1567: Growing Through the Dark Night of the Soul / An Interview with Author Simon Haas
Wisdom of the Sages
David Ramella
5 • 970 Ratings
🗓️ 30 March 2025
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Life’s most painful moments often carry the seeds of our deepest transformation. In this powerful episode, author and scholar Simon Haas joins Wisdom of the Sages to illuminate how the Bhagavad Gita frames personal crisis—not as a detour from the spiritual path, but as an integral part of it. Known as Vishad Yoga, the yoga of crisis, this ancient wisdom reveals how despair can become a gateway to awakening.
Through the lens of Arjuna’s breakdown on the battlefield, Simon explains the four universal symptoms of a dark night of the soul:
• Intense suffering tied to time—fear of the future, lamentation for the past, and confusion in the present
• A powerful urge to withdraw from life or even give up
• Confrontation with parts of ourselves we’d rather not see
• A feeling of complete helplessness, where even our best tools no longer work
Rather than avoiding these moments, Simon shows us how to recognize them as sacred rites of passage—times when the soul is being reshaped by divine design. Learn how to navigate the inner battlefield with the guidance of yoga philosophy, and why the teachings of Krishna to Arjuna offer a timeless blueprint for turning breakdown into breakthrough.
Key Highlights:
• Why suffering often precedes spiritual evolution
• How to listen, surrender, and evolve when everything falls apart
• Why the world’s greatest spiritual texts were born from suffering
• Practical tools from the Gita for navigating emotional crisis
This episode is a profound companion for anyone going through grief, loss, disillusionment, or inner change. Let the Gita be your guide through the shadows.
🎧 Tune in now and walk the path of inner transformation with clarity and purpose.
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#DarkNightOfTheSoul #BhagavadGitaWisdom #VishadYoga #BhaktiWisdom #YogaThroughSuffering #SpiritualAwakening #WisdomOfTheSages #YogaPhilosophy #SimonHaas #TransformationThroughCrisis
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Namaste everybody, it's Raganath, and I want to announce my autumn pilgrimage 2025 to sacred India. |
| 0:08.6 | Tons of Kirtan, tons of Bhakti. |
| 0:11.1 | It is my great passion and pleasure to take people to sacred cities, sacred rivers, sacred people, |
| 0:18.8 | and of course, amazing vegetarian and vegan food prepared with love. |
| 0:25.2 | If India's been calling you, this could be the trip. |
| 0:28.6 | Go to my website, ragunov.orgia.orgia,000-J-N-A-T-H-U-N-A-T-H-E-H-N-A-T-H-E-T-H-E-N-A-T-H-H-D-H-Yoga slash India 2025 to hold your spot or for more questions. |
| 0:45.2 | Hadibol. |
| 0:46.7 | Rather, Krishna says, actually, one of his definitions of yoga in the Gita is Dukasam Yoga v Yoga. |
| 0:57.6 | Yoga is breaking our connection to suffering. |
| 1:09.3 | So, but inevitably, we, as a, as part of life, we experience pain and suffering. And, and, and, and there are helpful and unhelpful ways of reversing that. |
| 1:14.5 | Do you feel that the way that life works, the way that God works in our lives, |
| 1:19.6 | is that we wouldn't break our relationship with suffering if it didn't peak at some point, |
| 1:26.2 | if it didn't intensify, and therefore this is the way that life works, |
| 1:30.9 | that naturally all of us will be visited by some intense suffering, some despair that will encourage us to think more deeply about who we are and how we're living and what life is really meant for? |
| 1:48.9 | I love the way you've expressed that. It's that certainly been the case for me in my own life. |
| 1:55.5 | Suffering has been one of my most important teachers. |
| 2:06.6 | So that you're encouraging us, in Bhagavika is encouraging us, to anticipate this kind of phase in life and to approach it like as okay. |
| 2:16.6 | Now we're getting to what life's really all about in a sense |
| 2:20.2 | now now is our chance to really switch gears in life and and make the most of this opportunity |
| 2:26.7 | yes yes and and kishna gives um kishna also distinguishes between pain and suffering. |
| 2:35.0 | The two are related but they're not the same. |
| 2:40.0 | Oh no, Bhagavati, baghavati, bas-de-byea. |
... |
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