For the Love of Yoga with Nish the Fish

We suggest about 5 different practices you can do to celebrate Śrāvaṇa, the month of Śiva:1. Vratam. Many people will observing vows like abstaining from a particular kind of food (salt, sugar, pickles etc.) or observing sunrise-sunset fasts or keeping vigils etc. Generally, these vows are observed on all the Mondays of this śrāvana period and so it is often called the Śrāvaṇa Somavara Vrātam (The Monday Observance of Śrāvaṇa) since Mondays are sacred to Lord Śiva. You can decide just what kind of thing to offer or to abstain from as part of your vrāta, vow, just whatever that is do-able and reasonable and makes spiritual sense and is spiritually nourishing to you. This is a bit like the Christian concept of lent, I suppose. 2. Japa (Puraścarana). You can pledge to chant a certain number of repetitions of your dīkshā mantra or any śiva mantra that you like (we often suggest the pancakshara mantra) every day during this period or just on the Mondays. When we systematically chant a certain number of mantras daily for a fixed period of time, we call that "puraścarana". Generally, we recommend that we sit in the same place, at the same time when we do our chanting and generally we suggests that you chant on a rudrāksha-mālā since those beads are sacred to Śiva. You get to decide what number you'd like to pledge, whatever number that is do-able and reasonable and spiritually nourishing for you. 3. Pūjā. Every Monday (or if you want, every day) during this period you can perform a pañcāmrita pūjā and/or a pañcopacāra-pūjā to your Shiva lingam or murti. We demonstrate this simple and elegant pūjā towards the end of this video but you can find all the mantras in Sanskrit with transliteration and translation as well as the ritual procedure in the description of this video. 4. Kirtana/Bhajana. A chanting practice is very beautiful and nourishing since it is essentially, like pūjā, a celebration! Perhaps you might decide to chant some hymns to Shiva on the Mondays or every day; you might simply commit to learning (and memorizing) a specific hymn that you like. (l) Nirvāna-śatakam 5. Karma Yoga. And our favorite practice of all as part of the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda lineage: worshipping Shiva in the form of the jīva, the embodied soul. As Christ said "that which you do unto the least of ye, you do unto me", the best possible pūjā is to actually serve everyone (including plants & animals & spirits & what not) in a spirit of worship. Never think you are helping anyone. Instead, feel that everyone is giving you an opportunity to worship God by coming to you for help. Don't feel that they owe you any gratitude for your having helped them. Rather, you be grateful to them for giving you the opportunity to worship God through them. In this way, your work, your daily tasks, all become transformed into Śiva-pūjā. This is the acme of non-duality, to recognize each movement of life as an encounter with the divine!May all beings, who are none other than Shiva, worship Shiva! Hara Hara Mahadeva! Support the showLectures 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Back in the day, the guru was very necessary because without one, we could not access the Tantras at all (that is, the ritual manuals in which we encounter the practices and philosophies of the tradition) because they were all physical manuscripts that were actually kept in the Guru's abode or even as part of the Guru's memory. As such, without dīkshā (spiritual initiation), it would be nearly impossible to get access to the tradition! Now, many of these texts are available online, in many different translations. One can encounter them and study them and practice out of them without ever having contacted a living teacher. And as such, a very important question comes up: is a living guru even needed anymore? Couldn't one just study from books and from videos on the internet? Perhaps! However, the role of the guru is far more than just one who gives us access to concepts, theories & techniques. The guru is far more than a role model who demonstrates with their lives the proof of the practice and the path. The guru is far more than a personal mentor in whom we can confide and find solace, which are very important things for a real life human who is attempting to practice spirituality intensely! Although these things are all very important and are included in the role of the guru, the main function of the guru is the transmission of spiritual power, what Swami Vivekananda called the "quickening impulse" in his talk called "The Need of a Guru" (Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume III). But what exactly is this "quickening impulse"? Because this is the most mysterious dimension of Guru-Yoga, we explore it in this lecture by referring to some events in the life of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda. This is one of the lectures in our series on Swami Vivekananda's "My Master" along with Advice to Spiritual Teachers & Aspirants Sex, Drugs & Choosing A Guru | Q&A Our Mission | A Manifesto & Guru as Transmission of Power! Support the showLectures 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Because last week's Capricorn Full Moon was the celebration of the Guru (it was actually the birthday of Veda Vyāsa, the OG Guru), in our Friday evening restorative yoga class (which you can watch here), we explored the idea of "Guru as Consciousness", as a principle rather than a person which seems to be the emphasis of so many texts and verses describing the Guru! This conception identifies the Guru with Śiva or rather, Brahman which is Pure Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, the One Reality and the Ground of All Being. It is a quietistic sort of expression. Then, we explored the concept of the "Guru as Transmitter of Power" (which I will upload next) right after this class, and here we see a more dynamic conception, that of the Guru as guru-śakti, "spiritualizing force" or "the quickening impulse", as Swami Vivekananda called it. Together, these conceptions of Guru as quietistic Consciousness and as transforming Power taken together form the idea of Śiva AND Śakti as the Guru, with the third aspect in the triad being the human teacher, the body in which the above two conceptions are harmonized and actualized. The Guru as such is the trika, the resolved trinity of God-Power-Individual, i.e Śiva-Śakti-Nara. Enjoy!Support the showLectures 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Recently, we've been giving a series of talks on our values and ideals, based on what Swami Vivekananda said about his Master, Sri Ramakrishna. Having discussed our heritage in Where Did Kālī Come From? | A Brief Herstory we express how wonderful what we inherited is and how important it is for us to aspire to the very highest of ideals in order to maintain and transmit that heritage for future generations. In articulating those values, we first took up the subject in Advice to Spiritual Teachers & Aspirants and expanded inSex, Drugs & Choosing A Guru | Q&A. Finally, in Our Mission | A Manifesto our discussion reached somewhat of a crescendo. In this class, we continue our reading of Swami Vivekananda's "My Master" (a compilation of two talks he gave in 1896 on Sri Ramakrishna) to emphasize the central value that is at the very heart of our lineage; we point out its metaphysical foundations and its implications in our spiritual lives. Support the showLectures 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

In our recent lectures like Advice to Spiritual Teachers & Aspirants & Sex, Drugs & Choosing A Guru | Q&A we've been going over our ideals and values as a community, using Swami Vivekananda's reflections on Sri Ramakrishna as our guiding principles. Recently also we took a look at our lineage and heritage to see where we've been! Now, we can look into the future and ask, "well, where are we going?" I want to discuss "our mission" as per Myra Mā's excellent inquiry in class the other day. What's our purpose? What's the manifesto? What's to be expected from me and from our community in the years to come? Mainly, with regard to our "mission", I want to say "we have none!" I'd like to talk a little bit about the risks of having "a mission" and the kind of grandiosity that it can bring. Importantly, I want to show how Swami Vivekananda's mission was not at all "his", but God's. Mā alone is doing everything through us and if we were to all simply surrender to the expression that arises naturally from moment to moment, Her līlā will unfold without us having ever to plan or to think about it or force outcomes. Really, in a deeper sense, this class is about how to stay calm and compassionate in trying times, during political instability, personal tragedy etc.and how to act in a way that is aligned with God's will!Support the showLectures 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Recently, we as a community have been having some very important discussions around integrity and our values so that we may be a genuine place of spiritual learning and a safe and inclusive space for practitioners of all sorts, with all types of dispositions who belong to all sorts of spiritual traditions and backgrounds! Naturally, we need to talk about issues of sex, money and power which are most often the downfall of spiritual leaders and spiritual communities. Having clear ideals and having the courage to hold one another to them is perhaps the most important thing we can do so that we don't make the obvious (and very natural) mistakes that spiritual communities have been making for not only centuries, but millennia! In this Q&A discussion following our Free Will vs. Determinism/Self Effort vs. Grace in Tantra discussion, we picked up on some of the themes from the Advice to Spiritual Teachers & Aspirants talk and expanded on them to present a strategy for staying safe in and getting the most out of spiritual learning communities. Support the showLectures 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

In one sense, Śiva means the impersonal absolute Consciousness which is the very essence of the Self (as we pointed out in this video What Is "Shiva"? and also in The Secret Teaching of Bhairava) but in another sense, that which is the formless impersonal Godhead is also, by virtue of His vimarśa-śakti (i.e God's reflexive ability), the personal God who creates, maintains and destroys the universe and who can, at will, manifest as many different forms to suit different occasions and bhāvas (moods). In other words, as the Personal God (Saguna Brahman), Shiva can both be seen as Formless (Saguna Nirākara) and also as having Form (Saguna Sākara) and in the latter sense, as many different forms! In our pūjā-paddhati which we are studying as part of our How To Do Tantrik Ritual series, we encounter some of these different forms and their worship. We discuss some of these in this talk!Support the showLectures 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

To celebrate today's occasion, we took the opportunity to look at the importance of divine immanence as well as the power and pervasiveness and superstition: first, we discussed the Norse and Biblical origins of the Western fear of the number 13, and the fear of Friday as being Venus' day, a day of decadence, sense indulgence and beauty, which are things that all feared and avoided by transcendelist "father sky only" type traditions.We discuss the two types of reclamation: first, by practitioners in the Goddess tradition who are reframing this day at the celebration of the Divine Mother and Femininity since there are 13 lunar cycles & usually 13 or so menstruation cycles as well Friday being associated to Freya, that is, Laxmī/Aphrodite/Venus etc. and second, by the horror movie buffs who want to celebrate the macabre elements of life! This was a wonderful time for me! Thank you all who came live!Support the showLectures 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Today is a very auspicious day for us since this full moon in the month of Jyeshta is the Snāna Yatra, the day when Lord Jagannath in Puri is brought out for a bath: on this occassion, in 1855, Mā Bhavatārinī Kālī (Jagadishwari Thakur Rani) was ritually awakened through prāna-pratishta! at the Dakshineshwar temple, where Sri Ramakrishna lived and taught.Like the Phalahārinī Kālī Pūjā when Sri Ramakrishna worshipped Ma Sarada, this event too is a singularity in the ministry of the Motherhood of God. In one sense, all that is happening here now can be traced back to that moment in 1855 when Ma Bhavatarini opened her eyes and made her presence known in this world so directly! We gave this talk some time ago discussing the significance of this day: Ramakrishna & Ma Bhavatārini Kālī at Dakshineshwar To honor today's full moon, here's another little chat about its significance followed by some light postural yoga practice which you can practice here. Support the showLectures 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

These past few weeks, we've been reflecting a lot on where we've been as a lineage, on our roots and origins. We discussed all of this in talks like Where Did Kālī Come From? | A Brief Herstory, What's Our Lineage? and Our Tantrik Lineage. And of course, while it is important to discuss where we're going (which we'll cover in the next talk), it is equally important to ask where we are now!As such, I want to reflect a little bit on our ideals and values as a spiritual community. To do this, I thought it would be good to read from Swami Vivekananda's reflections on his guru, Sri Ramakrishna (which appear in Volume IV of the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda under the title "My Master") since our lineage (and necessarily also our community) is founded upon the life and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna and because we aspire to live up to the ideals we saw embodied in his example! In reading this reflection, we can come to understand a lot about the perils of spiritual communities not just in the new age context but throughout time. These perils mainly revolve around sex, money and power and in this talk, we explain why that should be so.This talk was first given on Monday night but since the internet gave out towards the end, I wasn't able to complete the last bit of the reading I wanted to share or to make some concluding remarks. So I picked up the thread from where we left off at our Friday evening satsangh and then just tagged that unto the back of the first recording. The result is a rather long video! Forgive me! And thank you for your patience while I develop some of these ideas throughout the talk! May we always inspire one another to live up to the highest ideals of spiritual life always. Jai Swamiji! Jai Thakur! Jai Ma!Support the showLectures 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Recently, we've been reflecting a lot on Is There Free Will? and also How To Really Worship Kālī | Free Will vs Determinism to explain Sri Ramakrishna's very subtle position on the issue: God alone is the Doer ("not even a leaf moves but by the will of God") and yet there arises in us by God's will the "feeling" of free will which makes our decisions meaningful! But ultimately, we realize (a) God only has been doing everything and playing all the roles (absolute determinism on the level of the individual) but also(b) you are God (absolute free-will and voluntarism on the level of the true identity) But while the "free will vs determinism" discussion is a supremely important theme in our personal spiritual lives, another equally important and very related theme is that of "self-effort vs grace"! In this talk, we explain why(a) grace is the only factor in spiritual life and (b) grace can never be caused by anything since that would contradict God's freedom of which grace is an expression and yet (c) we should still do intense spiritual practices anyway since c.i. the very fact that we want to do spiritual practices (and that we have a guru to show us how) is itself a function of grace andc.ii. spiritual practices are worth doing in and of themselves, just for fun and without any desire for outcome! Of course, since we gave this talk as part of our Paramārthasāra of Abhinava Gupta series (which meets on zoom every Friday at 11am PST via the house link here), we use three verses from our text to substantiate our claims on grace:आदर्शे मलरहिते यद्वद्वदनं विभाति तद्वदयम्।शिवशक्तिपातविमले धीतत्त्वे भाति भारूपः॥९॥Just like a face  shines in a mirror free of impurities, exactly like this, this Shining One (śiva/Self) shines resplendently in that intellect which has been made spotless by Lord Shiva's grace.परमं यत् स्वातन्त्र्यं दुर्घटसम्पादनं महेशस्य।देवी मायाशक्तिः स्वात्मावरणं शिवस्यैतत्॥१५॥The Goddess Māyāśakti is the Supreme Freedom of the Great Lord  to accomplish (sampādanam) that which is impossible/inconceivable (durghata): the covering (āvarana) of his very own self (svātma).एकस्मिन्घटगगने रजसा व्याप्ते भवन्ति नान्यानि।मलिनानि तद्वदेते जीवाः सुखदुःखभेदजुषः॥३७॥If the space within one pot is filled with dust, the space within other pots is not stained. Just like that are these individual beings who experience the duality of pleasure and pain/happiness and sorrow.We also gave these two talks on grace some time ago:Śaktipāta & The Role of Grace In Tantra | Vijñāna-Bhairava Tantra and alsoHow To Receive God's Grace | Śaktipāta in Kashmir ShaivismSupport the showLectures 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Last year, on this auspicious occasion of Dhūmāvatī Devī Jayanti (which is the 8th day after the New Moon of Vaiśakh) we gave a series on talks on this very mysterious and often feared phase of Mā's personality (Who is Mā Dhūmāvatī? & Worshipping Mā Dhūmāvatī) where we explored Her origin story, Her symbology and Her significance in theory and practice. This year, we decided to go further and ask: "given that Dhūmāvatī Devī is associated to alaxmī, inauspiciousness and given that she favors widows, widowers, the lonely, outcastes, mendicants and those who live in cremation grounds, why would a householder in a happy marriage or a person interested in success and auspicious (which is arguably most of us) ever want to approach her?! Wouldn't doing so only invite calamity?! In response to this important question, we present about 4 reasons why everyone should consider worshipping this often misunderstood and under-represented form of Mā! You'll find a playlist of all our videos on the Mahāvidyās here. Here is the dhyāna-śloka (meditation mantra) we used in the talk: vivarṇā cañcalā ruṣṭā dirghā ca malināmbarā ।vivarṇakuntalā rūkṣā vidhavā viraladvijā ॥kākadhvajarathārūḍhā vilambitapayodharā।śūrpahastātirūkṣākṣī dhṛtahastā varānvitā॥pravṛddhaghoṇā tu bhṛśaṃ kuṭilā kuṭilekṣaṇā ।kṣutpipāsārditā nityaṃ bhayadā kalahapriyā ॥Pale and restless, irritable and oldClad in soiled garmentsPale-haired, dry-skinnedA widow with few teeth|Mounted atop a chariot whose flag is a crowWith drooping breasts and surpassingly cruel eyesWho holds a winnowing basketWho shows the boon bestowing gestureA crone with crooked nose and crooked eyesWho is always hungry and thirsty, quarrelsome and fearsome.Support the showLectures 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

First, we present a rendition of Swami Vivekananda's profound and stirring song in Sanskrit to Shiva, the Great God along with an English translation by Swami Prabhavananda. I am especially fond of this song! We then make a few comments about why the days of the week are so significant and how to do a daily chanting practice based on the deity that is exalted on each day. Then, after a brief commentary on the Shiva Stotram and its origins and meaning, I make a case for music as a spiritual practice!Here is a playlist of all the kirtanas, bhajanas and musical performances in our community over the years!Support the showLectures 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

In this talk, we develop some the ideas from the Is There Free Will? lecture: if there is no free will, then, what's the point exactly? Isn't spiritual life all about freedom? If freedom is the goal, can such a freedom ever be articulated on the level of the embodied individual if after all, as we claimed last week, there is no freedom in a real sense for the embodied individual since Mother alone is doing everything? What then is "moksha", liberation, exactly? To answer all of these important questions, we take up Thakur Sri Ramakrishna's definition of jīvanmukti. embodied liberation while in the body and mind (i.e anytime we are not in nirvikalpa samādhi) and also consider what this mukti, liberation looks like in a "videha" sense, when we are fully identified with Mā who is not only Free but is Freedom Itself. In this talk, we especially focus on God's freedom and why it is an absolute given. We argue for how God's freedom implies Her absolute non-duality. And if I am God, (as indeed I must be since no second reality exists apart from that) then, am I not also free, as God? What then to make of the hard deterministic position we were arguing for in Is There Free Will?But mainly, this is a talk about surrendering totally to Kālī, having understood her Absolute Freedom. Mā always gets Her way, so like Shiva, one can only smile and watch Her dance!Support the showLectures 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

After giving two talks establishing God (Proof for God & What is God in Tantra?) a in response to various objections from non-theistic traditions like scientific materialism, Buddhism, Sāmkhya & Advaita Vedanta, we are now left with an interesting question: what about the Problem of Evil? The usual response to this dilemma from the theistic position is to assert free-will. God is indeed all-powerful and all-good and because of that goodness, God cannot be a tyrant and so affords each individual the dignity of free-will; the reason there is any evil in the world at all then is because individuals abuse this free will to harm one and another and God, tragically, will not intervene since to do so would be to rob each individual soul of its most basic dignity, its freedom to choose.  In his 1893 world-famous "Paper on Hinduism", which he delivered at the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago, Swami Vivekananda also points out that without the theory of karma, God would be quite despicable. Why are some people born cripples and others healthy? If there are no past lives, then God is the cause for one person being born poor and another rich. Would this not be a capricious God who arbitrarily decides what each embodied soul's starting point will be, putting some further ahead on the track and others further back? No, a better explanation is that God is not inflicting these things upon us but that we ourselves, with our actions good and bad in past lives have ourselves created the chain of cause and effect that have led to our current predicament, for better or for worse. It is up to us to take responsibility for our karmic predicament, without blaming the all-good, all-powerful God and to seize upon our free will to make better choices, in thought, word and deed that don't only create better karmic situations for us in the future but ideally, that take us beyond the wheel of karma entirely! However, here is a complexity: there is no free will (as I will try to show in the talk).Yes, there might be the illusory feeling of free will that God creates in the soul but ultimately, if God is to be all powerful then she is also Absolute, and absolutely non-dual. She it is who plays the role of the individual, she is the world in which the individual has its being, She it is who is pulling the strings the whole time! Not even a leaf moves but by the will of God! But philosophically, look what has happened! If we say ultimately souls don't have free will and that Mother is doing everything, then, free will is no longer available to us a defense against the problem of evil! Now, we have to accept that God is all-good but also...all-bad and somehow, beyond both good and bad! In short, we have to accept the theology of Kali, the Worship of the Terrible, the highest calling of the non-dual theist. Enter only those who dare misery love. TLDR: in this talk I present my favorite view which is Absolute Theism leading to determinism on the individual level to maintain Absolute Freedom on the Divine level which invites a whole new kind of challenging theodicy! Support the showLectures 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

In Verse 104, of the Vijñāna-Bhairava Tantra, we come across a profound teaching:विहाय निजदेहस्थं सर्वत्रास्मीति भावयन्।दृढेन मनसा दृष्ट्या नान्येक्षिण्या सुखी भवेत्॥ १०४॥vihāya nijadehasthaṁ sarvatrāsmīti bhāvayan |dṛḍhena manasā dṛṣṭyā nānyekṣiṇyā sukhī bhavet || 104 ||"By abandoning the sense that the self abides only in one's own body, and by contemplating with a firm mind that “I am everywhere”, without any other kind of seeing (through a-paroksha-anubhūti, direct mystic experience), one becomes happy (i.e enlightened)!"I felt that this verse captured the very essence of spiritual life and spelled out the whole journey from start to finish which is a journey from limitation to absolute freedom, from jīva (limited individuality) to śīva (all inclusive one-ness), from selfishness to selflessness. We explore this idea using the Tantrik & Hatha Yoga languaging around Kula Kundalinī, our own power of identification and how she moves from the mūlādhāra (where she identifies only with the limited mind-body complex) to the sahasrāra (where she unites with śiva in super-sensuous bliss!) through the various chakras in the sushumnā nādi. I was especially moved by emphasis on direct, immediate spiritual experience (aparokshanubhūti) as the necessary condition of realization that appears in the second half of the verse! As Swami Vivekananda defined it, "religion is realization", not frothy talk or belief!This is indeed the goal, but how do we get there?This verse not only tells us the mechanism of spiritual life, and the final outcome but also presents the means: dṛḍhena manasā , through unrelenting, firm, consistent and constant practice! We talk about what practice really means and discuss the role of grace and make a case for the importance of prayer, which Sri Ramakrishna very much emphasized. This lecture is part of our weekly Vijñāna-Bhairava Tantra class series which meets live every Thursday at 7:30pm (ish) here. You'll find our lecture directory for the course here. Support the showLectures 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

When we say this Universe is internal to consciousness, as we do in Non-Dual Philosophy, are we making a solipsistic claim? In this Q&A discussion after our Friday morning discussion on Turning Non-Dual Teachings into Non-Dual Practices | Paramārthasāra, Verse 37 we discuss so many wonderful things!Sri Devi asks beautiful questions about idealism and in response, we show why Advaita, Non-Duality is not solipsism! From this, we come to understand the role of śakti on Non-Dual Tantra as the raw potential that actualizes all possibilities from moment to moment! We then present a yardstick for figuring out whether or not we've really understood Advaita, Non-Duality.Then Gretchen Devi tells us about the Holographic Universe and we present the non-dual claim that you are Shiva, Pure Consciousness and also Shakti, the dynamic dance of the Universe that shines in Consciousness as an expression of radical freedom and joy!Paola Devi makes a case for the dynamic aspect of Awareness, Shakti which is Becoming grounded in the static aspect, Shiva, which is Being. As such, we can say Shiva-Shakti is Being-Becoming! As an aside, I make a rebuttal to Buddhism to establish Time, Kālī as the Absolute Reality!Then, Jaimie Devi makes a defense of the new Matrix movie and opens up a beautiful discussion about the Problem of Evil and coming to terms with both macrocosmic and microcosmic suffering through the worship of Kālī!Finally, Allistairji shares his Mother's reflections on how Kālī worship is the panacea for the dualities of Good vs Evil/Spirit vs Matter which has haunted religion and the human psyche for far too long! Here is a playlist of our Q&A discussions over the years!Support the showLectures 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Perhaps one of the reasons all the various religions in the world are fighting and killing each other is because they never took the time to clarify to one another what, precisely, they meant by the term "God"? Often when atheists criticize religion, they only conceive of God along Abrahamic lines, and poorly at that. But the Abrahamic notions of God (while also being more diverse than many realize), are but a small part of the discourse. In India, during the course of our 9000 year (or so, by conservation estimates) civilization in which we have focused the main efforts of cultural life on spirituality, many very subtle and refined notions of God were realized! For example:1. Nirguna Nirākara, God who is Impersonal and Formless like what the Buddhist and the Advaita Vedantin proposes2. Saguna Nirākara, God who is Personal but Formless like we find in Abrahamic religion 3. Saguna Sākara, God who is both Personal and with Form (like Kālī, Krishna etc.) 4. The Avatāra, God as an incarnation on earth (Rāma, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, Chaitanya, Ramakrishna)To name a few! Some traditions on the subcontinent favor one of these over the others. Some take an exclusive view, some prefer a more hierarchical, inclusive approach and yet others, like our tradition, maintain a pluralistic position: all these conceptions (and in fact all conceptions of God) are all equally valid since God, the Absolute Reality, can never be limited! There is no end to what we can discover in Her, no end to what She can reveal to us! Having said that, what is the Tāntrik view on God? Since Tantra is largely a theistic tradition (oriented around the idea of God), in this lecture, we track some of the various concepts of God that have emerged over the years. This is part of an introductory series of lectures on the foundational ideas of Tantra. You can watch the other videos in this series here.Support the showLectures 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

As part our How To Do Tantrik Pūjā, we now start discussing the next moment in our puja-krama, sequence of worship: Gaṇeśa puja! This a bit like a talk we gave some time back calledWe'll go over the necessary nyāsa, dhyāna, pūjā and pranāmah mantras in the next class for a more detailed worship but in this talk, I just wanted to say a few things about Pauranic vs Vedic Gaṇeśa and discuss Tantrik Gaṇeśawith reference to Mūlādhāra Chakra and our embodied being to contextualize why its so important to get his blessing before beginning any Tāntrik sādhanās. Mainly, we go over the importance of the body in spiritual life, and the symbology of Gaṇeśa's meditation mantra: oṁ kharvaṁ sthūlatanuṁ gajendra-vadanaṁ lambodaraṁ sundaraṁprasyandan-mada-gandha-lubdha-madhupa-vyālola-gaṇḍa-sthalam।dantāghāta-vidāritāri-rudhiraiḥ sindūra-śobhākaraṁvande śailasutāsutaṁ gaṇapatiṁ siddhipradaṁ kāmadam॥OM, I pray to Gaṇapati, Lord of the Gaṇas, Pārvatī's son, the giver of all perfecton and fulfiller of all desires, who is short and stout of build with a large belly, the beautiful elephant-faced king of the elephants surrounded by bess intoxicated by his fragrance (streaming fluids), whose cheeks are quivering with the blood of enemies torn asunder by the striking of his tusks, making him beautiful (as if) annointed with vermillion!After chanting this mantra, you can worship Gaṇeśa internally, in your heart using your imagination (māsana-pūjā) and/or you can offer a simple red flower at the feet of your picture, statue or lamp with the following mantra: oṁ gaṁ ētē gandhapuṣpē gaṇeśāya namaḥAnd then, you can conclude by chanting these prayer mantras:oṁ devendramaulimandāramakarandakaṇāruṇāḥvighnaṁ harantu heramba-caraṇāmbuja-reṇavaḥMay the red dust of the lotus like feet of Heramba Gaṇeśa, the Lord of the Gods, whose crown is adorned with the red nectar of the mandāra flower remove all obstacles!oṁ ekadantaṁ mahākāyaṁ lambodaraṁ gajānanamvighnanāśakaraṁ devaṁ herambaṁ praṇamāmyahamI bow to the divine elephant-faced, single-tusked Heramba Gaṇeśa with a large body and big belly who destroys all obstacle!oṁ sarvavighnavināśāya sarvakalyāṇahetavepārvatīpriyaputrāya gaṇeśāya namo NamahI salute that Gaṇeśa the beloved son of Pārvatī, the destroyer of all obstacles and the cause of all auspiciousness.Jai Śrī Heramba Gaṇeśa Ki Jai!Support the showLectures 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

The krishna-ekadaśi (11th day of the waning moon) right before Phalahārinī Pūjā is known as the Apara-ekadaśi and it coincides with Bhadrakālī Jayanti, the celebration of Mā in her "auspicious" form. While the word "Bhadra" (which can be both a noun and an adjective) means something like "auspicious", "noble", "protectress" etc. we have to ask: what does that really mean? Is this a gentle (saumya) form of Kālī as contrasted with how She is usually depicted in Her smaśāna/ghora (cremation ground/fierce) form? Or do we just have to update our understanding of the word "auspicious" to include even those aspects of life that the mind rejects? In this talk, we read excerpts from Swami Vivekananda's Bengali poem to Kālĩ "And Let Shyāma Dance There" we we learn about the Worship of the Terrible and Mā's Non-Dual, All-Inclusive Form which will radically change the way we understand "auspicious"-ness in the context of spiritual life. Also, we tell some stories from the Puranas to make the case that Vīra-bhadra, in the well-known immolation of Sati/destrcution of Daksha's sacrifice story can be seen as synonymous with Bhadrakālī. Of course, I make a case as to why the latter, female version is better, theologically. This will help us understand why Mā in many of her sahasranāmas stotravalis (thousand names hymns) is called "Daksha-yajña-vināśinī", the one who destroys Daksha's sacrifice. May this be an offering to Her, the auspicious one, who destroys all false ideas and tears down all pretense!PS: here is a playlist (our signature series, our flagship course), all of our talks on Mā.Support the showLectures 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

I wanted to explore the relationship between spiritual wellbeing and physical health to make the somewhat surprising claim: intense spiritual practice can sometimes compromise health! This is because, in the course of intense sādhana, Kula Kundalinī, our personal Shakti, progressively loosens its hold on the physical body. As such, in this talk I argue for the importance of Hatha Yoga practice to purify the prāna, to purify the blood and to fortify the nerves to account for this strain on the system sketched out above. Many "spiritual emergencies" might come down to just this: experiences have occured in a body ill equipped to whitstand the electrical shock of realization So we must prepare the body! I want to share with you our Kaula heritage of Hatha Yoga as articulated by the Nath Sampradāya and I want to tell you the story of Kukuripa and the black dog, arguing for the power of mantra and the allyship of Kula Kundalini. We read a little bit from the "Life of Swami Vivekananda by His Eastern and Western Disciples" towards the end!I pray this conversation inspires you to take up the study and practice of Hatha Yoga in a systematic and dedicated way! Here is our full playlist of our Hatha Yoga classes over the years. We meet live on zoom for practice every Wednesday at 11am PST and again on Friday at 5pm PST via the house link here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7028380815And Kuleśvarī Mā teaches Mondays at 5pm PST, Tuesdays at 3pmPST and Thursdays at 5pm PST, before the evening talks. Image from https://mydattatreya.com/matsyendranath/Support the showLectures 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

This was a fire Questions & Answers discussion! After our Monday evening talk earlier this week, we explore some of the ecological, economical, political & sociological implications of Kālī sādhana. I make a case for overcoming all guilt and shame in the quest of personal self-expression, especially for women who are so often socialized to feel that their every impulse and desire is morally and culturally problematic. We discuss what it would be like to remove all barriers to a woman's being and, for lack of a better word, wild-ness and how Kālī sādhana demands just this. Along the same lines, we discuss the "taboo of menses": can I woman enter a temple and do sādhana during the time of her month? is there any reason behind this idea? We explore the reverence that Kaula Marga has for menses as the most potent and magical substances, with a reference to Mā' yoni in Kamakhya, Assam and Ambuvachi, when Mā bleeds. And then we compare this to the Dakshina marga or Brahmanical orthodox view that blood of all kinds is an impure and polluting substances to have a more well-rounded view of the issue across the entire spectrum of the tradition! Such wonderful questions and rich reflections. Thank you all for coming and participating! Jai Mā Kālī!And here is a playlist (our signature series, our flagship course), all of our talks on Mā.Support the showLectures 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Here is a brief and exultant sketch of Mā Kālī's journey from ancient pre-history into the most esoteric and elite Tantrik circles and into the mainstream Bhakti movement of Bengal and from there into the hearts and homes of people all over the world! Without all of those who have come before us (and I was only able to mention so few of them in this talk), who have each given their entire lives to the work of making Mā accessible to all sincere devotees, we quite literally would not be here all together, enjoying each other's holy company and talking Tantra for hours on end week after week, year after year. I am so grateful to all of them. I am so grateful to all of you. I am so happy. Here's to many more years together playing in Mā's playground! May all of this be an offering to Mā Kālī who comes to me in the form of all of you. May I have no God but you, O Mā who appears as all of these people! May I worship you in them with all of these words, which are offered as so many flowers to you in the form of this sangha! I love you, I love you, I love you. I am mad with love for you! I give you my life! Jai Mā! Jai Mā! Jai Mā Kālī! Jai Thakur! Jai SwamijI! Jai Gurudeva! Relevant References:And here is a playlist (our signature series, our flagship course), all of our talks on Mā.Some of the material from this talk is fleshed out a little more in talks like Ramprasad Sen, Mā Kālī's Mystic Poet, Ramakrishna & Ma Bhavatārini Kālī at Dakshineshwar and What Does Kali Actually Look Like? which is all about the dhyāna-mantra (visualization chant) that we offered in beginning. Usha Harding's pivotal book which I mentioned in the video is called "Kali: The Black Goddess of Dakshineshwar." Do check out Usha Mā's documentary "A Day at the Dakshineswar Temple" which you can watch here.Here is all the music and pūjā recordings from the early Kali Mandir Laguna Beach pūjās which I mentioned in the talk. You can hear Sri Haradhanji's unique chanting voice! And importantly, I only briefly mentioned it, but here is Uma Sanasrayan's important documentary about our Hollywood Kali Puja tradition. Uma is the one who has been making the murtis for Mā for our annual Hollywood temple Shyama Kali Puja. Support the showLectures 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Yesterday, on the new moon in the Vedic month of Vaishakh (Jyeshtha by Purnimanta calendar), we celebrated a most auspicious occasion: the Phalaharini Kali Puja. It is an especially significant day for our lineage and so in this short talk, we discuss why. We tell the story of Sri Ramakrishna's culminating puja which punctuates his 12-year period of intense of spiritual practice! Here is a short pūjā that we did for the online community to mark the occasion! And here is a playlist on all of our talks on Mā. Support the showLectures 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

We recorded this some time back and its not as comprehensive as I would have liked it to be (lineage is such a rich and sprawling conversation, after all) so I never posted it but inspired by the conversations in the Discord this morning, I felt that this reflection would be good to have!There is some debate as to whether Macchanda, the founder of the Kaula lineage (who along with his consort and 12 children probably taught around 6-8th CE) is the same as the legendary Matsyendranatha who founded the Hatha Yoga tradition and who taught around the 12th or 13th CE. These are siddhas so they can live forever and materialize any body at any time for any reason, so dating can be a little complex! But there is no doubt that even if they are two different lineage founders that the Nath Sampradaya is included in the Kaula marga! Sri Ramakrishna inherits this lineage from both Kedarama Bhattacharyaji, who initiated him into the Kali mantra and also from Bhairavi Brahmani, who iniated him into the Kaula marga. Both Bhairavi Brahmani and also the legendary Macchanda, are said to have come from Assam. Whereas Konkanamba, by her name must have come from Maharasthra and Matsyendranath but especially Gorakshanath are perhaps from South India. By some accounts, Abhinava Gupta's guru Sambhunatha came from South India and Jnanetra Natha who founds the the Krama/Kali-Kula might have come from Jalandhara and been initiated by Kali herself in the form of the Yogini Mangala Devi in Oddiyana, in the swat valley! So what we get is a sort of Pan-Indian Kaula movement!You might enjoy Śani Deva's beautiful lineage tree which is part of the "community cheat sheet" he's working on!Support the showLectures 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Last year we gave this talk on Mā Bagalā, on the auspicious occasion of her Jayanti: Bagalā and Black Magick in Tantraand this year, we gave two talks to celebrate the same occasion. The first one is: How To Worship Mā Bagalāmukhī where we went over one of the tantras for Her worship (which you can find here. It's a work in progress!) and this is the second one, approaching Mā Bagalā in a slightly more oblique and thematic way, by discussing the nature of Absolute Silence. I make a claim that even in silence there is articulation "I am", which is called Parā-Vāc, supreme speech which always inheres in the Absolute and is never attenuated! Support the showLectures 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Because Buddha Purnima (the full moon celebrating the birth, death and enlightenment of the Shakyamuni Buddha) is so close to Chinnamastā Jayanti, when we celebrate the self-decapitating form of Mā, this year I decided to combine the two themes into one lecture. Having already explained the symbology of Mā Chinnamastā in last year's talk to some extent, this year I want to focus on the theme of "decapitation" that we often see with forms of Mā. What does it really mean to be "decapitated"? But first, to lead up into our idea of decapitation, we present a few radical and thrilling ideas from the most idealistic, non-dual traditions of India: Vasubandhu's Yogācara Buddhism and Gaudapada's Ajāta Vāda as a kind of nod to the dizzying flights of Buddhist and Advaitic metaphysics! May this be an offering at the lotus feet of the Buddha, the sanest man who ever lived.May this be an offering to Mā Chinnamastā!Support the showLectures 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

In this Q&A discussion right after our Buddha Purnima lecture, we first discuss the art of letting go with Rajeevji. What spiritual practices can I do to help let go of attachment and learn to surrender to the situation? Then we inquire the way spiritual practices can cheer us up and strengthen us with an appeal the the three gunas of Sāmkhya. Then, we compare Tantrik Buddhism to Tantrik Hinduism: can they both be practiced together? We discuss a syncretic approach to Buddhism and Hinduism with Adiji who was tuning in from Dharamsala. We discuss the Candi a little bit with Lekha Ma and take up the question of: should I worship one deity with one mantra or many deities with many mantras echoing the sentiments from this lecture. Then we discuss something very, very important: how to stay inspired in spiritual life to have a sustainable, life-long practice! You can watch the video version of this Q&A discussion here.This one is for Jaanam Devī! Here is a playlist of all our Q&A sessions over the years. Support the showLectures 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

One of my favorite questions & answers discussions so far!After our God, World and the Self | A Comparative Approach class, we pluge into this wonderful discussion! Carl opens our discussion with a profound inquiry into the true teaching of Buddhism and the value of philosophy in spiritual life. And then we think about wholesome philosophy vs unwholesome philosophical wrangling and what makes the difference between the two. Then, Carl asks and even more important question: what does it mean for God to accept "hate" and "evil" as a valid offering of devotion? Also, how do people overcome "bad" actions by not considering them as bad and thus overcoming shame and guilt? Then, we discuss the inner workings of japa practice with Natalie: is quantity the main priority in japa? Should I chant quickly to say the mantra more or slowly to say the mantra more meaningfully? Then, we have a delightful discussion with Natalie regarding evil: How Do You Know What You're Doing Is Good? What if you think you're good but you are actually evil? Using this idea, we can understand how to forgive everyone and how to still protect your boundaries while forgiving everyone. Finally, we discuss ethics and absolute morality with Lāllā! We close with a reading of some of Tim's comments about Buddhism.00:00:00 Why Do Philosophy00:13:46 Can Philosophy be Unwholesome?00:20:08 Why Does God Accept Evil?00:29:14 Should I Do My Mantra Quickly or Slowly?00:35:00 How Do You Know You Aren't Evil?00:52:58 How To Forgive Everyone 01:07:16 Is there A Universal Good? "Pagan" Ethics. 01:16:19 Is There An Absolute Ethics?01:29:37 Some reflections on Buddhism. Here is a playlist of all our Q&A sessions over the years.Support the showLectures 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Today, on the auspicious occasion of Swami Lakshman Joo's birth anniversary, we say a few things about why Kashmir and its philosophers are so important in the Non-Dual Tantrik tradition.Here is a playlist of lectures on Abhinava Gupta's Paramārthasāra, which is a wonderful introduction to the metaphysical and theological system of Tantra known as "Kashmir Shaivism"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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrMSupport the show

Perhaps one of our finest discussions so far! We cover quite a lot of ground here: "If there is a God, I must see him. If I have a soul, I must feel myself as that." This was Swami Vivekananda's intuition about spirituality: it is about direct, personal experience and not belief! While tangible experience of God is the best proof for God, there are some other proofs offered by our Tantra to(a) define God and (b) prove God's existence on logical grounds!We take up some responses from the materialist an evolutionary biologists and make a defense for theism in light of those!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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrMSupport the show

Recently we've been giving a series of talks on some foundational Tantrik concepts starting with the concept of the "self". Is there such a thing and if so, what is its nature? We asked What is the Self in Tantra? and then we looked at the The 6 Layers of the Self in Tantra of the virūpāska-pancāśika, a foundational Tantrik model for nested embodiment. Now, we continue the discussion, recapping some of the stuff we uncovered in those previous classes and concluding with a verse from the Vijñāna-Bhairava Tantra:चिद्धर्मा सर्वदेहेषु विशेषो नास्ति कुत्रचित्।अतश्च तन्मयं सर्वम् भावयन् भवजिज् जनः॥ १००॥ciddharmā sarvadeheṣu viśeṣo nāsti kutracit|ataśca tanmayaṁ sarvam bhāvayan bhavajij janaḥ || 100 ||“There is [One Reality] whose essential nature is Consciousness and this is in every body; there is no special consciousness anywhere!” And thus, a person who contemplates that the entire world is pervaded [by that Reality, consciousness] conquers the world!"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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrMSupport the show

Today is the holy day of Bagalāmukhī Jayanti, celebrating one of the fierce forms of Mā! We've been discussing the Mahāvidyās quite a lot over the years (here's a playlist of talks on them) but we haven't yet looked at the tantras together that prescribe their method of worship. As such, in this class, we look over the Bagalā Tantra from the Bengali compilation, Shaktapramodah (The Delight of Shaktas). But first, since this talk was given on May 1st, the anniversary day when Belur Math was founded at Balaram Bose's house in 1897, we first say a few things about that and talk about our mission to make that which is only known to a few available to all for the upliftment of all humanity! Here is the document we referenced in the class. It's a work in progress! Much editing and proof-reading awaits!Support the show

 On the fifth day of the waxing fortnight of the month Vaiśakh, we celebrated one of India's greatest and most celebrated philosopher-mystics of all time, Adi Shankaracharya. While many feel that Advaita Vedanta is juxtaposed to Tantrik philosophy since it features a "Brahman only without Shakti" model. However, there are at least 4 things that make Shankara an out and out Shakta Tantrika in my book. In this talk, as an offering at the lotus feet of the great master, we go over these four "Tantrik" elements in Sri Sri Shankaracharya's life and teaching!May this be an offering to Sri Shankara and the lineage. May it be an offering to Mā Ganga (today is Ganga Saptami) and the unceasing stream of wisdom that has flowed in India sine time immemorial!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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrMSupport the show

In this talk, we discuss the Matangī meditation mantra and present a simple worship of Matangi since the day before yesterday was her Jayanti (birthday).We were all of us recovering from our Atlanta adventure so I didn't get to write to you yesterday and wish you all a happy Akshaya Trititya; you were all in my heart!Akshaya Trititya is such an auspicious day combining so many important events that I think I'll say a few things about it in class today also before our practice.On this day:1. The day the first naga sadhu, Rishabha was fed2. Treta Yuga began3. Parashurama, the axe-wielding, angry avatar of Vishnu was born4. Ganga Mā first flowed down from heaven5. Shiva appointed Kubera the ruler of material prosperity6. Vyāsa begin composing the Mahabharata (with Ganesh taking dictation)7. Yudishtira received the Infinite Bowl (Akshaya patra)8. Parvati took the form of AnnapurnaAnd of course it's also the auspicious Jayanti of Matangī Mā! Worship of MātangīDraw a red downward pointing triangle in the North-East and then chant the Matangī meditation mantra:śavopari–samāsīnāṁ raktāmbaraparicchadām।raktālaṅkāra saṁyuktāṁ guñjāhāra vibhūṣitāma॥ṣoḍaśābdāṁ ca yuvatīṁ pīnonnatapayodharām।kapālakartṛkāhastāṁ paramajyotirūpiṇīm॥vāmadakṣiṇa yogena dhyāyenmantraviduttamam।īṣathāsya samāyuktāṁ nīlamegha samaprabhām॥Translation:The highest knower of the mantra (i.e the Tantrik adept) should meditate on this Goddess through the yoga of the Left and Right as follows:Seated on a corpse, dressed in red, adorned with red ornaments, garlanded in poisonous flowers/seeds, a young woman of sixteen with comely breasts, holding a sword and skull-bowl, whose form is the supreme light (of consciousness), endowed with a subtle smile, radiant like a storm cloud.Meditate on Mā, perform mental worship and then offer an already offered flower saying,OM jyeṣṭhamātaṅgi namāmi ucchiṣṭacaṇḍālini trailokyavaśaṅkari svāhāidaṁ nirmālyapuṣpādikam ucchiṣṭacaṇḍālinyai namaḥ ।Translation:To the eldest Mātaṅgī, I bow.To the fierce Ucchiṣṭa Caṇḍālinī—the outcaste goddess who sanctifies impurity,who enchants and subjugates the three worlds—I offer myself with these leftover flowers and all their fragrance.Svāhā!All this is offered to You, O Ucchiṣṭa Caṇḍālinī—salutations!"and then place some offered food on mandala saying:oṁ lehyacoṣyānnapānādi tāmbūlamanulepanam।nirmālyaṁ bhojanaṁ tubhyaṁ dadāmi śrīśivājñayā॥These foods and drinks as well as the tambulam and fragrant pastes that have already been touched by the tongue, this leftover (sullied) food I offer to you by the command of Lord 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrMSupport the show

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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrMSupport the show

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 SunIt 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. Support the show

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.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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrMJai Mā!Support the show

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.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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrMJai Mā!Support the show

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 Invocations00:00:47 5 Forms of the Self 00:08:24 The Buddhist Idea of "No Self" 00:10:41 The Vijñāna-Bhairava Tantra on the Self00:15:30 The Self in Sāmkhya vs the Self in Materialism00:42:00 An Argument Against Sāmkhya: There is Only One Consciousness00:52:38 The Buddhist Idea of No-Self 00:59:43 Refuting the Buddhist View of No-Self01:05:30 The Self in Shaiva Siddhanta, Tantrik Dualism01:19:45 The Non-Dual Tantrik Idea of the One SelfYou'll find a complete playlist of lectures on Tantra in both theory and practice 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrMJai Mā!Support the show

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. 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrMSupport the show

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. 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrMJai Swamiji! Support the show

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.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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrMSupport the show

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 japamsiddhirbhavatu 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 japamsiddhirbhavatu me deva tvatprasādān maheśvaraThe prayer:oṁ mahāmāye jaganmātaḥ kālike ghoradakṣiṇegṛhāṇa vandanaṁ devi namaste parameśvarioṁ gṛhāṇa vandanaṁ mātaḥ sadā vijayavardhinipādapadmaṁ 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. 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrMSupport the show

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. 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrMSupport the show

Earlier this week, we celebrated the Spring Goddess Festival, Chaitra Navarātri or the 9 nights of the Mā Durgā! Naturally, we had a conversation about the very profound and very elaborate Durgā Pūjā which is performed on the last five days of the festival. We discussed how the Durgā Pūjā is the modern equivalent of the Vedic sacrifice par excellence, the Aśvamedha Yajña (horse sacrifice) and how performing Durgā pūjā can create the same amount of spiritual and secular merit! We discussed the communal aspects of Durgā Pūjā, mainly to explain why it is only open to householders. After our inquiry into why householders tend to be favored in the Vedic and Tantrik ritual traditions, we then offer a Durgā Pūjā substitute as per the teaching in the Kulārnava Tantra chapter on mantra-japa. We close with offering a simple durgā pūjā, a five-item offering that anyone can do to connect to the energy that is Durgā, who is none other than Kālī, who is your very own essence nature!To worship, Durgā, first chant this mantra while visualizing her form in your heart: oṁ hrīṁ kālābhrābhāṁ kaṭākṣair arikulabhayadāṁ maulibaddhendurekhām śaṅkhaṁ cakraṁ kṛpāṇaṁ triśikham api karair udvahantīṁ trinetrām। siṁhaskandhādhirūḍhāṁ tribhuvanam akhilaṁ tejasā pūrayantīṁ dhyāyed durgāṁ jayākhyāṁ tridaśaparivṛtāṁ sevitāṁ siddhikāmaiḥ॥"one should meditation on Durgā who is called the Victorious One who is radiant like a dark storm cloud, who casts a sidelong glance at the group of foes, thus terrifying them, with a crescent moon tucked into her crown while holding a conch, discus, sword and trident in her hands, three eyed, riding on the shoulders on a lion, filling the three worlds with her radiance, surrounded by the 30 (33) gods* and who is worshipped by those desiring perfection and pleasure!"Then, imagine she is present in the candle/lamp/picture or statue and offer the following items with the following mantras:Offer flower with perfume or fragrant oil:oṁ hrīṁ durge durge rakṣiṇi svāhā eṣa gandhaḥ jayadurgāyai namaḥOffer flower with sandalwood paste or just any fragrant flower:oṁ hrīṁ durge durge rakṣiṇi svāhā idaṁ sacandanapuṣpaṁ jayadurgāyai namaḥOffer a vilva leaf (or alternatively, any other three-petalled leaf) w/ sandalwood paste:oṁ hrīṁ durge durge rakṣiṇi svāhā idaṁ sacandanavilvapatraṁ / vilvapatrārthatripatraṁ jayadurgāyai namaḥ Offer incense:oṁ hrīṁ durge durge rakṣiṇi svāhā eṣa dhūpaḥ jayadurgāyai namaḥ Offer a light / candle:oṁ hrīṁ durge durge rakṣiṇi svāhā eṣa dīpaḥ jayadurgāyai namaḥPS: while you wave the incense and light clockwise around your deity (thrice around the feet, thrice around the heart, four times around the face and thrice around the whole statue/picture), you can chant the Durgā Gayatrī Mantra or the following: oṁ jayantī maṅgalā kālī bhadrakālī kapālinīdurgā śivā kṣamā dhātrī svāhā svadhā namo'stuteThen, Offer some sweets or fruits:oṁ hrīṁ durge durge rakṣiṇi svāhā idaṁ naivedyaṁ jayadurgāyai namaḥOffer wine and/or water:oṁ hrīṁ durge durge rakṣiṇi svāhā idaṁ karanodakaṁ jayadurgāyai namaḥ (for wine)oṁ hrīṁ durge durge rakṣiṇi svāhā idaṁ pāniyōdakaṁ jayadurgāyai namaḥ (for water)(you can consume the fruits, sweets, water and wine afterwards if you like or distribute them to friends/family) I ran out of words! See the rest of the ritual here.Support the show

When we fall in love with a particular kind of spiritual philosophy like advaita, non-duality we tend to become a little dogmatic and reject other forms of spirituality like duality. In our discussion called The 8 Schools of Shaivism, A Non-Sectarian Approach we made the point that a real Tantrik Shaiva will see all the teachings of Shiva as equally valid and since Shiva revealed both duality and non-duality as well qualified non-duality in the various āgamas/tantras, they must all be valid and true! The fullest practice of Tantra then makes use of all these schools and incorporates elements of each! Now, in this video, we talk about why it is so important, especially for non-dualists like us, to ground ourselves in dualistic philosophies and practices as part of firm foundation for spiritual life, as we argued here in 3 Ways to Stay Safe in Tantra!You'll find a complete playlist of introductory lectures on Tantra in both theory and practice 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrMSupport the show

The past few weeks since Shiva Ratri, we've been giving a few talks on the "foundations of Tantra" both philosophically and practically to make the case that advanced transgressive, esoteric & non-dual sādhanas are best founded on firm, devotional, rule-adhering footing! We started our discussion with How To Practice Tantra Safely and then looked at the importance of duality and a non-sectarian approach in The 8 Schools of Shaivism, A Non-Sectarian Approach. Now in the third installment of this series, we break down the "3 foundational practices" that we see reflected in the life of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa! You'll find a complete playlist of introductory lectures on Tantra in both theory and practice 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrMSupport the show

Recently, we've been asking the question How To Practice Tantra Safely and we proposed that the historical progression of ideas in Shaivism presents a kind of graded syllabus where the traditions that come earlier (like the Vedas and the Shaiva Siddhanta etc.) act as firm foundations for the traditions that emerge later, like the transgressive, non-dual Goddess-oriented traditions (Kaula etc.). Abhinava Gupta presents us with a kind of hierarchy for the various schools in Tantrāloka 29.51:1. Veda (Smārta and Śrauta)2. Vaishnava Tantra (Pañcarātra)3. Pashupāta systems (Lakulīśan etc.)4. Siddhānta5. Vāma 6. Dakshina7. Mata8. Kula9. Kaula10. Trika (kulāt parataram trika)Of course, the fact that he distinguishes "Kula" from "Kaula" is worth noting and perhaps worth discussing in depth on another occasion. In what sense the Trika is the "highest" is also worth questioning. In a sense. the Veda and Siddhānta might be the most important since they are the most foundational and yet in another sense, the Kaula and Trika might be the "best" because they are the most refined, specialized revelations of Lord Shiva for the most advanced practitioners. In any case, the world of Tantra, both Hindu and Buddhist is full of "doxographical hierarchies" like this where other schools are accepted as true and good but only insofar as they can lead to "my" school which necessarily I will position as the greatest. We find this strategy also in the Tibetan Tantra masterpiece "Progressive Stages of Meditation on Emptiness" by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche where the various Buddhist schools are presented in a hierarchy. This approach is called "religious inclusivism" and it is certainly better than "religious exclusivism" which says "my path alone is right and other paths are wrong!." In this video, I argue for a third approach as exemplified by Sri Ramakrishna: "all paths are equally, non-hierarchically good as many aspects of the Infinitely Varied One!" This view is called religious "pluralism" and it is to this view that our lineage belongs. As such, in this video, having carefully examined these various approaches to the many schools of Tantra, we make a case for a non-sectarian reading! We present the major 8 schools of Shaivism as follows:Pāshupata dualism (includes Nyāya and Vaishesika)The Lakulīsha PāshupataShaiva Siddhānta DualismShaiva ViśishtādvaitaViśeshādvaita (Vīra Shaivism)Nandikeśvara ShaivismRaseśvara ShaivismShaiva monism (Advaita Shaiva Vada)You'll find a complete playlist of introductory lectures on Tantra in both theory and practice 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrMSupport the show

Perhaps one of the most important and foundational lectures we've ever done, this talk features a broad overview of Tantrik non-duality in the beginning and then moves on to make a case for a Vedic lifestyle and basic devotion as important foundations for more dramatic, esoteric, non-dual and transgressive practices of Goddess-oriented tantra.We also study the Vedic (and pre-Vedic) roots of Tantra and look at a few of the early schools of our tradition such as the Mīmāmsa, Pāśupata, Lakulīśa, Nyāya & Vaiśeshika to derive from them some grounding ideas for practicing Tantra safely! This lecture was given just after Shiva Ratri and Sri Ramakrishna's birthday and so we attempt to map the historical progression of ideas in Shaivism unto the life of Sri Ramakrishna where we see all these ideas expressed! Books Referenced: 1. Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna by Swami Nikhilananda, a translation of the Kathamrita by M. 2. Sri Ramakrishna and his Divine Play by Swami Chetanananda, a translation of Lilaprasangha by Swami Saradananada3. Sri Ramakrishna and His Disciples by Sister Deva Mata4. Ramakrishna and His Disciples by Christopher Isherwood 5. Sri Ramakrishna: A Prophet For The New Age by Richard Schiffman(if you're new to the literature, I would start with 3., 4. and 5. before moving on to 1. and 2. from the list above) ^You'll find a complete playlist of introductory lectures on Tantra in both theory and practice here. 00:00:00 Meditation on Lord Shiva 00:02:00 Tantrik Non-Duality in a Nutshell 00:08:40 Other Flavors of Tantra and the Progression of the Tradition00:10:36 (a digression on exegesis vs eisegesis) and "doxographical hierarchy"00:13:15 finding the foundations for Tantrik practice & the avatāra (incarnation of God) 00:19:10 our project: mapping the history of Shaivism/Tantra unto the life of Sri Ramakrishna to make a case for finding the foundations for Tantrik practice!00:20:39 The importance of Texts and accountability in teachers00:51:51 Staying Grounded as a Foundation for Esoteric Tantrik Practices 00:55:58 Why this PSA is especially relevant after Shiva Ratri 00:51:12 The importance of Veda and Vedic living, the true foundation of Tantra 01:13:00 Rta, living according to the Rhythm of Nature & Fulfilling the 5 Debts to Rsis, Gods (Forces of Nature), Ancestors, Community and Animals/Plants. 01:14:15 An Aside on Why Swami Vivekananda is Not On My Altar... 01:15:45 Sri Ramakrishna's Adherence to the Veda and Brahminical Codes of Conduct 01:20:02 Shaiva Tantras in the Vedas and "before" the Vedas: the History of our Tradition 01:26:00 Nyāya and Vaiśeshika are early Shaiva Schools! 01:28:50 Why Logic and Thinking Clearly are So Important! (lessons from Nyāya) 01:30:19 The Transgressive Practices of Early Shaivas (Lakulīśa Shaivism) and the Cult of Bhairava as a way of moving beyond the Veda in the name of Devotion! 01:35:45 the Shaiva Siddhānta as the foundation for all Tantra & Puja as the foundational Tantrik Practice 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrMSupport the show

We now turn to a very sophisticated discussion about the reasons why we are not immediately, spontaneously aware of the fact that we are non-dual, pure Consciousness in which the world shines non-differently. If I am Shiva, as this tradition tells me, then why don't I know it? How does Shiva hide himself from himself? To explain the mechanism of self-concealment (and also to point the way to instant liberation), we receive this teaching on the 3 malas, the 3 "impurities." In Shaiva Siddhānta, these malas are seen as substantive (i.e real) and therefore must be actually removed through grace. In Non-Dual Tantra, Abhinava reframes "mala" to mean just "ajñāna", ignorance as you can see in the verse below from the Tantrasāra:अज्ञानं किल बन्धहेतुरुदितः शास्त्रे मलं तत् स्मृतं पूर्णज्ञानकलोदये तदखिलं निर्मूलतां गच्छति। ध्वस्ताशेषमलात्मसंविदुदये मोक्षश्च तेनामुना शास्त्रेण प्रकटीकरोमि निखिलं यज्ज्ञेयतत्त्वं भवेत्॥४॥ Ajñānaṁ kila bandhaheturuditaḥ śāstre malaṁ tat smṛtaṁ pūrṇajñānakalodaye tadakhilaṁ nirmūlatāṁ gacchati| Dhvastāśeṣamalātmasaṁvidudaye mokṣaśca tenāmunā śāstreṇa prakaṭīkaromi nikhilaṁ yajjñeyatattvaṁ bhavet (4)Ignorance alone is the cause of bondage and it is that ignorance which is called impurity by the scriptures. With the rising of the moon of perfect knowledge, that ignorance is uprooted completely ! When Pure Consciousness is revealed as a result of the destruction of all impurities: that is indeed what is called Liberation! Therefore by means of this Tantrasāra, I will reveal that highest Reality!This is a very radical reframe and it allows for the view that a person can (a) be instantly liberated and (b) can enjoy liberation even while embodied! Verses from the Paramārthasāra on Mala:तुष इव तण्डुलकणिकामावृणुते प्रकृतिपूर्वकः सर्गः।पृथ्वीपर्यन्तोऽयं चैतन्यं देहभावेन॥२३॥This emission of Prakriti down to Prthvī covers consciousness with (the feeling of) a (limited) body the way the husk covers a grain of rice.परमावरणं मल इह सूक्ष्मं मायादि कञ्चुकं स्थूलम्।बाह्यं विग्रहरूपं कोशत्रयवेष्टितो ह्यात्मा॥२४॥The supreme veil of the (ānava) mala, the subtle kancukas composed of Māyā (kalā, vidyā, rāga, kāla, niyati) (i.e mayīya mala) and the external, physical body (kārma mala) are the three sheaths which cover the Self.This class is part of our Paramārthasāra series which is an introduction to Non-Dual Tantrik metaphysics in theory and practice. You can follow along with the series 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/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrMSupport the show