For the Love of Yoga with Nish the Fish

Swami Vivekananda's Message on Individuality in Spirituality: when a seed is planted, it is nourished by soil, sun, air, light and rain. And yet the seed does not "become" soil, or sun, or air, or light or rain. 

The seed becomes a plant, growing according to its own sva-dharma, its own unique law of growth. 

Similarly, while the seed of spiritual aspiration is nourished by the the various "isms" of the world: Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Taoism etc., the point is not to "become" a Hindu or a Christian or a Muslim or a Taoist or what have you! 

The point is to be free and realized! 

Books, dogmas, rituals, forms...these are the kindergarten of religion, necessary tools for the "coming up" of the burgeoning saint but they are but secondary details. As such, there should be as many sects as there are people; each person ought to be a religion unto themselves!

Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
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Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST 
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In this talk, we give a comprehensive overview of the Path of Devotion:

00:00:00 How Bhakti Yoga Works: Vaidhi Bhakti (Devotion with Rules) vs Para Bhakti (Ecstatic Love)
00:04:30 The full moon of Bhakti, the scorching sun of Jñāna
00:05:47 An outline of  Swami Vivekananda's "Bhakti Yoga":
00:07:10 The definition of Bhakti: " the genuine and earnest quest for God that begins in Love, continues in Love and ends in Love."
00:10:30 The philosophy of Ishvara: the formless pure non-dual Consciousness (Impersonal Absolute), which is the ideal of Jñāna and Buddhism, is exactly the same as the form of God with qualities (Personal God), which is the ideal Bhakti.
00:13:20 Swami Vivekananda's definition of God: unfathomable love. God is Love itself, i.e L.O.V.E Personified.
00:15:00  Bhakti is about realization and for this we need a guru to transmit the wordless, invisible "quickening impulse"
00:16:30 Qualifications for aspirants: what kind of a student is required? Pining, patience and perseverance!
00:17:35 Qualifications for teachers: grounded in the spirit of the scriptures, pure in character and teaching for the right reasons (not for material profit)
00:19:10 The role of the Avatar in Bhakti Yoga in providing a concrete form for the mind to focus on in Devotion
00:26:03 How mantras work in Devotion (and the meaning of OM)
00:30:34 Technical Difficulties!
00:31:32 Technical Difficulties ends...
00:34:00 Invocation of Swamiji
00:34:23 The Worship of Substitutes and Images (and why its so important)
00:47:30 How this idea leads to the Harmony of All Religions
00:49:17 Ishta Nishta, Steadfast Devotion to the Chosen Ideal: while all forms are equally Brahman, we should choose one and dive deep into It without hating any other forms
00:53:19 depth vs breadth in spiritual life
01:02:22 worshipping all deities through your Ishta and worshipping your Ishta through all deities
01:08:00 How to practice Bhakti Yoga, the path of Devotion: the methods and the means.

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Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST 
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Today, on the 12th of January, we are celebrating India's National Youth Day, to commemorate the birth day by Gregorian Calendar of Swami Vivekananda, who was born on the 12th of January 1863. 

Of course, in the Hindu tradition, we celebrate birthdays by tithi, that is, by moon day so this year (2025), Swami Vivekananda's birthday will be celebrated in earnest on Monday, the 20th of January. 

But nevertheless, to commemorate this very auspicious day and to get us all revved up for Swamiji Puja that's coming up, I thought I would read you a few excerpts from letters from American disciples describing what it was like to be with the Swami in New York and at the Thousand Islands Park retreat, which was when the Swami was allegedly at his finest. 

Over the next few days, I will be unleashing a slew of "Vivekananda content" here  so brace yourselves! May my entire breath and being be offered to the Swami's work and mission. I stand ever ready to lay down life and limb for his message!

Ever yours in Vivekananda,
Nishanth

For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799

Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
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To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Support the show

Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST 
Use this link and I will see you there:
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We gave this lecture some time ago, in July of last year on Swami Lakshmanjoo's birthday. However it occurred to me that it would be a very good start to 2025 if we could not only review the fundamentals of spiritual life in general but also revisit the foundations, historical, philosophical and spiritual the underlie our Tantrik tradition. 

Note: around 14:00 I mention a lecture I did called "Texts and Lineages in Kashmir Shaivism". I never actually got around to uploading that one but if you stay tuned for the video called "Our Tantrik Lineage", I go over the same material with albeit more detail. 

Anyway, in this talk, we make a few points about Tantra and texts like the Vijñāna-Bhairava Tantra and then plunge into what I consider, on perhaps a more anecdotal note, to the be the essential flavor of Shaivism and how it developed throughout history. 

For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799

Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
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For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
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To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Hit Me Up x

Support the show

Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST 
Use this link and I will see you there:
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After we gave the two fiery lectures on Why You Need To Realize God Now! | The Urgency of Spiritual Life and also on The 2 Most Important Things In Spiritual Life & 7 Ways To Get Them we are all fired up to make some genuine headway into our spiritual life that we may realize God and enjoy eternal blessedness! 

But how do we make spiritual progress? 

In this short talk, we introduce the idea of Puraścarana, the Tantrik ritual par excellence which Lord Shiva calls the "best of all rituals" in verse 3 of Chapter 15 of the Kulārnava Tantra. 

For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799

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

For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
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To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Support the show

Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST 
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815

For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
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To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

After making a few comments about calendars and the power of new beginnings, we make a few points from Swami Vivekananda’s very radical lecture in San Francisco “Is Vedanta The Future Religion” to show how God, books and prophets are not actually essential to religion and if taken too seriously, can all become serious hindrances to genuine religion!

Using Swami Vivekananda’s definition of the Vedas (“by Vedas, no books are meant”) as eternally existent spiritual truths that anyone with refined spiritual perception can access, I contest that Hinduism cannot be defined as a four-book religion the way other religions define themselves according to their books but must instead live up to its name of “Sanātana Dharma”, which includes all religions in all places and at all times.

Also, we discuss some goals for the upcoming Gregorian calendar year as a spiritual community!

For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799

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

For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
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To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Hit Me Up x

Support the show

Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST 
Use this link and I will see you there:
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To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

What are the most important things in spiritual life?

In Patañjali's Yoga Sutra, we find: 

अभ्यासवैराग्याअभ्यां तन्निरोध:
abhyāsa-vairāgya-ābhyāṁ tan-nirodhaḥ

"Through yearning and renunciation, the mind can be stopped (i.e samādhi can be attained)"

And in the Bhagavad Gita 6:35, we find: 

श्रीभगवानुवाच |
असंशयं महाबाहो मनो दुर्निग्रहं चलम् 
|अभ्यासेन तु कौन्तेय वैराग्येण च गृह्यते || 35||

śhrī bhagavān uvācha:
asanśhayaṁ mahā-bāho mano durnigrahaṁ chalam
abhyāsena tu kaunteya vairāgyeṇa cha gṛihyate 

The Lord said:
"Undoubtedly, O mighty armed one, the mind is difficult to control and restless but by practice (I.e intense yearning) and by detachment, it can be controlled, O son of Kunti."

And all throughout the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, we find the Master emphatically stressing this point over and over: through yearning and renunciation, God can be attained! 

Perhaps this point is the very essence of practice, the very heart of spiritual life? Having discussed what yearning and renunciation really mean, let's now talk about how to cultivate these!

As such, at our last online gathering of 2024, we discussed the two most important things in spiritual life: yearning for realization of the Infinite + renunciation for the finite and then rattled off a few different ways to cultivate that including but not limited to: 

Visiting sacred places like temples and nature which are associated to great spiritual masters (yatra)

Spending time with spiritual people or at least with spiritual ideas through books and media (sadhu-sangha)

Finding a guru and learning under them (parampara)

Consistency in spiritual practice

Pacing so as not to burn out 

Ample time in solitude to practice and integrate.

A moderate, simple and ethical life. (Yama/niyama or acāra) 

For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799

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

For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
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To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Hit Me Up x

Support the show

Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST 
Use this link and I will see you there:
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For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
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To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

While every person and every place is invariably God according to our Non-Dual View, certain places and certain people are particularly strong manifestations of God. Everything is the same in type but different in degree. For example, while every part of the cow is indeed a cow, it is really only from the udder that milk flows. As such, the Avatāra is like the udder and the entire Universe the cow. The Avatāra, Divine Incarnation, is a unique nodal point of Reality through which the very highest can be accessed. In short: the avatāra is the strongest manifestation of God in immanence, in nature.

But what makes an Avatāra(a Divine Incarnation) and Avatāra?

 In Hinduism, the idea of the Incarnation is very ancient. We find it in the Bhagavad Gita (Chapter IV, verse VII) and also in texts like the Bhāgavatam dated between ~1000b.ce to 600bce.

The claim is that while various forms of gods and goddesses are each of them emanations or aspects of the One God capital G, the one Divine Reality, the Avatar is a specially concentrated manifestation of that Reality that exists in historicity as an actual person. The gods and goddesses like Kālī, Shiva, Vishnu etc. are all entirely Divine but the Avatāra uniquely is also mortal and like any mortal suffers mortality: birth, old age, sickness, dying etc.

Unique to the Avatāra Doctrine is the idea that God can be a person and a person can be God which when you think about it is a startling challenging idea! Swami Vivekananda could never quite accept Sri Ramakrishna as an Avatāra until the latter's dying breath in 1886. Because for any thinking person, this claim is ludicrously challenging! It is one of the deepest mysteries of spiritual life. It takes a special kind of subtle insight, or a special kind of grace to have some semblance of an understanding of this mystery.

But it is my conviction that anybody who is sincerely attracted to spirituality will also be attracted to the avatāra because they will feel in them (in their lives and teaching) intuitively the strongest dose of spirituality. But notice how I am using the plural! According to the Hindu view, there is not just one Avatāra. In Christianity, the idea is that there is just one Divine Incarnation who came in the form of Jesus and that's that. But in Hinduism, we understand that to teach a particularly stubborn student, you often have to give the teaching over and over in different ways. Repetition is at the heart of all learning! And so the thing about the Avatāra is that She comes again and again each time teaching the same message in slightly different ways.

In this talk, I wanted to tease out some of the similarities in that message between various Avatāras. Also I wanted to continue last week's theme of the emphasis on renunciation and sincerity that we find are at the heart of all genuine spiritual life and also on the warning against affect and pretense in spiritual life. One thing we find about all these avatāras is that they were genuine, simple and willing to give direct answers to sincere questions without any affect or pretense! And because they were free, they did it all for free!

From freedom unto freedom a gift of freedom is made!

May this be an offering to all Avatarās, past, present and future, who are each and every one of them "L.O.V.E personified."

For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
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To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

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Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST 
Use this link and I will see you there:
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To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

 As we come to the end of another Gregorian calendar year, and as our body-mind rapidly comes yet another step closer to death and disintegration, we ought to reflect: what have we really accomplished in spiritual life thus far? 

Undoubtedly, a lot. 

But have we really attained the highest? Have we realized God? Do we feel the ineffably bliss divine flowing uninterruptedly in the chamber of the heart in each and every moment? Have we really attained to truth and truly integrated it into every living moment? 

Often we will find that however far we've come, there is always still same ways to go. And precious little time for it too! 

In the past few lectures, since it is, after all, the end of the year, we've tried to focus on the very essentials of spiritual life. "Books, churches, dogmas, rituals are all but secondary details." 

And what is the very essence? 
Yearning for infinite + renunciation for the finite! 

But often, the engine of spiritual life, the driving force, is a sense of urgency! As the Stoics call it: "momento mori"! Remembering that this body will die, and recognizing the invaluable opportunity this body presents for spiritual realization will fire us to be up and doing always in spiritual life! 

Ultimately, that's what this lecture is: a call to action! 

May we all be spiritually illumined! 
May we all plunge into intense (but sensible and gradual) spiritual practice now itself as a reflection of your sincere yearning for Truth! 

"Arise! Awake! Stop not till the goal is reached!"

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

Hit Me Up x

Support the show

Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST 
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815

For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
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To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

There are of course innumerable similarities between the life and message of the Buddha and Swami Vivekananda: in a future lecture, I hope to sketch this out in much more detail. I think there is a particularly strong resonance between Swami Vivekananda's various spiritual experiences and realizations (and also his highest ideal of serving God as man) and the Boddhicitta/Boddhisattva ideal of Mahayana Buddhism. 

One day, I will make a strong case for the Mahayana Buddhist interpretation of Sri Ramakrishna's life and teaching. Of course, in terms of modality, Sri Ramakrishna emphasized a Tantrik, deity-oriented approach which leads us into exciting Vajrayana territory too. A discussion comparing Nirmanakaya, Sambhogakaya and Dharmakaya to Vaikhari, Madhyama and Pasyanti Vak is of course fore coming. 

And I have a desire to do a short biography on Milarepaji also, perhaps on his Parinirvana which is the full moon of Bumjur Dawa (by the Tibetan Lunar Calendar) I believe. It will be around Shiva Ratri time!

Naturally all these links between Shiva, Swami Vivekananda and the Buddha are particularly pronounced in Varanasi, especially near Sarnath where the Buddha spoke the words that would resound timelessly through eternity! 

There is a striking resemblance to what he spoke about and what Swami Vivekananda spoke out, a resemblance that is of course more tangibly felt in this place than intellectually cognized. 

Since I happen to be in Sarnath on Christmas Eve, I thought I'd reflect a little on that in this talk. 

Jai Jesus Christ! 
Jai Buddha! 
Jai Swami Vivekananda Guru Maharajji Ki Jai!


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:
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Support the show

Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST 
Use this link and I will see you there:
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For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
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To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM