For the Love of Yoga with Nish the Fish

Latest Episodes:

Kali's Hallowe'en Costume Nov 02, 2026

Show notes

Every year we do a Hallowe'en lecture and its often its these that are my favorites over the yeas, like the one we did last year about Vampires, Kali and Christ | A Hallowe'en Special and the one from the year before on Is Kali Worship Devil Worship? and just spooky things like that which, as you know, is very much our "bhāva", i.e flavor. As such, this year I want to talk about Abhinava Gupta's rasa-vāda, the doctrine of "flavors" in aesthetics which I never tire of discussing and making a few points about Kali Yuga, Hallowe'en and of course, Kālī.

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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

You Have To Kill Kali to Realize Kali Oct 23, 2026

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Because today Venus is retrograding in Scorpio and going on Her underworld journey with the Venus Cazimi/Sun entering Scorpio situation, I thought I'd put out a radical and provocative lecture which we delivered on September 11th, celebrating the anniversary of Swami Vivekananda's 1983 opening speech in Chicago. Swami Vivekananda offered us a very radical non-dual theism, along the lines of the most esoteric Krama/Mahartha Kali masters and along those lines, we offer this reflection culmination in a pretty dramatic idol-smashing moment...

This is somewhat a sequel to another lecture of a similar flavor: How To Kill Kālī | The Three Sacrifices of Tāntrik Sādhana

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Are Tantriks Just Hedonistic Addicts & Unethical Sorcerers? Oct 23, 2026

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The title says it all I think. So often Kaula Tantra gets conflated with Cārvaka, materialism/hedonism as a way to delegitimize and I personally get so many detractors on the internet saying to the same that I'm just using spirituality to justify spiritual backsliding and my reckless partying so I thought I'd just drop this response to prove that while they look alike on the surface, they are worlds apart in inner experience
Here are all our talks on Vāmācāra, the Left Hand Path path:
https://www.patreon.com/collection/1862374

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The Craziest Thing About Kālī Oct 20, 2026

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We gave this lecture on Navami, the 9th and culminating day of the Autumn Goddess Festival (navarātri) which is poetic, poignant and fitting because what we discuss here feels to me like a culmination of everything I've experienced and learned at least in the last year if not over the course of my life in Kali so far! This most radical idea is an overture of sorts in my modest understanding of our Mad Mother Divine...
In fact, over the years, we've given some rather radical and non-traditional lectures highlighting some of the subtler nuances in the bhāva (mood, vibe, orientation, approach?) unique to Kali. The ones I'm most proud of (that I mention in the lecture) might be:
Is Kali Worship Devil Worship?
Vampires, Kali and Christ | A Hallowe'en Special (the H'ween talks are always my fav)
What is a Woman? | & Why God Is A Woman
Is Kālī Lying To You? | & Why I Love Women Who Lie (and the more recent sequel to this Does Kali Ever Tell The Truth? | A Case for Divine Mischief)
because in all these lectures we go beyond the conventional sphere of Tantrik exegesis and in true Ramakrishna fashion, we engage with popular culture, Catholicism and revolutionary movements like the kind we see in Bengal associated with Kali, the Independence movement, for example. But even more exciting to me than all that is when we point out the things that make the theology of Kālī manifestly different in some important ways from the Abrahamic (and most theistic) conceptions of God as a patriarch of order, balance and reason, like we did in Why Kali is Problematic for Abrahamic Theology
As such in much the same vein, this talk explores one of the most thrilling (and for most, chilling) conception of Reality, God and the human quest for meaning.
May it be an offering to Mā Siddhidhātrī, the Performer of Magic Tricks and Cosmic Mischief.

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Does Kali Ever Tell The Truth? | A Case for Divine Mischief Oct 19, 2026

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You guys, I’m excited to see you for our Navaratri conversation on "does Kali tell the truth?", going off the opening teaching from Medhasmuni in the Candi on the relativity of perception. This is somewhat of a sequel to one my favorite lectures of all time Is Kālī Lying To You? | & Why I Love Women Who Lie

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Tantra, Rock & Roll & How To Not Be A Cult Oct 12, 2026

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A fun and zany lecture, something a little lighter than the past two weeks of intense, subtle Tantrik non-dual discussion. We'll talk about tantra, rock & roll and How To Avoid Being In A Cult. We'll reference Baudelaire and his "be drunk poem", read an excerpt from a torn piece of paper that I found (or one that found me) and reflect a little on the sangha drama and internet cancellation episode 2 from the past years

Here are all our talks on the left hand path over the years: https://www.patreon.com/collection/1862374

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Why Kali is Problematic for Abrahamic Theology Oct 12, 2026

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The title says it all I think.
Here's all our lectures on Kali and her unique theology:
https://www.patreon.com/collection/266524

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Is Tantra Dangerous? Oct 05, 2026

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I want to discuss whether or not there are any real dangers to studying and practicing tantra. And if so, what are the risks?

This seems like a somewhat preliminary conversation and we’ve approached the topic before from a few different angles over the years but tonight I want to go in with some much finer brush strokes regarding Abhinava Gupta’s analysis on “Mala” in chapter 4 of Tantrasāra/tantraloka with reference to the non dual Shakta reframe from the opening verses of the Mahartha Manjari that prove to you in the immediacy of your experience here and now that you are perfectly safe.

All our more left leaning radical stuff in this playlist:
https://www.patreon.com/collection/1862374

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My Resignation & My Mission | Response to Allegations Oct 05, 2026

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Sometime back we released Mania, Feminism & Tantra in American Culture | My Statement Re: Allegations a sort of statement re: the first wave of internet cancellation controversy to just candidly offer our thoughts on some of the things that we are being accused of. Now in the second iteration of internet witch hunt, things have developed in some pretty amusing ways warranting another press release, as it were. I had fun, indulging in some whimsy, and chaos in my response.

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Stories of Kāpālikas & Aghoris in Sanskrit Literature Oct 04, 2026

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Somewhat of a sequel to our discussions Where do Kāpālikas Come From? | Tantra as a Dravidian Tradition & Are We Aghoris? | Kapālikās & Tāntrikas of the Deccan & South India, in this talk we explore the often antagonistic and comedic characterization of Kāpālikas or early Śaiva Tantriks in Sanskrit literature and drama, to supplement the historical descriptions we encountered last time.
Jai Mahākāla!

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