Podcasts on Life

The explanation which I am presenting here is the most basic and fundamental to the Advaita philosophy. It strips of all embellishments and modern explanations and presents the idea in its purest form as envisaged by the early proponents of the philosophy, the true masters and sages who composed the Upanishads and transcribed the Vedas as they heard them in their deepest silence. Listen to this podcast to know what it is and why th...

Ancient Indians were pioneers in the study of human consciousness. As early as 1000 BCE, they developed several contemplative and mindfulness techniques to study consciousness and understand its powers and potentials to improve one’s life, knowledge and intelligence or manifest one’s desires or open communication channels with gods and supernatural beings or resolve human suffering. They tried to harness the power of the mind to ma...

In this podcast, I tried to present a broader definition of consciousness as a partly automated and partly self-learning knowledge or information system, considering its states, functions, potencies and abilities. I defined consciousness as a knowledge system with an inborn ability, awareness and intelligence to collect knowledge or information or data from different sources, store it, retrieve it and use it for specific ends or pu...

The Hindu caste system probably came into existence around 3500 years ago due to various factors. It brought together people from diverse backgrounds under a social contract to live together and ensure order and regularity of society and polity. Somehow the system was accepted as a workable solution to ensure peaceful coexistence of diverse groups to live together and share social and economic privileges as dictated by their faith....

Sannyasa is the most extreme solution to free yourself from the world and its influence. In many spiritual traditions of India, the acceptable and effective way to achieve the ultimate freedom is renunciation. In renunciation you become detached not only from the world but from everything including your own built-in identity and value system. You give up the world, all your accumulations, mental formations, identities and relations...

The idea that you are the universe, not the mind and body or the ego complex, is what we consider oneness or nondualism or Advaita. It is what we mean by kaivalya or aloneness. A kevalin sees himself only amidst the dualities of life. He sees the world or the universe or the entire objective reality as an extension or projection of his consciousness. It is where you see nartaka atma, the Self acting as the master of the dance and t...

One of the purposes of any yoga is to suppress the modifications of the mind, so that a yogi can experience peace and abide in his true nature or essential nature (svarupa avastha). Now, you may wonder what essential nature means and how anyone can abide in it. Words can be confusing, especially when their meaning can be interpreted differently by different people. We are not going to discuss here metaphysical or abstract notions o...

If I tell you that so and so is the true purpose of yoga, or give you a specific answer, then I am minimizing the importance of yoga itself or limiting its scope and purpose. With that answer I may also be deciding or dictating what is important for you or others, whereas that decision should entirely be yours only according to your essential nature and spiritual or material needs. Everyone’s circums...

Maha Shivaratri is a well known Hindu festival. Millions of devotees worship Shiva on this auspicious day. After fasting for the day until midnight and worshipping him variously, they also keep a night vigil. There is a hidden spiritual significance of the festival, which is not known to many. It is explained briefly by Jayaram in this short podcast. 

Both Hinduism and Buddhism originated in India. With a long shared-history of at least 2500 years, they have many similarities and differences. Both are also complex. In this we focus upon a few important differences between them.

1. Buddhism is an organized religion with a well-formed Sangha or the brotherhood of monks. Hinduism is not that well organized. It is a collection of numerous traditions that originated in India in the...