Robert Moses brings decades of dedicated practice in prāṇāyāma to our Vedic Threads sessions, offering us a practical exploration of how breath can quiet and balance the mind. In recent discussions, we’ve examined sattvāvajaya cikitsā—methods for restoring equilibrium to the mind and emotions—through an intellectual lens with Fred Smith. Now, Robert will help us embody this understanding, guiding us in the application of prāṇāyāma as a practical, accessible tool for mental steadiness and clarity. According to Caraka, sattvāvajaya treatment includes knowledge, special knowledge, restraint, memory, and concentration. Robert will illuminate how prāṇāyāma supports these qualities, providing us with an experiential dimension to complement our studies.

An invitation into the conscious experience and celebration of joy—ānanda. What is ānanda? Why does it matter? How do we open ourselves to it? In this satsaṅga, we’ll explore the subtle 11-inch journey from the head to the heart—how it begins, what supports it, and what obstacles we can be mindful of along the way.

We often see puranas as a collection of stories, Stotras as prayers and mantras as meditative chants. Stotras and mantras are viewed as separate conduits to a higher plane of spirituality. Puranas are often, not always, viewed as disconnected ancient stories yet connected with the essence of Bharatiya culture. We have to look at these three as three integral connectors in the same path of Bhakti yoga, one more subtle than the other. This session explores some examples of how strotras become the connectors between the corpus of puranas and the subtle mantras.