For the Love of Yoga with Nish the Fish

Recently, we've been giving a series of talks on our values and ideals, based on what Swami Vivekananda said about his Master, Sri Ramakrishna. Having discussed our heritage in Where Did Kālī Come From? | A Brief Herstory we express how wonderful what we inherited is and how important it is for us to aspire to the very highest of ideals in order to maintain and transmit that heritage for future generations. In articulating those values, we first took up the subject in Advice to Spiritual Teachers & Aspirants and expanded inSex, Drugs & Choosing A Guru | Q&A. Finally, in Our Mission | A Manifesto our discussion reached somewhat of a crescendo. In this class, we continue our reading of Swami Vivekananda's "My Master" (a compilation of two talks he gave in 1896 on Sri Ramakrishna) to emphasize the central value that is at the very heart of our lineage; we point out its metaphysical foundations and its implications in our spiritual lives. Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and 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 recent lectures like Advice to Spiritual Teachers & Aspirants & Sex, Drugs & Choosing A Guru | Q&A we've been going over our ideals and values as a community, using Swami Vivekananda's reflections on Sri Ramakrishna as our guiding principles. Recently also we took a look at our lineage and heritage to see where we've been! Now, we can look into the future and ask, "well, where are we going?" I want to discuss "our mission" as per Myra Mā's excellent inquiry in class the other day. What's our purpose? What's the manifesto? What's to be expected from me and from our community in the years to come? Mainly, with regard to our "mission", I want to say "we have none!" I'd like to talk a little bit about the risks of having "a mission" and the kind of grandiosity that it can bring. Importantly, I want to show how Swami Vivekananda's mission was not at all "his", but God's. Mā alone is doing everything through us and if we were to all simply surrender to the expression that arises naturally from moment to moment, Her līlā will unfold without us having ever to plan or to think about it or force outcomes. Really, in a deeper sense, this class is about how to stay calm and compassionate in trying times, during political instability, personal tragedy etc.and how to act in a way that is aligned with God's will!Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and 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 as a community have been having some very important discussions around integrity and our values so that we may be a genuine place of spiritual learning and a safe and inclusive space for practitioners of all sorts, with all types of dispositions who belong to all sorts of spiritual traditions and backgrounds! Naturally, we need to talk about issues of sex, money and power which are most often the downfall of spiritual leaders and spiritual communities. Having clear ideals and having the courage to hold one another to them is perhaps the most important thing we can do so that we don't make the obvious (and very natural) mistakes that spiritual communities have been making for not only centuries, but millennia! In this Q&A discussion following our Free Will vs. Determinism/Self Effort vs. Grace in Tantra discussion, we picked up on some of the themes from the Advice to Spiritual Teachers & Aspirants talk and expanded on them to present a strategy for staying safe in and getting the most out of spiritual learning communities. Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and 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 one sense, Śiva means the impersonal absolute Consciousness which is the very essence of the Self (as we pointed out in this video What Is "Shiva"? and also in The Secret Teaching of Bhairava) but in another sense, that which is the formless impersonal Godhead is also, by virtue of His vimarśa-śakti (i.e God's reflexive ability), the personal God who creates, maintains and destroys the universe and who can, at will, manifest as many different forms to suit different occasions and bhāvas (moods). In other words, as the Personal God (Saguna Brahman), Shiva can both be seen as Formless (Saguna Nirākara) and also as having Form (Saguna Sākara) and in the latter sense, as many different forms! In our pūjā-paddhati which we are studying as part of our How To Do Tantrik Ritual series, we encounter some of these different forms and their worship. We discuss some of these in this talk!Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and 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 today's occasion, we took the opportunity to look at the importance of divine immanence as well as the power and pervasiveness and superstition: first, we discussed the Norse and Biblical origins of the Western fear of the number 13, and the fear of Friday as being Venus' day, a day of decadence, sense indulgence and beauty, which are things that all feared and avoided by transcendelist "father sky only" type traditions.We discuss the two types of reclamation: first, by practitioners in the Goddess tradition who are reframing this day at the celebration of the Divine Mother and Femininity since there are 13 lunar cycles & usually 13 or so menstruation cycles as well Friday being associated to Freya, that is, Laxmī/Aphrodite/Venus etc. and second, by the horror movie buffs who want to celebrate the macabre elements of life! This was a wonderful time for me! Thank you all who came live!Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and 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

Today is a very auspicious day for us since this full moon in the month of Jyeshta is the Snāna Yatra, the day when Lord Jagannath in Puri is brought out for a bath: on this occassion, in 1855, Mā Bhavatārinī Kālī (Jagadishwari Thakur Rani) was ritually awakened through prāna-pratishta! at the Dakshineshwar temple, where Sri Ramakrishna lived and taught.Like the Phalahārinī Kālī Pūjā when Sri Ramakrishna worshipped Ma Sarada, this event too is a singularity in the ministry of the Motherhood of God. In one sense, all that is happening here now can be traced back to that moment in 1855 when Ma Bhavatarini opened her eyes and made her presence known in this world so directly! We gave this talk some time ago discussing the significance of this day: Ramakrishna & Ma Bhavatārini Kālī at Dakshineshwar To honor today's full moon, here's another little chat about its significance followed by some light postural yoga practice which you can practice here. Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and 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

They trace tantra’s secrecy: why some teachings stay hidden and how secrecy can be abused for profit or superstition. Practical warnings about sex, money and power in spiritual communities are explored. Readings from Vivekananda highlight integrity, selfless service and earning character before teaching. Concrete rules on boundaries, donations, and safeguarding sangha life are offered.

Recently, we've been reflecting a lot on Is There Free Will? and also How To Really Worship Kālī | Free Will vs Determinism to explain Sri Ramakrishna's very subtle position on the issue: God alone is the Doer ("not even a leaf moves but by the will of God") and yet there arises in us by God's will the "feeling" of free will which makes our decisions meaningful! But ultimately, we realize (a) God only has been doing everything and playing all the roles (absolute determinism on the level of the individual) but also(b) you are God (absolute free-will and voluntarism on the level of the true identity) But while the "free will vs determinism" discussion is a supremely important theme in our personal spiritual lives, another equally important and very related theme is that of "self-effort vs grace"! In this talk, we explain why(a) grace is the only factor in spiritual life and (b) grace can never be caused by anything since that would contradict God's freedom of which grace is an expression and yet (c) we should still do intense spiritual practices anyway since c.i. the very fact that we want to do spiritual practices (and that we have a guru to show us how) is itself a function of grace andc.ii. spiritual practices are worth doing in and of themselves, just for fun and without any desire for outcome! Of course, since we gave this talk as part of our Paramārthasāra of Abhinava Gupta series (which meets on zoom every Friday at 11am PST via the house link here), we use three verses from our text to substantiate our claims on grace:आदर्शे मलरहिते यद्वद्वदनं विभाति तद्वदयम्।शिवशक्तिपातविमले धीतत्त्वे भाति भारूपः॥९॥Just like a face  shines in a mirror free of impurities, exactly like this, this Shining One (śiva/Self) shines resplendently in that intellect which has been made spotless by Lord Shiva’s grace.परमं यत् स्वातन्त्र्यं दुर्घटसम्पादनं महेशस्य।देवी मायाशक्तिः स्वात्मावरणं शिवस्यैतत्॥१५॥The Goddess Māyāśakti is the Supreme Freedom of the Great Lord  to accomplish (sampādanam) that which is impossible/inconceivable (durghata): the covering (āvarana) of his very own self (svātma).एकस्मिन्घटगगने रजसा व्याप्ते भवन्ति नान्यानि।मलिनानि तद्वदेते जीवाः सुखदुःखभेदजुषः॥३७॥If the space within one pot is filled with dust, the space within other pots is not stained. Just like that are these individual beings who experience the duality of pleasure and pain/happiness and sorrow.We also gave these two talks on grace some time ago:Śaktipāta & The Role of Grace In Tantra | Vijñāna-Bhairava Tantra and alsoHow To Receive God's Grace | Śaktipāta in Kashmir ShaivismSupport the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and 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

Last year, on this auspicious occasion of Dhūmāvatī Devī Jayanti (which is the 8th day after the New Moon of Vaiśakh) we gave a series on talks on this very mysterious and often feared phase of Mā's personality (Who is Mā Dhūmāvatī? & Worshipping Mā Dhūmāvatī) where we explored Her origin story, Her symbology and Her significance in theory and practice. This year, we decided to go further and ask: "given that Dhūmāvatī Devī is associated to alaxmī, inauspiciousness and given that she favors widows, widowers, the lonely, outcastes, mendicants and those who live in cremation grounds, why would a householder in a happy marriage or a person interested in success and auspicious (which is arguably most of us) ever want to approach her?! Wouldn't doing so only invite calamity?! In response to this important question, we present about 4 reasons why everyone should consider worshipping this often misunderstood and under-represented form of Mā! You'll find a playlist of all our videos on the Mahāvidyās here. Here is the dhyāna-śloka (meditation mantra) we used in the talk: vivarṇā cañcalā ruṣṭā dirghā ca malināmbarā ।vivarṇakuntalā rūkṣā vidhavā viraladvijā ॥kākadhvajarathārūḍhā vilambitapayodharā।śūrpahastātirūkṣākṣī dhṛtahastā varānvitā॥pravṛddhaghoṇā tu bhṛśaṃ kuṭilā kuṭilekṣaṇā ।kṣutpipāsārditā nityaṃ bhayadā kalahapriyā ॥Pale and restless, irritable and oldClad in soiled garmentsPale-haired, dry-skinnedA widow with few teeth|Mounted atop a chariot whose flag is a crowWith drooping breasts and surpassingly cruel eyesWho holds a winnowing basketWho shows the boon bestowing gestureA crone with crooked nose and crooked eyesWho is always hungry and thirsty, quarrelsome and fearsome.Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and 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

First, we present a rendition of Swami Vivekananda's profound and stirring song in Sanskrit to Shiva, the Great God along with an English translation by Swami Prabhavananda. I am especially fond of this song! We then make a few comments about why the days of the week are so significant and how to do a daily chanting practice based on the deity that is exalted on each day. Then, after a brief commentary on the Shiva Stotram and its origins and meaning, I make a case for music as a spiritual practice!Here is a playlist of all the kirtanas, bhajanas and musical performances in our community over the years!Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and 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