For the Love of Yoga with Nish the Fish

Nishanth Selvalingam
  • 4.8 (68)
  • Alternative Health
  • Updated Semiweekly

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

  1. 5d ago

    Where do Kāpālikas Come From? | Tantra as a Dravidian Tradition

    On Kali Jayanti/Krishna Janmāshtamī last week, we were especially inspired and we gave a talk called What Form of Kali Do I Worship? | Ādyā Kālī vs. Kṛṣṇa and still buzzing from that, we plunged right into Are We Aghoris? | Kapālikās & Tāntrikas of the Deccan & South India where we looked at some historical Sanskrit literature to contextualize just what tradition we're part a of and just what it is we're doing here, especially given all the ambiguity around the internet's conception of "aghoris".  In this talk, along the same lines as the previous two, we continue to flesh out the historical context to ground our understanding and practice of Tantra, this time making the claim that its easy to misunderstand our tradition if its seen through a Mogul, British apologetic (i.e Brahmo Samāj) or even "Hindu", lens. I argue for Tantra as a heterodox tradition like Buddhism and Jainism and at the same time argue for a broader understanding of the word Hinduism that includes not just Buddhism, Jainism, Cārvāka etc.(traditions that emerged in the subcontinent but are typically excluded) but also Islam, Christianity, Judaism and even Art and Science as all viable paths of Hinduism. I try to the center the Deccan and South India, as well as South East Asia, Nepal, Tibet and Central Asia as important Tāntrik locations. A pretty deep discussion I thought! Enjoy! Hit Me Up x Support the show Lectures 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/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

    Where do Kāpālikas Come From? | Tantra as a Dravidian Tradition

  2. 6d ago

    Are We Aghoris? | Kapālikās & Tāntrikas of the Deccan & South India

    On Kali Jayanti, we gave one of my favorite talks ever called What Form of Kali Do I Worship? | Ādyā Kālī vs. Kṛṣṇaand buzzing from the inspiration of that one, we rolled into into our Friday morning satsangh with this wonderful introduction to literary depictions of early śaivas (i.e Kāpālikas) in some classical Sanskrit and non Sanskrit historical sources to establish ourselves in a historical context that is often missed when discussing Tantra & Aghoris & whatnot. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did! Here's a playlist of all our material on śaivism in all its phases and here's one for our vāmācāra classes.  Hit Me Up x Support the show Lectures 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/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

    Are We Aghoris? | Kapālikās & Tāntrikas of the Deccan & South India

  3. Sep 5

    What Form of Kali Do I Worship? | Ādyā Kālī vs. Kṛṣṇa

    Every time Krishna Janmāshtamī/ Kali Jayanti (the 8th day waning moon of the holy month of Shiva, śrāvana) I find that I am especially inspired. It is no insignificant thing that Kālī & Krishna share the same "birthday"! Last year, we gave a talk on the subject called Krishna = Kali and I still think it's one of the best talks we've given, like, ever. Last night, similarly inspired, we went even further into the issue by asking: what is my Ishta, chosen ideal actually? What does our lineage understand Kālĩ to be in our highest theological conception? And as such, what does the worship of this form of Kālī actually look like in our day to day (or rather, night to night) Tāntrik practice. Essentially, in this talk I discuss my favorite form of Kālī, the sarvākāra nirākara, the formless Void which shines as all forms. Our central thesis is as follows: Premā svarupā iti şaktih: God is not love; rather, love itself in all of its forms is God. You cannot love Shakti because she is not the lover nor the beloved but the relational act of loving itself. So Kali is not Kali! Kali, I.e Ādyā is Love in and of itself in all of its forms. Our Ishta (Chosen Ideal/Main Deity) as such is not Kali understood as God; our Ishta by whatever mantra we approach Her, is God understood as Love in all of its forms. As such, my final claim: Krishna is the greatest expression of that Love Herself. There is no such thing as Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shaktism, Materialism or any ism. There is no conflict anywhere. Krishna, Radha, Christ, Ramakrishna are Avatāra because they are the greatest historical experience we’ve had of the most intense love, that love which is not for God but IS GOD. Hit Me Up x Support the show Lectures 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/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

    What Form of Kali Do I Worship? | Ādyā Kālī vs. Kṛṣṇa

  4. Aug 29

    Who Should You Learn Tantra From?

    By now it's probably quite obvious that our spiritual community is like the Protestant church you grew up in. Although all of our content on the internet is listed as "adult-content", often I have overestimated the maturity of our audience because I am only just now starting to understand how deep seated our preconceptions can be regarding hierarchies of power and institutions of authority, what to say about these things in the spiritual world. The thing is: we tend to always look outside ourselves for answers and more often, we tend to hold everyone and everything responsible for choices that we fear to own up to ourselves. But in the world of Vāmācāra/Kaula-mārga, the so-called "left hand path" of Tantra, there is no substitute for real discernment, grit and maturity. It really isn't for everybody because we're all of us different and so we'll all need different things to make spiritual progress/we'll all find different things spiritually nourishing. But how will we know if it's for us? To help with discernment and to provide a "CAUTION:HOT" disclaimer for our stuff, we put together a little playlist called Community Safety + Guidelines to help audiences get the most of our community starting with Dream Initiation | & Are We A Legitimate Tāntrik Lineage? where we ask some serious questions about lineage authority and then in How To Practice Tantra & Guru Yoga Responsibly we laid out the traditional safeguards for interacting with spiritual teachers and their communities and in Can You Learn Tantra From Books | & Am I A Tāntrik Guru? we lay out our principles and commitments as a community so you can know what to expect and what to watch out for.  In this next installment, Who Should You Learn Tantra From? we offer some very important disclaimers regarding risk appetite and bhāva (spiritual predisposition) not only to carefully explain the bhāva of our community but more importantly to make the case that everyone is valid, each according to their own disposition. There is room for us all! Hit Me Up x Support the show Lectures 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/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

    Who Should You Learn Tantra From?

  5. Aug 28

    The Journey of Tantra So Far

    Because it was the close of the eclipse portal with the lunar eclipse on śrāvana pūrnimā (pisces full moon) tonight, we were all in a reflective and contemplative mood and so in this talk, we discuss some of the tensions, paradoxes and contradictions inherent in the transmission of Tantra throughout the ages with the early sadhus in the Vedic era to the Śaiva Siddhantins to Ramakrishna to Vivekananda and to us in the modern context, before plunging into some practices from the Kāmakalā-Vilāsa & the japa krama from our vāmācāra paddhathi. Here is a playlist of all our lectures on Tantra over the years.  Hit Me Up x Support the show Lectures 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/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

    The Journey of Tantra So Far

  6. Aug 18

    Why Do Hindus Worship Snakes? | The Tantra of Tiamat, Apophis & Kundalinī

    On the auspicious occasion of Nāga Pañcamī, the sacred day for worshipping dragons, I was inspired to give a slightly more dynamic and comparative talk this time compared to our talk last year (Snakes, Dragons & Nāgas in Tantra) which focused more on the āvatāras of the nāgas (Patañjalī, Abhinavagupta etc.). In this second talk on the subject, we explored the concept of the Dragon (a more literal reading of Nāga) as a personification of wildness and primordial chaos, tracking the idea in the Campbellian Hero's Journey (to make an exciting claim about merging the princess, a symbol for the lost anima with the dragon, which also symbolizes both the shadow and the anima, to use Jungian terms) with comparisons to Tiamat from Mesopotamian myth, Apep or Apopohis/Typhon in the Ancient Egyptian tradition and of course tracing it into its corollaries in the Vedic/Hindu world with reference to Indra's battle with Vrtta, the earliest "dragon" to appear in the tradition. I make an exciting claim comparing Patañjali, the Serpent (whose name literally means "fallen offering", or rather, "fallen angel) to Lucifer in the Garden of Eden and an even more exciting claim about why we should not try to slay the dragon, but rather learn from Her and even become Her. Here are some of the mantras we referenced in the class: अनंतं वासुकीं शेषं पद्मनाभं च कंबलम् शंखपालं धृतराष्ट्रं च तक्षकं कालियं तथा एतानि नव नामानि नागानाम् च महात्मन: सायंकाले पठेन्नित्यं प्रात:काले विशेषत: तस्य विषभयं नास्ति सर्वत्र विजयी भवेत् anaṃtaṃ vāsukīṃ śeṣaṃ padmanābhaṃ ca kaṃbalam śaṃkhapālaṃ dhṛtarāṣṭraṃ ca takṣakaṃ kāliyaṃ tathā etāni nava nāmāni nāgānām ca mahātmanah: sāyaṃkāle paṭhennityaṃ prātakāle viśeṣatah: tasya viṣabhayaṃ nāsti sarvatra vijayī bhavet “Ananta, Vāsukī, Śesha, Padmanābha and Kambala Śankhapāla, Drstarāshtra and Takshaka and Kāliya: These are the 9 great Serepents: I bow to them all! If (this mantra) is recited always, especially in the morning and in the evening, all poisons and fear will be destroyed and one becomes victorious everywhere!” If you can, feed some snakes today with hard boiled eggs and milk! That is to say: leave out a bowl of milk and a hard boiled egg under a tree somewhere! And here is a mantra for invoking and worshipping Patañjali: योगेन चित्तस्य पदेन वाचां । मलं शरीरस्य च वैद्यकेन ॥ योऽपाकरोत्तमं प्रवरं मुनीनां । पतञ्जलिं प्राञ्जलिरानतोऽस्मि ॥ आबहु पुरुषाकारं। शङ्खचक्रासि धारिणं॥ सहस्र शीरसं श्वेतं। प्रनमामि पतञ्जलिम्॥ yogena cittasya padena vācāṁ । malaṁ śarīrasya ca vaidyakena ॥ yo’pākarottamaṁ pravaraṁ munīnāṁ । patañjaliṁ prāñjalirānato’smi ॥ ābahu puruṣākāraṁ śaṅkha cakrāsi dhāriṇaṁ sahasra śīrasaṁ śvetaṁ pranamāmi patañjalim  Yoga, for the mind  Grammar, for the speech,  Medicine for the impurities of the body,  I bow to that great sage Patañjali who has given all these!  Pure spirit incarnate in form, Holding the conch, discuss and sword  I bow to Patanjali, that thousand headed white (cobra)! Hit Me Up x Support the show Lectures 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/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

    Why Do Hindus Worship Snakes? | The Tantra of Tiamat, Apophis & Kundalinī

  7. Aug 14

    Can You Learn Tantra From Just Books | & Am I A Tāntrik Guru?

    A nuanced and radical question in then singularity that is the modern experience of Tantrik transmission and education on the internet in post-modernist late-state capitalism! This lecture is part of a series on not only how to interact with spirituality as a whole but particularly with regards to how to interface with our community.  PS: Here's a playlist of all our community guidelines+ safety Hit Me Up x Support the show Lectures 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/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

    Can You Learn Tantra From Just Books | & Am I A Tāntrik Guru?

  8. Aug 14

    How To Practice Tantra & Guru Yoga Responsibly

    We gave this talk in the lobby of a hotel in Seattle, discussing a few traditional safe guards around approaching Tantra and finding teachers/lineages/institutions that suit your predispositions. These three-fold safeguard (sat tarka, guru, āgama) becomes especially important when approach Kaula or Vama (i.e "left hand") type traditions and so in many ways, these ideas are foundational not only to spirituality as a whole but certainly to interacting with our community. Inadvertently, this talk ended up becoming guide of like a sort of "community guidelines" for us! Jai Mā! Here's a playlist of all our community guidelines+ safety Hit Me Up x Support the show Lectures 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/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

    How To Practice Tantra & Guru Yoga Responsibly
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About

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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