For the Love of Yoga with Nish the Fish

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The Tantrik Sermon on the Mount Apr 30, 2025

Show notes

Last week, to celebrate Easter, we gave a special talk on the Sermon of the Mount from a Tantrik point of view. Not only is the Sermon on the Mount an excellent piece of spiritual literature which like the Gītā essentializes and makes practical the highest spiritual teachings of all time but also, there is a beautiful book by a similar title: "The Sermon on the Mount according to Vedanta" by Swami Prabhavananda.
As such, in this talk, we reference some profound insights from that book, give them a Tantrik spin and also make a few broad points about the Avatara in Tantrik theology.
It is a wonderful talk to put out around Akshaya Tritiya because it covers the most fundamental and yet deepest and most profound of spiritual ideas in both theory and practice. I pray the ideas in this discussion will ground you and remind you of what is most important in spiritual life and inspire you to live according to the highest of ideals!
Jai Mā! Jai Christ ji Ki Jai!

PS: You'll find our talks on Tantrik Christianity here.

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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Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am 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

Christ as a Solar Deity Apr 20, 2025

Show notes

On behalf of this most auspicious occasion of Easter Sunday, celebrating the resurrection of Christ and the upsurge of spring-time energy in nature, we reflect a little bit on Christ as Solar Deity.
Importantly, I wanted to compare the Christ's resurrection to the resurrection of Osiris in Egyptian mythology and how that might mirror not only the Tantrik understanding of Shakta Peethas (i.e the natural world as a metaphor for spiritual themes in the soul's journey) but also the reverence for the Sun that we see in Vedic and Saurya-Tantrik context! This lecture follows closely on the heels of the discussion had earlier this week on Why We Worship the Sun

It is after all Easter Sun-day!
Mainly though, we spend some time reflecting on the Christ's innovation on spiritiuality: that of learning to regard God as your very own, your intimate Master, Friend, Parent, Child and Lover.Christ expressly stressed the first three relationships with a strong emphasis on the third. In this class, using Swami Vivekananda's Bhakti Yoga book, we say a few words about "God as Divine Child" having already discussed "God as Master" and "God as Friend" in the How To be God's Friendand How To Be Powerful Like Hanumanlectures respectively.
Jai Christ ji!
May this be an offering at the lotus feet of that great master, embodiment of purity and incarnation of love. May he arise in all our hearts today! May we all become Christ-like by his grace!

Here is a playlist on all things Tantrik Christianity.

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Why We Worship the Sun Apr 18, 2025

Show notes

Today is Good Friday and since the Christ is a solar deity in a sense (the "sun" of God moving through the 12 disciples who are the 12 zodiac signs), I thought it would be nice to discuss the worship of the Sun of the Vedic and Tantrik context. In this class, which is part of our How To Do Tantrik Puja Series, we explore the sandhya vandana, the ancient practice of worshipping the sun with water at dawn/twilight and show how this ritual has been adapted into a Tantrik context. We discuss the significance of the sun as symbol for Brahman, the Unchanging Absolute of the Vedas, Existence-Consciousness-Bliss. We also make a few points about the Tantrik cult of the sun known as the Saurya Marga! It was a fun class! Thank you all for coming. Next, we'll go into more detail about the "arghya-dānam", the offering to the Sun and Mā willing, we'll cover the dhyāna-mantras and offering mantras for the Sun worship section of our ritual manual.
oṁ namo vivasvate brahman bhāsvate viṣṇutejase।
jagatsavitre śucaye savitre karmadāyine॥
eṣo’rghyaḥ oṁ hrīṁ haṁsaḥ mārtaṇḍabhairavāya prakāśaśaktisahitāya oṁ śrīsūryāya svāhā।
"Salutations to Vivasvān, who is Brahman, the Absolute Reality, The Effulgent One (Consciousness) who is God's brilliance, the world-mover, the pure Sun who is the giver of all action we make you this offering, O Bhairava of the Setting Sun, you who are radiance (prakāśa) and self-reflection (vimarśa)! Salutations to Śrī Sūrya, the Sun!"
oṁ raktāmbujāsanam aśeṣa-guṇaika-sindhuṁ bhānuṁ
samasta-jagatām-adhipaṁ bhajāmi
padma-dvayābhaya-varān dadhataṁ karābjaiḥ
māṇikya-mauli-maruṇa-aṅga-ruciṁ trinetram
OM seated on a red lotus, a single ocean of endless qualities the shining one, lord of all the world, I praise you, O three eyed one, Holding two lotuses and offering the gestures of fearlessness and boon-giving in your lotus like hands, Adorned with a ruby crown, your body glows red!
oṁ javākusumasaṅkāśaṁ kāśyapeyaṁ mahādyutim
dhvāntāriṁ sarvapāpaghnaṁ praṇato’smi divākaram
OM deep red like a hibiscus glower, the descendent of Kāśyapa, supremely radiant, the enemy of darkness and the destroy of all sin, I bow before you, the maker of the day!
oṁ namaḥ savitre jagadekacakṣuṣe jagatprasūtisthitināśahetave
trayīmayāya triguṇātmakāriṇe viriñcinārāyaṇaśaṅkarātmane
Salutations to Savitre, the single eye of the world, the non-dual witness of all things, the source of the world's creation, maintenaince and dissolution, the embodiment of the three states of waking, dreaming and deep sleep, the maker of the three qualities of the Self, the very essence of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva!

You'll find a complete playlist of lectures on Tantra in both theory and practice here.

Jai Mā!

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The 6 Layers of the Self in Tantra Apr 18, 2025

Show notes

In the profound Trika text virūpākṣapañcāśikā, we learn:
vimatipadamaṅga sarvaṃ mama caitanyamātmanaḥ śarīramidam |
śūnyapadādīlāvadhi dṛśyatvāt piṇḍavat siddham || 2 ||

O dear one, all this from the void state to the play of the Divine including even that which is heretical (i.e impure), since it appears in Consciousness, is verily established as my own body for I myself am Consciousness!

sampanno'smi kṛśo'smi snihyatkaraṇo'smi modamāno'smi |
prāṇimi śūnyo'smīti ca ṣaṭsu padeṣvasmitā dṛṣṭā || 3 ||
“I am rich”, “I am feeble”, “I am affectionate”, “I am happy”, “I am living”, “I am the void”: the self is seen in these six states!
From this we can understand that the "Self" is quite elastic! It can identify with possessions, with the body, with the thoughts and emotions in the mind, with the vitality or flow of energy and also with the void! Even saying "no-self" is a kind of self-identification! Notice: the objects, the physical body, the mental body, the energy body and the void body...these are all ways the Self can identify itself. But what exactly is the Self? It is Pure Consciousness, with the ability to expand outward or contract inward. The Self is essentially elastic in nature. Ego is not an illusory thing to be renounced with a Shakti, a power to be reclaimed and properly channelled.

This is a class in our Paramārthasāra series, commenting on Verse 32:
देहप्राणविमर्शनधीज्ञाननभःप्रपञ्चयोगेन।
आत्मानं वेष्टयते चित्रं जालेन जालकार इव॥३२॥

Dehaprāṇavimarśanadhījñānanabhaḥprapañcayogena|
Ātmānaṁ veṣṭayate citraṁ jālena jālakāra iva ||32||

How strange is it that the Self wraps Itself up by considering itself to be the body, prāna, intellectual concepts, and even the universe of ideas regarding the Void, just like a silkworm!

You'll find a complete playlist of lectures on Tantra in both theory and practice here.

Jai Mā!

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What is The Self in Tantra? Apr 17, 2025

Show notes

This is perhaps one of my favorite lectures yet and one of the most foundational.
In this talk, we track the idea of the "self", the most immediate reality through various different schools of philosophy: first we sketch out scientific materialism (physicalism) and use the ancient ideas of Sāmkhya philosophy to refute it. Then, we refute Sāmkhya before moving on to sketch out the Buddhist idea of no-self. Having refuted the Buddhists, we then sketch out the Shaiva Siddhānta (Tantrik Dualism) view on the Self which we then develop into the non-dual Tantrik view of the One Consciousness in all beings as all beings.
00:00:00 Opening Invocations
00:00:47 5 Forms of the Self
00:08:24 The Buddhist Idea of "No Self"
00:10:41 The Vijñāna-Bhairava Tantra on the Self
00:15:30 The Self in Sāmkhya vs the Self in Materialism
00:42:00 An Argument Against Sāmkhya: There is Only One Consciousness
00:52:38 The Buddhist Idea of No-Self
00:59:43 Refuting the Buddhist View of No-Self
01:05:30 The Self in Shaiva Siddhanta, Tantrik Dualism
01:19:45 The Non-Dual Tantrik Idea of the One Self

You'll find a complete playlist of lectures on Tantra in both theory and practice here.

Jai Mā!

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How To Be Powerful Like Hanuman Apr 15, 2025

Show notes

Last year, on Hanuman Jayanti we gave the talk The Tantrik Hanuman exploring some of the Tantrik aspects of this fierce rudra, Mahavīra! This year on Hanuman Jayanti, we decided to talk a little about what makes Hanuman so powerful!
First, we discuss the significance of Hanuman in our own lineage with a reference to Sri Ramakrishna's Hanuman sādhana and the parallels between Hanuman and Swami Vivekananda.
Then, we analyze the secret sauce, the special something that makes Hanuman so unstoppable powerful. Its the Krabby Patty secret formula.
Jai Hanuman Ji Ki Jai!

You'll find a complete playlist of lectures on Tantra in both theory and practice here. And here is a playlist on Tantrik Vaishnavism.

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How To Be God's Friend Apr 14, 2025

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In the second to last chapter of Swami Vivekananda's Bhakti Yoga (or Volume III of the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda), Swamiji gives us a walkthrough of all the attitudes of supreme love, prema with which we can relate to God: God as quietistic ideal (shānta), God as master (dāsya), God as friend (sakya), God as child (vatśalya) and of course, God as lover (Madhura).

We explore the first three of these attitudes and discuss what makes seeing God as "master" so much more intense than a quietistic reverence and what seeing God as a "friend" that much more radical! We also make a strong claim for non-sectarianism when studying these attitudes to avoid putting everything in a kind of hierarchy and using that to judge others and to feel superior about our own spirituality. As such, we do a study of Bhakti Yoga in the light of Sri Ramakrishna, the spirit of Harmony of Religions and the "bhāva-rāja", king of devotional attitudes!
You'll find the playlist for our Swami Vivekananda Bhakti Yoga series here!

And here is a playlist on Tantrik Vaishnavism.

Jai Swamiji!

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Who Can Be A Guru? | According to Tantra Apr 11, 2025

Show notes

In our Friday morning zoom satsangh, we're studying the Paramārthasāra of Abhinava Gupta, a very profound and concise introductory text for Non-Dual Shaiva/Shakta Tantra. In Verses 2 & 3 of this text, we're given a hint as to what qualifies a person to become a Tantrik Guru and what qualities are required in the student for them to be ready receptacles for the Guru's transmission. We compare and contrast Abhinava Gupta's point in Verse 2 with Sri Ramakrishna's teachings on the Guru with a reference to Swami Vivekananda's Bhakti Yoga discussion on the qualifications of Guru and Disciple to triangulate on what the true Guru is!

We also discuss the different kind of dīkshas and abhisekhams (initiations and consecrations) in the Tantrik tradition as per Abhinava Gupta's Tantrāloka. Then, we do an overview of the text so far and close out with a meditation on the sky like nature of Awareness, as per Verses 35 and 36 of our text!

You'll find a complete playlist of lectures on Tantra in both theory and practice here.

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How To Offer Japa To Kālī Apr 09, 2025

Show notes

Because we've come to the end of Navaratri and because many are now finishing their mantra-repetition sādhana (puraścarana), I thought it would be nice to discuss the mantra for offering japa to the Divine Mother:

oṁ guhyātiguhyagoptrī tvaṁ gṛhāṇāsmatkṛtaṁ japam
siddhirbhavatu me devi tvatprasādān maheśvari

"O You who are the Protectress of the Secret of all Secrets (i.e the sacred, intimate mantra), accept this repetition of mantra done by us! Make me perfect (i.e help me accomplish the goal of this mantra repetition), which happens only by thy grace, You who are the Great Ruler of the Cosmos (mahā-īsvarī)"

PS: if you are offering to a male deity then change "goptrī" to "gopta", "Devi" to "deva" and "maheśvarī" to "maheśvara" in the above mantra!" So it would be:

oṁ guhyātiguhyagopta tvaṁ gṛhāṇāsmatkṛtaṁ japam
siddhirbhavatu me deva tvatprasādān maheśvara

The prayer:

oṁ mahāmāye jaganmātaḥ kālike ghoradakṣiṇe
gṛhāṇa vandanaṁ devi namaste parameśvari
oṁ gṛhāṇa vandanaṁ mātaḥ sadā vijayavardhini
pādapadmaṁ sadā vande sthānaṁ dehi padāmbuje

"O Cosmic Confoundress (in the vocative case here), Mother of the World, Terrifying , Southward-Facing Kali! Accept my prayer! Salutations to you, Supreme Ruler of the Cosmos! (parama-īsvarī) Accept my prayer, O Mother who art ever Victorious (or who always increases victory!), I always praise thy lotus feet! Keep me forevermore at thy lotus feet!"

This was the preamble to our Hatha Yoga class earlier today which you can watch here and practice along! We meet Wednesdays at 11am PST for postural yoga practice.

You'll find a complete playlist of introductory lectures on Tantra in both theory and practice here.

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Who is Mā Tārā? Apr 08, 2025

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This past weekend, on Saturday, we celebrated Tārā Jayanti. It felt very fitting to give a talk praising this enigmatic form of Mā!

The first thing we do in this lecture is to distinguish the very popular Tibetan Buddhist deity, Tārā from the Tantrik Hindu version.

We then trace the origins of the Tibetan Buddhist Tārā to Parā Devī, the esoteric Tantrik Sarasvatī who is the absolute conception of reality in the Trika System of Non-Dual Shaivism.

As an aside, we track how elements of Parā's iconography is present in the meditation/visualization mantra for Abhinava Gupta, the Trika master par excellence. We show how elements of Dakshinamurthi Stotram are also present in the Abhinava Gupta visualization mantra and that of the Goddess Parā!

Having established the link between Parā and the Tibetan Buddhist Tārā, and having made the case that this is a Saumya (gentle) form of the Tārā, we then turn to the Tantrik Hindu Tārā of the cremation ground which tends to emphasize the Ghora (fierce) aspects of the Deity.

We explore Tārā's link to the Tantrik left-hand (Vāma-marga) and we also compare Mā Tārā to Mā Kālī to make the case that they really are the same Being. Naturally, we say something about Tārāpītha, Mā's sacred temple in a cremation ground in the Birbhum district of Wes Bengal and about Mā's empowered saint, Vama Khepa. We tell the story of Vāsistha and how he had to go to Tibet to learn the Kaula Marga or the Vāmachāra (left-hand path) from the Buddha and how this allowed him to succeed in Tārā-sādhana and establish the holy site of Tarapeeth in Bengal as a śākta-pītha!

We really get up to some Tantrik stuff in this lecture! Thanks all for coming live.

Jai Mā Tārā!

PS: here is our playlist on all things daśa-mahāvidya!

You'll find a complete playlist of introductory lectures on Tantra in both theory and practice here.

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