For the Love of Yoga with Nish the Fish

And now, our main project is to study Somānanda's radical non-dual philosophy, which is the foundation for Shākta non-duality. Somānanda might be one of the most radical and God-intoxicated of the Shaiva Non-Dual masters. He is Abhinava Gupta's guru's guru's guru. Essentially, the idea here is that nothing is insentient: every thing, even seemingly inanimate objects, are actually none other than Shiva, who is pure non-dual Consciousness reposing blissfully in His own fullness endowed with unceasing powers of Willing, Knowing and Doing. Somānanda argues that every pot, every wall, every chair wills to be what it is and knows that it is that thing and acts as that thing all as an expression of Shiva's desire to play! And what's more? You are none other than this one Shiva who is playfully manifesting a world and embodied Himself in that world as everyone and everything, just for fun.  What a beautiful and stunning conception and realization!  This talk Race, Gender, Environment & Ethics in Non-Duality | Vijñāna-Bhairava Tantra, Verse 105 [https://www.patreon.com/posts/race-gender-in-133295468] was our first swipe at study Somānanda and Is My Coffee Mug Conscious? | Paramārthasāra, Verse 37 [https://www.patreon.com/posts/is-my-coffee-mug-134518716] was our second.  In fact, we're now at that verse in our Vijñāna-Bhairava Tantra (verse 105) which might have inspired Somānanda or at least captures the heart of what Somānanda is teaching and we're also studying a verse in Paramārthasāra (verse 37) which is more or less about the same thing.  So brace yourself!  The barrage of content that is now about to come your way, from Monday night discussions, Thursday night Vijñāna-Bhairava study and Friday morning Paramārthasāra commentary will all be oriented around this theme of "everything, including my coffee mug, cat and AI, is Consciousness AND also Conscious as the infinite expansion of Lord Shiva's playful being!  Support the show [https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish] Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST. Use this link and I will see you there: https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815 For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at: https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Naturally, naturalists and physicalists (i.e materialists) are exceedingly challenged by the "hard problem of Consciousness" as David Chalmers put it which is the challenge to explain, in physical terms, this somewhat transcendent reality called Consciousness which cannot at all be said to be caused by any brain activity.  One solution then is to posit "panpsychism", which is more or less the idea that Consciousness is as real as matter and energy and actually inheres in all matter and energy.  At any rate, we are currently studying a verse in the Paramārthasāra of Abhinava Gupta exploring the distinction between a "conscious" and seemingly "unconscious" or "inert" entities.  After all, this is one of the most radical claims of the Shaiva non dual tradition: all things are verily Śiva but Śiva, as you will recall, is not a mere principle of Existence with no sense of self; Śiva is self-reflexive Awareness, the kind of Reality that knows Itself (i.e God) and as such, everything must be Conscious as Śiva is conscious! How then can we drive at a distinction between "cid" vs "jada", "conscious" vs "inert"?  We take a first swipe at this idea in this talk and we will slowly unpack the view in the course of the next few videos through a close study of Somānanda, the great Tantrik master in whose work, Śivadrshti is present in full force this idea that all things, even pots, pieces of cloth, coffee mugs and Artificial Intelligence, are conscious, willing, knowing, doing things!  TLDR: The world is God. Let's start to explore how!  Support the show [https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish] Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST. Use this link and I will see you there: https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815 For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at: https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

As you know, over the past few months we've been trying to articulate our ideals and values as a community so that we can maintain the highest degree of integrity as possible, according to the ideals of our lineage, as exemplified by our Parameshti Guru, Paramahansa Sri Ramakrishna. As such, we've been using Swami Vivekananda's 1896 "My Master" (a compilation of two lectures Swamiji gave on Sri Ramakrishna, published in Volume IV of the Complete Works) as a sort of charter or mission statement for our community! We've given about 4 talks based on Swamiji's "My Master": Advice to Spiritual Teachers & Aspirants [https://www.patreon.com/posts/advice-to-131131096] Sex, Drugs & Choosing A Guru | Q&A [https://www.patreon.com/posts/sex-drugs-guru-q-131688615] Our Mission | A Manifesto [https://www.patreon.com/posts/our-mission-131931175] The Most Important Spiritual Idea [https://www.patreon.com/posts/most-important-133532108] & Guru as Transmission of Power [https://www.patreon.com/posts/guru-as-of-power-134129749] And now this is the 6th, completing the sequence.  In this short talk, we simply read out the rest of the speech, which we've been reading and reflecting upon together in the course of the past 4 talks listed above. This acts as a kind of finale or overture to this profound and moving piece about the highest spirituality exemplified in a human life!  May all aspire to that very highest ideal! Jai Sri Ramakrishna! Support the show [https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish] Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST. Use this link and I will see you there: https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815 For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at: https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

On the very auspicious day for Guru Purnima this year, we reflected on the role of the Guru and the process of approaching one in humility and surrender. We reflect upon the opening scene of the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna and we offer a running commentary on these profound and moving verses of the Guru Gītā, the Song of the Teacher: oṁ brahmānandaṁ paramasukhadaṁ kevalaṁ jñānamūrtiṁ dvandvātītaṁ gaganadadṛśaṁ tattvamasyādilakṣyam ekaṁ nityaṁ vimalamacalaṁ sarvadhīsākṣibhūtaṁ bhāvātītaṁ triguṇarahitaṁ sadguruṁ taṁ namāmi "I bow to that true guru, who alone is the bliss of Brahman and the giver of supreme happiness, the very embodiment of knowledge, beyond all duality, as vast the sky, the very definition of Reality (i.e that which is indicated by the mahāvākyas of the Upanishads), non-dual, eternal, stainless, the Indwelling Witness in all beings beyond the mind, untouched by the three guṇas (sattva, rajas and tamas)."  This lecture is part of our series on the role Guru in the Tāntrik tradition, which you can watch here [https://www.patreon.com/collection/666741].  Support the show [https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish] Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST. Use this link and I will see you there: https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815 For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at: https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

We suggest about 5 different practices you can do to celebrate Śrāvaṇa, the month of Śiva: 1. Vratam. Many people will observing vows like abstaining from a particular kind of food (salt, sugar, pickles etc.) or observing sunrise-sunset fasts or keeping vigils etc. Generally, these vows are observed on all the Mondays of this śrāvana period and so it is often called the Śrāvaṇa Somavara Vrātam (The Monday Observance of Śrāvaṇa) since Mondays are sacred to Lord Śiva. You can decide just what kind of thing to offer or to abstain from as part of your vrāta, vow, just whatever that is do-able and reasonable and makes spiritual sense and is spiritually nourishing to you. This is a bit like the Christian concept of lent, I suppose. 2. Japa (Puraścarana). You can pledge to chant a certain number of repetitions of your dīkshā mantra or any śiva mantra that you like (we often suggest the pancakshara mantra) every day during this period or just on the Mondays. When we systematically chant a certain number of mantras daily for a fixed period of time, we call that "puraścarana". Generally, we recommend that we sit in the same place, at the same time when we do our chanting and generally we suggests that you chant on a rudrāksha-mālā since those beads are sacred to Śiva. You get to decide what number you'd like to pledge, whatever number that is do-able and reasonable and spiritually nourishing for you. 3. Pūjā. Every Monday (or if you want, every day) during this period you can perform a pañcāmrita pūjā and/or a pañcopacāra-pūjā to your Shiva lingam or murti. We demonstrate this simple and elegant pūjā towards the end of this video but you can find all the mantras in Sanskrit with transliteration and translation as well as the ritual procedure in the description of this video [https://www.patreon.com/posts/how-to-perform-109977153?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link]. 4. Kirtana/Bhajana. A chanting practice is very beautiful and nourishing since it is essentially, like pūjā, a celebration! Perhaps you might decide to chant some hymns to Shiva on the Mondays or every day; you might simply commit to learning (and memorizing) a specific hymn that you like. (l) Nirvāna-śatakam 5. Karma Yoga. And our favorite practice of all as part of the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda lineage: worshipping Shiva in the form of the jīva, the embodied soul. As Christ said "that which you do unto the least of ye, you do unto me", the best possible pūjā is to actually serve everyone (including plants & animals & spirits & what not) in a spirit of worship. Never think you are helping anyone. Instead, feel that everyone is giving you an opportunity to worship God by coming to you for help. Don't feel that they owe you any gratitude for your having helped them. Rather, you be grateful to them for giving you the opportunity to worship God through them. In this way, your work, your daily tasks, all become transformed into Śiva-pūjā. This is the acme of non-duality, to recognize each movement of life as an encounter with the divine! May all beings, who are none other than Shiva, worship Shiva! Hara Hara Mahadeva!  Support the show [https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish] Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST. Use this link and I will see you there: https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815 For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at: https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnish To get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM