Podcast
For the Love of Yoga with Nish the Fish
Hosted by Nishanth Selvalingam · EN
The world of Yoga is wide and varied. In this podcast, yogi Nish the Fish shares the deeper dimensions of Yoga, Vedanta and Tantra, asking the big questions: why do we practice? What is meditation? What is the purpose of a human life? What is Beauty? What is Death? Nishanth Selvalingam studied various South Asian philosophies with his Shaivite grandfather in an ashram in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and moved to Los Angeles to study philosophy, teach yoga and play guitar in a rock band. Join him and special guests as they explore Yoga, in all its splendours. For more episodes and instruction, and to support this humble offering of the heart, visit me on Patreon: patreon.com/yogawithnish
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Dream Initiation | & Are We A Legitimate Tāntrik Lineage?
2w ago03:08:45Tap to summarizeWe gave this talk on a special occasion: the amāvasyā (the new moon) that opens the gupta navarātrī period (the 9 nights of the summer goddess festival) and so to celebrate, we reflect upon dīkshā, spiritual initiation & the systems of accountability to ensure the credibility of Tāntrik lineages so that we can better contextualize our place as a community in the midst of all of that. Mainly, I want to revisit the validity of intrapersonal mystical experiences like dreams and intuitions as reliable metric for religious authenticity even beyond texts and institutions and to substantiate this claim, we consider 4 important cases: 1. Vasugupta & the Śiva Sutra2. Maheśvarānanda & the Mahartha Mañjarī, 3. Rāni Rasmani & the Dakshineshwar Temple, 4. Swami Ashokananda's "śaktopaya dīkshā" (to borrow Swami Turiyananda's phrase here) from Swami Vivekananda in meditation & dream experience Here is a playlist of talks on our guru-paramparā & thoughts on lineage. And here are some videos on our mission, ideals, manifesto etc. Hit Me Up xSupport the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
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How To Be Blissful, Powerful, Beautiful & Abundant | Śrī Vidyā 101 & Saundarya Laharī, Verses 1-4
2w ago01:28:55Tap to summarizeTo celebrate the Gupta Navarātrī (Summer Goddess Festival) this year, we got together in Portland and decided to take up a new text, the Saundarya Laharī, an exceedingly beautiful Śrī Vidyā primary source & primer attributed to Ādi Śankarācarya to study alongside the Yoginī Hṛdāya which we started studying together last week. In this first of many talks on the Saundarya Laharī (follow along with this lecture series here), after a little introduction & discussion featuring Mahadevaji (which you can watch here), I jump in to introduce some foundational & preliminary ideas about Tāntrik Goddess worship starting with the Aṣṭarasā (अष्टरसा) (the “8 flavors of consciousness”) model and the Aṣṭamātṛkās (the 8 fierce yoginīs that correspond to the 8 sets of the Sanskrit alphabet) to which these rasas are often mapped. Here are some citations & resources:From Bhārati’s classical source:शृङ्गारहास्यकरुणरौद्रवीरभयानकाः । बीभत्साद्भुतसंज्ञौ चेत्यष्टौ नाटये रसाः स्मृताः śṛṅgārahāsyakaruṇaraudravīrabhayānakāḥ | bībhatsādbhutasaṃjñau cetyaṣṭau nāṭaye rasāḥ smṛtāḥ || Śṛṅgāra (erotic love) Hāsya (comedy) Karuṇa (compassion/grief) Bhayānaka (terror) Bībhatsa (disgust) Vīra (heroic) Adbhuta (amazement) Raudra (anger)And the bonus +1 from Abhinava: Śānta (quiescent/transcendent/spritiual)note: Aṣṭarasā (8 flavors) is the classical list; Abhinava adds the 9th to make “navarasa” (9 flavors).The source for these is Abhinava Bhārati, Abhinava’s commentary on the Nātya Śāshtra of Bharati but also for the “9th”, see Abhinava’s Dhvanyaloka Locana, his commentary on Anandavardhana’s “dhvani” idea (what makes poetry poetic)Here are the 8 sets (mātrikā-Varga/Mātrika Kula) of Sanskrit letters:स्वर (vowels)अ (a), आ (ā), इ (i), ई (ī), उ (u), ऊ (ū), ऋ (ṛ), ॠ (ṝ), ऌ (ḷ), ॡ (ḹ), ए (e), ऐ (ai), ओ (o), औ (au), अं (aṃ), अः (aḥ)कण्ठ्य (gutturals)क (ka), ख (kha), ग (ga), घ (gha), ङ (ṅa).तालव्य (palatals)च (ca), छ (cha), ज (ja), झ (jha), ञ (ña).मूर्धन्य (retroflex)ट (ṭa), ठ (ṭha), ड (ḍa), ढ (ḍha), ण (ṇa).दन्त्य (dentals)त (ta), थ (tha), द (da), ध (dha), न (na).ओष्ठ्य (labials)प (pa), फ (pha), ब (ba), भ (bha), म (ma).अन्तस्थ (semivowels/liquids)य (ya), र (ra), ल (la), व (va)ऊष्मन् (sibilants + aspirant)श (śa), ष (ṣa), स (sa), ह (ha).In the next class, we’ll look at another set of 8 (the 8 shadows/pāśās) to complete our understanding of today's material! Hit Me Up xSupport the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
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Different Ways To Use Khaḍgamālā Stotram
3w ago00:50:14Tap to summarizeWe ended our last conversation (What Is The Śrī Cakra? | Yoginī Hṛdāya, Verses 1-18) with an invitation to start chanting regularly the Devī Khaḍgamālā which you can learn more about here: A Simple Way To Worship The Srī Yantra | Khaḍgamālā Stotram if this text is new to you. It is perhaps the best introduction to the practice of Śrī Vidyā because until we understand the names of all the deities (emanations of the one deity, Tripurā), we will likely not be able to map them on to the cakra, which is just the sort of thing visualization and worship requires. So before we can start performing the daily pūjā or take up any practices, and to supplement our understanding of the philosophical principles of the cakra as the auto-erotic, blissful expansion of the ever-free, self-willed Goddess, we often recommend just chanting this hymn every day until you have it down by memory! You'll find all our talks on Śrī Vidyā here.Hit Me Up xSupport the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
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Getting Started With Śrī Vidyā: The Path of Beauty, Bliss & Eros
3w ago02:46:44Tap to summarizeSince we recently took up a concerted study of a rather high level text in the non-dual śākta tradition, the Yoginī Hṛdāya (the last 3 chapters of a much larger work in the Śrī Vidyā tradition, Vāmakeśvarīmatatantra in 8 chapters) at our weekly Thursday evening text study, I thought I'd share this little voice recording from the other night after our Kālāshtamī pūjā where we offer a brief run through of the first of three chapters of this text with some loose commentary. I'll drop the videos for this class moving forward in this playlist.Hit Me Up xSupport the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
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Who Can Practice Tantra? | An Apology
3w ago02:50:09Tap to summarizeTantra has often been considered a closed tradition because its texts and the teachings transmitted in them on maṇḍala/cakra (geometric diagrams representing the retinue of deities as emanations of the central deity/ a philosophical presentation of the Absolute nature of reality), mantra (a sacred sound formula which is synonymous with the Deity/Absolute Reality as a vibrational pattern) and pūjā (ritual procedures detailing the employment of mantras to contact and assimilate the energies of the maṇḍala) have been given most often in the strictest secrecy and most reverent ritual settings. We've often stressed that unless these things are received directly from the mouth of one to whom it was similarly given, even if we were to learn these things ourselves on the internet or from books, they might not work for us with the same power and aliveness compared to if we had received it from a living lineage. Often, inspired by ideals of accessibility and out of an enthusiasm for this material, I've tended to ignore some of those disclaimers around who should be let in and let out, and I'm starting to understand more now why those disclaimers can be helpful and why in my zeal, my mass distribution of some of the more esoteric material might not always be as compassionate or as helpful as I had hoped.Still, I can't help but to want to make as accessible as possible to all who are sincerely seeking these ideas and practices that have meant so much to me over the years. Perhaps the most responsible thing to do then is to really emphasize the traditional safeguards and disclaimers which are often presented in the beginning of any primary source in our tradition so that viewers can be maximally discerning about whether or not they want to opt in! In this talk, as a sort of preamble to our class on the Yoginī Hṛdāya, one of the central texts of the Śrī Vidyā tradition, we take up the first 5 or so verses of the text which, like many texts in the Sanskritic spiritual tradition, carefully explains:1. adhikari (the intended audience of the transmission, i.e who will benefit from hearing this)2. prayojana (the goal that the text outlines for study and practice)3. artha (the contents of the text, in this case as mentioned above cakra, mantra & pūja9)4. prayojana-artha sambandha (the relationship between the content and the goal) with an emphasis on the 1st of these 4 things. We continue this discussion in the next video where we take up a study of the Yoginī Hṛdāya in a serious way, having established some of these disclaimers around adhikari, competency. We'll drop all our classes on this text and other Śrī Vidyā adjacent material here. Hit Me Up xSupport the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
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re: Dīkshā, Tāntrik Initiation
3w ago00:47:45Tap to summarizeBecause we are all of us different, naturally, we want different things out of life and out of spirituality and we so all come to it with different expectations and values and backgrounds. Often, this means we're going to have different (and equally valid) ideas about “Tantra”, “Guru” & most importantly “Dīkshā”, spiritual initiation. In Indic spiritual traditions, we tend to value texts (śāstra) to substantiate our claims and this is especially true of Tantra which is in a large part a textual transmission (without dispensing with the importance of human to human spiritual transmission, through living lineages, of course.) And in the name of integrity and transparency, as is the responsibility of all acāryas, śaiva or otherwise, it's important to be accountable to our textual tradition, to cite our sources and innovate within the parameters of tradition. But the thing is, we might just all be reading different texts and have different ways of interpreting and evaluating the legitimacy of those texts themselves! We should first acknowledge that there are different interpretations of these things and they are all valid even if they differ from one another because our traditions are so vast and diverse. Also, each person is entitled to going about things and understand things in their own way since, again, we are each of us different; what works for one person might not for another. Now, a lot of the time, people conflate what we're doing with what others might be doing and judge us by standards or values that we might not share. All too often, our detractors feel that we are illegitimate (and again, everyone is entitled to their opinion and this is perfectly alright) but in response we say: just because it doesn't work for you, does not mean it isn't valuable to another or rather; just because it doesn't match your standards of legitimacy, doesn't mean it is inherently illegitimate. Perhaps the Indic traditions are just more diverse and more inclusive than we're willing to allow for? As such, I want to be clearer about my definitions and understanding of terms like “tantra”, “guru” and most of all, “dīksha” moving forward so that you can better evaluate whether or not this material (and my interpretation and presentation of it) is spiritually nourishing for you! In that direction, here’s a little excerpt from a conversation I was having in the car re: dīksha, in particular. Hit Me Up xSupport the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
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How Did Yoga, Vedanta, Tantra & Kali Come To America? | Vivekananda's Legacy
4w ago04:02:04Tap to summarizeEarlier this year, on Vivekananda Jayanti, I gave a talk on the early days of the Vedanta movement in America, when a few enthusiastic Americans in New York in 1895 gathered in a one bedroom apartment to hear this strange man from India with strange and exciting new ideas talk for hours on end. This is an especially exciting story if you are participating in yoga in any capacity and even more exciting and inspiring if you are, or are aspiring to be, a teacher of yoga, vedanta, tantra or any other Eastern spiritual tradition that emerged in America since then. Mainly though, this talk shows us that times now are not that different from how they were then. This talk is meant to, in looking back, inspire us to look forward and pick up where Swami Vivekananda left. Let's get to it then... Hit Me Up xSupport the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
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Spirituality for Nihilists, Hedonists, Materialists & Atheists
4w ago02:58:31Tap to summarizeWe gave this talk on Swami Vivekananda's birthday in January of 2026. Today, in 1902, Swamiji kicked his mortal body with great triumph. So I felt it was fitting to post this now, given that it is perhaps one of my most experimental and radical talks! May this be an offering to Swamiji and to this manifest universe, to all animate and inanimate beings, to the sum total of all souls, the one God Swamiji taught us to worship! May we live up to his ideal. Jai Mā! Jai Guru! Jai Swamiji! Hit Me Up xSupport the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
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Mantra For Kālī As Void
4w ago03:21:52Tap to summarizeSome time ago we gave a talk on How To Turn Every Word Into A Mantra where we explored the phonemic foundations of Tāntrik mantras, to work out how every word in every language can be empowered (i.e "mantricized) to create change in the world within and without. In this talk, we take some of those ideas to their logical extreme to articulate a mantra for Mother Kālī in her pure void aspect, before whom even Śrī Arjuna trembled in fear in Chapter XI of the Bhagavad Gītā! In this talk, we see how Mā in this aspect is not scary at all but when approached in this way, is actually thrilling, exciting and empowering. This might be my most ambitious and exciting lecture yet since this idea is something I've been just chewing on and playing with for a few days and I don't think any idea has quite excited me as much as this one! Jai Mā!Hit Me Up xSupport the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
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Ecstatic Songs to Krishna | Mira As South Asian Baddie
4w ago04:01:12Tap to summarizeA full moon (Kabir Jayanti) special lecture on the ecstatic devotional poetry of medieval India talking Bhakti, Tantra and the liminality of both as my offering at the feet of the baddies of this world, Mira & also Emma Goldman, whose birthday it happened to be that day!Hit Me Up xSupport the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM
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