Each year on Guru Poornima, we turn our hearts in deep gratitude to the Guru—the one who awakens the Light of Truth within us. It is a time of honoring not only our own teacher, but the entire lineage of saints, sages, and realized beings who have guided humanity from...
See and Emulate: The Power of a Living Master
Throughout history, seekers have turned to spiritual masters for guidance. While scriptures and saints of the past offer enduring wisdom, there is something uniquely powerful about the presence of a living master—a person who embodies spiritual truth in the here and...
Serving a Higher Will
When we strive to see ourselves as instruments of a Higher Will—the hands of God at work in the world—we access and allow ourselves to be guided by a concern for the well-being of everyone. We more easily let go of our personal desires without force or denial and find...
The Light of Infinite Consciousness
All there is, is Infinite Consciousness. There is neither the perceiver nor the perceived. This is the great silence. This is the birthless and deathless state. All that we call unconscious, subconscious, conscious, and superconscious are the different states of...
Yoga & Wellness Retreats
The Integral Yoga Institute of San Francisco offers 3-day Yoga & Wellness personal retreats throughout the year. Experience deep renewal of body, mind, and spirit with a personal retreat at Integral Yoga Institute. Nestled in San Francisco’s Mission-Noe Valley,...
How Yoga Transformed a Brooklyn Kid into a Global Spiritual Leader
In this heartfelt and reflective conversation led by host Avi Gordon (director of Integral Yoga Teachers Association), Swami Asokananda (president of the Integral Yoga Institute of New York) shares his incredible life journey—from his Brooklyn upbringing in a...
Embarking on a Spiritual Odyssey, Part 17: The Alchemical Architecture of Awakening –The All Faiths Yantra and the LOTUS
In the last two installments of this series, we explored the profound presence of the Divine Mother Bhuvaneshvari—She who is the sovereign of the worlds—and how her sacred mantra and yantra became a mystical foundation within the Integral Yoga tradition. Though rarely...
Ayurveda’s Path to Well-Being
In this episode, Hannah Levin discusses her mission to alleviate unnecessary suffering through Ayurveda and Yoga, drawing from her personal health crisis with high-grade cervical dysplasia. She explains how Western medicine offered surgery as the only option, but...
Awakening and Realization
In this video, Rupert Spira and Swami Sarvapriyananda share their perspectives on various aspects of the path of wisdom, including seeing the true reality behind all appearances, the process of awakening, and what life is like after Self-realization. They also discuss...
Embarking on a Spiritual Odyssey, Part 16: The Mother’s Geometry—The Bhuvaneshvari Yantra
In the sacred stillness of the Palani Hills, at the samadhi shrine of the great Siddhar Bhogar, a seed of profound transformation was sown in the heart of a young seeker named Ramasamy. Years later, known to the world as Sri Swami Satchidananda, he would carry that...
Beyond the Meditation Cushion
The great South Indian sage Thiruvalluvar said, “What is tapasya (penance)?” Tapasya doesn’t mean go and close your eyes and meditate. That’s easy, comfortable. Tapas means to burn. A spiritual seeker is supposed to practice tapasya. Thiruvalluvar says, “The more you...
How to Stay Heart-Centered Once You Find Yourself There
Swami Satchidananda said, “Bhakti Yoga is the easiest practice because we begin with love. Chanting doesn’t require a quiet place or a particular kind of dress or a particular type of life.” This testimony is evidenced by the steadily increasing popularity of kirtan...
Our Real Nature
In this talk, Swami Sarvapriyananda (senior monk of the Ramakrishna Order, and spiritual director of the Vedanta Center of New York) shares the teachings of the great Jnana Yogi Swami Vivekananda on the true nature of the Self. The talk is based on the Vijnana Vedanta...
Embarking on a Spiritual Odyssey, Part 15: Bhuvaneshvari–Queen of the Universe, Heart of the Path
In the previous chapter of this journey tracing the spiritual legacy of Swami Satchidananda, we touched on the mystical experience he had while meditating at the samadhi shrine of Siddhar Bhogar in Palani. It was there—surrounded by the silent vibrations of Tamil...
The Path to Spiritual Ripening
Everything takes its own time to mature, including one’s spiritual maturity. Just because you pray a raw fruit will ripen, it won’t ripen overnight. Imagine that you plant a seed and you just sit there and pray, “Please seed, I have planted you and I hope you will be...
Age Like a Yogi: Victoria Moran’s Guide to Living Radiantly at Any Age
Aging is often viewed as something to resist, delay, or even fear. But what if, instead of dreading it, we embraced aging as a sacred passage—an opportunity to deepen our wisdom, refine our spirit, and live with greater joy? This is precisely the perspective that...