Episode 104: Creating Spiritual Friendship

Friendship is that virtue by which spirits are bound by ties of love and sweetness and out of many are made one.

St Aelred, Spiritual Friendship

St Aelred, a twelfth Century English monk, offers us extraordinary teachings on creating spiritual friendship. Alakananda Ma has journeyed with these teachings since discovering them fifty years ago, and shares her unique insights.

Learn how you can create spiritual friendship with a four-step process of choosing, testing, accepting and perfecting friendship.

Spiritual Friendship

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Episode 105: Friendship in the age of AI

So-called artificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean. Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate language, behavior and analytical skills, or even simulate empathy and understanding, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom.

Pope Leo XIV Magnifica Humanitas

Let’s take a look at the Pope’s encyclical on AI in the context of our series on friendship.

  • How social media has changed the definition of friendship

  • AI not truly neutral

  • Tech bro ideology and human dignity

  • Transhumanism and Posthumanism

  • Artificial friendship

  • Blake and God the human race

Friendship in the Age of AI

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave us a 5 star review, and share it with a friend. For more enlightening discussions and practical wisdom on Ayurveda and spirituality, subscribe and join our facebook group, Alandi Ayurveda. To allow us to continue sharing valuable content, consider donating to Alandi Ashram. Until next time, may you walk the path of Ayurveda with grace and embrace the light of spiritual wisdom in your journey.

Episode 103: Brihadaranyaka Upanishad Part 1: The creation of the world from the Self

In the beginning, this (universe) was but the self of a human form. He reflected and found nothing else but himself. He first uttered, ‘I am he.’ Therefore he was called aham. Hence, to this day, when a person is addressed, he first says, ‘It is I,’ and then says the other name that he may have. Because before all this he burnt all evils, therefore he is called puruṣa—the Person.

Brihadaranayaka Upanishad Ch1 Fourth Brahmana

Our journey through the Upanishads has brought us to the magnificent Brihadaranayaka Upanishad, the Great Forest Teaching.

Today, we’ll learn about the creation of the world from the self and unpack the mahavakya or Great Saying, aham brahmasmi.

Brihadaranyaka 1 4 Aham Brahmasmi

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave us a 5 star review, and share it with a friend. For more enlightening discussions and practical wisdom on Ayurveda and spirituality, subscribe and join our facebook group, Alandi Ayurveda. To allow us to continue sharing valuable content, consider donating to Alandi Ashram. Until next time, may you walk the path of Ayurveda with grace and embrace the light of spiritual wisdom in your journey.

Episode 102: Aging Well with Ayurveda

All of us want to live a long life, but the longevity we picture for ourselves is one of robust health, vitality and continued independence. We do not picture ourselves languishing in a nursing home or needing help for the most basic activities of daily living. Yet 15% of adults over sixty-five (not counting nursing home residents) do suffer from frailty syndrome, rising to 33% and beyond in the over eighties. Worse still, 45% of elders are pre-frail and experience difficulty in carrying out activities of daily living.  What is frailty and how do we avoid it? How can we stay strong and avoid the ravages of old age?

Discover:

  • How to prevent frailty

  • How to reverse frailty

  • How to support a frail elder

  • Living well as an active elder

  • A five point plan for frailty prevention

  • How to make the most of your golden years

Ageing Well with Ayurveda

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave us a 5 star review, and share it with a friend. For more enlightening discussions and practical wisdom on Ayurveda and spirituality, subscribe and join our facebook group, Alandi Ayurveda. To allow us to continue sharing valuable content, consider donating to Alandi Ashram. Until next time, may you walk the path of Ayurveda with grace and embrace the light of spiritual wisdom in your journey.

Episode 101: Making Friends with Yourself

“The best way to invite friendship is to become your own best friend.”

Learn how to befriend your own mind and overcome self-hatred using simple and effective methods.

  • The breath—your dearest friend

  • Befriending your own mind

  • Loving-kindness for yourself

  • Self-empathy

Making Friends with Yourself

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave us a 5 star review, and share it with a friend. For more enlightening discussions and practical wisdom on Ayurveda and spirituality, subscribe and join our facebook group, Alandi Ayurveda. To allow us to continue sharing valuable content, consider donating to Alandi Ashram. Until next time, may you walk the path of Ayurveda with grace and embrace the light of spiritual wisdom in your journey.

Episode 100: Humus Wars: Fighting Cultural Erasure with Food

“During the process of ethnic cleansing and genocide, destruction of foodways is an important feature. We may think of the slaughter of the bison that formed a key aspect of the genocide of Native Americans, as well as the uprooting of olive trees in occupied Palestine.

Let’s look at cultural erasure by assimilation  and cultural appropriation through the lens of humus—or should we say, humus bi tahina.”

Growing up in a small town in England in the 50s, and then in a provincial town in the 60s, I was mainly familiar with a standard working class British diet, the foods my mother’s ancestors cooked-- Yorkshire pudding, apple crumble, rhubarb pie and so on. But our table included foods not eaten in other households in Melton Mowbray—matzoh, challa, sesame halvah and latkes, foods my father introduced. And at Granny’s house we enjoyed kosher dill pickles, pickled herring, matzoh ball soup and kugel. Granny prepared an array of Eastern European Jewish foods—none of which included humus.

Through the lens of humus, discover how you can use your own kitchen to fight cultural erasure with food.

HumusWars

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave us a 5 star review, and share it with a friend. For more enlightening discussions and practical wisdom on Ayurveda and spirituality, subscribe and join our facebook group, Alandi Ayurveda. To allow us to continue sharing valuable content, consider donating to Alandi Ashram. Until next time, may you walk the path of Ayurveda with grace and embrace the light of spiritual wisdom in your journey.

Episode 99: Chandogya Upanishad Chapter 8: Indra and Vairochana Apprentice with Prajapati

Prajapati once said: ‘The Self is free from sin, free from old age, free from death, free from sorrow, and free from hunger and thirst. It is the cause of desire for Truth and for commitment to Truth. This Self has to be sought for and thoroughly known. The person who has sought for and known the Self attains all worlds and all desires’.

Both the gods and the demons came to know from people what Prajāpati had said. They said, ‘We shall search for that Self, by knowing which we can attain all the worlds and whatever things we desire.’ With this object in view, Indra among the gods and Virocana among the demons went to Prajāpati, carrying fuel in their hands.

Chandogya Upanishad

What happens when the king of the gods and the king of the demons meet up at the hermitage of Prajāpati, the Great-Grandfather? This fascinating story is the grand finale of our journey through Chandogya Upanishad. Fasten your seatbelt for takeoff!

Chandogya Upanishad 5 Indra

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave us a 5 star review, and share it with a friend. For more enlightening discussions and practical wisdom on Ayurveda and spirituality, subscribe and join our facebook group, Alandi Ayurveda. To allow us to continue sharing valuable content, consider donating to Alandi Ashram. Until next time, may you walk the path of Ayurveda with grace and embrace the light of spiritual wisdom in your journey.

Episode 98: The Vedic View of Gambling

I make a resolve that I will not go gaming.

So my friends depart and leave me behind.

But as soon as the brown nuts are rattled and thrown,

to meet them I run, like an amorous girl.

Rig Veda, Dyuta Sukta, tr. HH Wilson

Gambling is a hot topic in Colorado, with two bills coming before the State Senate to limit internet gaming, yet compulsive gambling is an age-old problem.

  • What are the symptoms of Gambling Disorder?

  • What is the Vedic view of gambling?

  • How did gambling contribute to a world-ending cataclysm?

  • How can Ayurveda help with recovery from Gambling Disorder?

The Vedic View of Gambling

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave us a 5 star review, and share it with a friend. For more enlightening discussions and practical wisdom on Ayurveda and spirituality, subscribe and join our facebook group, Alandi Ayurveda. To allow us to continue sharing valuable content, consider donating to Alandi Ashram. Until next time, may you walk the path of Ayurveda with grace and embrace the light of spiritual wisdom in your journey.

Episode 97: Palantir, Epstein and the Dark Enlightenment

Trump’s Gaza fantasy fuses necropolitics with venture capital. Flatten a place, declare it “free,” and auction it to the highest bidder. This is the Network State in its most ghoulish incarnation: a tech-fascist casino built atop genocide and displacement.

Gil Duran in Tech Policy Press

What is Palantir? Why is it dangerous? Who is Peter Theil, Palantir’s billionaire co-founder?

Learn about:

Palantir

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave us a 5 star review, and share it with a friend. For more enlightening discussions and practical wisdom on Ayurveda and spirituality, subscribe and join our facebook group, Alandi Ayurveda. To allow us to continue sharing valuable content, consider donating to Alandi Ashram. Until next time, may you walk the path of Ayurveda with grace and embrace the light of spiritual wisdom in your journey.

Episode 96: Stages of Grief

Out of the fullness of thy heart invite sorrow, and the joy thereof shall be in abundance. Sorrow shall bring forth love eternal, sorrow shall unfold the weaving of Life, sorrow shall give the strength of loneliness, sorrow shall open the closed doors of thy heart, sorrow shall conquer the spaces of eternity.

J Krishnamurti

Whether you are experiencing grief yourself or wanting to know how to support a friend or a client who is dealing with grief, this talk will help to guide you. Learn about the original Kubler Ross Stages of Grief as well as a newer and expanded model as you hear Alakananda Ma’s unique reflections on love and loss.

Stages of Grief

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave us a 5 star review, and share it with a friend. For more enlightening discussions and practical wisdom on Ayurveda and spirituality, subscribe and join our facebook group, Alandi Ayurveda. To allow us to continue sharing valuable content, consider donating to Alandi Ashram. Until next time, may you walk the path of Ayurveda with grace and embrace the light of spiritual wisdom in your journey.

Episode 95: Chandogya Upanishad Chapter 8: The Space in the Heart

Om. This body is the city of brahman, Within it is an abode in the shape of a lotus, the heart, and within that there is a small space. One must search within this space and earnestly desire to know what is there.

Chandogya Upanishad 8, 1

Explore the ultimate mysticism in this section of Chandogya Upanishad, as Alakananda Ma unfolds the teachings on the nature of the Self and the space in the heart.

Chandogya Upanishad 4 Ch 8 Space in heart

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave us a 5 star review, and share it with a friend. For more enlightening discussions and practical wisdom on Ayurveda and spirituality, subscribe and join our facebook group, Alandi Ayurveda. To allow us to continue sharing valuable content, consider donating to Alandi Ashram. Until next time, may you walk the path of Ayurveda with grace and embrace the light of spiritual wisdom in your journey.

Episode 94: What is Panchakarma?

What is panchakarma? Learn about:

  •      Ayurveda—more than wellness

  •     Pacification and purification

  •   What is pacification?

  •    What is purification?

  •    If you book an abhyanga or shirodhara at a spa, is it panchakarma?

  •    If an Ayurvedic practitioner tells you to get an abhyanga or shirodhara, is it panchakarma?

  •     Purvakarma and panchakarma

  • How panchakarma works

  • How we can help you meet your health goals

What is Panchakarma

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave us a 5 star review, and share it with a friend. For more enlightening discussions and practical wisdom on Ayurveda and spirituality, subscribe and join our facebook group, Alandi Ayurveda. To allow us to continue sharing valuable content, consider donating to Alandi Ashram. Until next time, may you walk the path of Ayurveda with grace and embrace the light of spiritual wisdom in your journey.

Episode 93: Unmasking the Board of peace

“The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation. These contradictions are not accidental, nor do they result from ordinary hypocrisy: they are deliberate exercises in doublethink”

George Orwell Nineteen Eighty-Four

  • Is the Board of Peace a properly-constituted Board?

  • Does it have the right to oversee the United Nations?

  • What are the ways it violates the UN charter?

  • Who does it benefit?

  • Does it even exist as an entity?

Join Alakananda Ma as she examines the human rights implications of Trump’s Board of Peace and the ways it may affect all of us.

Unmasking the Board of Peace

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave us a 5 star review, and share it with a friend. For more enlightening discussions and practical wisdom on Ayurveda and spirituality, subscribe and join our facebook group, Alandi Ayurveda. To allow us to continue sharing valuable content, consider donating to Alandi Ashram. Until next time, may you walk the path of Ayurveda with grace and embrace the light of spiritual wisdom in your journey.

Episode 92: Bringing on Armageddon

This past week, members of the military reported being told by commanders that Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.”

Let’s look together at what the beliefs are that underpin statements such as this. We’ll uncover

  • End times beliefs

  • Christian Zionism

  • Dispensationalism

  • What is meant by Armageddon

  • What is the Armageddon lobby

  • How these beliefs impact politics

  • A positive vision we can offer as a counterbalance

Bringing on Armageddon

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave us a 5 star review, and share it with a friend. For more enlightening discussions and practical wisdom on Ayurveda and spirituality, subscribe and join our facebook group, Alandi Ayurveda. To allow us to continue sharing valuable content, consider donating to Alandi Ashram. Until next time, may you walk the path of Ayurveda with grace and embrace the light of spiritual wisdom in your journey.

Episode 91: Chandogya Upanishad Chapter 7

True, I have learnt much, but I know only the word meaning. I do not know the Self. Sir, I have heard from great persons like you that only those who know the Self are able to overcome sorrow. I am suffering from sorrow. Please take me across the ocean of sorrow.’ Sanatkumāra then said to Nārada, ‘Everything you have learnt so far is just words’.

Chandogya Upanishad

Narada Muni was the Renaissance Man of his age. He knew all that was to be known. Yet he is well aware that all his knowledge is nothing but words. What happens when he comes, in all innocence, to the great sage Sanatkumāra?

Layer upon layer, Sanakumāra leads Narada to the ultimate truth. Follow Narada Muni on this greatest of all journeys.

Chandogya Upanishad 3 on Ch 7

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave us a 5 star review, and share it with a friend. For more enlightening discussions and practical wisdom on Ayurveda and spirituality, subscribe and join our facebook group, Alandi Ayurveda. To allow us to continue sharing valuable content, consider donating to Alandi Ashram. Until next time, may you walk the path of Ayurveda with grace and embrace the light of spiritual wisdom in your journey.

Episode 90: Ayurveda for Arthritis

Learn about rheumatoid arthritis, gout and osteoarthritis.

  • How does Ayurveda see arthritis?

  • How does the Ayurvedic approach contrast with that of Western Medicine?

    How can Ayurveda help you with your arthritis?

Ayurveda for Arthritis

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave us a 5 star review, and share it with a friend. For more enlightening discussions and practical wisdom on Ayurveda and spirituality, subscribe and join our facebook group, Alandi Ayurveda. To allow us to continue sharing valuable content, consider donating to Alandi Ashram. Until next time, may you walk the path of Ayurveda with grace and embrace the light of spiritual wisdom in your journey.

Episode 89: Spiritual Guidance in the Age of Aquarius

How has the spiritual teacher expressed during the last two thousand years? What is the new face of the spiritual guide in the emerging paradigm?

  • How has spiritual guidance evolved down the ages?

  • How can you recognize a sadguru?

  • What about false gurus?

  • How will spiritual guidance look in the age of liberty, equality and fraternity

Spritual Guidance in the Age of Aquarius

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave us a 5 star review, and share it with a friend. For more enlightening discussions and practical wisdom on Ayurveda and spirituality, subscribe and join our facebook group, Alandi Ayurveda. To allow us to continue sharing valuable content, consider donating to Alandi Ashram. Until next time, may you walk the path of Ayurveda with grace and embrace the light of spiritual wisdom in your journey.

Episode 88: The Epstein Files: From Horror to Hope

“Some of the key stories the Epstein files reveal are areas that have been my specialist interest for years. The Kremlin. Silicon Valley. MAGA and the European far right. Israeli intelligence. And there, slap bang in the middle of it is a man who I’d never wanted to pay any attention to, Jeffrey Epstein. Not only are they all connected. Epstein connects them.”

Carole Cadwalladr

  •  What are some of the key understandings we glean from the files?

  • What does the Four Ages paradigm teach us about exploitation and abuse of women and children?

  • How can we, the people, bring hope out of horror? 

Action item—how you can help.

After I recorded the podcast I listened to an interview with investigative reporter Julie K Brown, whose reporting back in 2018 led to Epstein’s arrest. Brown is poring through the Epstein files and finding new information about how prosecutors failed to bring Epstein to justice for so many years.  She is documenting what she finds in her substack newsletter, The Epstein Files by Julie K. Brown. The justice system failed Epstein’s victims.

She says, “Epstein was still preying on young girls in 2018. That means he was doing this a decade after he was sent to jail in 2008 as part of the sweetheart deal he was given by Florida federal prosecutors.” (from her substack).

She asks us to call our electeds daily to say that this issue can’t be pushed aside. We need all the files. We need the names of co-conspirators. Everyone involved needs to be brought to justice; those who committed the crimes and those who knew and kept the secret, such as the doctors who performed the abortions.

An easier way to read/search the Epstein Files https://jmail.world/taxonomy .

The Epstein Files from Horror to Hope

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave us a 5 star review, and share it with a friend. For more enlightening discussions and practical wisdom on Ayurveda and spirituality, subscribe and join our facebook group, Alandi Ayurveda. To allow us to continue sharing valuable content, consider donating to Alandi Ashram. Until next time, may you walk the path of Ayurveda with grace and embrace the light of spiritual wisdom in your journey.

Episode 87: Honouring Time: Rituals for Life

“One purpose of creative ritual was to experience the connection to “the other” as well as a deeper connection to oneself. That’s why ancient people would say: that ritual made me more aware of how I’m connected to life, to the earth, to the spirits, to the song of creation, and made me more aware of who I am inside, at the level of my own being. What we’ve lost is partly the sense that we are each connected to the whole thing, that each human soul is secretly connected to the living soul of the world.” -Michael Meade

We have created a secular world where time is money and money is time. Yet not all times are equal. Learn how to find connection with life by creating rituals to honour:

  • Sacred moments of each day

  • Special times of year

  • Life cycle events

Honouring Time Rituals for Life

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave us a 5 star review, and share it with a friend. For more enlightening discussions and practical wisdom on Ayurveda and spirituality, subscribe and join our facebook group, Alandi Ayurveda. To allow us to continue sharing valuable content, consider donating to Alandi Ashram. Until next time, may you walk the path of Ayurveda with grace and embrace the light of spiritual wisdom in your journey.

Episode 86: Creating a Healing Space

"Within you, there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself." - Hermann Hesse

For thirty years, Alandi Ashram’s Healing Room has been a place of peace and healing, bringing comfort and upliftment to those who attend the clinic. Learn how to create your own healing sanctuary just as Alakananda Ma and Sadananda created the Healing Room.

Creating a Healing Space

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave us a 5 star review, and share it with a friend. For more enlightening discussions and practical wisdom on Ayurveda and spirituality, subscribe and join our facebook group, Alandi Ayurveda. To allow us to continue sharing valuable content, consider donating to Alandi Ashram. Until next time, may you walk the path of Ayurveda with grace and embrace the light of spiritual wisdom in your journey.