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

Ecstatic Saints of Kālī

November 05, 2024 • Nishanth Selvalingam • Season 8 • Episode 83

To know something of Mā Kālī, we have to know something of Her saints, those luminaries who like moths into a flame plunged into ecstasy of love for Mā and as such have become one with Her. As it says in John 14:16, "none can see the Mother except by the way of the child!"

Of course, Mā's most ecstatic child is Ramakrishna. In our community, we talk a lot about Ramakrishna and about his ecstatic love for Kali and we of course talk a lot about Sarada Devi and Vivekananda too who were themselves great devotees of Kali. Last year, during Śyāmā Kālī Pūjā, we gave an inspiring lecture on Ramprasad which you can watch here.

But while we know something of Ramakrishna, Ramprasad, Vivekananda, Sarada, we might not know very much about the other ecstatic saints of Kali like Kamalakanta, Raja Ramakrishna (a different Ramakrishna) and Vama Khepa who are actually quite unknown outside of Bengal. So to inspire you to worship Kali with fervor and intensity, in this lecture, we read a few passages from Usha Harding's book "Kali: The Black Goddess of Dakshineshwar" which introduce us to Mā's saints and the ecstatic and wild lives that they lived!

May we have even one fraction of their divine inebriation!

Jai Mā!

Oh! PS: there are some really beautiful black and white 1950s Bengali films about these ecstatic saints. Here they are:

Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD1TsRBZnn8&t=60s

Sadhak Kamalakanta
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm3q3l3vavY

Sadhak Bamakhepa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSV9PnTdJd8

For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799

Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
Use this link and I will see you there:
https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815

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