Hari-kirtana is an author, mentor, and yoga teacher who shares his knowledge and experience of how the yoga wisdom tradition can guide us toward meaningful and transformative spiritual experiences.
"How the hell did this happen?”
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Greetings Reader - Survival mode can take you places you never wanted to go. I never wanted to go to Huntsville, Alabama. But there I was, living in Rocket City, as culturally displaced as a native New Yorker can be. It wasn’t all bad: I got to see Metallica . . . at the Von Braun Civic Center. Yup: the city’s big arena is named after rocket scientist—and Nazi war criminal—Wernher Von Braun. But it was a great show. Survival mode can also turn you into a person you never wanted to be. I never wanted to be a cog in America’s military industrial complex. But there I was, working for a giant corporation that manufactured, among other things, visualization systems that fit neatly into the nose cones of smart bombs that blew Iraqi air defenses to smithereens during Operation Desert Storm. It wasn’t all bad: I got a crash course in strategic marketing from guys with MBAs and 20 years of Fortune 500 experience, neither of which I had. Or wanted. It was weird: I envied their success, but, deep down, I knew that I didn’t want to be one of them. Which was just as well because, deep down, I wasn’t like them and couldn’t be even if I wanted to. Two years in, I got up one morning, got ready to go to work, stepped in front of a mirror, and froze. I looked at the person looking back at me and thought, “This is not who I wanted to be when I grew up! How the hell did this happen?” It happened because I was following the money instead of following my dharma—the path that aligns with my true nature and real values. But I couldn’t follow my dharma at that point because I didn’t know what my dharma was. All I knew was that I was doing the wrong thing in the wrong place and it was time for me to change course. A year later, I was back in New York. I did my best to reinvent myself while keeping my nose above water, a project that got progressively harder as time went on because I still didn’t know what my dharma was. And I wouldn’t find out until after everything crashed and burned. It may be that I had to go through all of that in order to get to a point where my dharma became clear to me, but it was a rough ride. The ironic thing is that, once I finally aligned myself with my dharma, I was able to see the process that the yoga wisdom tradition offers us for finding one’s dharma . The more I dove back into bhakti-yoga philosophy, as a practitioner and as a teacher, the easier it became for me to connect the dots between the various elements of yoga wisdom that, when combined the right way, offers us a system for finding our path to a meaningful and satisfying life. I’d like to share that system with you, which is why I created Finding Your Dharma, a guided journey through a simple but powerful process drawn from yoga’s wisdom tradition This is a course that's designed to help you move through uncertainty, reconnect with your sense of meaning, and feel a deeper sense of fulfillment in all areas of your life. If your not experiencing this kind of fulfillment right now, it may be because
This course is like a roadmap that will reveal what you really value, point you in the direction of the kind of work that will bring you real satisfaction, and show you a way toward a life of deeper meaning and higher purpose. It's not just another career coaching course. Unlike typical coaching, Finding Your Dharma is based on time-honored wisdom that goes beyond career tips to universal principles of inner harmony and alignment rooted in ancient wisdom. Enrollment is limited to ensure a highly interactive experience where you’ll receive personal guidance, meaningful discussion, and direct support on your journey. The course begins on Saturday, April 19. If you’re ready to discover your true purpose and create a life of deeper meaning, join me for this transformative course. CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE INFORMATION AND ENROLLMENT Wishing you all good fortune, - Hari-k P.S.: I had a great conversation with Todd McLaughlin on his Native Yoga Toddcast. We talked about the teachings of the Bhagavad-gita, the nature of philosophical inquiry, the advantages of group study, how yoga wisdom helps us understand human psychology, and how to connect our individual spiritual practices with broader contexts. CLICK HERE to watch the podcast. P.P.S.: No offense, Huntsvillians; it just wasn't a good fit. You can take me out of New York but you can't take New York out of me. BTW, if any of you know Billy Brasfield (aka Kris Kelly), tell him I said "Hi" and that I still appreciate his playing both of Eric Clapton's versions of Layla back-to-back during his morning show on WTAK back in the day. |
Hari-kirtana das
Hari-kirtana is an author, mentor, and yoga teacher who shares his knowledge and experience of how the yoga wisdom tradition can guide us toward meaningful and transformative spiritual experiences.
Greetings Reader, If you want to prove that a yoga teaching should be considered “right knowledge,” there are three kinds of evidence you have to present: Direct perception—does the teaching correspond to your lived experience? Logic—does the teaching make sense when you think it all the way through? Testimony—is the teaching corroborated by authoritative sources of knowledge? According to the Yoga-sutras, if a teaching meets all three criteria, we can consider it “right knowledge.” Which...
Hi Reader, The best way for a yoga teacher to get a return on the investment they make in training is to enroll in a program that offers practical, actionable skills for building a sustainable career. Skills like brand development, strategic marketing, and how to design classes and workshops that reflect your unique voice as a teacher. Unfortunately, these skills are often missing from YTT curriculums—making it harder for yoga teachers to recoup the time and money they’ve already invested. Of...
Greetings Reader, What does yoga philosophy say about . . . [fill in the blank]. Physical fitness? Mental health? Religion? Politics? The origins of the universe? The nature of consciousness? What do the teachings of yoga have to say about . . . anything? Well, actually, yoga philosophy has something to say about everything. This may come as a surprise if you think staying focused on the ultimate goal of yoga — realization of the true nature of the self — would narrow the bandwidth of...