Swedish Bhairavi Says: "The Hedgehog & The Trishula.."
In this week of Ātma Bhāva Mudrā, we begin to turn the gaze inward, into the quiet, complex dance between love for another and love for oneself.
Most people want to be a great lover, a romantic, magnificent one who manages to move mountains and melt even the most complex human projects with their unwavering heart.
It can happen , the idea of being so loved, over and over again, met with compassion and forgiveness to the point that you know nothing will make them leave you unless you yourself want them to. I have been shown that. I have experienced that. And it has softened me, helped me realize many things about being loved by a Siddha Tantra practitioner, one who also knows many Tantra etiquettes.
The hedgehog is not on alert mode when grounded by a true lover. Like an unmoving, unwavering trishula established in the earth, self-sacrificing, sometimes burning in tapa because the hedgehog’s spikes automatically come out in self-defence. 🤦♀️
Now, you may think that I, or we, are promoting being that self-sacrificing trishula, forever giving?
Nope.
That is actually not the case for the Dakini’s Ātma Bhāva Mudrā. It is not the right approach for these times, although many people still hold the fantasy of being such a romantic, selfless lover. We have seen too many good people wasting their time, youth, energy, prāṇa, and resources on dead-end relationships and unappreciated, destructive constellations.
Sure, I too practice becoming a so-called trishula of love.
But in today’s age, one must begin authentically, by filling one’s own cup. We need to realize that we grew up in an individualistic era; it’s imprinted in us, and we have to work with that, not live in denial.
Dakini Tantra, within Siddha Tantra Arts, offers tools for exactly this, to give that same effort and energy to yourself, to watch yourself bloom, and then to look at yourself with true self-adoration and awe. Awe for what you have created with yourself!
What I have seen is that the most loving and compassionate people are those who are present and self-loving, complete and at peace within themselves, so much so that they have access to the abundance of love’s wealth. They don’t consider love or compassion to be costly or limited, because they themselves are made of love. They are generators of it. Their cup is full and plugged into an infinite, premium-quality coffee grinder. Unlimited.
So what is stopping us, as people, from being self-loving, self-caring, and fully devoted to ourselves? The workings of that we will uncover in the foundation videos of this week, and we will build upon them through practice.
Long ago, in an encounter with a MahaSiddha while doing seva, I was told that even if one is depressed or going through difficult times, a sādhaka should groom and take care of themselves, that caring for the body and what one has been given is actually a duty.
I understood that it has to become a spiritual practice in order to transcend various emotional states and situations. At the time, I wasn’t putting any focus on this and was neglecting self-care altogether.
The spirals are hard to get out of. A low mood struggles to generate self-appreciation. But self-appreciation, and rituals of self-care and purification, are what increase self-love and appreciation in the first place.
Neglecting one’s own existence and expression, and lacking gratitude, creates demerit, paap, as well as mental complications and stifled creativity.
Let us explore, week by week, how the self-absorbed Dakini can show us that self-adoration can be a path to grace and inner peace. And once love begins flowing inward without resistance, it naturally radiates outward, fierce, soft, and whole.
But for now… let’s just be selfish. 😉
With love,
Swedish Bhairavi
