Ep. 294 – Different Forms of Yoga

Ep. 294 – Different Forms of Yoga

Author: Ram Dass / Love Serve Remember December 30, 2025 Duration: 48:35

In this talk from the 1980s, Ram Dass explores different forms of yoga—hatha, dhyan, jnana, bhakti, tantra, and more—and answers questions from the audience. 

Get your copy of All In This Together, the latest book from Jack Kornfield!  Let this new book be your guide, as Jack reveals how to navigate our human experience with wisdom and care. Inside you’ll find a beautiful collection of stories, inspiration for conflict resolution, and powerful teachings on healing, justice, and human kindness—anchored in the teachings of the Buddha and poetry from luminary voices like Mary Oliver. Click here to learn more!

This episode of Here and Now comes from an event in Irvine, CA, called “Living Consciously in the 1980s.” 

  • Ram Dass talks about how it’s only when we realize we aren’t who we think we are that the journey of awakening begins. Fortunately, there is help along this path in the various types of yoga, or methods for coming into the One.
  • Ram Dass explores different forms of yoga, including hatha yoga (energy), dhyan yoga (meditation), jnana yoga (wisdom), bhakti yoga (devotion), and tantric yoga (senses). He says we should work with whichever form calls to us, or we can be a “chicken soup eclectic” like he is. 
  • Finally, Ram Dass answers some questions from the audience. He talks about intuition, the darkness that comes before spiritual growth, social identities, dealing with attachment to your child’s predicament, and more.

The Ram Dass community gathers regularly to engage in meaningful discussions about the podcast. We invite you to join us and share your curiosities, insights, and wisdom. Sign up for the General Fellowship to receive event invitations directly in your inbox.

About Ram Dass:

Ram Dass’s spirit has been a guiding light for generations, carrying millions along on the journey. Ram Dass teaches that through the Bhakti practice of unconditional love, we can all connect with our true nature. Through these teachings, Ram Dass has shared a little piece of his guru, Maharaj-ji, with all who have listened to him. Learn more at ramdass.org.

“What I’m saying to you is, which yoga is appropriate for any human being, only that human being can figure out. And you can only figure it out by trying and testing and looking and quieting your heart and opening. One of you, it will be perfect for you to study and read holy book and Vedic tracts and things. For someone else, it’ll be absolutely perfect to start to work with the energy. For someone else, it’ll be perfect to do tantra. And it is not better or worse. These are merely different strategies. And some you will be sort of like I am, sort of like a chicken soup eclectic. And I do sort of play with all of these at a kind of superficial level.” – Ram Dass

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.


The voice of Ram Dass carries a unique and enduring warmth, a blend of profound spiritual insight and grounded, often humorous, humanity. Ram Dass Here And Now is a curated archive of this wisdom, drawing from a rich tapestry of lectures recorded over four decades. Each episode is a focused journey into themes of consciousness, love, service, and the intricate paths of awakening, all filtered through Ram Dass's distinctive heart-centered perspective. The podcast is presented by the Love Serve Remember Foundation, with longtime friend and director Raghu Markus providing contextual introductions that connect these timeless talks to our contemporary moment. Listeners will find themselves immersed in conversations that weave together Eastern philosophy, particularly from the Hindu and Bhakti traditions, with practical Western psychology, exploring how spiritual principles manifest in everyday life, relationships, and societal challenges. It’s less a formal lecture and more an intimate, meandering dialogue with a wise elder, offering reflections that feel both ancient and immediately relevant. This isn't about dogma, but about the shared, often messy, human experience of seeking meaning and connection. To spend time with this podcast is to encounter a gentle guide, one who points persistently toward the present moment, toward compassion, and toward the recognition of our shared essence.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 307

Ram Dass Here And Now
Podcast Episodes
Ep. 36 - Promises and Pitfalls Pt. 3 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 39:31
The spiritual journey is a different path than what you thought you were on. It's very hard to make the transition to that path because we tend to take the power from the spiritual work we do to make our lives "nice" - b…
Ep. 35 - Promises and Pitfalls Pt. 2 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:37
The quality of a really good teacher is rascalism. All you need to know is this: If you want to be free, use the teacher to the fullest extent. Their karmic problems are their karmic problems. See Privacy Policy at https…
Ep. 34 - Promises and Pitfalls Pt. 1 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:19
Ram Dass talks about the promises and the pitfalls of the spiritual path, and the shift of reality that happened in the sixties that was predicated by psychedelics. This shift blew apart the traditional religious systems…
Ep. 33 - Love Beyond Time's Reach [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:59
Being in the presence of dying people keeps me close to the edge of my own awakening. Love touches time and turns it to dust. Love is beyond the reach of time. -Ram Dass See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy an…
Ep. 32 - Battle Between Mind and Heart [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:45
There's another way of being in the universe. The Chinese call it "the heart mind" or as we may call it "the intuitive mind." Rather than knowing through dualistic means or thinking about it, one subjectively merges with…
Ep. 31 - Aging and the Awakening [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:17:16
The nature of aging is change. We are fascinated by watching that which changes. When change starts to happen to who we think we are, the fascination turns into fear. We are living in a system that is out of balance; the…
Ep. 30 - Risk Being Human [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:00
What we offer each other is our truth, which includes all of our "stuff." We have to allow ourselves to be human. The way to the truth is through acknowledging the fullness of where we find ourselves to be, which is thro…
Ep. 29 – Personality & Emotions [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 59:02
One cultivates spaciousness or awareness which allows you to acknowledge the emotions and see them as part of the human condition. Emotions are like subtle thought forms and they all arise in response to something outsid…
Ep. 28 – Human Heart [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:12
Media can destroy the message in the way it delivers it, similarly, as long as I have a price I am transmitting fear, because I have something to lose. The minute I have no price, I can transmit perfect joy of presence a…
Ep. 27 – Spirituality & Politics [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:12
The world is a reflection of our internal state; if we dwell on turmoil, anger and confusion then that's how the world will be perceived to the individual. You have to work on yourself first before you can effectively ta…