Wise Words

In our pursuit of happiness are we chasing the wrong thing? It takes a very self controlled person, amidst a huge herd of people running. The self-controlled person can stop, pause and think and even go in the opposite way. Ask yourself do you have the...

Stop, Pause and Think.

Feverishly adjusting our material circumstances in order to maximize our happiness is a futile endeavor. Karma implies that we can change our circumstances but not the quota of happiness and distress due us from our previous activities. Real progress can begin when we understand this preliminary yoga principle.

Is Shifting Your Burden From One Shoulder to the Other Progress?

The yoga texts explain that because human beings have developed consciousness they are liable for their reactions. Karma means action and for every action there's a reaction. If one doesn't know all the laws of karma is one liable to the reactions?

Does Karma Effect Me Even If I Don't Know About It?

One great secret in life is understanding the enormous role that our desires play. Our desires are the key driving principle that push us onward, more often than not to somewhere we don't actually desire to be. Uncontrolled desire forces us to want things that we don't actually need. Learning how to handle the fire of material desire gives us greater control over our life and can bring about the brightest future.


The Great Secret - How to Handle the Fire of Desire

From what we hear, we develop stories. Those stories form our worldview, our self perceptions and our future. Hear how sound has the potency to uplift our consciousness to the highest possibilities and also to reinforce our misconceptions and deepen our ignorance. The progressive person is aware of all this and thus chooses to expose themselves to sound vibration that enlightens and enlivens the self. 

The Subtle but Deep Conditioning Role That Sound Plays in Our Lives

Our agenda to control and enjoy matter is not an innocent one. It has consequences. It robs us of peace. It contributes to strife, both individually and collectively. Through yoga knowledge and practice, we can relinquish this agenda, and revive our genuine blissful mission in life.

The Agenda Behind The Mask - The Agenda That Destroys Peace

We like to think of ourselves as connoisseurs of pleasure. But the bhakti-yoga texts will help revise our conceptions. They will point us toward a realm of satisfaction that is not destroyed by time. They will also give us the technology to access this realm. Applying this technology, we gradually revive our non-material identity: a revival that reconnects us to the ultimate pleasure of participating in flawless loving relationships.   

Become A Real Pleasure Lover

There is nothing innocent about sound. Sound can introduce you to reality or sound can keep you trapped in the matrix of illusion. Your destiny is determined by the sound vibrations that you surround yourself with. Examine that sound and ask: are they reinforcing your attachment to the impermanent or are they reawakening your true spiritual potential?

You Become What You Hear

In material life, cheap thrills abound. We often settle for sub-standard happiness because, hey what else is there? If we are serious about enjoyment we need to make the most of our potential for higher consciousness by developing our spiritual knowledge and questioning the status quo. Real love brings real happiness and real love is based on real knowledge.

Standard Of True Happiness

Let's face it. Trying to seek satisfaction in material form, activity and personality we have been bitterly disappointed, even traumatized. Based on our limited experience, we consequently speculate that all form, activity and personality must be material. The yoga texts educate us out of this fatal speculation. 

A Fatal Speculation

Those who don't study history are condemned to repeat it. What is our history? By studying the pure knowledge of Bhagavad Gita we come to understand that our history does not begin with this body and end with this body but spans over countless lifetimes doing the same old thing, each time. It's a cycle that lacks the substance to satisfy the self and thus is history that shouldn't be repeated. With sublime knowledge we can learn the art how to spring beyond to the ever fresh and exciting world of Bhakti Yoga, which puts an end to our material history.

History that shouldn't be repeated

A recording of a presentation given at Penn State University March 2016. Lets take stock of our hopes, our dreams and our desires and the price we are willing to pay to try and fulfil them... but will they fulfil us?

My Hopes My Dreams My Desires

Unearth - Spiritual Solutions For Sustainability

Work, relationships, entertainment, more work...in the midst of frantically trying to get your fill of fun and fulfillment, that rare person will ask: What is the real purpose of human life? 

Diving deep into the essence of existence and asking the big questions is no easy thing. It requires courage and commitment. But as the bhakti-yoga texts will tell you, human beings are meant to live deep, they are meant to embark upon the quest for ultimate enlightenment. In doing so, they can truly help themselves and the whole of society.

Who wants to dive deep?

How we can respond to the environmental disaster that we humans have and are creating. The ancient yoga texts, in particular the Bhagavad Gita gives a lot of insight into the root of these problems and the most effective way to address them - starting with our own consciousness. This is a talk given at Yale University.

Yale University, New York, USA

Making a difference in the world

What makes us so confident that our present civilization is the pinnacle of human progress? Could we be completely missing the point in a very complicated, intricate and neurotic way? The yoga texts give us a completely different vision of human civilization and its goals. The Krishna texts, in particular, present the pinnacle of yoga: the yoga of the love Supreme, the perfect and ultimate complete connection between the part and the whole.

Are we missing the point in a most complicated way?

The Cage Of Karma

This is a full length talk from Devamrita Swami. He speaks on the topic of how we can live in a more harmonious way with nature and all living beings, based on a verse from the Srimad Bhagavatam - the ancient vedic knowledge in encyclopaedic form. The talk was presented in Los Angeles, 29th June 2018.

Las Angeles, USA

Revitalizing a True Human Civilization

Workshop with Devamrita Swami at the Bhakti Lounge Wellington on 23rd June 2019. There are many different metaphors we can apply to life and here we learn how we can be progressive by developing the qualities of a tree!

Bhakti Lounge, Wellington, New Zealand

Longing For A Purpose-Build LIfestyle: Alone In The Universe? - Part 2

Presentation by Devamrita Swami at the Bhakti Lounge Soul Feast 7th July 2019. We can be very calculating about who is our friend and who is our enemy. Here you'll learn more about your mind, how when tamed it can be your best friend, but when untamed is like an enemy within.