Episodes

Welcome to Episode 29 of The Mindful Initiative. This episode was recorded during the pandemic. Our guest for the podcast is Krishna Das – a Grammy Award Nominee – Kirtan Singer. We are grateful that we could have him as our first guest for the video series. Since this is our first video podcast – so you can listen to it on YouTube. I first heard Krishna Das live in 2015 during his annual Kirtan event in New York in a church on Thanksgiving night with Manaswini. There were people from all fait...

Swami Sarvapriyananda Ji Welcome to Episode 28 of The Mindful Initiative Podcast with Swami Sarvapriyananda ji, the current resident Swami and head of Vedanta Society of New York (VSNY). He is a monk of the Ramakrishna Mission. I have been extremely blessed to meet many spiritual teachers on my life journey. Each person has helped me move along on my path forward – however, there are times when you meet someone who becomes a guiding force in your life – and Swami Sarvapriyananda ji is one of th...

James Wood Thank You so much for being a dedicated listener of The Mindful Initiative Podcast. Before you read about the podcast, I would like to let you know that I will be offering Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT), an 8-week course developed at Stanford University from July 10th to Aug 28th. This course helps manage emotions, stress, and challenges in your life. If you are interested in knowing more about the course, please visit https://compassioncultivation.in. In Episode 27 of The Mi...

Dr. R Balasubramaniam (Dr. Balu) In Episode 26, I speak to Dr. R Balasubramaniam (Dr. Balu). Dr. Balu is a Grassroots Physician. His life has been inspired by the work and life of Swami Vivekananda. Like Swami Vivekananda, Dr. Balu has dedicated his life to upliftment and to the betterment of the underserved. His kindness, wisdom, and clarity of thought stand out for anyone who speaks to him but his sheer dedication and willingness to end human suffering is what separates him from his peers. [p...

Shantala Sriramaiah In the 25th Episode of The Mindful Initiative, we speak to my Veda Chanting Teacher, Shantala Sriramaiah. Shantala teaches Vedic Chanting to people worldwide through her online portal Veda Studies. According to Shantala, Vedic Chants create positive vibrations, and these vibrations can uplift us, especially during challenging times. These vibrations originate in our abdomen and travel through our lungs. In the current times, we can use some of the vibrations for uplifting ou...

Ron Lumsden About Ron Lumsden: I spoke to Ron for the 24th Episode of The Mindful Initiative Podcast. Ron is from the Moray Firth in the North of Scotland and currently lives in Bangkok, Thailand. He is an author, an artist, a Buddhist practitioner, Ron’s story is simple yet extraordinary. From teaching a group of Hearing Impaired Students in London, he went on to work in many countries across the globe. His story is our story. A cancer survivor – who managed his pain by facing it head-on – is ...

Dr. Anuradha Choudry We interviewed Dr. Anuradha Choudhry for the 23rd Episode of The Mindful Initiative Podcast. A Vedantic Scholar – Dr. Choudry is an Assistant Professor of Humanities and Social Science Department at IIT Kharagpur for Sanskrit, Indian Psychology, French and History of Science and Technology in Ancient India, where she explores the contributions of Indian thought in the fields of psychology, development, happiness studies, linguistics, and in other related socio-cultural dime...

Eddie Stern Happy New Year! The Mindful Initiative is pleased to bring to its listeners this new episode as we begin new journeys in 2021! Our guest for Episode 22 is Eddie Stern, who is a Yoga teacher, author, and lecturer from New York City. We interviewed Eddie online. This interview is very personal to me as Eddie is someone I have personally looked up to – like many practitioners in the Ashtanga Tradition. He is a role model not only for the way he carries the tradition of Yoga but also f...

David Ingalls [powerpress_medialinks] About David Ingalls: David Ingalls was my first Ashtanga Teacher. I am eternally grateful to him for his teachings and wisdom. He has been teaching Meditation, Yoga for more than 45 years. David became certified to teach Transcendental Meditation in 1972 and has been teaching ever since! He first began the practice of Ashtanga in 1994 and soon after went to Mysore, India to study with Pattabhi Jois (founder of Ashtanga). He also studied in India with the r...

Shabnam Virmani [powerpress_medialinks] Shabnam Virmani is a National Award winning documentary filmmaker, a soulful singer, an enigmatic storyteller and an inspirational writer. Shabnam has been exploring the myriad possibilities and power of mystic poetry and its oral traditions. It was during the Gujarat riots of 2002 that she started to explore deeper questions of life in the words of the 15th century mystic poet Kabir. The same year, Shabnam was invited to be artist-in-residence at the Sr...

Uvinie Lubecki In our 19th Episode of The Mindful Initiative Podcast, I speak with Uvinie Lubecki, who is probably the youngest person, I have interviewed for the Podcast. [powerpress_medialinks] About Uvinie Uvinie Lubecki is a leadership development trainer, consultant, and author. She has worked with executives and teams at leading corporations and nonprofits including Macy’s, Johnson & Johnson, Celgene, GoPro, Cooper Design, Pachamama Alliance and Google. Previously, she accumulated diver...

Dr. Chris Germer In Episode 18, I speak with Dr. Chris Germer, who is a Clinical Psychologist, Lecturer on Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, co-founder of Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) and author of several books on the subject. Dr. Germer unravels intriguing aspects of human behavior, his connection with India, the inspirations he derives from Indian contemplative wisdom, the founding of MSC, and disarmingly shares his personal story. To know more about his work please visit his personal s...

Dr. Thimappa Hegde In Episode 17 Nitesh Batra speaks to Dr. Thimappa Hegde. Dr. Thimappa Hegde is a distinguished neurosurgeon, and is presently working as the Director of Narayana Institute of Neurosciences, Bangalore. A Vedantic Scholar, Dr. Hedge speaks about wide variety of topics including connection between science and spirituality, communication and parenting to his inspirations in life. This conversation was recorded back in October 2019 and is very relevant to the uncertain times we are...

Sri M In Episode 16 of The Mindful Initiative podcast, we travel to Madapalle in Andhra Pradesh to speak to Sri M: a spiritual guide, an educationist and a social reformer. In this episode, host Nitesh Batra and Sri M speak about a wide array of topics from different phases and experiences of his life. In this podcast, listeners get to hear words of profound wisdom from the Upanishads, to answers on Mindfulness, interspersed with lighthearted exchanges and fascinating facets of Sri M’s life wher...

Prof. B. Mahadevan In the 15th episode of The Mindful Initiative podcast, host Nitesh Batra talks to Professor Mahadevan. He is a currently a Professor in Production and Operations Management at Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore. Professor Mahadevan’s research interests include researching the possibility of using ancient Indian wisdom to address contemporary concerns, spirituality in the work place, and management paradigms from Bhagavad Gita. A true embodiment of a modern day sch...

Gopi Krishnaswamy In this 14th episode of The Mindful Initiative podcast, host Nitesh Batra talks to Gopi Krishnaswamy, a Mindfulness coach and a Zen practitioner, who walked away from a corporate life that was a diverse tapestry of experiences, to teach Mindfulness and help people transform their lives. Gopi is one of the first certified SIY teachers (with the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute) in India. In this conversation, Gopi talks about his book, “Creativity Unleashed” and how e...

Dr. Saamdu Chetri This episode of The Mindful Initiative podcast unravels the fascinating and inspiring story of Dr. Saamdu Chetri’s life. As the Executive Director and one of the principal architects of Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness Center appointed by its President Princess Kezang Choden Wangchuck and her Board of Directors, Dr. Chetri’s is a phenomenal story as he walks us through the tapestry of his life that has had a good share of turbulent times and great accomplishments. But what co...

Dr. Thupten Jinpa From arriving as a Tibetan child refugee in India at a tender age of 1, to relocating to a children’s home in Shimla, to quitting formal school at 10 to adopt monkhood, to being called upon by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to be His interpreter, to earning a B.A and Ph.D from Cambridge and subsequently relinquishing monkhood, Dr. Thupten Jinpa’s journey through life is a fascinating tapestry of hard work, faith, self-enquiry, serendipity, luck, ambition, drive and above all, com...

Host Nitesh Batra, in an engaging conversation with Prof. Ellen Langer, known as the “Mother of Mindfulness”. As the first female professor to gain tenure in the Psychology Department at Harvard University, Dr. Langer talks about how to become more Mindful in our day to day lives. She gives tips and examples on how flipping a pattern of thought, can dramatically change the way we look at things and feel about people. Enjoy Episode 11 of The Mindful Initiative podcast! [powerpress_medialinks]

Latha D. Introduction: This week our guest is Latha D., who is the Principal of Parikrma School, which is part of the Parikrma foundation. A teacher, a daughter, a mother, a wife, a Principal and above all a great human being, Latha has overcome many barriers in life to be who she is today. She lost her daughter to suicide, when her daughter was only 16 years and 6 months old. To over come this tragedy and to be who she is today is one incredible story. This podcast will make you cry, inspire y...

Introduction: This week our guest is Dorcas Quynn Mcwilliams, who was my first Yoga teacher. She is the founder of Sol Yoga in Frederick, Maryland, US. Dorcas has had a profound impact on my life not just by being my teacher in the first few years of my Yoga life but as a role model, as a parent, as a mentor and as a friend. As we have both moved physically in different parts of the world we still connect because of our foundation in Yoga. Her studio in Frederick has been adjudged as the “Best Y...

Suman Ghose Introduction: Our guest today is Suman Ghose, who has co-authored the book From Command to Empathy along with Avik Chand. In this podcast, he talks about what led them to writing the book, his journey along the way that uncovered aspects of empathy and emotional intelligence – terms that are often considered abstract and understood by a few. Suman speaks about the overarching importance of inculcating a culture and habit of developing Emotional Intelligence and Empathy, which in esse...

Introduction: Our guest today is Renuka Taneja, founder of Windows: The Art and Craft Corner. Windows is a unique Art school based in New Delhi, that nurtures creativity in children. Renuka has also been able to extend the concept of using art as a medium of creative expression to school teachers and administrators, NGOs and corporates, besides school children. Windows was established in January 2000 with a vision to help rediscover the child hidden within each one of us. In this podcast, Renuka...

About Guru Our guest today is Guru Prasad, a Chartered Accountant by profession. Guru is the founder of Guru & Jana, a CA Firm based in Bangalore, India. He has also authored a couple of books viz., “The God in the Boardroom” and “Banter Beyond the Buck”. In this podcast, Guru talks about what led him to the creation of his CA firm, how he turned the company around and developed an organisation that has a unique employee culture and philosophy. He also gives us a glimpse of the upheavals he face...