154_Acharya Shunya === Monica: Welcome to the Revelation Project podcast. I'm Monica Rogers, and this podcast is intended to disrupt the trance of unworthiness and to guide women to remember and reveal the truth of who we are. We say that life is a revelation project and what gets revealed gets healed. Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Revelation Project podcast. The first female lineage holder of her distinguished Vadk tradition, Arturia Shunya. Is an internationally renowned scholar, teacher, author, speaker, and a scholar of non-dual wisdom from India. She is classically trained as a master of Yoga and Aveda. She is the founder of the Awakened Self Foundation and the nonprofit VCA Global Incorporated. Her platforms are headquartered in Northern California and her goal is to empower, educate, and inspire a global community of students through online courses, workshops, and retreats. These conversations are furthered by Shunya. Top rated podcast Shadow to Self, an award-winning author of International Repute. Her most recent book, Roar Like A Goddess. Every Woman's Guide to Becoming Unapologetically Powerful, prosperous, and Peaceful was published by Sounds True in September of 2022, and is now available worldwide. Please join me in welcoming Auria. Hi Auria. Acharya: Hello. Thank you, Monica for having me. I'm excited Monica: and congratulations on your new book. This is so exciting. Acharya: It is. And, and I'm glad this book is out because it feels like our planet is calling for this kind of a book. It Monica: Sure is. And you know, I have loved reading it and also sitting and contemplating. So many of the lessons that are contained within. And of course, the essence of this powerful book is about women's power and why it's not always available uniformly, but also how we can really access it from the inside out. And of course, that's where it does start, is from the inside. And it took me almost my whole life to recognize that everything that I was striving for on the outside was never going to work until I did the inner gazing work of what was to be revealed first on the inside. Acharya: It is such an austion, isn't it? Monica: Mm-hmm. Acharya: When we start believing that we can. Make some changes outside to our circumstances or to our relationships, and then we'll reach that place of comfort and ease and self worth. And I have to say that it's not just you, Monica, I think all women and maybe all humans begin outside because that's what we see. And the inner reality is more subtle. But a couple of misadventures in the outside often take us right back to where we should be looking at our own motivations, our own beliefs and our attitudes, and questioning if what we are thinking. The truth or it's only an appearance. And once we begin doing that, the power comes back. Monica: That's right. And I, I think actually it was in your first chapter that I loved the way you posit why this is this way, you know, and, and I call it the trance of unworthiness. Other people call it different things, but it's like our conditioning, which is the patriarchy, you call it almost like a hidden virus. And what I loved about that is that it helped me understand as well that when we do come in, when we do finally have those misadventures that you were talking about, that you know, culminate in us turning within, we actually realize that it's that experience out there. That's the grit that makes the pearl. You know, without that contrast, we don't actually know that we have heaven accessible until we do this work. And that it's then by going within to do that work that we're then able to come back out and serve the world in the most powerful way, but not from a place of diminishment, not from a place of, you know, self-sacrifice, but from a place of full sufficiency, from knowing our own enoughness. And so I really loved that. And of course, you tell your story so beautifully through the story of the three Hindu goddesses, and I'd actually love to just invite you. To talk more a little bit about your background and your upbringing, and also just to draw our listeners in closer to listen from that place of her story is all of our story. Because as you mentioned, this is a common story and I think that part of the illusion is that we can think we're alone in it. Acharya: Totally. And the more conversations we have with our hearts vulnerable, and yet our mind enlightened with new wisdom, knowledge, and empowerment, the more we will set aside this gossip that we're alone in this. Monica: Mm-hmm. Acharya: And no matter whether you come from an ancient or modern funeral contemporary culture, it's a fact that patriarchy in in the air we breath. and then what is patriarchy? This is not just about men being nasty. It's really about a collective belief that all of us have somewhere accepted along the way during our evolutionary agenda adventures and this adventures where we decided that we, we wanted to give the male gender a more superior statu on this planet and that number on the feminine gender and all, and the non-binary genders and the fluid genders. Maybe at an evolutionary crossroads, this might have been a bit helpful. Everything has some cause and often a rational cause, but we've clearly outgrown. And just because a certain, certain gender had more physical prowess at a certain time does not mean that it should lead to the diminishment or the abuse of the other genders, which is what ended up happening. Monica: Mm-hmm. Acharya: And I was born in India 55 years ago in a beautiful family. It was like I was born in a bubble of timelessness where my grandparents, parents, great-grandparents, ancestors, they love the self within us, the soul within us, the truth within us, no matter our gender. And they accepted me for who I am. But once I left that family of origin, as we all have to, as we grow up through my professional aspirations. I met that wall. I was like, what? Wait, wait. Am I on the same planet now? And then I thought, well, now I'm in America, because in my mid thirties I moved here with my husband and I met those same stories. I, I encountered them again, not only of men being preferred or being paid more for the same job in the professional level or in the domestic front. Men and women both working, but women having to carry the extra load and all those things we read about in magazines. But I met the women and while they were really fierce and powerful externally in America, I also saw how collapsed they were and how hard they had to work, how much they had to explain and overcompensate. And do it right and even cross their legs just right while they were going about their lives. And so then I knew that this was a demonic belief system that had eaten away at our self-worth. And now it was no longer about this person, this, this did this to me, or help those set of people, or that culture was not friendly to me. It was about how can I find my voice? How can I thrive despite these challenging belief systems doing the rounds on our planet? How can I roar in shock, which I compare to an authority voice in the jungle of existence? And how can I let others roar in the story? I had wonderful beginnings, but I crashed landed. Relationships fell apart, marriages broke self-esteem, plunged. Depression set in for things that I was doing for myself. I was labeled as being maybe pushy, hysterical, too much angry, too trendy, too out there, and not just by Indians. Invitation was to compromise, to give in the crumbs of approval. Something in me just never gave up and that that's something that never gave up was my inner goddess like self. . I have immense fortitude. Monica, if there is something that I came with on this planet versus fortitude, , Monica: I love it. Acharya: And I just won't stop. And I didn't know this word, feminism when I was growing up. Monica: Mm-hmm. Acharya: and many girls don't. We learn later, we have. And now I'm being hailed as a manic feminist, a Hindu feminist, and I'm like, fine, call me, call a rose by any name. It's still going to be a rose and call me by any name, but I'm just gonna be this wonderful goddess, woman in the 21st century is who's leading an all male lineage that's 2000 year old. Every single ancestor of mine from this ancient family lineage was a male leader. And I'm the first female teacher. And kudos to my grandfather and my father who believed that I'm the right choice for this lineage. And they believed in me before I believed in myself. And now I must say they made a great choice, Yes, they did. Yes, absolutely. Because I'm somebody who can talk about. To call a spade a spade, let's just put it that way. Yeah. And I can bring the knowledge in our purity and authenticity, but I can, I don't feel obliged to bypass the areas around pain and abandonment and estrangement and alienation that we experience and the defense of doubt and low self worth that had almost taken over my being, Monica: mm-hmm. Acharya: Whereas I usually enjoy great mental and emotional health. And now I'm aware of it. And I'm currently in India when I'm talking to you, and I experienced the patriarchy, but then when I travel worldwide, I still experience patriarchy in subtle forms. But now I see our sisters from Iran are on the streets. Monica: Yes. Acharya: And yet, in the 21st century, our bodies are being claimed by men who make laws. And so abortion has been banned in many states of the United States in the 21st century. But give it 200 more years. Maybe I'm not being too optimistic and saying 20 more years. Monica: Mm-hmm. Acharya: but give it 200 more years. And this planet is going to be ruled by Roaring Goddess women. that I know for sure. Monica: Yes. I am here for it. Acharya: And so my story is connected with all these women. All these women. Monica: Yeah. Well, and I love what you're modeling. I love what you're modeling and I wanna point it out. I love how you, you know, gave a nod to your father and your grandfather and you said they made a good choice. And what you're modeling is really standing in your own power. What you're doing is modeling that. We have the right to call a spade a spade, and we have the right to choose ourselves for opportunities and ideas. We have the right to shine. We have the right to make mistakes and still choose ourselves. So what you're modeling, I love so much because it's that way that I think we've been taught as women to do the opposite, which is to diminish any talents or truths or gifts that we embody. And what your book is all about is, of course, first finding that deep inner roar and through these three goddesses. And I wanna make sure I've got Durga, Lakshmi, and Sarah Swati, correct. Acharya: Beautiful. Yes, Monica: That These are the three goddesses that I believe your mother used to tell you about. But what I loved in reading your story was that stories themselves are these powerful trance breakers. I love to also point out that. Stories also can put us into negative trance. There's a way that often creation stories that have been told over and over again to girl children, as well as other disempowering stories to girl children have created what I call this trance of unworthiness. And so you're taking a tool that has been used for centuries to reclaim and help other women reclaim their inner authority and their inner power and their inner value. Acharya: Indeed, these stories are awakening stories. They've been around for thousands. And even these stories have become a bit colonized by patriarchy. And so I unpeeled those versions and I gave this direct versions, which are throbbing with power and inuity and can-do kind of permissions. And I wonder when you were reading it, if you got the goosebumps, because I did. Yes. And sometimes even when I was typing them, my shock, my energy would fill up so much and I'd go, whoa, no, I, I would like roar, you know, because these stories are so powerful and I'm getting letters from the entire world at this point because the book did have a worldwide release. that people are negotiating better salaries at work. They're, they're meaning their nose and they're, and they're meaning their yeses, more ears of codependency, rescuing behavior, self-deprecation, and, and just like lacking self-love. All of that is shifting behind just because they read a story. Well, these are not ordinary stories, and these are definitely not the stories that put you back in the trance of unworthiness. And we have to be careful of those stories which are often contained inside religious books, uh, culturally prescriptive books. These are stories that were orally told from mother to daughter for thousands of years. Some of them were later captured in what are called as the goddess Scriptures in India, but not a lot of them. And they're meant to be actually received from someone who has the authority to be a storyteller. And I am a traditional authority on storytelling. I'm called , which is a Sanskrit word for the teller of the story. Mm. Because the teller of the story cannot have any agenda except the super conscious urgency to tell the world that, Hey, I'm awake. Wake up too. Because if you don't wake up, I might catch the virus and fall asleep. Wake up, wake up. Wake up. And that's the urgency behind my book if you sensed it. Ad: What if you could shave 15 to 20 hours off of your work week with proven copy templates and use relational marketing psychology to drastically increase your impact and your sales results? Sage has tested these methods for selling online for over 10 years and over 400 copywriting projects. They work for anyone with a business idea, including e-commerce folks, course creators. Copywriters, coaches, designers, social media, ad managers, and digital service providers. These techniques work even if you wanna get started in online business. Even if technology makes you wanna cry in a corner, and even if you only have 30 minutes a day to implement, the strategies she shares will help you live your life outside of screen time, even if you don't have a big marketing budget. I love it, and I think you'll love it too. You can apply for your two week trial by going to www.sagepolaris.com/monica using. Revelation to get started for just $7. With Sage Polaris's. Copy template membership. That's www.sagepolaris.com/monica. Then use code Revelation to get started for just $7 with Sage Polaris's. Copy template membership. Monica: Yes, I did sense it and I did get goosebumps and I loved as well that you've started with righteous anger. You started with Durga, and I love that you dispel that story about women, you know, not getting angry, that that's somehow not feminine, when it absolutely is feminine. So I wondered if you could start there and, and tell us a little more, you know, Acharya: Like when a woman is physically molested or raped, Something goes missing from her, and at that time we blame one person or a group of people if it's a gang rape and it's a very clear case of aggression and victim. What womankind and people of non-binary genders have to realize is that we have been emotionally raped by being told that our anger is not okay. We've been stripped off our most important instrument that tells us that our boundaries are being violated. These are tools, emotions are our tools, and they all have a purpose. Even envy as a purpose and envy is not just a sinful emotion. Envy tells us to do better. Jealousy tells us to befriend the other and be happy for the other. Everything is teaching us something because this is a school for souls, embodied spirits, and when. The patriarchs in multiple ways, and through their institutions of religion and morality, decided to shrink us. They said, well, let's take away their power. And that power was taken away by making our anger a liability. And so if you're angry, which is our God-given privilege, we become hags and naves and bitches, and s truths. If a black man is angry, he's dangerous. If a black woman is angry, she is, um, she, she's just obnoxious because of their color. If a person of non-binary gender is angry, then they're outright crazy. Monica: Mm-hmm. Acharya: They should be blocked away. And if a woman is angry, then she's just being moody. , or she has her chums the moon cycle. Monica: Mm-hmm. Acharya: . And she's just being whiny. She just wants, and I'm going to just say something in a slang, she just needs a dick. Mm-hmm. , I've heard these things in America. Oh yeah. And here were these role models of Durga, Androy, and Like really channeling their anger. And not only were they channeling their rage, they were even holding some weapons, not up front, but they had multiple hands. And their hands in the front were holding a lotus or a mala, which represented mindfulness in the lotus, which represents a blossomed awareness of consciousness. But their back hands were holding swords and bows and spares. What was that? It was like, well, . We're gonna be there in a benign relationship with the universe, but don't mess with us. And don't mess with light. Don't mess with truth. And, and I see these goddesses. I don't see them being always nice and sweet and I'm sorry, but I have to say it always being nonviolence. I think we, we've overdone the nonviolent part here where spirituality begins and ends with nonviolence. Monica: Mm-hmm. Acharya: And then it leads to bypassing our truth and then pretending and, and then we hypocritical until we collapse or we have to smoke weed to feel enlightened. You know, there's just nothing in between because we didn't dare to feel our anger. And I think it is the best way to contain someone's spirit. Now my son born and he was three or four years old. It was clear he was channeling durka. And he's a boy child, but he had a lot of rage from some past lifetime or something. And when his father, my husband, tried to discipline him for his anger, I had a conversation with him. I said, my son is a future leader. My son needs to feel this viscerally and even scream. And we have to be safe containers for him. We have to make it. We have to allow experiences, anger, and feel, what's the violation happening here? And maybe he's three and he won't be able to say it, but when he's 30, he'll know it. Monica: Mm-hmm. Acharya: And I'm proud to say that at at 27, my son is a visionary and a leader and a change maker for dharma, for good, for truth. He's a great de of the goddess too. So imagine a whole gender going dark. You and I, we have to work at our anger. We have to take workshops. Therapist, we have to journal and then we talk about our anger. We apologize and say, well, don't mind my saying this, but we so carefully select our words that it defeats the purpose. And I'm not saying we have to become hollering, screaming women because what we do with our anger is second choice. Like do we scream with it or do we become quiet and meditative with this? That's a different choice. But to experience the anger as bright red electric wire, that's important. And I experience that anger, and that's why I wrote the book. I was angry for everyone. Everyone who has been disempowered. That's why I talk about the conscious and subconscious anger that's really worth taking on. We can all be a little lighter with unconscious anger, which is just silly entitlement. Like, Hey, the dry cleaners destroyed my red dress. Now I'm angry. You know that, you know, we need to like reign it in a bit, but. Conscious anger, super conscious anger that's gonna help the planet, save the environment, make you change your diet. Hey, welcome it. Monica: I love that because that's what, you know, I would also call sacred rage. Yeah. That it really is the necessary element, you know, and I think of the elements in terms of these emotions that can alchemize into action, that can alchemize into purifying, that can alchemize into transformation, you know, and, and catalyze it and make it available because we're allowing it to be expressed. And so there's also, you know, you were describing the many hands and I. . I think that one of the things that we women forget over and over again is that we are meant to embody these polarities, and it's what I call the sacred and or the both. And it's okay to be angry and to use it to put boundaries or to indicate where there should be sacred boundaries, where there are not, and to make us aware that our boundaries have been transgressed. And so I love that you started with Durga because one of the beautiful things about women awakening to her own anger, to her intolerance is that from there she can begin to create the space in which. Lakshmi arises, and that's when we begin to actually experience our self worth. But I do believe that it actually starts with anger. Do you have a thought on that? Acharya: That is why in this book, I begin with Durga, lead into Lakshmi and conclude with Sara Satmi. This order has a reason. Monica: Mm-hmm. Acharya: sometimes we wanna bypass the need to touch our anger and have a healthy relationship with, with it, and right away connect with our inner Lakshmi and begin manifesting. We can keep hoping to manifest, but our Shakti, our power is locked into our rage. Hmm. And it's interesting because rage can be a double edged sword. , but each one of us has to raise that sword for goodness, for truth, for authenticity, for the light and the welfare of all beings. Not just the human beings, but all sentient creatures. It's almost like the goddess within us is demanding that before you can become a Lakshmi and stop manifesting gifts for yourself and the world, you have to first almost anhilate the darkness with your sword. You have to earn that light because what we invariably face, at least I did, and countless women and people I know, did we face our own shadow? We face our own ego. We face the ego that either wants to become. A patriarch, you know, because many times women, I cahoots with men, you know, uh, this, the patriarchal war is not between men and women. It's between people who are on the dark side and people who are on the side of the light. And it could be any gender. Monica: Mm-hmm. Acharya: And it is Durga who then is what we want to channel. And one of her very important attribute is rage. And that is why I have a chapter called Rage Like a Goddess, we have to set our boundaries. We have to break our conditionings to follow stereotypical scripts. We have to give ourselves inner permission to roar with self-respect and unconditional self. And that almost herles a new era, a new dawn. And now you can hear the birds singing and the butterflies floating. And the lotus is blossoming because it's like, Hey, watch out. The universe says this woman got her power. The whole universe wants to just bow down and serve you. What will be your pleasure? How can I help you? And that is when you've connected your inner Lakshmi and not a day sooner. Did my Lakshmi life begin until I had really become a comfortable roaring durga, and then Durga herself becomes Lakshmi. And now you know, you find friends who respect you and don't violate your boundaries. That's a Lakshmi occurrence. You are able to follow through with your desires and your aspirations and your creativity, and that's a Lakshmi thing to do. You start manifesting a life of comfort, beauty, joy, self-love and other love, self-respect and other respect, self-esteem and esteem from others. And that's a Lakshmi thing to do, but that those wings that you have, you, you started getting those wings when you were a Durga. and you were holding a sword, but this sword has become a wing now, and now you're flying with ease and joy in the clouds and this fulfillment that comes with channeling the inner Lakshmi and listening to her stories or reading her stories through my audiobook or my, uh, paper back. Either you read or listen to them, that she herself becomes Sara. Cause when we are so fulfilled in the world, we wanna close our eyes and go inwards. Monica: Mm-hmm. Acharya: And so they're all connected. Monica, in my world, Monica: Yeah. They're all connected. And I'm just reflecting on my own experience and yes, I mean it took me getting in touch with my rage and I mean, there was a time that I thought, oh my goodness, I am so angry. And just, I remember. . There was just a time where I had to get angry about everything, and I realized it was everything that I had stepped over in my life, everything that I had shoved down beneath the masks that I was taught to wear of pretty pleasing and polite, and that in performing my gender in a patriarchal culture, that I had really denied my true anger, horror, grief, sadness, because I really did think that those things made me a bad person, a bad woman, and I think. Took me, giving myself permission over and over and over again, and approving of myself in my anger, approving of myself in my sacred rage. That is what began to call what I now refer to as Heaven on Earth toward me, because it was by expressing my truth that suddenly the magic of the world started to show up. And what I see in that was that it was alignment. It was this ability to now stand in my own sacredness and be able to speak the words that were authentic and in speaking those truths and starting to dare to have. My desires expressed and to dare to have my boundaries expressed and to dare, to have my, to dare to bring pleasure to my life. These were all of the things that, again, we women are taught don't go there, that that makes us somehow into a bad woman. And I, I realize now that that was all the patriarchal conditioning. And of course, it all leads us away from our body and away from our sensuality and away from our instincts and our intuition. And these are of course, our power centers. And what I've come to realize is that in order to survive, we escape our bodies. But the journey back home is that journey of unbecoming from everything that we've been taught in order to reveal the truth of who we actually are. And that means getting. Incredibly intimate with our anger, incredibly intimate with our pleasure and really knowing ourselves. And of course then everything started to make sense. You know, like to th unknown self be true or know thyself. It's because when we truly know ourselves is when you know, the whole world kind of flips from the upside down into the right side up Acharya: indeed. And on the journey to knowing ourself, if we can just maybe even care for ourself a little bit more, something tangible, and if we can hold ourselves through some difficult rejection and abandonment, we'll get there and we'll wake up from the trance, as you say. And this conditioning that you're talking about, Monica, I feel like. how lovely to just have a name to it. Monica: Mm-hmm. Acharya: And when I say it's a patriarchal conditioning, it's not like I'm angry with men because my best friends at my group are, are men. But I can see in how, in the many ways we have unconsciously or subconsciously morphed changed and surrendered. And we didn't even know, like, you know, you didn't even know you're participating in a conditioned echo chamber. We didn't know it. But once you know it, there's no going back. Monica: Right. Acharya: Look, if you, if you know that you can breathe pure oxygen, why would you duck your head back in a be polluted tank of air and you know, breathe in those toxic expectations and suffocating roles that we play out. I am proud of the kind of, Person I am as a partner to my husband, to my mother, to my son, daughter, to my father, daughter-in-law, to my husband's parents. I play out all those roles. Roles that a woman must, but there's a difference. I don't play them out in a conditioned way. In a scripted way. And the courage that you were talking about, the courage to have those difficult conversations, one courageous conversation at a time, we become roaring goddess women. In my perspective, it took courage. But instead of either harboring resentment and doing something anyway that was asked of me, or assuming and judging another, I would invite the person for a heart to heart. . And even if they look like they were not the kind of people who enjoyed our two hearts, everybody enjoys being heartfully engaged with. Everybody is thirsty. Even the most malovent person has a thirst. And if we can meet our own thirst, then we can help everybody get that sip of water, of honesty, kindness, straightforwardness, and direct conversations and setting of the boundaries. Not like, uh, ready to draw an army and have a war, but the boundaries of, Hey, for your sake, I'll contain myself and for my sake, contain yourself so that we can mutually coexistence planet with respect to love and kindness. Monica: Well, in fact, you talk about contentment versus containment and so there's this roar like a goddess, and that becomes kind of this again, place of permission that actually creates these spaces where we can be at peace and in contentment and in pleasure as a goddess should be. Because without the roar, we cannot create the space for the grace to be all of what we are meant to be. Acharya: So well said without that grace. And should we wait for that grace from outside praying to a deity or can we walk like her, talk like her mate, like her, think like her, and change the paradigms like her because we saw how the, through the God of stories in the book, how she would meet these challenges. You know, we even have stories where she's sexually objectified. and how does the goddess respond? She changes the paradigm to her response. Monica: I find that so many women in general, but especially in America, suffer from the absence of the feminine face of the divine. It's as if we don't even consider that there is one , which I find so interesting. I'm curious if you have also encountered that Acharya: All the time I encounter, and perhaps this is the bulk of people who become my students or participate in my divine feminine retreats because. They not only not encounter them, they not only fall asleep to that need or become indifferent to it initially, but then something drives them and they don't know what they're looking for, but they sometimes simply say things like, I like that you're a woman teacher. They say things like that or are they are, they'll be attracted to some feminine quality of me or some story that I may be sharing in a public platform around motherhood, enlightened vulnerable motherhood or something. And that's what's gonna attract them. But do you know what they were searching for? They were not searching for me. They were searching for the divine feminine essence, which is within them, waiting for them. And perhaps, for example, you've written on your website how the feminine, divine feminine is medicine. Monica: Mm-hmm. Acharya: So perhaps if they're attracted to your podcast or they're attracted to my podcast or are teachings. It's really because they don't know that they what they're missing, but they kind of reach us in this clumsy, awkward kind of way, and then they don't know why they stay . Monica: Right. It's because we've actually been starving, you know, for her, just starving for her. Yeah. I wondered if you could talk about pleasure, because that is the other. Element. I think that is so misunderstood. Again, our goddess given right to pleasure, and yet every woman, I have never met a woman that isn't withholding pleasure from herself. Acharya: Yeah. That was just like our rage was damned. Our pleasure centers were, were locked up. In some cultures they're even related. The clitorus is removed so that Roman cannot have reach that peak of pleasure. And it was decided how and when, uh, where a woman give pleasure, is she a domestic woman? Is she's, is she a woman in the marketplace? Can she be shared by the community of men or can, does she belong to a single person and all kinds of. Precepts and concepts were applied to our pleasure. And we women went along and we tried to be chased or we become unholy and bad women. Monica: Right? Unpure. Acharya: Unpure. We're either whores, Or, we are virgins, and we give birth without any sexual input. And you know, it's something I was observing and I don't share it often, but you're such a woman of substance. And I wanna say that because our religions were owned by men. And so men wanted to make this great sexual sacrifice. And so they said, okay, la well, I'm gonna be celibate. Like they couldn't think of anything bigger and more to offer than their celibacy, and it became such a false. Ideal for the rest of us. Monica: Mm-hmm. Acharya: and everywhere there has been celibacy plus spirituality. We see, we see the fall of, of priests and Swamis and, you know, men of religion. We women, because we bleed once a month for a majority of our life or half our lives, we were considered impure to begin with. We were considered objects of pleasure or temptation at the least. And so we learned to restrain ourselves. We learned to feel ashamed about our seductive qualities. Just a very presence was offensive in religious, spiritual settings for a long time. And so all in all, our DNA shrinks and of course we have a young breed of millennials and the New Gen Z generation that is letting it all hang loose and more shoppy and power to them. but I wonder how long before even those women, once they're in childbearing age and uh, domestic situations, when will the shame set in? Like, how far can a woman wonder before the virus gets That's, that's something I'm exploring. I'm talking to young women and young people just see what's going. , but we in the Hindu tradition have a whole goddess for pleasure. And she's not only the pleasure that we get from pleasure, for pleasure sake, recreation, enjoyment, dance, theater, creativity, sculpture, but she's also the goddess of sexuality and everything that could be possibly erotic. And that is why the Hindu tradition prior to it becoming sullied by patriarchy gifted the world, its first trustees on Kamasutra. Mm. The sexual positions that were, that are so bold and so unimaginable, and they and their descriptions are so, are so, they were difficult to, to be digested by the puritanical British rulers of India for a while who first translated it. , they didn't do English. They, they didn't do a full honest job of it because they felt like this was satanical almost. Monica: Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . Acharya: But present day, India is not as open and liberal as you would think it's roots are because patriarchy got to it. But I'm a child of the ancient tradition, and I didn't like being shamed for my sexuality, my seeking of sexual pleasure talking about it, but unfortunately I was shamed. And that is why I make it my business to bring forth the pleasure aspect. An ancient tradition that has given us meditation and yoga. Why just take yoga and celibacy and meditation? Why not take the pleasure teachings from India too? Why not give yourself a gift of the katra and you and your partner, or you alone can pleasure yourself? In fact, pleasuring yourself is considered very healthy and one of the ways to, uh, unblock the powers that may have got become blocked across chakras for you. So it's like there was a reason why even animals masturbate and suddenly it became unholy for humans. But I am very proud to say that the vedic tradition that I represent says that there are four important life purposes. We are all here to accomplish these four purposes. One of them is to become secure materially and emotionally, which is known as Arthur. And another is to embody the harm more higher consciousness. Uh, yet another great purpose is to become liberated spiritually and recognize our true Goddess essence. But there is a fourth purpose also that we've come here for. And it's just to have fun and to be pleasure, and to be joyful known as karma through food, through sculptures, through music, through out of box sexuality. And even an orgy is not frowned upon as long as it consists of consenting adults. If I am the, if I am the child of this great tradition, then I wanna live this tradition. Yeah. . I, I don't wanna live this delusionary thinking that has taken over people from my culture and worldwide. Monica: Mm-hmm. Acharya: And while I'm not a teacher of sexuality, I can at least. Put in my 2 cents about it being the best thing you could do. And even if you don't have a sexual partner, at least you can just accept your sexuality. Monica: Mm-hmm. Acharya: because the whole universe is sexual. Every flower, every bee, every power, and every deep breath of grass. Then who are you with your pokey celibacy or your holier than thou attitude? It's so artificial. It's so, um, neither god's no goddesses are pleased with it, really. And we're so done with a couple of men kind of showing off their celibacy to prove a spiritual point. I think we're done. I think we're, Monica: I think we're done with that. I absolutely, yeah. I think we're done with that. Yeah. Well, and I love as well that you know, what you are, uh, pointing to in the realm. Of pleasure in women. You also point to in the pursuit of material wealth and how it is often looked at as non-spiritual. And I wondered, you know, if you could share with us, cuz this one is huge, I think for I would put pleasure and wealth or money in the same category in terms of how difficult. They are for women to give themselves permission around. So yeah. Your thoughts on material wealth or wealth in general for women? Acharya: Well, you talk about unbecoming and I was just taking it further, that when we un become from all our pretentiousness and our borrowed beliefs that we've kind of bought hook, line, and sinker and we've allowed them to morph us and we go beyond in and we unbecoming into our true essence. There's, there's really no policy or posture that we are carrying them. Abundance is our true nature, and abundance is the nature of this universe. And that is why Arrtha or material prosperity is the goal number one. And there is an ancient, ancient anomous known as Chanka. He lived in second century, BCE and he gave this teaching on how dharma is important. But look, he said, so the question was asked of him, you know, what is the root of dharma? And you know, like, Hey, we want this whole planet to become conscious and awake and protector of greater awareness and consciousness. But what do we need then? Hmm. And do you know what he answered? He said, and I'll say it in Sanskrit, he said, which meant, well money is a root of greater consciousness. He didn't say eschew money. Because until we have money, Arthur means money, resources, assets, real estate, human resources, whatever. In today's world, money can bring us. Security is the foundation of higher consciousness. And we have found again and again that when we become materially insecure, that is when we may, you know, subscribe to behaviors that are dishonest. And if a fulfilled society, materially fulfilled society without pretending that it doesn't have needs truly fulfills itself, our planet will truly ascend into a greater consciousness. Because we all agree that when our time are full, we wanna share. That is why we have the phenomena of the Bill Gates Foundation and so many others. Initially you fill your pockets, you take care of your every need, real and even imagined. Make sure you're done and then you're done and you're done. And this is not about greed or non enoughness. This is a very pragmatic teaching. That abundance is your true nature. And that is why God is Lakshmi, who represents prosperity, is bact in jewels and diamonds and the most gorgeous silks. And in fact, her aura is golden. She has different skin color, black, yellow, brown for earth and green, but she, her hue is gold. Like a thousand suns are shining at the same time, and from her hands are flowing these gold coins and gems and rubies, and she's telling us, stop it. Stop being this, this prude, pretending that you don't need it. If you don't really need it, then why are you saying no to it? Let it come to you because I wanna give it to you. I, your mother wants to give it to you, and once it comes through you may you become a channel for abundance to others. Monica: Yeah. So I was just gonna say, ouya, how do you, how does that play or differentiate from this idea of capitalism, which is very patriarchal Acharya: Because Artha or material prosperity has taught by Lakshmi does not come alone. Capitalism only focuses on Artha, whereas Lakshmi is teaching us about Karma too, playfulness with it, which brings not stress and cardiac arrest, but joy. Monica: And sharing Acharya: Before artan comma is dharma. And dharma is the experience of feeling the pain of another. And in fact, when we start counting, we say dharma first, then artha, ah, then karma, and find emotion. In my own life, I have achieved a dharma. I lead Athar life. I'm considered a Dharma giver of Dharma. My students, my family members. In fact recently somebody who is very toxic in my life. I have this victim, people, toxic people, patriarch, toxic people sit down at my feet and say, please teach me, please help me, please guide me. And this has been happening because of dharma. But now that my dharma's fully taken care of through my organizations and through my nonprofit and for-profit, I'm building rag or an empire of Artha. and it's gonna help my karma because then I can do even more philanthropy. I've been always doing it, but I can do it even more. And while I'm doing it, I can also travel business class and first class and give comfort to my body, which is karma. Monica: Mm-hmm. Acharya: and find me through all of this. While I'm doing all this, I'll have these teachings, which remind me to not just be caught up in what class I'm traveling in. What am I doing? It's more about like, when I close my eyes, none of it matters because I've entered another realm beyond the body, beyond Artha Kama Herma into who I am. And because I know who I am, because I also work with moksha, I have even, you know, I've lived in villages which had no electricity or water and I was comfortable. I have traveled in public transport buses, uh, to reach remote areas. And I have been comfortable and peaceful and happy. So capitalism is just artha, Artha, Artha and they, they make for the drive for security brings up fear and anxiety. And then, you know, a loss of all joy. Dharma is something that becomes an inconvenience. People are shaking hands under the table and moksha forget it. And at the most they'll go for meditation to the richest teacher or the most expensive place versus the true teacher because capitalism is like a delusion. It's a trance. Monica: Mm-hmm. Acharya: but the Artha that Lakshmi represents is so wholesome. And this book goes into details, these four goals and how you can be abundant. Monica: Yeah. And so there's again, this right relationship and it has an order in terms of its flow. I often think of my, one of my mentors who is Lynn Twist, who wrote The Soul of Money, and you know the name of that book Right? Is she'll often say Money doesn't have a soul. We do. But if we're not in touch with our. Deepest soul's expression. We're not going to use money toward love. And what she talks about is moving our money from fear to love, and she talks about when money is hoarded, it becomes stagnant and it becomes toxic, and it infects those who actually hold it in that way, where when it's coming from a place of love and sufficiency and it's aligned with our souls longing, we can then build something that is an extension of that. Then we not only have true prosperity, but then we are able to share it with. , anyone and everyone that we choose to do that with. But there's a, a distinction there that material wealth is important for security, but not at the expense of others, not at the expense of our planet, you know, not at the expense of the goddess. Acharya: And that is the, and that is dharma. See, the truly aligned teachers speak the same thing. Language may be different, but the truth is one. Monica: Yeah, I love that. Acharya: In fact, there is a saying in the ancient 10, says his means the reality. There's only one reality. And then it says though the, the nos from different cultures call it by different names. And indeed Thema Thema prevents a to a scarcity mindset. Monica: Mm-hmm. Acharya: it prevents the toxicity coming into, in our pursuit of abundance and wealth. It's real prosperity, which is not just because when Lakshmi is involved with the wealth, you know, you haven't met people, Monica, who have n amounts of money, and yet they're kind of Yes. Deprived. They can't enjoy it. That means they have, they don't have the blessings of Lakshmi. They don't, they have money, like notes like bank account. But they have no Lakshmi. They don't have any good luck, any abundance. They only have money, but we should all aspire that we have enough in our banks to fulfill our needs and for us to help the world. But we can also enjoy. We also feel satiated and satisfied and blessed by that wealth. And even a single note from our bank, when it reaches someone else, it changes their life Can, our wealth can be magical. Our wealth can become the wings of the goddess, and we can aspire for that. We don't always have to have this sad outlook. Like if I'm spiritual, I'm celibate. If I'm spiritual, I'm poor. If I'm spiritual, I'm only vegan. I just wanna say, let's just kind of clear all those debes out. That's like, maybe it's like it's very humanity. 2.0, we don't have to talk like this. Monica: Mm-hmm. Acharya: Because if for example, then it, it doesn't, we can think, we can imagine what wealth can do for us and our planet when the goddess is connected with it and when it has become a tool of the goddess. It's just like Durga was holding her weapons. She is holding this prosperity for us to bring and live to live with her and to bring the harmony to the planet. Mm. To become an agent of conscious change and transformation. It's a totally stunning new way of looking at wealth, which your teacher has also been bringing forth, and many teachers who are similarly aligned with that greater one truth are speaking though in their own language. I hope that our conversation just helps move that obstacle that's lodge within a little more or completely flies out of the way and you get ready to truly welcome abundance. And it's an, it's an emotional shift more than even an outer shift. It's, it's a willingness to be part of that abundance cycle, which is going on in the universe. And the universe doesn't work with non abundance, like even in a drought cycle. It's all working towards abundance ultimately. Yes. Yeah. Monica: I love it. I love it. Well, this has been such a beautiful conversation, Acharya. Thank you so much. I'm so honored really, to have this conversation with you. I'm so blessed to have come across your work, and I know that even that is because of the goddess. I really always pay attention to those that are put in my path, whomever I might stumble across, whether it's on Instagram or at the bookstore, you know, I think there are no accidents. And of course, the fact that you said yes to being here today and creating this conversation with me just means that all of my listeners can also share in this. Great wealth and great prosperity that you are an extension of. So again, thank you so much and you're more than welcome to tell my listeners where they can learn more about you and any other programs that you wanna invite them to. This would be the time to do it. Acharya: Well, you can find me because I have a website by my name, which I'm sure Monica will write in the show notes. And you just put a.com next to it and you can find me to awakened self.com, which is more of my Wisdom School, and my courses are there either website, you'll find me. And interestingly, we were talking about these four goals of life, which includes abundance and pleasure, and dharma and freedom moksha. And on January 14th, For the new year, I am hosting a retreat called School Scape, where you lead the life that your soul wants you to lead with purpose. And, and I will be going deep into these teaching zone, the fact that your soul wants you to be abundant. And if you are not in alignment with that, then you are not in alignment with your deepest truth. And no wonder you're meeting obstacles. And if you're not in alignment with pleasure, then you are, you are gonna be unhealthy physically and emotionally because pleasure is necessary for health and happiness and ways to incorporate the herma and, uh, spiritual freedom, which is, um, my desire is that this retreat kind of helps all the participants. Learn these basic, deep, fundamental teachings of the US and take their forward in a beautiful way. And I hope, Monica, that you will attend and you speak so heartfully beautifully, deeply, that I kept seeing a book in your aura. Wonder if you're writing. But I, I'm ready to read it. Monica: Oh, thank you. Thank you. And you are correct. I am in the process and yes, yes, that is it. That is my deepest desire is to synthesize all of what I have learned from having these beautiful conversations, as well as just my own personal journey of awakening in hopes that it inspires and awakens others. And so, yes, sister, you know, we are, I think at this time, at this blessed time, really in our human evolution where women are finding each other and circling together and reveal. And feeling and healing and so that is the goal. Thank you so much. And for our listeners, I will be sure to put Ariyas information and the many resources in the show notes. And until next time, more to be revealed. We hope you enjoyed this episode. For more information, please visit us@jointherevelation.com and be sure to download our free gift, subscribe to our mailing list, or leave us a review on iTunes. We thank you for your generous listening and as always, more to be revealed.