Archive Items
The Swami Maheshananda Archive is a growing collection of Swamiji’s talks, teachings and writings. Also contained here are recordings of mantras practised and taught by Swamiji and Angelika, along with images contributed by their students and friends.
We welcome new contributions: please see About This Site for information about how you can help grow the archive.
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Writing: The opening sūtra of the Yoga Sūtras
These three handwritten pages can be seen as a mind map of Swami Maheshananda’s thinking about the first sūtra, or aphorism, in the seminal yoga text, Pātañjali’s Yoga Sūtra. Like all the sūtras, for those that understand the text they can draw from each sentence layers of meaning, connections and practical reminders.
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“Connect with the guiding principle in a proper way…”
Swamiji would often refer to our inner and outer worlds; how yoga can support our exploration of our inner world, and how the possibility of durable happiness can come from this exploration.
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Talk: Netherlands, 2019. The purpose of a practice
This beautifully succinct discussion took place during lunch break at a weekend retreat. Although initially the talk is specific to the practice of fire ceremony, Swamiji expands the conversation to remind us that the understanding gained through the practice of fire ceremony is same as for all other yoga practices.
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Talk: Kaivalyadhama, 2019. Ego Defence Mechanism
Swamiji began as he often did with a slight lean forward, a dip of his chin and a long, “Sooooo…” and asked: “How do you play the game – by Feeling or Thinking? “
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“It is so simple…”
A reminder of the value of simplicity and how we often overcomplicate our lives to our own detriment.
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Talk: Kaivalyadhama, 2019. Regular. Occasional. Familiar.
From kindergarten to university, time is the training program for our Ego. Learn to work with time, rather than against it, to maintain peace of mind.
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Mantra: Fire Ceremony, Savitṛi Upāsanā 3/9
Part 3 in a series of 9 recordings of Angelika chanting the mantrās for fire ceremony.
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Talk: 2017. Just Sit Quietly.
The following comes from a series of phone calls with Swami Maheshananda about why people practice yoga, and how the reasoning behind their practice will provide them with different results.
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In Conversation: Master our desires by living consciously.
When we say that we have been born with sin, does it mean that we are born with the ability to distinguish good and bad, and at the same time with the capacity to be attracted and attached to things because of desire?
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Lecture 2/5. Netherlands, 2018.
The overarching theme for this retreat was understanding the Ego, and how to work with it to achieve lasting happiness. In this lecture Swamiji presents two main ideas: The Game of Obligation, and the Busy-ness of the “I”, as ways to help us see how our Ego is working within ourselves.