Episode 81: Every Child is the Prince of Pea

“Once you get to be 74, and your potential remaining years are just in the teens, children and young people seem even more important, for you are handing the world over to them. You are exiting the stage and they are entering. They need a chance to play their part; to be the Prince or Princess of Peace in their own way.

In 1959, when I myself was just a little child, bearing the future of the world in my small hands, the nations of the world chose to declare that children have certain inalienable rights.

Whereas the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth…”

  • What are the ten key points in the Declaration of the Rights of the Child?

  • Who is responsible for upholdng them? (Hint—YOU!)

  • How can you fulfill your responsibility to this Declaration?

  • What are the hard questions you need to ask 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 80: Making Peace with our Aspirations

When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation. When I found I couldn't change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn't change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family. Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.

Rabbi Yisrael Salanter

Enlightenment in the Age of the Compassionate Mother.  As our focus changes from perfection to wholeness, how do our aspirations and view of enlightenment develop?

Ma talks about:

  • What attainment is not

  • How to avoid spiritual materialism

  • Why we should not give up

  • What are the tools for humble awakening

  • What is the Little Way

  • How to practice Abandonment to Divine Providence

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 79: Ayurveda for Depression

“Of the hundreds of people who attend my Ayurvedic clinic in Colorado each year complaining of chronic illness, at least half mention recurrent or longstanding depression as a major symptom. Even of those who do not complain of depression, Ayurvedic pulse diagnosis frequently reveals a vitiated sadhak pitta (the fiery humor of the brain and heart), indicating that low-grade depression is present.” Alakananda Ma

Do you feel depressed? Do dark clouds obscure your innate happiness? Learn about vata, pitta and kapha types of depression, when to seek help and how to support yourself with tailored self-care practices.

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 78: Taking Care of Yourself as a Healer

Alakananda Ma has been a healer since the day in 1973 when she walked onto the ward in her white coat, badge and stethoscope as a twenty one year old clinical student.

Today she shares the tips and strategies she has developed over the last half century to care for herself as a healer and empath.

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 77: Chandogya Upanishad Part 1

O Śvetaketu, you have now become very serious and vain, and you think you are a great scholar. But did you ask your teacher for that teaching which what is never heard becomes heard, what is never thought of becomes thought of, what is never known becomes known?

Chandogya Upanishad Ch 6

Just in case you, like poor Śvetaketu, don’t yet know this teaching, join Alakananda Ma as we begin a deep dive into Chandogya Upanishad and learn the mysteries of the One without a second.

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 76: Truth, Lies and Disinformation

“We know that they are lying, they know that they are lying, they even know that we know they are lying, we also know that they know we know they are lying too, they of course know that we certainly know they know we know they are lying too as well, but they are still lying. In our country, the lie has become not just moral category, but the pillar industry of this country.”

― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

"What is truth?" said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer. “

Bacon, Essay on Truth

  • What is the Post-Truth Era?

  • What is the difference between misinformation and disinformation?

  • How can we live lives of satya in a post-truth world?

    Join Alakananda Ma in satsang as she discusses these vital issues.

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 75: How AI Impoverishes Us

“Mind has two aspects, manas, the measuring mind and buddhi, the intellect. AI is all manas. True intelligence is buddhi.”

Let’s think about how AI impoverishes us in terms of:

  • Our brain’s connectivity

  • Our educational development

  • Our environment

  • Our social connections

  • Our understanding of what intelligence is

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 74: The Spectrum of healing

“Medicine is not only a science; it is also an art. It does not consist of compounding pills and plasters; it deals with the very processes of life, which must be understood before they may be guided.” Paracelsus

What is the spectrum of healing and where does Ayurveda fit into it? Discover Alakananda Ma’s unique perspective on this fascinating topic.

  • Reductionistic to holistic

  • Mechanistic to bioenergetic

  • Individual to systems approach

  • Pathology versus person

  • Disempowerment versus empowerment

    and much more

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 73: Taittirīrya Upanishad Part 3

From bliss all beings come, by bliss they live, and unto bliss they all return.

Taittirīrya Upanishad

Alakananda Ma first read these astonishing words from Taittirīrya Upanishad back in 1980, during her first months in India. She has been contemplating the Bhrigu Valli section of this Upanishad ever since. Journey with her as she discusses the famous third book of Taittirīrya Upanishad.

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 72: Fundamentals of Peace- Reconciling warring religious traditions

“We stand at the threshold of Aquarius, an age whose highest potential is to manifest as the Age of Spirit and Truth. Yet we also stand in the long dark shadow of Pisces.  We see a reawakening of fundamentalism and duality and the belief that my watch alone tells the correct time.”

In a time of renewed crusades and militant fundamentalism, there is no topic more crucial than this- how to reconcile faith traditions currently at loggerheads.

You will learn:  

  • What is fundamentalism

  • Key aspects of Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Hindu fundamentalism

  • What is Christian Zionism

  • How oppression and colonialism contributes to militant Fundamentalism

  • Are the crusades returning?

  • How can we bring reconciliation?

  • The Golden Rule in all religions

  • The story of St Francis and the Sultan

  • The role of mysticism in bringing peace and reconciliation

  • The need for the humble and broken heart

  • The true importance of dialogue

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 71: Making Peace with Tradition

“Creation, like a prism
Fragments the pure white light of Truth.
People in different lands
Catching sight of different colors
Have taught that ‘It is green’
Or ‘It is gold!’
Today, from the seeds of light
Scattered over the Earth
We reap a rainbow harvest.”

Alakananda Ma

Many of us today practice a tradition different from that of our own childhood, or have a life partner from a different religious or cultural background. In the New Paradigm, can you make peace with tradition?

How do you work within and beyond traditions?

Learn about:

  • The tension between tradition and revolution

  • How Krishna, Buddha, Jesus and St Francis navigated tradition and revolution

  • Cyclical and linear time

  • The two covenants

  • HinJews and JuBus

  • How contemporary spiritual teachers have related to tradition: including Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Lex Hixon, Ram Dass, Bede Griffiths and more

  • The interwoven path of the Tohono o'odham tribe

  •   The Alandi Way and the Rainbow Bridge

  • Growing up with no tradition

  • Raising your children with roots and branches

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 70: Taittirīrya Upanishad Part 2

Aum. The knower of Brahman reaches the Supreme. The one who knows Brahman as the real, as knowledge and as the infinite, placed in the secret place of the heart and in the highest heaven realizes all desires.

Taittirīrya Upanishad.

Follow the journey through the five koshas to the realization of the Supreme in this amazing text.

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 69: A Lifetime of Breast Health

“A woman's breasts are a key part of her experience of herself. More than just mammary glands, a woman's breasts are also a secondary sexual characteristic, contributing to her beauty, attractiveness and self-esteem as well as to her sexual arousal. Yet with close to a quarter of a million new cases of breast cancer being diagnosed in America annually, a woman's breasts may also be perceived as a source of threat.”

Learn how to take care of your and your daughter’s breast health, from early childhood to the post-menopausal years

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 68: Sustenance Beyond the Supermarket

Today we’ll look at ways to create community, connection, local resilience and a deeper relationship to food sources by going beyond the supermarket.

How can you use the three Swahili priciples, umoja, ujima and ujamaa, to find new ways of relating to the food that sustains you?

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 67: Finding Peace in a Troubled World

   “Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we must be saved by love.” Reinhold Niebuhr

When war, violence, pollution and climate change threaten the tranquility of our lives, is there a way to live as beacons of peace in tumultuous times?

Learn how to use the Zen Peacemaker process to live in peace despite all that is going on. Alakananda Ma shares how she uses this as a daily practice.

  • Not Knowing

  • Bearing Witness

  • Taking action

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 66: Chronic Illness Burnout

   Burnout is a state of emotional, mental, and often physical exhaustion brought on by prolonged or repeated stress. Usually applied to work, it has been broadened to include other forms of stress. Chronic illness is extremely stressful as we try to meet the demands of everyday life and also manage  our condition.

Chronic illness burnout also affects those caring for people living with chronic or terminal illness.

Learn the warning signs of chronic illness burnout nd how it can affect your life.

Discover holistic ways to manage it.

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 65: Taittiriya Upanishad Part 1

Here, in this bright space within the heart, is He, that Purusha, that Person, who is formed of thought, undying, full of light. ‘Om’ is Brahman. ‘Om’ is this all.

Taittiriya Upanishad

Join Alakananda Ma as she delves into the mysteries of Taittiriya Upanishad. We will explore the sacred utterances, the Vayuhrutis, and glimpse the space within the heart where Purusha, the supreme Person dwells.

  The brahman who is said to be so remote is here seen as so close to us. Brahman dwells in the heart.

The study and teaching of the sacred syllable is the most important of all duties.

Discover the proclamation “I am the shining treasure, wise, immortal, indestructible.”

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 64: Forever Fascism? Lessons from the novel Swastika Night

“They wanted to forget that there ever had been, in Europe, any other civilization at all. There was so much beauty they had not made, so many books they had not written, so many records of wars in which they had not fought, and so many ideas of human behavior which were anathema to them.” Katharine Burdekin, Swastika Night

Set in a stagnant male-dominated Fascist Empire seven hundred years into a dystopian future, Burdekin’s Swastika Night offers many insights into our world today. Women have undergone the Reduction and no longer live with men, they are mere soulless breeding stock kept in caged complexes.

Is a dystopian vision of a post-Enlightenment, post-history, anti-science, anti-reason, feudal world relevant to today and to what we see happening around us? Join Alakananda Ma as she shares the insights she has gleaned from ‘the greatest novel I had never heard of.’

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 63: Stories of Raghudas

“There are may siddhis that the yogis cultivate, but there is only one siddhi worth having—the power to take whatever comes.”

At this season, on the festival of Rishi Panchami, we honour the Mahasamadhi of Raghudas, the day he departed his body and became available to all of us from the spiritual worlds. Let’s take a few minutes to relish some stories of Raghudas, Alandi’s guru, as told by Sadananda.

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 62: Getting off Benzodiazepines

Once presented as near-miraculous tranquilizers that were completely non-habituating and free of side effects, benzodiazepines have become a tenacious burden for many, who stuggle to do well on or off these medications.

Now, new guidance has been released for getting off benzodiazepines.

Let’s take a look at what benzodiazepines are, why you should get off them, what the related ‘z-drugs’ are, why getting off benzodiazepines can be difficult and dangerous, and what the most important tips and hacks are to get your life back after using this prescription.

Please share this podcast widely to help all the people caught in the benzodiazepine trap.

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.