For the Love of Yoga with Nish the Fish

The Aṣṭa mātṝkās (the 8 mothers) are so central to Tantrik theory and practice and oh so mysterious! We first meet these 8 fierce, blood drinking, intoxicated Goddesses in the third act of the Devī Māhātmyam! And so, in this lecture, we'll take up that hymn and we'll list them one by one and consider their dhyāna ślokas (meditation mantras) so that we'll be able to visualize them. Of course, we'll discuss how to worship and why you want to worship them!

Most importantly though, I want to discuss some very subtle Tantrik linguistic mysticism concerning the nature of the Sanskrit language and how to it maps on to/ mystically explains Reality! Abhinava Gupta has a really interesting section in chapter 3 of his Tantrāloka on this which we discuss a little bit in this lecture. We open with a comparison of Shankara's Kevalādvaita (classical non-duality) system with the Tantrik version of non-duality (Advaita Śaiva or Śāktadvaita Vāda) to compare Māyā to Śakti to make the case that language is the power of Consciousness to reveal Herself to Herself!

Devī Kavacam 9-18 

1. Cāmundā on corpse

2. Vārāhinī on buffal

3. Indrānī on elephant

4. Vaishnavī on Garuḍa (eagle)

5. Narasimhinī mahāvīrya

6. Śivaduti mahābalā

7. Maheśvarī on a bull

8. Kaumarī on a peacock

9. Lakṣmī on a lotus, holding lotus flowers

10. īsvarī on a bull, wearing white

11. Brāhmī with ornaments on a swan

Aṣṭamodhyāyah (Chapter 8), verses 12-21 describes their origin and appearance and verses 33-63 describes what they do!

In  Ekādaśodhyāyah (Chapter 11), verses 13-21, they are praised

Kali Yantra (inner lotus petals) 

• Brāhmī
• Vaishnavī
• Maheśvarī
• Cāmundā
• Kaumarī
• Indrānī
• Vārāhinī
• Narasimhinī

 Srī Cakra (in bhūpura) 

• brāhmī,
• māhēśvarī,
• kaumāri,
• vaiṣṇavī,
• vārāhī,
• māhēndrī,
• chāmuṇḍē,
• mahālakṣmī

Support the show

First, we take a look at the Caṇḍi (Devī Māhātmyam) to see all the different forms of Mā:
1. Mahākālī from chapter I who is described as being blue like a jewel with ten hands holding various weapons, ten legs and ten heads ,
2. Kālī who springs forth from Parvatī in Chapter 5, Verse 88 after the aparājita hymn and of course,
3. Kālī who springs forth from Ambika's furrowed brow, a personification of her rage, in Chapter 7, in verses 7-27 to slay two demons named Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa thereby receiving the moniker Cāmuṇḍā, who is Herself one of the Aṣṭa Mātrikās (The 8 Tantrik Mothers) which you can learn more about here.

And then we ask this question:

In what way are all these forms of Kālī in the Devī Māhātmyam related if at all? How is Kālī different from Durgā/Ambika? And in what way are these Kālīs different from or the same as 
4. Dakṣiṇā Kālī? 

To answer it, we offer the Tantrik theory of sarvākara nirākara: the Absolute Reality is formless and without attributes and therefore She can include ALL forms and attributes. Ultimately, I make the argument that all these aspectsa and forms that we see in Tantra are not themselves different Goddesses but just different sarees that the One Being, Pure Non-Dual Consciousness, wears to play! 

For more detailed Kali puja instructions, watch this playlist:
https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799

Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815

For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish

To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Support the show

On this auspicious day of Lalitā Pañchami, I pray to the Divine Mother Tripurasundarī, the beauty of the three cities (of waking, dreaming and deep sleep), who soaks the states of Consciousness with beauty like oil soaks a cloth, that we may successfully approach Her and have Her vision!

Many people want to worship the Srī Cakra/Srī Yantra but are overwhelmed by its stunning complex and sophistication! Where to begin? In this class, we do a brief and cursory introduction for the Khaḍgamālā Stotram, the Garland of Swords Hymn from the Vāmakeśvarī Tantra, arguably among the most powerful Tantrik hymns ever. After the nyāsas (consecration) and dhyānam (meditation), the hymn runs like a nāmavali (a list of names) listing all the deities of the Srī Cakra one by one from the bhūpura (outer gate) through the āvaranas (various levels or "coverings", nine in all including the bhūpura) such that chanting this stotram is itself equivalent to performing the very complex (and often time consuming) Srī Cakra pūjā proper. As you say the names, you can offer flowers or flower petals, vermillion (sindura) or even just spoonfuls of water into the bindu and trust that the energies of the cakra (i.e the cakreśvarīs) will naturally carry the offering to the appropriate point in the cakra corresponding to the name of the Goddess you just chanted so that you don't have to figure out where they all are in the diagram!

Of course, this hymn acts as a kind of "gateway drug" to the Srī Cakra pūjā. After we become fluent with the krama (sequence of deities), and after we have become acquainted with the texture of the energies of these deities (and after we've acquired their grace to some extent), we will naturally come into a Srī Vidyā dīkshā and naturally, we will take the next steps if we so desire. But for now, let us chant this stotram with great ardor!

Jai Mā Lalitāmbika Devī Ji Ki Jai!

You can find the hymn towards the end of this document but it's also quite readily available on the internet.

For more detailed Kali puja instructions, watch this playlist.

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.

For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish

To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here.

Support the show

Last week, on Tritiya, the third day of the nine nights of the Autumn Goddess festival (Navarātri), we got together to chant some Devī Māhātmyam! Having already chanted the preliminary verses when we got together in the morning (you can follow along with that here. 
We now take up the Chandi proper and dive right into the first chapter (prathamo'dhyāyah) where we hear all about the slaying of the demons  Madhu and Kaiṭabha.

Besides chanting together, we do a running commentary of the deeper meaning of this story within a story within a story!

Here is the chanting document for our daily Navarātri sādhana.
(it's still a work in progress!)

You'll find all our content on Navarātri and the Chandi in this collection.

For more detailed Kali puja instructions, watch this playlist:
https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799

Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815

For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish

To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Support the show

Last week, we went over an abridged ritual worship of the Goddess Kālī with some detail (watch that here) and we also suggested some wonderful resources to help you get started with your pūjā, or Tantrik ritual practice like Swami Bhajanananda Saraswati's "Simple Kali Puja" book which you can find here.

Now, we go in with some finer brush strokes! You'll recall that after the worship of Mā Kālī, and right before the worship of Mahākāla Bhairava, in our ritual manual, there's a section on "worshipping the auxiliariy/attendant deities" (āvaranadevatā pūjā). Well, interestingly, this section actually refers to the Kali Yantra, the sacred geometric pattern of Consciousness that corresponds to Kālī and her various emanations!

In this class, we talk a little bit about the parivāra (the family of deities) which is a very Tantrik concept and after listing them and offering their worship mantras, we discuss how to map them on to the yantra going from inside out (srsthi krama) for the purposes of your meditation and worship.

PS: there are technical difficulties at 00:26:38 forgive me! The internet dropped. The content resumes around 00:33:10

The mantras can all be found in written form here.

For more detailed puja instructions, watch this playlist.

Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815

For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish

To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Support the show

Tomorrow (October 1st, 2024)  is a very, very special day: a new moon night on Tuesday, the eve of Navarātri, the 9 nights of the Goddess! 
Mā Kālī tells us in the Tantras that this is the best time to worship Her! 
Naturally, those of you who might want to worship Her will ask "well how do I worship Her?!" Of course, the worship of Mā Kālī is some very high level Tantra being that She is the Goddess of the Tantras! But there are some wonderful resources out there for beginners to get started:

For example, Swami Bhajanananda Saraswati's beautiful book "Simple Kali Puja", which you can pick up on the internet or find on the Kālī Mandir website: https://www.kalimandir.org 

If you're totally new, I recommend starting here. As with all things, start small and slowly expand according to capacity and interest. Pujya Swamiji's book is very complete as it is concise, walking you through all the main mantras in Kālī worship which for so long has been kept secret!

Some time ago, on the new moon night of Phalahārinī Kālī Pūjā, we gave this talk on How To Worship Mā Kālī which focused more on the "internal worship" (mānasa Kālī pūjā):
https://www.patreon.com/posts/how-to-worship-105659438?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Now, we present an abridged, abbreviated external worship in 16 steps/sections!

The mantras can all be found in written form here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/how-to-perform-113071076?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

For more detailed puja instructions, watch this playlist:
https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799

Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815

For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish

To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Support the show

Starting this upcoming Tuesday, on the New Moon, we will be entering into a very sacred and transformative period!
Perhaps the most exciting and intense time in our community, Navarātri (The 9 Nights of the Goddess) typically features:

1. collective sādhanā that many of us opt into doing together according to our capacity and interest
2. many lectures on the various aspects of the Divine Mother as usual and of course
3. copious Candi recitation! 

Last year, we did an Introduction to the Devī Māhātmya, The Most Sacred Texts of the Śāktas which you can watch here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/introduction-to-91791288?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

For this upcoming Navarātri, some of you have expressed a desire to perform the Candi (recitation) sādhanā in addition to or as an alternative to the mantra-japa sādhana described here:

A Mantra Recitation Practice for Navarātri
https://www.patreon.com/posts/mantra-practice-113025541?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

In this video, we go over a few preliminary things you might like to do and tiknow regarding this type of chanting practice which when done with devotion, can be a real game changer, a total singularity in the aspirant's life and spiritual practice!

Jai Srī Durgā!

Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815

For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish

To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Support the show

In this class, we read from "The Preparatory Renunciation" from the Parā-Bhakti (Supreme Devotion) section of the Bhakti Yoga book in Volume III of the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda to learn how we may "cultivate" renunciation which as we'll learn, is a necessary pre-requisite for higher spiritual life!  But first, we make a few opening remarks about renunciation, about what it is and what it is not and most importantly, what it is for! 

Here is a playlist of videos for classes in this series on Swami Vivekananda's Bhakti Yoga:
https://www.patreon.com/collection/728434

Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815

For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish

To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Support the show

I know the title  sounds new agey and off the wall but only because it is. I intend to discuss cremation ground sadhana a little and present three or four reasons for it, focusing on the concept of “spirit traffic”. This is a bit of a pre-Hallowe’en Hallowe’en talk I suppose!

Today will be the last talk of our “summer semester” before we shift gears for the fall!

You’ll recall the project this summer was to cover some foundational concepts in Sadhana and we started with "How To Get Started In Spiritual Life"  exploring some basics and then we discussed “right motive” in spiritual life and suggested an attitudinal shift that can make for a long term and sustainable sadhana to prevent burnout in "How To Enjoy Spiritual Life"

In  Should Worship One Deity or Many, Chant One Mantra or Many? we looked at the underlying reality behind every mantra and deity-form to make the argument for one-ness and to show a way to work with many different mantras and murtis without losing a sense of that one-ness!

Then of course we had to take up the question of the all-too-necessary living spiritual guide in How To Choose A Guru & What To Do If You Don't Have One

Then we thoroughly analyzed Tantrik subtle anatomy to explain the dynamics of sadhana, spiritual practice.

We explored some basic puja techniques and then we took all of those foundational ideas into the signature lecture of the summer The Secret Worship of Mā Kālī which we gave on Kali Jayanti and which presents a rather complete Sadhana for Mā Kālī.

So now that you have everything you need to begin an intense and productive and complete Sadhana, there’s only one question left to ask: “how do I stay grounded and not go insane?”Sadly “spinning out into madness” is something that happens far too often to sincere spiritual aspirants who go about things in the wrong way. So today, we’ll cover that as a nice closing sentiment for summer semester!

Enjoy!

Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815

For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish

To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Support the show

This lecture is undoubtedly going to be somewhat controversial for some! Brace yourselves!

In this week's Bhakti Yoga lecture, we take a few excerpts from Swami Vivekananda's "The Methods and the Means (for practicing Bhakti Yoga)" from Volume III of the Complete Works to explain the role of diet, ethics and other preliminaries in spiritual life. 

"If I want to practice spirituality, then, should I become a vegetarian? How important is a vegetarian diet to spiritual life, anyway? Should I avoid onions and garlic and other rājāsic foods? Should I stay clear of mushrooms and leeks and such tamasic foods? What really qualifies as a "sattvic" diet, after all?"

These questions naturally come to mind when we take up spiritual life, especially within the context of Sanātana Dharma. 

Also, a naturally related question to vegetarianism is the ethical question of Ahimsā, non-violence. The Buddha and Mahavīra, the founder of Jainism made this ideal the very heart of their respective traditions and everywhere it is emphasized: one should not harm others in word, thought or deed. But what does that really mean? And do I have to be perfectly non-violent before I can take up spiritual life?

As we explore these dietary and ethical pre-requisites, we discover that there is only one real pre-requisite to spiritual life which Swami Vivekananda emphasizes towards the end of the reading: strength! Physical and mental strength!  

May Swami Vivekananda bless us all with strength!

Support the show