Om Som Yoga + Ayurveda Podcast

Epizódy

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  The Point Where Everything Begins: Why Yoga Requires The Bindu 20.09.2026 25min

  PRACTICE WITH US✦ Practice Online — Sadhana Sangha: 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques & Yoga Sūtra translation https://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join✦ OmSom App (free) — Yoga philosophy, Sanskrit study & our online community. Search OmSom in the App Store✦ 100 Hr Yoga Teacher Training — Asana Sadhana Dharma bridging course https://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto✦ 200 Hr YTT — Sri Lanka Immersion 2027 https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka✦ 300 Hr YTT — Online & India Immersion 2026/2027 https://omsom.yoga/300-hour-advanced-hatha-yoga-training✦ 50 Hr Yin YTT — Online https://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-oto✦ Practice in Person — Classes, workshops & community in Berwick, Victoria https://omsom.yoga/book-a-classIN THIS EPISODEEvery yantra we've looked at this month ends at the same place: the centre. The dot. The tradition says that dot is not decoration - it's the source. The entire universe, before it becomes anything, condensed to a single point. We close our tantra month with BINDU: the point, the drop, the source of all things - and the claim that awareness can do the same thing, moving from scattered to one point, the gateway that leads us to yoga. We open with Śvetaketu and the banyan seed: break it open, find nothing - and from that nothing, the vast tree stands. Tat tvam asi. That, you are.WHAT YOU'LL LEARN✦ What bindu is: "drop, point, dot" - the dot above Aum, the centre of every yantra, the bindī at the brow ✦ The source of all things: nāda (vibration) → bindu (point) → form ✦ Bindu's two registers: the cosmic point of origin, and the haṭha yogi's vital drop that holds soma ✦ Awareness condensed to a single point: dhāraṇā as bindu-making, ekāgratā as attention gathered back to a seed ✦ The tantric completion: when awareness fully condenses, the point opens - what remains is the witness. Bindu is the door; Śiva walks through ✦ The month arrives home: mantra ends in the dot, yantra radiates from it, bindu is the centre all three were pointing toTEXTUAL REFERENCES✦ Chāndogya Upaniṣad 6.12–6.13: the banyan seed - the invisible essence from which the vast tree stands, closing in "tat tvam asi" ✦ Yoga Sūtra 3.1–3: dhāraṇā, dhyāna, samādhi - one point, one stream, then the point alone ✦ Nāda Bindu Upaniṣad: bindu as the first station of sound's inward journey after the M of Aum ✦ Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā ch. 3: the vital drop - gather what is scattered, and raise it ✦ Caraka Saṁhitā, Sūtrasthāna 17: ojas - Āyurveda's own drop, the refined essence of all seven tissuesTRY THIS IN YOUR PRACTICE✦ A bindu meditation to close the month: gaze at the centre of a yantra, close the eyes, rest in the after-image until even that dissolves - notice what remains watching ✦ Chant Aum and follow the M into the nasal resonance - ride the sound all the way to the dot ✦ In asana, collect to one point: breath at the nostrils, weight in the heels - one posture, one point, one mind ✦ Guard your ojas like a full cup - it leaks through screens, speech, stimulation, late nights ✦ Do one thing at a time as spiritual discipline ✦ Leave us a comment: if your scattered awareness were gathered to a single point tonight, what would be left watching?SHARE & CONNECTWebsite: https://omsom.yogaOmSom App (free): search OmSom in the App StoreInstagram: @omsomyogaIf this episode landed, the best way to support the show is to share it with one person who might need it. We run a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs. Wherever you are on your journey, we'd love to connect with you.HARI OM
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  The Travelling Temple: Why Tantra Made the Body Its Maṇḍala 13.09.2026 31min

  PRACTICE WITH US✦ Practice Online — Sadhana Sangha: 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques & Yoga Sūtra translation https://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join✦ OmSom App (free) — Yoga philosophy, Sanskrit study & our online community. Search OmSom in the App Store✦ 100 Hr Yoga Teacher Training — Asana Sadhana Dharma bridging course https://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto✦ 200 Hr YTT — Sri Lanka Immersion 2027 https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka✦ 300 Hr YTT — Online & India Immersion 2026/2027 https://omsom.yoga/300-hour-advanced-hatha-yoga-training✦ 50 Hr Yin YTT — Online https://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-oto✦ Practice in Person — Classes, workshops & community in Berwick, Victoria https://omsom.yoga/book-a-classIN THIS EPISODEWhere do you go to worship? Tantra's answer is the most radical in the tradition: nowhere — you're already inside. Week three of our tantra month brings mantra (sound) and yantra (geometry) home to the MAṆḌALA: the sacred circle, tantra's principal temple of worship, and the claim that the true maṇḍala is the body itself. We begin under the floor — with the vāstu-puruṣa, the cosmic being pinned beneath every temple in India. If every temple is secretly a body, every body is secretly a temple: keeping it healthy is keeping the temple clean, and no institution holds the keys.WHAT YOU'LL LEARN✦ What a maṇḍala is: maṇḍa (essence) + la (container) — the container of essence; a yantra is gazed at, a maṇḍala is entered ✦ Maṇḍala as the form of the body: gates for senses, walls for skin, the garbha-gṛha (womb-chamber) at the heart ✦ The cakras as a column of maṇḍalas — each circle with its bīja (week one) and geometry (week two) ✦ Tantra's main temple of worship — and nyāsa, installing the deities limb by limb in the body ✦ The vāstu-puruṣa grid: 64 or 81 padas, the open Brahmasthan at the centre ✦ Keeping the body healthy as keeping the temple clean: śauca, and daily life as pūjā ✦ The travelling temple: every place the body sits becomes consecrated ground ✦ Autonomy back in spirituality: no membership, no gatekeeper — teachers as gardeners, not landlordsTEXTUAL REFERENCES✦ "Taṁ jāḍyāt tārayet yastu saḥ tantraḥ parikīrtitaḥ" — tantra is that which liberates from the bondage of staticity ✦ Kulārṇava Tantra ch. 9: "deho devālayo devi jīvo devaḥ sadāśivaḥ" — the body is the temple of God; the indwelling life is God, the eternal Śiva ✦ Bṛhat Saṁhitā ch. 53 & Matsya Purāṇa: the vāstu-puruṣa-maṇḍala — every sacred building drawn on the diagram of a body ✦ Yoga Sūtra 2.40–41: from purity, fitness for the vision of the Self ✦ Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdayam, Sūtrasthāna 2: dinacaryā TRY THIS IN YOUR PRACTICE✦ Open practice by drawing the circle: a breath, a bell, a line of mantra before you enter ✦ Simple nyāsa: touch attention to crown, brow, throat, heart, navel, base — room by room ✦ Treat one daily act — tongue-scraping, oiling, bathing — as consecration, not a chore ✦ Guard the gates: what enters through eyes and ears is also food ✦ Close practice deliberately — dissolve the maṇḍala rather than letting it leak into the scroll ✦ Leave us a comment: if your body were the inner sanctum, what would you stop bringing through its gates?SHARE & CONNECTWebsite: https://omsom.yogaOmSom App (free): search OmSom in the App StoreInstagram: @omsomyogaIf this episode landed, the best way to support the show is to share it with one person who might need it. We run a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs. Wherever you are on your journey, we'd love to connect with you.HARI OM
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  When Sound Becomes Form: The Sacred Geometry of Yantra 06.09.2026 21min

  PRACTICE WITH US✦ Practice Online — Sadhana Sangha: 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques & Yoga Sūtra translation https://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join✦ OmSom App (free) — Yoga philosophy, Sanskrit study & our online community. Search OmSom in the App Store✦ 100 Hr Yoga Teacher Training — Asana Sadhana Dharma bridging course https://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto✦ 200 Hr YTT — Sri Lanka Immersion 2027 https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka✦ 300 Hr YTT — Online & India Immersion 2026/2027 https://omsom.yoga/300-hour-advanced-hatha-yoga-training✦ 50 Hr Yin YTT — Online https://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-oto✦ Practice in Person — Classes, workshops & community in Berwick, Victoria https://omsom.yoga/book-a-classIN THIS EPISODELast week we said mantra is the deity in sound. This week: what happens when that sound takes shape? The tradition makes a claim that sounds almost like physics — form is frozen vibration, and geometry is what sound looks like. A yantra is not a picture of the divine; it is the divine's architecture. We begin in Kāñcīpuram, where Ādi Śaṅkara met a Goddess too fierce to approach — and instead of appeasing her, he drew her: the Śrī Cakra that gave her fire a hearth.WHAT YOU'LL LEARN✦ What a yantra actually is: yam (to hold) + tra (instrument) — a machine for holding the divine, and equally the mind ✦ Sound becoming matter: nāda (vibration) → bindu (point) → kalā (form) — and its modern echo in cymatics, where sound arranges sand into geometry ✦ Geometry as the foundation of matter: what the bindu, triangle, circle, petals and square each encode ✦ The Śrī Yantra: four Śiva triangles interlocking with five Śakti triangles around a central point ✦ Yantra in tantra: the geometry as the deity's body — installed, bathed and worshipped ✦ Yantra in yoga: trāṭaka and dṛṣṭi — where the eye is bound, the mind follows ✦ Yantra for meditation: journeying from the outer square to the centre, layer by layer ✦ Yantra as numerology: 1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 43, 108 — philosophy written in numberTEXTUAL REFERENCES✦ Kulārṇava Tantra ch. 6: "yantraṁ mantramayaṁ proktam" — the yantra is declared to be made of mantra; deity, sound and form as one reality ✦ Saundaryalaharī v. 11: the Śrī Cakra described as pure geometry — the Goddess's dwelling ✦ Gheraṇḍa Saṁhitā 1.53–54 & Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā 2.31–32: trāṭaka, gazing until tears come — "the door to śāmbhavī mudrā" ✦ Yoga Sūtra 3.1: "deśa-bandhaś cittasya dhāraṇā" — concentration is binding the mind to one place TRY THIS IN YOUR PRACTICE✦ Five minutes of trāṭaka on a candle flame or Śrī Yantra before meditation — outer gaze, then the inner after-image ✦ Journey a yantra from bhūpura to bindu as a complete meditation — enter the temple layer by layer ✦ Use one dṛṣṭi per posture in your next asana practice — the eye as anchor, the mind following ✦ Draw a simple yantra by hand — slowly; the drawing is the meditation ✦ Make your practice space a yantra: one focal point, symmetry, nothing else ✦ Screens are yantras too — machines that hold the mind. Leave us a comment: what geometry is your attention resting in?SHARE & CONNECTWebsite: https://omsom.yogaInstagram: @omsomyogaIf this episode landed, the best way to support the show is to share it with one person who might need it. We run a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs. Wherever you are on your journey, we'd love to connect with you.HARI OM
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  The Sound That Protects the Mind: What Mantra Actually Is 30.08.2026 36min

  Mantra: The Sound That Protects the MindPRACTICE WITH US✦ Practice Online — Sadhana Sangha: 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques & Yoga Sūtra translation https://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join✦ OmSom App (free) — Yoga philosophy, Sanskrit study & our online community. Search OmSom in the App Store✦ 100 Hr Yoga Teacher Training — Asana Sadhana Dharma bridging course https://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto✦ 200 Hr YTT — Sri Lanka Immersion 2027 https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka✦ 300 Hr YTT — Online & India Immersion 2026/2027 https://omsom.yoga/300-hour-advanced-hatha-yoga-training✦ 50 Hr Yin YTT — Online https://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-oto✦ Practice in Person — Classes, workshops & community in Berwick, Victoria https://omsom.yoga/book-a-classIN THIS EPISODEMost of us think a mantra is a positive affirmation — something you say to feel better. The tradition says something stranger: a mantra isn't about anything. It's an instrument. A tool made of sound, used on the mind, to protect the mind: manas — mind, tra — instrument, protection. We open September with the first of tantra's three great instruments, beginning with the robber who couldn't pronounce the holy name, was given the word backwards, and repeated it until the sound turned itself around — and turned him into the sage Vālmīki.WHAT YOU'LL LEARN✦ What a mantra actually is: "mananāt trāyate iti mantraḥ" — that which protects through being held in the mind ✦ Why a mantra is not an affirmation: affirmations work on meaning, mantra works on vibration ✦ Why mantras are received, not invented — the ṛṣis as "seers" of sound ✦ The three levels of japa: aloud, whispered, silent ✦ Why yoga uses mantra: the mind can't be stopped by force, but it can be given one thing to hold ✦ The history of mantra: Vedic ritual → Upaniṣads → Patañjali → tantra → haṭha yoga's inner sound ✦ How to use mantra during asana: yoking repetition to breath, silent japa in held postures, So'haṁ ✦ The bīja mantras for the five elements: LAṀ (earth), VAṀ (water), RAṀ (fire), YAṀ (air), HAṀ (space) — and how to choose the seed your system is missingTEXTUAL REFERENCES✦ Yoga Sūtra 1.27–29: repetition of Praṇava with contemplation of its meaning — inward-turning awareness, obstacles fall away ✦ Bhagavad Gītā 10.25: "among sacrifices I am the sacrifice of japa" ✦ Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad: the meditation on Aum (see our June episode) ✦ Ṣaṭcakranirūpaṇa: the five element bījas at the cakras ✦ Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā ch. 4: nāda, the inner sound ✦ The Vālmīki legend, Adhyātma Rāmāyaṇa traditionTRY THIS IN YOUR PRACTICE✦ Choose one mantra for the season and stay with it — repetition is the method, novelty is the obstacle ✦ 108 repetitions on mālā beads: aloud → whispered → silent ✦ Yoke mantra to breath in slow practice: one repetition per inhale, one per exhale ✦ Try one bīja at its seat for the element your week is missing ✦ Notice what your mind already repeats — worry is japa without protection. What are you repeating, and what is it building? ✦ Leave us a comment: what mantra are you working with right now?SHARE & CONNECTWebsite: https://omsom.yogaOmSom App (free): search OmSom in the App StoreInstagram: @omsom.yogaIf this episode landed, the best way to support the show is to share it with one person who might need it. We run a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs. Wherever you are on your journey, we'd love to connect with you.HARI OM
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  Śrī: The Goddess Who Arrives When the Three Powers Align 23.08.2026 32min

  PRACTICE WITH US✦ Practice OnlineSadhana Sangha: 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques & Yoga Sūtra translationhttps://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join✦ OmSom App (free)Yoga philosophy, Sanskrit study & our online communitySearch OmSom in the App Store✦ 100 Hr Yoga Teacher TrainingAlready 200 Hr trained? This is our Asana Sadhana Dharma bridging coursehttps://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto✦ 200 Hr Yoga Teacher TrainingSri Lanka Immersion 2027https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka✦ 300 Hr Yoga Teacher TrainingOnline & India Immersion 2026/2027https://omsom.yoga/300-hour-advanced-hatha-yoga-training✦ 50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher TrainingOnlinehttps://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-oto✦ Practice in PersonClasses, workshops & community events in Berwick, Victoriahttps://omsom.yoga/book-a-classIN THIS EPISODEWhat if grace isn't something you earn? We've sat with three powers this month - the power of will (icchā), the power of knowing (jñāna), the power to act (kriyā). But the tradition reveres something beyond all three: Śrī - auspiciousness, radiance, grace, one of the oldest names for the Divine Feminine in the Vedic tradition. And here's the teaching that turns modern spirituality on its head: Śrī is not a power to be cultivated. She is a presence to be received. The texts describe no practice that produces her - only a way of living that welcomes her. In this closing episode of our month on Śakti, we explore what arrives when your wanting, your knowing, and your doing finally align - and why grace is not separate from daily life, but the quality of daily life when daily life is whole.WHAT YOU'LL LEARN✦ What Śrī means - auspiciousness, radiance, beauty, wealth as overflowing fullness, grace, and the Divine Feminine herself✦ Why Śrī is not a fourth śakti - in the Trika system of Kashmir Śaivism she is the fullness that emerges when icchā, jñāna, and kriyā are held together in dynamic harmony ✦ Why the Śrī Sūkta's cattle, gold, horses and children aren't about wealth - they're the visible signs of a life lived in alignment: nourishment, stability, vitality, continuity ✦ Paige on the Āyurvedic mirror: Śrī as the visible expression of ojas - the subtle essence of vitality - including what builds ojas and what quietly depletes it ✦ How each doṣa invites śrī differently - grounding for Vāta, softening for Pitta, brightening for Kapha ✦ The daily śrī rituals: tending the threshold, offering a small flame at the turning of the day, speaking well of others in their absence, eating one slow meal at the tableTEXTUAL REFERENCES✦ Śrī Sūkta (Ṛg Veda Khila 2.6) - the primary Vedic hymn to Śrī, fifteen verses still chanted daily across India, calling her hiraṇya-varṇām, the one of golden hue, and asking her to make her home with the singer ✦ Liṅga Purāṇa & Padma Purāṇa - the story of Lakṣmī and Alakṣmī (Jyeṣṭhā, the elder one), the two inseparable sisters who divide the houses between them ✦ Lalitā Sahasranāma (Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa) - the Thousand Names of the Goddess, many carrying Śrī as prefix or name: Śrī Vidyā, Śrī Mātā, Śrī Cakra-rājñī ✦ Saundaryalaharī (attributed to Śaṅkara) - verse 1: "Śiva, joined with Śakti, becomes capable of manifestation" (śivaḥ śaktyā yukto yadi bhavati śaktaḥ prabhavitum) ✦ Pratyabhijñā tradition - Kṣemarāja and Abhinavagupta on śrī as the integrating principle: the recognised luminosity that arises when the three śaktis are no longer experienced as separateSHARE & CONNECTWebsite: https://omsomyoga.comOmSom App (free): search OmSom in the App StoreInstagram: @omsomyogaIf this episode landed, the best way to support the show is to share it with one person who might need it.We run a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs. Wherever you are on your journey, we’d love to connect with you.HARI OM
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  Kriyā Śakti: The Power That Moves the Universe Is in Your Breath 16.08.2026 31min

  PRACTICE WITH US✦ Practice OnlineSadhana Sangha: 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques & Yoga Sūtra translationhttps://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join✦ OmSom App (free)Yoga philosophy, Sanskrit study & our online communitySearch OmSom in the App Store✦ 100 Hr Yoga Teacher TrainingAlready 200 Hr trained? This is our Asana Sadhana Dharma bridging coursehttps://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto✦ 200 Hr Yoga Teacher TrainingSri Lanka Immersion 2027https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka✦ 300 Hr Yoga Teacher TrainingOnline & India Immersion 2026/2027https://omsom.yoga/300-hour-advanced-hatha-yoga-training✦ 50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher TrainingOnlinehttps://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-oto✦ Practice in PersonClasses, workshops & community events in Berwick, Victoriahttps://omsom.yoga/book-a-classIN THIS EPISODEIf you watched the universe from the outside for even one moment, all you would see is motion, from stars forming, to cells dividing, the breath rising and falling. Tantra has a name for whatever is doing all of that: Kriyā Śakti, the divine power of action. And here's the teaching that changes how you practise, the force moving the cosmos is the same force moving your breath right now.In the final part of our series on the three śaktis of the Trika system of Kashmir Shaivism, we explore how desire (icchā) and knowledge (jñāna) complete themselves in action, why prāṇāyāma is a way of consciously participating in the creation of reality, and the question this teaching is designed to dissolve: is the spanda inside you, or are you inside the spanda?WHAT YOU'LL LEARN✦ What Kriyā Śakti is - the energy through which consciousness moves from intention into manifestation, the third of the three śaktis alongside Icchā (desire) and Jñāna (knowledge) ✦ How the three śaktis map onto sankalpa work - the feeling, the words, and the practice that brings intention into form✦ Why noticing your breath is noticing the universe expressing itself through you - from the cycles of the breath to sunrise and sunset, seasons ✦ Kevala Kumbhaka - the spontaneous suspension of the breath as the maturity of prāṇāyāma practice, and how it offers a glimpse of the source of action ✦ Why oxygen levels barely drop in the first minutes of a breath hold (1–2%) - it's the perception of no access to air that creates the stress ✦ Vāta doṣa as the Kriyā Śakti of Āyurveda - the force governing all movement in body and mind TEXTUAL REFERENCES✦ Spanda Kārikā - opening teaching: "We praise that Śakti who is the source of all manifestation, by whose vibration the universe arises, and into whom it dissolves" - spanda, the pulsation that is consciousness in motion (Spanda Kārikā 1.1, where the universe arises and dissolves "by the opening and closing of the eyes") ✦ Pratyabhijñāhṛdayam, Sūtra 2 - "By her own will, she unfolds the universe upon her own canvas" (svecchayā svabhittau viśvam unmīlayati) ✦ Yoga Sūtra of Patañjali 2.49–2.51 - when steadiness of posture is achieved, prāṇāyāma becomes the regulation of inhalation and exhalation; the fourth prāṇāyāma "transcends the domain of internal and external" - kevala kumbhaka ✦ Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra (112 meditation techniques), Saundarya Laharī, and the Nārada Bhakti Sūtra - "when the lover and the beloved become one" TRY THIS IN YOUR PRACTICE✦ Start where Āyurveda starts: align one daily rhythm with nature this week - wake with the sun, or eat your main meal at midday SHARE & CONNECTWebsite: https://omsomyoga.comOmSom App (free): search OmSom in the App StoreInstagram: @omsomyogaIf this episode landed, the best way to support the show is to share it with one person who might need it.We run a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs. Wherever you are on your journey, we’d love to connect with you.HARI OM
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  Jñāna Śakti: Why Tantra Says You Already Know 10.08.2026 26min

  PRACTICE WITH US✦ Practice OnlineSadhana Sangha: 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques & Yoga Sūtra translationhttps://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join✦ OmSom App (free)Yoga philosophy, Sanskrit study & our online communitySearch OmSom in the App Store✦ 100 Hr Yoga Teacher TrainingAlready 200 Hr trained? This is our Asana Sadhana Dharma bridging coursehttps://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto✦ 200 Hr Yoga Teacher TrainingSri Lanka Immersion 2027https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka✦ 300 Hr Yoga Teacher TrainingOnline & India Immersion 2026/2027https://omsom.yoga/300-hour-advanced-hatha-yoga-training✦ 50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher TrainingOnlinehttps://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-oto✦ Practice in PersonClasses, workshops & community events in Berwick, Victoriahttps://omsom.yoga/book-a-classIN THIS EPISODEWhere does knowing actually live? Most of us would say the brain, the intellect, up here. Tantra disagrees. This week we explore jñāna śakti, the second of the three powers: the divine capacity to know. Not knowledge you collect from books or teachers, but the recognition of what was already true. Through the story of a woman tearing her house apart searching for a necklace she was wearing the whole time, we unpack pratyabhijñā, the Recognition doctrine of Kashmir Śaivism: liberation isn't something you achieve. It's something you remember. The practice is the mirror. The teacher is the friend who points you toward it. And the necklace is what you already are.WHAT YOU'LL LEARN✦ What jñāna śakti is: consciousness's capacity to recognise itself, one layer deeper than knowledge, the power of knowing itself✦ Pratyabhijñā, the doctrine of recognition: to re-cognise is to remember what was already present, that moment a feeling you've always carried finally finds its word✦ Jñāna vs vidyā vs pramāṇa: knowledge learned from another, knowledge verified against a source, and the capacity for knowing - do you know it as something you've learned, or as something you are?✦ How to actually pronounce jñāna (hint: it's not "gyana") - a mini bīja-sound lesson in where the sound lives in the mouth✦ Why the teacher's only job is to keep pointing you back toward the mirror, and why we always answer your question with "what do you think?"✦ The buddhi: the discerning, intuitive layer of mind where jñāna śakti is active✦ Samyoga & viyoga: the Ayurveda journaling exercise that proves you already know the answers to your own health✦ Why sattva matters: without clarity and balance, even the aha moments can be illusionTEXTUAL REFERENCES✦ Pratyabhijñāhṛdayam, sūtra 8: "tad bhūmikāḥ sarva-darśana-sthitayaḥ" - the positions of all philosophies are stages of this same recognition✦ Yoga Sūtra 1.7: "pratyakṣa-anumāna-āgamāḥ pramāṇāni" - right knowledge has three sources: direct perception, inference, and reliable testimony✦ Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad: the two kinds of knowing - parā vidyā, higher knowledge from the divine source, and aparā vidyā, lower knowledge from worldly sources✦ The Pratyabhijñā (Recognition) school of Kashmir Śaivism, 9th centuryTRY THIS IN YOUR PRACTICE✦ Journal your samyoga and viyoga: a few dot points on what you do (habits, rituals, actions, thoughts) that move you toward the state of yoga, and what moves you away from it. Then read the list back. You just gave yourself the adviceSHARE & CONNECTWebsite: https://omsomyoga.comOmSom App (free): search OmSom in the App StoreInstagram: @omsomyogaIf this episode landed, the best way to support the show is to share it with one person who might need it.We run a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs. Wherever you are on your journey, we’d love to connect with you.HARI OM
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  Icchā Śakti: Why Tantra Says Desire Is Sacred 02.08.2026 34min

  PRACTICE WITH US✦ Practice OnlineSadhana Sangha: 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques & Yoga Sūtra translationhttps://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join✦ OmSom App (free)Yoga philosophy, Sanskrit study & our online communitySearch OmSom in the App Store✦ 100 Hr Yoga Teacher TrainingAlready 200 Hr trained? This is our Asana Sadhana Dharma bridging coursehttps://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto✦ 200 Hr Yoga Teacher TrainingSri Lanka Immersion 2027https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka✦ 300 Hr Yoga Teacher TrainingOnline & India Immersion 2026/2027https://omsom.yoga/300-hour-advanced-hatha-yoga-training✦ 50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher TrainingOnlinehttps://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-oto✦ Practice in PersonClasses, workshops & community events in Berwick, Victoriahttps://omsom.yoga/book-a-classIN THIS EPISODEMost of us were taught somewhere along the way that wanting is the problem. Renounce desire, want less, be more content. Tantra says the opposite.The texts say the universe itself begins with a wanting. Icchā Śakti, the first of the three powers, the divine impulse to manifest. Without icchā, nothing comes into being. The work isn't to silence wanting. It's to recognise the wanting itself as the divine moving through you.WHAT YOU'LL LEARN✦ What icchā śakti is: the first stirring in Śiva's stillness, consciousness desiring to know itself as another ✦ The three powers of the Trika system: icchā (the wanting), jñāna (knowing what is wanted), kriyā (bringing it into form) ✦ Where this sits: above the Sāṃkhya map rather than inside it, Kashmir Śaivism building layers on top of Puruṣa and Prakṛti ✦ Not an ego desire: not the casual craving for hot chips, but the impulse moving through you ✦ The same three powers that create the universe create your morning: the wanting to rise, the knowing of what you'll do, the body actually rising ✦ Why you don't have to know what you want yet: icchā comes first, jñāna comes second ✦ Paige on prajñāparādha: the crime against wisdom, and what it costs to suppress the body's natural urges TEXTUAL REFERENCES✦ Pratyabhijñāhṛdayam, opening sūtra: consciousness, free and self-luminous, is the cause of the manifestation of the world ✦ Mālinīvijayottaratantra: icchā śakti as the first stirring, the moment of self-awareness within luminous consciousness ✦ Bhagavad Gītā 7.11: "I am the strength of the strong, free from passion and attachment, and in beings I am desire that does not conflict with dharma" ✦ Yoga Sūtra 4.7: the yogi's karma is neither black nor white, and for others it is of three kinds (sañcita, prārabdha, kriyamāṇa) ✦ Swami Rama, paraphrased: in our tradition we accept Patañjali's yoga as a preliminary step toward the deeper practices ✦ The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield: the first insight, following the coincidencesTRY THIS IN YOUR PRACTICE✦ On the mat, notice the small desires: to move or to be still, to do more or to do less. Then ask where that desire is coming from ✦ Eat slowly, and wait for the first burp. It's often just a small passing of air, so you'll only catch it if you're listening ✦ Stop overriding the body's natural urges. Hunger, thirst, tears, the need for the toilet. This is where listening begins ✦ When someone arrives in your mind for no reason, call them ✦ Ask: what does life want to experience through me? Where is that pull taking me? ✦ Discern between the two. Is this the will of the ego, or the will of the divine? SHARE & CONNECTWebsite: https://omsomyoga.comOmSom App (free): search OmSom in the App StoreInstagram: @omsomyogaIf this episode landed, the best way to support the show is to share it with one person who might need it.We run a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs. Wherever you are on your journey, we’d love to connect with you.HARI OM
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  Sankalpa: What If Your Actions Were Never the Problem? 26.07.2026 38min

  PRACTICE WITH US✦ Practice OnlineSadhana Sangha: 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques & Yoga Sūtra translationhttps://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join✦ OmSom App (free)Yoga philosophy, Sanskrit study & our online communitySearch OmSom in the App Store✦ 100 Hr Yoga Teacher TrainingAlready 200 Hr trained? This is our Asana Sadhana Dharma bridging coursehttps://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto✦ 200 Hr Yoga Teacher TrainingSri Lanka Immersion 2027https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka✦ 300 Hr Yoga Teacher TrainingOnline & India Immersion 2026/2027https://omsom.yoga/300-hour-advanced-hatha-yoga-training✦ 50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher TrainingOnlinehttps://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-oto✦ Practice in PersonClasses, workshops & community events in Berwick, Victoriahttps://omsom.yoga/book-a-classIN THIS EPISODEWe explore Sankalpa, the heart-resolve that sits beneath every action you take. Across the month we have sat with karma (the act), kriyā (the process), and vikalpa (the mental construct). All of them are downstream of Sankalpa: the quiet sentence the heart has decided is true.In the yoga nidra tradition, this is the seed planted at the deepest stage of relaxation. In daily life, it is the unspoken commitment that quietly shapes everything else. Aaron and Paige explore why Sankalpa is so often the missing piece in modern goal-setting, and what begins to shift when we work from the seed rather than the symptom.WHAT YOU'LL LEARNThe difference between a goal (future-facing, external) and a sankalpa (present, internal)The etymology of sankalpa (सङ्कल्प), and how it mirrors vikalpa as two words sharing the same rootThe Upaniṣadic chain from desire to resolve to action to destiny, and why the leverage point is the resolve, not the actionWhy yoga nidra plants the sankalpa beneath the layer of doubt, where the seed can actually takeHow to phrase a sankalpa well: short, present-tense, and positiveWhy the most powerful sankalpas are usually recognised rather than inventedAn Āyurvedic lens: how Vāta, Pitta, and Kapha each tend to meet sankalpa differently, and the medicine for eachTEXTUAL REFERENCESBṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 4.4.5 - the classical chain of desire (kāma), resolve (sankalpa), action (karma), and destinyBhagavad Gītā 6.24 - saṅkalpa-prabhavān kāmān - the desires that arise from sankalpa, and the call to refine rather than merely suppress themBhagavad Gītā 6.4 - sarva-saṅkalpa-sannyāsī yogārūḍhas tadocyate - the maturing of the path through the purification of sankalpaYoga Sūtra of Patañjali 1.32 - eka-tattva-abhyāsaḥ - the resolve to commit to one principle, one return-pointYoga Nidra tradition, Swami Satyananda Saraswati (Bihar School of Yoga) - the practice of planting sankalpa at the deepest stage of relaxation and repeating it at the closeJOIN THE CONVERSATIONWhat is the sentence your life has been quietly repeating? And if you could plant one new sankalpa right now, knowing the body would carry it forward, what would it be?We would love to hear your reflection. Share it with us, or carry it quietly into your next practice.SHARE & CONNECTWebsite: https://omsomyoga.comOmSom App (free): search OmSom in the App StoreInstagram: @omsomyogaIf this episode landed, the best way to support the show is to share it with one person who might need it.We run a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs. Wherever you are on your journey, we’d love to connect with you.HARI OM
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  Vikalpa: The Yoga Sūtra Teaching That Explains Anxiety & Suffering 19.07.2026 31min

  PRACTICE WITH US✦ Practice OnlineSadhana Sangha: 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques & Yoga Sūtra translationhttps://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join✦ OmSom App (free)Yoga philosophy, Sanskrit study & our online communitySearch OmSom in the App Store✦ 100 Hr Yoga Teacher TrainingAlready 200 Hr trained? This is our Asana Sadhana Dharma bridging coursehttps://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto✦ 200 Hr Yoga Teacher TrainingSri Lanka Immersion 2027https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka✦ 300 Hr Yoga Teacher TrainingOnline & India Immersion 2026/2027https://omsom.yoga/300-hour-advanced-hatha-yoga-training✦ 50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher TrainingOnlinehttps://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-oto✦ Practice in PersonClasses, workshops & community events in Berwick, Victoriahttps://omsom.yoga/book-a-classIN THIS EPISODEMost of our suffering never actually happens. It happens in the mind, and the body responds to the imagined threat exactly as it would to a real one.Patañjali named this: vikalpa, knowledge built from words alone, empty of any actual object. The practice of yoga isn't to stop thinking. It's to stop confusing the thinking with the truth.WHAT YOU'LL LEARN✦ What vikalpa is: a world built from words, then projected onto what's in front of you✦ Vikalpa vs. viparyaya: viparyaya sees it wrong (the red lamp looks yellow). Vikalpa doesn't see it at all✦ Where it sits in the pañca vṛttis: pramāṇa, viparyaya, vikalpa, nidrā, smṛti✦ How it becomes anxiety: the story replays, and each replay it gets worse✦ Why you hold onto it: Paige on vikalpa as protection, and why thanking it is how you release it✦ The Ayurvedic cost: rumination as dissociation. Prāṇa stops flowing, the dhātus lose quality✦ The story behind the habit: "I can't function without coffee" is pure imagination✦ Meditation as release: dropping the word and the meaning until only the object remains, and why mantra is the thing rather than pointing to it✦ The rope and the snake: and the layer underneath, where the rope isn't a rope eitherTEXTUAL REFERENCES✦ Yoga Sūtra 1.6: pramāṇa-viparyaya-vikalpa-nidrā-smṛtayaḥ, the five vṛttis✦ Yoga Sūtra 1.9: śabda-jñāna-anupātī vastu-śūnyo vikalpaḥ, "knowledge that follows from words alone, empty of an actual object"✦ Yoga Sūtra 1.42–1.43: savitarka and nirvitarka samādhi✦ Yoga Vāsiṣṭha: the story of King Lavaṇa and the magician's peacock feather✦ Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1.3.28: asato mā sad gamaya, tamaso mā jyotir gamaya✦ The rope and the snake (rajju-sarpa): the classic Advaita Vedānta analogy, associated with ŚaṅkarācāryaTRY THIS IN YOUR PRACTICE✦ Where in your life are you mistaking the rope for the snake? And when you do, how does it feel in your body?✦ Label it. This is a story. That alone is the practice✦ Then seek the truth. Have the uncomfortable conversation. Without pramāṇa, the vikalpa never resolves. It becomes suffering✦ Ask: what belief do I hold about myself that keeps me acting this way?✦ Thank it before you release it. This kept me safe. It isn't necessary anymore✦ If there's a habit that isn't serving you, do it with complete presence. No phone, no distraction. Awareness does the work✦ Get out of your head. Get into your body. Do your yoga practice, and allow it to liberate you.SHARE & CONNECTWebsite: https://omsomyoga.comOmSom App (free): search OmSom in the App StoreInstagram: @omsomyogaIf this episode landed, the best way to support the show is to share it with one person who might need it.We run a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs. Wherever you are on your journey, we’d love to connect with you.HARI OM
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  Kriyā Yoga: the Silent Path to Liberation & the Practice that Clears Your Karma 12.07.2026 33min

  PRACTICE WITH US✦ Sadhana Sangha - 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques, Yoga Sūtra translationhttps://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join✦ OmSom App (free) - yoga philosophy, Sanskrit study + online communitySearch OmSom in the App Store✦ 100 Hr Asana Sadhana Dharmahttps://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto✦ 300 Hr Yoga Teacher Training Online & India Immersion 2026https://omsom.yoga/300-hour-advanced-hatha-yoga-training✦ 50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher Traininghttps://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-otoIN THIS EPISODEThis July we're walking the path of mokṣa, liberation, and this week we arrive at kriyā: action done with intention. If karma is what plays out unconsciously, kriyā is the conscious, repeatable process that slowly shaves away everything that isn't you, revealing the truth of who you are.We unpack the three faces of kriyā, the two Yoga Sūtra lines that define Kriyā Yoga, the Ṣaṭ Kriyā cleansing practices of Haṭha Yoga, and Ayurveda's Pañcakarma - five therapeutic actions for purifying the body from the inside out.WHAT YOU'LL LEARN✦ Why the syllable -ya turns karma (action) into kriyā (process) both grow from the same root kṛ✦ The three meanings of kriyā:1. cleansing techniques like Bhastrikā and Kapālabhāti2. Patañjali's path of practice3. the initiation lineage of Babaji → Lahiri Mahāsaya → Paramahaṃsa Yogānanda✦ Patañjali's definition of Kriyā Yoga - tapas, svādhyāya, īśvara praṇidhāna - and how it can be applied to any practice, any belief, any life✦ How Kriyā Yoga weakens the five kleśas (avidyā, asmitā, rāga, dveṣa, abhiniveśa) and moves us toward samādhi✦ Why the Ṣaṭ Kriyā are cleansing pre-practices, not prāṇāyāma - one clears the tubes, the other expands the prāṇa (and why fast breathwork gives you a high then a crash)✦ Ayurveda's Pañcakarma - the five actions (Vamana, Virecana, Basti, Nasya, Rakta Mokṣa) and how each is prescribed to your dosha imbalance✦ The real teaching: liberation is a silent process. Let the practice reshape you until people simply notice you've changed.TEXTUAL REFERENCES✦ Yoga Sūtra 2.1 — tapaḥ svādhyāya īśvarapraṇidhānāni kriyāyogaḥ — "Discipline, self-study, and surrender to Īśvara constitute Kriyā Yoga."✦ Yoga Sūtra 2.2 — samādhibhāvanārthaḥ kleśatanūkaraṇārthaśca — "The purpose of Kriyā Yoga is to cultivate samādhi and to weaken the kleśas."✦ Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā - the Ṣaṭ Kriyā / Ṣaṭ Karma: Dhauti, Basti, Neti, Nauli, Trāṭaka, Kapālabhāti - to purify the body, give lightness, and prepare the practitioner for prāṇāyāma✦ Gheraṇḍa Saṃhitā - the cleansing actions settle the breath and make subtle practice possible✦ Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahaṃsa Yogānanda - source of the Lahiri Mahāsaya story✦ Ayurveda — Pañcakarma: Vamana (therapeutic emesis · kapha), Virecana (purgation · pitta), Basti (oil enema · vāta/colon), Nasya (nasal therapy · kapha/head), Rakta Mokṣa (bloodletting · pitta)JOIN THE CONVERSATIONWhat's your daily kriyā — the small, intentional practice you return to no matter what? Come tell us over on Instagram @omsomyoga, or reply to this week's email. We read every message.SHARE & CONNECTWebsite: https://omsomyoga.comOmSom App (free): search OmSom in the App StoreInstagram: @omsomyogaIf this episode landed, the best way to support the show is to share it with one person who might need it.We operate a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, Australia, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs. We'd love to connect with you wherever you are on your journey.HARI OM
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  Karma: The Bhagavad Gītā's Real Teaching on Karma & How to Use It 05.07.2026 33min

  PRACTICE WITH US✦ Sadhana Sangha - 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques, Yoga Sūtra translationhttps://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join✦ OmSom App (free) - yoga philosophy, Sanskrit study + online communitySearch OmSom in the App Store✦ 100 Hr Asana Sadhana Dharmahttps://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto✦ 300 Hr Yoga Teacher Training Online & India Immersion 2026https://omsom.yoga/300-hour-advanced-hatha-yoga-training✦ 50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher Traininghttps://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-otoIN THIS EPISODEThis month the theme turns to Mokṣa: liberation. We begin where the tradition begins, with Karma. Karma means action and the simple, radical truth that everything you do (your breath, your cooking, your driving, your conversations, even your thoughts) is karma. And most of it is learned behaviour, ingrained by repetition, running on autopilot.Drawing on the Bhagavad Gītā, we explore the moment Arjuna melts down on the battlefield and asks Kṛṣṇa: if wisdom is greater than action, why must I act? Kṛṣṇa's answer reframes everything - freedom is not the absence of action, but action without grasping for its fruit. That shift, from unconscious doing to intentional doing, is where karma becomes Karma Yoga.WHAT YOU'LL LEARN✦ Karma means action - from the root kṛ, "to do" or "to make." Your daily actions, words, and even your thoughts are all karma.✦ Karma vs Karma Yoga - the moment you become conscious of what you're doing, why, and where it's leading, ordinary karma becomes yoga.✦ The four paths - Jñāna (study), Bhakti (devotion), Rāja (meditation), and Karma (intentional action). You can bring yoga into brushing your teeth, if you intend it.✦ The three types of karma (the bow and arrow) - Sañcita (the arrows in your quiver: infinite potential actions), Kriyamāṇa (the arrow you're shooting now: present-moment action), and Prārabdha (arrows already loosed: past actions you can't take back, still shaping your experience).✦ The karmāśaya - the "storehouse" of karma. Seeds accumulate until a big experience arrives and offers you the chance to choose again — and uproot the karma so you don't have to play it out once more.✦ Cause and effect - "the effect is hidden in the cause." Once you understand the qualities of nature (Sāṃkhya, the guṇas), you can see where an action will take you and take radical responsibility for your choices.✦ The kleśas - Patañjali roots the reservoir of karma in the five afflictions: avidyā (ignorance), asmitā (ego / the story of "I"), rāga (attachment), dveṣa (aversion), and abhiniveśa (fear of death).TEXTUAL REFERENCES✦ Bhagavad Gītā - Arjuna's crisis on the battlefield; "No one can remain even for a moment without performing actions… everyone is helplessly driven to act by the forces of nature"✦ Patañjali's Yoga Sūtra, Chapter 2 - the karmāśaya (reservoir of karma) is rooted in the kleśas and experienced in seen and unseen births; the five kleśas✦ Patañjali's Yoga Sūtra - "The yogi's karma is neither black nor white; for others it is of three kinds" - bound by the three guṇas (sattva, rajas, tamas)✦ Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad - "As is your desire, so is your resolve. As is your resolve, so is your action. As is the action, so is your destiny."✦ Sāṃkhya philosophy - prakṛti and the guṇas underpinning the teaching on cause and effect.SHARE & CONNECTWebsite: https://omsomyoga.comOmSom App (free): search OmSom in the App StoreInstagram: @omsomyogaIf this episode landed, the best way to support the show is to share it with one person who might need it.We operate a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, Australia, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs. We'd love to connect with you wherever you are on your journey.HARI OM
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  Pūrṇa Mantra: Deciphering the Most Confusing Mantra in Yoga 28.06.2026 39min

  PRACTICE WITH US✦ Sadhana Sangha - 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques, Yoga Sūtra translationhttps://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join✦ OmSom App (free) - yoga philosophy, Sanskrit study + online communitySearch OmSom in the App Store✦ 100 Hr Asana Sadhana Dharmahttps://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto✦ 200 Hr Yoga Teacher Training Sri Lanka 2026https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka✦ 50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher Traininghttps://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-otoIN THIS EPISODETo close out Mantra June, Aaron and Paige sit with what Aaron calls "maybe the most confusing of all the mantras" - the Pūrṇa mantra. At its heart is one quiet, radical idea: wholeness cannot be subtracted from wholeness. Light a thousand lamps from a single flame and the original flame never shrinks. Give your time, your love, your attention and the source remains undiminished.From there the conversation opens out in every direction: a word-by-word breakdown of the mantra, the non-dual Vedānta teaching of "everything is one" and how yoga holds it alongside Sāṃkhya's duality, a line from the Bhagavad Gītā that took Aaron years to sit with, what Ayurveda says about pūrṇatva through the three subtle essences, and how the whole teaching lands in something as ordinary as how we give our time, energy, and money.The mantra:Oṃ Pūrṇamadaḥ PūrṇamidaṃPūrṇāt PūrṇamudacyatePūrṇasya PūrṇamādāyaPūrṇamevāvaśiṣyateOṃ Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ ŚāntiḥThat is whole. This is whole.From the whole, the whole arises.Take the whole from the whole, and the whole alone remains.WHAT YOU’LL LEARNWhat pūrṇa actually means - fullness, wholeness, completeness; the same word we use for the full moon (pūrṇimā, as in Guru Pūrṇimā).The mantra, word by word - adaḥ (that / the unmanifest), idam (this / the manifest world), udacyate (arises), ādāya (having taken), avaśiṣyate (what remains).Why this is a non-dual teaching - Vedānta means "beyond knowledge" (veda-anta, the end of knowledge). The moment we label a thing, we separate it from the whole; this mantra points to what can't be labelled.How yoga holds two opposite truths at once - Sāṃkhya's non-negotiable duality (Puruṣa and Prakṛti) alongside Vedānta's "everything is one," and why holding both is itself the practice.The Gītā connection - Krishna's teaching that all beings rest in the infinite, but the infinite rests only in itself.Ayurveda and the three subtle essences - Ojas, Prāṇa and Tejas as the purest forms of the doshas, why they must rise together, and how chasing Tejas alone (study, awakening, psychedelics) burns us dry.The mantra as medicine for the mind - not one to meditate on so much as to contemplate; an invocation to create the bhāvana of fullness.Relational vs transactional - applying pūrṇa to how we give time, attention, love and money, and why "I give, you take" is a lack mindset the teaching dissolves.TEXTUAL REFERENCESThe Pūrṇa Mantra - a śānti (peace) invocation from the Upaniṣads.Bhagavad Gītā — "By me, in my unmanifest form, all this universe is pervaded. All beings rest in me, but I do not rest in them." Key Sanskrit terms: pūrṇa (fullness), pūrṇatva (the state of fullness), jñāna (knowledge), vedānta (beyond knowledge), sāṃkhya, puruṣa / prakṛti, ojas, prāṇa, tejas, bhāvana, snigdha (oil; also "love"), ahaṃkāra.SHARE & CONNECTWebsite: https://omsomyoga.comOmSom App (free): search OmSom in the App StoreInstagram: @omsomyogaIf this episode landed, the best way to support the show is to share it with one person who might need it.We operate a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, Australia, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs. We'd love to connect with you wherever you are on your journey.HARI OM
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  Asato Mā Mantra: Chant This Mantra for Guidance on the Yoga Path 21.06.2026 37min

  PRACTICE WITH US✦ Sadhana Sangha - 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques, Yoga Sūtra translationhttps://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join✦ OmSom App (free) - yoga philosophy, Sanskrit study + online communitySearch OmSom in the App Store✦ 100 Hr Asana Sadhana Dharmahttps://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto✦ 200 Hr Yoga Teacher Training Sri Lanka 2026https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka✦ 50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher Traininghttps://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-otoIN THIS EPISODEMantra June continues. After Praṇava (Auṃ), Gāyatrī, and Mahā Mṛtyuñjaya, we arrive at one of the most beloved and most widely chanted prayers in the tradition - Asato Mā, also known as the Pavamāna Mantra.Oṃ Asato mā sad gamaya Tamaso mā jyotir gamaya Mṛtyor mā amṛtaṃ gamaya Oṃ Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ ŚāntiḥLead me from the unreal to the real. Lead me from darkness to light. Lead me from death to immortality.We trace this prayer back to a fire ceremony in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, where the ṛṣis prepare a metaphorical offering of the entire cosmos to the fire of awareness. At the peak of the ritual, three sages speak three lines and what makes their prayer so radical is what they don't ask for. No superpower. No riches. No outcome. Only to be led, pointed in the right direction, and left to walk the path themselves.This one is simple. We let it stay simple.WHAT YOU'LL LEARNWhy Asato Mā is an invocation, not a request - a prayer for guidance rather than a specific outcome (and how that contrasts with the Gāyatrī)The story behind the mantra: the cosmic horse, the metaphorical fire, and the offering of totality to awareness itselfA clear, line-by-line translation: asat → sat, tamas → jyotir, mṛtyu → amṛta, and the meaning of gamayaWhy amṛta, the "nectar of immortality", is the nectar of self-knowledge, not a deathless bodyHow abhyāsa and vairāgya (practice and surrender) live inside this single prayerThe Ayurvedic lens: how disease arises from the mind, and how cultivating a sattvic mind becomes the healer through diet, brahmacarya, and pratyāhāraThe journey through the three guṇas, tamas → rajas → sattva, and why you can't leap straight to stillnessHow to weave the mantra into daily life as bhāvana, an opening to practice or a quiet companion when you feel lostTEXTUAL REFERENCESBṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad - source of the Asato Mā / Pavamāna mantra (1.3.28), and of the horse-as-cosmos imagery (1.1.1)Pavamāna Sūkta - Ṛg Veda, 9th Maṇḍala (Soma Pavamāna)Gāyatrī Mantra & Mahā Mṛtyuñjaya Mantra - earlier Mantra June episodes, referenced for contrastPraṇava (Auṃ) - the Mantra June openerConcepts drawn on: śraddhā, abhyāsa & vairāgya, Īśvara praṇidhāna, the three guṇas (sattva, rajas, tamas), brahmacarya, pratyāhāraTRY THIS IN YOUR PRACTICEUse Asato Mā the way the tradition does, as an opening, not as japa. Before your next practice, chant it three times:Oṃ Asato mā sad gamayaTamaso mā jyotir gamayaMṛtyor mā amṛtaṃ gamayaOṃ Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ ŚāntiḥLet it be an invocation: I'm doing this practice, I don't fully know where it leads - please, lead me there in time. Notice that the mantra never says "I will go." It says lead me. So this week, where life feels foggy, practise being led: trust the path, trust the tradition, and let "I don't know yet" be enough.SHARE & CONNECTWebsite: https://omsomyoga.comOmSom App (free): search OmSom in the App StoreInstagram: @omsomyogaIf this episode landed, the best way to support the show is to share it with one person who might need it.We operate a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, Australia, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs. We'd love to connect with you wherever you are on your journey.HARI OM
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  Mahā Mṛtyuñjaya: Unlocking the Mantra for Conquering the Fear of Death 14.06.2026 28min

  PRACTICE WITH US✦ Sadhana Sangha - 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques, Yoga Sūtra translationhttps://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join✦ OmSom App (free) - yoga philosophy, Sanskrit study + online communitySearch OmSom in the App Store✦ 100 Hr Asana Sadhana Dharmahttps://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto✦ 200 Hr Yoga Teacher Training Sri Lanka 2026https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka✦ 50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher Traininghttps://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-otoIN THIS EPISODEOf all the mantras in the yoga tradition, the Mahā Mṛtyuñjaya is the one people reach for when something goes wrong - when someone is sick, dying, or afraid. But despite its name, it isn't a mantra against death. It's a prayer not to die before you're ready: to ripen fully into life, and to be loosened from the fear of dying the way ripe fruit falls freely from the vine.We sit with one of the mantras closest to Aaron's heart. They unpack its meaning line by line, tell the story of the sage Mārkaṇḍeya who conquered death itself, and explore why a mantra so wrapped in taboo is actually one of the most nourishing and Ojas-building practices in the tradition.Content note: this episode discusses death and dying.WHAT YOU'LL LEARN✦ Why this mantra, when everything else falls apart - the difference between asking for eternal life and asking for ripeness and fullness of life.✦ The cucumber that isn't a cucumber - what the urvāruka fruit really is, and why it drops freely when ripe rather than needing to be cut from the vine.✦ The story of Mārkaṇḍeya - Shiva's impossible choice, a sixteen-year-old's deepest samādhi, and the moment Yama, the god of death, was defeated.✦ Śavāsana as a death ritual - how every time you lie down at the end of practice, you're rehearsing the art of letting go of the body.✦ A line-by-line translation - Rudra the three-eyed one who howls with compassion, and what we're truly asking for when we chant.✦ The Ojas connection - why the most "feared" mantra in the tradition is also the most nourishing, and how it supports each dosha.✦ How and when to use it - readiness, chanting for the sick and dying, and weaving it into everyday life.TEXTUAL REFERENCES✦ Ṛg Veda - the origin of the mantra, found in a portion dedicated to Rudra and traditionally attributed to the sage Vasiṣṭha.✦ Mahābhārata - the earliest source of the Mārkaṇḍeya story, told within Yudhiṣṭhira's conversation with the sage himself.✦ Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Śiva Purāṇa, Skanda Purāṇa - the same story recurs across all of these texts.✦ Bhagavad Gītā - Krishna's teaching that one who remembers him at the moment of death attains his state; the root teaching behind the Hare Krishna tradition's practice.✦ Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali - abhiniveśa, the fear of death, named as a root of suffering.THE MANTRAOm Tryambakaṃ YajāmaheSugandhiṃ Puṣṭi-vardhanamUrvārukam-iva BandhanānMṛtyor Mukṣīya Mā'mṛtātWe worship the three-eyed one, fragrant, the increaser of nourishment. As the ripe fruit is freed from its binding to the vine, may I be freed from death, but not from immortality.SHARE & CONNECTWebsite: https://omsomyoga.comOmSom App (free): search OmSom in the App StoreInstagram: @omsomyogaIf this episode landed, the best way to support the show is to share it with one person who might need it.We operate a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, Australia, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs. We'd love to connect with you wherever you are on your journey.HARI OM
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  Deciphering the Gayatri: the Mantra that Brahmā Hid Inside a Single Syllable 07.06.2026 47min

  PRACTICE WITH US✦ Sadhana Sangha - 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques, Yoga Sūtra translationhttps://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join✦ OmSom App (free) - yoga philosophy, Sanskrit study + online communitySearch OmSom in the App Store✦ 100 Hr Asana Sadhana Dharmahttps://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto✦ 200 Hr Yoga Teacher Training Sri Lanka 2026https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka✦ 50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher Traininghttps://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-otoIN THIS EPISODEIf Om is the sound that holds everything together, the Gāyatrī is the prayer that lights up the mind. We explore the mantra the ancient ṛṣis understood as a request for clarity - may our intellect be illuminated. Through the story of Brahmā condensing the three Vedas down into a single syllable, the meaning of each word of the mantra, the goddess Gāyatrī Devī as the light of the morning sun, and how the mantra meets each dosha, this episode is an invitation into one of the most potent practices in the tradition — held with reverence for where it comes from.WHAT YOU'LL LEARNWhy the Gāyatrī is a prayer for the buddhi (the discerning intellect) rather than the heart or body, and why the ṛṣis saw a clouded mind as the obstacle to yogaThe story of Brahmā condensing the three Vedas → three verses → three words (bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ) → the single syllable Om, and how this shows the Gāyatrī holds all Vedic knowledgeThe Gāyatrī meter (chhanda): 24 syllables arranged 8–8–8, the same rhythm the Vedas are recited in, compared playfully to the 5-7-5 of a haiku, and why this aids memory and retentionGāyatrī Devī - the etymology Gāyantam Trāyate iti Gāyatrī ("she who, when sung, protects"), and the goddess as the feminine light of the morning sun, likened to consciousness itselfA line-by-line translation of the mantra, including the vyāhṛti (Om Bhūr Bhuvaḥ Svaḥ) as body, mind, and soul / the three worlds, and the difference between Svaḥ and Svāhā (the wife of Agni)How the Gāyatrī works within Āyurveda as a heating, solar mantra connected to sādhaka pitta, and how to adapt it for Vāta, Pitta, and Kapha typesA cautionary teaching story on the potency of the mantra and the importance of teacher-to-student transmission and reverenceTEXTUAL REFERENCESManusmṛti - the source of the story of Brahmā drawing the Gāyatrī from the three Vedas; also the teaching that one who recites the Gāyatrī at both twilights gains the merit of reciting the entire VedasThe Vedas - Ṛgveda (tat savitur vareṇyam), Sāmaveda (bhargo devasya dhīmahi), Yajurveda (dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt)Indu Arora - Mudra: The Sacred Secret - referenced for a series of 24 mudrās that can be practised with the Gāyatrī Mantra (verify exact book title)Robert Svoboda - Kundalini (Aghora II) - the story of the student who chanted the mantra without reverenceTRY THIS IN YOUR PRACTICEChant the Gāyatrī at sunrise, slowly and with reverence - not rushing toward a number, but letting each of the three lines (8–8–8) land. Notice the mantra as a request, not a demand: may the light of that sun illuminate my mind.Vāta - chant aloud, steady and rhythmic, to ground into the bodyPitta - slow, soft, internal repetition; release your grip on the practiceKapha - chant at sunrise to invite warmth and momentum into the dayAnd take the closing teaching to heart: let this mantra be offered to you at the right time. The right teachings reveal themselves when you're ready.SHARE & CONNECTWebsite: https://omsomyoga.comOmSom App (free): search OmSom in the App StoreInstagram: @omsomyogaIf this episode landed, the best way to support the show is to share it with one person who might need it.We operate a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, Australia, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs. We'd love to connect with you wherever you are on your journey.HARI OM
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  Decoding the Mantra Om, the Hum of the Universe, the Three Sounds, the Fourth Silence & the Nine Stages 31.05.2026 50min

  PRACTICE WITH US✦ Sadhana Sangha - 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques, Yoga Sūtra translationhttps://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join✦ OmSom App (free) - yoga philosophy, Sanskrit study + online communitySearch OmSom in the App Store✦ 100 Hr Asana Sadhana Dharmahttps://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto✦ 200 Hr Yoga Teacher Training Sri Lanka 2026https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka✦ 50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher Traininghttps://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-otoIN THIS EPISODEIf you had to pick the most important syllable in the entire tradition of yoga (one sound that contains everything) what would it be? In this episode, Aaron and Paige open the June series on mantra and bhakti by exploring Auṃ, the syllable chanted at the beginning and end of every yoga class, painted on every mat, stuck to the back of every car, and yet very rarely understood for what it actually is.We unpack why Patañjali never calls it Om in the Yoga Sūtra (and what he calls it instead), why the texts describe it as the sound of Īśvara, and why every other mantra in the tradition begins with this sound. We map the three syllables A–U–M to the three states of consciousness, sit with the fourth state  (turīya) that lives in the silence after the M, and then walk through the nine stages of that silence as taught in the Nāda Yoga and Kashmir Śaivite tradition.What You'll Learn✦ The meaning of bhakti and why mantra is inseparable from devotion✦ The difference between a mantra and an affirmation (and why one points to something while the other is the thing itself)✦ Why Patañjali codifies Om as Praṇava in the Yoga Sūtra and the aesthetic superstition behind the name change✦ The three syllables of A–U–M and the three states of consciousness they express: jāgrat (waking), svapna (dreaming), suṣupti (deep sleep)✦ The fourth state, turīya, that arises in the silence after M✦ The Maṇḍūkya Upaniṣad teaching of the bow, the arrow, the string, and the target, and why the release is the part you can't practice✦ The nine stages of silence after Om as taught in Nāda Yoga: bindu, ardha candra, nirodhinī, nāda, nādānta, śakti, vyāpinī, samanā, unmanā✦ How the syllables of A–U–M map to the doṣas - and how to use mantra to work with the mahāguṇas (sattva, rajas, tamas)✦ The distinction between japa (mantra you repeat) and ajapa (mantra that repeats itself)✦ Why Om is described as the hum of the universe and how to actually hear itTextual ReferencesPatañjali's Yoga Sūtra (Samādhi Pāda)✦ Tasya vācakaḥ praṇavaḥ - "The expression of Īśvara is the syllable Praṇava."✦ Taj-japas tad-artha-bhāvanam - "Repeat that mantra while contemplating its meaning."✦ The following sūtra: through this practice, the awareness turns inward and the obstacles to yoga fall away.Maṇḍūkya Upaniṣad ✦ All twelve verses of this short Upaniṣad are dedicated to the syllable Auṃ, mapping its sounds to the four states of consciousness. The bow-and-arrow analogy referenced in this episode is drawn from the Upaniṣadic teaching tradition.Bhagavad Gītā✦ Kṛṣṇa: "The one who utters the single syllable Om Brahman and remembers me departs from the body and reaches the supreme destination."Kashmir Śaivism / Nāda Yoga tradition✦ The nine progressive stages of the silence after Om (some traditions list seven, others twelve).Ayurveda and the Mind by Dr. David Frawley✦ Referenced for the application of mantra to the mahāguṇas.SHARE & CONNECTWebsite: https://omsomyoga.comOmSom App (free): search OmSom in the App StoreInstagram: @omsomyogaIf this episode landed, the best way to support the show is to share it with one person who might need it.We operate a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, Australia, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs. We'd love to connect with you wherever you are on your journey.HARI OM
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  So'haṃ Haṃsa: The Mantra You've Been Repeating Your Whole Life Without Knowing 24.05.2026 34min

  PRACTICE WITH US✦ Sadhana Sangha - 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques, Yoga Sūtra translationhttps://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join✦ OmSom App (free) - yoga philosophy, Sanskrit study + online communitySearch OmSom in the App Store✦ 100 Hr Asana Sadhana Dharmahttps://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto✦ 200 Hr Yoga Teacher Training Sri Lanka 2026https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka✦ 50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher Traininghttps://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-otoIN THIS EPISODEWhat if there was a mantra you've been repeating your whole life without knowing it? One you didn't choose, one you didn't learn, one that lives inside every single breath.In this episode, we turn toward Ajapa Mantra, the mantra that doesn't need to be repeated, because it's already happening. So'haṃ on the inhale. Haṃsa on the exhale. The sound of breath itself.We unpack the mythology of the celestial swan, the meaning of I am That, and the practice of viveka, the discernment to take only the milk and let the water glide off.We upack:✦ Why So'haṃ and Haṃsa are called the Ajapa Mantra, the mantra that is not repeated✦ Mantra defined: man (mind) + tra (protecting) - protecting the mind from overthinking✦ The relationship between mantra, breath, and silence✦ Viveka - the yogic capacity for discernment✦ How to use So'haṃ Haṃsa in āsana, prāṇāyāma, and meditation✦ The Ayurvedic practice of "listening to the burp" - discernment applied to eating✦ Why mantra is an experience, not just wordsWHAT YOU'LL LEARN✦ The difference between So'haṃ and Haṃsa - and why one points to the vastness of being, while the other points to the capacity to move through the world untouched by it.✦ Why this mantra is called Ajapa - already present in every breath, not something you create but something you tune into.✦ The mythology of the swan and what it teaches about discernment, nourishment, and what we choose to let glide off.✦ How to apply viveka in daily life from your meditation cushion to your dinner plate.✦ A practical entry point into mantra practice, even if you don't yet understand or feel the depth of it.TEXTUAL REFERENCES✦ The mythology of Haṃsa, the celestial swan, drawn from the broader Purāṇic and Vedic tradition - the swan as the symbol of viveka (discernment) and the vehicle of Brahmā.✦ The Ajapa Mantra tradition, referenced across multiple yogic texts as the natural mantra of the breath (So'haṃ on inhale, Haṃsa on exhale).✦ Companion to last week's episode on Śūnya (the void) - Soham as I am That, the recognition of the vast emptiness explored in the previous conversation.SHARE & CONNECTWebsite: https://omsomyoga.comOmSom App (free): search OmSom in the App StoreInstagram: @omsomyogaIf this episode landed, the best way to support the show is to share it with one person who might need it.We operate a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, Australia, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs. We'd love to connect with you wherever you are on your journey.HARI OM
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  Śūnya: Unpacking the Space Where Thought Dissolves 17.05.2026 45min

  PRACTICE WITH US✦ Sadhana Sangha - 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques, Yoga Sūtra translationhttps://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join✦ OmSom App (free) - yoga philosophy, Sanskrit study + online communitySearch OmSom in the App Store✦ 100 Hr Asana Sadhana Dharmahttps://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto✦ 200 Hr Yoga Teacher Training Sri Lanka 2026https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka✦ 50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher Traininghttps://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-otoIN THIS EPISODEWe continue our exploration of the space element (ākāśa) by turning toward its deepest expression, śūnya, the void. This is pure potential. We unpack why the mind fears silence, where śūnya sits on the Sāṃkhya map, and how the Tao Te Ching's opening line ("the Tao that is named is not the eternal Tao") points to the same truth. We also celebrate 100,000 podcast downloads! Thank you for being here!What You'll Learn✦ The difference between quiet (external) and silence (internal) and why one doesn't guarantee the other✦ Why the mind grasps and labels and how that grasping is the very thing that obscures śūnya✦ How śūnya functions as both a philosophical concept and a practical tool for conserving prāṇic energy✦ The Sāṃkhya context: why the higher we move up the map, the less language can hold✦ The journey through the guṇas from Tamas → Rajas → Sattva → back to śūnya — and where Winnie-the-Pooh fits in (yes, really)✦ How antaḥ-mana (inner listening) becomes the medicine that draws the mind toward stillness✦ Three practical entry points: layered sound meditation, Kāya Sthiram, and Yoga Nidrā as the cognition of nothingness✦ How śūnya shows up off the mat as presence, and as the comfort of not needing to fill spaceTEXTUAL REFERENCES✦ Kena Upaniṣad: the story of Brahman appearing before Indra and the gods✦ Tao Te Ching: "The Tao that is named is not the eternal Tao"✦ Sāṃkhya Darśan: the map of consciousness descending into matter; where śūnya sits at the subtler end✦ The Triguṇa: Tamas, Rajas, Sattva, as the progression of mind-states✦ Kāya Sthiram & Yoga Nidrā: classical techniques pointing toward śūnyaSHARE & CONNECTWebsite: https://omsomyoga.comOmSom App (free): search OmSom in the App StoreInstagram: @omsomyogaIf this episode landed, the best way to support the show is to share it with one person who might need it.We operate a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, Australia, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs. We'd love to connect with you wherever you are on your journey.HARI OM
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  Kumbhaka: The Yogic Art of Breath Retention Explained & Patanjali's Gateway to Samādhi 10.05.2026 33min

  PRACTICE WITH US✦ Sadhana Sangha - 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques, Yoga Sūtra translationhttps://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join✦ OmSom App (free) - yoga philosophy, Sanskrit study + online communitySearch OmSom in the App Store✦ 100 Hr Asana Sadhana Dharmahttps://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto✦ 200 Hr Yoga Teacher Training Sri Lanka 2026https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka✦ 50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher Traininghttps://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-otoIN THIS EPISODEWhat happens in the space between your inhale and your exhale?In this episode of the Om Som Yoga + Ayurveda Podcast, Aaron and Paige explore Kumbhaka, the yogic art of breath retention. Drawing from Patanjali's Yoga Sūtra and the Hatha Yoga Pradīpikā, this episode unpacks why the pause in the breath isn't just a gap, but a doorway into stillness, a direct experience of the quieter layers of the mind, and ultimately a path toward samādhi.Whether you're new to pranayama or already working with breath retention in your practice, this episode will change how you relate to the space between your breaths.WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE✦ What Kumbhaka actually means - the Sanskrit root translates to pot or cup, and the ancient story of the potter that reveals why retention is the seal that holds prana in the body✦ The two types of Kumbhaka - sahita (deliberate retention) and kevala (the spontaneous suspension that arises unbidden in deep meditation)✦ What Patanjali's Yoga Sūtra says about the fourth pranayama - the one beyond deliberate practice that opens the door to samādhi✦ The Hatha Yoga Pradīpikā teaching: when prana moves, the mind moves - when prana is still, the mind becomes still✦ The science of CO2 tolerance - why the urge to breathe is not an emergency, and how building tolerance helps dissolve one of yoga's core obstacles: fear✦ Why pranayama is about breathing less, not more - and how stillness in the breath creates the conditions for stillness in the mind✦ Kumbhaka and the three doshas - how vāta, pitta, and kapha types should each approach breath retention for safe, nourishing practiceTEXTUAL REFERENCES✦ Patanjali's Yoga Sūtra: pranayama as external, internal, and restrained movement - and the fourth kumbhaka, kevala, as the spontaneous pathway to samādhi✦ Hatha Yoga Pradīpikā: "When prana moves, the mind moves. When prana is still, the mind becomes still."TRY THIS IN YOUR PRACTICEThis week, rather than rushing through the turn between inhale and exhale, simply notice the pause. No counting, no control - just linger in that space for a moment. Feel the stillness that already exists between your breaths. That is Kumbhaka in its most natural form. Start there.JOIN THE CONVERSATIONDo you tend to hold your breath in daily life without realising it? Or have you ever experienced that moment in meditation where the breath just suspends on its own? Share in the comments below - we read everything.SHARE & CONNECTThank you for listening to the Om Som Yoga & Ayurveda Podcast.Please share this episode with someone it might support, and connect with us on social media or via our website.Instagram: @OmSom.yogaWebsite: OmSom.yogaWe operate a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, Australia, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs.We'd love to connect with you wherever you are on your journey.HARI OM