In this essay, Br. David Steindl-Rast, OSB, reflects on how we make ourselves whole by making each other whole. He explores the classic teaching story “Ten Oxherding Pictures” from the Zen Buddhist tradition. Wholeness has intrigued me ever since we boys built...
In this episode, Avi Gordon speaks with Robert Sankara Moses, who has taught Yoga and Advaita Vedanta for 50 years. Born in South Africa, in 1972 he discovered Yoga in the tradition of Sri Swami Sivananda (Swami Satchidananda's Guru). He served in the International...
In 2002, Sri Swami Satchidananda was invited to be a keynote speaker at the World Congress on Peace, Nonviolence and Harmony in South India. He left the body and entered Mahasamadhi a few days after the conclusion of the World Congress—his participation a fitting...
This series continues with part 3, in which we’re going to start at the very beginning. I remember, growing up, Julie Andrews singing in the film The Sound of Music, “A very good place to start . . .” So we’ll start with chapter 1, verse 1 of the Bhagavad Gita. Take a...
It was in September 1970 that I first met my spiritual master. It was a time when many great Gurus were being drawn to the West, attracted by the awakening aspiration of the youth. Several hundred of us had gathered at a rustic site in the mountains of California for...
I would like to continue this series with a little more background and history to set the stage and context for our study of the Bhagavad Gita. Throughout the ages people, probably throughout the planet, maybe possibly other planets, went deep into the mind,...
In this video, Deepak Chopra, MD talks with Yoga scholar/practitioner Christopher Hareesh Wallis about the 1,000 year-old tradition of Nondual Saiva Tantra. Dr. Wallis is asked to explain the essence of mantra and yantra, considered "pre-modern technologies," which...
Happiness is not something that can come from the outside. One of the things we seem to depend upon for our happiness is physical beauty. We don’t want to accept the fact that we will get old and our bodies will change. When we see others getting old we may think to...
In this series of short articles, Swami Asokananda shares his insights from years of study of and contemplation on the great Indian scripture the Bhagavad Gita. I would like to start with a little background. The Bhagavad Gita is 700 verses of the longest poem ever...
We come into this world with nothing and we leave with nothing, so why do we spend so much of our time holding onto things? That’s what we’ll get into in this deep dive into the final yama from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: aparigraha. As George Strait, the famous...
Dr. Deepak Chopra and Dr. Hareesh Wallis discuss the nature of Consciousness as explained in the ancient text The Recognition Sutras. As Dr. Wallis explains, "Consciousness engages in this divine act of creation, preservation, dissolution, concealment, revelation....
How do we integrate Sri Patanjali’s teachings about sex/celibacy/continence in today’s world? What does brahmacharya really mean? Swami Asokananda and Rev. Prem (the two yogis of the "Two Old Fogey Yogis" podcast) consider various aspects of this yama (ethical...
Ahimsa is one of the most fundamental principles from the original scriptures of Yoga and serves as a foundation for the practice of Yoga, on and off the mat. This practice is especially important now since our world desperately needs a grassroots movement to end...
In Episode 14 of the "Two Old Fogey Yogis" podcast, our two yogis discuss the study of foundational texts in the Yoga tradition and how to work with these in a way that engages them as “literary incarnations” filled with living wisdom. They also explore what the...
Did you ever wonder what "Integral Yoga" means? In this video, Mataji (a long-time disciple of Swami Satchidananda) describes how the path of Integral Yoga progressively brings the body, heart, mind, and spirit into harmony and peace. Swami Gurucharanananda, lovingly...
Nothing is going to make you always happy. That’s what the Mother Nature teaches. She says, “You are running after me for happiness; stop running.” Sometimes we hear people saying, “I’ve run and run and run and now I’m tired of running. I’m going to stop.” If that...