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For the Love of Yoga with Nish the Fish

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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For the Love of Yoga with Nish the Fish

Shaiva Non-Duality = Non-Judgement, Service, Power

March 22, 2023 • Nishanth Selvalingam • Season 6 • Episode 11

In this lecture, we do a lot of philosophical work to show, at least for the sake of theoretical understanding, that everything you see in this world is nothing but Consciousness.

From this, we come away with three insights:

1. To judge, criticize or resent anyone is to judge, criticize and resent God.
2. To serve and help anyone is really an act of worship to God.
3. You yourself are God so you have infinite strength and potential to do anything, including overcoming #1 and doing #2 above!

Of course, this is the central teaching of the Ramakrishna movement: "shiva jnane, jiva seva": knowing that everyone is Shiva, serve them as an act of worship. In this lecture, we explore the metaphysical foundation for such a teaching in light of the insights of Paramadvaya Vada, or Kashmir Shaivism.

Here is an abstract of what was discussed:

What is Consciousness? None other than your very own Being, your own essence. Consciousness is You! And also, because of its Transcendent nature and its innate Freedom, Consciousness is God. Wait a minute! Doesn't that mean...you are God? Yes! Absolutely, yes! But of course here in Advaita Vedanta, or Classical Non-Duality the God that you are is the Impersonal God, Brahman without Attributes. What about the Personal God who creates, maintains and destroys? Non-Dual Shaivism, in its radically reconciliatory attitude shows that the Impersonal God is also the Personal God and such, Consciousness/You is/are also, like the Personal God, performing all the divine acts of God: creation, maintenance, destruction, self-revelation/grace, self-concealment/judgement. You can never be parted from God because you ARE God, in both the passive and dynamic aspects! But then why don't I have any control over what happens to me? Ah, because God is Consciousness and Consciousness is distinct. from and prior to the mind which is where our preferences live! Naturally, then, the preferences of our mind and our inability to exercise personal will to meet them is not a rebuttal against our essential nature as Consciousness, God, who wills sometimes independently of the mind in a spirit of play!

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