Om Som Yoga + Ayurveda Podcast

PRACTICE WITH US✦ Practice Online — Sadhana Sangha: 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques & Yoga Sūtra translation https://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join✦ OmSom App (free) — Yoga philosophy, Sanskrit study & our online community. Search OmSom in the App Store✦ 100 Hr Yoga Teacher Training — Asana Sadhana Dharma bridging course https://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto✦ 200 Hr YTT — Sri Lanka Immersion 2027 https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka✦ 300 Hr YTT — Online & India Immersion 2026/2027 https://omsom.yoga/300-hour-advanced-hatha-yoga-training✦ 50 Hr Yin YTT — Online https://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-oto✦ Practice in Person — Classes, workshops & community in Berwick, Victoria https://omsom.yoga/book-a-class
IN THIS EPISODEWe've walked three paths this month — action, knowledge, devotion.
Why does the fourth one get called royal? Rāja means king, and the king is not the body, the breath, or even the mind — the king is the witness. And the texts are specific about where the throne is. Not the head. The heart. We close THE PATHS OF YOGA with RĀJA YOGA, the royal path of meditation, where the three roads converge — opening with the Kaṭha Upaniṣad's chariot: the Self as rider, the body as chariot, the intellect as charioteer, the mind as reins, the senses as horses.
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN✦ The chariot teaching: two journeys — the unsteered chariot dragged road to road, and the gathered one that carries the rider home. The horses are not evil; the whole kingdom belongs
✦ Rāja from the root rāj — "to rule" AND "to shine": rightly seated, the king illuminates the kingdom and order follows
✦ The eight limbs (aṣṭāṅga) as one movement inward
✦ Why rāja yoga isn't a fourth option but the convergence: karma is yama–niyama in motion, jñāna matures discernment, bhakti supplies the willingness to stay
✦ The king's seat is the heart, not the head — meditation as taking your seat
✦ Paige on choosing your leading path by constitution: rhythm and ritual for vāta, inquiry for pitta (surrender as their deepest medicine), devotion and movement-first sits for kapha
✦ The measure of the path: not experiences in meditation, but sovereignty in life
TEXTUAL REFERENCES✦ Kaṭha Upaniṣad 1.3.3–9: "Know the Self as the rider, the body as the chariot..."
✦ Yoga Sūtra 1.2–3: yoga is the settling of the mind's movements — then the seer abides in its own nature
✦ Yoga Sūtra 2.29: the eight limbs
✦ Yoga Sūtra 3.35: by saṁyama on the heart, knowledge of the mind arises
✦ Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā 1.1–2 & 2.76: haṭha as the staircase to rāja yoga — "without haṭha, rāja yoga is not accomplished; without rāja yoga, haṭha is not accomplished"
✦ Bhagavad Gītā 6.19: "as a lamp in a windless place does not flicker — such is the disciplined mind of the yogi"
TRY THIS IN YOUR PRACTICE✦ Build the sādhana in miniature: arrive in the body, settle the breath, gather to one point, rest as the witness at the heart
✦ Twenty minutes, daily, protected — the throne room appointment that outranks every other meeting
✦ Prepare the seat by doṣa: warmth for vāta, soft gaze and no striving for pitta, movement first for kapha
✦ Close each sit: one hand on the chest, three breaths, So'haṁ
✦ Leave us a comment: who is sitting there, when you finally stop being dragged?
SHARE & CONNECTWebsite: https://omsom.yogaOmSom App (free): search OmSom in the App StoreInstagram: @omsomyogaIf this episode landed, the best way to support the show is to share it with one person who might need it. We run a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs. Wherever you are on your journey, we'd love to connect with you.
HARI OM

PRACTICE WITH US✦ Practice Online — Sadhana Sangha: 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques & Yoga Sūtra translation https://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join✦ OmSom App (free) — Yoga philosophy, Sanskrit study & our online community. Search OmSom in the App Store✦ 100 Hr Yoga Teacher Training — Asana Sadhana Dharma bridging course https://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto✦ 200 Hr YTT — Sri Lanka Immersion 2027 https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka✦ 300 Hr YTT — Online & India Immersion 2026/2027 https://omsom.yoga/300-hour-advanced-hatha-yoga-training✦ 50 Hr Yin YTT — Online https://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-oto✦ Practice in Person — Classes, workshops & community in Berwick, Victoria https://omsom.yoga/book-a-class
IN THIS EPISODEWhat's the fastest way to steady a restless mind?
Most would say discipline. Patañjali offers a shortcut in his very first chapter: īśvara-praṇidhānād vā — "or, by devotion." The mind doesn't need to be forced; it takes the shape of whatever it dwells upon. Week three of THE PATHS OF YOGA is BHAKTI YOGA, the path of devotion — where love itself is the vehicle, and emotion, the most unruly force in human life, becomes the most direct road home. We open with Hanumān breaking open Sītā's priceless pearls one by one — "if Rāma is not inside it, it has no value to me" — and what the court saw when he tore open his own chest.
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN✦ Bhakti from the root bhaj — "to share, to partake, to belong to": not worship at something distant, but participation in the beloved
✦ The mind becomes what it loves — worry is just devotion pointed at fear
✦ Aparā and parā bhakti: love with a face as the practice; lover, loving and beloved dissolving into one as the fruit
✦ Why Patañjali makes devotion a valid technique — and YS 1.39's quiet generosity: meditate on whatever you love
✦ The nine limbs of bhakti: hearing, chanting, remembering, serving, worshipping, bowing, servitude, friendship, self-offering
✦ The democratic path: no qualification, no Sanskrit — a leaf, a flower, water, offered with love, is enough
✦ Paige's doṣa medicine
TEXTUAL REFERENCES✦ Nārada Bhakti Sūtra 1–2: "bhakti is of the nature of supreme love directed toward this"
✦ Bhagavad Gītā 9.26: a leaf, a flower, a fruit, water — offered with devotion, accepted
✦ Bhagavad Gītā 12.2: those whose minds have entered the beloved are the most established in yoga
✦ Yoga Sūtra 1.23 & 1.39: by devotion to Īśvara; by meditation on whatever is dearly desired
✦ Bhāgavata Purāṇa 7.5.23: Prahlāda's nine limbs
✦ The Hanumān pearl-necklace story, Rāmāyaṇa devotional tradition
TRY THIS IN YOUR PRACTICE✦ Open practice by dedicating it to something you love — and notice how the quality of attention changes
✦ Japa with feeling: the mantra practised not as technique but as address — someone is being spoken to
✦ Take one of the nine limbs as your whole practice this week: just hearing, or just remembering
✦ Offer the first portion of one meal a day
✦ Notice what your mind already worships — what it returns to when no one is directing it — and choose deliberately
✦ Leave us a comment: if the mind becomes what it loves, what is your mind becoming?
SHARE & CONNECTWebsite: https://omsom.yogaOmSom App (free): search OmSom in the App StoreInstagram: @omsomyogaIf this episode landed, the best way to support the show is to share it with one person who might need it. We run a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs. Wherever you are on your journey, we'd love to connect with you.HARI OM

PRACTICE WITH US

✦ Practice Online
Sadhana Sangha: 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques & Yoga Sūtra translation
https://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join
✦ OmSom App (free)
Yoga philosophy, Sanskrit study & our online community
Search OmSom in the App Store
✦ 100 Hr Yoga Teacher Training
Already 200 Hr trained? This is our Asana Sadhana Dharma bridging course
https://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto
✦ 200 Hr Yoga Teacher Training
Sri Lanka Immersion 2027
https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka
✦ 300 Hr Yoga Teacher Training
Online & India Immersion 2026/2027
https://omsom.yoga/300-hour-advanced-hatha-yoga-training
✦ 50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher Training
Online
https://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-oto
✦ Practice in Person
Classes, workshops & community events in Berwick, Victoria
https://omsom.yoga/book-a-class

IN THIS EPISODE
Week two of the four paths of yoga is JÑĀNA YOGA, the path of knowledge: not a philosophy to learn, but one long question asked with total honesty - who is the one watching? We open with Maitreyī, offered half a fortune, who asked the greatest question in the Upaniṣads instead: would it make me immortal?

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
✦ Yājñavalkya & Maitreyī: everything you've ever loved, you loved because the Self was shining through it
✦ The path's three stages: śravaṇa (hearing), manana (reasoning it through), nididhyāsana (meditating until it becomes your resting state)
✦ Neti neti - "not this, not this": whatever can be observed is not the observer
✦ Why the breath is the path's perfect laboratory - intimate enough to feel, observable enough to prove you are not it
✦ Jñāna śakti vs jñāna yoga: August gave us the capacity for knowing; this is the discipline that clears what obscures it
✦ The qualifications: discernment, non-grasping, steadiness, and burning desire for freedom - not brilliance
✦ Paige's doṣa medicine for inquirers: staying-power for vāta, the bow for pitta, the fresh question for kapha

TEXTUAL REFERENCES
✦ Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 2.4.5: "the Self is to be seen - heard of, reflected on, meditated upon" - the founding instruction of the path
✦ Bhagavad Gītā 4.38: "nothing in this world purifies like knowledge"
✦ Bhagavad Gītā 4.34: know this by prostration, inquiry, and service — the head bowed, not inflated
✦ Dṛg-Dṛśya-Viveka v.1: the form is seen, the eye its seer; the eye is seen, the mind its seer - but the witness is seen by none
✦ Kena Upaniṣad 1.2: by whom is the breath sent forth? - the breath-inquiry in its oldest form

TRY THIS IN YOUR PRACTICE
✦ After each round of prāṇāyāma, rest in the question: the breath was watched - who watched it?
✦ Neti neti in śavāsana: release identification layer by layer - body, breath, thought - and rest as what remains
✦ Weekly rhythm: hear a teaching, journal it through, then sit with it in silence
✦ Catch "I am exhausted" and amend it: there is exhaustion, and I am the one aware of it
✦ Read fewer things, more deeply - one verse walked beats one hundred scrolled
✦ Leave us a comment: watch one breath tonight, turn around, and tell us - who was watching?

SHARE & CONNECT

Website: https://omsomyoga.com
OmSom App (free): search OmSom in the App Store
Instagram: @omsomyoga

If this episode landed, the best way to support the show is to share it with one person who might need it.

We run a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs. Wherever you are on your journey, we’d love to connect with you.

HARI OM

PRACTICE WITH US

✦ Practice Online
Sadhana Sangha: 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques & Yoga Sūtra translation
https://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join
✦ OmSom App (free)
Yoga philosophy, Sanskrit study & our online community
Search OmSom in the App Store
✦ 100 Hr Yoga Teacher Training
Already 200 Hr trained? This is our Asana Sadhana Dharma bridging course
https://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto
✦ 200 Hr Yoga Teacher Training
Sri Lanka Immersion 2027
https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka
✦ 300 Hr Yoga Teacher Training
Online & India Immersion 2026/2027
https://omsom.yoga/300-hour-advanced-hatha-yoga-training
✦ 50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher Training
Online
https://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-oto
✦ Practice in Person
Classes, workshops & community events in Berwick, Victoria
https://omsom.yoga/book-a-class

IN THIS EPISODE
In July we learned that action doesn't bind us - attachment to the outcome does. But the tradition doesn't stop there: it builds an entire path out of it. This month we begin the four paths of yoga - karma, jñāna, bhakti, rāja - opening with KARMA YOGA: a life of offering up our actions, where the cooking, the teaching, the sweeping becomes the practice itself.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
✦ The Vyādha Gītā: why the renunciate was out-yogied by a housewife and a butcher - "it's not the work that binds or frees us, it's only the one performing it"
✦ What karma yoga is: any mundane action used to connect us to the universal
✦ The Gītā's three movements: niṣkāma karma (action without craving the result), yajña bhāva (action as offering), īśvara arpaṇa (dedicating every act and its fruit to the divine)
✦ Why the cave fantasy fails: removing the crows doesn't remove the anger - your life is the best environment for practice
✦ Aaron on the monk with the cigarette, the Coke backlash, and why purity culture is the commodification of yoga, not yoga
✦ Paige's medicine for action by doṣa: commitment and consistency for vāta, anonymous seva for pitta, fresh new action for kapha
✦ Eating as karma yoga: plating up whatever you eat and offering it to the digestive fire
✦ Idaṁ na mama - "this is not mine" - offering up the fruits of your practice

TEXTUAL REFERENCES
✦ Vyādha Gītā, Mahābhārata: the monk, the housewife, and the butcher of Mithilā
✦ Bhagavad Gītā 3.9: action performed as sacrifice does not bind - all other action binds us to this world
✦ Bhagavad Gītā 3.20: "it was by action alone that Janaka and the others reached perfection" - even a king reached liberation this way
✦ Bhagavad Gītā 5.10: one who acts placing all actions in Brahman, abandoning attachment, is untouched by fault as a lotus leaf is untouched by water

TRY THIS IN YOUR PRACTICE
✦ Pick one daily action - dishes, walking, mowing - and do it with no distraction: no phone, no podcast, just presence
✦ Go to work this week to make your workplace better for everyone in it - the same job, performed as offering
✦ Plate up whatever you eat (yes, even the chocolate), sit down, and offer it to your digestive fire
✦ End your practice with hands together: idaṁ na mama - whatever I've gained, it is not mine; I offer it up
✦ Leave us a comment: what's the one daily action you're turning into practice this week?

SHARE & CONNECT

Website: https://omsomyoga.com
OmSom App (free): search OmSom in the App Store
Instagram: @omsomyoga

If this episode landed, the best way to support the show is to share it with one person who might need it.

We run a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs. Wherever you are on your journey, we’d love to connect with you.

HARI OM

PRACTICE WITH US
✦ Practice Online - Sadhana Sangha: 5 practices per month, asana workshops, subtle body techniques & Yoga Sūtra translation https://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join
✦ OmSom App (free) - Yoga philosophy, Sanskrit study & our online community. Search OmSom in the App Store
✦ 100 Hr Yoga Teacher Training - Asana Sadhana Dharma bridging course https://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto
✦ 200 Hr YTT - Sri Lanka Immersion 2027 https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka
✦ 300 Hr YTT - Online & India Immersion 2026/2027 https://omsom.yoga/300-hour-advanced-hatha-yoga-training
✦ 50 Hr Yin YTT - Online https://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-oto
✦ Practice in Person - Classes, workshops & community in Berwick, Victoria https://omsom.yoga/book-a-class

Something different this week: a bonus episode, and a gift.
This is a complete 40-minute lunar haṭha class from inside Sadhana Sangha, our online practice community - free, in full, as a preview of how we practise together every month.
The bhav (the feeling-state the whole class is built around) is BINDU - the point, the drop - the same teaching we explored all September.
In haṭha yoga the moon is said to rest at the bindu, dripping the nectar of vitality; a lunar practice is how we slow down enough to stop spilling it. So this class is the month made physical: everything we spoke about, now felt in the body. Roll out your mat, press play, and practice with Aaron.

ABOUT SADHANA SANGHA
This class is one of five practices we release every month inside Sadhana Sangha - each month built around a single bhav, with asana classes, an asana workshop, a subtle body technique, and a few lines of the Yoga Sūtra translated together. It's the home of our practice community inside the free OmSom app.
If this class lands for you, this is what every month feels like: ⁠⁠https://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join⁠.⁠

SHARE & CONNECT
Website: https://omsom.yoga
OmSom App (free): search OmSom in the App Store
Instagram: @omsomyoga
If this practice landed, the best way to support the show is to share it with one person who might need it.
We run a yoga studio in Berwick, Victoria, offering classes, workshops, and Yoga Teacher Training programs.
Wherever you are on your journey, we'd love to connect with you.
HARI OM