Dearest Reader,
It had been weeks of celebration in India. I fondly call it the Autumn festivals for the Devine Feminine. I hail from the Eastern part of India and in my parts of the world Feminine is revered, loved and worshipped. We started off the slew of festivities with Durga Puja, worshipping the strength and power of feminine. Durga is all about getting rid of all that is evil. We follow it up with Lakshmi puja, which unlike the rest of India occurs on a full moon night in the Bengali calendar. It’s called the Kojagori Purnima, and the Goddess of wealth and well being is ushered into every home. There’s a saying “Chanchala Lakshmi” meaning the wealth has a fickle mind and doesn’t stick to any unless efforts are put to keep it within the threshold of our homes. Funnily during Lakshmi Puja, Bengalis don’t gong the bell The belief being the sound of bells will startle the Goddess and she might decide to leave the home concerned. We close the loop with praying to the wrathfull form of Feminine divinity by worshiping to Kali. The naked dark form with anger painting its being. Beautiful Kali adorns a garland of human skulls with tongue protruded out. She is offered meat and alcohol amongst other things and is worshipped at midnight. She’s the destroyer of all the darkness we harbour inside of us. The ‘Tamasik’s of our existence is offered to her for annihilation.
Amidst these festivities I had planned a trip to the mountains with my son. This was a gift to us, where the mystic in him was to be brought to life amidst the fold of the mountains. As he took his first steps to embrace the calling of the wild, I saw the enraptured lost eyes of my boy. And when I say wild, I mean all that is not urban, not bound by reason, unstructured, unfathomable magic of the universe. Once you taste it, everything else falls apart.
On such a journey to a small village called Bikshthang in the western folds of the Mountain state Sikkim, nestles a Farmhouse I call my own. I feel rooted to this land with eons of Karmic connection. I never knew the family or the place but chanced upon it on a stray Google search in 2014. Since then this place have become home and the family has adopted me as their own. I return every year to connect with my roots and offer my gratitude for being blessed with having at least one wee corner of the earth where I belong.
These Sikkimese family following Tibetan Buddhism (which I drown myself in as a seeker) taught me many of their customs and rituals. The sound of Gong from their prayer alter, the chants of the monks and curling smoke of the dried pines all seems familiar, too familiar. Today being the 25th Day in the Tibetan Lunar calendar, is dedicated to the Dakinis. The Dakinis symbolise the female energy of enlightenment and are inspiration to yogis. It is believed that on Dakini Day the feminine energy is in its peak. I prayed in the family alter for well being of all sentient beings. I prayed for the sacred power of the Dakini to bless all unions where the feminine and masculine energy unites to creates the truest form of balance. The primordial static uniting with the universal motion - for every Shakti let there be Shiva, for every Radha, let there be Krishna, for every Tara let there be AmoghaSidhdhi.
I wonder if there was a ludicrous coincidence playing truants when I was being named after I was born. My name means a feminine divine form which roams the sky. In other words my name is a Sanskrit synonym to the Tibetan Dakini. My grandma from my mother’s side fondly called me Krishnapriya, which means the love of Krishna or Sri Radhika. And then I was let loose in this world to play the role of a seeker. To love in its tangible and intangible forms with a ferocity of Dakini and live impermanence in a material world as every Seeker does. Such love can be showered on the folds of the mountains and the whispers of the wind, on the dancing of the rivers and flutters of butterflies. Such love can be harboured for one and many, for all and for none, for known and for unknown, for past and for future.
So dear Reader on this auspicious Dakini Day, I send you prayers for you and yours. May the love that holds you, hold true to you till you breathe your last.
Always yours,
Pocket full of Life
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