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IN THIS EPISODE
Most 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 either
TEXTUAL 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 Śaṅkarācārya
TRY 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 & CONNECT
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If 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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IN THIS EPISODE
This 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 Kapālabhāti
2. Patañjali's path of practice
3. 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 CONVERSATION
What'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 & CONNECT
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If this episode landed, the best way to support the show is to share it with one person who might need it.
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HARI OM
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IN THIS EPISODE
This 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 & CONNECT
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If 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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PRACTICE WITH US
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IN THIS EPISODE
To 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 Pūrṇamidaṃ
Pūrṇāt Pūrṇamudacyate
Pūrṇasya Pūrṇamādāya
Pūrṇamevāvaśiṣyate
Oṃ Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ
That 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 LEARN
What 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 REFERENCES
The 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 & CONNECT
Website: https://omsomyoga.com
OmSom App (free): search OmSom in the App Store
Instagram: @omsomyoga
If 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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PRACTICE WITH US
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IN THIS EPISODE
Mantra 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 Śāntiḥ
Lead 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 LEARN
Why 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 REFERENCES
Bṛhadāraṇyaka 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 PRACTICE
Use 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 gamaya
Tamaso mā jyotir gamaya
Mṛtyor mā amṛtaṃ gamaya
Oṃ Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ
Let 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 & CONNECT
Website: https://omsomyoga.com
OmSom App (free): search OmSom in the App Store
Instagram: @omsomyoga
If 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
-
PRACTICE WITH US
✦ Sadhana Sangha - 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques, Yoga Sūtra translation
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✦ 100 Hr Asana Sadhana Dharma
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IN THIS EPISODE
Of 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 MANTRA
Om Tryambakaṃ Yajāmahe
Sugandhiṃ Puṣṭi-vardhanam
Urvārukam-iva Bandhanān
Mṛtyor Mukṣīya Mā'mṛtāt
We 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 & CONNECT
Website: https://omsomyoga.com
OmSom App (free): search OmSom in the App Store
Instagram: @omsomyoga
If 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
-
PRACTICE WITH US
✦ 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 + online community
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✦ 100 Hr Asana Sadhana Dharma
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IN THIS EPISODE
If 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 LEARN
Why 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 REFERENCES
Manusmṛti - 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 PRACTICE
Chant 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 & CONNECT
Website: https://omsomyoga.com
OmSom App (free): search OmSom in the App Store
Instagram: @omsomyoga
If 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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PRACTICE WITH US
✦ Sadhana Sangha - 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques, Yoga Sūtra translation
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Search OmSom in the App Store
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IN THIS EPISODE
If 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 it
Textual References
Patañjali'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 & CONNECT
Website: https://omsomyoga.com
OmSom App (free): search OmSom in the App Store
Instagram: @omsomyoga
If 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
-
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
-
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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PRACTICE WITH US
✦ 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 + online community
Search OmSom in the App Store
✦ 100 Hr Asana Sadhana Dharma
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IN THIS EPISODE
What 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 practice
TEXTUAL 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 PRACTICE
This 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 CONVERSATION
Do 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 & CONNECT
Thank 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.yoga
Website: OmSom.yoga
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
-
PRACTICE WITH US
✦ Sadhana Sangha - 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques, Yoga Sūtra translation
https://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join
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Search OmSom in the App Store
✦ 100 Hr Asana Sadhana Dharma
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https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka
✦ 50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher Training
https://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-oto
IN THIS EPISODE
Aaron sits down with Simon Borg-Olivier, a man whose practice predates most of the modern yoga industry, for a conversation about coming home to natural movement and natural breath. Simon shares the unlikely path that led him from underwater swimming in Malta, to a Tibetan lama in his late teens, to weight training and gymnastics injuries, and finally to a stretch class where an Iyengar substitute teacher changed everything. From there, the conversation turns toward the principles he has spent four decades refining: moving where you don't bend easily, leaving alone the places that already are, and treating your practice as a work-in rather than a workout. Expect to have a few of your assumptions about flexibility, core engagement, breath retention, and even what "advanced" practice looks like gently turned upside down.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
✦ Why hypermobility is not flexibility and why bending where you already bend easily is one of the most common (and quietly damaging) habits in modern yoga
✦ The difference between a workout and a "work-in" and why one leaves you depleted while the other leaves you energised
✦ How Sthira Sukham Āsanam ("firm but calm") translates into the actual mechanics of the abdomen, the diaphragm, and the breath
✦ Why most people are unknowingly stuck in fight-or-flight through chronic abdominal tension and what that does to immunity, digestion, and reproduction
✦ The science (and tradition) of Jālandhara Bandha, head down, neck back, and why it matters for pranayama
✦ Why Simon teaches less stretch, less tension, less breathing, less thinking, less eating and what we gain on the other side of less
✦ The simple Five-Region Reset, fingers/shoulders, neck, pelvis, core, face, that you can drop into any practice, any time, anywhere
TEXTUAL & LINEAGE REFERENCES
✦ Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali — Sthira Sukham Āsanam (II.46), and Simon's note on the Siddhis appearing in the third chapter (Vibhūti Pāda) - a reminder that supernatural breathing is not the first step
✦ The 8 Limbs - Yama, Niyama, Āsana, Prāṇāyāma - and why most of us are still working at the foundation
✦ B.K.S. Iyengar - Simon's first formal yoga path in the early 1980s
✦ Yoga Synergy - co-founded by Simon and Bianca Machliss, one of Australia's oldest yoga schools
Cross-traditional influences - Tibetan teachings received in his late teens, Japanese Aikido, and Chinese Qigong and martial arts woven into his Five-Dimensional Flow framework
FIND SIMON
Website → https://simonborgolivier.com
Membership (free + paid tiers) → https://healthhappinesslongevity.co
SHARE & CONNECT
Thank 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.yoga
Website: OmSom.yoga
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
-
PRACTICE WITH US
✦ Sadhana Sangha - 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques, Yoga Sūtra translationhttps://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join
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✦ 50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher Traininghttps://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-oto
IN THIS EPISODE
What does it really mean to live from the heart?
In this episode of the Om Som Yoga + Ayurveda Podcast, Aaron and Paige dive deep into Hridaya (hṛdayam) the spiritual heart at the centre of all yogic and Vedantic tradition.
Drawing from the Chandogya Upanishad, the Katha Upanishad, and Patanjali's Yoga Sūtras, this episode explores one of the most profound teachings in all of yoga philosophy, the idea that within the tiny cave of the heart lives the infinite self, equally as vast as the entire cosmos.If you've ever wondered what yoga teachers mean by "coming to the heart," or felt confused by the idea of heart-centered living, this episode is for you.
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE
✦ The three layers of the heart - physical, emotional, and spiritual - and how yoga teaches us to move through all three
✦ The Sanskrit root meaning of hṛdayam: the give, receive, and circulate at the centre of all human experience
✦ The teaching of Daharākāsha from the Chandogya Upanishad, the doorway within the heart that is no larger than your thumb, yet contains the entire universe
✦ Why Anahata (the heart chakra) is not the same as Hridaya and why this distinction matters in your practice
✦ What Patanjali says happens when you meditate on the heart: knowledge of the mind (and why that's the ultimate siddhi for modern life)
✦ The Āyurvedic view of the heart: hṛd basti treatment, ojas, the 8 drops of vital force within the heart, and abhyanga over the heart marma
✦ How to stop seeking ease outside yourself, and begin to inhabit the cave of the heart as your true home
TEXTUAL REFERENCES
✦ Chandogya Upanishad: Dahara Vidyā (the knowledge of the inner space)
✦ Katha Upanishad: "Smaller than the smallest, greater than the greatest, the Self is hidden in the cave of the heart"
✦ Patanjali's Yoga Sūtra, Chapter III: the samyama of Hridaya and the arising of knowledge of the mind
TRY THIS IN YOUR PRACTICE
This week, instead of meditating in your head, consciously drop your awareness into the heart. Sit in the cave. Let your mantra or breath or visualisation arise from that place, not from the screen of the mind.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
What came up for you in this episode? Have you ever experienced that deep stillness at the heart, even for a moment? Share in the comments below. We read everything.
SHARE & CONNECT
Thank 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.yoga
Website: OmSom.yoga
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
-
PRACTICE WITH US:
365 Sadhana Sangha
https://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join
100 Hr Asana Sadhana Dharma
https://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto
200 Hr Yoga Teacher Training Sri Lanka 2026
https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka
50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher Training
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ON THIS WEEK'S EPISODE:
We unpack one of the most misunderstood teachings in yoga, "citta vritti nirodhah". Most people hear citta vritti nirodhah and think yoga is asking them to stop thinking. So they try to force the mind quiet. Then the mind gets louder.
This week, Aaron and Lina explore the second Yoga Sutra and what it actually means to settle the mind. This is not an episode about suppression. It's about space. The mind doesn't respond to force. It responds to stillness being allowed, not imposed.
DEFINITION & ETYMOLOGY:
Citta Vritti Nirodhah (चित्त वृत्ति निरोध)
Citta: the total field of the mind, including perception, memory, and cognition
Vritti: fluctuations, waves, or movements of the mind
Nirodhah: cessation, a natural settling
Together: the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind.
The key word is natural. Nirodhah does not mean suppression. It points to stillness that arrives when agitation is removed, not forced out.
KEY CONCEPTS & INSIGHTS:
• Thoughts are not the problem. The agitation feeding them is. Sensory overload, stimulation, and constant doing all churn the surface of the mind.
• The mind is like Lake Manasarovar beneath Mount Kailash. When the winds blow, the moon's reflection scatters. You cannot smooth the lake with your hands. You wait for the wind to settle.
• Yoga Sutra 1.4, vritti sarupyam itaratra: at other times, we identify with the movements. When the mind is unsettled, we mistake the thoughts, the story, the role, for our actual self.
• The goal is not just stillness but recognition. When the mind clears, the seer (drastuh) abides in its own nature. We remember we are the one watching, not the one thinking.
TEXTUAL SOURCES:
The first four Yoga Sutras of Patanjali form a single sequence:
• 1.1 Atha yoganushasanam: now, the teaching of yoga. Yoga only happens now.
• 1.2 Yogas citta vritti nirodhah: yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind.
• 1.3 Tada drashtuh svarupe vastanam: then the seer abides in its own true nature.
• 1.4 Vritti sarupyam itaratra: at other times, there is identification with the movements.
PRACTICAL INTEGRATION:
• Use the breath as your anchor. It is always internal, always present. Slow it down and let it draw you inward.
• Allow pauses to arise naturally in practice rather than forcing a hard stop. When stillness appears, stay with it.
• If your mind was busy in meditation, ask: who noticed? That noticing is the observer. You are already there.
• Consider what is agitating the mind before trying to calm it. Sometimes the first step is reducing external input, not increasing internal effort.
Reflection: What happens when you stop trying to quiet the mind and simply let it settle on its own?
SHARE & CONNECT
Thank 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.yoga
Website: OmSom.yoga
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
-
PRACTICE WITH US:
365 Sadhana Sangha
https://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join
100 Hr Asana Sadhana Dharma
https://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto
200 Hr Yoga Teacher Training Sri Lanka 2026
https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka
50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher Training
https://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-oto
ON THIS WEEK'S EPISODE:
Some people breathe deeply but the breath gets stuck. The lungs fill, but there is no distribution. Prana arrives and goes nowhere.
This week, Aaron and Selenna explore Vyana Vayu, the prana of circulation, integration, and adaptability. Not about breathing bigger. About letting the breath spread. This episode covers what vyana is, why it holds all other pranas together, and how its presence or absence shows up in the body, the practice, and daily life.
DEFINITION & ETYMOLOGY:
Vyana Vayu (Sanskrit: व्यान वायु)
Root: vyah, to spread, pervade, or expand outwards in all directions
Vyana moves nourishment from the centre to the periphery
Non-directional, unlike prana vayu (inhale) or apana vayu (exhale). It is the fullness between the parts.
When depleted: cold extremities, pallor, fatigue, disconnection from the limbs.
KEY CONCEPTS & INSIGHTS:
• The Prashna Upanishad story: the five pranas argue over which is most important. Each leaves the body to test its necessity. When prana vayu departs, all the others follow. Vyana is the integrating force that knits them all together.
• Vyana is synergy. A movement in the hand travels through the wrist, elbow, and shoulder. A slow practice flows into quiet Savasana, into calm pranayama, into still meditation. Vyana makes practice holistic rather than fragmented.
• Prana can be received without being distributed. Building energy without vyana is like filling a pipe with no outlet. Stuck prana is useless.
• Vyana is adaptability. Ease moving between conversations, environments, and states. In practice, the capacity to meet yourself where you are.
• Stillness without vyana becomes stagnation. Vyana allows you to enter stillness when needed and move out when the time comes.
TEXTUAL & TRADITIONAL SOURCES:
• Hathayoga Pradipika: vyana vayu governs circulation, peripheral movement, and integration of bodily systems. Imbalance presents as fatigue, poor circulation, or disconnection from the limbs.
• Prashna Upanishad: without vyana, the other pranas cannot act in coordination.
PRACTICAL INTEGRATION:
• Practices that cultivate vyana: lateral bends, backbends, spinal rolls, Surya Namaskar, inhale retentions.
• Vyana Vayu Mudra: touch the thumb to the index and middle fingers at the fingertips, ring and pinky fingers extended. Use when feeling stuck, fragmented, or disconnected. Also supports circulation to the extremities in cold weather.
• In daily life: rigidity in social situations, difficulty transitioning between tasks, or feeling like different parts of life are disconnected are signs of depleted vyana.
Reflection: Where are you receiving nourishment but not letting it move?
SHARE & CONNECT
Thank 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.yoga
Website: OmSom.yoga
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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PRACTICE WITH US:
365 Sadhana Sangha
https://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join
100 Hr Asana Sadhana Dharma
https://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto
200 Hr Yoga Teacher Training Sri Lanka 2026
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ON THIS WEEK'S EPISODE:
People work hard in yoga. There is strength, there is discipline. But still no ease. We assume ease means collapsing or giving up. When actually, sukham only appears when effort is organised correctly.
This week, Aaron and Milli explore the second word of one of yoga's most well-known sutras. Not the steadiness, not the seat, but the softness. The effortlessness. The quality that turns a posture into a practice and a practice into something sustainable for life.
DEFINITION & ETYMOLOGY:
Sukham (Sanskrit: सुखम्)
Literal meaning: pleasantness, ease, effortlessness, comfort
From the sutra: Sthiram Sukham Asanam (Yoga Sutra 2.46)
Sthiram: steadiness. Sukham: ease. Asanam: posture.
Sukham is not the absence of effort. It is ease within effort.
KEY CONCEPTS & INSIGHTS:
• The Zen bowl story: a student grips a bowl of water so tightly it trembles and spills. The teacher says trust the bowl. The moment he softens, the water stills. This is sukham.
• Effort evenly distributed becomes support. Once the body knows how to hold itself, it can begin to soften. That which was once effortful becomes graceful.
• The breath is the barometer. If the breath becomes labored in a posture, you have gone too far. Ease in the breath means you are working within your capacity.
• Yoga Sutra 2.47: Prayatna shaithilya anantha samapathibhyam. Mastery of asana comes through the relaxation of effort and absorption in the infinite. Patanjali's definition of mastery is not force. It is dissolution.
• Sukham is what makes yoga sustainable. Push past capacity and you deplete. Meet your edge daily and build slowly. That is the design of the practice.
TEXTUAL & TRADITIONAL SOURCES:
• Yoga Sutra 2.46: Sthiram sukham asanam. The posture should be steady and easeful.
• Yoga Sutra 2.47: Prayatna shaithilya anantha samapathibhyam. Through the relaxation of effort and absorption in the infinite, asana is mastered.
• Hathayoga Pradipika: asana gives steadiness, health, and lightness to the body. Both traditions hold the same position: firmness and softness always together.
PRACTICAL INTEGRATION:
• Hold poses for 5 to 10 breaths. Long enough to meet the uncomfortable edge. Then let go of the mental story around it. The mind gives up long before the body does.
U• se the breath as your guide. Nose breathing, composed, unhurried. The moment it becomes labored, back off and reset.
• Off the mat: notice where you are bracing for impact in daily life. In conversations, at work, in relationships. Sukham asks you to meet the world with less resistance, not less engagement.
Reflection: Where in your practice are you holding effort longer than necessary?
SHARE & CONNECT
Thank 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.yoga
Website: OmSom.yoga
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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PRACTICE WITH US:
365 Sadhana Sangha
https://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join
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https://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto
200 Hr Yoga Teacher Training Sri Lanka 2026
https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka
50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher Training
https://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-oto
ON THIS WEEK’S EPISODE:
We often think self-study means fixing ourselves. But in yoga, Svādhyāya isn’t about becoming better. It’s about becoming honest.
In this episode, Aaron and Paige explore Svādhyāya as illumination. Not self-help. Not self-analysis. But observation for its own sake.
Through the story of Indra and Virochana, we unpack the difference between identifying with the body and inquiring into the witness behind it. One student stops at the reflection. The other keeps going.
Svādhyāya asks:
Who is observing the body?
Who is watching the mind?
Who is aware of the story?
And what happens when we stop trying to improve ourselves and simply see?
DEFINITION & ETYMOLOGY:
• Svā (स्व) - one’s own, the Self
• Adhyāya (अध्याय) - study, recitation, inquiry
Svādhyāya (स्वाध्याय) means study of the Self. Reflection upon the Self. A returning to what is deeper than identity.
In this episode we clarify the distinction between:
• Self-help - observation to create change
• Self-analysis - asking why
• Svādhyāya - observing without fixing
KEY CONCEPTS & INSIGHTS:
• Agni as illumination - fire does not only burn, it reveals
• The difference between ahamkāra (the constructed self) and the witness
• The “space between” experience and observer - where story and identity form
• Kriyā Yoga - Tapas reveals, Svādhyāya observes, Īśvara Praṇidhāna surrenders
• Communion with one’s iṣṭa-devatā through self-study
• The paradox of the Self - it cannot be known as an object
We also explore Yoga Sūtra 2.44:
“Svādhyāyād iṣṭa-devatā-saṃprayogaḥ”
Through self-study comes communion with the chosen form of the Divine.
And the riddle from the Kena Upaniṣad:
“It is not known by those who know it, and known by those who do not know it.”
The Self cannot be captured. Only revealed.
PRACTICAL INTEGRATION:
• Journalling without editing - observe thoughts in real time
• Five-layer reflection: physical, mental, emotional, energetic, spiritual
• Silent mantra repetition to quiet the mind
• Mirror work - observe without correcting
• Trāṭaka (candle gazing) - object, observer, space between
• Notice reactions in daily life without immediately creating a story
Ask yourself:
• What are you trying to change before you’ve truly seen it?
• Where are you satisfied with an answer that’s almost true?
• What becomes possible when understanding replaces the need to fix?
Svādhyāya is not something to master.
It is something to return to.
When the layers fall away, nothing new is gained.
Only remembered.
SHARE & CONNECT
Thank 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.yoga
Website: OmSom.yoga
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
-
PRACTICE WITH US:365 Sadhana Sanghahttps://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join100 Hr Asana Sadhana Dharmahttps://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto200 Hr Yoga Teacher Training Sri Lanka 2026https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher Traininghttps://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-otoON THIS WEEK’S EPISODEIn this conversation with Lina, we explore:• Tapas as “heat”: the friction that creates real change• Why resistance isn’t failur, it’s the doorway• How tapas applies to asana, pranayama, meditation, and daily life• The difference between “love and light” bypassing vs grounded transformation• Why the hard thing isn’t always the intense thing (sometimes it’s rest, gentleness, or silence)DEFINITION & ETYMOLOGYTAPAS (तपस्)• Root: TAP (तप्) - to heat, to burn, to glow• Tapas is the inner heat generated by sustained effort - especially when we meet discomfort consciously.• A simple felt-sense: rub your hands together - friction builds warmth. Tapas is that warming force that makes transformation possible.KEY CONCEPTS1) RESISTANCE IS PART OF THE PATHYou will meet resistance in practice and in life. The work is not to eliminate it - it’s to relate to it with presence.2) CONTAINED FIRE TRANSFORMSUncontained Agni burns everything. Contained Agni refines. Tapas is the art of containment: staying steady enough at the edge for the process to do its work.3) THE “HARD THING” CHANGES DEPENDING ON YOUSometimes the hard thing is intensity, strength, effort.Sometimes the hard thing is softness, silence, slowness, rest.Tapas is not performative struggle - it’s honest contact with what you avoid.4) IDENTITY IS WHAT GETS CHALLENGED FIRSTDiscipline doesn’t only test the body - it tests the story of who you think you are. Tapas is the willingness to live beyond the old pattern.TEXTUAL SOURCESPATAÑJALI - KRIYĀ YOGA (YS 2.1)tapaḥsvādhyāyeśvarapraṇidhānāni kriyāyogaḥTapas appears first - because without discipline, there’s no practice to sustain.PATAÑJALI - NIYAMA (YS 2.32)śauca santoṣa tapaḥsvādhyāyeśvarapraṇidhānāni niyamāḥTapas is placed among the core qualities we cultivate for a yogic life.BHAGAVAD GĪTĀ - “MENTAL TAPAS” (BG 17.16)manaḥ prasādaḥ saumyatvaṁ maunam ātma-vinigrahaḥ bhāva-saṁśuddhir ity etat tapo mānasamThis expands tapas beyond “hard effort” into the discipline of: serenity, gentleness, silence, and self-restraint.UPANIṢADIC TEACHING - KNOWING BRAHMAN THROUGH TAPASA widely-cited Upaniṣadic line: tapasā brahma vijijñāsasva (“By tapas, seek to know Brahman”).This frames discipline not as self-punishment, but as the means of deep knowing.PRACTICAL INTEGRATIONON THE MAT• Choose one posture you avoid and practise it with steadiness (not force).• Stay in ŚAVĀSANA longer than you usually would.• Sit for PRĀṆĀYĀMA for 20 minutes (steady, simple, sustainable).• Hold one āsana for 10 minutes, then rest.IN MEDITATION• Notice the urge to fidget, distract, or “escape.”• Practise staying present with the raw sensation of discomfort - without needing to like it.IN DAILY LIFE• Follow through on one commitment you’ve been postponing.• Tell someone your commitment so you’re held gently accountable.• Train presence: when the mind wanders mid-task, return (without self-judgement).REFLECTIVE TAKEAWAY• Where in your life are you avoiding discomfort?• What changes when you treat resistance as part of the practice not an obstacle?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
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PRACTICE WITH US:
365 Sadhana Sangha
https://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join
100 Hr Asana Sadhana Dharma
https://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto
200 Hr Yoga Teacher Training Sri Lanka 2026
https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka
50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher Training
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ON THIS WEEK'S EPISODE:
We talk about slowing down, calming the nervous system, resting more. And it's necessary. Until it's not.
Sometimes people aren't anxious. They're stagnant. Flat, foggy, heavy. Apply calming practices there and things sink further. This week, Aaron and Selenna explore Brahmana, the final piece in their series on energetic technique. Not stimulation for its own sake, but nourishment through expansion. The right fuel, in the right amount, at the right time.
DEFINITION & ETYMOLOGY:
Brahmana (Sanskrit: ब्राह्मण)
Root: bruh, to grow, enlarge, or strengthen
In yoga: any practice that builds heat, increases prana, and creates upward or expanding energetic movement
The counterpart to Langhana (descending, calming) and complement to Samana (balancing)
KEY CONCEPTS & INSIGHTS:
• Brahmana is the coffee. Langhana is the whiskey. Samana is the water, good anytime. This three-part energetic framework makes practice intentional rather than random.
• The Katha Upanishad story of Nachiketa and Yama: the sacred fire must be built, fed, and tended with care. Too little fuel and it dies. The wrong fuel and it explodes. The right fuel, offered with awareness, sustains the light.
• Dosage is everything. Anything is a medicine. What makes it medicinal is the amount. Brahmana in excess becomes depleting.
• Ayurvedic lens: Kapha types (earth and water) tend toward stagnation and benefit most from Brahmana. Vata types need Langhana. Pitta types need Samana. No extremes for Pitta.
• The breath is the barometer. Stagnant mind: move the breath. Anxious mind: slow it. Hathayoga Pradipika, Chapter 2: when the breath moves, the mind moves.
TEXTUAL & TRADITIONAL SOURCES:
• Hathayoga Pradipika, Chapter 2: practice Bhastrika 10 times daily. Not 50. The text is precise. 10 inhales, hold, release. One round.
• Hathayoga Pradipika, Chapter 2: when the breath moves, the mind moves. When the breath is still, the mind becomes still.
• Gheranda Samhita: Kapalbhati destroys impurities and eliminates excess Kapha dosha. Brahmana practice and Ayurvedic dosha theory are inseparable.
PRACTICAL INTEGRATION:
• Bhastrika and Kapalbhati are the key Brahmana pranayamas. Fast, rhythmic, heating. Best in the morning or when energy is low. Not before sleep or when agitated.
• In asana: move through Surya Namaskar with more pace and add strength elements. Monitor for over-stimulation and ease back if needed.
• In daily life: Brahmana is reengagement. Rekindling enthusiasm after withdrawal. Finding what excites you and pursuing it.
Reflection: Where in your life are you sinking when what you actually need is more fuel?
SHARE & CONNECT
Thank 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.yoga
Website: OmSom.yoga
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
-
PRACTICE WITH US:
365 Sadhana Sangha https://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join
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50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher Training https://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-oto
ON THIS WEEK'S EPISODE:
Bandha gets taught like it's just about gripping the core. Tighten, hold, brace. And then people wonder why their breath disappears.
This week, Aaron and Milli unpack one of the most misunderstood concepts in Hatha yoga. Bandha is not muscular force. It is intelligent containment. This episode covers both the physical and energetic dimensions of bandha, why the distinction matters, and how learning to hold without hardening changes your practice and your daily life.
DEFINITION & ETYMOLOGY:
Bandha (Sanskrit: बन्ध)
• Literal meaning: to tie, bind, restrain, or hold together
• The English word "bandage" shares the same root
• Too loose and it does nothing. Too tight and it cuts off circulation. The same principle applies in yoga.
KEY CONCEPTS & INSIGHTS:
• Physical bandha: co-activation of opposing muscle groups around a joint complex (attributed to Krishnamacharya). Creates joint stability, prevents injury, and keeps energy moving efficiently without leaking.
• Energetic bandha: the three subtle bandhas are Mula Bandha (pelvic floor), Udiana Bandha (navel center), and Jalandhara Bandha (throat center). Classified in the texts as mudras, not muscular contractions. Their purpose is to contain and direct prana.
• Together they are called Treta Bandha or Maha Bandha. According to the Hathayoga Pradipika (Chapter 3), when all three are combined, prana enters the Sushumna, the central channel.
• Mula Bandha works with apana vayu (downward force). Jalandhara Bandha with udana vayu (upward force). Udiana Bandha draws both to meet at the navel. This is the ha-ta union at the heart of Hatha yoga.
• The mythic archetype is Shiva containing the halahala poison at the throat using Jalandhara Bandha. Hence Nilakanta, the blue-throated one.
TEXTUAL & TRADITIONAL SOURCES:
• Hathayoga Pradipika, Chapter 3: when Mula, Udiana, and Jalandhara Bandha are combined, prana enters the Sushumna nadi.
• Gheranda Samhita: the three bandhas are great secrets within the discipline of yoga. No classical text describes bandha as muscular contraction.
PRACTICAL INTEGRATION:
• Instead of squeezing or clenching, try counter-activation cues. Can you bend and straighten the knee simultaneously? That meeting point of opposing forces is bandha.
• For hypermobile practitioners: co-activating muscles around joints creates stability that passive flexibility alone cannot.
• In daily life: awareness of where your energy is going makes boundaries less effortful. Containment is not force. It is awareness.
• Stay in Tadasana after each pose and feel the energetic effect.
Reflection: What changes when you allow strength to organise itself from within?
SHARE & CONNECT
Thank 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.yoga
Website: OmSom.yoga
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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