Yoga Wisdom with Acharya das

Are you controlling your device, or is your device controlling you? In this profound and urgent talk, Acharya das explores how smartphones and digital platforms are creating a "captive mind." The threat goes far deeper than mental health—it is a direct assault on our personal agency, our focus, and more importantly, our spiritual identity. Modern platforms are intentionally designed to c...

The Path of Surrender What does it really mean to surrender? To many people, surrender sounds like defeat—giving up control, becoming passive, or allowing someone else to dictate your life. But the Bhagavad-gita presents something very different. At the conclusion of His teachings to Arjuna, Krishna gives perhaps His most famous and far-reaching instruction: “Abandon all varieties of dharma and si...

The Supreme Person: Who is Krishna? What if the friend we have been searching for has been with us all along? An ancient Vedic analogy describes two birds sitting together in the same tree. One bird is constantly trying to enjoy the fruits of the tree—sometimes sweet, sometimes bitter. It represents each of us, moving through life searching for happiness, struggling with disappointment, and contin...

The Mind: Friend or Enemy Who is actually running your life—you, or your mind? The mind is constantly talking to us. I want this. I don't like that. I'm worried about this. I need to do that. What will people think of me? And very often, we simply follow where it leads. And we're often told: “Follow your dreams.” But should every desire that enters our mind really be followed? The Bhag...

Karma, Duty, Detachment, acting without entanglement Can you live in this world, fulfill your responsibilities—and still become spiritually free? Arjuna thought the answer might be no. Faced with the terrible consequences of battle, he wanted to walk away from everything—to renounce his duty and retreat from the world. But Krishna told him something surprising: Simply giving up action will not fre...

The soul beyond the body – Who am I really? In the continuation of this series from a retreat, the question raised is what do you do when you genuinely don’t know what the right thing to do is? Arjuna stood on the battlefield of Kurukshetra facing an impossible choice. On one side was his duty. On the other were people he loved—relatives, friends and respected teachers. Although renowned as a fear...

The Battlefield within. We spend so much of our lives trying to become secure, happy and fulfilled. Yet everything we normally depend upon—our bodies, possessions, relationships and circumstances—is constantly changing. So are we looking for lasting happiness in a place where nothing lasts? The Bhagavad-gita begins with a crisis. Arjuna finds himself overwhelmed, confused and unsure how to move fo...

Why does criticism hurt us so much? Often, it’s because we want the opposite: honour, approval and validation. And the more we depend upon one, the more vulnerable we become to the other. Ancient yoga wisdom offers another possibility — humility. Not weakness. Not low self-esteem. Not allowing people to walk over you. Humility means becoming free from the anxiety of needing others to honour us. Th...

Can you really love yourself? Or is the whole idea built on a misunderstanding of who you are? Self-love has become one of the defining ideas of modern culture—but what if it can never deliver what it promises? Drawing on the timeless wisdom of the Bhagavad-gītā and ancient yoga philosophy, Acharya das explores why lasting happiness, freedom from loneliness, and genuine love begin not with the min...

This is the sixth and final talk in a series on well-being, emphasizing that materialistic approaches to addressing wellbeing only provide temporary relief from unhappiness or suffering, rather than permanent solutions. True well-being requires incorporating spiritual solutions, as attempts to address well-being without spirituality are fundamentally flawed. The speaker explained that in dharmic t...

This is the questions and answers that followed the previous talk, both from Glebe, Sydney and Thirroul which is south of Sydney. Chapters 00:00:15 Language, Consciousness, and Spiritual Identity ‎ 00:01:56 Three Pillars of Spiritual Practice ‎ 00:03:29 Confronting Spiritual Reality and Finding Hope ‎ 00:06:49 Global Interconnectedness and Finding Peace ‎ 00:08:54 The Serenity Prayer as Spiritual...

In a powerful and thought-provoking talk delivered in Sydney, Australia, Acharya das explores the dramatic transformation of human consciousness in the modern age and asks a confronting question: Why, despite unprecedented technological advancement and material comfort, are so many people experiencing anxiety, emptiness, and hopelessness? Drawing on alarming statistics surrounding depression, ment...

This talk is the fifth installment in a wellness series that takes a distinctly yogic approach to understanding life's challenges and spiritual development. Acharya das discusses the concept of "false shelter" (durashraya in Sanskrit) - the tendency to place unlimited trust in things that cannot provide genuine protection or happiness. He uses examples ranging from relationships and...

This is the Q&A from after the talk sponsored by the Hindu Council of Australia in cooperation with the Australian School of Meditation and Yoga. The question was whether there is a distinction between Dharma and Sanatana Dharma? Acharya das concludes this Q&A session with the clarification that Sanatana Dharma is eternal and represents the soul's nature fully expressed in the spiritua...

This talk is from an event sponsored by the Hindu Council of Australia in cooperation with the Australian School of Meditation and Yoga. The question was whether there is a distinction between Dharma and Sanatana Dharma? Acharya das explained that while Dharma has conventional definitions including customary religious observance, prescribed conduct, duty, religion, and good works, it has a deeper...

In this compelling fourth lecture of the series, Acharya das reframes well-being through the lens of timeless wisdom, drawing from sources like the Bhagavad Gita to reveal a powerful three-dimensional model: body, mind, and the often-overlooked spiritual self. With precision and clarity, the talk exposes a universal truth—no amount of success, relationships, or material gain can resolve the subtle...

This is the 3rd talk in a Series on Wellness dealing with Trauma from a spiritual perspective. The two core premises presented in the discussion to help with a spiritual perspective is the Dharmic traditions understood that all pain and suffering will be somehow rooted in ignorance, and secondly, material existence and spiritual life as operating under completely different paradigms based upon the...

This is a talk on personal agency and spiritual well-being as Part 2 of a continuing series on Wellbeing. Personal agency is defined as "the individual's capacity to act intentionally, to make autonomous choices, and to influence their own circumstances and environment." But how free is our decision making process? And how autonomous are we in a world driven by Social Media and AI? U...

Over the past 3yrs media reports have described Burnout as "the silent epidemic," "the silent killer," and "the silent epidemic stealing your energy and joy." A significant root cause of burnout is a lack of purpose, stating that when people feel their work/life output is not connected to any higher purpose or sense of direction, depression quickly follows. Then there...

This is quite a long talk, on a very fascinating topic, delivered by Acharya das in the Philippines. It is a comprehensive look into the question of spiritual identity, God-realization, and the resultant experience of the awakening of transcendental and ecstatic love for God which naturally arises from that. Acharya das outlines three essential questions for self-realization: What is my essence? (...

This is a Q&A session from the Soul Searchers Retreat. Acharya das delivers a comprehensive discussion on spiritual life versus material life, emphasizing the fundamental distinction between material consciousness (identifying with the physical body) and spiritual consciousness (recognizing oneself as an eternal spiritual being). He explains that material life is founded on the belief that &qu...

Acharya das delivers a comprehensive talk on spiritual life and self-evaluation from the perspective of ancient Vedic traditions and yoga systems. This is the first of 2 talks at the annual New Year’s Soul Searchers Retreat in New Zealand. Acharya das explores a custom many people adopt around the idea of wanting to do better in the new year, often by making New Year’s resolutions. Doing better be...

This the second of 2 talks at the annual New Year’s Soul Searchers Retreat in New Zealand. Acharya das explores a custom many people adopt around the idea of wanting to do better in the new year, often by making new year’s resolutions. Doing better begins with an examination of how we did the previous year and where to from here. And specifically, how we did spiritually and how to live a more spir...

In this talk, Acharya das explores the concept of Christmas from a yogic perspective. He begins by examining what Christmas means in contemporary society versus its original spiritual significance. Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus (Yeshua), known as Christ or Messiah, which means "the anointed one" and Acharya das discusses how yogis from the Vedic tradition would view and celebra...

In this final lecture of the "Wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita" series, Acharya das explores the concept of "the yoga of love" or bhakti yoga. He explains that bhakti yoga represents both a spiritual practice and the ultimate goal of all yoga practices. In considering this subject it is important to distinguish between material conceptions of love, which are often self-centered, and...