On the second day of Navaratri – a Hindu holiday that celebrates The Great Goddess Durga and her triumph over the buffalo demon, Mahishasura – the form of the goddess that is worshiped is Brhamcharini. This nine night holiday reminds us that our tenderness, our ambiguity, our vulnerability, and our depth are our super powers. 

Brahmacharini is the invitation to learn from every aspect of life, to add into the fire of transformation every challenge and struggle, to allow the lessons to unfold, and to engage in them – receptive and generative, to learn to soften into the river of life and let it guide you, and to do the hard work of studying, learning, and practicing. 

Brahmacharini is another form of Parvati, who is the mother of elephant headed god Ganapati, and wife of Śiva. 

When Parvati was a little girl she was clear; she was gonna marry Śiva. Her love was vast. Her parents were worried. But she was resolved. Her desire for the ash smeared, dreadlocks and snakes in his hair meditator, who lived on the mountain and wore tiger skin loincloth, was stronger than the typical teenage girl’s crush on her idol. 

As soon as she was old enough she went looking for him. 

To make a long, elaborate and beautiful story short, her dance of erotic seduction didn’t work on the yogi. But Parvati is The Goddess, she is the abundance of the universe, she is resourceful. And she realized she needed to meet him at his own realm. 

So the goddess became the most intense, ferocious, and wild ascetic. These were Paravti’s yoga years. She meditated in a circle of fire in the hot Summer months. She slept naked in the snow in the harsh, cold Winter. She stood on one leg for thousands of years in the monsoon rains. She did 108,108 sun salutations a day for 108 years. The goddess meditated and chanted Aum Namah Śivaya, running her fingers on her Rudraksha mala beads until her finger bled and her voice was gone. She did pranayama until she saw her own lungs from the inside. She studied texts and contemplated. She looked at the world and the world as a teacher. Everything was an opportunity to learn. The goddess gave her yoga all she had. 

Her Sadhana (spiritual practice) was superb. She was devoted. She was strong. She became so powerful, but she was super humble. She fell in love with solitude. She was so into her practice that you would think she almost forgot what got her on the path. But she didn’t forget. Because her love ran so deep, and her devotion kept her going. Some spiritual teachings and practices arise from the desire to get rid of desire. But there is no getting rid of it. Desire is at the core of existence, and it is what animates the world. Parvati’s asceticism was born of her eroticism. Her desire generated her devotion, and sent her deeply into discipleship.  

And of course, Śiva couldn’t ignore this yogini who became more knowledgeable than he was in the art of yoga. Rumors about her made it all the way into his state of Samadhi (absorption in spirit, a state of “complete” and “absolute” evenness, “pure” consciousness undisturbed by anything) and he couldn’t resist her. 

When the gods gather to join their light and heat, and Durga rises from their joint power, she doesn’t go to battle with Mahishasura right away. She retreats into a cave and does some serious inner work. She studies. She practices. She meditates. She stands in Warrior one, two, and three, for 1200 breaths on each side. She lifts weights at the same time. She contemplates and journals and studies every text she can get her eyes on. She does Shadow Work and Somatic Experiencing. She spends hours on zoom calls with her therapist, she practices breathwork, and takes plant medicine, and she prepares herself for battle. 

It is her softness that ends up destroying the demon Mahishasura, who is an immovable, dogmatic, religious fundamentalist character. But she can only access that tenderness because she is resourceful and because she has put tens of thousands of hours into her practice.

Brahmacharini is that part of us that moves through life as an ever unfolding learning experience. 

The word Brahma in Sanskrit can be translated as; the expanse of the universe, the vastness of existence. Brahma is also the god of creation. He is a grandfather character; generous and boon giving (he can’t resist; he even gives boons to the demons, because yoga, which generates power, pulls rewards out of the creative power of the universe… it’s not a moral universe, but a powerful one).

The word Charini means the female version of the word Charya, which means student, or conduct, or practice.

Brahmacharini is the feminine discipleship of the infinite, of the universe, of creation, of the expanse of existence. 

We are work in progress. We are always in the process of learning and changing and becoming and dissolving. Life offers us difficult and dangerous moments to learn from. It offers us opportunities to relish the deliciousness and learn from the sweetness too. 

She holds a Rudraksha Japa Mala (a rosary) in one hand, to keep reciting the mantras, to keep chanting life’s songs, and to grow the capacities of awareness. In the other she holds a Kamandalu – a pot of water – a symbol of the womb, of the feminine receptive and generative power.

Brahmacharini invites us to keep learning, to keep growing, to keep participating in a universe that keeps changing. 

If you want to go deeper into your practice and study, to go into the cave of profound, life changing sadhana, join us for Bond With Your Life – a soulful, somatic journey that will help you access your power and connect to yourself in new ways. 

Bond With Your Life will support you during the stressful election season in the US, through the intensity of the war in the Middle East, through the challenges and struggles of the everyday, and through the growing pains of being an adult in today’s world. 

It won’t give a solution to the problems, but help you cultivate your ability to deal with them, to hold space for the pain, to be with yourself through the intensity.

This is an educational, transformational, practical, and mythological container that will give you tools to help you manage stress, find your center, open your heart, and gather your strength on somatic, mental, and emotional levels. 

For more details and to sign up click here. 

For a video conversation about Brahamcharini, that includes a mudra and mantra practice go here.

I cannot wait to dive into this well of wisdom with you! 

Much love,

Hagar