Materialism and the Benefits of Science
00:35:30 The Drawbacks of Scientific Materialism
00:47:37 The Mystics of Science
00:52:00 Dualistic Religion: What is God?
00:57:00 The Benefits of Dualistic Religion
01:06:00 Dualistic Hinduism: Shaivism vs Vaishnavism
01:08:53 The Drawbacks of Dualistic Religion: "The Problem of Evil" (Theodicy) 01:17:11 Another Drawback of Dualistic Religion: "Time Based Liberation can END" 01:19:29 Buddhism
01:27:35 Madhyamika Buddhism of Nagarjuna: "Samsara = Nirvana"
01:35:35 The Logical Problem of Buddhism
01:38:20 The Advaitic Solution
01:46:33 How To Deal With The Evil in the World? (Political Action)
01:50:00 How To Cultivate Unconditional Love
01:54:45 Is This A Dream? (An Experiment to Show Non-Duality)
02:02:30 What Happens After Non-Dual Awakening?

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How To Truly Love Someone | Valentine's Day Special Feb 15, 2022

Happy Valentine's Day!
Have you ever wondered: why are some relationships more fulfilling than others?
What can we do to improve our romantic relationships?
Do romantic relationships even have a place in spiritual life? And how is a relationship, which requires two things to relate to one another, compatible with Advaita Vedanta (Non-Duality) that posits only one thing?
In this lecture we answer all these questions as well as explore a few models of conscious relationships in Indian spirituality.
May this be an offering to Laxmi, Goddess of Beauty and Abundance!
OM SHREEM LAXMIYAI DEVYAI NAMAHA ||
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction, access to our lecture library, and to support this work, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
LIVE lectures happen every Monday at 7pm PST on Zoom. It is open to the public. Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Work as Worship | Swami Vivekananda's Core Message Jan 25, 2022

For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
These lectures happen Live every Monday at 7pm PST. It is open to the public. Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
Today is Swami Vivekananda's (Swamiji's) birthday.
This year, because we follow the Vedic moon calendar, the auspicious date is the 25th of January. By the Gregorian Calendar the great hero was born on the 12th of January 1863.
He gave his first address to the West at the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago on the 11th of September 1893, opening with the prophetic words: "my sisters and brothers of America..."
We are all here together because of his work. He is the great Messenger of the Spiritual Heritage of India, the torch bearer and representative par excellence of the ancient tradition of Yoga, the forerunner of Vedanta here in the West.
And so with immense delight I offer to you now this lecture celebrating Vivekananda's life and legacy.
Of course,
One lecture is not enough to achieve even the faintest sketch of this cyclonic life lived according to the highest of spiritual ideals. In this lecture, we scratch the surface of Vivekananda's core message: work as worship. We analyse the highest ideal of Karma Yoga as an expression of the paths of Bhakti (devotion), Jnana (knowledge) and Raja (meditation).
The idea in this lecture, if God permits, is to convey a sense of how we may turn every action in our life into a spiritual practice, even the most mundane ones. How can we truly serve those around us?
"May I be born again and again, and suffer thousands of miseries, so that I may worship the only God that exists, the only God I believe in, the sum total of all souls. For my own part I will be incarnated two hundred times, if that is necessary to do what I have undertaken amongst my people.''
-Swamiji
May these words be as so many offerings of flowers at your feet.
May each and every breath of ours be given for the service of humanity!
Jai Swamiji Maharaj-ji Ki Jay!
00:00:00 Introduction: The Vedantic Humanism of Swami Vivekananda
00:05:31 Worldly Duties vs Spiritual Practice: Resolving the Dilemma
00:19:11 Perfection in Karma Yoga as defined by Swamiji
00:21:17 Paramahansa Ramakrishna, Avatar of the Modern Age
00:34:29 How Swamiji Learned This Profound Secret of Work as Worship
00:37:23 How Can The Absolute Be Both Transcendent AND Immanent?
00:54:00 Why Does This Realization Bring Joy? (Ananda)
00:59:40 You = The Absolute. But How? (Atma-Anatma Viveka)
01:09:19 The Insight of Buddha, Shankara and Vivekananda: A Call To Spirituality!
01:22:36 The Core Idea: Work as Worship
01:29:00 Harmonizing The Four Yogas: Bhakti, Raja, Jnana and Karma
01:3

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Going Beyond Belief to Experience Dec 25, 2021

For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
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These lectures happen Live every Monday at 7pm PST. It is open to the public. Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
Mere belief is not enough. For the spiritual life to be meaningful, one must experience directly for oneself the Truth of the scripture and manifest in their lives the highest ideals of spiritual life. Before we take our deep dive into the four gospels of Christianity with a Vedantic lens, we clarify a few concepts:
Soul = Sakshi/Pramataa/Atman = Witness
Good vs Bad = not moral claims but claims about fulfilment and happiness
Apathea = a divine dispassion for worldly life
Agape = an all-consuming unconditional love that turns the world into the Kingdom of Heaven
OM Shantih Shantih Shantih
00:00:00 Walking the Talk and Defining "Communion"
00:07:15 Hypocrisy in the Church
00:10:50 "A Saint Who Is Sad is A Sad Saint"
00:13:04 Christianity is NOT about Moralizing! (Defining "Good" and "Bad")
00:18:33 Belief vs Experience
00:29:16 Zoroastrianism and Christian Morality (With an aside on low vs high Christology)
00:57:07 What's Wrong With the "World"? (And the Definition of "Truth")
01:12:46 Lust and Greed are Antithetical to Christianity
01:17:55 What Is A "Soul"?
01:25:45 True Love: The Love of the Soul
01:34:59 How To Overcome Lust and Greed and Live as a Soul (Practical Takeaways)

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The Non-Duality of Jesus Christ Dec 21, 2021

Christianity is not about blind belief.
Christianity is about Direct Personal Experience of the Divine.
In this lecture we explore the secret teachings of Christian mysticism by investigating some of the non-dual teaching of the greatest Non-Dual Master of all time: Yeshua the Christ!
There are many misconceptions about what Christianity is and isn't. Tonight, we try to cut through the dogma and noise of the "brood of vipers" to penetrate into the vital, living Heart of this most powerful spiritual tradition.
May this be an offering to all the saints!
00:00:00 Why Do We Study Spiritual Philosophy? (Knowledge vs Wisdom)
00:06:06 Yeshua the Christ and Paul the Apostle
00:10:00 Swami Vivekananda carried two books with him: The Bhagavad Gita and...
00:13:00 "The Imitation of Christ" and Universal Spiritual Truths
00:16:50 The Sadhu and the Scorpion
00:22:00 Genuine Spirituality is about Experience, not Dogma (Stories of Saints)
00:34:00 The Desert Fathers and the Mysticism of Christianity (Orthodoxy)
00:41:00 Prayer is Meditation, Meditation is Prayer + The Lord's Prayer (Japa)
00:48:54 The Brood of Vipers: How Christianity Has Been Misrepresented (Belief vs Faith)
00:57:40 The Christ Force: A Feeling State, A Mode of Being (Accessible to One and All)
01:07:26 The Mystery of the Trinity: Platonism, Neoplatonism and "The Word"
01:13:20 How does "Truth set us free"?
01:20:00 The Jnana-Yoga of Jesus ("Deny Thyself" = Neti Neti)
01:34:17 The Raja-Yoga of Jesus ("If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be filled with light")
01:42:47 The Bhakti-Yoga of Jesus ("Love thy God with all thy might!")
01:51:10 The Karma-Yoga of Jesus (The Curing of the Leper)
01:53:41 Jesus Supports All Religions (Religion vs Spirituality)
01:59:00 Closing Prayer by Nish
02:00:56 Closing Prayer in Latin by Maddz
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
These lectures happen Live every Monday at 7pm PST. It is open to the public. Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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The 4 Goals of Life Dec 07, 2021

What is life for? What does it mean to live a fulfilling life as a human being? The answer to that question depends a great deal on the question, "what is it to BE a human being?"/"who am I?"
Today we talk about finding and ultimately, following your Dharma (your life's purpose) as a way to overcome lust and greed as well as a preparation for Moksha (liberation). We discuss the meaning of a human life with an inquiry into the Purushartha, the 4 things worth having: Kaama (pleasure), Artha (wealth), Dharma (duty/personal purpose), Moksha (liberation).
Then, we look at three central arguments from Advaita Vedanta to get an insight into who we really are!
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
These lectures happen Live every Monday at 7pm PST. It is open to the public. Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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The Spiritual Message of India Nov 19, 2021

In this talk, we explore the very heart of Indian spirituality: renunciation and service. We ask: what are the Vedas and the Upanishads and from what do the Vedas draw scriptural authority? The answers might surprise you! We conclude by examining the lives of India's greatest saint, the 19th CE Bengali master Sri Ramakrishna and his foremost disciple, Swami Vivekananda who first brought the message of India to the West. Today, let us celebrate this ancient lineage that lives on in you and me. Let us set our sights on the highest ideals expressed to us by the world's oldest living spiritual tradition. Let us resolve to live our lives starting today to the best of our ability in accordance with the lion's roar of these ennobling values!
OM Shantih Shantih Shantih
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
These lectures happen Live every Monday at 7pm PST. It is open to the public. Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Youth and Spirituality, A Conversation Nov 05, 2021

As a young person, we are surrounded by narratives about who we ought to be, what we ought to do, what we ought to own and what pleasures we ought to want in order to "make it" in the world.
Our elders hand down belief systems in the guise of wisdom and yet we see right through that hypocrisy! We find it odd to be accepting advice from people on "how to be happy" when those same people don't seem very functional or happy! It seems like the assumptions upon which our society is built are unsatisfactory ones and young people everywhere are restless for a new way to see themselves and the world around them.
More and more young people are turning to spiritual life. Why is that?
Instead of the usual lectures I publish here on For The Love of Yoga, today, I decided to do something different in celebration of Diwali!
Here is a conversation with my friend, Arman on the unique challenges that a young person today might encounter (i.e explaining to your parents that you DON'T want to be CEO of the world but instead want "enlightenment"...) and how to overcome them!
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST. It is open to the public. Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
OM Shantih Shantih Shantih

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Overcoming Fear Oct 31, 2021

Happy Halloween!
Enjoy this Halloween special :)
The enlightened state is a state of complete fearlessness.
Prior to enlightenment, our lives are pervaded by a kind of restless anxiety. We want what we want because we are afraid of what might happen to us if we don't get it. As a result, we feel a contraction throughout our day to day experience. But imagine how relaxed, open and compassionate we would be if we manage to overcome that fear once and for all? Such a thing is possible!
Today, we explore what fear is and attempt to root it out on all levels of the being: the Intellect, the mind, the body/etheric body and most importantly, the heart.
For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
These lectures happen Live every Monday at 7pm PST. It is open to the public. Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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7 Tools for a Spiritual Life Oct 24, 2021

For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
These lectures happen Live every Monday at 7pm PST. It is open to the public. Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
What does it mean to live a "spiritual life"? What does life look like when you commit yourself full time to finding and making manifest in every movement of life your own Divinity?
Here are 7 tools to radically transform each moment of life into a moment of practice, into a moment of communion with the most high.
OM Shantih Shantih Shantih

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5 Obstacles to Enlightenment Oct 06, 2021

For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish
These lectures happen Live every Monday at 7pm PST. It is open to the public. Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815
To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
Today we talk about why we practice spirituality and discuss the 5 main obstacles that might be keeping us from the Enlightenment that we already are!
Enlightenment is not an experience or a particular state. It is not something you can have. It is the simple recognition of what you are, it is the ease of simply being.
OM Shantih Shantih Shantih

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Social Activism as Spiritual Practice Sep 20, 2021

For more videos and instruction, visit me at patreon.com/yogawithnish
What is effective and appropriate action with regards to the various political concerns around us?
What role does spiritual practice play in informing our engagement with the world?
In this lecture, we explore four distinct schools of South Asian philosophy (Samkhya, Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta and Kashmir Shaivism) to show that the spiritual master is beyond all ethics: she is a spontaneous and effortless expression of perfect morality.
We explore the Three Errors of Social Work before enlightenment and we expound on how service (seva) and activism can be a form of spiritual practice.

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What is Spiritual Practice? Sep 13, 2021

We look at some key teachings from the philosophical schools of Samkhya and Advaita Vedanta to relax into the profound divinity, the easeful joy that is already here for you.
There is a big disjunct between knowing spiritual concepts in the mind and actually experiencing them as a lived reality in daily life. We have all attended many lectures and read many books and yet the glow fades away, the remembrance of our true nature dissipates and we return to familiar, stifling patterns of a separate self.
Today we inquire into how to maintain a stable state of loving awareness in everyday life. What is Spiritual Practice? And how can you start?
For more videos, instruction and episodes, visit me at patreon.com/yogawithnish

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What is Reincarnation? Sep 06, 2021

What dies when the body dies and what is it that carries on?
The theory of Reincarnation, that is, the movement of the Soul from one body to another, is featured in most South Asian schools of philosophy.
Today, we attempt to motivate this theory on scientific and philosophical grounds to prove that not only does this theory have a lot of explanatory power when it come to accounting for certain phenomena, but also that this theory has a three-fold practical use:
1. Reincarnation Theory frees us from a victim narrative, allowing us to take responsibility for our lives which all spiritual paths require
2. Reincarnation Theory affirms us in our spiritual quest: nothing we do in this life is "lost" or "for nothing" when the body dies.
3. Reincarnation Theory provides a powerful and empowering for learning: all learning is remembering! You are ALREADY enlightened. You are just reminding yourself of what you always were, always will be and are now.
For more episodes, videos and instruction, visit me at patreon.com/yogawithnish

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What is Death? Aug 22, 2021

What IS death? What "dies" exactly? Do YOU end when the body ends? Socrates described philosophy as "preparation for death", Nachiketha learned the secret of life in Death's house in the Katha Upanishad, the Shakyamuni Buddha pointed out that as much as we like to pretend otherwise, impermanence is a fact of life. But impermanence of what?
To celebrate today's Pluto Retrograde and the Scorpio Full Moon, we explore the deepest questions of philosophy and find profound answers from Advaita Vedanta (Hindu Non-Duality), answers that not only free us once and for all from the fear of death but also give us tools to meaningfully overcome grief and loss.
For more videos and instruction, visit me at patreon.com/yogawithnish

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What Is Real? Aug 02, 2021

We've got to understand what a thing is before we know how to use it meaningfully. We have to ask: what is this world made of? What is real? And what does it mean to be in the world?
Today, we explore the Hard Problem of Matter and the Hard Problem of Consciousness: why is it that the more we look for "matter" through the lens of material science, the more it runs away from us? How come a Universe composed of mostly dark energy/matter and empty space appears to us the way that it does?
We explore some central teachings of Hindu Non-Duality or Advaita Vedanta to answer these big questions so we can discover how to live most meaningfully in this world and to realize right here and now that you are IN the world, the world is in YOU; only awareness exists, all other things are mere "appearances" in awareness and YOU are that awareness. YOU are the only thing that is real.
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You Do Not Need To Heal Jul 23, 2021

We are often sold the narrative in New Age circles that we are broken and in need of "healing" which can only happen, of course, after paying lots of money to some self-proclaimed Shaman...
Advaita Vedanta (Non-Duality) adamantly challenges this view by suggesting that you are already enlightened, whole and fulfilled at your very essence. There is nothing missing from you that needs to be added up, so there can be no growing.
There is nothing broken that needs to be fixed, and so there can be no healing.
The work of spirituality is not healing or growth but merely aligning your perception with the Reality of what you already are: Existence, Consciousness and Bliss itself.
All it takes is one insight. To cultivate that insight we explore 4 different arguments to prove here and now your true nature beyond the illusory appearance of body-mind-personality that you've identified with up till now. Enjoy!
For more videos and instruction, visit me at patreon.com/yogawithnish

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Cultivating Devotion (Guided Meditation) Jul 12, 2021

For more videos, episodes and instruction, visit me at: patreon.com/yogawithnish
One of our most advanced guided meditations yet: today, we cultivate Bhakti (devotion). The Way of Devotion engenders a natural, spontaneous and almost effortless kind of spiritual movement away from fear-craving-suffering and towards fearlessness-peace-bliss.
Bhakti, the Path of Love is the Secret Sauce of spiritual life.
It is the Spirit Juice.
It is the practice par excellence for cultivating the necessary dispositions for advanced spiritual life; it is Bhakti that creates in us, effortlessly, the necessary preconditions for a spiritual awakening; it is Bhakti that gently clears the way day after day for us so that we may deepen further and further into peace.
In this meditation, we start with a bit of preamble about the Path of Bhakti in general and then we move into a guided meditation to call up our Istha Devata (Chosen Ideal) to help us begin our life in Bhakti.
May this transform you.

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The Witness: Overcoming Pain and Grief (Guided Meditation) Jul 11, 2021

For more videos, lessons and episodes, visit me at patreon.com/yogawithnish
Happy New Moon in Cancer!
Here is a guided meditation for overcoming pain, grief, and the inevitable transiency of Samsara. We use the Witness (Sakshi) technique from the Advaita Vedanta and Samkhya schools of Indian spiritual philosophy.
Remember:

All things arise and pass away.
Entire worlds surge up and dissolve
with each breath.
Knowing this, why become attached?
Why be disturbed by
The rising and falling away
Of circumstances?
Take a stand outside the transient
Flux of Nature and Mind.
Take a stand in the Witness.
And be free!
OM Shantih Shantih Shantih

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My Father and I Are One (Guided Meditation) Jun 20, 2021

For videos, instruction and more episodes, visit me at patreon.com/yogawithnish
Happy Father's Day and Blessed Summer Solstice!
Shiva-Shakti, Yang-Yin, Masculine-Feminine, Fatherhood-Motherhood Consciousness-Energy, Energy-Matter...all of these are two aspects of the same thing, two ways of looking at one principle.
What is the unity beyond this seeming duality?
Today we explore the Divine Masculine in Christian mysticism, Taoism and Tantra to celebrate Father's Day and welcome in powerful new energy for the coming Solstice.
Enjoy :)
Here is a householder prayer for all householder-yogis out there:
"I vow before the Divine to think never of myself, to take nothing for me, to surrender everything to family, society and Dharma.
I will live simply and nobly.
I will have no vices.
For verily, I will harbour no sense of my own self for it is not "my" will but thy will be done! I will live and die by my Dharma, doing my duty as well as I can at every moment.
I will not speak harsh words or harm anyone consciously and knowing that no good work is completely good (for there is bad even in good however unintentional), I will purify myself so that I no longer think myself to be the doer of actions. I will offer up all fruits now and always to you, to my family, to society and to Dharma. I will be beyond all karma for I know that works are done through me, ever by me.
OM peace peace peace."

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The Divine Purpose of Suffering Jun 18, 2021

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What does our suffering show us about our true nature?
In this video:
1. A few central insights from Advaita Vedanta (Non-Duality) to cure suffering once and for all
2. An inquiry into the innovations of Kashmir Shaivism to Non-Duality and
3. How this latter worldview articulates suffering as an auspicious teacher revealing our divine selves.

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The Secrets of Kali Worship Jun 03, 2021

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Mother Kali, the black skinned, wild-haired goddess wielding weapons and whirling in an ecstatic dance of awakening has been one of the most fascinating icons in Indian art for centuries on end.
What is the hidden meaning of this Dark Devi?
Today we discuss some folk stories about Kali and explore their hidden meaning to uncover secrets about how to deal with suffering and use suffering as a tool for deepening our spiritual practice. Come and dive into the exciting world of Tantra, Goddess Worship and Yogic practice :)

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The Great Saints of India: Siddhartha Gautama May 26, 2021

For more episodes, guided meditations and videos, visit me at patreon.com/yogawithnish
In this lecture, we explore the dizzying heights of Buddhist philosophy and practice, tracking the development of ideas starting with the profound insights of one of India's greatest teachers, the Shakyamuni Buddha 2600 years ago all the way to their development into the Tantrik forms of Vajrayana/Mahayana/Dzogchen as well as their more austere forms, Hinayana and Zen.

To celebrate Buddha Purnima, we explore the story of a young prince, living a life of luxury, sheltered away from the realities of life. Eventually the young prince feels the superficiality of pleasure, as we do in the quiet lull of the party. He leaves his pleasure garden and encounters old age, sickness and death, realities we pretend will not happen to us.

This inspires him to take up a genuine spiritual inquiry culminating in the most profound insights of Indian philosophy. You see, the story of the Buddha is the story of us. It is the story of our own Buddha-nature and our journey of relaxing into what is already here now for us.
May you have a blessed Buddha Purnima, Sagittarius full moon and Lunar eclipse!
May you be a lamp unto yourself.
May you awaken to your Buddha-nature daily!

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Kali and Radical Acceptance May 22, 2021

For the video version of this and for more lectures, lessons and content, visit me at patreon.com/yogawithnish
Many of us experience difficult disease on a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual level and often we use meditation and Yoga as a kind of numbing strategy to try to overcome, escape or suppress these movements of energy we call difficult emotions.
This never works. There is a higher path.
If you are able to internalize today's teaching from the 9th CE Kashmir Shaivism school you will no longer experience grief and pain AS suffering. They won't go away. But when they arise in consciousness, you will learn to reframe your experience such that they will no longer be experienced as contraction (i.e suffering). They will turn into a moment of profound beauty that both enlivens you and enflames you with reverence and prayer.
Come and join us for this lovely evening of Tantrik techniques, the poetry of Rumi and a discussion on the Three Orientations to Spiritual Life.

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The Spiritual Heritage of India May 11, 2021

The 5000 year old tradition that is Indian spirituality lives on today and it lives on in you! We gather today to celebrate the nourishing philosophies and the practical methodologies that have emerged from India over the years in an effort to raise some funds for the COVID relief effort in Mother India!
If you feel moved, you can still donate by sending your offerings directly to
https://www.giveindia.org/
I hope you will enjoy this humble offering of the Spirit. In this 5+ hour lecture marathon, we explore all the different schools of thought from the Vedas to the Upanishads to the Tantras to Yoga, we share folk stories and we engage in Q&A and explore how these spiritual ideas came about and how they made their way to you!
May something in what I have to say in this talk serve you. I am just the messenger passing on to you what was given to me and even that is a but a grain of sand on the beach of knowledge. It is enough that this video makes you feel happy. Feeling good and peaceful is one of the best services we can offer to the planet. One one level we help materially with what we can but on a deeper level, because we are all enmeshed in a web of vibration, how we feel tonight has far reaching effects to every part of this creation. So let us come together to cultivate the highest vibration and trust that we as uplift ourselves, so to do we uplift all beings.
Lokah Samasta Sukinoh Bahavantu
May All Beings Know Joy and Peace!
OM Peace Peace Peace
If you'd like to support this work, you can join our Patreon community here: https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish

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Tapasya: Austerity as Spiritual Practice May 03, 2021

All spiritual traditions prescribe some form of self-abnegation in the name of purifying the vessel:
Jesus fasted in the desert,
the Islamic mystics called themselves "Fakirs" (Poor Ones),
Nachiketha jumped into the fire in the Katha Upanishad...and yet, the Buddha spoke against severe austerity in favor of the "Middle Way", the path of moderation.
What is austerity, really?
In this video we explore the esoteric principle behind purification practices and I suggest a few indispensable techniques to incorporate into your spiritual life right away.
Also, we have a lengthy discussion on what the REAL purpose of spiritual practice is; we diagnose why it might be that despite all the meditating and attending Vedanta lectures, we might still not be "manifesting our divinity in each movement of life."

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Dukkha: Why Do We Suffer? Apr 26, 2021

We have talked about what suffering is quite a bit. But we haven't answered WHY we suffer. How does the experience of suffering fit into the cosmic picture of creation? Why did Brahman get confused by Maya? Who created the Matrix? Hint, Neo: YOU did. But why? We explore 7 different schools of South Asian philosophy (The Materialist Charvaka school, Buddhism, Jainism, Vaishnava Dualism, Samkhya/Yoga, Advaita Vedanta and Kashmiri Shaivism) to find out how each of them account for suffering.

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Your Soul's Song (Guided Meditation) Apr 23, 2021

Above every blade of grass, there is an angel whispering "grow! grow!"
What is the true source of your inspiration?
What is your purpose here on Earth as an individual?
Do you not feel a call, deep within you, to action? A stirring in your soul to engage yourself in some creative pursuit for the service of your brothers and sisters?
In this powerful guided meditation, we draw upon the mythologies of Zoroastrianism, the Book of Enoch, Milton's "Paradise Lost, Stephen Pressfield's "War of Art" and of course my mentor Lyam Thomas Christopher who initially harmonizes these ideas in his book, "Kabbalah, Magick and Great Work of Self Transformation" and to whom I am greatly indebted.
Come. Enter the poetical and romantic world of Evolution vs Dissolution. You are an on a holy quest of the Higher Self to bring about the fulfillment of the Ultimate Purpose.
Will you answer this call to live your highest destiny?
Will you blow the conch of Dharma?
Will you take the Bodhisattva vow?
Are you ready for the ultimate adventure of a lifetime?

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Self-Sufficiency (Q&A) Apr 13, 2021

Join us for this Questions & Answers discussion session on:
1. How we can overcome lust and greed + why we would even want to overcome those things
2. The Dangers of Teaching Yoga
3. Is the desire for liberation still bondage? How can you desire "desirelessness"?
4. How to have compassion for oneself while still aspiring to higher spiritual ideals? How can you forgive yourself when you inevitably fall short?
5. True Spirituality vs Spiritual Bypassing/Escapism
And much more!
For more episodes and instructions, visit me at patreon.com/yogawithnish

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4 Tools for Self-Sufficiency Apr 11, 2021

How do we overcome lust and greed and discover self-sufficiency? Today, we investigate the awakening stories of masters like St Francis of Assisi, Ramana Maharshi, Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Eckhart Tolle etc. to explore some of the deepest topics in spiritual practice:
1. What is renunciation?
2. Why would a person want to give up the world and the sex craving?
3. Okay, you've decided you want to do it but how? There are so many deeply embedded patterns, strengthened from years of repetition and cultural conditioning that keep us from our spiritual ideals.
But these ideals CAN be lived with the proper techniques.
So let's explore 4 tools to overcome lust and greed.
For more episodes and instruction, visit me at patreon.com/yogawithnish

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Sexual Desire (Q&A) Apr 06, 2021

A beautiful Q&A exploring the role of sexual desire in spiritual life, how to overcome sexual craving, the Left-Hand Path Tantrik practices involving sexuality (and their misconceptions), the ethics of Ahimsa (Non-Violence) and much more!
For more videos and instruction, visit me at patreon.com/yogawithnish

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Christ-Consciousness (Guided Meditation) Apr 04, 2021

Happy Easter! Here is mystical interpretation of some of the hidden meanings of the Christian gnostic tradition presented in a guided meditation to awaken within you the ever-renewing joy of your very own Christ Consciousness. May we all remember that Divinity is WITHIN us (the Kingdom of Heaven is within) and that our true wealth is not in the things we want. Rather, what we want are the feeling states that we think will come about as a result of having those things or circumstances. When we learn that we can access all feeling states without the things, our desires for that which moth and rust can corrupt wanes and its place, our true treasure: our Hearts, an inward seeking. Let us forgive all those who have trespassed against us remembering always that forgiveness of others is the path to self-forgiveness.
And may we remember that the simple pleasures are the greatest. Even King Solomon is not clad in raiment finer than the lavenders! And if we just trust nature like the sparrows, we need not think where to sleep, what to eat and what to wear...we will be looked after.Enjoy this Easter meditation in celebration of Jesus' message, the message of a true Master Yogi. This is a gift from my heart to yours! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

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Brahmacharya: Sexual Desire and Continence Mar 28, 2021

The Yogic solution to the sexual craving is NOT repression...it is transmutation.
Almost all mystical traditions in the world prescribe some form of celibacy as preparation for deeper states of meditation. Often, the yama of Brahmacharya in Patanjali's Ashtanga Yoga is frightening to the Western mind. What do you mean I have to give up sex?
In this video, we talk about what the sex drive is and how to overcome lust + why you even want to overcome it!
We explore renunciation, the work of spiritual practice, the benefits (and drawbacks) of continence and of course, a few techniques from Yoga, Tantra, Buddhism and Modern Psychology for how to overcome lust.
For more videos and instruction, visit me at: patreon.com/yogawithnish

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Assuming the God-Forms (Guided Meditation) Mar 20, 2021

Happy Spring Equinox! In this 20 minute Tantrik-styled guided meditation, we combine Mantra (sacred sound), Mudra (sacred gesture) and Bhavana (imaginative visualization) to experience the Divine on all levels of our being.
In this meditation, you conjure up the image of your Ishta Deva (Chosen Spiritual Ideal) and then merge into it, allowing your small self to be subsumed into the divinity that you truly are.
Enjoy!
For more guided meditations + HQ audio versions, visit me at patreon.com/yogawithnish

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What Is Renunciation? (And How To Do It) Mar 11, 2021

For more videos and instruction, visit me at: patreon.com/yogawithnish
Almost all spiritual traditions around the world insist on "renouncing the world" in order to mature spiritually.
What is there to be renounced? Why would you even want to renounce it? And finally, how do you go about doing that in this day and age?
I will explore the way different religions present renunciation as an ideal and then propose that the true meaning of renunciation is NOT an outward "show" of giving things up but instead, it is a deep, inner renunciation of allowing the patterns that no longer serve you to dissolve. I will give you four techniques to do this in your own life!
Enjoy!

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Do We Have Free Will? Mar 08, 2021

For more episodes and instruction, visit me at patreon.com/yogawithnish
Do you have free will? We look at a few ideas from Yoga and Tantra and compare them to similar ideas in Christianity and Kantian philosophy to investigate this age old question of what free will really is. I will show you that you (as the Jeeva, Individual) are a completely determined being and that is an incredibly freeing concept with regards to the personal suffering you feel. And yet, You as Shiva or Brahman or Atman are in fact completely radically free!
Check out Swami Sarvapriyananda's (from the Vedanta Society) treatment of this subject on free will! My talk extends from some of the points the Swami made and approaches the issue from a Kashmiri Shaivite/Tantrika angle!

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5 Big Ideas from 5000BCE India Mar 02, 2021

Here a few of my favourite ideas from ancient Indian philosophy to whet your appetite for a deeper dive into these profoundly transformative, eternally relevant and heartbreakingly beautiful South Asian schools of thought that can help anyone anywhere live a more meaningful life.
Welcome to For the Love of Yoga, a podcast series where we explore various topics in Yoga, Vedanta, Tantra and other spiritual traditions around the world.
For more episodes and instructions, come join me at patreon.com/yogawithnish

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Three Errors: Separation, Time, Free Will Mar 01, 2021

We suffer because we cling on to three perceptual errors. I will present some arguments to loosen the hold of these misperceptions in an effort to free you from their sway!
For more episodes, visit me at: patreon.com/yogawithnish

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You Are Already Enlightened, Let Me Show You Feb 24, 2021

We discuss how "spiritual awakening" works in order to dispel the myth that there is a "progression" or "a set amount of work you have to do" to become enlightened. After all, you cannot BECOME enlightened because you already ARE that now. It is your fundamental nature. All it takes is one Insight. In an attempt to give you this insight today, that is, to prove to you in the immediacy of your own awareness that you are not your body nor are you your mind, we discuss the Duality of Patanjali Yoga and why Patanjali, Plato and Descartes all make the same mistake. Then, I explain how Tantra, Plotinus and Spinoza all solve this mistake with the concept of Non-Duality.
In short: in this episode we move from Duality, to a much subtler more mature understanding of philosophy.
For more episodes and instruction, visit us at: patreon.com/yogawithnish
CORRECTION: A few minutes in the video I cite Tantra Illuminated by the wonderful scholar Christopher Hareesh Wallis but I mis-spoke and said "Williams" instead. So sorry for the slip of the tongue, my dear friend!

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Maya: If You Are God, Why Don't You Know It? Feb 11, 2021

God is the blissful awareness of your own Being, God is only thing that exists and the Universe as we see it is just an emanation of diversity arising out of the one Unity that you Are. And yet! We still experience ourselves as a separate from the world around. We experience suffering and contraction. If we are indeed God, how could this be? Why don't we immediately intuit our nature as the Absolute? To answer this question we look at the idea of Maya, the Cosmic Measurer: the power of God to manifest the Many and conceal the Unity within that diversity. We explore Kashmiri Shaivism to study the 5 Kancukas or the 5 "veils/armors" that limit us and hide our true nature from ourselves and finally we conclude by saying: to the unenlightened, Maya is Bondage; to the wise, Maya is a great Work of Art!
For more episodes, visit us at: patreon.com/yogawithnish

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What Is Enlightenment? Jan 19, 2021

Perhaps one of our deepest discussions yet, today we explore the concept of Atma Bodha (Self-Realization)/Brahma Jnana (Knowing God)/Nirvana/Perfection/Enlightenment etc. to figure out what the ultimate goal of spiritual practice REALLY is. We explore a Tantrik creation story to explain why the world as you see it came to be and what "your" role in it is. Who are you really? And why are you here?
All this in today's discussion on What Is Enlightenment?

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The Great Saints of India: Swami Vivekananda Jan 12, 2021

The Shamanic Roots of Yoga, the Core Teachings of the Upanishads, the story of how Yoga first came to the west and the brilliant life of India's Greatest Saint: Swami Vivekananda!
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Naturally, one hour is not enough to capture to beauty and brilliance of Swami Vivekananda, India's foremost saint and beloved disciple of Paramahansa Ramakrishna, World Teacher and Avatar. To honor this incredible spirit, I wanted to share with you the story of his life which is really a story about how the spiritual ideals of India came to the West for the first time in the late 19th CE. We discuss the Shamanic Roots of Yoga and the core philosophical teachings of the Upanishads and Vedas in order to fully expound the earth-shattering Universal, Non-Sectarian Truth of the Upanishads which is: Truth is One, though it may be called differently and the paths to get there are many.
Swami Vivekananda gave his whole life for this truth, to show mankind our innate divinity and unite us all under the banner of Non-Dual Awareness.
Happy birthday, Swami-ji! And this one is for all our "sisters and brothers of America!"

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The Buddha, Yogic Phenomenology and The Ultimate Experience Jan 09, 2021

Today we talk about the Problem of Suffering as articulated by the Shakyamuni Buddha in order to understand what it is exactly that we're trying to achieve in Yoga. Naturally, we discuss the subtle ideas of Yogic phenomenology (the study of how we perceive the world around us) to show that we are projecting our universe into existence through our mental representations (vikalpas). Then, we take a deep dive into some of the most profound philosophies from the 15th CE text Drg-Drsya-Viveka, "Discrimination Between The Seer and the Seen" to prove to you in one argument that you are not only the Body nor are you really only the Mind, you are in fact something much more...

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Shakti: The Sacred Feminine Jan 05, 2021

We discuss Shakti, the Goddess: the fierce, fiery, powerful principle of the Divine Feminine as expressed by Shakta Tantra. We compare conceptions of the Female with mystery traditions like 15th CE Alchemy and Occultism, Taoism and Mesopotamian mythology. We make frequent visits to modern gender politics and Jungian psychology to see what relationship the psychic principles of Yin and Yang have to physical sex and psychological gender.

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The Bodhisattva Vow (Guided Meditation) Jan 01, 2021

In this powerful meditation from the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, we work with the power of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva. We call upon this energy through a lush visualization meant to bring the power and profundity of your own Inner Teacher into your heart-space so you can access the guidance and wisdom of your Higher Self whenever you need. Finally, you will receive a popular but potentized 5th CE mantra from the Karandavyuha Sutra to anchor you to the Fullness of Your Being, Your Ever-New Buddha Nature. Find a seat, close the eyes, follow the breath and let this meditation take you wherever your soul intends to go! Enjoy these discussions on Mantra, Meditation and Mahayana Buddhism. Happy New Year!

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How To Enjoy Life Dec 26, 2020

A humble yogic perspective on what it means to live a fulfilling life. We talk about all the different orientations to life and why many of them don't work and then when we figure out why!

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The Deepest Ideas in Yoga Dec 22, 2020

To celebrate today's Winter Solstice and the Great Jupiter-Saturn Conjunct, I expound on 9000 years of yoga philosophy, teasing out the biggest themes and most revolutionary concepts to nudge you into a transformative shift that you may come home to your True Self which is ever free, blissful and at peace. What are the major takeaways from the Vedic and Upanishadic era? How did these ideas evolve in the 6th CE with the first World Teachers like Patanjali, Vardhamana Mahavira, Shakyamuni Buddha and Lao Tsu? What is the Tantra movement? How did Hatha Yoga go from being an underground 10th CE movement into a popular trend in the West? All this and more in today's special solstice episode! Thank you to all who attended at the ceremony. You know who you are. I love you more than you know!

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Working With Deities Dec 18, 2020

We discuss the various Gods and Goddesses in the pantheons of the Indus valley compared to pantheons from other traditions. We explore the concept that Gods and Goddesses aren't "out there" but are rather metaphors for what's going on "in here". They are metaphors for subtle psychic forces that are sometimes too "behind the scenes" in our day to day life for us to experience directly. As such, we plead poetic license to personify these inner forces as deities, in order that we might approach them intelligently. Working with them can helpful in navigating the spiritual path. There are various techniques for how to invoke deities and work with them in your spiritual practice and we go through them together in this exciting episode of For the Love of Yoga!

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The Divine Romance Dec 13, 2020

We discuss the origin of Suffering in the Buddhist and Yogic literature and then we look at Vidyaranya's famous argument from his 15th CE Pancadesi to prove how you are not the Mind nor are you the Body and as such, you are beyond all suffering! Then, we talk about the Divine Romance, which is the story of Shiva and Shakti's courtship: he descends down from the crown chakra; she rises up from the root, and they meet in the Hridayam, the Heart.

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The Purpose of Spiritual Practice Dec 13, 2020

Now that we've discussed the methods to practice spirituality and the various pitfalls along the path, we turn our attention to a much deeper question: why practice at all?

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Pitfalls on the Path Dec 09, 2020

The Way of Spirit can be steep and winding at times, and broad and obvious at other times. During the journey, you will encounter true and sincere teachers of Spirit but you will also encounter just as many charlatans who peddle peace and take all your money! In the beginning, old patterns that you seek to break through spiritual practice will find their way into your spiritual practice; you become susceptible to spiritual materialism and the fortification of the ego through creating a "spiritual" instagram identity (haha); other times, you will feel confused and disheartened when the spiritual highs of yesterday do not come today. Many are the troubles and challenges of a life lived in Spirit! Fortunately, you are not alone. These problems have been experienced by others who have gone before you and are being experienced by those who share the road with you now! In this episode, we come together to discuss the 6 (or 7) common Pitfalls along the Path. With humour and compassion, see if any of these apply to you and let us all be vigilant!

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How To Practice Spirituality (Part 2) Nov 30, 2020

In Part 2, we explore the vast array of spiritual practices with the hope that one of them resonates with you, We also delve deeper into the subtle aspects of asana and pranayama practice and then we explore the Bhakti Yoga and Jnana Yoga paths for cultivating svadhyaya (study) and isvara pranidhana (devotion) which are integral practices to develop spirituality.

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How To Practice Spirituality (Part 1) Nov 29, 2020

Spiritual practice: you've been reading about it, hearing about it and listening to your friends rave about it. Now you've decided to take it up yourself! But where to start? The world of spirituality is wide and varied with many roads to salvation and equally many pitfalls and dead ends. This is a journey peppered with unassuming enlightened masters and grandiose charlatans who would peddle "peace" and take all your money. It is a journey that must be navigated skillfully.
In part 1, we explore the various component parts of a holistic spiritual practice honoring the fact that you are a multi-dimensional being and as such, require many different practices to cultivate different aspects of yourself, namely, your emotional self, your mental self, your physical self, your energetic self and many more. Come and explore to various facets in the diamond of Spiritual Practice in this episode of For The Love of Yoga.

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Reincarnation (Part 2) Nov 27, 2020

Today, we talk about past-life memories, exploring Om Sety (Dorothy Eady) and other stories of people who have vivid recollection of past lives. We explain why it is that you might not remember your past lives. Is there technique enabling you to do so? Your past lives are much closer and much more available to you than you might expect!
We also discuss the First Incarnation, or the Purpose of Creation: The First Cause is Pure Awareness' desire to experience itself as Oneness in Many. And so the Universe comes into Being leading up to the Final Effect: the total waking up of all beings to their fundamental nature as Pure Awareness, thereby consummating the original desire of Awareness to explore itself in an act of free self-love. Between that first cause and final effect are innumerable other causes and effects. You yourself are such a Being, both a cause and an effect at once. Knowing yourself to be a cause, how will you act in the here and now? What effects do you desire to produce?

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Reincarnation (Part 1) Nov 22, 2020

Reincarnation is a fundamental feature in many Eastern schools of thought and is significant in Christian mysticism as well as in many cultures around the world. Each of us asks the question, "what carries forward after this body dies?" In Part 1, we discuss what makes a scientific theory good in order to present Reincarnation as a rational theory. Since every theory is just a metaphor for Reality (the map is never the territory), we explore what Reincarnation can do for us with regards to understanding the forces at work in our Being. What is it exactly that reincarnates? How can this theory help us in our spiritual practice? This and more in today's episode of For The Love of Yoga!

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Dharma: Finding Your Purpose Nov 17, 2020

In this episode, we talk about Mick Jagger, Wall Street brokers and the Bhagavad Gita to explain both cosmic and personal Dharma. What is the purpose of Creation? What is your role in all of that? What is your purpose? We discuss how our spiritual practice can cultivate the insight to know what your purpose is as well as the courage to pursue it. Finally, we talk about how living your purpose can help your spiritual practice. Join me in this special Navaratri episode devoted to the goddess Saraswati!

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Romantic Relationships as Spiritual Practice Nov 13, 2020

What is Love? What is Romantic Love? And what role do these intimate relationships have to play in our spiritual lives? Today we discuss how our culture primes us to "fall" in love without ever teaching us how to BE in Love. We explore the common failings and disappointments in this domain of life and cap it off with a discussion of Bhakti Yoga and how to spiritualize our intimate relationships.

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