Light on Yoga and Meditation

Swami Shankardev was recently interviewed by Dr. Lauren Tober as part of The Yoga-Informed Therapist Interviews —a series that brought together therapists and yoga teachers who are integrating these two worlds with care, depth, and ethical rigor. The series covered the scope of practice, nervous system regulation, trauma sensitivity, and the training pathways that allow this kind of integration to...

Mantras are far more than simple relaxation words—they are powerful sound vibrations and universal psychic forces accessible to anyone willing to study and practice them. Derived from Sanskrit roots meaning "mind" (man) and "liberation/protection" (tra), mantras serve to liberate energy, expand awareness, heal, and enlighten the mind while accessing our limitless creative potential. Beyond Words:...

Welcome to this episode of Big Shakti’s podcast, an interview with Dr Swami Shankardev by Janie Larmour, the organizer of Yoga Day Sydney, which will be held at Sydney Boys' High on Sunday, June 22nd, 2025. Get 20% off your ticket price using the coupon code  BIGSHAKTI20. https://www.tickettailor.com/events/yogaday/1413531 Janie states - "Swami Shankardev is this year’s featured teacher and h...

Illuminating the Inner Landscape: Eastern Wisdom for Mental Transformation Are you struggling with feelings of being trapped in cycles of mental and emotional suffering without understanding why? Do you sense there's untapped potential within you, yet can't seem to access it? This illuminating lecture may hold the key to your transformation. In this podcast episode, we discuss how ancient Indian p...

Welcome to this episode of Big Shakti’s podcast. I'm Dr. Swami Shankardev. Over my nearly 50 years as a medical doctor and yoga therapist, I've discovered that true healing requires us to look beyond symptoms to understand the deeper architecture of our minds and consciousness. In this podcast episode, I'll introduce you to an ancient map of consciousness called Samkhya that has revolutionized how...

The practice of Yoga Nidra unfolds in stages: 1.        The first stage consists of moving awareness from part to part of the physical body, called body rotation.  2.        The next stage is usually based on breath awareness, which involves using our awareness to observe the breath, which is a subtler part of us....

This podcast episode is divided into two parts. The first is about how chronic, unresolved stress wrecks your brain. The second is about how yoga and meditation repair the damage of chronic stress. We describe the four stages of repair, moving from basic repair of the damage to stabilizing normal function, then building a stronger neural architecture, and finally, the phase of mastery in which you...

This episode is the talk from our Core Strength Clam Mind Guided Meditation Series, which is now also available in our Life Force Meditations Series. The Life Force Meditation Series has bundled three of our programs, Prana , Core Strength , and Chakras , into one mega program, which is divided into three phases. The first phase covers all you need to know about prana to generate and store prana....

This podcast episode focuses on the third eye of intuition, ajna chakra. We have compiled two talks by Jayne and myself. The first is the introduction to the Awakening The Third Eye of Intuition Course. The second is from the Light on the Chakras and Kundalinī Course held in 2022 and 2023.  Welcome to the Awaken Your Third Eye of Intuition course. The purpose of this course is to support you...

This episode is the talk from our Prana and Pranic Healing Guided Meditation Series, which is now also available in our Life Force Meditations Series. This series has bundled together three of our programs, Prana , Core Strength , and Chakras , into one mega program.  The first phase of this mega program, the Life Force Series, enables you to gain an authentic experience of prana and the abil...

Following our episode on self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-mastery, episode 13 of our podcast series, quite a lot of people have written to us asking us which meditation practice they should start with and how to use all the various meditations we have on the website. Which meditations are particularly suited to cultivating self-awareness, which is for self-regulation, and is there a path...

The following two talks by Jayne on the Shadow were taken from the Light in the Chakras and Kundalinī Course that we ran in 2022. They are taken from Classes 3 and 5. Understanding what the shadow is and being able to deal with upwellings from the shadow is extremely important in the more advanced practices of the yoga-tantra tradition. This is because they aim to purify the unconscious. The way t...

Here are the main points of this podcast Self-awareness is the core principle in yoga and meditation. It reflects consciousness and helps us transcend life’s problems by anchoring us in the self. Consciousness is our center. The body and mind are composed of energy, which can be gross, subtle, or causal. Cultivating self-awareness allows us to experience these various forms of energy more deeply....

This episode is based on a talk given by Dr. Swami Shankardev to Yogic Studies students in February 2005 on the keys to heart presence and selfless service. This talk arose in response to a student who was struggling to practice service, an aspect of Karma Yoga.  In the talk, Swami Shankardev discusses the following: 1.      Selfless service is an important path...

This podcast episode is from an interview with my good friend Ron Ehrlich in 2019 for his podcast Unstress. For many years, Ron was my holistic dentist. However, he has recently found a new life purpose and has retired to focus on health education. You can find out more about Ron and the wonderful work he is doing at his website, Unstress Online:  https://www.unstressonline.com . In this epis...

In today’s episode, we are providing you with the Introductory lesson from Healing the Mind – Ajapa Japa Stage 1 Course. It is also available as a video on Big Shakti’s YouTube channel. Ajapa Japa is a wonderful and extremely powerful form of meditation that combines many forms of meditation, including relaxation, mindfulness, breath, prana, life force, and a mantra to heal the body and mind and a...

If you only ever study one yoga meditation technique over your lifetime, you would be wise to choose Ajapa Japa.  Ajapa Japa combines many forms of meditation into one powerful practice that heals and transforms your mind. Ajapa Japa is a potent guided yoga and meditation technique that you can use to improve every part of your life: physical, mental, and spiritual. The practice circulates th...

This episode is taken from a series of lectures given by Dr Swami Shankardev to a yoga group in 2005. It focuses on tantra. He briefly describes the difference between yoga and tantra and how tantra fits into the profound philosophical systems of India. Out of the myriad systems that arose over the millennia, 6 systems, called the shad darshana, became the most famous.  The six systems a...

This episode is taken from Big Shakti’s Light on the Chakras and Kundalinī training master class series. This masterclass is taught once every two years and is conducted over nine months. In this episode, which comes out of Lesson 1, we discuss the concepts of yoga, meditation, tantra, and yoga-tantra. The Sanskrit word yoga means connection or union. The English word meditation also means the con...

This episode is available on YouTube https://youtu.be/ORs0rDsqZBQ In this episode of Big Shakti’s podcast, I interview Jayne Stevenson, my life partner and co-creator of Big Shakti. We have been together in this life for 22 wonderful years.  We talk about Jayne’s counseling and psychotherapy practice and how she combines spirituality and creativity, the role of intuitive healing, and dreams....

This podcast episode is from an interview with my good friend Ron Ehrlich in 2022 for his podcast Unstress. For many years Ron was also my holistic dentist. However, he has recently retired to focus more on health education. You can find out more about Ron and the wonderful work he is doing at his website Unstress Online https://www.unstressonline.com . In this podcast, we discuss my approach to m...

A video of this podcast episode is on Big Shakti's youtube channel https://youtu.be/UMQ7yQ2v4Rk This podcast episode is taken from Big Shakti’s Light on the Chakras and Kundalinī training master class series. This masterclass is taught once every two years and is conducted over nine months. It consists of 20 lessons, and you receive one lesson every two weeks, and after two lessons, there is a liv...

This podcast episode is all about Yoga Nidra, a wonderful relaxation meditation technique developed by the great yoga adept Swami Satyananda Saraswati of the Bihar School of Yoga in India. Yoga Nidra, as a meditation technique, enables you to remain awake and alert as you venture into the deep sleep state. Instead of becoming unconscious, you experience an exalted state of cons...

In this podcast, you will hear the first track of the  3 Easy Steps to Deep Relaxation  Meditation MP3 series. We intend to use these first few podcasts to provide some background information on yoga and meditation. Once we have covered the basics, then we can take a deep dive into the more amazing and wonderful aspects of Indian philosophy and its esoteric traditions. Probably the most...

Today's podcast episode describes what yoga and meditation are, how meditation is both a technique and a state of being, and how meditation is a process of self-discovery that unfolds in stages. The stages of meditation are described in detail, including the stage of relaxation and introversion, the stage of concentration, the true meditative state, and the state of absorption into cosmic consciou...