For the Love of Yoga with Nish the Fish

We gave this talk on a special occasion: the amāvasyā (the new moon) that opens the gupta navarātrī period (the 9 nights of the summer goddess festival) and so to celebrate, we reflect upon dīkshā, spiritual initiation & the systems of accountability to ensure the credibility of Tāntrik lineages so that we can better contextualize our place as a community in the midst of all of that. Mainly, I want to revisit the validity of intrapersonal mystical experiences like dreams and intuitions as reliable metric for religious authenticity even beyond texts and institutions and to substantiate this claim, we consider 4 important cases: 1. Vasugupta & the Śiva Sutra2. Maheśvarānanda & the Mahartha Mañjarī, 3. Rāni Rasmani & the Dakshineshwar Temple, 4. Swami Ashokananda's "śaktopaya dīkshā" (to borrow Swami Turiyananda's phrase here) from Swami Vivekananda in meditation & dream experience Here is a playlist of talks on our guru-paramparā & thoughts on lineage. And here are some videos on our mission, ideals, manifesto etc. Hit Me Up xSupport the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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 the Gupta Navarātrī (Summer Goddess Festival) this year, we got together in Portland and decided to take up a new text, the Saundarya Laharī, an exceedingly beautiful Śrī Vidyā primary source & primer attributed to Ādi Śankarācarya to study alongside the Yoginī Hṛdāya which we started studying together last week. In this first of many talks on the Saundarya Laharī (follow along with this lecture series here), after a little introduction & discussion featuring Mahadevaji (which you can watch here), I jump in to introduce some foundational & preliminary ideas about Tāntrik Goddess worship starting with the Aṣṭarasā (अष्टरसा) (the “8 flavors of consciousness”) model and the Aṣṭamātṛkās (the 8 fierce yoginīs that correspond to the 8 sets of the Sanskrit alphabet) to which these rasas are often mapped. Here are some citations & resources:From Bhārati's classical source:शृङ्गारहास्यकरुणरौद्रवीरभयानकाः । बीभत्साद्भुतसंज्ञौ चेत्यष्टौ नाटये रसाः स्मृताः śṛṅgārahāsyakaruṇaraudravīrabhayānakāḥ | bībhatsādbhutasaṃjñau cetyaṣṭau nāṭaye rasāḥ smṛtāḥ || Śṛṅgāra (erotic love) Hāsya (comedy) Karuṇa (compassion/grief) Bhayānaka (terror) Bībhatsa (disgust) Vīra (heroic) Adbhuta (amazement) Raudra (anger)And the bonus +1 from Abhinava: Śānta (quiescent/transcendent/spritiual)note: Aṣṭarasā (8 flavors) is the classical list; Abhinava adds the 9th to make “navarasa” (9 flavors).The source for these is Abhinava Bhārati, Abhinava's commentary on the Nātya Śāshtra of Bharati but also for the “9th”, see Abhinava's Dhvanyaloka Locana, his commentary on Anandavardhana's “dhvani” idea (what makes poetry poetic)Here are the 8 sets (mātrikā-Varga/Mātrika Kula) of Sanskrit letters:स्वर (vowels)अ (a), आ (ā), इ (i), ई (ī), उ (u), ऊ (ū), ऋ (ṛ), ॠ (ṝ), ऌ (ḷ), ॡ (ḹ), ए (e), ऐ (ai), ओ (o), औ (au), अं (aṃ), अः (aḥ)कण्ठ्य (gutturals)क (ka), ख (kha), ग (ga), घ (gha), ङ (ṅa).तालव्य (palatals)च (ca), छ (cha), ज (ja), झ (jha), ञ (ña).मूर्धन्य (retroflex)ट (ṭa), ठ (ṭha), ड (ḍa), ढ (ḍha), ण (ṇa).दन्त्य (dentals)त (ta), थ (tha), द (da), ध (dha), न (na).ओष्ठ्य (labials)प (pa), फ (pha), ब (ba), भ (bha), म (ma).अन्तस्थ (semivowels/liquids)य (ya), र (ra), ल (la), व (va)ऊष्मन् (sibilants + aspirant)श (śa), ष (ṣa), स (sa), ह (ha).In the next class, we'll look at another set of 8 (the 8 shadows/pāśās) to complete our understanding of today's material! Hit Me Up xSupport the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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 ended our last conversation (What Is The Śrī Cakra? | Yoginī Hṛdāya, Verses 1-18) with an invitation to start chanting regularly the Devī Khaḍgamālā which you can learn more about here: A Simple Way To Worship The Srī Yantra | Khaḍgamālā Stotram if this text is new to you. It is perhaps the best introduction to the practice of Śrī Vidyā because until we understand the names of all the deities (emanations of the one deity, Tripurā), we will likely not be able to map them on to the cakra, which is just the sort of thing visualization and worship requires. So before we can start performing the daily pūjā or take up any practices, and to supplement our understanding of the philosophical principles of the cakra as the auto-erotic, blissful expansion of the ever-free, self-willed Goddess, we often recommend just chanting this hymn every day until you have it down by memory! You'll find all our talks on Śrī Vidyā here.Hit Me Up xSupport the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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

Since we recently took up a concerted study of a rather high level text in the non-dual śākta tradition, the Yoginī Hṛdāya (the last 3 chapters of a much larger work in the Śrī Vidyā tradition, Vāmakeśvarīmatatantra in 8 chapters) at our weekly Thursday evening text study, I thought I'd share this little voice recording from the other night after our Kālāshtamī pūjā where we offer a brief run through of the first of three chapters of this text with some loose commentary. I'll drop the videos for this class moving forward in this playlist.Hit Me Up xSupport the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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

Tantra has often been considered a closed tradition because its texts and the teachings transmitted in them on maṇḍala/cakra (geometric diagrams representing the retinue of deities as emanations of the central deity/ a philosophical presentation of the Absolute nature of reality), mantra (a sacred sound formula which is synonymous with the Deity/Absolute Reality as a vibrational pattern) and pūjā (ritual procedures detailing the employment of mantras to contact and assimilate the energies of the maṇḍala)  have been given most often in the strictest secrecy and most reverent ritual settings. We've often stressed that unless these things are received directly from the mouth of one to whom it was similarly given, even if we were to learn these things ourselves on the internet or from books, they might not work for us with the same power and aliveness compared to if we had received it from a living lineage. Often, inspired by ideals of accessibility and out of an enthusiasm for this material, I've tended to ignore some of those disclaimers around who should be let in and let out, and I'm starting to understand more now why those disclaimers can be helpful and why in my zeal, my mass distribution of some of the more esoteric material might not always be as compassionate or as helpful as I had hoped.Still, I can't help but to want to make as accessible as possible to all who are sincerely seeking these ideas and practices that have meant so much to me over the years. Perhaps the most responsible thing to do then is to really emphasize the traditional safeguards and disclaimers which are often presented in the beginning of any primary source in our tradition so that viewers can be maximally discerning about whether or not they want to opt in! In this talk, as a sort of preamble to our class on the Yoginī Hṛdāya, one of the central texts of the Śrī Vidyā tradition, we take up the first 5 or so verses of the text which, like many texts in the Sanskritic spiritual tradition, carefully explains:1. adhikari (the intended audience of the transmission, i.e who will benefit from hearing this)2. prayojana (the goal that the text outlines for study and practice)3. artha (the contents of the text, in this case as mentioned above cakra, mantra & pūja9)4. prayojana-artha sambandha (the relationship between the content and the goal) with an emphasis on the 1st of these 4 things. We continue this discussion in the next video where we take up a study of the Yoginī Hṛdāya in a serious way, having established some of these disclaimers around adhikari, competency. We'll drop all our classes on this text and other Śrī Vidyā adjacent material here. Hit Me Up xSupport the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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 we are all of us different, naturally, we want different things out of life and out of spirituality and we so all come to it with different expectations and values and backgrounds. Often, this means we're going to have different (and equally valid) ideas about “Tantra”, “Guru” & most importantly “Dīkshā”, spiritual initiation. In Indic spiritual traditions, we tend to value texts (śāstra) to substantiate our claims and this is especially true of Tantra which is in a large part a textual transmission (without dispensing with the importance of human to human spiritual transmission, through living lineages, of course.) And in the name of integrity and transparency, as is the responsibility of all acāryas, śaiva or otherwise, it's important to be accountable to our textual tradition, to cite our sources and innovate within the parameters of tradition. But the thing is, we might just all be reading different texts and have different ways of interpreting and evaluating the legitimacy of those texts themselves! We should first acknowledge that there are different interpretations of these things and they are all valid even if they differ from one another because our traditions are so vast and diverse. Also, each person is entitled to going about things and understand things in their own way since, again, we are each of us different; what works for one person might not for another. Now, a lot of the time, people conflate what we're doing with what others might be doing and judge us by standards or values that we might not share. All too often, our detractors feel that we are illegitimate (and again, everyone is entitled to their opinion and this is perfectly alright) but in response we say: just because it doesn't work for you, does not mean it isn't valuable to another or rather; just because it doesn't match your standards of legitimacy, doesn't mean it is inherently illegitimate. Perhaps the Indic traditions are just more diverse and more inclusive than we're willing to allow for? As such, I want to be clearer about my definitions and understanding of terms like “tantra”, “guru” and most of all, “dīksha” moving forward so that you can better evaluate whether or not this material (and my interpretation and presentation of it) is spiritually nourishing for you! In that direction, here's a little excerpt from a conversation I was having in the car re: dīksha, in particular. Hit Me Up xSupport the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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

Earlier this year, on Vivekananda Jayanti, I gave a talk on the early days of the Vedanta movement in America, when a few enthusiastic Americans in New York in 1895 gathered in a one bedroom apartment to hear this strange man from India with strange and exciting new ideas talk for hours on end. This is an especially exciting story if you are participating in yoga in any capacity and even more exciting and inspiring if you are, or are aspiring to be, a teacher of yoga, vedanta, tantra or any other Eastern spiritual tradition that emerged in America since then. Mainly though, this talk shows us that times now are not that different from how they were then. This talk is meant to, in looking back, inspire us to look forward and pick up where Swami Vivekananda left. Let's get to it then... Hit Me Up xSupport the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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 gave this talk on Swami Vivekananda's birthday in January of 2026. Today, in 1902, Swamiji kicked his mortal body with great triumph. So I felt it was fitting to post this now, given that it is perhaps one of my most experimental and radical talks! May this be an offering to Swamiji and to this manifest universe, to all animate and inanimate beings, to the sum total of all souls, the one God Swamiji taught us to worship! May we live up to his ideal. Jai Mā! Jai Guru! Jai Swamiji! Hit Me Up xSupport the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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

Some time ago we gave a talk on  How To Turn Every Word Into A Mantra where we explored the phonemic foundations of Tāntrik mantras, to work out how every word in every language can be empowered (i.e "mantricized) to create change in the world within and without. In this talk, we take some of those ideas to their logical extreme to articulate a mantra for Mother Kālī in her pure void aspect, before whom even Śrī Arjuna trembled in fear in Chapter XI of the Bhagavad Gītā! In this talk, we see how Mā in this aspect is not scary at all but when approached in this way, is actually thrilling, exciting and empowering. This might be my most ambitious and exciting lecture yet since this idea is something I've been just chewing on and playing with for a few days and I don't think any idea has quite excited me as much as this one! Jai Mā!Hit Me Up xSupport the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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

A full moon (Kabir Jayanti) special lecture on the ecstatic devotional poetry of medieval India talking Bhakti, Tantra and the liminality of both as my offering at the feet of the baddies of this world, Mira & also Emma Goldman, whose birthday it happened to be that day!Hit Me Up xSupport the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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 having some discussions around the finer, more esoteric ideas around mantra sādhanā from the very refined manuals and exegetical works of the 10th and 11th masters of classical Tantra like Maheśvarānanda & Abhinava Gupta and others. In How Mantra Works & My Favorite Śakti Mantra we explained mantra-sādhanā in a properly śaktādvaita (non-dual) context and then extended from there in Kālī Gāyatrī Mantra | & How To Use Mantras to consider how the mantra can then be applied in a more traditional ritualistic, contemplative and meditative context (which Abhinavācharya might call "ānavopaya" or what we might recognize as more exoteric, mainstream Tāntrik sādhanā). In this class, we turn to an even finer and subtler approach regarding mantra which considers the phonemic foundations to make a claim about how bījā mantras are formed. Most of this material appears in Abhinava's Chapter III of the Tantrāloka & Tantrasāra but the precedent for this is in primary sources like the Nandikeśvara Tantra and even the Maheśvara Sutras from Pāninī which offer very early analysis on Sanskrit phonemes and the logic around how mantras arise and how they work. Once we do this kind of deconstruction (or rather, once we understand things at this level of resolution which arguable is the closest zoom in to mantra sādhana we've ever done together) we should be able to see how all sounds are mantras and how all words, in all languages can not just be empowered as mantras and used accordingly but also how they can be recognized to be inherent mantra whose meaning is Consciousness, i.e You.Hit Me Up xSupport the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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

An important talk looking at some key ideas from a very esoteric, advanced Tāntrik text from the Non-Dual Kaula Śākta (left hand path) tradition to completely revolutionize how we see pūjā, ceremonial worship (by investigating the meaning of the Sanskrit word for "flower", the central offering in pūjā) and how we see spiritual life as a whole. This talk slaps, you guys, if I may say so myself... Hit Me Up xSupport the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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

My work on the internet has been polarizing for various reasons but one feature that regularly comes up is individuals questioning whether we have a right to share what we tend to share publicly and freely, given that a lot of this material is usually kept quite secret in institutional hierarchies that carefully curate distribution and access. (not to mention of course that I'm young and cute and spiritual teachers are apparently supposed to be old and grumpy and serious and virtuous or something...) Now, when some of my friends started posting their own content on the internet, along the lines of what I had been sharing with them, the backlash they got was twice as fierce! I suspect this is because as an Indian man, it's bad enough that I'm talking so freely and recklessly about guarded topics, what to say about the rancor when someone who is not Indian tries to do something like this? Anyway, I was proud of my friends who kept posting about what they loved despite the hate, harassment and death threats and inspired by them, I did this little bit on why I think people have such a problem and what I think we ought to do about it, if anything. (This talk was given right when we got home to LA after the Punk Rock Tantra/ Kentucky Fried Tantra retreat so it reviews some of the material from those talks too.) Hit Me Up xSupport the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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

Right after Punk Rock Tantra/Kentucky Fried Tantra retreat where we gave a series of fiery talks with revolutionary fervor about the effort os redistributing esoteric spiritual knowledge to one and all along the highest standards of accessibility while remaining sensitive to the subtle nuances that make secrecy important and unavoidable to some extent in the Tāntrik world, we were all crashing out together at Bhairavī Tārā Ma's and I gave this little spiel about how there is a clear precedent both classical and contemporary for sharing secret teachings like we are doing. Also, we talked a little about why what exactly we mean by "secrets". And maybe most importantly, we start the talk with the important question: "why Tantra at all?" Hit Me Up xSupport the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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

It is very, very easy even in a community centered around anti-establishment revolutionary values for hierarchies to emerge spontaneously: its usually the weirdest, most eccentric clown that rises to the status of outcast king of the clowns in a circus gathering of weirdo outcasts that we call "sangha". And after all, what is a spiritual community but a gathering of weirdo outcastes for whom community and sense of belonging have been withheld by mainstream society?Its this very need to belong, this very human craving for connection that is often leveraged against you to stay in communities that you should have long since left. The point of school is to graduate but we often don't want to because it means entering into a world that once harmed us and rejected us and because it would of course, naturally, be safer to stay in the supposed safety of the school yard. The point of a community is to make us all individuals and yet how often do we sacrifice that sovereign individuality in order just to fit in? As a consequence, spiritual communities, even those with high ideals reacting to the problems of society, become micro societies with the exact same problems (and because of their insular nature, often much more exaggerated versions of the same problems). To this we say, lovingly: fuck all that. Let's be self aware, vigilant, ruthlessly independent and unafraid of entering and (more importantly) leaving spiritual spaces and communities that no longer serve us. Here's a somewhat self-aware talk about protecting autonomy & sovereignty. We will not "animal farm" up in this bitch, okay?! Here are the talks from the retreat + some other talks we gave immediately before and after the retreat that are related:https://www.patreon.com/collection/2206631Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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 ephemeral and fleeting nature of Māyā (the manifest world) leads many traditions (who are all of them totally valid by the way because different strokes for different folks) to the conclusion that the world of a void, an illusion and a trickster out to get you and rob you of your true inheritance: joy, bliss, peace, blessedness etc. Even in Eastern traditions that don't have room for the Devil, we tend to make a devil out the world; we demonize its dynamism because we haven't understood it or how to worship it & we cherish (often times escapist and life-negating) views that fetishize silence and stillness. In this talk, as per our somewhat provocative title, we say that Kālī does indeed lie and trick but as part of a game, as part of an art project (the idea of art as "artifice) and as part of her feminine power of concealment, veiling and secrecy which do not detract from, but add to her beauty. We contemplate the role of the "veil" and the use of magic, make up and subtlety of speech in our idea of the Divine Feminine to argue that all the things that we tend to problematize in the world are actually to the credit and glory of this Divine Enchantress and Mistress of Magic. Also, I just offer some anecdotes from my own dating situation to show how this understanding of Kālī shows up in my romantic preferences haha! You'll find all the lectures for this retreat here + some other talks we gave immediately before and after the retreat that are related here:https://www.patreon.com/collection/2206631Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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 you feel an interest arising in you to learn and practice Tantra, you will very soon encounter vitriolic gate keeping (by those who are themselves often outside the gates). You will come up against established hierarchies and rigid "traditions". People, often internet strangers, will almost always have something to say about your practice and as if they were the highest authorities on the subject, offer their opinions (whether asked or unasked) about what you can or cannot do. What human being is allowed to have power over any human being, though? When did we accept that as natural and alright and when did we decide to give away our power to those who claim to know better. If there's anything to learn, we must learn for ourselves following our svadharma, our inherent nature and the inclinations of our own heart, which is often (and this is sometimes scary to hear) wholly unique and wholly different from anyone else. What you have to do in your own journey has never been and will be never done. What model then exists to guide you but your own inspiration and whimsy? Everyone is valid and everyone's truth is true in their own context, given their own predilections, but just because something is true before and is true for someone else does not mean it is true now or true for you. Why do we cling to the way things used to be? The ideas of 10th and 11th CE India (and a lot of the times these are distorted by 700 years of Mogul rule and after that a wave of Christian apologetics during the British Rāj, e.g the Brāhmo and Arya Samāj movements of 19th CE ) are like beautiful but antiquated coins. They worked before for different people in a different time but they have no currency now. We are now, and we are different and so these ideas need to be re-evalutated, re-interpreted and re-contextualized, to preserve the best and incinerate the rest!You are a sovereign being! You can do whatever the fuck you want. And because you value radical freedom in yourself, you will by nature value it in others and be perfectly ethical, peaceful and loving, giving others the space to express themselves the way you express yourself freely. It is only when you deprive yourself the right to radical, authentic expression that you start to judge others and feel negatively towards them. Unethical action comes from repression and fear. Stop letting people suppress you! Stop letting the fear mongering and superstition on the internet scare you away from doing the things you love. You see, when you come to Tantra, out of genuine love and curiosity, especially when you have an interest in the "darker" side of our tradition (the left hand path, fierce Goddesses like Kālī, the radical world-affirming and life-embracing Advaita of the Mahārtha, i.e Śākta tradition), you will sooner or later come up against established hierarchies and self-appointed pontiffs telling you what you can or cannot do, keeping a gate closed to a city they have often themselves never entered.To this, we say, lovingly: fuck all that. Lets storm the gates, loot the city and redistribute the wealth (esoteric wisdom) which is the common property of every being everywhere regardless of race, nationality, religion, caste, gender, sexual-orientation, life-style choices etc. But what would such an anti-establishment, punk-rock, outlaw Tantra look like? We try to articulate what such a revolution would take n this first installment from our "Kentucky Fried Tantra" retreat of 2026.No masters, no leaders, no rules. Take back what's yours. Reclaim your power. Do what you want and leave others to do what they want. Freedom! Radical freedom! We will settle for nothing else, we who are the rabid ganas and Bhutan of our Lord and Lady, Shiva and Kali, who are the themselves Revolution Incarnate. You'll find all the lectures for this retreat here.Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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 we gave this talk on May 4th, we start by exploring the relationships between Star Wars, Jospeh Campbell & Ramakrishna's Tāntrik philosophy. We then map this comparative mythology to the Tarot, to deities across the Indo-European world and also, interestingly, Marxism to see how this Ramakrishnan approach is the necessary response to a post-modern, post-truth increasingly relativist world in which many are lapsing into nihilism, atheism or conversely, religious fanaticism. Because May 1st is the day the Ramakrishna Math & Mission was founded, we spend some time reflecting on what institutionalization means for Swami Vivekananda's mission of making available to everyone esoteric spiritual knowledge which gains especial nuance and complexity when it comes to Tantra given its emphasis on secrecy, lineage, mantra-dīksha (initiation into the mantra) and the human gurus. A lot of this talk is my personal reflection on how our community fits into the very complex socio-political marketplace of ideas that is the modern internet-age. In a somewhat candid fashion, I reflect on my place in the Ramakrishna lineage and how I'm navigating the complexity of teaching this stuff in the face of some backlash and misunderstanding while trying to stay true to my understanding of what Vivekananda & Ramakrishna were all about.May this be an offering to all rebels, in the Star Wars universe and beyond!Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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

Over the years, we've done quite a few lectures on Mā Chinnamastakā, one of the most mysterious and often among the most feared from of Mā with a very complex rasa-profile, at least as far as Her iconography is concerned. In 2024, in Goddess Worship in Tantrik Buddhism | The Buddhist Chinnamastā we looked at a Tibetan Buddhist tantra for Vajrayoginī & compared it to a "Hindu" tantra for Chinnamastakā to demonstrate that the Goddess tradition is the same across sectarian lines! Then, in 2025 we did How To Decapitate Yourself | Chinnamastā Jayanti a thrilling inquiry in the motif of decapitation that is pretty ubiquitous with Mā in many of Her representations. This lecture was like a hand grenade to destroy all vikalpas, differentiating thought constructs (the head) that obscure the mad joy of non-dual experience (headlessness) to allow the blood (bliss and power) to flow and imbue all aspects of life, now understood correctly in the light on non-duality. Going off the previous year's lecture, we engage a lot of Buddhist void and mind-only philosophers like Nagarjuna and Vasubandha alongside Gaudapada and more extreme non-dual masters like that. Now, I want to consider the two streams of blood to the left and right and by comparing them to the Idā, moon-channel and Pingalā, sun-channel and by comparing that in turn to the image of Kāmadeva and Rati making love on the horizontal plane, the seat of the rising Kundalinīin the Sushumnā nādi, I think we can say a few exciting things about why its important to still hold your head (maintain rational, grounded, controlled thinking, i.e jñāna) after decapitation, the mad ecstasy of devotion, i.,e bhakti! Here are all our videos on the Mahāvidyās over the years. Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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 start with a little review of rasa vada, the theory of aesthetic "flavors of Consciousness" that are very much emphasized in our Tāntrik iconography & poetics before presenting Mātangī Devī as a a radical invitation to reclaim those rasas, or "flavors" which are commonly rejected as impure or unspiritual or unwholesome in the name of a deeper, more inclusive & capacious non-dual understanding. And to discuss the ucchistā approach (the spirituality of impurity/trangression), we need to say more about śānta-bhāva, Abhinavagupta's 9th meta-flavor that imbues all the other flavors (even the "unspiritual" or disturbing ones) with poetic and aesthetic (read also: spiritual) meaning. The discussions around śānta-bhāva which engage Bharata and Anandavardhana, two important aesthetic philosophers that influence Abhinava's Tāntrik exegesis, present a new understanding of "sattva" as that luminosity inherent in consciousness itself and not just a feature of the mind nourished by food purity, yogic disciplines & spiritual practices. The thesis then is as follows: contemplating Mātangī and the spirituality of impurity is contingent upon an understanding of the meta-flavor of Śānta-bhāva which itself present a sort of meta-sattva that does not negate rajas, agitation or tamas, inertia but rather includes them and exalts them! As such, I can say that all spirituality (and Vāmacāra is no exception) is about sattva maxing only in this lecture, I want to refine our understanding of just what it is we mean by "sattva", as per the interpretations of Kaula masters like Somananda, Abhinava & others. Also, we indulge in a long digression at the top of the lecture on the nature of bhoga, enjoyment, the Vedic orientation toward bhoga and the age old question of is bhoga mutually exclusive with yoga, spirituality? Here's a playlist of all our videos on the daśamahavidyās with a Śri Vidyā orientation. Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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

Isn't interesting that around the same time that the narrative of the quintessential serpentine representation of the divine, dark feminine, chaos embodied, Tiamat's evisceration by Marduk, the male storm God par excellence gained mythological dominance, Hammurabi hammers the "law" into his stone, thus enshrining the role of the conscious, analytic, externally-oriented & physicalist mind as more important or "holier" than the feminine, subconscious, interiorized, symbolic & archetypical mind? Isn't also interesting that after this mythological narrative gained dominance, and after this major historical event, the religious traditions of the late neolithic era and up the present day have been shifting further and further away from Goddess worship (i.e an immanence-oriented, world embracing, embodied approach to religion) in favor of the more transcendentalist, world hating, body-denying, struggle-oriented "father sky" idea? In this talk, after we explore some ideas about Sanskrit as a gendered language and the widespread implications of that, and after we make a few claims about shifting our discussions on gender to a more interiorized, psychological place, and certainly after some long digressions on feminist theories of the 19th century (Virginia Woolf, Vivekananda etc.), we turn to one of the most important things we could ever discuss as a śākta (I.e, goddess oriented) community: what is a woman? And more importantly: in what sense is God a woman?Really, this lecture is just three hours of us unpacking the rishikā, Ariana Grande's mahavākya: God Is A Woman.Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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 bold little talk, I wanted to discuss the ānanda-mīmāmsa section in taittirīyopanishad: are the three different types of bliss different in kind?/ is spiritual bliss different from "worldly" bliss so that I can articulate the poetical, aesthetically oriented practice of Śaiva non-duality called the "sukhopāya, path of pleasure"  as in Vijñāna-Bhairava, verses 68-75! I also wanted to discuss the root "bhaj-" in "Bhakti", to discuss congregational spirituality and make some comparatives to the bliss oriented, congregational activity we calling having a good time! You'll find all our classes on the Vijñāna-Bhairava Tantra here:https://www.patreon.com/collection/143200Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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 Tantra, you find two separate transmissions that seem to be in tension with one another: one one hand, there are the Jñāna or contemplation oriented traditions (for example, the Vijñāna-Bhairava Tantra or Somānanda's śiva-drshti) that privilege subtle, interior practices involving the intellect and spacious, sky-like awareness (think: Dzogchen) and on the other hand, in the vast majority of instances, there is the kriyā approach which centers formal, external, often deity-oriented ritualistic/ceremonial practice. The former might dismiss the latter as gross or preliminary (like we see in the Verses 8-13 in the Vijñāna-Bhairava, for example or like we see with Abhinava Gupta and Somānanda re-interpreting external practices like pūjā, homa, yāga, japa etc. to be internal, contemplative modes). In this talk, which we gave as part of our Denver 2026 retreat, I explain these two seemingly contradictory streams in the Tāntrik world with an appeal to Jñāna and Kriyā śaktis, the inherent powers of Consciousness, i.e God/Śiva to cognize and to act. More importantly, with an appeal to Icchā Śakti, which Somānanda prioritizes, we will reconcile the seeming dyad of Jñāna-Kriya or Knowledge/Action or Meditation/Ritual or Internal/External by subsuming in this third category, Icchā, the pure pre-cognitive, restful Desiring power of God! This is a pretty subtle lecture and I enjoyed thinking about this out loud with you. Thank you for being there in person and online!Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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 some ecstatic & triumphant kirtan (which you can watch in the last video here) at our second session at our second Denver retreat in April 2026, we take up our evening's lecture, an Easter special featuring some of my most inspired reflections on Tantra, gnostic Christianity and the politics of spirituality to answer the question:Who has the right to teach & practice Tantra? We reference some of Cynthia Bourgeault's and Elaine Pagel's academic work on the early history of Christianity to consider the politics around the resurrection of Christ (i.e Mary vs Peter, Gnostic Christianity vs Orthodox Christianity) which I'm going to argue mirrors the politics of Left-Hand Path vs Right Hand Path (read also: institutional) Tantra. Much of this lecture is my loving middle finger to those who say we should not be doing what we're doing. Whatever such people may say and however good their intentions, with love and respect we say to them, like the Gnostics before us: we're going to do it anyway. Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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

There are many ways to understand the word "meditation." Given that this is one of the central modalities of spiritual life and given the ever increasing interest in meditation, I felt a definition and discussion around meditation to clarify what it is and isn't in the Patañjali Yoga tradition would be helpful. More importantly, after we sketched out the basics of classical yogic meditation (i.e concentration practice), we then compared it to Tāntrik meditation to show how the Tāntrik tradition innovates and develops Patañjāla meditation to make for more visualization, dynamism, emotional cultivation (rasa) and aesthetic meaning. While it does sound like I'm positioning Tāntrik meditation as more appropriate, wholesome and complete here, in truth, the two traditions not only build off one another and depend on one another but are also both equally valid and equally effective modalities, each suited to practitioners of different temperaments. Neither is better or worse than the other, just different. And by understanding nuances such as these, we can be clear as to what meditation is and what is expected of us as aspirants! If you're interested in starting up your Tantrik practice, you'll find some resources for you here. Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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

Since it was Chaitra Navarātri last week, as part of our last Friday morning Abhinava Gupta Paramārthasāra class, we explored some key śaiva ideas that appear in the opening teaching of the Devī Māhātmyam. In this talk, we first explain the mythic context in the Bhagavad Gītā, the Upanishads and of course, the Devī Māhātmyam and explain from a śaiva perspective, why all these aesthetic and poetic features of the teacher are central to our metaphysical and soteriological framework!Also, we distinguish between soteriology, metaphysics, epistemology and of course, axiology/aesthetics. We explain how the latter is especially emphasized in the śaiva tradition, making śaiva tantra unique in its soteriological framework that embraces art, pleasure, relationships & engaging with the world at large.You'll find a playlist of all our Navarātri themed lectures around the Devī Māhātmyam here:https://www.patreon.com/collection/784368and you'll find our previous classes on the Paramārthasāra of Abhinava Gupta (i.e Introduction to Tāntrik Śaiva Monism, Svatantrya Vada) here:https://www.patreon.com/collection/106196Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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 is rather foundational discussion about the role of pūjā (ceremonial worship) in spiritual life in the modern age. As you know, the Tāntrik tradition is above all, when we consider the primary sources, about rituals and ceremonies. Now, these can often be very intimidating to learn given their technical and often elaborate nature. And this is especially a problem when you love pūjā but don't have the time and/or inclination to get all the materials and worship for 5 or 6 hours at a time, every single day! What then can you cut out in order to create your own personalized practice that makes sense for you? Is it even okay to personalize and customize the rituals presented in the texts? And if so, how do we make executive decisions like this at all on our own without compromising the efficacy of the complete system with our own idiosyncratic editing? We also have a cool discussion in the beginning about how pūjā is the perfect spiritual practice for the modern digital age. I also introduce you to some pretty esoteric Kaula deities: Ānanda Bhairava & Ānanda Bhairavi and their yāmala, which forms the third deity in the trinity: Samvit Devī or often just Vijayā or Suvijayā in some of the Kaula texts. Naturally, we point out the obvious purvāmnaya flavor in this presented of the devi-traya, trinity of Kula deities! All of this will probably whet your appetite to learn pūjā. As such, here's a step by step, mantra by mantra pūjā tutorial using several paddhathis (ritual manuals), classical and modern without copious (some might even say, gratuitous) exegesis:https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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 What Is Our Lineage, Actually? | Tradition vs. Innovation lecture, we started an inquiry into lineage, responsibility and accountability by taking into consideration all the subtleties and nuances of our tradition, from a historical and somewhat academic perspective. I offer a few stories from various sampradāyas (traditions) to show how multifaceted all of this can be to drive home the complexity of the Ramakrishna lineage and the ideals which we, across different interpretations, stand for. All of that was part of my own personal reflection on how to responsibly share my enthusiasm and delight about this tradition, which is a delicate balancing act between honoring my own instincts, inspirations and interpretations with what we call ekavākyatā (lineage consistency). In this talk, which acts as a sequel of sorts, I take a much more personal approach and using a reflection on svadhārma as per the Bhagavad-gītā, I articulate some of my most cherished ideas about being yourself & following your heart, as an expression of svatantrya, the innate playfulness of Reality. However, while I do just want to say what is in my heart to say, I also offer a few methods of accountability and means for calling me out on anything and everything!For whom my ramblings have not been helpful and appropriate, I apologize sincerely and pray you'll find the traditions, interpretations and practices that do. Naturally, you will because Hinduism is nothing if not maximally diverse and inclusive! For those who my ramblings have been somewhat interesting at least, I am deeply grateful for your support and indebted for your kindness, patience & understanding. On this sacred first day of Navaratri and Ugadi, the New Year, I offer you this from my heart to yours! namah śīvāyah.Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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

Towards the end of 2024, we gave a talk called What's Our Lineage? and then in May of 2025, we presented a sequel called Our Tantrik Lineage. Both these talks are my attempt to reflect upon and understand the diverse influences that pour like so many streams into my lectures and spiritual life. These two talks are also a commentary on how complex and nuanced the lineage of Sri Ramakrishna is! But even having presented these ideas over the course of the last three years, and even having given about 21 lectures on the the role of the guru in the Tāntrik tradition over the course of the last six years (they're all here in this playlist), there's still some confusion about who I am, whether or not I have the right to do what I do and whether or not my views are based. And in the interest of having a broader discussion on responsibility, integrity and accountability in the spiritual world, especially on the internet, we present this talk "What is Our Lineage, Actually" to reflect upon the tension between sticking to tradition and innovating beyond it! In this talk, our subtlest & most nuanced yet, we dicusss mīmāmsa, the reverential & yet critical reading of a sacred text with an appeal to Yāska's rules of grammar & etymology (Nirukta) before asking: are these still relevant and valuable today? In other words, do the rules still apply when we read texts now in the modern era?And more importantly, which texts should be read reverentially?Is there a sense in which the texts that are considered authoritative and sacred back then no longer hold the same place in light of modernity? And perhaps an even more cutting question is this: is there even a place for logic, grammar, etymology (i.e the analytical mind) in the study and practice of sacred texts like Vedas & Tantras? And if we don't think there is, then, what tools are left for us when it comes to discernment in our study and practice? More importantly, even if we accept Niruka (the rules of Sanskrit grammar and etymology), when we comment on a text is it ever exegetical (an unbiased attempt to explain what the text is saying) or is it necessarily, given the confirmation bias that we all carry, eisegesis (explaining a text to promote and support what we already believe). Besides these questions above, we ask a series of 8 difficult questions about the tensions between sticking to tradition and innovating beyond it! More importantly, I present a few different stories from our history to show some divergences between Gurus and their disciples:1. Ramanuja & Yamunacarya 2. Chaitanya, Krishna Bharati & Ishvara Puriand some more contemporary examples3. Vivekananda & Ramakrishna4. Chaitanyananda (Ayaji) & Amritananda Saraswati5. Anakin Skywalker & Obi Wan Kenobi to pose a few difficult questions about ekāvākyatā, sampradāyic consistency!Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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

A rather foundational and exciting discussion about linguistic mysticism in both its psychological and metaphysical dimensions. We first sketch out the Sanskrit language system and then we make a case for how words sculpt our reality, on a psychological level. But then, we daringly go beyond mere linguistic mysticism to a far deeper insight on the inseparability of the world and language. The world IS language!And so if Tantra is a tradition that promises to create change in the world through its application (which is to say, change in the mind since, having proven that world is only ever internal and never external, to change the mind is to fundamentally alter the "world" experienced within it), then naturally the main modality employed in tantra is language, or rather, the power of the Word. Also, I was trying to share my wifi password but then accidentally turned off the wifi at the end so the video dropped. By I think that was a good place to end our discussion anyway! Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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

Sanskrit words are multivalent: they mean many different things in many different contexts. And so understanding the context in which a charged word like "God" or "Tantra" is used is very important since almost all of our misunderstandings between one other might just come down to this: we assume we all mean the same thing and have the same experiences with terms that we use in common, like "God" and "Tantra." Because this is simply not the case, we take some time in this video to carefully specify and define just what we mean in our community when we use the word "Tantra"! And just as Sanskrit words are complex, the Sanskritic traditions are doubly so. The world of Śaiva & Śākta Tantra is dizzying in its dazzling display of diversity and so approaching things with care, subtlety and nuance is doubly important! And for this, once again, we must define just what we mean when we say "Tantra"! Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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

Tonight is the eclipse full moon celebrating the birthday of Sri Chaitanya, the Incarnation of Divine Love (premāvatara) and commemorating both the burning of the demoness Holikā (as per the Vaishnava story of Prahlāda, the demon boy who loved Vishnu) as well as the burning of Kāmadeva, or Cupid (as per the Shaiva and Shakta Puranic stories of Shiva burning Kāmadeva and Lalitā defeating Bandhāsura).Since many are already familiar with the celebration of Holi (pelting each other with colored powders) and since we gave a talk on it last year called What is Holi?, I thought this year, it would be nice to offer a few more esoteric reflections on the celebration with regards to Tantrik Non-Duality! Find all our talks on Tāntrik Vaishnavism here. Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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

Besides the fact that Sri Krishna and Ma Kali share the same bīja mantra and besides the significant historical and cultural overlap between these two traditions in Bengal, there is a certain esoteric "bħāvic" connection between these two deities, one of madness and ecstasy that we see so perfectly expressed in Sri Ramakrishna. In this talk, we explore that bhāva of mad love, with some important digressions into the Tāntrik understanding of Deity and of Mantra. Happy Holika/Kama Dahanam! Happy Chaitanya PurnimaHappy Vasant Purnima/ Spring Eclipse Full Moon!You'll find all of our Tāntrik Vaishnavism lectures here & all our stuff on Mā Kālī here. Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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 start by explaining the pañca-makāras, the transgressive offerings in the context of Kālī pūjā in the Vāmācāra, the so-called "left-hand path" of Tantra, mainly to point out the "curse" that is on alcohol & meat with reference to King Parsokhit in the Bhāgavātam, and to Pauranic stories of Brahmā & Śukra who all have cursed alcohol. We explain also how meat is cursed also before offering some modern day examples to show how that curse plays out. These remarks act as a sort of disclaimer for anyone who wants to experiment with Kaulācāra or Vāmācāra! Mainly, we present he Vāmācāra strategy of mitigating the curse, with a reference to the Brahma-śāpa-vimocana stotram which is used to remove the curse on the Devī Māhātmyam. We explain also the logic of using the pañca-makāra to demonstrate how this approach could be spiritually nourishing for a certain kind of person. We also offer a short digression about the esoteric deities  of Vāmācāra: Ānanda-Bhairava & Ānanda-Bhairavī in sexual union, i.e ārdhanarīśvara. But very quickly we digress into a subtle discussion about the Big "I", pūrnahantā, my essential nature as the Self, Consciousness reflecting upon Herself through all beings sentient and insentient. This is the highest non-dual teaching of our tradition! As such, we present the pañca-makāras as a modality, an approach to co-opt intensely disturbing as well as intensely pleasurable experiences to "touch down" on my essential nature as blissful, ever-full consciousness! You'll find all of our lectures on Vāmācara & the more transgressive aspects of our tradition here. Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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

Śiva is often described as "vicitra", strange and wonderful! Having touched upon this idea off Śiva's weirdness a little bit in our Shiva, Paradox Personified lecture, we go in with some finer brush strokes to make a point about how all the various depictions of Śiva in Pauranic literature might be pointing to a very unique, mind-boggling kind of theology that is wholly unlike anything else you might have heard in the world of comparative religion! We gave this talk as part of our Śiva rātri celebrations up in our new retreat space in Oxnard. We paused the recording after the first section to go and do our Ganesh puja and then we recorded the second session, picking up where we left off later in the evening before the first prahara puja! Forgive me for the little discontinuity in the middle! Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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

Just a little riffing on the Puranic depictions of Shiva, as per or Shiva Ratri festivities this year! There's something very weird and wonderful (vicitra, in Sanskrit) about our Mahadeva, is there not? Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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'm a little late on this video (I had meant to get it out before the festivities this year) but hey, maybe this is for next year and if you're particularly hardcore, for next month (since there's a śiva rātri every month the night before the new moon)! In this talk, we go over some rituals and practices for observing śiva rātri for people asking questions like, "when/what is śiva rātri?", "what should I do all night?", "what is fasting and how to do it?" etc. Here is a playlist of all our talks for śiva rātri.Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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

Leading up to Śiva Rātri (which is coming up for us this Sunday on February 15th, 2026), I'm releasing a bunch of videos on different aspects of our tradition, as part of the celebration! Having already put out Secret Kālī Teachings in Śaiva Texts which featured a (śaktra reading) of sample from the Paramārthasāra, a profound non-dual transmission from the master, Abhinava Gupta, we now turn to something even more esoteric (guhya) and essential (sāra): a teaching from the Vijñāna-Bhairava Tantra on worshipping Śiva as the pure, non-dual consciousness which you, yourself, right now are!This is the 2nd of 4 or 5 videos for Śiva Rātri this year! Here is a playlist of all our Śiva Rātri content over the years!Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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 ask the question "which deity should I worship?"  & "does it even matter?" going off last week's reflection on how Tantra works and our conjectures about Swami Brahmananda's Ishta (chosen deity). Naturally, we end up discussing some of the nuances and complexities around the central claim of our lineage: "all religions are true" which for Tāntrikas shopping for an Ishta, comes across as "all deities are different forms of the One Absolute Reality" pointing to the tension between the broadness invited by this view versus the focus (ishta-nishta) & depth that is typically insisted upon in our view particularly with regards to choosing one path/deity and sticking to it! Mainly though, we talk about faith & renunciation, "īśvara-anurāg-vishāya-virāg" the most essential things in spiritual life. This was quite an inspiring and meaningful talk for me. Thank you for all who came live! May it be an offering! Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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 started giving some classes on the हठप्रदीपिकां haṭha-pradīpikāṁ, the central text on the post-classical tradition in the Nāth sampradāya as part of our weekly Wednesday postural yoga class on zoom. The other day, I was looking at some of the letters Swami Premeshanandaji sent to Swami Svahanandaji in the book "Go Forward" and I was struck by this elegant and beautiful idea that the former was expressing to the latter: Swami Vivekananda is subtly reinterpreting Hatha Yoga in his conception of Karma Yoga, engaging relentless with the world in a spirit of self-sacrificing, enthusiastic and unattached service (i.e pūjā) to God embodied as beings, sentient and insentient.So before we started doing some postures, I thought I'd just reflect upon this for a little bit. Enjoy!Jai Swamiji! śrī guru arpanam astu! Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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

Since we are in the lineage of Sri Ramakrishna and since you will be interacting with his life and teachings quite a bit in our community, it's important at this point to say that no one interpretation of Sri Ramakrishna and of his lineage can ever be absolute or definitive.A lot of what you will hear us say about Sri Ramakrishna might be markedly different from what some other places that represent Sri Ramakrishna are saying and that's just fine and as it should be to show the many colors of the infinitely rich and illimitable Reality called God! But if we don't point out now how our take on Thakur (which is what we lovingly and affectionately call Sri Ramakrishna) differs from others', you're likely going to feel a little confused when you visit some of the other lineage holders and centers associated to him, which I always encourage you to do to get a more well-rounded take! Here is a series of talks on a few central themes worth revisiting from time to time to marinate your mind in the View (darśana) and orient yourself to the tradition (sampradāya), lineage (paramparā) and practice (sādhanā). They are presented here in an order that made sense to me, but you can watch whichever talks whenever and it whatever order, as you like! Just click the links to be redirected to the talk: i. What is Śākta Tantra?ii.​​How To Be Blissful & In Love | My Reading on Ramakrishnaiii.Śrī Rāmakrishna & The Whole Spectrum of Tantraiv.The Best Tāntrik Philosophy | & How Pūjā Worksv. And now here is this talk walking us through how to dive in and get started! You'll find all of these in order + a bunch of other resources in our How To Practice Tantra playlist here. And here's our playlist of classes on How To Perform Tāntrik Pūjā Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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

What does Tantra really look like in practice? Whether its "right" hand path Tantra or the so-called "left" hand path, Tantra is essentially a form of Deity Yoga, that is, an ongoing practice of cultivating a deep, personal, devotional relationship to a Deity. Importantly, the "deity" is a particular reading on the one, Absolute Reality. We call the deity an Ishta, the "Chosen Ideal." Since we are all of us unique, the way we are each of us going to understand the Absolute Reality, the way we will come to It and the way we will express It is necessarily going to be different & unique to us and our qualities, competency & proclivity. As such, while Tantra is essentially deity yoga, it is also a tradition that maximally offers innumerable deities, paths, lineages, rituals & practices so that no one is excluded and that everyone, whatever they're individual spiritual tastes may be, can find a practice (i.e choose an ishta, a deity) that most resonates with them, most inspires them and is most able to spiritually nourish them! We discuss how the Vijñāna-Bhairava Tantra and the various sahasranāma stotrams make a case for the illimitable and infinitely, maximally variegated nature of Reality, which the Tāntrik tradition tries to reflect by offering diverse deities, paths, lineages, rituals & practices all along the spectrum from "right" (orthodox) to "left" (transgressive). Mainly, we contemplate how Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda & Swami Brahmananda reflect the above ideals in their lives and teachings as part of our Swami Brahmananda Jayanti celebration! Jai Guru Maharajji Ki Jai! Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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 particularly inspired and lively discussion from our Atlanta retreat in which we sketch out the Sāmkhya, Yoga & Śaiva Siddhānta traditions & thus, prepare the foundations for understanding Non-Dual Śaiva/Śākta tantra, in both theory and practice, in a much deeper way.By Ma's grace, this talk turned out to be all at once a good introduction for absolute beginners, a helpful review for intermediate practitioners/students and a subtle, direct path teaching on the higher dimensions of Śrī Vidyā for the seasoned! You can watch the video version here on the Vedanta Atlanta YouTube page, along with the other talks from this retreat!Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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

Some years back, we gave a talk called "Can Atheist Be Spiritual?" (alas its gone now since the YouTube ban of 2025!) Anyway, there, I presented some non-theistic traditions like Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism, Jainism and of course, Sāmkhya to show how Indian spirituality is inclusive to all spiritual dispositions. i.e: you don't have to believe in "God" to make spiritual progress! In that talk, we also pointed out how the atheistic position is important for theists too since we must first reject the God of dogma, i.e the God of Religion, before we can move towards the God of Realization, the Living God. Now, a few years later, in this talk, we take a slightly different approach: understanding that the bhūpura is as much the cakra as the Bindu, I try to construct a non-dual, spiritually edifying view using the basic premises of scientific materialism. My claim here is that if we are to be honest materialists, we would be fully realized actually since this too, is a valid way like any other for realizing Mā!Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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 our second day of talks at the Atlanta retreat, I was feeling particularly charged and inspired and so I insisted on hosting the Monday night zoom satsangh and this is the discussion we happened to have! In this talk, I first sketch out some foundational metaphysical principles of pūjā, Tāntrik ritual worship which is at the heart of the tradition. Then, I compare various schools of thought within the wider tradition to make a case, like Abhinava Gupta and Ramakrishna, that the broadest, most capacious and most inclusive philosophy is the "best" because it afford the fullest & deepest realization! As such, I argue why our somewhat Śrī Vidyā coded reading of Kālī, which is unique to our lineage, is just such a philosophy! Giving this talk in the Swami's room at the Vedanta Center, where my Guru and many great spiritual beings stayed I think lent the discussion a special fire. This was to me, one of our finest and most inspired discussions yet! If any good comes of this talk, it is by the grace of the Guru alone! May it be an offering! You can watch all the videos from the retreat here.Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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

From our opening talk at the December 2025 Vedanta Society of Atlanta retreat, which I felt was especially inspired and rather foundational for almost everything we discuss here in this corner of the internet. May it be an offering to the lineage and to you, God incarnate! |You can watch all the videos from the retreat here. Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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

Spiritual life is unbelievably simple. It is essentially all about single-pointed, sincere, intense love for God, by whatever name you want to call Her! It's about obsessions and absorption, about losing yourself in love for that which is most love-able, Love Itself. It's all about just choosing one Ideal and like a moth into flame, plunging recklessly into it! It should be fun! It should always be fun. It's the most fun! But, part of the fun is that we tend to make things very complicated for ourselves! Especially given how maximalist the Tāntrik tradition can be with all of its concepts, tools and techniques, we tend to ask somewhat unimportant questions and focus on peripheral, non-essential, and often unhelpful priorities. There is a great temptation and proclivity in Tantra to overcomplicate. As such, the so-called left hand path of Tantra (Kaulamārga, Vāmācāra etc.) has always emphasized intensity and sincerity over rules and purity, force and feeling over form and finesseecstasy of feeling over technicality and thought! Let's fucking lose our heads and go crazy for Mā already! What the fuck are you waiting for? The world is mad! Let the dead bury their dead. Fuck 'em. Lets go dance mad with joy in the smaśāna with our friends, the ghosts and drink deep the liquor of devotion! Here are the 3 simple, direct, no-nonsense, single-syllable mantras to do just that! ^ Jai fucking Mā! Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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 discussing some slightly more esoteric ideas including the ethos and strategy around Vāmācāra, the often misunderstood and misrepresented "left-hand path" of Tantra. Since it's the Gregorian new year, and since we're just about to roll out some Vāmācāra stuff in both practice and theory, in the light of Śrī Ramakrishna I thought it'd be good to start with this discussion from the Kāmakalā Vilāsa, an important Sri Vidya text in which we learn the bīja mantra which is, arguably, the foundational bīja for all śakti vidyās. We both present the bija as well as some exegesis on how it represents the entire universe, which is entirely reflected non-differently in the mirror of Consciousness, which is my very own Self, all for the sake of play. You'll find all of our other lectures on Vāmācāra here, in this rapidly growing playlist! Happy Gregorian New Year! May every moment be new for you!Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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 having some fascinating discussions around Sārada Devī = Jaggadhātri = Ṣoḍaśī in order to understand the deep mystery of the pūjā that Śrī Rāmakrsna performed to Her on the Phalahārinī Kālī Pūjā new moon! Because the worship of the woman's body is considered to be the culminating practice in the Kaula mārga (as per its characterization in Abhinavagupta's Chapter 29 from Tantrāloka), we reflected a little bit on the Kaula (I.e left hand path) elements in Thakur and Holy Mother, especially with reference to elements in Her dhyāna mantra from last week's How To Meditate on the Tāntrik Goddess | Śrī Sāradā Devī Dhyāna Mantra lecture. In this class, we explore Holy Mother's avatarahood (to make the exciting claim that we have our female Avatāra in Her) and also the significance of this Shodaśī-pūjā, aforementioned. We continue to point out some Kaula or Vāmā mārga elements in Holy Mother's life and teaching!You'll find all our talks on Holy Mother over the years in this playlist. Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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 don't have honest and open discussions, with close scriptural and lineage citation when it comes to the more esoteric dimensions of our tradition and heritage as śaivas, it allows for so much superstition! Now, many are under the impression that Vāmāchāra is nothing more than hedonism masquerading as spiritual practice! What Vāmāchāra is or isn't is surely not up to any one lineage to define but at the very least we can say: it is surely a lot more than just offering transgressive items like meat and wine! In this video, I argue that Vāmācāra/Kaulācāra is about bhāva, an inner disposition of fearlessness and intensity of devotion! While its true that almost all of our talks are given from a Kaula point of view anyway such that a playlist would be superfluous here, I thought it might still be helpful to have some of the more specific, focused and directed lectures on the more left leaning ideas and practices of our tradition all in one place for you! So here is a playlist for all our Vāmāchāracontent ! Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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 exceedingly beautiful discussion we did last week as an offering to Holy Mother for Her Jayanti, he say a few things about how Tāntrik meditation and practice works in general (with reference to some of its unique, aesthetically rich features) and then based on this understanding, we translate and unpack the dhyāna-mantra, meditation/visualization mantra of Holy Mother Sārada Devī and in so doing, we explore many very esoteric Tāntrik concepts encoded in the verses of this hymn! The mantras are reproduced below and all our talks on Holy Mother over the years are in this playlist. dhyānamoṁ dhyāyeccittasarojasthāṁ sukhāsīnāṁ kṛpāmayīm। prasannavadanāṁ devīṁ dvibhūjāṁ sthiralocanām॥ālulāyitakeśārdhavakṣaḥsthalavimaṇḍitām। śvetavastrāvṛtārdhāṅgāṁ hemālaṅkārabhūṣitām॥ svakroḍanyastahastāṁ ca jñānabhaktipradāyinīm। śubhrāṁ jyotirmayīṁ jīvapāpasantāpahāriṇīm॥ rāmakṛṣṇagataprāṇāṁ tannāmaśravaṇapriyām।tadbhāvarañjitākārāṁ jaganmātṛsvarūpiṇīm॥jānakīrādhikārūpadhāriṇīṁ sarvamaṅgalām।cinmayīṁ varadāṁ nityāṁ sāradāṁ mokṣadāyinīm॥snehamayīṁ śivāṁ śāntāṁ bhuktimuktipradāyinīm।sarvajīvatrāṇakartrīṁ sāradāṁ jñānadāyinīm॥One should meditate on She who abides in the lotus of the mind, sitting easefully, filled with compassion and with a serene face, the two armed Goddess with steady eyes, Her long flowing hair adorning half Her bosom with half Her body clothed in white garments, adorned with golden ornaments, Her hands placed in Her own lap and bestowing knowledge and devotion, She is radiant light, the Destroyer of ignorance and suffering in human beings, whose every breath flows to Ramakrishna, who delights in the hearing of His name, Her form saturated with the ecstatic mood of absorption in Him, She is the Mother of the whole world! She is all-auspicious One who becomes Rādhā and Sītā, She is the Eternal Sārada, Sarasvatī, the giver of boons and liberation! Full of love, auspicious and peaceful, She is Sāradā, the bestower of enjoyment, knowledge and liberation, the protector of all beings!dhyāyed hṛdambuje devīṁ taruṇāruṇavigrahām।varābhayakarāṁ śāntāṁ smitotphullamukhāmbujām॥sthalapadmapratīkāśa-pādāmbhoja-suśobhanām।śuklāmbaradharāṁ dhīrāṁ lajjāpaṭavibhūṣitām॥prasannāṁ dharmakāmārthamokṣadāṁ viśvamaṅgalām।svanāthavāmabhāgasthāṁ bhaktānugrahakāriṇīm॥One should meditate upon the Goddess in the lotus of the heart. She has a youthful, red form, her hands showing the boon-giving and fear removal gestures. She is peaceful and upon her lotus-like face blooms a smile! Her feet are like radiant lotus flowers upon the earth, clad in white garments, steady, She is adorned with the veil of mystery! She is gracious and grants the four goals of life: dharma, pleasure, wealth and liberation! She is embodied as this auspicious universe (She is the auspiciousness in all things auspicious), seated to the left of Her lord (established in the yoni), bestowing grace upon devotees! gāyatrī – oṁ hrīṁ sāradāyai vidmahe viśvajananyai dhīmahitanno mātā pracodayāt oṁ।Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/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