Western Australia Talks - 1980-82

Swami Venkatesananda's Australian talks on yoga were first given in 1968 at the homes of friends, or at various churches and synagogues. After 1969 he visited Western Australia every year, so that the notion of creating a yoga centre where he could stay while delivering these talks became an obvious decision for all those hopeful of a longer stay each year.

Eventually the Beacon Yoga Centre, in the Western seaport town of Fremantle, became somewhat of an ashram, with a permanent staff of yoga teachers, all eager to sit at the feet of a yogi named Swami Venkatesananda. And it's no doubt thanks to all the people who lived and worked at Beacon Yoga Centre that we have this legacy of audio recordings to pass on.

Unfortunately, we have few Australian recordings made during the sixties and seventies that have survived, or if they have, we don't have them (send them if you do).

Fortunately, we do have many of the analog recordings made in 1980 and 1981 as well as his final year of lecturing, 1982. Those who are observant may detect some change in his yogic vision in the later years; certainly a change had come over him; many had commented on how there was something different about him, and we all knew that he wouldn't be with us much longer. Foremost, he clearly seemed emancipated from any debt his gift of scholarship had bestowed upon him. A decade earlier, yes, ten years earlier, he had proclaimed to all of us that his final task on earth was to finish his own translation of the great but little known scripture known as the Yoga Vasistha. With it completed, he still managed keep on for one more year, and give in this final months of his life, a fourteen hour series of talks centered around the Yoga Vasistha.

So, here we will post the talks taken from his final three years, as well as his final lecture series on the Yoga Vasistha, delivered over several months in the winter and spring of 1982, which provide an opportunity for students, scholars, and most importantly, yogis, to probe this final chapter of recordings of the yogi, who, because he was empty was filled, as those who were nearby could attest, with the ever constant luminosity of a liberated sage.

04-17-1980 On Vigilance
04-17-1980 On Using A Mala
04-18-1980 On The Notion of Evil
04-20-1980 Q&A Discussion
04-22-1980 Q&A Discussion
04-23-1980 Q&A Discussion
05-01-1980 Q&A Discussion
05-02-1980 Q&A Discussion

05-03-1980 On Integral Yoga
05-05-1980 On Meditation
05-06-1980 A Venkatesananda Perspective On Miracles
05-07-1980 Early Times With Sivananda & Q/A: Devotion
05-08-1980 What Is Love? Knowledge, Experience & Beyond
05-10-1980 Pratyahara & Meditation, The Ending of Unhappiness
05-12-1980 The Volitional & The Non-Volitional: Will & God's Will
05-15-1980 Sacrifice: Consecration Of What Is Thought To Be Ego
05-22-1980 The Difference Between Doubt & Inquiry As Related To Vichara  
05-25-1980 Enlightened Mind Part 1
05-25-1980 Enlightened Mind Part 2
05-26-1980 Kriya, Pranayama, Suspension of Breath & Vritti
05-29-1980 Japa - Inner Ear, Inner Voice
06-02-1980 Thought Itself Is The Divider!
06-09-1980 Shining The (Inner) Light On The Dynamics of Experience
06-10-1980 Q&A Memory/Conditioning, Assimilation of Experience, Reconditioning, Etc.  
06-13-1980 Unpanishads Fundamentals, Minus The Fundamentalisms
06-14-1980 Essence of (Spiritual) Communication
06-16-1980 Tantra, The Experience of Non-Duality
06-17-1980 Death of the Body — What Dies?
06-18-1980 Limiting & Limited Role of The Buddhi, Elimination of Its Influence
06-19-1980 Love of Guru, Beginning of Total Unselfishness 

Q&A-- 1980 No Attachment-No Possession

1981 Informal Discussions Western Australia

Informal Discussion  April ??, 1981:
Investigation and Realization  

Informal Discussion April 08,1981
Inquiry Is Not Thought 

Informal Discussion  April 09, 1981
Worry About Future Occurances: Fate and Possibility  

Informal Discussion  April 17, 1981
Vigilance  

Informal Discussion May 01, 1981
Thy Will Be Done 

Informal Discussion May 06, 1981
Pratyahara and Ego *    
 (*Note: most recently added on July 31, 2022)  

Informal Discussion May 07, 1981
Hidden Springs  *
(*Note: most recently added on Aug 01, 2022)  


1982 Formal Talks in Sydney Australia
Sydney, Australia April 1982   (added July 9th, 2022)
Total Love, Bhagavad Gita Chapter 12 —  Bhakti, The Yoga of The Divine Love:
     Total Love Part 1    Total Love Part 2
     Total Love Part 3    Total Love Part 4


1982 Informal Discussions, Western Australia:  

Informal Discussion, May 02, 1982:
On Being Asked about Non-Attachment

Informal Discussion, May 05, 1982:
Checking on Disharmony - The Yogic Reallignment

Informal Discussion: May 06, 1982:  
Desire

Informal Discussion, May 09, 1982:  
Responsibility

Informal Discussion, May 17th, 1982: 
Religious Life & The Spiritual Life - Are There Distinctions? 

Informal Discussion, May 21,1982:
Can We Change Others?

Informal Discussion May 21, 1982 (afternoon):
Defusing Gender & Other Supposed Differences

Informal Discussion May 21, 1982 (evening satsang):
Being an Instrument in the Hands of God: The Correct Karma Yoga Spirit & Attitude

Informal Discussion May 22, 1982:
What Makes Changes In Our Lives 

Informal Discussion May 22, 1982:
A True Devotee

nformal Discussion May 23, 1982:
Pentacostal Baptism & Enlightenment

Informal Discussion May 27, 1982:   
Observation  vs Thinking, Free Will vs God’s Will

Informal Discussion, May 28, 1982:   
On Renunciation

Informal Discussion, July 2, 1982:
Can You Know That You Are Enlightened?

Informal Discussion, July 14, 1982:
Pratyahara - The Senses, The Sense Organs & Vichara

Informal Discussion, July 15, 1982
Pure & Impure Food - Physical, psychological, Spiritual

Informal Discussion, July 16, 1982
From Dolphins to Enlighenment 

Informal Discussion, July 17, 1982
Experience, The Experiencer & The Truth

Informal Discussion, July 23, 1982
Subjectivity, Objectivity, Opinion & The Truth

Informal Discussion, July 28, 1982
Am I The Body?

Informal Discussion, July 30, 1982
In The Guru's Shadow

Informal Discussion, August 01, 1982
What Is Faith?

Informal Discussion, August 04, 1982
Freedom (From Ideas) & Enquiry 

Informal Discussion, August 6, 1982
Dealing With Your Own Foolishness

Informal Discussion, August 8, 1982
Plagued By Wanting What Others Have & Wanting To Control Others

Informal Discussion, August 13, 1982
Parents, Children & The Question of Responsibility

Informal Discussion, August 15, 1982
Self-Control

Informal Discussion, August 28, 1982
Booked For Enlightenment

 

Our MP3 files should stream while downloading whether you are using QuickTime (use the newest version for the most compatibility) or Microsoft's Media Player (use the latest version available for your Operating System). By the way, Media Player may have to be set to play MP3 using Media Player's Tools (Right click at the top and select: Tools, Options, File Types: and put a check mark in the box for MP3).

Remember with dial-up connections you may choppiness and stuttering as your connection speed drops. If you experience this problem, simply wait a few minutes (in order to get the download ahead of your listening, and then try listening again). If you find the download is not smooth, then simply wait until a few minutes and continue browsers, and then come back to the beginning of the audio file and begin listening.

You should be able to stream the files in real time, but you may prefer to download them instead, especially if you have difficulty with a slow or bad connection. To download, right click (option-click on a Macintosh) on the link and save to your hard drive. Once downloaded, click on the mp3 file to play.