Swedish Bhairavi Says: “A Sponge with Discernment..”

We heard it from many people, now and then, and it is a good analogy.… To be a sponge, soak everything in. We know you say it because you have found that what we are talking about and offering are things that you want to nurture yourself with. Its like tasting something really tasty and wanting to enjoy it properly…or a nice fragrance was smelled and wanting to engross oneself in the beauty of that smell.

This is good. To be open, to take in, to learn, to experience, to allow for being engrossed, encapsulated, delving into something of your choosing……..letting it touch you fully, this is beautiful and it is of great benefit. We are glad this zeal and curiosity is there.

In life, without this openness, nothing enters, nothing moves, nothing grows.

But also…since we are speaking about sponges…it gave rise to talking about the downside of living without discernment, without active choices, without active direction.

Have you seen a sponge that has been lying around a little too long? With remnants of food, oil, and whatever else it has picked up over time. It no longer soaks properly. It carries residue, it starts to smell, and even the sight of it repels. It has taken in a lot, but it has not been cleaned.

So the question is not only whether you can be a sponge. The question becomes: what are you soaking in, how are you maintaining the sponge, and what happens to what you take in?

You are the sponge. Your body is the vessel, and your five senses, and beyond, are the soaking apparatus. The more refined your senses are, the more high-quality, detailed and elaborate your capacity to take in becomes.

So what kind of sponge are you? Is it old school in a raw, simple, beautiful way, or just old? Is it full of cracks, residue, tangled wiring, unconscious habits, impressions that were never processed? Or is it refined, precise, almost like a highly tuned instrument that can register, receive, and respond with clarity? Is it self-tuned? Does it know how to adjust? Have you trained it well?

Because soaking and absorbing is only one part. What you take in does not disappear. It stays, it mixes, it forms impressions, it creates bonds. This is where Runānubandhanam begins to be understood as a lived reality. Every experience you absorb, every environment you sit in, every conversation you engage in, everything you expose yourself to leaves a trace. Not only in memory, but in your system, in your way of perceiving, responding, and choosing. You become connected to what you take in.

So naturally, discernment becomes important. It is a form of intelligence that builds over time. In the beginning perhaps a bit heady but with time, when the earth and the moon and flowers begin to nod their heads in agreement to your discernment…when more and more moments of grace come showing itself at your doorstep….then you will understand how that discernment…how the selection the boundaries was needed.

Sometimes boundaries are healthy. Sometimes saying yes to everything is not openness, it is lack of clarity, lack of integrity. Sometimes integrity is honoring the specific creation of Shakti that you are. Sometimes a container is needed. Sometimes structure and discipline create the ground in which something real can grow, where your nervous system can relax and heal.

If one loves the nectar and smell of a wild rose flower on a late Swedish spring day, it is wise to not soak oneself in a smelly puddle of shit.

There is also another part that is often missing. The sponge needs to be cleaned, not only once but again and again. If you have ever cleaned a sponge properly, you know that sometimes it needs heat, pressure, rinsing, effort. It needs to be wrung out. It needs to release what it has been holding. Otherwise, it carries everything forward, layer upon layer.

Many people take in a lot, experiences, emotions, teachings, practices, impressions, but very little is actually processed and very little is released. Everything remains in a half-formed state: mixed, heavy, confusing. The system becomes overloaded, not because of life itself, but because nothing is being digested. Clogged, one could say..

This is where Manipura becomes important. It is the capacity to process, to choose, to act, to release. To not simply take in endlessly, but to decide what stays, what goes and what is transformed.

This also connects to a question we recently received: why is there a need to strive at all? If everything is already natural, if everything is already Shakti, if love, bliss, and liberation are said to be our natural state, then why do anything? Why practice? Why move anywhere?

It is a valid question, and there is no compulsion. There is no rule that says you must practice, must change, must strive. You can live exactly as you are. Life itself will continue as a teaching ground, karma will move as it moves. Not choosing is also a choice. Not practicing is a choice. Not refining is a choice. Letting the environment shape you is a choice.

But something else is also true. If you do not choose, inertia will choose for you. The stream will carry you, the environment will decide, and the impressions you soak in will accumulate without direction.

So this is not about fixing yourself. It is not about becoming something else. It is not about leaving Shakti and going somewhere else. It is about how consciously you want to participate. How much you want to shape your experience. How much you want to refine what is already there.

We have often said that it is about removing the soot so that what is already present can shine, so that anugraha grace can flow, so that the natural intelligence, the natural power, and the natural clarity is not covered.

Manipura gives the capacity to act in this, to choose, to create, to hold direction, to swim upstream when needed, and sometimes simply to remain where you are without being swept away.

Because yes, there are paths within Siddha Tantra where one does not choose anything for oneself, where one simply flows like a leaf, in the dirt, in the slums, long stretches perhaps with no food, no family, no connection, no teeth, nothing of one’s “own,” no name, no identity. And sometimes, if the wind blows in another direction, there is a name, a position, something in between, not the top, not the bottom, just something. Then the wind shifts again, and that is where the one who has surrendered everything is carried. No ambition, no purpose, no personal direction.

But how many of us are truly like that? How many of us are so empty of self that we can genuinely live without choosing?

For most, what is called “going with the flow” is simply being carried by habits, by environment, by impressions, by unconscious patterns. It is not freedom. It is drift.

Siddha Tantra Arts teaches how to prepare the vessel, not just to take in more, but to become capable of handling what is already being taken in. To clean the sponge, to strengthen it, to make it responsive, clear, and alive.

And then something shifts. The sponge is no longer just absorbing blindly. It becomes intentional, aware, and capable. It begins to know what to take in, what to hold, and what to release.

So yes, be a sponge. But be a sponge with discernment.

Know that what you take in becomes part of you. What you do not release remains within you. And what you consciously work with begins to shape your path.

Life is already complete. Nothing is missing from it. The question is how you meet it. What you allow into yourself. What you choose to carry forward. The question is how you participate.

With love,

Swedish Bhairavi