Gangaji Podcasts

"I was in that place of 'I give up.' I don't know. And that's a very open place, actually." On this month's episode of Being Yourself: Self-Inquiry with Gangaji , we are honored to share Episode 4 of Finding Home , the six-part audio documentary series that traces Gangaji's spiritual journey. In the fourth episode, From Disillusionment to Awakening , Gangaji reflects on the disappointments, failur...

"I encourage you to let your heart be broken. Waking up to yourself has nothing to do with forgetting the suffering of others as if it never existed." How do we reconcile the recognition of truth and peace with the suffering, cruelty, and devastating loss we see around us or even in our own lives? How do we face real heartbreak given this paradox can't be reconciled in our minds? Rather than turni...

"It's in fully seeing it all…that there is this undeniable yes in the core." What is unfolding before our eyes in the world—the violent aggression and heartbreaking destruction of war—reflects what occurs in our own minds. There is an inner war we can wage, often experienced as self-hatred. Self-hatred fuels self-destruction, and the consequences—both individually and collectively—are real. How do...

"The real healing of trauma is bringing your love and consciousness to it." In the wake of trauma, fear can take hold — in the body, in memory, and in the many ways we try to protect ourselves from feeling its pain again. In this intimate dialogue, Gangaji points to a deeper healing not found in escaping fear, but in bringing love and consciousness directly to the wound. She offers a powerful inqu...

"If you are really, hopelessly lost, instantly you are found." This month's episode addresses that moment on the spiritual path, where all striving for enlightenment, all seeking of peace and freedom culminates in feeling at "the end of our rope."   Gangaji speaks directly to the possibility that even a moment of despair or desperation has something to reveal. What if being "hopelessly lost" is ac...

"Can you find a problem when the desire to attain anything is given up?"   In our search for happiness and fulfillment on the spiritual path, we usually imagine it will be found in some desired state or experience or circumstance that we apparently lack. We may tell ourselves many varied and different stories about who we are, but as this conversation reveals, it is only who we think we are . What...

"There is conditioning in our mind streams, but what we are drawn by, what has brought us here, is closer and deeper than any conditioning." How is it possible to penetrate the conditioning of our minds, the play of ego and superego, and discover our true identity? What if we just give up the game entirely? In this exchange, Gangaji deconstructs the egoic habits of judging ourselves and others dem...

"The real challenge is to include all, every aspect of yourself. Even the aspect that hates can be loved." When we take a spiritual path, we may be seeking our enlightenment or our awakening. But perhaps what is truly wanted cannot be discovered in any spiritual technique or acquisition or achievement, but rather in surrender, in the surrender to love one another.  As Gangaji shares in this episod...

"We have overlooked what was actually innocent and was called stupid. We lost our stupidity and in that we lost our heart. Yet, we are haunted by the fear that we are still actually stupid." We fear being stupid or foolish and try to be brilliant and clever. It is an aspect of our human drive for survival. In this episode of Being Yourself, Gangaji speaks to the unnecessary suffering that can be c...

 "You cannot learn the Self, you cannot learn Consciousness, you cannot learn Love, you cannot learn Trust, but you can learn how you deny that." After an essential experience of self-realization, we can re-identify with the definitions and concepts we hold about ourselves in our mind. How do we resolve the paradox of recognizing oneself as pure consciousness and being human, living an ordinary li...

"What deepens is the mind's surrender because the mind's whole job has been to never surrender." Even in the midst of uncertain times, we can recognize that what is always at peace is, in truth, who we are. How is it possible for us to retreat for just a moment from our mental strategies rooted in survival to recognize what we are overlooking—the very spaciousness of being. Can you let go of what...

"The way you can discover directly that your story is an illusion is to try it on as if it were real. The magic trick is exposed in that moment."   Rather than address the question "why do we suffer," Gangaji speaks to "how" we suffer, and how we perpetuate that suffering in our lives and in the world. In this exchange, we see a simple inquiry can lift our mental veils and offer the immediate oppo...

"Just as you are right now, present yourself fully, nakedly with all of your imperfections and no hope of cleaning them up. Then see what is, see what welcomes you just as you are." As human beings, we have a natural egoic desire to improve ourselves. It is part of our survival mechanism, but when that desire turns into an endless search for perfection, we overlook what is already whole.  What if...

  "I would never suggest that you get rid of the longing. Meet the longing, fall into the longing, and you are laughing, laughing, laughing."   Perhaps you have had an experience of longing that won't go away no matter how you try to satisfy it or get rid of it. That very desire may actually be pointing to a deeper desire—a longing for truth, for freedom, for resolution. In this episode of Being Y...

"I don't have confidence in my personality, but I do have absolute, total confidence in the Truth of who I am. And that is available for you because it is the same I Am." Quieting or shutting down the voice of self-hatred running in our minds often brings us to the spiritual search, and in that, it can be an ally. We may fear thoughts or feelings of self-hatred, but if we don't want that merciless...

"True inquiry is examining all of those places where you have assigned your identity. One of the spiritual identities is the one who is enlightened now, finally." For millennia, human beings from all walks of life have sought after what has been referred to as "enlightenment." In this potent monologue, Gangaji offers a fresh inquiry into the nature of enlightenment, the trap we fall into when we s...

Papaji said, "It takes one twelfth of a second, and then your life is never the same." Our spiritual search often begins with a causeless moment of true revelation that stops us in our tracks. In just a split second, what is whole and permanent is immediately recognized.  As the powerful feelings, insights and emotions connected to that sublime moment subside, we often begin our search again hopin...

"If you are willing to surrender for a moment any definition of yourself that arises however high or low, you will directly discover what lies underneath." Is there a relationship between our self-definitions and the desire to control? What happens when we set aside our definitions, is it freeing or frightening? In this monologue and exchange, Gangaji encourages us to set aside all definitions in...

"Universal, limitless consciousness has no problem with feeling bad or feeling good."  When we experience challenging emotions or exacting mental states we may imagine we are "losing our enlightenment." A day may start with oceanic feelings of bliss, but in the next moment, fear or rage or sadness appear. Are we really losing our enlightenment? What are we overlooking in our quest for the "good fe...

"Thought is a beautiful power that arises in Awareness. If that power is worshipped or if it is hated, then it grows into a tyranny.  You are Awareness, not the thought of Awareness, but the reality of Awareness." When we identify with the thoughts and feelings arising in our mind and body, we overlook our true face—awareness itself. Habitually following thoughts with more thoughts is the root of...

"When you're willing to be still…to stop this forward thrust of accumulation, of a lifestyle, you can give your life, the attention of your life, to discovering what is life." When we begin a search for peace or happiness, we may simply be looking for better circumstances, or wanting to feel less lonely, or hoping to release feelings of guilt or sorrow. As we walk that path we may fall into just a...

On this Being Yourself Podcast Extra you are invited to "look inward." Take just a few minutes to drop into a brief selection taken from  The Sacred Fire of Death: Reflections on the Katha Upanishad. It is the newest installment in the Sacred Text Series with Gangaji and Chris Mohr. Along with their conversation about the Katha Upanishad itself, there are also readings from what is one of the most...

"There is a possibility of meeting the Satguru which is death – the final great teacher of us all. Not as an escape from life, just an opening to what is inevitable, to what is here." Genetically, human beings are designed to survive, to avoid death. The fear of death is natural. But when we are willing to consciously meet death, to investigate its depths and reality, we have a life-changing oppor...

"Regardless of those people who depend on you, it is possible for you to be true to who you are. Compassionately, ruthlessly true to who you are. . . true to the open heart." The most common question Gangaji receives at the end of a retreat is, "How can I trust myself to be true to the truth of who I am while living my daily life?" How do we raise children, pay the bills, go to work, or sustain a...

"The mistake is overlooking what is effortlessly, choicelessly, always here." How is it that we actually overlook the truth of ourselves? When we pursue sublime states of mind to attain "unity" on our spiritual path, we can go down a path that instead delivers an experience of separation. Gangaji invites us to simply be, and in that, discover what cannot be "done" and who you truly are.   Learn mo...