Women who wear only themselves with Arundhathi Subramaniam

Described as 'one of the finest poets writing in India today', Arundhathi Subramaniam is a leading Indian poet and award-winning author of fourteen books of poetry and prose. Recent books include the poetry volume, "Love Without a Story"; a prose work on four contemporary women on spiritual journeys, "Women Who Wear Only Themselves"; and an anthology of female sacred poetry in India, Wild Women. She has worked over the years as curator, critic and poetry editor. A recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award 2020, and shortlisted for the prestigious TS Eliot Prize for Poetry in 2015, her awards include the inaugural Khushwant Singh Prize, the Il Ceppo Prize in Italy, among numerous others.

On today's episode, we discuss:

* Arundhathi's spiritual journey, including an experience on a train that she describes as "a wordlessness that felt like death," and how it propelled into deeper spiritual seeking

* Arundhathi's relationship with her spiritual teacher, Sadhguru, Western misconceptions about the role of a guru, and why any credible spiritual teacher should be guiding you back to your most authentic self

* Her understanding of the Goddess, including Her intimacy as well as Her cosmic, universal nature, and  why so often, She is pointing us not to either-or answers, but a "yes-and" understanding of life

* What it means for a woman to wear only herself, and why we need the stories of spiritually seeking women, especially those who are not ordinarily in the limelight

 

Show Notes

•  If you’d like to know whose ancestral tribal lands you currently reside on, you can look up your address here: https://native-land.ca/
• You can also visit the Coalition of Natives and Allies for more helpful educational resources about Indigenous rights and history.
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• You can watch this and other podcast episodes at the Home to Her YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@hometoher
• Arundhathi's latest book, which is available in the US via Amazon in e-book form, is Women Who Wear Only Themselves.  You can learn more about her at her website, https://arundhathisubramaniam.com/
• You can learn more about Arundhathi's spiritual teacher, Sadhguru, here: https://isha.sadhguru.org/us/en
• Sri Balarishi is one of the women we discussed during this episode. You can learn more about her here: https://balarishi.org/

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