Yoga Wisdom with Acharya das

People, both atheists and “believers,” hold a variety of concepts of God, or a higher transcendent truth or reality, which they either accept or, in the case of atheists, reject. If asked, “Is There a Concept of God in Yoga?” we would need to understand what the person means by God? Within Yoga or the sacred texts known as the Vedas, the understanding of God, is vast and extraordinarily complete u...

Many of us share the experience of setting out, in different ways, hoping to “create” happiness. We may stimulate our mind and senses with different experiences which can produce pleasurable feelings, but these experiences are neither lasting nor fulfilling. In fact, they can eventually lead to a feeling of emptiness and even depression. Why? This is addressed in this talk. To find real happiness...

In general, most people think of the ego as the way we view ourselves and our relationships with others. A dictionary definition is: “Someone's ego is their sense of their own worth. For example, if someone has a large ego, they think they are very important and valuable. He had a massive ego; never would he admit he was wrong.” Understanding the Yogic/Vedic perspective of the ego can lead to...

The time in which we live is described in the Vedas as the “age of chaos, quarrel and confusion.” We experience this in so many competing political ideas/beliefs, social philosophies, value systems, and ideas of morally proper behavior. There are competing propositions on how to arrange the external components/components of our lives to produce harmony and peace. The common denominator for most of...

In this world self-worth to the worth of others is most often equated with physical appearance, net worth, who you know, what you do (your career or occupation) and what you achieve. These ideas run counter to the spiritual perspective and are considered ignorant in spiritual teachings. When you erroneously conclude that you are your physical body and/or mind, you’ll measure your value based on ma...

We have all experienced being let down, hurt, and wronged by others in our lives. This can leave us confused, sad, angry, and disappointed. I can then hold resentment and anger because of past transgressions of "others" against "me", but by doing that I then become “enslaved” by that and constantly live in the shadow of my offender. If you want to heal relationships, release em...

In the natural course of life, we will encounter different “storms”, periods of difficulty that can be very challenging and disturbing. Living a spiritually oriented life will bring both perspective and solace and make it so we can pass through these periods without our life being turned upside down. Having a realistic view of life and the world is not just necessary but critical to living peacefu...

Grief is understood as not just sadness but a very great sadness, especially at the death of someone or a great loss. In some cases it can deeply affect how one lives their life from that point. In the ancient Sanskrit language, one of the words they use is śocaḥ which not only means grief or sorrow, but can also be used to describe burning or a flame. In this talk, we explore how in many cases gr...

When many people think of the two words “religion” and “spirituality” nowadays they could have memes floating around in their minds and not clear and objective ideas. In this talk, we examine these terms from the ancient Vedic perspective. It is really difficult to cover such an important topic in an abbreviated way, and while this is quite a long talk we have not really covered the topic as exten...

This is a continuation of the previous talk and is the Q&A portion which you might find interesting.

This talk was delivered in Brisbane, Australia. We explore the pivotal role forgiveness plays in our own peace and happiness. There was a full-house both here and when we covered the same topic 2 nights later on the Gold Coast which shows how many of us need this. All the great spiritual wisdom-traditions of the world glorify forgiveness as being indispensable for authentic spiritual growth and li...

Text-book definitions of social anxiety disorder include “Individuals with social anxiety disorder fear negative evaluations from other people.” One of the significant characteristics is an overwhelming fear of humiliation. While social anxiety may be more common or pronounced now, it is not something new. Around 400 B.C. Hippocrates described the condition stating that such a person “dare not com...

Many people think they possess a soul – we refer to “my soul.” But if that’s the case, then who are you (the one possessing the soul) and what exactly is the soul? One dictionary definition is – “The spiritual part of a person that some people believe continues to exist in some form after their body has died, or the part of a person that is not physical and experiences deep feelings and emotions.”...

An internet safety organization in the UK warns that school children are using AI image generators to create indecent fake images of classmates. Another article was headlined - Kids who use social media are more prone to making dangerous decisions. It was about a study of 1.4 million adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 from 1997 to 2022 and found that frequent or daily social media usage inc...

This is one of the talks from my recent visit to the USA – it is in Austin, Texas. Many people do not have a very clear concept of what is material and what is spiritual which is the subject I was asked to speak on at an Austin Kirtan event.

The inspiration for this talk was something I heard on a short piece of a podcast of Joe Rogan talking to Oliver Anthony (Chris Lunsford) who came out with the recent viral hit “Rich Men North of Richmond.” Answering a question from Joe Rogan about what inspires him, Oliver quoted the following from the Bible: Proverbs 4:23-26 23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from i...

The Vedas teach that there is a higher Transcendent Reality, a Higher Truth, an Absolute Truth. According to Vedic wisdom there is one unique living being amongst a vast ocean of conscious and eternal beings. This one Supreme Soul is known by many, many different Names. We are all connected to the Supreme Soul. There is an eternal bond of kinship, of love between all living beings and the Supreme...

We have just celebrated the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King. One of his most famous addresses was the “I have a dream” speech where he stated: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Reading some current commentaries, we see how if this phrase is quote...

Navigating the lunar surface can be used as an analogy for navigating the mind. One needs to carefully plot a course that avoids the dangers and pitfalls and takes advantage of smooth terrain. The opposite to this approach is like being swept away in raging flood waters filled with dangerous debris, where one has no control. Our choice is to either take control of the content of our mind, or to ha...

Responsibility and accountability are really interesting topics that have a huge bearing on our life, both from a spiritual as well as material perspective.  We examine the urgent need to refocus our lives using these principles so that we may become happier and live better lives.

We cannot change the past. We cannot change the things that have happened to us, but it is within our power to decide what type of future we will experience. We often spend too much time going over past experiences, often the bad ones. “That person said or did such-and-such to me!” This is a waste of valuable time and changes nothing. What we do have control of is “where to from here.” The cultiva...

Some of the main headlines we see in the news these days is the devastating effects of climate change around the world. Hottest temperatures on record, massive amounts of rainfall and flooding, record drop in the Antarctic ice sheet etc. A leading environmental lawyer and advocate former who formerly served as dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and as the former Adminis...

This is the last of four talks at a recent retreat in New Zealand. In this session we explore the two approaches to the spiritual quest: one is described as the ascending path - 'āroha-panthā,' and the other is called the descending process or the 'avaroha-panthā.' This is the path of acceptance and humility and appreciating the need for Divine intervention or Divine Grace. We also...

This is the 3rd of four talks at a recent retreat in New Zealand. In this session we took questions from the retreat participants. The questions that were addressed were: 1. I have a question for the afternoon Q&A if that's okay. As eternal spiritual beings, are we a part of the whole of the existence of the universe and therefore, one , with everything in the known universe, or does our s...

This is the 2nd of four talks at a recent retreat in New Zealand. We explore our spiritual essence, the mind and how meditating on these spiritual sounds has a profound effect on our lives. I have shared some Vedic verses which I recently used in a shorter version of this talk. We cover the fundamental truths concerning our spiritual existence and how I, the eternal spiritual being residing within...