For the Love of Yoga with Nish the Fish

Latest Episodes:

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

Show notes

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

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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

Why You Should Know About Swami Brahmananda Jan 30, 2025

Show notes

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.

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Why is Tantra A Secret? Jan 28, 2025

Show notes

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

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How Do Tantrik Rituals Work? Jan 27, 2025

Show notes

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

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How To Love Everyone & Everything Jan 21, 2025

Show notes

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

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

Show notes

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

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Swami Vivekananda's Mad Love Jan 21, 2025

Show notes

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

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How To Really Love Jan 18, 2025

Show notes

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

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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

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

Show notes

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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