For the Love of Yoga with Nish the Fish

The image of Mā Kālī  alone is unfathomably powerful in its symbolic richness! Having discussed Mā's iconography at some length in this lecture series . we now go a little deeper by investigating her bhāva, her mood which emphasizes three things, usually: intoxication, madness and arousal. Last week, we discussed Mā’s divine drunkenness (you can watch that lecture here ) we now turn to the se...

In this class, we first explore Yogarāja's mangala-śloka (opening verse), in addition to Abhinava Gupta's own mangala-śloka from the profound text, Paramārthasāra which teaches us some of the subtle nuances on Tantrik non-duality in all of its life-affirming, realist glory which of course sets it apart from classical Sāmkhya and also from other forms of non-duality like Advaita Vedanta. ...

In this lecture, given on the auspicious ashtami of Jagaddhātri pūjā, I first take a moment to express gratitude for our community, let you in on what's upcoming and also  make an important point about the threefold epistemological model of learning: sat-guru, sat-tarka and sat-āgama!  While the Guru is central, the role of the teacher in spiritual life is always checked and balanced against...

In the introduction to this morning's Hatha Yoga classes, we say a few things about determinism and the illusion of free will, offering a few stories from the lives of Vivekananda, Sarada and Ramakrishna to demonstrate how liberation (jīvanmukti), at least outside of sāmadhi, is simply the recognition that Mā's will is absolute, that She is alone is the Do-er.:"Mā, I move as you mak...

The iconography of Mā Kālī is unfathomably powerful offering us an important tool for philosophical reflection: For example, the 50 heads in Her garland represent the 50 letter of the Sanskrit alphabet, showing us that the Universe is a manifestation of Mantra, the Word that was with God, that was God etc., Her black skin is a symbol of tamas (darkness), and Her red protruding tongue held between...

To know something of Mā Kālī, we have to know something of Her saints, those luminaries who like moths into a flame plunged into ecstasy of love for Mā and as such have become one with Her.  As it says in John 14:16, "none can see the Mother except by the way of the child!" Of course, Mā's most ecstatic child is Ramakrishna. In our community, we talk a lot about Ramakrishna and abou...

Swami Vivekananda, in his English poem "Kali The Mother" and in his Bengali poem, "And Let Śyāmā Dance There", highlights the Worship of God as the Worship of The Terrible: God might cure our cancer but She is also the one who gave us cancer! If God is truly all powerful then She must also be responsible for all the evil in the world as well as all the good. If God is truly non...

Last week we gave a talk on the very often misunderstood and misrepresented vāma-cāra, "the Left Hand Path of Tantra"  you can watch that here and then we went over some "left leaning" aspects of Kālī pūjā like the cremation ground Bali as well as the candālinī pūjā which you can watch here . Sri Ramakrishna once described this path as entering the mansion (of God realization)...

Here is our pūjā vidhi (ritual manual): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pV3lkIQpB75iNfadw3uJwaCpK-S8k50VvGTsoEjKxk4/edit?usp=sharing For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799 The Secret Worship of Mā Kālī https://www.patreon.com/posts/secret-worship-111280272?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&...

We have a big week coming up! This Thursday, 31st of October, on the new moon of the Vedic month of Kartik, we are celebrating Śyāma Kālī Pūjā, my favorite day of the year! Here are a few thoughts on what this night represents along with a few suggestions as to how one might celebrate it! Here is our pūjā vidhi (ritual manual). The Secret Worship of Mā Kālī A Complete Sādhanā, Spiritual Practice f...

On the 31st of October this year (2024), we will be celebrating Kālī Pūjā. But this Kartika new moon is also Diwali/Dīpāvalī and many will be worshipping Laxmī, who is light embodied!  Last week, on this day, we celebrated the Sarat-Pūrnimā, the Autumn Full Moon which is considered to be the most auspicious, most beautiful and most charming of the full moons. Naturally, then, the full moon of autu...

Last week, on this day, we celebrated the Sarat-Pūrnimā, the Autumn Full Moon which is considered to be the most auspicious, most beautiful and most charming of the full moons. Naturally, then, the full moon of autumn (which is in the month of Ashwin, following the Sharada Durgā Pūjā/Navarātri) is associated to the Goddess Laxmī. As such, on the occasion of Laxmī Pūjā this year, we gave two lectur...

Many people all over the world are diligently chanting Tantrik mantras and hymns and yet are not getting any results whatsoever. In fact, many people are doing sādhanā, spiritual practice rather consistently and still they find no real progress!  Why is that?  In this lecture on "How To Succeed At Tantra", we take up this question and offer a few "troubleshooting" solutions to...

Be forewarned:  This is quite a powerful mantra so one's experience of it can be quite intense, especially after chanting it in such a sustained way like this. As always, it is better to receive it from a qualified guru in the context of Tantrik initiation, dīkshā and of course, it is always recommended that you practice out of simple devotion and sincerity with no desire to "get somethi...

Navarātri is never quite complete until we all get together and chant the Mahiṣāsura-Mardinī Stotram! This hymn is sometimes attributed to Adi Shankarācharya (as many, many hymns in the Sanskrit tradition tend to be) but it is also sometimes attributed to Rāvana, the antagonist of the Ramāyana! I like the second account much better for reasons I get into in the beginning of this discussion!  After...

On Navami last week, for our final online Navarātri celebration, we chanted one māla of the siddha-kunjika mantra together, which as it says in the Rudra-Yāmala Tantra is itself equivalent to chanting the whole Caṇḍi! Be forewarned: this is quite a powerful mantra so one's experience of it can be quite intense, especially after chanting it in such a sustained way like this. Here's the ma...

Whenever we think of the Goddess Durgā, the image that almost invariable comes to mind is of Her standing on her lion of Dharma with Her right foot, stepping on a buffalo with Her left foot and, spear in hand, stabbing the mustachioed villain-turned-devotee through the heart, an otherworldly smile on Her beautiful face. This image of Mā is called Mahiṣāsura-mardinī (The Slayer of the Buffalo Demon...

The calling card of Tantrik spiritual practice is creative visualization on rich, complex and thoroughly symbolic imagery along with the repetition and chanting of subtle sound patterns or speech formulae known as "mantras." After all, Tantra is a highly aesthetic tradition and it is as much of a literary and artistic movement as it is a spiritual one! If you want to learn more about Tan...

The full moon after Sārada Navarātri (Autumn Goddess festival) is known as Laxmī pūjā, the day where we celebrate the Goddess of Beauty, Elegance, Auspiciousness and Wealth!  Of course we'll have many, many more things to say about the "Tantrik Laxmī" in the days to come, but I thought I would just go ahead and get the balling rolling with this video which presents Mahalakshmī from...

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. O...

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 personific...

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 sophistica...

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 o...

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...

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 i...