Yearly Archives: 2026

Narasimha in Tantra Narasimha in Tantra: Ugra Rahasya and the Hidden Alliance with Bagalamukhi In bahya drishti Narasimha kills a demon. In antar drishti he kills duality itself. Neither Neither: The Core Rahasya Hiranyakashipu is ahamkara protected by boons: neither inside nor outside, neither day nor night. Narasimha is neti neti made…

Borrowed Bhakti and the Silence Beneath Books Borrowed bhakti is not false, it is just unripened. Everyone begins by hearing someone else sing. In our tradition, shravana was always the first step. We hear a kirtan, we read a chalisa someone else wrote, we repeat a name someone else loved first. That is not wrong.…

Why Tantra Begins With Beej The Seed Before the Tree: Why Tantra Begins With Beej. In Tantra, a mantra is not given all at once. It is planted. That planting is called beej diksha, initiation into the seed syllable. Before the long mantra, before the nyasa and vidhi, the guru gives a single vibrating sound…

Dakshinamurthy as Jnana and Aghora The Silent Guru and His Shadow: Dakshinamurthy as Jnana and Aghora There is a Shiva who never speaks, and yet every mantra claims him as its source. That is where this story begins. The serene one under the banyan In Tamil Nadu temples he sits young and ash-smeared under the…

64 Yoginis Meaning, Temples, Tantra & Feminine Shakti The Circle With No Roof: 64 Yoginis and a Woman's Becoming There is a temple in Odisha with no roof, a perfect circle open to the sky. Inside, 64 women carved in black stone dance, laugh, bare their teeth, hold a child, hold a skull. They have…

Is Ucchista Chandalini Only for the Outcaste? The Name Is the Teaching Say the name aloud: Ucchista Chandalini. For many ears the second word lands first. It sounds like a boundary, a goddess kept for those kept outside. Tantra means the opposite. She is called Chandalini not to exclude, but to include what was excluded.…

The Remainder That Remains Divine: Ucchista Ganapati and Sumukhi Devi In the quieter lanes of Tantra, where the rules of clean and unclean begin to melt, two figures sit together in intimate embrace. He is elephant-faced, red as desire, unashamed. She is luminous, seated on his lap, called Sumukhi, the beautiful-faced one. To the orthodox…

Hinglaj Devi: The Red Goddess of the Crown Outwardly, Hinglaj Devi is the presiding deity of the cave shrine on the Hingol river in Balochistan, Pakistan, in the middle of Hingol National Park. In the Puranic story of Sati, this is where her head, more precisely her Brahmarandhra, fell, making it one of the most…