1628: The Mind Is the Altar: Mental Worship, Bhakti Yoga & Inner Transformation
Wisdom of the Sages
David Ramella
5 • 970 Ratings
🗓️ 18 June 2025
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What matters most in yoga isn’t the ritual—it’s the transformation of the mind and heart.
In this episode, Raghunath and Kaustubha explore the practice of manasa pūjā (mental worship) through the story of Vasudeva mentally offering charity while imprisoned. They unpack why internal devotion is not only valid—but often more powerful than external performance. Whether you’re on a yoga mat or stuck in traffic, your inner world is where the real yoga happens.
🎯 Takeaways:
• Why the mind is the true altar in bhakti yoga
• How to avoid spiritual burnout by going beyond mechanical practice
• A bizarre story of mental sweet rice—and a very real burn
• Tips for making your worship alive, even when life gets in the way
Tune in to explore the inner essence of yoga—and why even your thoughts can be an offering.
SB 10.3.9-11
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey everybody, it's Raganov, and I'm announcing our Super Soul Academy, 203-hour yoga teacher training. |
| 0:08.4 | We call it the Bhakti yoga cultural immersion, and we've been doing it for 10 years. |
| 0:14.7 | And it's hosted at the beautiful Goverdowne Eco Village with Ragnaswami and all the monks. |
| 0:19.5 | What a backdrop for transformation. |
| 0:22.7 | It all culminates in the incredible flower festival. |
| 0:26.4 | Find out why people love this training and it's our greatest offering throughout the year. |
| 0:30.8 | If you're a yoga teacher and you want to add Bhakti to your teaching, this is for you. |
| 0:36.1 | Go to my website, this is for you. Have a great day. All your worship can be done in the mind. And often it can be |
| 1:00.0 | more effective than your than your worship in this world. Right. Right. You can sit there and |
| 1:06.0 | sometimes I do that. When I travel, I have to do my puja, but I'm in a plane and I can't do it and I I don't like to |
| 1:12.7 | do certain things publicly so I'll have to like shut my shut my external world off and go into an |
| 1:19.6 | internal world of worship and when I do my internal puja I can be anywhere in the world |
| 1:25.8 | generally I go to the banks of the gunga. |
| 1:28.7 | Generally, I have conch shells that are filled with gunga water or sacred ghee or milk. |
| 1:35.5 | I'm bathing my deities in the most opulent ways. In the most opulent ways. Yeah, because I can |
| 1:42.6 | because I can manufacture it in my mind. |
| 1:44.9 | I'm wearing beautiful silk. |
| 1:46.0 | First, I bathe myself. |
| 1:47.7 | Then I apply T-lock to my body. |
| 1:49.7 | Then I sit on a kusha mat. |
| 1:52.2 | Then I have all my deities ahead of me. |
| 1:54.0 | And then my deities sometimes come to life and start to understand what's going on. |
... |
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