There’s one thing  I’ve never regretted in my life, saying “Yes.” Even when I was scared. Even when my rational mind tried to talk me out of it. Even when friends and loved ones were worried about my decisions.

Most people when they hear what I did as a teenager alone in Nepal, think I was crazy for saying “Yes.”

A Profound Experience

I was taking Nepali language classes in Kathmandu when my teacher asked me to go for a taxi ride with him - along with all my luggage. I said, “Yes,” and it changed my life. Instead of putting me in danger, it put me on my life path.

That taxi ride delivered me to the home of a Vedic priest and his family. Within their home, I heard the Vedas chanted for the first time.

It happened at 3:00 a.m. when I was suddenly awakened by something I’d never heard before - two voices chanting together in a strange tongue. As I lay in bed listening to the soothing rhythm, I had a profound experience of being bigger than I thought I was. I felt my anxiety melt away into bliss. I experienced the complete transcendence of all thought.

How I Discovered Meditation

I Needed to Know What That Was. So, the next morning I set my alarm and positioned myself outside the door where my host father and his son were chanting.  I allowed my thoughts and feelings to dissolve in their voices. This is how I discovered meditation.

Later when I was invited to join them, I discovered the power of Vedas and chanting them in Sanskrit.

The rest  - since you know my story - is history. I returned to school, studied Sanskrit and became a scholar of world religions. I applied my knowledge and became a Jyotishi (Vedic Astrologer) and have spent the past decades of my life teaching Vedic knowledge to yoga practitioners.

Yet I’ve never taught a class on what the Vedas are - how they’re at not only the source of modern yoga practice but are the Source of everything.

Opening the Door to Life of Depth, Meaning and Growth

Veda is the living intelligence at the basis of all things. It’s the intelligence that causes a fetus to develop into a baby. It’s the intelligence that allows a flower to bloom so perfectly. It’s the intelligence that’s causing your heart to beat and lungs to breathe automatically even as you’re reading this.

That intelligence is lively, constantly present as the vibrations that make up what we think is so solid and stagnant.

To chant the verses of the Vedas - as I had first done so many years ago in Kathmandu - is to align your body and mind with that consciousness.

This knowledge is too mind-blowing to not be shared.

So when Jacob Kyle at Embodied Philosophy invited me to create a course on the Vedas, I instantly said “Yes.” As I started to create the content for the class, I realized that everyone serious about yoga, meditation, Sanskrit, and Jyotisha (Vedic Astrology) needs to align with the Vedas as the powerful and profound Source of your practice. Even if you don’t know Sanskrit or Vedic chanting, just learning about the Vedic worldview is enough to transform your perspective on life.

There’s so much more than what we see in front of us that’s revealed by the Vedas.