Restoring Balance: The Return of the Feminine Principle in Spiritual Life

The Khadgamala Devi Sarva Samkshobhini (“she who agitates all”) at the Sri Meru temple, late 1990s.

(from "The Goddess and the Guru"): 

In India, of course, we have had so many Muslim rulers, not to mention the Christians who came to do business with India and then made it their own,” Guruji explained. Many of these individuals, he said, “did not have the depth of the religions that they brought with them”; rather, they were the sorts of missionaries and zealots who “have always dwelled in duality—who worship only the Father God and could never accept the idea of a Mother Goddess.” And over time, some of these prejudicial attitudes inevitably trickled into Hindu self-understanding as well, he said.

It was, in fact, precisely this circumstance that gave his message such urgency, Guruji said. Patriarchal religion untempered by matriarchal wisdom, he asserted, is the root cause of the world’s strife and misery today, and balance must be restored.

“We have had enough of aggression and fighting for now,” he said. “I think we can hold back until the feminine qualities show up again. Motherly qualities are really what are needed for this generation—the feminine qualities of creativity, procreativity, nourishment, protection, grace, abundance, love, teaching and compassion. It’s a transformation that has already begun to happen, and not just in Devipuram—we are just one nucleus for this evolution; there are so many other nuclei emerging. Everywhere in the world people are beginning to realize and accept the idea that God could be a woman.”