Interview With Swami Chidananda - Bhagavad Gita, Kriya Yoga

Spiritually Fit Yoga podcast interview with Swami Chidananda. Hear about his journey from Wall Street to life as a monk. He teaches us about the origins of the physical practice of yoga, the importance of the Bhagavad Gita, and an intro to Kriya Yoga and Vedic culture. He wraps up by sharing his three tips for staying spiritually fit: sadhana, seva, and sangha. Enjoy!

Transcript

Welcome.

It's Amelia and Deleon with the spiritual fit yoga podcast.

I want to tell you a little bit about our guest,

Swami Chirananda.

He is the Swami,

Our spiritual educator for the yoga retreat I've been talking about in Mexico in April,

April one to seven.

So let me read you a little bit about his bio.

Okay.

Swami Chirananda has spent the latter part of his life as an initiated Sanyasi,

A monk.

And over this time,

He has studied the science of yoga and gain deep insights into the hidden meanings and timeless practices that are particularly relevant in this day and age.

Before entering the spiritual path,

He was a successful investment banker and entrepreneur.

Now Swami Chirananda uses his experiences to easily articulate the ancient yoga systems in a meaningful way for those looking to bridge the gap between Western and Eastern philosophies.

So that's a little bit about him.

You'll find out more as I interview him and,

And ask him about how he came to be a monk from an investment banker to a monk.

You'll learn more about the Bhagavad Gita,

An introduction.

I asked him about Atma Kriya yoga and several other things that I find absolutely fascinating because I'm so interested in yoga philosophy and philosophy in general.

And those of you that are really interested in deepening your understanding of yoga,

I highly recommend this episode.

So listen in,

It's a real treat to have our guest Swami Chirananda with us today.

Reading your bio,

And I just shared the bio and introduced you to our listeners.

And I would love to hear you tell me or tell us a little bit more about how did you get from,

You know,

Being a Wall Street investment banker to where you are right now?

Sure,

Sure.

So when I was very little,

My mother moved to the States.

And so I grew up in the States,

And I wasn't so much connected to the Vedic culture.

And of course,

In the West,

We're more sort of programmed to have to make a lot of money to have the power to have the influence to have the nice house with the big lawn and the minivan and all of those things,

Right.

So in that's in that way,

That's also what I connected to and what my focus was on.

After graduating from university,

I was accepted to one of the biggest investment banks in the East Coast.

And I was working a lot in Wall Street and another financial hubs around the United States.

And I was making a lot of money at the time,

I was successful,

And everything was going well.

But there was a part of me that was reflecting on it.

And I realized,

You know,

There's a saying,

You can win the rat race.

But at the end of the day,

You're still a rat.

Right?

So you can you can get the biggest piece of cheese.

But at the same time,

Your qualities are not going to change,

You're still going to be that same rat chasing after another bigger piece of cheese.

And I reflected on that.

And I thought,

Is that really what I want my life to be about?

Is this chasing of material desires?

And in this reflection,

I came across a book called the autobiography of a yogi,

Which is a book written by a great saint named Paramahamsa Yogananda.

And when I read that book,

It really changed my entire perspective of life.

And I realized,

In reality,

It's not about chasing material happiness.

But it's about trying to live in divine love.

Right?

Because material happiness is limited,

In the sense that it comes and it goes.

And it's also unfulfilling.

Because no matter how much material happiness we get,

We always want more and more and more.

But when we connect to that divinity within us,

When we connect to that higher self,

In that space,

We are at,

For the first time in our life,

Content,

And joyful with what life has to offer.

And that was a shift in my understanding and perspective of how I can look at life.

So from that moment,

I decided to travel the world.

And in my travels,

I wanted to stop at India in India,

By the Himalayan mountains.

And it just so happened that I ended up being there for an event called the Kumbh Mela.

And this specific event is where you dip into the Ganga River.

And it's said it's supposed to remove a lot of your negativity,

And what we refer to as samskaras,

Patterns and qualities that our limited self holds on to.

And it's almost like a boost on your spiritual journey.

And it happens every 144 years.

And I just so happened to randomly coincidentally be there exactly at this moment.

And all of the great saints from around the world had descended into the space to take part in this event,

As it happens very,

Very rarely.

And it was the same event that Yogananda had spoken about in the autobiography of a yogi,

He had spoken about how his teacher had gone to this event.

And ironically,

I found myself at the same place.

And so in this event,

I ended up meeting my spiritual teacher named Parma Hamsa Swami Vishwananda.

And being around the presence of an enlightened being,

Being around the presence of somebody who lives a life of love,

It has a very deep effect on us.

Analogy that I would give is imagine you were in the night walking in the desert,

And it's cold,

And you see a fire burning.

And when you come to that fire,

That fire warms you,

Right?

It gives you comfort.

That's how it is.

When you're around that true spiritual teacher is you feel the warmness of the divine,

Which is very different from the coldness of the material world.

And so in that space,

I felt this immense amount of love.

And I'd asked him,

What do I do now?

Where do I go from here?

And he said,

Well,

Come and stay with me in my ashram.

And he has an ashram in Germany,

Near Frankfurt,

Germany.

I said,

Sure.

So directly from India,

I caught a flight and I went to Germany.

And in Germany,

I realized that I wanted to go deeper into this journey.

Because you know,

We always speak about this,

You don't have to be a monk,

To attain enlightenment to experience divine love.

It's one path.

And that's the beauty of the Vedic tradition.

It says the paths are many,

But the truth is one.

So for me,

There was a deep feeling that I want to explore the path of the monk,

Of the renunciate.

And so I decided to,

After just being there for three,

Four months,

Take initiation.

And I lived the life of a novice monk for many,

Many years,

Almost eight years with him,

I never went back to the United States,

I never met my friends or my family or anything.

The moment I left,

I never came back.

And then eight years later,

He told me,

Okay,

Go back to the United States now,

And start to speak about Vedic culture,

To teach people about this very beautiful path.

And so I came back.

And I started to live in New York City,

I started to teach.

And then slowly,

We created an ashram in Ithaca,

New York.

And so that's where I reside.

But I'm traveling many,

Many places,

Holding retreats and doing different talks.

But that's my place of residency at this particular moment.

That's the short reader's version.

Oh,

I love hearing that.

And I feel that warmth.

You know,

When I even before I met you,

You know,

I first learned about you on insight timer,

You know,

Listening to your tracks.

And I actually think that it was you or maybe somebody that was posting for you had shared your tracks about your Bhagavad Gita series and my spiritual fit yoga circle on insight timer and,

And I love it.

It's very,

Very easy to,

To listen to you.

It's very easy to they're short,

You'll keep them short,

You keep them very bite size.

And,

And it's something that I personally wanted to learn more about as a yoga teacher and as yoga students about the Bhagavad Gita.

And I find you to be such a powerful teacher,

Powerful and very warm,

Just like what you said,

I feel like I'm by the fire.

Talking to you whenever I hear your voice and being in your your presence right now in this interview.

So I appreciate that.

And,

And I have a connection to autobiography of a yogi through my cousin who was like my sister,

Who belongs to SRF Self Realization Fellowship down in Encinitas,

California.

And that was actually my first yoga class asana class I attended in a yoga studio was right next to the SRF fellowship there in Encinitas.

And both my husband and I,

We attended that first SRF service.

And we were both looking for a church because I was raised Catholic,

He was raised Episcopalian.

And as adults,

We weren't quite resonating with that anymore.

So we were looking for something else.

And as soon as we went in there,

Both of us were like,

Wow,

This is like something that we really feel.

And we've been kind of searching for something like that.

And I think that's why else I resonate with your teachings and the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita.

And I'm wanting to learn more about the Vedic culture and all of that.

And as a yoga teacher,

And as a podcast host,

Spiritually fit yoga,

My intention is to emphasize the spirituality aspect of yoga,

Because I feel like the Western culture,

As I as I was attracted to is focused on the physical,

You know,

Go to yoga to get like,

I don't know,

Whatever,

Whatever body part you emphasize.

You know,

That's what got me to yoga.

But I didn't really understand the origins,

You know,

So wanting to know and one thing I didn't hear from you is like,

Where were you actually raised and born?

You said you went back to India,

But were you born in India or raised in India?

Yes,

I was born in India,

I was born in the city of Mysore.

So my story said to be the origins of a lot of modern day asana practices.

And so yes,

I was born there and live there.

And then as a young child,

My mother moved to the United States and of course,

Accompanied there.

Yeah.

And then did you did you practice yoga when you were in Mysore as a child,

You or your family together?

Was that part of the culture?

Or?

No.

So you know,

If you were to look back at the history of yoga,

You see that the definition of yoga means union.

So the union between us and our higher self or our divine self,

Right?

Because if I were to ask you,

Who are you?

You would probably say you would give a name,

Right?

Amelia or whatever it might be.

And so I would say,

Are you the same person you were 10 years ago?

Probably not,

Right?

Are you the same person you'll be 10 years from now?

Probably not.

And so you're constantly changing.

So even though you are constantly changing,

There's something inside of you that is unchanging,

That is eternal.

And the reason for most of our suffering is because we always identify with a constantly changing version of ourselves.

And because of that,

We have fear and anxieties and insecurities and all of those things.

The moment you realize your eternal self,

All of those things go away.

So that's the point of yoga is to realize our eternal self.

And if you were to look back at Vedic scripture,

For 1000s and 1000s of years that Bhagavad Gita potentially yoga sutras,

We see that there's actually no mention of asanas.

It's all when they speak about yoga,

They speak about bhakti yoga,

Jnana yoga,

Karma yoga,

Essentially,

Ways of living life of approaching life,

Meditations,

Internal reflections.

So where did this physical asanas arise?

And so it said that that only arose in the last few 100 years.

Because back before people were not necessarily so concerned about the body because their diet and their lifestyle were that they were already healthy,

Right?

There was not like was not such a big deal,

In terms of there weren't so many physical ailments.

But over the last few 100 years with the introduction of processed foods and that certain lifestyle,

Our bodies are suffering.

And so people start to realize the body has to be fit before you can engage in the ancient yoga practices of the Gita.

So physical asanas started to come up,

Hatha yoga,

Ashtanga yoga,

As a way to support the higher yogic practices.

But what happened was as these physical practices,

It said it originated actually in Mysore,

In the palaces of the kings,

When we went to the West,

The teachers realized that,

Okay,

Maybe they're not ready to actually hear the philosophy.

So let's just teach them the physical asanas.

And even though they don't know the philosophy,

Just doing the asanas,

It will somehow have an impact and affect something to help them take the next step,

Which we see with a lot of people,

Right?

They started with asanas,

And they've gone to the next step.

So that was kind of how the evolution of yoga happened in the West.

And Paramahamsa Yogananda was actually one of the very few people that came to the West and taught a yoga practice,

Which was not just asanas.

And he was teaching Kriya Yoga,

He was teaching philosophy.

But if you look at Pataji,

Patabhi,

Joyce,

And many of these other yoga teachers,

There are more physical asanas.

And so in Mysore,

Within the more Vedic cultures,

We don't really practice the asanas.

We focus more on the yoga techniques of realization,

Rather than the asana practice.

Even though I do sometimes do the practices to remain physically fit for travel and this and that,

The body has to be fit.

But if the body is fit,

Then it's time to transition to more higher ways of understanding these rituals and traditions.

Mm hmm.

Great.

So,

Okay,

So I had heard that part of the asana practice was to prepare for a long sitting.

Yes,

To meditate.

Is that true?

Or?

Well,

Part of the asana practice is twofold.

One is to prepare the body to sit for long periods of time,

But also the asanas when you do it,

They create a certain energy in you,

Which helps you to calm the mind.

Yeah.

So when the mind becomes calm,

You're more receptive to meditation and you're more receptive to the philosophy.

Right.

Because the philosophy,

The Gita is 700 verses.

It said that each verse can be translated 27 different ways.

And every time you read a verse,

You get a different understanding.

So depending on where your mind is,

You're going to take something different from the teaching.

The physical practices,

Yes,

It's to prepare the body to sit for long periods of time,

But it also does have an impact on the mind.

It does calm our minds in certain ways.

So we're more receptive to the philosophy and meditation as well.

So that's why for me,

I never look at the asanas as something bad,

Something not good.

I feel it's a very important part of the yoga,

But it's also important for people to go deeper after the asanas as well,

Not just to stagnate or stop there.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Great.

All right.

So that takes me to my next question about yoga teachers or yoga students or yoga teachers.

Why is it important?

Do you think for yoga teachers to learn,

At least have a fundamental understanding of the Bhagavad Gita to teach a yoga class?

You know,

I'm thinking cultural appropriation,

Right?

Not a fitness class.

I mean,

This is like,

Can we really talk about quality yoga class without referring to yoga philosophy?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I think it's important just on a simple fact of sincerity.

So if you want to teach a yoga class and you want to label it beer yoga or go to yoga,

And you want people to come and do a physical practice and get drunk,

You don't need to know any of these things.

You can just do whatever you want.

It's fine.

But if you're teaching people and you sincerely want the person to not just have the physical part,

But also to transform and maybe go deeper,

On their own spiritual journey,

Then the philosophy is important because the philosophy gives them something deeper to go into.

Because it's almost like,

What do I do next?

Okay,

I love the asanas.

I'm going into it,

But there's a longing.

There's a desire to want to know more.

So where can I find that?

And so what the soul desires to know cannot be found in the things of the world.

It can't be found in a math book or a social studies book or in a Netflix series.

It can be found in divine scriptures that have been practiced for thousands of years that help us to get closer to realizing who we are.

These things are not something that somebody created in their basement and said,

Yeah,

Study it.

These things are scriptures that have withstood the test of time and have been proven to help us to go deeper.

So by understanding the Gita,

By understanding the Patanjali's Yoga Sutras or other ancient scriptures,

You allow your students to have a deeper tool to transform.

So that's why it's important for sincerity's sake.

Yeah.

But as I said,

If you're not,

If you don't particularly care about helping your students in that way,

And that's,

Then you don't need to.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I do care about that.

My students that take my classes,

They always know.

I always start off with some type of a theme.

I always bring something in about yoga philosophy.

I always acknowledge the lineage of my teachers because I want to teach yoga and I want to learn,

Which is why I'm so happy to connect with you and to learn from you.

So another question that I get a lot is,

For example,

I was on a plane.

I was sitting next to this nice,

Nice lady and just chatting.

And I told her that I teach yoga and she said,

Oh,

I can't do yoga because I'm Christian.

I told her yoga is not a religion.

Or if I have people asking about,

Is yoga Hindu or is Hindu a religion or am I worshiping gods?

They have,

Do you have an answer for this?

I don't even know.

Yeah.

So,

You know,

Hinduism,

Right?

That term Hinduism.

So what we have to see is that actually this term only came about in the last thousand years,

Because what happened was that the India,

Where India is located,

The subcontinents referred to also sometimes in this valley.

So what happened was when conquerors came to conquer India,

They crossed the Indus Valley.

So Western traditions,

They crossed the Indus Valley and they started to call the people there Hindus.

So the people of the Indus Valley,

And then they start to assign a religion called Hinduism.

Right.

So they're saying,

Well,

If we have,

If we come from a background,

Like an Abrahamic tradition that says there's one God,

One book,

One teacher,

We're going to try and put that also on how you live.

And we're going to create this religion called Hinduism.

And that's what you are.

And that's how you're labeled.

And that name stuck.

But the practices before that was called Sanatana Dharma,

Which means the path towards the eternal truth.

So it is a journey that we take to realize our eternal self.

So that is what Sanatana Dharma is.

And that is what yoga helps us to do,

Which are techniques that help us to realize that eternal truth.

In the Vedas,

It states,

And mentioned earlier,

The truth is one,

But the wise describe it in many ways.

Truth is one,

But the wise describe it in many ways.

So within Sanatana Dharma,

If you really go deep into it,

What you'll see is actually inconsistencies for the mind.

You look at it,

And you'll think,

Well,

This tradition is saying we should connect to a divine form,

Which has attributes and qualities.

And this tradition is saying that we should connect to an energy,

Which is formless with no attributes and qualities.

And this path is saying we should follow the path of devotion or Bhakti Yoga.

And these people are saying we should follow Karma Yoga or the path of action.

So there's inconsistencies for the mind.

But in the West,

We use rationalization,

We can't accept inconsistencies.

We have to say it has to make sense for our mind.

And if it doesn't,

Then it doesn't make sense.

But in Sanatana Dharma,

It's not like that.

So that's why it's Sanatana Dharma is hugely complex.

If you were to tell me,

Explain Sanatana Dharma,

It's not like an Abrahamic religion that can be explained in a short period of time,

Because there's so many traditions,

And so many philosophies.

There's philosophies called Advaita,

Vishistha Advaita,

Dvaita.

There are so many forms,

Shiva,

Krishna,

Rama,

Divine Mother,

Kali,

So many ways to the truth.

So people see that,

And they assume that it's externally very,

Very jumbled.

But actually,

That's the beauty of Sanatana Dharma,

Is that there's so many ways to the truth.

And it's up to you to choose a way that resonates for you.

It's not that we worship demigods.

It's that we know that there's this one divine being.

And sometimes that divine being can take multiple forms that we can connect to.

So for example,

I might like chocolate ice cream,

You might like strawberry ice cream,

Somebody might not like ice cream at all,

They might like pizza.

In the same way,

The divine presents itself according to your own qualities and attributes.

And that's the beauty.

We never say worship something lower,

We never say worship a demigod.

We're saying worship a form that you connect with,

Understanding that eventually you will see that form in every form and in everything.

But it gives the mind something to focus on for a period of time.

So that's just one practice,

Right?

So like that,

We can talk so much about the various rituals and philosophies within Sanatana Dharma.

Yeah,

Yeah,

Yeah.

I think about my husband and I,

We have,

We're similar in our spirituality,

But our practices are very different.

Like for example,

I can be moved by a sunset and be like just overwhelmingly filled with creation or whatever that sense is.

And he'll feel the same way looking at Wrigley Field,

The baseball stadium.

And I don't quite get it,

But there's something that he's just like,

He feels something very warm and very like when we talk about where we would want to spread our ashes,

Sometimes he talks about a baseball field and I talk about like the ocean,

You know,

It's like very,

Very different.

So I appreciate that.

It gives all of us the opportunity to practice and study.

Yeah.

And we're not being told,

It's not being dictated to us what we should worship.

Exactly.

And it's open.

So if you were to tell me,

Can I follow Christ or can I follow or can I follow another form?

Yeah.

If you do it sincerely and you do it to help you to realize who you are,

Great.

But if you go to the limitations of saying there's hell and heaven eternally damned,

If you don't follow a certain way,

Then that is not Sanatana Dharma.

Yeah,

Yeah,

Yeah.

Great.

Thank you.

All right.

So I want to ask you a few more things and they're related to our retreat.

So I know one is you will be teaching about the Bhagavad Gita during the retreat every day,

Which I'm excited about,

Which can be,

You know,

For,

Of course,

You don't have to be a yoga teacher,

Yoga students,

Yoga teachers.

One thing I had heard,

I heard on another podcast,

I can't remember who,

But that the Bhagavad Gita was written for householders or is better for householders versus the Yoga Sutras is actually maybe more for yogis or renunciates or I don't know.

What do you think about that?

I wouldn't necessarily say it's one for the other,

But it's applicable to both.

So there was a student,

He went to his teacher and he said to the teacher,

Why was the Gita given on the battlefield?

What was it given in this setting?

Why was it not given in an ashram,

In a peaceful setting?

And the teacher looks at him and says,

Look,

You can go off into a cave,

You can give up the world and you can meditate.

But in that cave,

There's nobody to be jealous of,

Nobody to invoke anger,

No lust,

No pizza to draw your senses.

And you could spend 20 years there and you can think you've become a great yogi.

But the moment you step foot outside of that cave and you step foot up on a bus in India and you have a hundred people pushing you,

Shoving you,

Calling you names,

Then you'll know if you're a true yogi or just another human being.

Right?

So the Bhagavad Gita was given on the battlefield because the battlefield represents life.

And it's for those that are looking to realize themselves while still performing the duties asked of them in their day-to-day lives,

Whether that's to be a mother or a father,

Or to be a yoga teacher,

Or to be a dentist or an accountant.

It is not that one is greater than the other.

All roads gave us an opportunity to look within ourselves and see what we need to change.

So when Arjuna was in the battlefield and he was looking out at his enemies,

His enemies symbolize all of the negative qualities within ourselves.

And on his side,

All of his allies,

Those are all of the positive qualities within ourselves.

And both the negative and the positive reside within this body.

So this body is the battlefield.

And the enemies are the negative qualities and the allies are the positive qualities.

And Arjuna represents us,

Who every day wake up in this body and have to battle our positive and negative qualities so we can do our duty in a way where we don't entangle ourselves.

And Krishna represents that divine knowledge,

That divine being that helps to guide each one of us so we can navigate the obstacles of life in the right way.

So in that way,

I can be a monk,

But that doesn't mean that I live in a detached way.

Right?

I could be in a cave,

But I can think of all kinds of things.

So for me also,

The Gita is applicable.

So the Gita is applicable for everybody that's looking to realize who they truly are.

Yeah.

Okay.

So I want to mention for any listeners who don't know,

I am offering,

We are offering a yoga retreat in Mexico in April,

April 1 to 7.

You can find out more in the episode notes.

And one of the things that Swami is going to be offering is something called Kriya Yoga.

And the option also,

And these are both options,

Kriya Yoga,

And then the option to for an initiation into Kriya Yoga.

And could you share what that is?

So the Kriya Yoga lineage is said to be over 5000 years old,

And was initially given by a great yogi named Mahabhatar Babaji.

And he's the yogi that's spoken about in the autobiography of a yogi.

And it's the Kriya yogas that were taught by Paramahamsa Yogananda.

And so these yogas,

These Kriya yogas over time,

They become adapted to the age that we live in.

So at that time,

Maybe 100 years ago,

The Kriya practices were slightly different to help us with certain things that we need to overcome at that time.

And as time goes,

The yogas are constantly being adjusted based on the time and Mahabhatar Babaji gives those yogas through his disciples.

So one of his disciples is my spiritual teacher,

My guru,

Paramahamsa Vishwananda.

And he has given this new Kriya Yoga for this age called Atma Kriya Yoga.

And this is something that I have the blessing to teach and initiate into.

Now,

The reason why the Kriyas are important is because in Vedic tradition,

We classify two types of knowledge.

There's what we call Smriti,

Which is more book knowledge.

It's something that you read,

Something that you digest through the mind.

And then there's Shruti,

Which is more internalized knowledge,

Knowledge that spontaneously awakens from within.

So in that way,

You know,

Somebody could read the Bhagavad Gita and memorize it,

But they might not have internalized it.

It's one thing to understand with the mind,

Another thing to internalize it.

Because the Bhagavad Gita is very simple.

It can be summarized in two words,

Let go.

Everything Krishna teaches for those 700 words,

Verses is to help Arjuna to let go of his limited self and trust that the divine flow through him.

And so words are used,

Things are used,

It gives us some understanding and logic.

But there's a part where you have to go beyond just understanding of the mind and internalize it.

But for most of us,

That's not possible because our patterns and negativity and limitations we've carried for lives.

So it's like a wave that you know you have to swim across,

But no matter how hard you try,

You're not able to.

It just overtakes you.

So you know,

In your life,

We have to do certain things in the right way,

Right?

We have to do this,

We have to do that.

But sometimes,

Even though we know what is right,

We cannot find ourselves to do it.

And why is that?

I know that I should not do it,

But I find myself doing it anyways.

Because there's a part of us that is so strongly rooted in our negativity,

It clouds our judgment,

Even when we don't want to do something negative.

So the Kriya helps with that.

It helps to internalize the Gita,

And helps us to take the journey from the mind to the heart.

And by doing the practices,

It helps us to slowly let go of things that we ourselves cannot let go of,

No matter how hard we try.

No matter how much we read a book,

No matter how hard we try to do the practices.

There's grace that comes from the practices and the grace flows from the Kriya Yoga masters and yogis.

When you do the Kriya,

You invoke that grace.

And it's like a lifeboat that helps you to go beyond the waves that you yourself cannot swim across.

That's the beauty of Kriya.

That's what we'll also be teaching for those that are interested in the retreat.

And then the initiation.

So the initiation is the transfer of that grace.

So there's the actual practices that we'll that I'll teach,

Which are not so complicated,

You can do them.

There are a set of breathing techniques,

Visualizations,

But the initiation itself is that transfer of that grace is the transfer of the energy from the Kriya Yoga masters to the practitioners,

Which then helps the practitioner to internalize and go deeper into the practice.

And this idea of initiation is not just for Kriya,

But you see it across many facets,

Right?

So for example,

A mantra,

You can learn a mantra,

You can just go on YouTube,

And you can find a mantra and you can chant it.

And just by chanting the mantra,

There will be a very beautiful transformation that can happen.

But when you become initiated into the mantra,

It carries a whole nother energy that helps you to work through whatever you need to in a much quicker way.

It's almost like with the wave analogy,

It's like having a life jacket,

Or having a boat.

The life jacket will help.

But the boat will be much easier.

Oh,

Yeah.

That is that initiation.

It's a secret initiation.

It's not something I can share what happens.

Yeah.

But it is important in the Vedic traditions,

That initiation into a practice,

Carrying the energy of the yogis who practiced before is very important.

Right.

And that is a very important part of the traditions.

And you are in that lineage.

Yes.

That enables you to do the initiation.

Not anybody can do this.

No,

No,

No.

You can't do it.

You have that lineage,

There has to be this passed down succession that helps to give that energy.

It's not that you can never be a teacher.

If you want to be a teacher,

There are things that you have to do,

Prepare yourself many,

Many years of preparation.

So you also then you can get the grace to do it.

There's a reason behind that,

Right?

Because it's not about being a gatekeeper.

It's about understanding your responsibility,

That this initiation is not just simple like that.

It's something that's very sacred.

As we know,

There's certain teachers,

They don't give pearls to pigs because they won't appreciate it.

In the same way,

Sometimes you have to know who's ready and prepare yourself and understand the subtleties.

And to do that,

It takes a lot of preparation.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Great.

All right.

So I want to start wrapping up.

I appreciate your time so much.

Thank you so much.

And I'm so excited to share this with the listeners.

The final thing,

I always wrap up my episodes with my guests to ask,

What are your top three tips for staying spiritually fit?

So the top three tips all start with us.

The first is,

Seva.

So Seva is selfless service.

Try to find some moments in your life where you do something without expecting anything in return,

Monetary or emotionally.

And by doing this Seva,

The selfless service,

It helps you to detach from the ego,

Which is conditioned to always doing action based on some expectation of the result.

Because that's what the Gita is really about,

Performing action without expectation as an offering to the divine.

And Seva helps with that.

Second is Sangha,

Community.

Look for a community that helps you to grow spiritually.

It's that if you hang around a smoker long enough,

You become a smoker.

If you hang around a saint long enough,

You become a saint.

So in that way,

The vibrations of where you spend your time,

How you spend your time is important.

So seek a community that is helping you to support you on your journey and take you and help you to go where you want to go,

Wherever that might be,

Spiritually or materially.

And thirdly is Sadhana,

Which is meditation.

So meditation is a way to help you to be more aware of your own self.

And so that's why I'm going to talk about three things.

The first is Sadhana,

Which is meditation.

Have a daily meditation that helps you to ground yourself,

That helps you to prepare yourself for the battle of life when you wake up every day and you're forced to make decisions and do your dharma.

And so that Sadhana,

That daily practice,

Incorporate those three things,

Seva,

Selfless service,

Sangha,

Community,

Or Sadhana meditation into your day to day life,

You will see huge transformation happen within you.

So great.

Thank you so much for that.

And how can people reach you?

And what are,

Do you have any offerings,

Any spiritual offerings or anything going on that you want to let our listeners know about?

So if you'd like to connect with me,

I'm on social media on Instagram,

Just reach,

Sorry,

Not reach,

Swami Chidananda.

I can just type in Swami Chidananda and you can follow if you like.

And also we'll be doing the retreat in April.

So if you'd like to connect deeper,

I would definitely recommend coming to the retreat and going deeper in your practice.

I would say those two are probably the best way.

Also,

I'm traveling all across the United States,

Giving different talks and the Instagram account will update the talks and where they'll be as well.

Yeah.

So great.

So great.

Hey,

You mentioned something and I forgot to ask you about this.

So this is like,

This is probably very trivial,

But it's something that some listeners or especially if people are watching that they might be curious about.

So I know when I first met you,

You were originally Rishi and then you became a Swami,

Which,

You know,

I wasn't sure what,

You know,

What that was,

What the titles mean.

And then I've had people ask me,

It's like,

What are the,

You know,

The markings or I don't even know if it's paint or whatever.

What does that mean?

So I'll start with the titles.

When you become a sanyasi or a renunciant,

You start by becoming a brahmachari.

And a brahmachari is sort of a novice.

There's somebody that are not really preaching or talking so much,

But they're in the ashram and they're grounding themselves into their new reality.

Then after a certain amount of time,

If the spiritual teacher believes you're ready,

They initiate you as a Rishi.

A Rishi is somebody then that goes out of the ashram and travels and speaks on spiritual topics.

And then at some point,

If the teacher believes you're ready,

Then you become a Swami.

So Swami is somebody that not only goes and travels,

But can also help people to grow on the spiritual path and to transform in a deeper way.

So you have a bigger blessing to allow for that to happen.

So it's just sort of,

Those would be the different titles.

And within various Vedic traditions,

It might differ.

So for example,

Some traditions don't have this Rishi,

Or they might use different names.

But usually a Swami is the greatest,

Like the highest title you can receive in the Vedic tradition for somebody who is walking the path.

But when you become enlightened,

There is another title called Paramahamsa.

So you might hear Paramahamsa Swami Yogananda,

Paramahamsa Yogananda.

Paramahamsa is a title that's given once you reach a state of enlightenment,

Where you've transcended all aspects of the ego.

And that's the title that's given to my spiritual teacher,

Paramahamsa Swami Vishwananda.

That's how I would look at the tradition.

Yeah.

And in regards to the drawing,

This is referred to as a tilak.

And a tilak symbolizes the certain philosophy or tradition that one follows.

So within the Vedic culture,

I had mentioned there are many different ways.

There's Advaitic,

Vishistha Advaitic.

There's Bhakti,

Jnana,

Various traditions.

So when you look at a tilak of a person,

You know,

Okay,

This is the this is the philosophy that they follow.

Oh,

Okay.

If you see somebody with three lines across,

I know,

Okay,

They are a follower of Shiva,

And they might be practicing the Shaivite or Advaitic tradition.

If you see this,

Then you know that the person is a Vaishnava,

Somebody who's more concentrated on the Gita and the worship of forms such as Krishna or Rama,

And they follow more of a Bhakti tradition.

So that's how the tilak will help you to understand the philosophy that somebody follows.

Oh,

Interesting.

So thanks so much.

I was I was wondering about that,

Too.

So,

All right.

Well,

I appreciate you so much.

And I know I'll be seeing you definitely in Mexico,

If not sooner.

And yeah,

I feel very blessed that you took this time with me and for all of us to learn from you today.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Much love.

Okay,

Until next time.

Bye.

What did I tell you an amazing interview,

Right?

So great learning from Swami Chidananda.

As you can see,

I have another special guest.

Kobi was with me the entire time I was interviewing Swami Chidananda.

And he just he just decided to come over during this wrap up,

I guess he wants to look out the window and also just say hi.

I just had to let you see him because I know he's part of my meditation challenge.

You've been seeing that I've been sharing him in my daily affirmations on Instagram,

If you're following along there.

And I will include the episode notes in the episode notes,

I will include the links on how you can follow Swami Chidananda.

And it says he has said,

And as I have mentioned,

A great way to study with him in person is to join our retreat,

Our spiritual deep dive in Punta de Minta,

April 1 to 7.

Okay,

I'm going to put Kobi down.

All right,

And I want to just kind of summarize the three S's that Swami Chidananda shared with us.

So the first one,

So his tips were staying spiritually fit.

The first one was Seva.

So that is your selfless service.

The second one is your Sangha,

Your community,

Choose a community,

Seek a community that supports you on your journey.

And the third was sadhana.

Sadhana is your daily practice,

Your meditation,

It could be your asana practice,

Anything that supports you to help you navigate through life,

Through life's ups,

Life's downs,

Navigate the obstacles in life,

And also to be on that path towards your realization towards your higher self.

All right,

My friends,

Much love.

Until next time,

Peace out.