Episode Transcript

"Be your own light." This was the last mantra, the last teaching of Buddha to his students. He empowered his students to embrace the truth that they all carry the light within, and that they don't need to chase the truth outside of themselves, but he didn't do this by asking them to become something that they were not. Instead, he encouraged his students to simply be.

Today I'm inviting you to drop all the becoming and simply being, as most of you already know through the title. This episode is not even an episode. It's a note of gratitude. It's a note of sharing something extremely beautiful, very organic that's happening with Break the Norms podcast, and I'm sharing it in this way so that if you are going through any resistance, if you feel stuck in the next steps of your blooming, I hope this audio, these words will help you to move beyond, to embrace the next steps in your blooming and to embrace these next steps in the blooming, we don't have to become anything different than what we are. And we have to simply dive deeper into our being and do our true essence. Take a few deep breaths and think about a seed. It could be the seed for a tree, for a flower, for a plant, any seed.

When you plant that seed into the soil, you cannot see the tree in the seed, but the tree is hidden into the seed so beautifully. When you plant it, it's deep under the soil. There is so much unknown, so much uncertainty, but there's also a certain safety, a certain wealth, a certain trust in that darkness of the soil. If you continue to take care of it, slowly the seed starts to bloom in to the tree. But when it starts to become the tree, then you cannot find that seed anymore into the soil. The seed dissolves its shape and form, so that the tree is born. It's a little sacrifice that the seed has to go through to give birth to the tree. And I feel in our life, we are not willing to make that sacrifice so easily. We get so attached and so stuck with our old ways of living, thinking, and functioning, that we feel extremely afraid to dissolve into the bigger picture so that the newer one can form.

I bet if we were seed, we would be afraid to break into a tree. If we were a river, we would be so afraid to join the ocean. But those who do, then fold it, the next steps into their blooming, then fold the right next steps into their journey. During my high school, I planted the seed and I titled it Break the Norms. And I had no clue that it was even a seed. It was just a bunch of notes that were helping me. And I would write them down every single day. My frustrations, my lessons, my realizations, my struggles, and they were all taking form into a diary. And I kept on sharing. And I couldn't touch that diary for almost three years. When some really heavy incidents happen in my life, I lost some really close people and I had forgot about the diary.

I didn't have the courage to look back into the diary, but when I had zero strength, I missed it. I again, picked it back and I started writing even more works. And I could see the vulnerability, the humbleness in those words, because when I started writing Break the Norms in high school, I feel there was confusion, there was hope, but also there was this usual teenage arrogance. I think it was a mix of all the flavors, but when I retouched it, I was in college and I saw the difference, the difference in how wrong I was on many things. I saw how deeply I needed to just let go the need to control and trust these seeds of hope.

The years that followed many things unfolded, the surrender started to happen, embracing the unknown started to happen and the trust started to happen. I'm so glad all of that unfolded it wasn't easy, didn't happen overnight. It happened over a period of months and years. And one day Break the Norms became a Facebook page. I loved the feedback it used to get. It gave me the courage to open the blog Break the Norms, the blog was loved so much. And then it gave me the courage to start diving into a professional practice of meeting people, showing up as the spiritual advisor, showing up as a spiritual teacher and that label. Although I feel... I see myself beyond these labels, but these labels also are really been serving my purpose in a beautiful way. And when I started sharing and listening, Break the Norms started taking birth of a book.

The book was, and it continues to bring me so much joy, so much happiness. In fact, the book has become such a beautiful part of my journey that all the drama or circus that happens with the publishers during a book publishing, the love that I'm getting from Break the Norms, it makes me forget all the circles and it makes me celebrate every page that have written, because I do feel even years from now that relevance of Break the Norms book will always be there. And the book served people, and then I realized I need to share more. How do I do that? I needed more expression. I needed more ways to express myself and then podcast happened. In complete honesty, I really thought I'll be terrible in the podcast. I thought people will not be able to understand my voice. I thought I don't have enough to share.

So, I told myself I'll probably record 20 episodes per year. That's all. And I'll just save it. If anyone needs to dive into my work, I'll point them out to those 20 episodes. And I thought a lot about sharing, I delayed the process for many months, and then finally I started sharing through the podcast. But when the podcast first episode released, I was in India at the Kumbh Mela. The Kumbh Mela, it's a festival where millions of people join together to meditate, to chant the songs to honor the Divine. I was in the middle of all the amazing, incredible monks. I was among millions of people in India who were meditating there. I was also fortunate to be a speaker in one of those events there. I did not have access to internet when the first episode released.

I didn't know the science of podcast, how they work, how they are received, how do you know if they're loved or hated, but not having access to internet, being in India and that festival among the aghoris and the monks and the yogis, it gave me a certain trust, it gave me a certain joy and I continue to release one episode after another. There were moments when I thought of quitting, when I thought of not recording, I didn't have the strength, the energy to keep going, but that's where you showed up, my listeners, the ones who are listening even right now, you would send me messages, questions. You would share stories, how certain lessons in podcast were changing the lives. And it felt good because it made me feel that I'm able to help. I'm able to contribute in your life. And podcast brought me so much strength that I finally gathered the courage to open my spiritual school Leela Gurukul. Leela Gurukul was the reason I left banking 10 years ago.

So I got the courage. I started working on Leela Gurukul, currently the first batch is going on and the first batch is my dream students really, I feel it's like universe listened to what would satisfy my soul and it manifested these students. And I always knew I would have always been aware that the work I share may not be the main stream spiritual work. And it will only cater to certain kinds of people, the ones who are willing to go deeper into the darkness, the ones who are willing to really address their suppressed energy, the ones who are willing to unlearn, how they were taught to suffer. And that was the toughest part because mainstream spirituality is a spa spirituality, and I never was fully confident whether I will have any space in this crowd or not. But the podcast made me believe in my work.

Leela Gurukul is making me believe in my work. And the seed that was planted many years ago is now slowly and gently, beautifully dissolving into its next evolution, the next step. Break the Norms podcast is going to be Leela Gurukul podcast from today onwards. I didn't think too much about it. I wasn't even planning to change the name ever, even two weeks ago. That was not in my mind, but there were many lessons, many episodes that I was sharing, which were clearly Leela Gurukul episodes. They were not Break the Norms and I realize Break the Norms started when I was a teenager, for me at least that's when it started. And Leela Gurukul started when I was on the edge of leaving the Wall Street. It took me many years of courage to bring out Break the Norms. And the first few episodes of the podcast are completely Break the Norms episodes.

And slowly the podcast started diving into the tantra work, but the last bunch of episodes, they are hardcore tantra. In fact, for many of these episodes, I have been discussing each episode with my Guru and he's been sharing his lessons. He's been sharing his teachings for specific episodes. And that's when I realized the seed of Break the Norms is no more under the soil. It's sprouting. It's becoming a tree. The last episodes of Silence, The Roles We Play, The Witches, Cultural Appropriation, Celibacy, Transcending Lust. I mean so many episodes, they are completely tantra work. To honor the amazing journey of Break the Norms podcast, to express gratitude to my Guru, to bring love and reverence, to Leela Gurukul. It just feels very organic to name it as the Leela Gurukul podcast. I don't see even 1% of effort in this transition. It's almost like when something is born, it's effortless, even though there are months or years in that process of conceiving, but when it is born, it's born, it's out.

And Leela Gurukul is your podcast. You have been giving it the strength, the love, and I really hope, and I request to keep giving it the love, the blessings, the prayers, your amazing energy that you have been giving it. For a teacher like me, the survival and the success has only happened because of you. And you continue to bring back the faith that this work matters, tantra matters and the teachings of tantra will continue to change our lives. Thank you for listening so far. Thank you for staying with me in this audio and I'll see you next week in the Leela Gurukul podcast.

Useful Links

Chandresh's YouTube Channel

Find Your Source of Happiness - 21 Day Challenge

Private Guidance Program with Chandresh

Buy the book - Break the Norms

Instagram: @cbmeditates