Chaitra Navaratri (the Spring Goddess Festival) is about to come up in only a few days! To usher in these coming 9 nights of the Goddess, I wanted to upload this throwback to the Fall Goddess Festival last year when we had a wonderful discussion on the intersection between art and spirituality, and specifically, on the role of aesthetics (poetry, music, dance, theatre, sculpture, visual art etc.) in the very refined and rich world of Tantrik spirituality. When I was cleaning out. my hard...

One of the central questions we ask in spiritual life is, "what about sexuality?"   On one side of the spectrum you have world-negative traditions (which seem to be in the majority in classical times and whose effects can still be felt today) which reject sexuality wholesale and on the other side of that same spectrum you have world-affirming traditions that often get abused as a license for hedonism, mitigating greatly their spiritual value. This second type seems to be on the rise in todays...

We haven't missed a single Monday night satsangh since we started in 2020. That's a four year streak for our community? Isn't that wonderful? Thank you all for your continued support over the years!  Anyway, we had a bit of a close call the other day since due to some circumstances, I was not able to start the lecture until 11:30pm that Monday night! Here is the late night "after hours" lecture that saved our streak: This talk was given on special day, a day that marks the anniversary of my...

On the occasion of Maha Shiva Ratri 2024, the great night of Shiva, we say a few words about the central mantra of Shaivism known as the Panchakshara. First, we explain the mystical significance of "akshara", phonemes (Sanskrit letters) and then we consider the esoteric significance of the number 5 in Shaivism, in a few different ways. Then, we put this all together to explain the hidden meaning of the Panchakshara mantra and conclude by commenting upon and ultimately rocking out to the...

In this talk on the occasion of mahashivaratri 2024, we say a few words about the Tantra in general, the Vijñāna-Bhairava Tantra in particular and Shiva puja in theory and practice. What do we do on shivaratri and why do we do it? We discuss the unique and wonderful features of Shiva Puja. May this be my offering to you, you who are Shiva embodied.  OM Namah Shivayah! Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST.  There's Q&A right after...

Not only was it just Swami Vivekananda’s birthday weekend but also at the time of this lecture it was the anniversary of the composition of Abhinavagupta’s Bhairava Stava, one of my favorite non dual hymns of all time! As such we’ll celebrate by exploring Swamiji’s highest, edgiest most powerful non dual teachings and more importantly his advice on how to live them alongside a running commentary on the Bhairava Stava! Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST...

As Buddha had a message for the East, so too did Swami Vivekananda have a message for the West, if not for the whole world. What was that message? While it is of course a very multifaceted, variegated and nuanced message, three core principles stand out; we explore them in the course of this lecture, as part of our Vivekananda Jayanti celebrations earlier this month. These principles are: 1. Religion is a matter of Direct Experience, not dogma.  Inspired by his teacher Ramakrishna who daily...

I have quite the treat for you: we’re going to be looking at Swami Vivekananda’s highest teachings from a series of lectures he gave in San Francisco. I thought of calling the talk “Swami Vivekananda in San Francisco”, to reference the series of three talks that Swami Ashokananda gave in 1946 and 1949 at the Old Temple and 1965 in the New Temple on the subject. I wanted to say a little about what kind of person the Swami especially while he was here in California and also reflect a bit on his...

Last week, we attempted to ask the question "Who is Sarada Devi?" and we ended up with the answer, "who knows?" Svārupam tvadīyam na vindanti devah! Even the Gods do not know your true nature, Mother! In any case, in that previous lecture (which you can watch here), we attempted a sketch of the early years of this great life and today, we're going to go in for a second pass at this most inscrutable and yet most intimately accessible of lives but this time we're going to pay particular...

Who knows? Who could ever know?  As Shankara put it in his Kalikāshtakam: "svarūpam tvadīyam na vindanti devah: not even the Gods know your true nature!" With this in mind, humbled and awed, we approach this profound mystery of the Divine Mother of the Universe who is at once inscrutable and yet easy of access to us. She is at once Kali, the Mistress of Maya who confounds the Universe as well as our very own Mother, appearing in the form of a very nondescript, traditional Brahmin...

This discussion is a long time coming: Who is Mary of Magdala and what is she to the Christ? Is simply Christ's foremost and most advanced disciple? Is she fallen woman who was redeemed through the Christ as Pope Gregory claimed in the late 6th CE? Or was she much, much more? I want to make the case in this lecture for Mary as being the Shakti of Christ, the power by which the Incarnation and His holy Gospel was properly understood and spread, the power by which he is able to do what he does....

Today on Sārada Devī Jayanti, the auspicious emergence of Holy Mother, I'd like to offer this recitation of the four hymns of the Candi at your feet, you who are Mā embodied. Before each hymn is chanted in Sanskrit and translation, we make a few preliminary remarks about the hymn to contextualize it in the wider narrative of the Candi or Devi Māhātmyam.  These hymns are very powerful. They are charged with unimaginable mantric force! To even listen to them is to affect a profound...

As you know, a tantra is often divided into four parts: 1. jñāna-pada, the philosophical transmission, 2. Yoga-pada, the section of esoteric practices like meditation and mantra repetition 3. Kriyā-pada, the manual for pūjā or ritualistic worship 4. Cārya-pada, the section on how to live your life in the world as a practitioner! Having discussed the first three parts quite extensively it’s now time to turn the next question: “how do we move about in this world as a genuine spiritual...

God is inscrutable and mysterious for the most part. What then to say of the Incarnation, that is, the appearance of God as a specific person in history?! Perhaps the mystery of the Avatar, the Incarnation of God is one of the deepest mysteries of religion and it is by no means unique to Christianity. Long before the Christ, we find in the Bhagavad Gita the following, which represents the first articulation of the notion of Divine Incarnations by Sri Krishna, one of the first Incarnations to...

Usually when we think of prayer, we picture kneeling by the bedside with hands clasped and being thoroughly disappointed. Usually, we feel prayer as some kind of contrived, forced, inauthentic attempt to connect with a barely articulated idea of "God" and often to be met with silence and a feeling of being kind of silly. Is prayer talking to God? What do you even say in a conversation that often feels so one-sided? What do you pray "for", if anything? How does prayer compare to other...

At last week’s satsangh we had a wonderful conversation about the Tantrik principles in Christianity: guru paramparā (lineage based transmission), dīksha (initiation rituals), mantra japa (repetition of sacred words), pūjā (ritual worship) and vigraha (the immanent and embodied aspect of God). In this lecture, I intend to discuss the relations up between Mother Mary and Mā Kālī not just in matters of iconography and history (I.e Sara La Kali/Black Madonna etc.) but also with regards of...

In this lecture, we discuss “Tantrik Christianity”, that is, elements of Tantra like 1. guruparamparā (lineage based transmission),  2. ritual worship (pūjā) 3. emphasis on mantra repetition (japa) 4. profileration of deities/icons 5. emphasis on direct, personal experience of the Divine 6. the Immanence of God etc.  that are also present in Christianity to make the case that Tantra is a spiritual approach not exclusive to any one cultural but is founded upon universal spiritual principles...

In this lecture, we take a comparative look at the Divine Feminine as it is worshipped in the Mesopotamian, Aztec, Spanish, Celtic, Gaelic and Hellenistic cultures to show that Mā Kālī is not confined to any one culture or religion. Though Her worship and veneration is perhaps most articulated and most visibly extant in Hinduism, She is indeed the Primordial Power that was worshipped by all peoples in all places as perhaps the first religious intuition/revelation of the human race in all its...

Last month, we celebrated my favorite time of the year, Kālī Pūjā!  The pūjā itself was on Sunday the 12th of November, the new moon night but on the Friday just before I couldn't at all contain my excitement and felt inspired to do a special class on Ramprasad, the great mystic and saint of Mother Kālī.  His story is a truly remarkable tale of the highest devotion, of the most reckless absorption, of the most unparalleled intoxication in Mā, replete with wonderful legends of mystical...

We start our evening's Q&A with some book recommendations for the study and practice of Tantrik Shaktism, that is, devotion to the Divine Mother. (00:00-07:00) Then we discuss some precautions around the Devī Māhātmyam sādhanā with regards to "fierce grace" with an excursus on the Power of Mantra/the Power of the Written Word. (07:00-16:00) But to soften that, we then talk about Mā's non-dual nature as ultimately compassionate, even towards supposed "demons"! At 19:00 we discuss the...

After two back-to-back Kālī pūjās and a few all nighters, we plunge into a discussion of Mā Kālī's non-dual aspect, to commemorate the Shyama Kali Puja of 2023. My idea was to explore the role of the ferocious iconography around Mā, a few verses of the Candi indicated Her non-dual nature as Pure Consciousness and some similar iconography and motifs from other world spiritual traditions to present the idea that Mā is more than a Goddess in a pantheon but rather the Principle of Creative Power...

Prior to our Hallowe'en lecture on ghosts in the Tantrik world, we recite a few hymns and poems to Mahākāla Bhairava and Mā Bhairavi (Abhinava Gupta's Bhairava Stava and the two Kālī poems by Swami Vivekananda) that feature similar macabre elements to make a point about radical acceptance, non-duality and overcoming fear. Art by Vijayā (http://www.birthlessdeathless.com/) Lectures happen live on zoom every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and Friday at 6pm PST.  There's Q&A right...

Tonight’s lecture is a Hallowe’en special! After all, Śaiva and Śakta Tantra is chock full of ghoulish mortuary iconography: Mā Kālī’s garland of skulls, Lord Śiva’s garland of snakes, their retinue of ghosts, goblins and vampires, their home in the cremation grounds (ghat), fierce fanged dākinī and yoginīs and so much more.  It’s no wonder Hallowe’en is my favorite holiday!  Tonight, to celebrate, let's discuss Tantrik demonology and the role of mortuary and gory iconography in texts like ...