Episode Transcript

Divine feminine has become a buzzword. It trends on social media every other day. It seems like it has become an exclusive club where only a certain kind of humans are allowed entry. In the modern version of divine feminine, you'll find glamor, sexualization of women, tons of ideas on how to numb the emotions, how to escape the present moment, and a few more ideas on how to escape the root of the problem. Like most things in religion and spirituality, I believe the divine feminine movement started with a noble intention. I truly believe it. But now, it promotes almost everything except the divinity in feminine.

What truly is divine feminine? What are the tantra principles to heal and nurture the divine feminine within? Why do I say the tantra meditation is dangerous for the woman and why they should still do it? I'm going to explore these answers in this episode. And this episode also begins a new chapter in the Leela Gurukul. It begins a new promise, a new commitment toward the Devi consciousness. This is a special episode. Please listen it till the end. And my hope is, you'll be happy to hear what I have to announce. I am Chandresh Bhardwaj, and this is Leela Gurukul.

Namaste everyone. I hope you're feeling safe, relaxed, grounded, wherever you are. To make the most of this episode, I would recommend that maybe you should listen to it first while just doing what you do, like how you always listen. But when there are moments in this episode where you feel uncomfortable, curious, excited, take a note of those moments and come back to them because I feel maybe there is a point or two for you in it. And before we dive deeper into this subject of the divine feminine, I want to remind everyone that this is the last week to apply for the Conscious Meditation Program.

We begin the orientation class in a few days, and then the first module begins. This cohort of conscious meditation is fully devoted to understand the divine feminine through tantra meditations. If you are inclined toward it, if you feel excited, if you feel the need to lead your life with love, calmness, clarity, and tantra lessons, do explore it, apply for it, and I'll see you on the discovery call. And now, let's get into the topic for today.

Unleashing of the divine feminine. And obviously, I think it's important to define what is divine feminine here. I feel the word divine feminine is contaminated nowadays with a lot of glamor, glossy energy. And many women I speak to, my students, clients, friends, just the woman I know around me, when they look at the media definition of divine feminine, they'll look at them and they wonder are these women from this planet? What's going on there?

And when you meet those women who are actually showcasing this idea of divine feminine, when you speak to them, you feel they're also under the same stress and confusion whether this divine feminine is what they have to live up to. And it all becomes so stressful, so exhausting. Whenever you try to become something, that's always going to be exhausting. Imagine a red rose trying to become a yellow sunflower. It's not going to happen. But what's going to happen is the red rose will lose its respect, glory and fragrance.

So first point here to understand is divine feminine is not an idea to be chased. It's simply a place where you come back to. It's home. It's your womb. It's your heart center. And nowadays, I feel marketing gurus have injected their ideas. They're selling pitch lines in pretty much entire spirituality. There's hardly a place where you do not see the blind consumerism, the commercialism of the spirituality, tantra, yoga, reiki, you name it and it's happening there. So obviously, the word divine feminine is as contaminated as the word guru, God, divinity, everything is a little polluted, a little corrupted, and we can invent a new word. And I bet that new word will also become polluted in a matter of time. This is the limitation of words.

And this is why when I look at the word divine feminine, I look at it as a stream of consciousness. I look at it as an energy that continues to expand, that continues to evolve like a warm blanket. It makes you feel safe, comfortable. It gives you the space to heal, to grow, to become stronger in your blooming. And personally speaking, I use the word Devi consciousness instead of divine feminine in my day to day language. And I do it because Devi means Goddess. And thankfully, this word has not yet been exposed to the marketing minds out there. So it's still a little sacred, something that is not being sold on the programs out there. So I use Devi consciousness to understand my journey with the divine feminine. And many times I'll use divine feminine because that's just what everyone understands.

But in one line, it's simply a path where you come back. It's your womb energy. It's where everything grows. It's the source. And one powerful shloka or a mantra or a saying in the Eastern traditions, it kind of puts together the essence of divine feminine beautifully. It says Yatra Naryastu Pujyante Ramante Tatra Devata, which means wherever the woman are honored, loved, and made to feel safe, that's where the conscious abundance flourishes. And there's extension of this mantra, which adds a little more to it. It says, "Wherever the woman are not made to feel safe, where they're not loved or seen as who they are, that's where poverty, anxiety, anger, and the opposite of conscious abundance will happen. The abundance will collapse there and anger, anxiety, pain will continue to happen there."

And you would probably notice wherever the woman, the feminine energy is out of alignment, maybe either they lost their path through any substance abuse or through any toxic relationship or any other moment in their journey, everything starts to collapse in that home. That's just how the universe is designed. This is why I say the divine feminine is the root chakra of our universe. When there is any mess up with the divine feminine space, the root center, the foundations will collapse and it affects everyone. It'll affect you, me and everybody.

And in this conversation, I like to point to few aspects of the divine feminine, which I believe the time is here to discuss that. I shared on my Instagram a few weeks ago that divine feminine is angry, it's feeling unsafe more than ever. And I assure you, we are going to see the effect of it. Either we'll see the revolutions or maybe the collapses of many systems, but before it all starts to bloom, there will be destruction. And we got to make sure the destruction is creative here, and it destroys the old belief systems, it destroys the systems, the belief narratives and everything that are not supporting and honoring the growth of human consciousness out there.

And one of the most essential aspect of the divine feminine here is how she is portrayed in the social media out there, in the magazines, blogs, everywhere. She's portrayed as this sexual being who lives in the jungle, who has the perfect picture and the perfect makeup, perfect everything. Even when she cries, it's a photogenic opportunity. It's just so well put together. Everything is cinematic. Everything is a theater performance.

And it never bothered me until I started to speak to women or they started reaching out to me. And many of them were my students who felt that whenever they are going through any conflict, it could be a physical illness, could be an emotional challenge, could be a change in the career, could be just a lack of clarity path, they feel they were not being the divine feminine. And I would ask them, "What makes you think that while going through your healing, you are not being the divine feminine?" And they would say, "Look at me, my hair, my face, my body, my energy, this doesn't match to the divine feminine." And that started a spark in my heart to understand what exactly are the women believing about the divine feminine? What exactly is going on there?

And it turns out the entire narrative of the divine feminine has become so glossy that any woman who's going through just the mess of life, the rawness of life, they feel they're not at all connected to the real essence of the divine feminine. So let me share a story with you. And this story has many interpretations in the Eastern traditions. I'm going to share the interpretation that's very popular in the Northern India, in the tantra scriptures as well. So this story is of Shiva and his partner Parvati, popularly known as Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati, or his partner basically.

So Shiva, who's also known as the Adi Guru, he's the first teacher, founder of tantra, a very unconventional being, a very unconventional healer. He represents everything that you may not consider divine because he's so rebellious, so wild, so powerful and yet so gentle, so soft, so strong. His partner Parvati, she's the embodiment of the divine feminine. She's the daughter of a king. And they both are married together. One day, the king, Parvati's father, he has a huge gathering in his house and he invites all the important people from everywhere.

And he invites his daughter because he obviously loves her, but he never invited Shiva because he never approved Shiva to be the husband of his daughter, simply because he felt these two do not belong together. Shiva is the hermit of the jungle. He lives in the mountains of the Himalayas. And this Goddess Parvati, she's a princess, she's a queen. How would she live in the jungle with this Yogi, with this Aghori tantric, a nomad? So he doesn't invite Shiva. And then Parvati goes to see his father. And she looks around. She sees this is a grand celebration. They're doing mantra rituals, they have invited the best of the best, just Shiva is not invited.

But Shiva is honored as the God among his tribe. He's honored as this unconventional rebellious spiritual leader of his tribe. And she feels this as a big insult that her husband, who's not just her partner, but such a godly being, he's not invited in this gathering. So the feminine emotions take over her and she starts a fight with the father. Meanwhile, Shiva is meditating, waiting for her to come back. He never wanted her to go there, but when she insisted, he said, "I'll wait here." And he decided to meditate at a certain place. So as he's meditating, she's having the argument with father and the argument gets ugly. And this results in she jumping into the fire.

And Shiva meditating there instantly feels that. He gets up from the meditation. He runs toward that place and he realizes his partner is gone. She's in the fire. The physical body is all burned. He's angry. He's furious. And he invites all the energy from the universe, from the cosmos, to create some justice, to create some frequency out there that it shapes the entire foundation of human existence in those times. And it's believed this entire anger of Shiva and this anger of Goddess Parvati, it exploded everything. And her body, it exploded into 51 parts, the burnt body, the dead body, and that body fell into 51 parts in India. And each part where the body part fell, each place, it became a tantra temple.

So there are 51 prime tantra temples. Each temple honors a certain part, a certain energy. And that is the foundation of the divine feminine in tantra. Now what breaks my heart is when the writers write tantra books, they write about the divine feminine, they portray the divine feminine to be this playful dancer who never gets tired of dancing, who never gets tired of painting. And I realize, I'm like, what if the tantra goddesses, they come back on the earth? I bet these writers, these Instagramers, these retreat facilitators, they'll quietly tell these goddesses to go back from where they came from because they're disturbing their entire business model now.

If ever I get the budget to make a movie on the divine feminine, I know I'm going to have this scene there, that the tantra goddesses actually come to the earth. There's Kali, there's Durga, there's Maa Parvati, all of them are here. And they go to these influencers, writers, retreat facilitators, and everyone who's the caretaker of the modern tantra. And they tell them, "Oh, I'm the goddess you talk about?" And they look at these goddesses and they refuse to believe that this is the real goddess. And eventually all these modern facilitators will tell the goddesses, "Just go back where you came from. We don't want you here. Our business model is running so well. You have no place in this business model. So just out of respect, I'm telling you go back."

I won't be surprised if it ever happens because it's happening already on paper. It's happening already energetically. 98% of the tantra facilitators don't know the essence of the divine feminine. And they don't want to know. That's the conclusion I have come across. This morning, I spoke to someone who paid $40,000 for a tantra meditation program. And the information they have received is all messed up. Not only they have received the wrong name of the goddesses, but the story of each goddess is also wrong.

And when they reached out to me to verify, because they were working on a project and they said, "I just want to make sure this goddess is associated with this story, and this is so and so." I was like, "Wait, are you talking about this goddess and this story, because I've never heard something like this. I mean, every goddess you're talking about seems to be a sex goddess, but you don't have to believe me. I'm just sharing the English translation of this text. You can read it yourself. I don't think what you have on the paper actually exist in real."

And when they read that, they were angry. They were angry because not only they spent so much time, energy, and love to learn tantra, but they also spent $40,000. And this person said, "I just need a few days to process this because I'm extremely angry right now." And that motivated me to record this podcast today. And that also motivated me to go much deeper in the tantra, in the Devi consciousness work. And remember I mentioned in the beginning of the episode, listen till the end, I have an announcement. So let's not wait till the end. This feels like the right time for it.

I and my team at Leela Gurukul, we have decided we are going to go as deep as possible to create, design and honor the work of tantra and create awareness on the divine feminine subject as deeply as possible. In all transparency, I never wanted to talk about the divine feminine because it is so personal. It's almost like I start creating podcast about my mother, my grandmother, and I talk about them all the time. And I'm extremely private person. I've always been like that since I was a little kid. So sharing something that's so vulnerable, so personal to me, never felt right. But when these experiences start to become so hurtful, so deep I feel, I think I'm actually doing injustice and I'm dishonoring my lineage, the tantra lineage, the goddesses by not talking about their reality because it's spreading like virus right now.

I'm not a marketing person, not a salesperson, and I realize that has its own challenges, because if you know marketing, you'll be able to spread any information in a quick matter of time. But when you are not as aggressive in marketing, there is a different way of creating awareness. And I'm just not meant to be that kind of person who could be aggressive in marketing. But I also believe the right tribe is showing up to go deeper into it. And I'm paying attention to every single question, feedback from you guys. So the next program that will be building in Leela is going to be all around the tantra goddesses.

I don't know what it would look like, how long, how much, nothing at all. It's the seed that I've planted. I haven't even written a word of it yet. So give me some time, have some patience, but I promise you, in this lifetime, as long as I have the capacity to work, I'll continue to dive deeper into the mission of spreading awareness on the tantra, on the divine feminine, because nothing else matters at this point. Nothing else makes sense at this point. Most of the goddess rituals I hear about, they sound like a beautiful spa experience. I would love to go to spa. I would love to take a bath filled with some milk and some roses. I mean, yeah, trust me, men would also like to take bath with a little fragrance. We don't mind.

But that's not tantra. That's not going to heal me with anything. It might clear away a little sweat, a little smell and makes you feel refreshed, but that's all. The narrative out there is, if you take shower on full moon night, that's tantra. That's a ritual that will wash out everything. If it was this easy, then we sorted out everything, I guess. There's no more problem left. The truth is, the journey of divine feminine is always messy. It's very raw. There is blood and sweat involved in it. And that's exactly the reason why they are called goddesses.

This woman Parvati was a daughter of a king. She became a goddess after she went through the fire. After her 51 body parts spread all over India and where tantra temples were built. The journey of origin of Goddess Kali was born because she had to be a warrior from day one. She had to eliminate that negativity, the collective darkness out there, and she receives all the darkness. This is why she's portrayed as this dark being everywhere. That's why they are goddesses. And this almost feels like when parents tell their children Santa Claus doesn't exist and children are a little angry and hurt because their entire fantasy is just broken. I feel that I'm breaking that fantasy for you right now.

But I also know there's no five year old listening to this. And I feel as an adult, you should know that divine feminine demands that rawness. She demands that you go through the journey of mess, you go through the journey where you rewrite your entire destiny, you go beyond the ancestral karmic contracts, you go beyond the family conditioning, you go beyond the toxic energy, the layers that are holding you back and you emerge, reappear, rebirth as this divine feminine being. That's tantra. That's what the Devi consciousness is.

And this Devi consciousness is not in competition with men. She's not out there hating men, hating just the presence of men. I'm invited to speak in the woman's circle where a hating men is kind of a proper chapter. And do you think gossiping, hating, blaming men is going to create some healing and blooming? It's a great therapy. You have had bad experience with a man and you hate that particular man. But if you hate entire men because some man didn't turn out to be good in your life, that's not giving out the right energy.

And if you, again, go into the tantra scriptures, you'll notice the men, the sacred masculine, as now it's popularly known, they were always the protector of the divine feminine. They were the loyal admirers. They were the loyal caretakers of that divine feminine energy. Be it the Lord Hanuman, be it Shiva, be it Vishnu, Ganesha, Krishna, all of the male divine beings, the male deities in tantra in the Eastern traditions, they were always extremely loving, caring, respectful toward women, beyond lust, beyond control, beyond the labels.

And when you travel to some ancient tantra temples in India, such as Goddess Kamakhya, Chamunda temple, all other temples, you'll notice the ratio between men and women is really interesting. There's always 70 to 80% men who are constantly taking care of the temple, serving there, because that's just how it has been. The men, the masculine takes care of it. The feminine goes within, the masculine goes out to take care, and both coexist in harmony, in respect. Hating masculinity and building a guard or wall against it is only going to create another layer of suppression. And I know it's fashionable now to create social media quotes, where there's just hate against men.

The divine feminine doesn't bloom there. It blooms when it can create a safe space for everyone. I feel, as men, it's our duty, it's our responsibility to create the safety, the love, the warmth for the divine feminine to bloom, and the divine feminine also creates the womb space for the masculine. It's a two-way street and it always works perfectly. And the Kamakhya temple is also the yoni temple. And I know the word yoni is now only understood as the vagina, the healing of vagina, the taking care of it through different cosmetics and all.

But in tantra, there's a scripture called Yonitantra. And in those scriptures, the yoni is defined as the home, as the womb, as the root chakra. Because the human mind only understands its existence through the physical body, so it almost becomes difficult for people to go beyond it. But when you dig deeper into these tantra scriptures, you'll notice the information is just so scattered. So messed up. So fractured. So I hope you will receive the information in this episode with more love, openness, and compassion.

And one final point, and the most powerful point of this episode, tantra is dangerous for women. Tantra is dangerous for the divine feminine, and still you should be doing it. Allow me to explain this. I created a post about it on my Insta story, and it got extremely powerful feedback. So listen to this one. Why do I say tantra is dangerous for women? The feminine energy is designed to bloom in love. Love, safety, they are just very simple, fundamental, essential fuels for the feminine to bloom.

Now, when a woman is born, when she's little, when she receives love, she feels safe. She grows. And somehow, certain cultures, families, they start to brainwash the woman. And I think the movies, the media plays a huge role in it, that this love is going to come from someone, you are half right now, the other half is waiting out there. So there's a prince charming waiting out there. And they watch movies, read stories. The fantasy builds in. And the entire energy goes out. Tantra is not about going outward. It's all about going inward.

So when you start to seek that love, that deeper essence of your divinity in someone else, there are going to be problems for obvious reasons because no one, no one in the world has capacity or capability to complete you because you are completed already. How can somebody else can complete you? But when you start to chase that idea in someone else, not only you neglect and ignore your own divinity, but also there is a huge problem between two people.

And as a result, there is anger, resentment, disappointment, pain, and so much drama. And this is why the feminine energy, the woman go into depression so quickly because the entire structure, the entire wiring of their mind is made in a certain way. And it doesn't work in their favor. And those who have created this wiring, they very well know this will not work in their favor. And this is just another way of taming the feminine energy. So those women who believe that love has to be chased outside, and even if it brings them pain, abuse, suppression, it's just part of the package, that's what they believe. So life just goes on the way it does for most women.

But those who start to tap into their inner frequency, and not even talking tantra here, just a little bit of inner frequency, it could be through art, poetry, yoga, meditation. When a woman starts to go a little deeper, when she realizes that there is such a revolution in her, there is a fire in her that is not tapped yet. And if this woman goes into tantra, she becomes hundred times more powerful of a woman. And such a woman becomes a massive threat to the collective toxic energy of this society, because she's going to challenge every norm out there. She's not going to be tamed. She's not going to be controlled.

And you can imagine what a problem this woman will become for so many out there. And this is why rebellious woman is just not loved and seen, not supported, not empowered because she's disturbing the entire model of society, the so-called civilized society, but that's the kind of woman who will save the world. That's the kind of woman who are actually supporting the root chakra right now of this universe. So when this tantra woman starts to feel that fire, that energy within, no one else can match that frequency at least for a while. And when she starts to deepen it, balance it, live it fully in every breath, then she starts to attract that tribe. Then she starts to invite a tribe where she's matched with that equal love, equal frequency.

And that's when there is friendship, intimacy, divinity, awakening, all the seasons of life start to happen, but it all starts with one commitment. Are you going to hold the space for that deeper inner feminine? Are you going to hold the space for your own blooming? Or are you always going to depend on someone else to unleash that blooming? This is why in the east, the embodiment of divine masculine shown through Shiva and Krishna was so powerful because Shiva, Krishna, they always held very powerful space for the woman. They didn't held their hand and guided them every way of the step, but they were there as a support. Wherever the woman, the feminine needed their energy, they would step in.

And that's just how the feminine and the masculine is designed to support each other, to help each other take home. So tantra is dangerous for those who are not ready to be rebellious, who are not ready to rewrite their destiny, who are not ready to rewire their consciousness. And I get this message very often that I want to go deeper into tantra. But when I hear you say this, I don't want to go into tantra because I don't know what's going to happen. My suggestion is, you have tried the familiar and the known way of living, and it seems like it didn't work out so well. That's why the frustration is there, the anxiety is there. So why don't you now try the unknown, the unfamiliar way of living? Why don't you give fuel to your blooming and just watch what kind of magic it will create?

And some of you may even think what if my frequency becomes so powerful that no one will ever match it and I'll be single, alone forever. That's not going to happen. There is such infinite abundant source of love, intimacy, friendship, community out there. It's all waiting for you to unleash your divine energy so that they can finally join you in the dance. I fully mean it.

I'm going to end this episode right here because I got plenty of questions. I cannot answer all those in one episode. So there will be a part two of this episode where I'll be answering all the questions from you. Stay tuned. Thank you for listening. Be well. Be safe. And please unleash the divine feminine today. Give it some love, give it some warmth and give it some space to just dance. May the teachings of tantra continue to guide you and heal you. And I hope Leela Gurukul helps you to unlearn the world and embrace the unknown, mystical possibility unfolding for you.

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