Embracing Vedic Wisdom for Spiritual Growth with Acharya Shunya

Can Vedic Wisdom Awaken Your Sovereign Self? | Acharya Shunya on Power & the Divine Feminine

Unlock the ancient keys to sovereignty, clarity, and spiritual growth with one of today’s most respected Vedic teachers.

In this episode, Acharya Shunya shares profound insights from her lineage, exploring how the timeless Vedic teachings of Ayurveda, Yoga, and Advaita Vedanta support the journey toward self-realization.

We explore:

• How Vedic wisdom reveals your true Self beyond conditioning
• The concept of samskaras and how they obscure perception
• What it means to live sattvically in a chaotic world
• Her personal stories of healing through Ayurveda
• The spiritual power of Lakshmi, Durga, and Saraswati
• Why suffering can be a doorway to transformation
• The role of a teacher on the awakening path

Acharya Shunya is the first female head of her 2,000-year-old Vedic lineage and the author of Ayurveda Lifestyle Wisdom, Sovereign Self, and Roar Like a Goddess.

🔗 Learn more about Acharya Shunya:

acharyashunya.com
awakenedself.com/holistic-health-programs
vedikaglobal.org/vedic-lineage

Enjoyed the episode?
Rate & review on Apple Podcasts
Follow on Spotify or YouTube  

Train in Energy Healing
Step into your mastery. Learn to facilitate deep, precise, and truly transformative healing experiences.
Registration now open - our next EHT-100 Training begins March 2026, live and online. Discover the training →

Find Your Energetic Blueprint
Not sure where to start? Take the quiz: What’s Your Field Type?
Reveal your strengths and learn how your energy field shapes your life and relationships.

💌  info@fielddynamicshealing.com | Website 

We’d love to hear your thoughts — reply or reach out anytime.

Thanks for tuning in and connecting to the field.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:00

When we see through this delusion that a soul mate will complete me, a bigger house in a better neighborhood will complete me. Shopping in the topmost stores in New York will complete me. We still come back home and we're empty. When we are in that space, we're no matter what we accumulate, and what we possess leaves us bereft and empty at an emotional special level, then begins the real journey to look for something wholesome within and we find it everywhere.

Speaker 2 0:44

Welcome to the Field Dynamics podcast. We're here to facilitate inspiring dialogues about the nature of consciousness across disciplines, communities, and practitioners. All with a holistic perspective.

Speaker 3 0:57

From energy healing to somatic therapies, from neuroscience to meditation, We believe the most interesting things happen at the boundaries of disciplines.

Speaker 2 1:06

I'm Christabel,

Speaker 3 1:07

and I'm Keith.

Speaker 2 1:08

Thanks for joining us today and enjoy the episode. Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of the PhilDynamics podcast. Today, we are joined by guest, Atarioshunya. Xunya facilitates authenticity, self remembrance, and divine feminine pathways to awakening. As the first female head of her spiritual lineage, that traces its roots to two thousand years ago in India. She represents the ancient vedic tradition of India in a way that is completely authentic, yet as relevant as possible to modern sensibilities and needs. She is the author of three besan books Iovida lifestyle wisdom, sobering self, and her newest book, a role like a goddess, every woman's guide to becoming unapologetically powerful prosperous and peaceful. Chenia reinterprets and recontextualizes ancient vedic wisdom and dharma teachings of Advator Veranta Iovita and yoga to create a learning and awakening path for contemporary seekers. She has over twenty years experience as a spiritual wellness relationship and women's empowerment coach and group facilitator. She is also the founder of the awakened self Foundation, a learning platform headquartered in Northern California. First, Alicia, you're welcome. It's an absolute pleasure to have you here with us today.

Speaker 1 2:37

Thank you so much. I'm looking forward to going where this is meant to go with you.

Speaker 2 2:43

Absolutely. Why the conversation takes us? You have something of an unusual background, and I wonder if you could kindly share with us some of the context of your family, of your papa, your paternal grandfather who is also your guru and the vedic lineage that you represent.

Speaker 1 3:00

My grandfather, Baba Ayodhana, was a legendary teacher of the vedas and Mahwagita in India. And so was his father? My father is also a scholar, and it was decided when I was in my early twenties that I would be the next leader of our lineage that goes back several more generations in India, in other India. I grew up in a typical family with a lot of love and guidance. I mean, it's schooling at times, but These were not ordinary people. And clearly, I didn't have an ordinary destiny. And true ups and downs of life, what I found was that conversations I had with blah blah. Over really preparation for the life I was mentally laid. For the darkness I had to come back with my inner light. And for the work I had to do to uplift consciousness in the world I inhabit. So clearly, the coming together of Baba and Jr. Our grandfather and granddaughter was something special at least I feel that.

Speaker 3 4:26

Your name, chosen by your grandfather, that being shouldn't you relates to, as I understand, the mathematical idea of zero or void or infinity, So speaking of destiny as you were describing, could you tell us a little bit about the nature of your name, these these related words, and how that might I don't know, enlighten us to some kind of a destiny or a spiritual understanding of such.

Understanding Ayurveda, Vedanta, and Yoga

Speaker 1 4:52

Ultimate reality in non dual teach choose of the old body sheds has many names, though it is really one truth, one consciousness. And there are some typical names. One is to numb, which means fullness, radical fullness. You can take away everything from it, but it remains full. That's why it's full. And then there is radical emptiness. Which is Shuneta. And we are two sisters, my sister and I, and my elder sister was named poor now. In her when she was spiritually ordained, and I was named Shumia. These are our special names. We go through a fire ceremony. And choose a lifetime of study and inner growth and giving back to our society from this inwardly elevated awareness and consciousness. So to be given the name, Shounia, I have a funny anecdote because when I was a child, I only knew it meant zero, and all the kids would tease me at school. And I thought, how can Baba do this to me this? Actives are being cruelty to give me this name and and and to be considered a zero. And if I didn't do well at school, or I fell down or something, people would say, but after all, she's a zero. And then when you achieve something and your ego makes all this trouble to arrive or establish itself, begins with great unwinding to become a zero by choice. So either I'm running away from the zero or I'm trying to beat it. But either way, this name is an interesting drama for my life.

Speaker 2 6:44

To share a quote from Ivyira lifestyle wisdom, and that is hopelessness is the disease that precedes all symptoms. And I wonder if you could talk to this a little in terms of what inspired you to write that particular book and and what lessons or what learnings you're hoping readers may take away.

Speaker 1 7:05

No matter how difficult their life circumstances are. Oh, which is connected with an entitlement to lead a life of happiness, peace serenity, comfort, comes from our connection with the divine. It's almost like each one of us feels betrayed if we don't have that life because we are made with that same start ups. We are we come from that same cosmos. That divine orchestration has manifested us. And when we lead desperate lives, unhappy lives, broken lives, and ultimately, hopeless lives. We're pretty alienated from that inheritance from that endowment of spirit well-being within And I have found that as long as there is hope, there remains a connection with Atma or our self within. And that and that connection, that hope, leads us to our teacher, leads us to you know, life changing podcasts like this one. It leads us to open books that may provide us a solution. But when there is no hope, we succumb to the ego, and to its gossip, and to and to the to the material dream, which is very a nightmare. So I found in working with Iraveda, which is one of the gifts from Baba amongst the many gifts he gave me, including yoga philosophy at Vedanta, that No matter how sick people were, they even had terminal prognosis. But if they truly felt hopeful and deserving, to get better with a little bit of assistance from Ayurveda, they would get better. And that I think is something for us to pay attention to, like, what are we what voices are we listening to and allowing to internalize within us that kills our hope. And as long as hope is there, it's it's a it's a positive expression of the self, but then we will seek help and we will make effort again to learn, to grow, and to be the best versions of ourselves.

Speaker 3 9:45

You've written books about these three very large bodies of knowledge that come out of Indian tradition, Advita, Vedanta, or the vedic, you could call the vedic philosophies, higher vedica, and yoga. How might listeners, particularly the Western audience, How might they contextualize the relationship between these three things? Is is one thing an umbrella to the others? Are they isolated? Are they interconnected? How might we understand the interrelationship there? The

Speaker 1 10:15

Indian Hindu way the tradition is so old so complex, so different, yet so interconnected, that it is not always easy to provide a sequential relationship. But I would say that Iraveda is for the commoners, everyone because it addresses the body. And we all have a body, and we all want to be rid of aches and pains and want to have vitality and energy. And yet when you go within diarrhea, it's not just the body because then you you enter the door called the body, but then you see that body is connected to the mind, the soul, and to the divine omnis. Consciousness, then we look at yoga and yoga practices as well as yoga philosophy address the mind. And you think, okay, we're gonna go heal the mind. But, no, once again, we have to interact with the body, with the senses, with the intellect, and with the divine illness, the consciousness. Then when we look at that letter of Vedanta, it is purely for the soul, the spirit. To self realize, self recognize, self actualize. And yet, there really cannot be any such lofty journey, unless to purify the body, still the mind, clarify the intellect, purify our food. So what I found in common was this holistic integration And yet somehow, Baba, my guru, and my parem, my lineage prepared me to address the body the mind and the spirit or consciousness, the self at different levels. That's why I have different levels of students and different levels of followers. And and I cannot market myself well. In today's world where people pick up this tiny little thing. Like, I'm a teacher of mantra or I'm a teacher of breath. Or I'm a teacher of food and then they have a very clear brand profile and there is I'm a teacher of body. But is there really anything called the body without the mind? And is there even the mind without the self? And so So I guess I'm the kind of teacher who waits for those students who are ready to discover beyond the silos of information populating to us from the way the tradition to come into a more integrated sphere, which is how the rishis and the Rishi carpet, the men and women, the Sears, wanted us to address our being.

Speaker 2 13:03

Yeah. That was beautiful, Shania, this idea of stepping away from the silos into their integrated holistic approaches incredibly powerful when an individual can make that, is that affiliation or that step? I think it could be really helpful for our listeners, many of whom under stand that we work with the various subtle bodies in our healing process, whether it be via energy healing or other holistic methods, as you describe, to hear you speak a little, if you would wouldn't mind, to the concepts of Vosana and Simpara.

Speaker 1 13:37

In the vedas, there are two terms introduced, which is a true being, and it comes from a now, which means that which is boundless within us, that is our true being or true nature. And because it's boundless, it cannot be limited by main gender, form, age of sorrow, or joy. It's boundless. And then there is something bound within us. And that is known as Java. That is the persona. And what is bound is really only a reflection of that, which is boundless. It's like the vast sun gets trapped in the reflection from a pond. And we think that the sun only lives in the pond, but that's only a reflection. The sun is everywhere. So the persona is really the carrying over of Reflections and you could say the reflected intelligence, reflected light light Reflected life, reflected consciousness gets bound up, and and and becomes or takes on an entity of its own until we know better. Until we have Guyana more knowledge to show us that this is no more than a mere reflection. A wave can believe it's it's an entity and, oh, look at me, rise. Oh, no. I'm falling But when the wave realizes its ocean, it realizes that it never dies and it's never born. But is ever present as a motion. And even though it is falling, another wave is rising and they're really warm. So this recognition happens through knowledge with gurous sanitia or being enclosed proximity of the one who knows and can show us that vision. And some scars are then the the conclusions made by the one who is still can autopilot more thinking I'm a wave. And those conclusions, those intellectual beliefs, they take on potency, which continues beyond one life story into another. And give birth to get more ignorance, get more suffering in the next one. And that's why we go from Again and again, death, again, and again, and again, birth, and again and again, lying in a mother's womb then again, death, and again birth, and again, lying in the mother's womb, we go through this story, add infinite, and due to those dark sunscars that say you are bound. Number one, that you're important, number two, that you are separate from what you call God. And the duality, that separation. Until until that great cosmos of which we are apart, takes on the body of a guru. And looks us in the eye and saves you another week. And somehow, the wave after frolicking around over several lifetimes as a wave. Oh, look at me. I have a tidal wave. Look at me at nothing. I'm a tiny wave. After all the ups and downs of the wave ego, somehow when the guru speaks the wave listens. And the wave settles down. The sun scars calm down. And when the sun scars calm down, the sun scars were giving birth to a sense of advocacy or inadequacy. Empowerment or ignorance. I'm good around that. Those opposites. When the sun sky has come down, only the truth remains. And that truth is beyond these dualities. And it happens in a specific lifetime. I really feel that I was really young when Baba started talking to me, but I must have had other previous lifetimes where where I might have heard these conversations, but it was in this one that the conversation changed something with it, you know? Like, truly change something. So the so the teachers keep teaching, but the students sometimes one of them amongst thousands listens, and that one becomes free of some scars. And so then they continue their life. Remaining life as dad, mom, banker, lawyer, attorney, broadcaster, who's guest. But They know deep inside that this is only a leader, like a drama. It's not my ultimate truth.

Speaker 3 19:01

You've made it a real seemingly a real mission to take these ancient teachings, particularly these more philosophical, very deep philosophical teachings from the vedas, as you were just describing, the wave as the ocean, and to take those types of teachings and translate them in the grounded embodied modern way. How do you hope to convey that effectively? The these traditional teachings, which might be distant to many people, might be foreign to a western mind, if that's who you happen to be speaking to. How have you found successful ways to ground that message and communicate that message?

Health and Healing Through Ayurveda

Speaker 1 19:39

First, by not giving up on the message or trying to delete data, or dump it down or change it into some ten minute a day practice morning, evening. Probably being content with fewer students, but more quality students. More than trying to be a mass phenomenon as a guru. I just want to be a guru. Some guru means someone who's heavy. With the wisdom. These teachings probably were always the a bit of an elitist teachings even in India, not everybody I don't think it's a westerner or Indian thing. I think it's the kind of mind that wants this teaching. So I have lots of best in students too who are really ready for these teachings and they receive it with the sacrosanci that I give it with the reference that I think they're sacrosanct and they take it in that way. You know what? It appears that I have a mission and I believed I had a mission for some time ago, but I'm letting you know I have no mission. I I just saw through all of that too. And it's like, oh, that that's old language on the website. I guess my have no mission. This is my truth. And this is the only way I became sorrow free. Because I'll leave it to the shadow. Leave it to the some scars would never be shut off me. But when I became uplifted and relaxed and truly enjoying enjoying this soldier through this weird planet where dark and light coexist. It sounds like the right thing to do. And then every day, what else do you do when you're stuck on a planet? You know, what do you do so you get up and you you share the knowledge that seems to have given you some relief. So I share Iraveda for those who are suffering with bodily situations. I can, as eloquently talk about constipation and diarrhea as I would about asthma and Jiva. I managed to do that because that's how you can help somebody. Then when it comes to yoga, then I my source book is the Banco Gita, and I teach the various yogas from the Banco Gita. And then sometimes, and on select occasions with select people such as yourself or some select students, I get the opportunity to discuss the Ultimate Room. When nothing else matters. If body has cancer, it doesn't matter. If the mind has some negative tendencies, it doesn't matter because we are we are touching something that is beyond body. And when we touch that, we become aware of that, we become so fulfilled and so empty at the same time. That it's all okay.

Speaker 2 22:58

You've said previously that possessing health is a matter of mastering spiritual art. That if we wish to have health, we must learn all about cultivating health. And this biggest misconception, as you've described it, is health is a fixed commodity. And I wonder if you could talk a little bit to this.

Speaker 1 23:19

Yeah. I found when I started talking about ioveraº as if you know, people have the sequential history of the challenges and lights on their body being. And then they think like it's something that they are losing. And what I found was that health is a spiritual ingredient, so to say, and that we can begin enjoying it even at a late stage of life. I have personally counseled people who were given a terminal diagnosis. I challenged it. Saying that you won't live a day less or a day more than what was allocated to you in this divine universe. So forget everything and just start leading your life based on nature's principles as incurred as encoded in Iovina, and they did it, and they're alive till today. So I, myself, have a so called genetic generic disorder because of which people with my so called condition are in wheelchair who have had multiple surgeries. And I too have had episodes of flare up where I had to use a crutch or a wheelchair to go about. But I challenge that internally. As a spirit being. And I said, okay. So that's my challenge, which energetically, you can understand both of you that it was an energetic imbalance for me. So I just gave my body mind what it needed. There was a lot of TLC from an energetic perspective. And I am walking. I am running. I have not been back on those crutches of wheelchairs for decades, and I don't plan to go there. So probably, if they dig into my jeans, they'll find something and say, yeah, it's you have condition. But the condition is superfluous to my being, and my being is healthy. So if I can connect to my beep, the condition becomes superfluous. It's a memory of my ego. That I have this condition. But every day, when several times of the day, I go beyond the ego to remember my true being my my ego envelope is pretty light, you know? And it definitely does not carry a genetic disorder in it. So it's it's been working great for me. Then I start when I opened my school, and I had an eye and I had a vigorous eye with a program, and then I started no cost clinic. Where I removed even I rated medicine, only advice, spiritual plus lifestyle advice. To change the energetics of your whole being. And I said, let me experiment. And what has worked for me? Has worked for everyone? And it did. For fourteen plus years, I helped countless people recover from asthma or eczema or breast cancer or fibromyalgia. Just through intentioning and energetic changes to food and lifestyle, connecting with the sun, moon, and so that became the embarrassed to write Ira with a lifestyle wisdom. And and even the book it's self is kind of a transmission because I get emails from all around the world of people saying that they read the book and they started just living according to it and voila, you know, their symptoms have abated or they have seen more help than ever before. So I'm I'm not there yet, but I really gathering on discovering a healing system based on self recognition as a spirit being can ship its sun on Earth and some energetic understanding of food and massage and things like that with diarrhea. Minimal. Some certain biocircadian rhythms. If I have the time this time around on Earth, I'm gonna write another book.

Speaker 3 27:59

Excellent. I'd I'd love to dive into Iraveda a little bit more. You know, I was just listening the other day to somebody talk about nutritional psychology, the emerging field of nutritional psychology. And I went, you mean, like, how food affects you're not only your body, but your mind. And I I thought it was very funny given an understanding of Iraveda and other holistic medicinal systems So it seems like we're coming around full circle. I mean, we're talking thousands of years here to the modern and the ancient being fused, and Iraveda is really one of those places that something like nutritional psychology. I mean, what a reference book to just send that practitioner to an higher vedic book like yours Right? And say, hey, look, this has been around for a long time. I was just wondering about this connection between the foods we eat and our our psyche, our mind, and a general overview about that from an ayurvedic perspective, and in particular, this word Suffolk. Is it as simple as we're we want to move towards a seismic diet, a seismic beingness holistically? Is that the directionality of health and eye or is it more complex than that?

Speaker 1 29:10

So I'm remembering this quote from theita, which says Anam he saw me, Manaha, Anam means food, saw me in subtle, and Manam means mind. So they are saying this gross food that you're eating is going to suddenly become your mind. It's going to influence your emotions, your thoughts, your ability, your cognitive abilities, your memory, inherit, or improve it, etcetera. And then there is this whole discussion on how we should eat, what we should not eat, what are what is the approach towards? Meal times, cooking, choice of food, ingredients, spices, and there's a whole world there. I definitely feel that Satrik, the word Satrik comes from the root word satrik. And so literally means that which is eternal, that which is true being true existence. It is not ephemeral. It is not temporary. It doesn't doesn't come and go. It is the ultimate truth. And so Southwick is whatever food choices or the way we cook or the way we consume the food, chanting mantras, etcetera, or by sharing the food, what attitudes we bring to the food, whatever makes it more satanic means it's going to take us towards sat towards our spirit and less towards the material nightmare that our body being gets caught up in. I definitely feel that Catholic food or a Catholic revolution is needed. Because that includes then non cruelty to animals. That includes a non hoarding. And that includes generosity and feeding the hungry. That includes eating mindfully, chewing mindfully, preparing mindfully, maybe even growing our foods. And then that connects us to the important issue of climate change and honoring our and not disturbing her. So I feel that Sethwa can be, I think, a good word or a good blanket to move towards because it invites us to be in modern terminology mindful. Of every aspect of our eating and eliminating because we can eat really good stuff, but if we don't eliminate it properly or inadequately, we are still becoming toxic. So in Iveda, in the ingestion of food and elimination of food are two sides of a coin. And I like that nutritional psychology. I really feel that Western has come up with really good blanket terms and packaging of ancient concepts, but it's really smart, I think. Yeah.

Speaker 2 32:25

It's fascinating, Heshanya, to feel into and really connect to these ideas you're presenting really of the importance of in impressions, influence energetically through the the sun, the water, the moon, through our association with others behavior with others, through our food, through the intake of what we might refer to as entertainment, what we're reading, what we're viewing. And how that all has a energetic imprint effect and consequence on how we're then embodying. This relationship between the spirit and and and how we're embodying that consequence. As it were.

Speaker 1 33:09

And, you know, it may seem very complex, but as living creatures, just like defadels that are blooming in my garden right now. It's spring here in California where I live. Just like they have an inherent relationship with the sun and mother-up. So do we and returning to these inherent kinships is so easy. And and it's inbuilt in the way of life, which begins with waking up in the morning and thanking mother earth when we put our first step on it, and then walking out and looking at the rising sun. And thanking it for illuminating our life and our hearts. And every full moon walking out and meditating under it. And when in stress lying on earth horizontal and allowing the grass and other things on earth to enter your nostrils. To to smell earth is very important. When we are stressed. Like, our mind needs grounding. So these these recommendations can be bullet points to do less. But when I think of it phonetically, I feel like I like this life.

Speaker 2 34:34

Your latest book is real like a a goddess. And I wonder sort of why at this time to why focus on women? Why is that potentially important now? And in relationship to that, what's the sort of differences here or are the differences in what might be deemed as feminine spirituality versus masculine spirituality?

Speaker 1 34:53

Yeah. You know, I didn't plan on writing or like a goddess. I was actually writing a book on IV dose psychology. An acquired a scholarly book, which I don't know when I will complete. And suddenly, I had this urge, and I had to start at a new page in the laptop, and I finished this book in four months. And this was Navarati, the nine days of the goddess. The festival was going on. So I had been praying to her and meditating her. And and boom. This book came out. And my publisher's loved it, and it's done really well. So I didn't first replan it. And the the divine is not feminine or masculine. It actually transcends gender. But the divine feminine or the feminine divine is one way, an inclusive way that Hinduism and the vedas see god as. So we actually see the diva the divinity in divine masculine, the Mavish new shiba. In divine feminine. The girl actually says with the Anna have thousands of forms. And we see the divine in bulls and cows and horses and elephants and plants and snakes. And lizards. And we have the ultimate avatar of God in the form of a boar, in the form of a turtle. But these are not many gods. This is that one truth emerging in all these forms. So because I'm a woman, because I've had my own challenges being a woman in the twenty first century on earth, which is still not as progressive and it's thinking as it should be towards all vendors. How would be I became an instrument? To talk about how we can use these baby goddess appetites to give ourselves permission. I felt like I'm already enrolled in like a virus. So I was not teaching myself anything. It was again like another share. And and then, you know, it was easy to build into it, the colonial interpretations and the patriarchal presentations. And then I just did some research and other religions also to ensure that it's a little more all rounded book once you start writing, you know, you get to a stage where you're also looking at what's going on about this issue. It was like, Sunia, you just suddenly landed yourself in feminist space Mhmm. Anti patriarchal space. What's going on with you? You know, and I had, you know, I had no contacts in this world. And and yet this book was bothered by me. I own it, and I feel like it's changed so many lives. And so I remain open to these kind of cosmic, you know, occurrences that happened through me because in the process, I could go back and publicly talk about my former marriage how it fell apart, how I disowned myself briefly, and then how I rode with self owning. And it was especially pertinent because I'm an atcharya and I'm supposed to have it all together, monogamy and everything, all put together in a perfect too. You know? And instead, the hair I was didn't have it all together. You know? And so it was just perfect. It was a perfect way to to talk about that stuff too, you know, which which makes me a more relatable teacher for a lot of my students and readers.

Speaker 3 38:57

Would you mind going through some of these David archetypes the the three that you kind of use as lenses for the book, Durga, Locksmithi, and Saraswati?

Speaker 1 39:07

Yeah. They are all manifestations of the one troop and Shopee and Durga represents rock how. In fact, in our legends, in our in our holy books, it is mentioned that all the gods get power from her. So she is not just she doesn't have power. She is power. And so I like the fact that power or Shati has been ascribed to the feminine gender in the way that's. I like that. And she can be channeled by us if we've had, you know, systematic abuse powerlessness, up hours of views that's been taken away from us. So we don't know what it feels like. Then the Duga archetype and her legends and her stories that I discuss really evoke the power because a lot of the time we are And it's not just for females, but for men to anybody who has been systematically deprived of their power or they have forgotten their power reading about the Dhruva archetype, chanting her mantra, and going through her legends is going to make them roar with power. And maybe with that power, they'll become a little unpleasant for the people who kind of had them, you know, subdued enough. But right into that, we come into Luxury's sake. I she's all about pleasantness and positivity and sweetness and cheerfulness. And she talks about putting power towards the dharma, towards what is righteous, not just for you, but for all beings, So Durgesh is the goddess of power, but we find in her legends that she never used it for cruelty. Or for practicing anything less than the most optimum behaviors, you know? And Lushmi reinforces that. She's the goddess who rose with pleasure and sexuality and beauty and art and ornamentation And so when we come to the luxury archetype, we talk about how we can use some of that power to feel good about ourselves. To take care of ourselves, to nurture ourselves, to pamper ourselves. And and and and, you know, very shocking for a lot of hindus when they come across my book and they go, we didn't know that goddess Luxury had a couple of partners before she settled down with Vishnu. It's like, yeah. That's the dogma. Every time you see Vishnu, the male god, you see luxury smiling be typically next to him, but she chose him after going through someone worthy partners. And I wanted to illustrate that part of the mythology that probably she's roaring with pleasure because she did not settle down in a codependent dysfunction relationship. She actually dared to to to fulfill her deepest desire to be happy by finding a partner worthy of her. And so readers love this permission from Bluxley. And now that we are paring with pleasure, how about some knowledge and wisdom and meditation, and that's where SARS what he comes in. Because it's not okay. You got power now. And you have a happy, progressive, beautiful, pleasure for life, but now what? Maybe it's time to discover who you really are. And as the God is outside you, around you, or inside you, and how do you activate that, you know, greater consciousness. And I come into a little more, Adweta, Vedanta, this level where we go into SARS with the archetype. And because SARS with the has also been described as a river, I talk about finding that inner flow within us and how can we truly flow and baba had told me that when the river flows, it doesn't leave a drop of itself behind. No matter if the drop is murky or it has fungi in there or whatever, it carries all of itself. So then I connected it to trauma and how, you know, we leave bits and pieces of our self behind, vanish from our consciousness. And I had done that despite everything. I had done that briefly when I had left behind the divorce and shamed woman. But then I had then I brought her back on the public stage and in the world to celebrate her. And I remember crying as I wrote this, but I really wanted to flow like the river Saraswadi and lead no part of myself behind. The learning parts, the crazy parts, the Google parts, the shamed parts, the foolish parts, the downright dump parts. All of them are welcome. And it's in this organic wholeness that we can move towards integrity integration, inner integration, and divine alignment. So there's another psychological work going on throughout the book. E I don't to the disappointment of some people, I don't talk about how to worship them. Because I grew up worshiping them, but I always wanted to be the goddess. And I don't want to be the goddess simply by dressing up like a god. I want to think like a goddess. I want to mate like a goddess. I want to eat like a goddess. I want to take decisions like a goddess. And so I guess this book takes that desire to channel the goddess beyond the tiaras and the you know, crowns and the pretty things that we do in the goddess culture, we do truly roaring or the roar is connected to owning our two boys. And so, your like a goddess came to be, and I personally think it was a prasad or a gift from the divine mother to me during the surgery, and it has helped. I don't count as women across the globe. And I get letters every day. From far off nations saying how it helped them have a conversation with their boss or their dysfunctional partner or their angry mother or the sarcastic mother-in-law. And even men even men are reading it to support their the women in their life and to support themselves because a goddess lives in each one of us.

Speaker 2 45:53

You spoke several times throughout this conversation about this materialistic nightmare. In which we often find ourselves entangled. And I wonder for those listeners who are new to this world, the world of vedic knowledge, yoga, your teachings for those who are caught in the wheels of suffering as it were, who may be finding themselves challenged by their day to day existence just as a very broad question as we are bringing things to a close here, what you might choose to to share with them.

Speaker 1 46:27

It's a nightmare because something out in the material world is that you're never satisfied with what you get. If you get what you want, you are left with wanting more of it. And when you have it, you have to work very hard to maintain it. And no matter how how hard you work to maintain and beat a relationship or a pain, sooner or later, lose it. Everything is impermanent. And everything, every act of possession or fruition or completion comes with this hidden discharge and there is loss or grief or fear or loss inbuilt into it. When we see through this delusion that a soul mate will complete me, a bigger house in a better neighborhood will complete me. A bigger car and a good insurance will complete me. Girls night out will complete me. Shopping in the topmost stores in New York will complete me. We still come back home and we're empty. And this is not the fun this is not the Sunia emptiness. This is the really the kinda emptiness which makes us low living. When we are in that space where no matter what we accumulate and what we possess leaves us bereft and empty at an emotional special level. That is when there is no out and then begins the real journey to look for something wholesome within and we find it everywhere. The vedic world, the vedic wisdom, is not pessimistic, but it begins probably with a discourse with those who've already become disillusioned. If someone thinks that they can go shopping at the Macy's clearance and feel good, they're not my students. But those have shocked all they wanted and they're done. They aren't my students. They get ready to say, what's what else is there? That I need not possess. In fact, I can let go and I'll be okay. I can give up and I'll be okay. It can be taken away from me, and I'll be okay. What is that okay? And let's show me the way, and that is the way that way.

Speaker 3 48:58

You're describing how so often or maybe it almost seems like all of the time that what is required for people to look within and really make those inner changes, those fundamental changes about their relationship to living in life is that they suffer enough to realize they're doing it all wrong. And we often talk about the difference between how an individual changes versus the collective changes and and hold paramount to change as one needs to be responsible for themselves, one needs to be willing to do the hard work within themselves in order to effectuate change outside. So I'm wondering what your thoughts are in this relationship between personal versus collective change. And if the personal has to reflect the collective, does it just mean that as a as a world, as a civilization, as a a planet, that we have to suffer enough until we wake up collectively or could it look different?

Speaker 1 50:03

That's a very profound question. And I think suffering does play a role an individual awakening or the desire to awaken. Pleasure kind of keeps us seduced and looking for more pleasure. So suffering is more useful. In fact, teachers like myself, we really sour when suffering comes our way. We milk it. Because we know we're gonna grow even more from it. But sadly, collectively too at a human level, suffering seems to be important. But again, the waiters don't give a simplistic answer. They talk about uggers or epochs. Or cycles of when, for example, in Sadhguru when need not suffer. Everybody a lot of the people were enlightened because the cosmos was working with us to be enlightened. And now that we are in the fourth stage called yoga, suffering, death, cruelty, lack of dharma. This is the way, and we'll really have to go into the darkness to emerge again. But let's let's let's juxtapose the individual with a collective journey. When I look at my own journey or my students' journey or my readers' journey, I think, you know what? Let me support the individual. The collective may be going to you know, going crazy. But there is still room for individual awakening. And the more individuals can awaken from this material nightmare of grabbing, grasping, quality, and relaxing, doing inner peace the more we can bring in the next Yuga, the next epoch of peace. So the work at individual level is harder here. I find that a lot of people are on autopilot mode simply seeking more more more more more physical material pleasures. And they don't even question who they are, why they are, and even religions and gurus into mass following sleepwalkers, cults. Accurrences are happening, religions are which have fanatical elements are thriving. So it's all happening at all, you know, collective level. So someone like myself asked, and I've had that question, does my voice even matter? It does matter because I know I have at least a few students who have transformed and juxtaposed have changed their life. And I think if you change even one person's life, you affect the whole because there is no individual. There is only the whole. So you've already made a change. So if I'm going to stay asleep, the whole if I'm going to stay asleep, the whole universe may fall asleep. But if I stay awake, I single handedly prevent the universe from falling asleep. So those people who are awake our responsibility is more. And it's harder, but it's important.

Speaker 2 53:15

Those who are interested in pursuing awakening as it were for those whom the the door has been knocked and they're looking to further into those more hesitate to use word advanced teachings, but the opportunity within the awakening, what might you share with them?

Speaker 1 53:37

Stay tuned in with your truth. And really connect with the cosmos to find you a teacher, good book, a good teacher, and then stick with them. No more window shopping of teachers and just just settle down in any tradition that brings you closer to the divine. In a progressive liberal open way. And just go deep. Instead of horizontal journeys, go deep. And there to transform yourself. Oh, there are a lot of traditions along with avedi tradition that can take you deep. And then every tradition takes you so far and then you're on your own. And that's a very important time where you discover the truth. And so go for it, I would say.

Speaker 3 54:27

What do you have coming up that you'd like to share with our listeners? And how can they find you?

Speaker 1 54:35

I have an ongoing program called the VEDIC Way, where I meet with students weekly. So if they're interested in studying with me, they can go to my website, which I'm showing you post. Apart from that, I have programs coming up with the Shiva and Institute in Bahamas at the Good Balu Institute of Yoga through summer. So just check out my website and I'm sure there'll be opportunities to study with me online or in person.

Speaker 3 55:04

Virginia, it's been a pleasure speaking with you today. We urge people to check out your books and and go to your site, etcetera. You have a lot to share and we just really appreciate your time and your wisdom and your your heartfelt sincere conversation today.

Speaker 1 55:19

Thank you.

Speaker 3 55:23

Thanks for listening to the episode. What really supports the podcast is providing a rating and review of the show on your preferred listening platform. This helps us get the message out to a wider audience. If the topics we discuss today appeal to you, do take a moment to subscribe. Lastly, we invite you to check out our website fielddynamics healing dot com to learn about our training programs, private session work, and to see how we're setting the standard in contemporary energy healing. Many thanks, and see you next time.