The Goddess Question

Insights into Non-Dual Consciousness in the Vijñānabhairava Tantra

A series of three lectures with Prof. (Dr) Alka Tyagi

20 November · 27 November · 4 December 2026

Fridays · 7:00 pm IST (2:30 pm CET · 1:30 pm UK · 8:30 am New York)

Three lectures of one and a half hours each · Live online via Zoom

Based on the late Dr Mark Dyczkowski’s recently published translation of the Vijñānabhairava Tantra, including his introduction and exposition, as well as the classical commentaries of Ānandabhaṭṭa and Śivopādhyāya, which appear in English there for the first time.

At the opening of the Vijñānabhairava Tantra, the Goddess asks the question on which the whole text turns: what is the true nature of Bhairava? Hers are not abstract questions. They are the questions of a seeker who has heard everything and still wishes to know the essence.

In these three sessions we shall study the verses in which the Goddess asks, the first 23 and the last 24, where the questions are posed at the very start and returned to at the very end. Between them lie the 112 contemplative practices for which the tantra is best known. By reading these two frames closely, we shall approach the heart of the text: the Bhairava state, and the non-dual consciousness it reveals.

Each lecture lasts one and a half hours and combines three ways of approaching the text:

  • Chanting: entering the verses through sound and voice
  • Textual analysis: reading the Sanskrit closely, with attention to the tradition’s own understanding
  • Meditation: resting in one selected dhāraṇā from the tantra
Vijñānabhairava Tantra with the Commentaries by Śivopādhyāya and Ānandabhaṭṭa — cover

The book for this series

Vijñānabhairava Tantra
with the Commentaries by Śivopādhyāya and Ānandabhaṭṭa

An English translation, introduction and exposition by Mark Dyczkowski. Paperback.

Buy the book on Amazon

About Alka Tyagi

Prof. (Dr) Alka Tyagi

Prof. (Dr) Alka Tyagi is a close student of Dr Mark Dyczkowski, with whom she studied the Trika scriptures in the lineage of Swami Lakshman Joo Maharaj. A bilingual poet, writer and translator, she teaches English at Delhi University. Her research spans ancient Indian literatures, the Upaniṣads, yogic studies and Kashmiri Trika Śaivism. Her poetry collections include Sun Ri Sakhi, Amaltaas and Whispers at the Ganga Ghat. She has written five books, among them Reconstructing Devotion through Nārada Bhakti Sūtras and, most recently, Bhairava and Bhāvanā: Supreme Reality and the Power of Creative Contemplation in Kashmiri Trika Shaivism (IIAS with DK Printworld).

A former Fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Shimla, she has translated Prof. Rastogi’s work “The Role of Pratyabhijñā as a Foundational Concept and a Thinking Paradigm in Kashmiri Śaivism”, which is being serialised in Malini, the journal of Ishwar Ashram Trust, Delhi. She also attended extended teaching retreats on Pratyabhijñā philosophy with Prof. Navjivan Rastogi at Ishwar Ashram Trust, Delhi, and in Lucknow.

A devoted practitioner and exponent of Satyananda Yoga for more than twenty-five years, she has taught the foundational Trika scriptures for the past four years at Ishwar Ashram, Rikhiapeeth Ashram and on her own online platform.

tyagi.alka@gmail.com | www.tantravimarsha.com

Join the series — $90

One purchase covers all three lectures. It opens the course page, with the Zoom link for the live sessions and each lecture’s recording once it has been posted. After purchase you will find it under My Courses.

Join the series — $90

Email support: If you have questions of a more personal or individualized nature, concerns about the course, please email info@anuttaratrikakula.org, and we will respond to your question confidentially and appropriately.

We hope you will enjoy the course and that you will join us for more as we go forward.

OM SAUḤ PARĀYAI NAMAḤ