What is Nada Yoga today? What is Mantra Shakti? 6 Ways to Smash the Patriarchy (One Note at a Time!)
A bit of my story...
After almost assimilating to be a “good Indian girl” studying these traditions since I was 19, I woke up *just in time* to realize that there are 5,000+ years of baked in patriarchal systems of oppression in nearly every aspect of yoga culture. (Not to mention my own American culture!)
I had been baking inside the whole assimilation enchilada:
- wearing full saree every day for years, as comfortable as putting on sweats.
- Studying Hindustanī classical vocal music in New Delhi with my beloved music Guruji.
- Speaking Hindi and serving the elders chai. Every auntie trying to marry me off to her son or her nephew.
- Feeling weird when I'd leave India and suddenly find myself in a room full of white people, because I'm so used to being the only European amongst thousands of Indians on the subway.
- My friends said I'm was more Indian than they are! And only their grandmother knows as many of the mantras by heart as I do. LOL... it was an honor and a privilege to be so embraced and absorbed into mother India. But...
My “aha” moment was at a Nāvarātri pūja in South India in 2018, (Lalitā, to be precise) when I realized that the priests tossing flowers at a statue of the Goddess while racing through mumbling the mantras at astonishing speed were the same men I’d seen earlier that day verbally disrespecting the women serving them special food and cleaning up after them.
From one minute to the next, these men are oppressing real life women, then worshipping the Goddess? WTF!
I wondered: is a statue a convenient representation for the privileged male priesthood because it doesn’t demand listening, presence, connection… and it can’t talk back?
Something snapped in me, the cognitive dissonance - that note of tension - penetrated the fog of my acquiescence to the Hindu culture that I’ve loved so much and learned so much from.
For me, the Goddess (Śakti in Sanskrit) ⚡️LIVES in sound: from the silence in the heart, to our subtle but powerful thoughts, our speech, and our musical singing voice!
What is Mantra Shakti?
Mantra śakti is the living energy of mantra itself! We can feel it directly through the sound vibration of mantra when our heart, mind, word and deed are aligned. This may be a lifelong refinement, but those glimpses of attunement and resonance with the Śakti of mantra is unmistakeable: it is nāda yoga, or union through vibration.
What’s the difference between Yoga and Tantra? In a nutshell:
- The Tantrik path is down and in (and all around!)
- The currently defined "traditional" Yogic path is up and out.
- The Tantrik path is filled with mystics, radicals, lovers.
- The currently defined "traditional" Yogic path tows the party line of the religious / political order.
If you also resonate with the deep desire to engage the mystical practices of mantra and nāda yoga, but you do NOT want to get sucked into an approach to practice that ends up turning you into simply another "good girl" but in a salwar kameez... beware. There are PRECIOUS FEW learning communities that you'll feel safe to explore communion through sound in.
What is Nada yoga today?
Nāda Yoga is communion through sound. Usually translated as "union through sound" but I prefer communion because that word implies imbibing, embodying, becoming immersed in, dissolving the boundary of separation with... not just the bland terms of "nāda yoga is sound and music used primarily for spirituality and meditation." We're becoming MORE ALIVE over here, not leaving our bodies for some other time and place.
6 ways you can melt the patriarchy within you one note at a time:
1
☺️ Explore pleasure in your own voice vibration! It’s a radical act of self-connection and self-love.
2
👂🏽Listen to what is actually alive in you. Make space in your day to hear your heart 💓
3
😴 Rest from performative, competitive, stressful motivations (faster faster! more more! louder louder! In order to feel excitement, aliveness, manufactured “ecstasy” in your kīrtans and chant experiences)
4
🗣️ Speak your full resonant voice, your values, your desires, your joy & laughter, your truth.
5
👸🏽 Celebrate women in leadership and power! Appreciate, support, and lift up folks of all gender identities who express traits of nurturing, compassion, equality, and care (let’s stop calling those “feminine” traits and call them human, ok?)
6
😶 If anyone ever told you to be quiet, your voice doesn’t matter, your opinions don’t count, remember this very powerful mudrā: 🖕🏾🖕🏽🖕🏻🖕🏿
Smash the Patriarchy with Your Leadership Voice | Yoga of Sound Chant Experience In this free reply of a 40 minute free yoga of sound experienced:
- Connected to safety in your body/voice to listen IN to what was truly alive in you.
- Got delicious respite from the pendulum swing between trying too hard (overcompensating) and collapse (submitting).
- Felt how your voice resonated within you (and sounded different!) when you were tapped into
What if your voice rose from your belly shimmering with natural power and grace?
What if you felt both safe to feel and free to express yourself exactly as you are?
What if you savored the pleasure of harmonious vibration surging through your body?
For me, that is what we all lose in patriarchal, hierarchical power dynamics (regardless of which gender you identify with). I've been on a not-so-secret mission to untangle the not-so-subtle restrictions of a patriarchal system on my own voice for years now, and it's a thread of conversation we often weave throughout our teacher trainings and mentorship circles. It is profoundly impactful on a fundamental level, and I feel honored to invite you to this practice!
Free sound healing and mantra training!
Discover the best sound yoga therapy, mantra meditation, and nada yoga FREE resources here:
- More free sound baths and chant experiences of all different types are available at HeartofSound on YouTube / Sound Bath Playlist
- Get to know Anandra through her IG reels and media appearances.
- Interested? ☎️ Book a FREE 30 minute Discovery call! Let's explore together and find the perfect option for you!
