Show Notes
PRACTICE WITH INDU IN MELBOURNE: https://indu-arora.mykajabi.com/yoga-nidra-australia
PRACTICE WITH US: 365 Sadhana Sangha https://practice.omsom.yoga/365-sadhana-sandha/join 100 Hr Asana Sadhana Dharma https://practice.omsom.yoga/asana-sadhana-dharma-oto 200 Hr Yoga Teacher Training Sri Lanka 2026 https://omsom.yoga/200-hour-yoga-teacher-training-sri-lanka 50 Hr Online Yin Yoga Teacher Training https://practice.omsom.yoga/yin-yoga-and-prana-vayus-oto
ON THIS WEEK'S EPISODE:
Aaron sits down with Indu Arora, yoga and Ayurveda teacher, mentor, and author, for a wide-ranging conversation on what yoga actually is. They explore soma, the nectar of the mind, why we have settled for flexibility and muscular strength when yoga promises something far greater, and how samadhi is not a peak experience reserved for cave-dwelling monks but a natural state we are all already moving toward.
This is a conversation for anyone who has ever felt that yoga has more to offer than they have yet found.
ABOUT INDU ARORA: Indu Arora is a yoga and Ayurveda teacher, mentor, and author based in the USA. She has been sharing yoga philosophy, yoga therapy, and Ayurveda for over two decades, teaching across Kriya Yoga, Himalayan Yoga, Kashmir Shaivism, and Sivananda lineages. She studied in the traditional Guru-shishya parampara setting and considers herself a student for a lifetime. Her core teaching is that yoga is a work-in, not a work-out.
She is the author of Mudra: The Sacred Secret, Yoga: Ancient Heritage Tomorrow's Vision, and Soma: 100 Heritage Recipes for Self-Care.
KEY CONCEPTS & INSIGHTS:
• Yoga as a work-in, not a work-out. When we define yoga by asana, we reduce it to a tug of war with the body. You can do yoga without moving a muscle. • The purpose of yoga is yoga. Every health benefit, every physical improvement, is a side effect. As Indu's teacher says: buy one, get one free. Don't stop at the candy store. • Soma (Sanskrit: सोम): the nectar of the mind. A calm, cohesive, lunar quality of awareness. It is not found outside. It drips down when the mind settles and is consumed by our inner fire when we live in depletion and constant doing. • Samadhi is not a peak experience for the enlightened few. The word itself tells us: dhi means mind, sa means to gather. Samadhi is simply collecting the scattered pieces of the mind together. How simple is that?
TEXTUAL & TRADITIONAL SOURCES:
• The Rigveda references soma as the nectar of the sacred fire, offered to invoke immortality. In yoga, this external ritual is realised internally. • The soma chakra, also called bindu or indu chakra, sits within the Sahasrara (crown) chakra. This is considered the seat of soma in the subtle body. • Pratyahara, the fifth limb of Patanjali's eight-limbed path, describes this conscious introversion. It is not sleep. It is a U-turn of the senses toward the self.
PRACTICAL INTEGRATION:
• Three times a day, pause for 2 minutes. Breathe in for 4 counts, out for 4 counts. Make it an unbroken loop. This builds the nervous system's readiness for deeper practice and offers a daily taste of soma. • Keep your forehead relaxed. While cooking, commuting, talking. Notice where micro-tension lives in the jaw, the shoulders, the fingers. Easing the body is the first step to easing the mind. • Before entering an asana, feel first. Visualise. Hold the experience. Come down. Reflect. Let the body lead with its innate wisdom rather than the mind imposing a shape.
Reflection: What would your practice look like if you stopped doing yoga and started listening for it?
SHARE & CONNECT
Thank you for listening to the Om Som Yoga & Ayurveda Podcast.
Please share this episode with someone it might support, and connect with us on social media or via our website.
Instagram: @OmSom.yoga Website: OmSom.yoga
HARI OM
More from 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 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 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
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