The Way of the Goddess: Daily Rituals to Awaken Your Inner Warrior and Discover Your True Self - Hardcover

Ajmera, Ananta Ripa

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0593420705 ISBN 13: 9780593420706

Verlag: TarcherPerigee, 2022

Inhaltsangabe

Cultivate inner wisdom and strength through simple, sacred rituals from the ancient Indian goddess tradition.

In our chaotic and isolating times, it’s more essential than ever to connect to our highest selves—finding the purpose, pleasure, and freedom that lives inside each of us. Grounded in the Vedic spiritual traditions of Ayurveda, Yoga, and Vedanta, the simple practices in this engaging guide offer us the space and perspective to do just that. You’ll meet the nine Indian goddesses who embody the essential facets of divine feminine power—courage, creativity, intuition, rejuvenation, transformation, and more—and discover simple spiritual practices to honor each of these divine energies within ourselves.

Renowned Ayurvedic practitioner and spiritual teacher Ananta Ripa Ajmera sheds light on the goddesses and her own journey of healing and transformation, along with simple everyday rituals ranging from chakra balancing and spiritual reflection to journal prompts, creativity challenges, and more.

Whether you’re looking to deepen your spiritual practice or simply to reconnect to what matters most, the daily spiritual practices in this vibrantly illustrated guide will help you reflect, rejuvenate, and feel more fully alive.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Ananta Ripa Ajmera is a spiritual teacher and cofounder and CEO of The Ancient Way, an organization that supports you to embody ancient wisdom in a way that unfolds your true Self. The Ancient Way offers a Spiritual Warrior Certification, Ayurveda practitioner training program, and spiritual wellness retreats. Ananta is director of Ayurveda at THE WELL, a modern wellness club, where she writes articles, offers workshops, and works with a team of integrative medical practitioners. The author of The Ayurveda Way, she lives in southern Florida.

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Chapter 1

The Power of Practice

The Self cannot be cut, nor burnt, nor wetted, nor dried.
The Self is eternal, all-pervading, stable, immovable and ancient.

-Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, verse 24

Cultivating Stability

Stability means many things to many people, but on the spiritual path, it is the ability to remain focused on your objective no matter the obstacles that arise. Stability is rooted in the concept of shraddha, a Sanskrit term that represents the capacity of the intellect to reflect upon teachings, understand them, and make them your own. Shraddha is the ability to pursue knowledge until you become one with it, until the information brings about a transformation in your life, and mere knowledge metamorphoses into your living, embodied wisdom. In the Navratri practice, stability is the foundation for your entire journey. That's why we begin with getting grounded; your feet need to be planted in the ground, literally and metaphorically, to allow you to climb higher toward the ultimate goal of spiritual enlightenment.

Having the power of stability means being able to say yes to people, practices, and situations that support you on your quest for spiritual growth and saying no to what no longer serves you. But cultivating stability is not something that happens just once before you move ahead to something else. Instead, it's a first step you will take again and again as you navigate life's inevitable ups and downs. That's why getting grounded is the first step on the nine-step journey of Navratri practice; it is what enables you to commit yourself today (and again in the future) to living a life filled with purpose, abundance, pleasure, and liberation.

When I began to create this practice, I found myself thinking of the god and goddess look-alike contests that were part of my childhood experience of Navratri. One year my mother and her friend dressed me as Radha, the goddess consort of Lord Krishna who represents the power of devotion. They wrapped me in a gold-and-blue sari that exposed my stomach and attached to the bun in my hair. I was mortified to walk onstage in this bizarre getup. And I was even more horrified when I was announced as the winner since then I had to pose for a photo with the winner of the Krishna look-alike competition.

Starting my nine years of lineage-based spiritual study was the beginning of my attempts to create stability in my own life. As I embarked on what would turn out to be a decade-long journey to true wellness, I looked back on those contests with a strange mix of longing and bemusement. On the outside, I had so closely resembled a goddess that I had won a prize, but on the inside, I felt nothing of Radha's divine nature. I was twenty-five years old and was in my first year of study. I knew that to others I appeared accomplished and calm, but inside I felt disconnected from my true Self, afraid to know her and to confront the pain that I carried with me from a difficult childhood. As I learned and studied more during those first months, I asked myself, "What if being like a goddess has nothing to do with appearance and everything to do with remaking myself from the inside out? What if, instead of searching outside of myself, I went inside to find my power and to find the goddess within?"

That for me was the start of a new life, and I began with Goddess Shailputri, who we celebrate on the first night of Navratri. She lives in your first chakra and helps you get grounded when you start balancing it, as I eventually did, with lifestyle practices that provide refuge amidst the many changes of life.

Knowing Shailputri

Shailputri was a royal princess, and her father, Prajapati, was the king of all of humanity. He invited his subjects from far and wide to join him for festivals and celebrations and, most important, to serve him during these sacred occasions.

One day, Shailputri returned to visit her parents from her home in the Himalayas where she lived with her husband, Lord Shiva, the god of transformation. When she arrived, her father was organizing a great yajna, a huge fire ceremony into which all manner of material things were to be offered, including fruit, flowers, clothing, and money. The idea was that whatever the people let go of would return to them many times over.

Everyone in the world was invited, except for Lord Shiva. King Prajapati was embarrassed that his son-in-law wore leopard skin, had long hair, draped a serpent around his neck, and smeared his face with ashes. Prajapati could see only that Lord Shiva was different; he did not recognize that Lord Shiva was the embodiment of spirituality. He did not understand that the serpent Shiva wore around his neck symbolized how he had conquered his ego and was the master of his mind. He did not understand that Lord Shiva carried the entire holy Ganges River in his long hair, nor did he know of the great penance and spiritual discipline that Lord Shiva had performed, along with countless lifetimes of contemplation and meditation.

Prajapati's arrogance and ignorance outraged his daughter, and she stood up to her father. "Why have you not invited my husband? You've made a great fire so you'll go to heaven, have good karma, and gain more material blessings, but there is nothing spiritual about this!"

Shailputri moved toward the fire to immolate herself in protest of her father's hypocrisy, but she did not actually need to step into the flames. She just said om and was consumed by the all-powerful inner fire of her desire for a new life, one in which she could live with a true sense of devotion and spirituality. She was then reborn as the daughter of the Himalayas and continued her spiritual journey unencumbered by the attachments to material things that had held her back as the daughter of the king.

Our desire for genuine transformation in the modern world is no less intense than Shailputri's and connects us through the millennia to her and to her story. Certainly, the idea of starting again without the parts of our lives that hold us back is enormously appealing. And yet we struggle to begin the process of transformation because to succeed in this endeavor, we must let go of aspects of our lives that are no longer working for us. It feels dramatic-and it is-but we must burn away our old ways to reclaim ourselves and to welcome a more spiritual way of living.

That's where stability comes in. Strip away the external markers of who we are-job, clothes, partners, etc.-and we are left with our core essence. When we connect with that core, we can finally, after years of focusing on the external, find peace by knowing the stability within. Shailputri is the perfect embodiment of this quality, which stems from a firm resolve and willingness to forgo ease in pursuit of a spiritual quest. The way forward may not be easy, but with time, consistency, and determination, being connected to and nurturing the stability within you will create a new and deeper kind of comfort. Such is the power of Shailputri.

In addition to representing stability, Goddess Shailputri is also a divine embodiment of our perfect Mother Earth. I refer to Mother Earth, Mother Nature, and Shailputri interchangeably throughout the rest of this chapter because she is the protector of all living beings: humans, animals, birds, trees, and everything else-including you and me. As someone who never felt safe or protected growing up, I loved learning about Shailputri and have come to think of her as a protector who always has my back when I face trials and tribulations. A true friend, she is solid like a tree, and I can depend on her fully and forever.

Stability & the First Chakra

The power of stability is connected with the first chakra (known as the "root chakra"). Its location is said to be the base of your spine. This is where spiritual energy is...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: TarcherPerigee
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2022
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0593420705
• ISBN 13: 9780593420706
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 240
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Tarcher; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/search/tarcher?page=1&q=TARCHER; ; Attn: Andrea T Sheridan 1745 BROADWAY; New York; NY; 10019; USA
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