[[:encoded, "Why do we become apathetic about spiritual practices? Rational excuses can disguise deeper causes. Bhakti practices, in particular, challenge us to confront our material discomforts—and often it is easier to pretend we are “One”. We should take care not to avoid the very relief we seek. [BG 4.9, 4.10]\n\nTopics include:\n - An explanation of \"ego\" or How material ego differs from the spiritual self\n - Why people reject the idea of an eternal self\n - Why people reject the idea of God as a person\n\nAdditional topics:\n - Meaning of the chant Govinda Jaya Jaya\n - The Nine Stages of Bhakti\n - The Bhagavad Gita as a non-sectarian text\n\nClass notes available at www.gitawisdom.org/podcast\nQuestions? Join the Gita Wisdom Discussion Group on Facebook.\nWe are reading from Bhagavad Gita As It Is by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada"]]Visit us at GitaWisdom.org

LI, Wk 15: Three Excuses for Avoiding the Spiritual Journey

A bi-weekly Bhagavad Gita class in NY. Each session includes readings, analysis, audiovisuals, verse recitations and practical insights into India's essential wisdom text. Attendees will discover the message of the Gita, master basic vocabulary and concepts, and acquire skills for teaching and practicing yoga philosophy. Class notes available at www.gitawisdom.org/podcast.For information on attending a class, visit www.facebook.com/pg/gitawisdomteachings/events.

Religion & Spirituality

Other

Spirituality

Christianity

Buddhism

Hinduism

Judaism

Islam

Recorded on May 15, 2021

How we see the past shapes our understanding of the present. Scholarship defines the past as something shaped by temporal human forces, primarily politics, power, and market trends. Wisdom traditions, on the other hand, see the past as shaped by universal, timeless truths. In this dialog, religious studies professor Ravi Gupta and host Joshua Greene explore competing narratives of the past, their impact on the present and their role in shaping humanity’s future.

Ravi M. Gupta (Radhika Ramana) holds the Charles Redd Chair of Religious Studies at Utah State University. He is the author or editor of four books, including an abridged translation of the Bhagavata Purana (with Kenneth Valpey), published in 2017 by Columbia University Press. Ravi has received four teaching awards, a National Endowment for the Humanities summer fellowship, three research fellowships, and a book award. He is a Permanent Research Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and a past president of the Society for Hindu Christian Studies. His current research focuses on the Bhagavata Purana's Sanskrit commentaries. He enjoys teaching World Religions, Hinduism, Sanskrit, and Religious Studies Theory and Method. Visit us at GitaWisdom.org

Past as Present with Ravi M. Gupta

[[:encoded, "Elsie Maio joins Joshua for a talk about spirituality in the workplace.\n\ngitawisdom.org"]]Visit us at GitaWisdom.org

Yogi in the Boardroom

[[:encoded, "This month we speak with renowned artist/writer/filmmaker, Iain McCaig.\n\n​Iain McCaig and Joshua Greene have a forty-year history as collaborative storytellers. Whether to entertain or enlighten, their relationship sprang from a mutual desire to create stories to remember and share them with the world,  Join them for an intimate conversation about creation and collaboration, of a forty-year journey to tell an ever-changing version of ’The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ and the story of ‘Hanuman', and their joy of using make-believe to search for the truth.\n\ngitawisdom.org"]]Visit us at GitaWisdom.org

Storytelling as a Path to Self Awareness with Iain McCaig

A talk about the confluence of Bhakti teachings and contemporary family and personal therapy. Topics include: 
- The pathologies that accompany a life of devotion
- Translating terms of devotion into modern clinical language
- Risks and rewards on the journey to selfhood

Part of a new monthly interview series: In Good Company. 

Guest Speaker
For 25 years, Cristina Casanova (Krishna Lila) was Assistant Director of Guidance for the New York City Department of Education with a focus on crisis management and family therapy. She teaches in the Department of Applied Psychology at New York University. For more than 40 years she has been a Bhakti yoga practitioner who integrates wisdom from the traditional yoga texts into her approach to therapy.

Host
Joshua M. Greene (Yogesvara) is well known to the yoga community for his books and podcasts on the intersections of contemplative practice and daily life. A former instructor in the Religion Department of Hofstra University, Greene’s biographies of Holocaust survivors have sold more than ½-million copies worldwide. Visit us at GitaWisdom.org

Psychology of Devotion with Cristina Casanova

[[:encoded, "An inner-city shooting, a yoga class in Qatar, a WWF wrestling match, and battling the voices in our own heads. These are just a few of the topics Joshua and Jules cover in this podcast and there's a story about how yoga connects them all.\n\nJules is a renowned teacher of asana yoga, meditation, chanting, and yoga philosophy. Jules, who started practicing yoga at age 6, is now considered one of the leading teachers of the Jivamukti Yoga method, teaching the method worldwide as well as facilitating at the very highly regarded teacher training programs.\n\nShow notes: gitawisdom.org/podcasts\nRecorded Oct 27, 2020, via Zoom. To join the live conversation, visit bit.ly/GitaClassInfo"]]Visit us at GitaWisdom.org

LI, Wk 15: Three Excuses for Avoiding the Spiritual Journey

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