2026: Tantra Path and the Sculptor Within. Ode to Soham Baba, Mahamandalashwar of the Juna Akhara

January 8, 2026

FOREWORD — Dear Readers...When a teacher enters your life, your world is turned upside down.

                             

I knew nothing about tantra when Swami Sudip entered my life in 2000. I didn't know the words, the traditions, or the paths. But I did know the movement within me that said: you must enter into this...this is your destiny. Through him, I came to know all the corners of myself—the light, the shadowy, the silent, and the stormy. Not because he imposed anything on me, but because his presence was a mirror that hid nothing. Only later did I understand that different paths exist within the Tantra movement. That some paths work with confrontation, with borderlands, with the unconventional. And that other paths work with silence, breath, and inner refinement. The left-hand tantra turned out not to be the path for me. It was a door I was allowed to see, but I didn't really have to enter or stay. My path lies in gentleness, in the inner flow, in the subtle movement of energy that wants to rise instead of outward—that is, the right-hand tantra.

This that I now write is my tribute to that first meeting with then Swami Sudip who had not yet become Mahamandalashwar of the Juna Akhara in India and with that inauguration in 2002 received the name Soham Baba... This yogi who awakened me, said that I had an Eastern soul, who said... I am going to make you great,,,,your name will be known in great large areas around your house....to the teacher who awakened me, to the path that slowly unfolded, and to the choice to follow my own direction within the great tantric tradition.

 AFTERWORD — On choosing, recognizing, and coming home

Looking back, I see how important it was that I learned both sides of tantra.
Not to practice them, but to feel where my soul belongs. Left-hand tantra showed me what I don't have to be. It showed me my boundaries, my truth, my place. It made me feel that my body and my energy speak a different language—a language of gentleness, refinement, inner stillness.

My path is right-hand tantra: the path of breath, awareness, presence. The path where energy is not challenged, but guided. Not by intensity, but by refinement. Not by confrontation, but by remembrance. And perhaps that is the essence of every spiritual path: not that you must experience everything, but that you learn to recognize what truly belongs to you. This afterword is my gratitude to the Teacher who mirrored me, to the path that shaped me, and to the gentle flow that brings me home again and again. Kamala

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P.S. The inner world is so vast...something I wish for everyone. I'll give you who are reading this a metaphor you can use as an insight meditation...
For now, may God's blessing and that of the Masters be upon you too...
Kamala (srimati Kamala-devi dasi)

 Metaphor: The sculptor within you

We often tend to think that "working on yourself" means adding something: more knowledge, more skills, more spiritual brilliance. But in the tradition of right-hand tantra, it's exactly the opposite.

Think of yourself as a large, rugged piece of stone. Not imperfect, but full of potential. Everything you've ever experienced, everything you carry, is already contained within that block of stone. The image within that piece of stone is already there—it's just waiting for you to bring it out.

Imagine yourself as both the block of stone and the sculptor standing around it. You don't need to gather anything new. You simply need to remove what no longer belongs to you: old beliefs, tensions, patterns that once offered protection but have now become too heavy.

With each gentle tap of your hammer, something that was always yours emerges. No haste, no violence, no striving for perfection. Just revealing. Just coming home to your own form.

Right-hand tantra invites you to see yourself this way: not as someone to be improved, but as a work of art that can slowly become visible. You are the creator and the material. You set the pace. You sense when something needs to be dropped and when rest is needed.

Don't start working on yourself because you think you should be different. Start because you're curious about who you already are.

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