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#208 The Many Shades of Devotion in Yoga

Yoga Inspiration

Release Date: 08/01/2025

#210 Living Legacy: Sri Shubha on Krishnamacharya, Yoga, and Teaching from the Heart show art #210 Living Legacy: Sri Shubha on Krishnamacharya, Yoga, and Teaching from the Heart

Yoga Inspiration

In this rare and heartfelt conversation, Kino MacGregor sits down with Sri Shubha, daughter of the legendary T. Krishnamacharya, to share stories and insights from the man often called the father of modern yoga. offers a deeply personal glimpse into her upbringing in a household where yoga was not just a practice, but a way of life. She reflects on her father’s presence, rituals, and teaching style, along with the subtle ways his guidance shifted between students. She also honors her mother’s quiet but profound contributions to yoga, revealing how both parents shaped her own path as a...

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This bonus episode is a gateway into The Spiritual Hustle, an honest, practical, and soul-centered approach to building a yoga or wellness business. The conversation traces the roots of practice, the call to teach, and the leap of faith it takes to create an online presence that stays true to authentic voice. You’ll hear about: • The real challenges (and gifts) of shifting from student to teacher • How to overcome fear and show up authentically online • The power of collaboration and how The Spiritual Hustle was born • What makes this program different from other yoga biz trainings,...

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Yoga Inspiration

In this warm and inspiring episode, Kino MacGregor welcomes her dear friend and legendary Ashtanga Yoga teacher David Swenson for a conversation about his new book, Only Dead Fish Go With the Flow. David shares what sparked the idea for the book — a collection of stories, reflections, and wisdom from decades of living yoga on and off the mat. He offers an inside look at the writing journey: the surprises, the challenges of editing, and why he chose the self-publishing route to keep his voice true and unfiltered. David shares a few anecdotes straight out of the book! Kino and...

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#208 The Many Shades of Devotion in Yoga show art #208 The Many Shades of Devotion in Yoga

Yoga Inspiration

Join Kino MacGregor, Tim Feldmann, Wade Oakley and Chandana Bhowmick as they discuss what devotion means for each of them. Finding the fuel of devotion in their practice is more sustainable than the fuel of ambition. Hear how they each found the student’s heart of love in their relationship with their teachers and how they carry the flame of the practice forward today. In the yogic path, we often associate devotion with sweetness—offering flowers, singing mantras, lighting candles. But true devotion is forged in longing. Longing is love stretched out across time. It is the ache that...

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#207 How Yoga Teaches Us to Stand Up for Justice Without Losing Our Peace show art #207 How Yoga Teaches Us to Stand Up for Justice Without Losing Our Peace

Yoga Inspiration

In a world filled with conflict, injustice, and harm, how do we respond as yogis? In this episode, Kino explores the powerful yogic concept of *kṣānti*—forbearance, patience, and compassionate endurance—through scriptural sources including the Bhagavad Gītā, the Bodhicaryāvatāra, and the Yoga Sutras. We talk about how yogic activism is possible—and necessary. With examples from Arjuna’s awakening on the battlefield, the lives of the Buddha, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr., we look at how spiritual practice and social action go hand in hand. You’ll learn the difference...

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Yoga Inspiration

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We are, by nature, discriminating beings. We develop taste — for art, food, fashion, architecture. We learn to tell what is real from what is imitation, what is durable from what is fleeting. We become connoisseurs of culture, cuisine, aesthetics.   So what happens when that same discriminating capacity is turned inward?   This is what yogic philosophy demands. It says: if you can be discerning with worldly things, how much more precious — how much more urgent — is it to become a connoisseur of consciousness?   Instead of savoring flavors, we savor states of mind. ...

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#204: Dharma Talk: The Grace of the Guru show art #204: Dharma Talk: The Grace of the Guru

Yoga Inspiration

In the sacred journey of yoga, the figure of the guru—the teacher, the revealer—is not merely someone who instructs us in techniques. The guru is the light that removes darkness, the presence that dispels confusion, and the voice that calls us back to the Self. The Sanskrit word guru itself is formed from gu, meaning darkness, and ru, meaning remover. The guru is not the source of light—but the one who points us toward it, until we recognize it within.   Grace, or kṛpā, is not a transaction. It’s not earned. It flows freely, when the heart becomes soft enough to receive it. The...

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Yoga Inspiration

Many of us come to yoga seeking relief. Relief from pain, from restlessness, from uncertainty. And sometimes we find it. But over time, what we discover is more lasting than relief. We discover presence. We discover steadiness. We discover a kind of joy that doesn’t have to shout. It only has to be. So we practice. Not to get rid of pain, but to know it. To meet it with clarity and care. And in that meeting, we find something remarkable: joy is still possible.   It is a joy that knows sorrow. A happiness that is not threatened by difficulty. This is the depth of saumanasya. Saumanasya...

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#202: How Yoga Grows a Heart of Unconditional Compassion show art #202: How Yoga Grows a Heart of Unconditional Compassion

Yoga Inspiration

In the closing prayer of the Ashtanga practice, we chant: svasti prajābhyaḥ pari-pālayantāṁ, nyāyena mārgena mahīṁ mahīśāḥ, gobrāhmaṇebhyaḥ śubham astu nityaṁ, lokāḥ samastāḥ sukhino bhavantu. These ancient words are an offering — a prayer for all beings to be protected, for the rulers of the earth to walk the path of righteousness, for all sacred beings to be blessed, and for every living soul across all worlds to experience happiness and freedom. The final invocation, Oṁ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ, repeats the call for peace three times — for peace...

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More Episodes

Join Kino MacGregor, Tim Feldmann, Wade Oakley and Chandana Bhowmick as they discuss what devotion means for each of them. Finding the fuel of devotion in their practice is more sustainable than the fuel of ambition. Hear how they each found the student’s heart of love in their relationship with their teachers and how they carry the flame of the practice forward today.

In the yogic path, we often associate devotion with sweetness—offering flowers, singing mantras, lighting candles. But true devotion is forged in longing. Longing is love stretched out across time. It is the ache that refuses to settle for surface answers. It is the pull of the soul toward something it remembers but has not yet fully touched.

This longing—this burning yearning—is not a problem. It is a sign of awakening.

Many of us come to yoga not because life is perfect, but because it hurts. We come to the mat with broken hearts, old questions, unseen grief. And often, we feel that unless we are calm or wise, we cannot be truly devotional.

Longing is already devotion.

When you show up to practice with no guarantees, that is devotion. 

When you breathe through uncertainty and stay anyway, that is devotion. 

When your practice becomes the place where you cry, or break, or ask life’s hardest questions—that is holy.

It is not the polish of your practice that sanctifies it. It is the depth of your yearning.

As students, let your questions live inside you. Don’t rush to fix them. Let them ripen you. Ask not only “What can I master?” but “What do I truly seek?”

As teachers, honor the longing in your students. Know that behind every posture, there is a heart that is yearning—not just to stretch—but to understand. Teach not just to instruct—but to witness, to serve that fire.

We are not here to douse that fire. We are here to tend it.

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