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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.

Renee Nicole Good
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I’m not mad at you

Greetings Reader, Anger got the better of me the other day. I was angry at everyone and everything connected to the murder of Renee Nicole Good. I’m betting you’re feeling it, too. Then I saw a post about Ms Good’s murder. It was well-intentioned, but timid. I thought the person who posted it — who I know beyond the confines of social media — had a moral responsibility to make a stronger statement. I posted a comment to that effect. A reply to my comment soon followed, which prompted another...

Greetings Reader, My body has officially arrived at the threshold of old age. It’s a good thing I’m not my body. Don’t get me wrong: I feel fine, physically and mentally. But facts are facts: the time I have left in this body won't be nearly as long as the time I’ve already spent in it. Well, sort of. The body I’m in now isn’t the same one I was in just a few years ago. To say nothing of the one I was in 50 years ago. None of us actually stays in the same body for very long. Human bodies are...

water ripple

Hi Reader, Enrollment is open for my next live online course, The Yoga Sutras Saturdays and Sundays, February 14-15 / February 12-22 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm EST Each class will be recorded: replay links will be emailed to all registrants. Participants can receive 6 hours of CE credit with Yoga Alliance. Tuition: $108 This course is for yoga teachers and serious practitioners. Together, we explore yoga’s foundational philosophy with clarity and depth, connecting its insights to real-life...

broken vase

Greetings Reader, I read a social media post recently that said we shouldn’t be comparing ICE to Nazis because ICE isn’t shoving people into gas chambers and stealing their jewelry. If anyone thinks we should wait until it comes to that before making such a comparison, they were clearly not paying attention the day they covered the 1930s in history class. We may not have to wait very long, though. They’ve gotten as far as murdering people in public with the whole world watching; I shudder to...

A solar eclipse with a bright orange corona

Greetings Reader, I feel grateful. Every day. Maybe it's because I've been lucky and have a lot to be grateful for. Or maybe I'm lucky to be able to feel grateful. Grateful to be lucky, lucky to be grateful . . . whatever: I'm lucky and I'm grateful. Let's leave it at that. My living situation is something I'm especially grateful for. I wake up every morning in a state of disbelief that I live in such a nice place. My amazement might be easier to understand if you knew how close I came to...

a sidewalk with a message written on it

Hi Reader, I'm writing to let you know about my next live online workshop: The Yoga of Becoming Fearless Sunday, February 1 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm EST Investment: $27 The workshop will be recorded: a replay link will be emailed to all registrants. Participants can receive 1.5 hours of CE credit with Yoga Alliance. Click Here to Enroll The wisdom texts of the yoga tradition speak to the experience of fear in very direct and meaningful ways. And they prescribe spiritual practices that can help us...

person taking photo of grey concrete stairs

Greetings Reader, I don’t remember exactly when I first read Frank Herbert’s epic science fiction novel Dune — mid 70’s or early 80’s? For a couple of weeks it was my constant companion on the New York City subway system. I clearly remember thinking that it would be impossible to make a convincing movie out of it, given the limited special effects capabilities of the time. Early attempts to do so proved me right (IMNSHO). It’s possible now, of course, but If you haven’t seen either of the...

women sitting on swings

Greetings Reader - The 2026 edition of our free monthly series, Community Conversations, kicks off next week. This month, we're going to explore the question of how to reconcile the idea of surrender to "divine will" with the moral imperative to participate in the project of making the world a better place.According to yoga philosophy, everything happens for a reason; there is a cause to every effect. However, the precise cause of any given effect can be hard to ascertain. Yoga philosophy...

caricature of Napoleon Bonaparte to the point of absurdity

Greetings Reader, According to our friends at Merriam-Webster, yesterday’s Word of the Day was “senescence.” Senescence is a word that refers to the state of being old or the process of becoming old. It’s related to words like senior and senile. It's also connected to ancient Rome and the Latin word for the council of elders, the Senatus, which acted as an advisory body on administrative, financial, military, and foreign policy matters of great importance to the Roman Republic. This may...

green grass field under blue sky and white clouds during daytime

Greetings Reader, Last week someone told me how much they liked the way I rendered a Sanskrit phrase into English in my book, Journey Into the Bhagavad Gita. It was an especially meaningful compliment because I’d put a lot of thought into how to render this particular phrase. I felt obliged to honor the requirement of matter-of-factness in the delivery of one of the Gita’s heavier reality checks. I also felt the need to convey the message with a level of poetic sensitivity that would honor...