A Woman’s Gita: Bhagavad Gita by and for Western Women

The intersection of the women’s movement and the rise of Yoga in the West

• Nischala Joy Devi & Kamala Rose • Season 1 • Episode 1

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Join us as we delve into the inspiring journeys of Nischala Joy Devi and Kamala Rose, exploring how their lives intertwine with the rise of Yoga in the West and the feminist movement. Discover the rich history of how these powerful women have merged spiritual practice with activism, advocating for social change and women's empowerment. Through personal stories and profound insights, this episode highlights the transformative power of Yoga as a tool for spiritual activism and community building. Get ready to be enlightened and inspired by the incredible impact of these trailblazing women. 

Unknown:

Namaste. Welcome to A Woman's Gita Podcast, a modern discussion of the Bhagavad Gita, by and for Western women. A woman's Gita features discussions on the Bhagavad Gita, the timeless classic of Eastern wisdom reinterpreted from the perspective of two female teachers. Your hosts are Nischala Joy Devi, and Kamala Rose, who have dedicated their lives to the yoga tradition. At a time when women's voices are finally emerging, a feminine perspective of the wartime treatise could not be more timely.

Nischala Joy Devi:

Namaste, Welcome, thank you so much for joining us, for a woman's Gita, the podcast. This is Nischala Joy Devi.

Kamala Rose:

And this is Kamala Rose. We're

Nischala Joy Devi:

so excited to share this incredible scripture with you and our process in writing it from a woman's perspective. Let's start with just a couple of minutes of centering and quiet. If you're not in a car, or operating any kind of machinery, just close your eyes. If you are keep your eyes open. Either way, keep the heart open. And just taking a few deep breaths and find yourself being filled with that spirit. Let them out as slowly as possible. And as you do, they'll yourself relax, let go. Kill yourself soften, to be able to receive that resist and take in a few more deep breaths and feel the tingling the toes and the fingers as that energy circulates through the entire system. And as you feel ready, alive, allow the eyes to open and become fully present. We'd like to start off by giving some background on Kamala and myself. It's been an interesting journey, one that I think very few have actually traveled, but many would like to. I started off early on in western medicine and became quickly disenchanted again, it was a male dominated profession. And the doctors were God. Many still feel that way. As I went through training, and then started to work in Prague private practice, I realized the inequity in all of it. And I realized how problematic it is for some people to get the health care that's needed. And from that I left and went into more of a holistic care. Starting some studies with cardiac disease that we proved yoga base program can actually reverse cardiovascular disease. Also, with cancer, starting the Commonweal cancer program, taught me so much about human nature, about people, and about people when they're scared and sick. I decided to renounce all that and move into a spiritual life that I didn't really understand. I was craving. I got so involved with all the different paths and religions trying to find one that I could settle on. And that became for me yoga, in its totality, complete from the physical all the way to the realization of the Self. I became so involved that I joined an ancient order of monastics The Parma Hamsa Saraswati order from 1000s of years ago, it echoed and brought me drew me into it. Even as a woman, it brought me into it, where, up until the 19th century, a woman had not even dared to tread that path. How fortunate I was. And I spent many years doing that, at the same time bringing medicine back into my life, at the same time learning to teach people how to take care of themselves. My path took me to scripture that I had adored for many, many years, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. And with the coaxing of many of the students that took the classes that I taught, I decided to do a translation. And that translation took me to places I hadn't even dreamed of. The criticism we'll talk about later, that I received, mostly for men was, at moments daunting, but the spirit inside me kept me going. Finally, to the second edition that was published just a few years ago, were included the third and fourth Potter of the Yoga Sutras, which I felt before was not really useful for people. But it seemed in the time since the first edition, people had evolved, and wanted more. And I was thrilled to know that more people wanted to know themselves. And now it brings us to our current experience of beginning to translate retranslate reinterpret the Bhagavad Gita, from a woman's perspective, something that has never been done before. But I'm hoping will be done many, many times after. And now I turn you over to my dear friend, and almost constant companion, Kamala Rose.

Kamala Rose:

Thank you, Nischala, and hello, everyone. I'm Kamala, and I am so happy that we get to know more of Nisha Allah, and to hear her working on this podcast. It's been such a thrill to work with her on this feminine translation and learn some things that I never knew about the Bhagavad Gita, which has really been a constant companion for me. For over, I think 30 years. Just to tell you a little bit more about myself, I was introduced to yoga as a child. My family, my father was an academic student of the apana shots, went to India several times on Fulbright Scholarships. And the last time he went, took my mother and me, and for my fourth birthday brought me to the Ganges. And, as they say, that's a very special and deep blessing to have to be based in the Ganges. And for me, it was when my memory started in my life, I have vivid memories of everything that followed that bath and the holy river as a child. So India very much, I felt it was imprinted on me in my heart, and I always kept a special image of Krishna in my heart, someone who I had seen around India and we had pictures in my home. We weren't by any means devotees. My father's work was much more along the lines of political science, and my mother was a feminist. And we had a pretty soft real relationship with religion. But as as I grew up, I had a number of outstanding spiritual awakening experiences that started to let me know that I might just tread an alternative path. And I went to art college like so many did in that day, and I ended up dropping out after a semester, dropping out going on tour with the Grateful Dead and ending up on Venice Beach in California. In a pretty alternative future. While I was working there, I was recruited to work for a record company. And I got involved in the Los Angeles punk scene of the 1990s. So this was very much a part of where I was coming from was wanting to rebel against so many of the things that were going on in the early 90s, the Iraq War, a lot of changes. And when following that path, I just found that I needed to rebel against something. So shortly after my son was born, I started thinking a lot about yoga. I just couldn't get it off my mind. And I ended up driving through driving to work one day and seeing a sign that said yoga, I followed it up and ended up joining an ashram, which I thought was the most punk rock thing I could possibly do, and find a very alternative alternative. And I ended up spending over 25 years there living as a monastic, where I fought the system by doing a lot of charity work, helping people, repurposing all sorts of supplies and building things, making things and feeling like a part of something new and interesting. While I was studying at the ashram, I had a time to really explore the Bhagavad Gita, and the Yoga Sutras and so many of those classical Indian texts that really informed my path, and showed me how to serve how to let go of things like Nischala. In the last few years, I've chosen to take a path of walking in the world. And now I'm a yoga teacher, like so many of you are. And I'm very dedicated to yoga philosophy, and trying to make this accessible to people in the modern world. I've been talking about the feminine interpretation of the Gita for a long time. And it turns out my friend Nischala, was also and through our shared, charity, group yoga gives back we were introduced, and ever since we met, we've not been able to stop talking about the intricacies of the Gita, and some of the areas we can really help to shine some light from our experience, from our studies and from our own personal practice over the years, how we can help modern women to understand this scripture a little more easily. So that's why we're here.

Nischala Joy Devi:

Yes, that's why we're here to follow some of our thoughts and our processes and to share them with you. It's been a very challenging experience trying to translate or retranslate or reinterpret a book, a scripture like the Bhagavad Gita, that is not open to a woman's view. It's written very much from a masculine point of view. And there's no women really, in the Gita at all. So we're having some fun with it, and some great challenges with it, that we hope that you'll enjoy hearing about soon. I think the first thing we want to do is go back a little bit and share some history, or in this case, her story, her story, instead of only his story, because women have been prominent, but we haven't gotten the press. No one covers what we do as much as what happens with the men. And we thought maybe we fun to hear some of this and what happened in this timeframe.

Kamala Rose:

To begin with, we are hoping to launch this podcast whenever you're listening to it. We're hoping to launch it on the anniversary of a historic event in the United States history, which is called the Seneca Falls women's convention that took place on July 19 and 20th 1848. I'm wondering

Nischala Joy Devi:

how many people actually know about this,

Kamala Rose:

about the Seneca Falls convention? It

Nischala Joy Devi:

was no important to women yet. If we could ask, show of hands, how many of you heard of it, which we can't because it's a podcast, but I'm wondering how many people actually did. So let's let's share with them what that was about.

Kamala Rose:

Yes, maybe you can leave in our comments on our podcast page. If you have heard of the Seneca Falls convention. Honestly, Nish, Shula, I remember hearing about it as in school. It is all of the passing events that happened in a very important time in American history. The Seneca Falls convention was the very first meeting on women's rights. Right, it was a it was a meeting and Seneca Falls, New York that was attended by suffragettes or women who were fighting for women's vote voting rights. That was an international

Nischala Joy Devi:

movement. Will it go was say how long ago it was, again, I think that it was in

Kamala Rose:

1848 Z teen 48 175 years ago, imagine another world but when you read the charter of the Seneca Falls conference, they're asking for some of the rights that have only been one in the last 50 years. Wow, right? Initially, as you know, the women, white women got the right to vote in 1920. So that was 75 years after this meeting. But black women would not gain the right to vote in the United States until the Civil Rights Act and amazing BS in the 60s. It is really amazing. It is really amazing and really

Nischala Joy Devi:

shows how our society feels about women.

Kamala Rose:

At the Seneca Falls convention, the rights of women was discussed alongside the rights of former slaves. There were many abolitionists who were there and the movement was, was really contained very much by the Quakers. And some of the progressive religious groups that were that were really there was a lot of new religions that were starting to form in that early part of the 1800s in America, and a lot of these new ways of thinking about the spiritual life about religion that are not based on the previous Protestantism that came over from Europe, but actually new American religions were grown Quakers were one of them. The shakers were another from the place where I grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio,

Nischala Joy Devi:

and I'm from Philadelphia with the Quakers. So Quakers

Kamala Rose:

we've got a dinner roots here. Women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucretia Mott, abolitionists, like Frederick Douglass are who made up the the speakers on universal human value and human rights that was discussed. They talked a lot about some things that we take for granted now like being able to own our own property, as women as women, or to be able to have our own bank accounts, any type of access to our own money, which we know is a absolutely vital

Nischala Joy Devi:

financial independence is spiritual independence. Yes, that's it. Yep. Now,

Kamala Rose:

when they signed the Declaration, a summary of their discussion. One of the projects they did initially was Elizabeth Cady Stanton and a panel of over 26 women came together to gather their thoughts on a woman's Bible. And in it amazing. They go through some of the theological issues looking at Genesis and trying to reframe the argument are we really second class citizens is

Nischala Joy Devi:

well, Genesis were a talks about a woman was made from the rib of Adam. That's right. Um, really? At least it wasn't a toe I guess it could have been worse than a than a rib. But why? Why do you think they're so afraid of us? I guess, you know, when you're talking about slavery, it's interesting, because it is considered that women's are the old is the oldest slavery in the world. This has been going on since the beginning. of time. And it's amazing that is still ongoing in many parts of the world, that women are not free to do just what you and I are doing Kamala just just to be able to do this, women are not allowed, women aren't even allowed to read holy books in certain places. So this Seneca Falls thing, what this was huge, this was huge. He really did today, and people didn't know about it, still don't know about it.

Kamala Rose:

It changed things, and it took time for that change to happen. And again, so many of the things that we're able to do today have financial independence. And what we're doing here of providing commentary, translation of a spiritual text is, has been way outside of the realm of women for ages and ages. And I think that you and I have, this is sort of been a depth charged realization, as we're working with the Gita, you know, something that we're both familiar with. But I think having the authority to speak on it is something that our culture has never given us that we are giving to each other. Even

Nischala Joy Devi:

in our intro, we had to state why we're able to do something like this. I wonder if a man would do the same thing, right? Because we have to prove it's like, we have to do it even better, we have to prove even more that we're able to do that, to say that we were both monastics, and we both spent between us almost 50 years in the monastery, meditating many times a day doing scriptural study, Karma Yoga, all the other things in it within yoga, the worship everything. Why wouldn't we be able to do something like that, of course, we can do something like that. But it's not going to be the same way that a man looks at it, it's going to be different, because of our experiences are different, who we are is different. And hopefully, we can relate this to other women who haven't spent all those years in a monastery. But everybody has something, either they were raising children, or they have a career, something that they had to move into the world with all this going on, with all this masculinity happening, that kept telling us we can't do this, we can't do this. We can't do this. And we're saying to them, yes, we can.

Kamala Rose:

That's right. Yes, we can. And to all of the Western women who are yoga teachers who have really, really upheld a wonderful movement of yoga, making a migration from India, to Europe, to the United States to South America, more and more every day across Asia and Africa, expanding across the world in a new global marketplace. Understanding seeing the role of women in the modern era, and tracing our threads back to some of the original freedom fighters at the Seneca Falls women's convention.

Nischala Joy Devi:

The the depth with which yoga has been transformed in the West leads me to have the feeling if women had not taken it up, and it had not blossomed in the West like it did. It may have gone underground again in India, like it has for many, many times and not been available to people and what sadness that could bring because look what is done. I mean, even as we moved it out of general yoga, into yoga therapy, which I was so involved with, between the cancer and the heart disease and starting, International Association of yoga therapists, all this, how many people have been physically helped by emotionally helped by it. And now I think what we have to do in the yoga world, is remember is in original intention, of blossoming of the Spirit. And that has to now be brought up and used as the main part of yoga. And that's what I'm hoping the Gita and also the Yoga Sutras We'll do it, we'll just spark that, that thirst to know more, and say, okay, the body is now fit. Let me move on. Let me move on to another place where I can bring that spirit out and let it guide me into the rest of my days and services. Yeah, that's what I'm really looking for.

Kamala Rose:

And this is the Gita strongest suit is to bring the yogic teachings into our lives in a way that we can practice. We can bring our mindset of meditation into our action and bring a heartfelt feeling of caring about the world. I think these are important things in the world we live in today. And I think that's so important, what you're saying Nischala That, to think about what yoga really is, right? We know so much about so many asanas and hot yoga and power yoga, and all different kinds of hot sweaty yoga. And, as you mentioned, how about the kind where we move some get healthy, and then sit down and take some time to be silent.

Nischala Joy Devi:

Everybody has an entrance to yoga, and seems to be most people in the West, because it is being adopted and and be loved by women. Women like tactile things, they like to feel things they'd like to experience it with their bodies. So it would be natural to come in and start with awesome. And then the thing is start there. But don't stay there. That's the thing. There's so much to yoga. There's such a broadness to it. And, you know, I'd like to go back a little bit to this history and what was happening around that time, because one of the things that to me was that was so well, it's a couple things that were so powerful after so many years. Somehow it was the right time. And I think we have to look at the cosmic links. And all this too. It was the right time to start dispensing with any kind of bondage of another being. So the Seneca Falls was starting with the women, that we should be freed from that bondage. And then the horror that our country was still in at that time. Speaking of the United States, for those of you that are all over the world, we had this horrendous highness, action going on of slavery, of upholding another person, another human being in that position. And in 1865 63, sorry, the proclamation the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, that gave the freedom. It didn't. It wasn't an actualization of it yet, but at least it proclaimed it. But it took two years for that last slave to find out that we're free. So now fortunately, we have a holiday that celebrates it called Juneteenth. But if we think about the slavery of women, the slavery of people, the slavery of peoples in general, this seemed to be a time to crack it open. And the cosmos was just joining in at that point. I think it's amazing that that happened around ordinary, yes,

Kamala Rose:

it's it was very, it was

Nischala Joy Devi:

time. Another extraordinary thing happened and why we're here today, probably in 1893. Actually, right before that, it looked to give a little background what happened before Swami Vivekananda came to the Parliament of Religions in 1890, through in Chicago. So as far as they can, and it was a very interesting person. Very interesting. He was a monastic disciple of the renowned holy man, I would call him Shri Ramakrishna and he was a great disciple. He was a primary disciple, and he had a very interesting mixture of bhakti and devotion, and Yanni the mental capacity, and he, he straddled both of them pretty comfortably. After his master died, he was devastated. But he didn't know what to do. So he decided to find a quiet place to meditate and get an instruction of what to do next. So he went down all the way down to the very tip of India, which is called as Kanye, Kanye Kumar Kumari, beautiful temple there to the Goddess Kanyakumari, who guides all the ships safely into this harbor. And there was nothing there. At that point, there were no fairies, there were no bridges. So he decided to swim from the tip of India to this little tiny rock. Not even an island, you could call it just a rock. And he did that with no food or no water and stayed there for three days meditating. And he got a message. And that message pleased every one of us, it said, take these teachings to the west. They're ready, they need them go now. He came off the rock went back into the mainland of India. And feeling that his master had spoken those words, took them to heart and decided to make a trip. At the same time he was invited to the Parliament of Religions in Chicago. So again, the synchronicity of all that happening and coming together, brought us where we are today. And there's a wonderful documentary that both Kamala and I have watched on Vivekananda that you might want to turn in tune into, called America's first guru. And it's about his his life. And I think the extraordinary thing about it, too, is that it was the women who embraced him when he came, it was the women that set up lectures for him, found housing, fed him, etc. And most of all, encouraged him to stay. And he did and he set up centers that are now known as the Vedanta society, and with the centers, his teachings continue along with the teachings of Shri Sharda Devi, and Sri Ramakrishna. So, we have our friend, Swami Vivekananda, to thank for bringing yoga to this country.

Kamala Rose:

And the time period is so significant as you said, Nischala were at 1893, a mere 5050 years after the Seneca, Seneca Falls convention. And we know this was an explosive time in industrialization in across much of the world, across Europe and across early America. And during this time, there was a religious out pouring so many of these, you know, by this point, the Quakers are well established, the shakers are well established, they had come over earlier earlier. We have Mormons and at the parliament of world religions, not only was Vedanta featured with the presentation of Swami Vivekananda, also was the first appearance of Christian Science and Unity Church. Right there were, it was an explosion of new ideas. And I think these time periods are so rich and varied. Sometimes we look at change, as you know, being chaotic and difficult to keep up with. But we can also see a place where a blossoming of an incredible diversity of opinions of lifestyles is able to come out. And out of that comes come freedom movements. So, again, I think you're so right to look at the cosmic connections between all of these things in history that the fight for human rights for the rights of every person to be, have equal rights are counted. Citizens citizen Today we look at that as something that happened a long time ago. But we it really didn't happen that long ago. The world parliament of world religions in Chicago was a game changer. And it really did see with Vivekananda an ushering of Eastern wisdom into the United States. It's out of that The transcendentals like Emerson and Thoreau come to read the Gita, right, and the Gita now starts to take up its own life and the West as being the subject of teachings of Vivekananda. And later Paramahansa Yogananda, both of whom established centers all over the United States, all over Europe. And, you know, since that time has grown all, all around the world, I think you're so right to highlight that part of the Vivekananda story, which is that he didn't just come with a suitcase in hand, ready to live the American Dream that we've been told about, right, he was invited by parties of wealthy industrialists in America at the time, right, he was very exposed to the Rosicrucians, and to the Freemasons were, you know, big groups in the in America at the time. And it was very much the wives of wealthy industrialists who took up Vivekananda as cars. And later, Yogananda, hosted them at their homes, had salons where they could teach, and really sponsored their life in America until they could start a worldwide organization. So this is a history that isn't often told. And, you know, as we start to move forward in history, I don't think there's anyone finer than Nisha Allah Joy Devi to really represent the hard work of women, of spreading the message of yoga, not only teaching yoga classes, but doing the work of presenting the whole picture of yoga. I know you worked with Indra Devi for many years, who's often credited with so much of spreading yoga across Europe and into Russia and even into South America. So you are for mother, girl?

Nischala Joy Devi:

Her mother's Yes, her mother's?

Kamala Rose:

Yes. You know, I

Nischala Joy Devi:

think the thing about Vivekananda to that is so important. You mentioned he was invited, but also that he was spiritually directed to come here. So that's the two pieces would he have come? If he had just been invited by the industrialists? I don't believe he would have because we were seen as savages at that point. People thought of us in that way. And it was that impetus that he received the direction. Also, the other thing that you mentioned that I think is worth going back and talking about a little bit, these groups, these new, I say it in a smiling these new religions that popped up because religion means to go back to, and here we're saying New, so it's a little bit of a wordplay. But what happened was very interesting with a few of them. That was the first time we were shown in the West, that there were something to do other than listen to a sermon and pray. We were now shown the power of silence. And for me, I think specifically of the Quakers for this, because they're the most familiar to me. But sitting in a circle, waiting for the spirit to move them before they speak. And, and being able to contain that spiritual essence within them was so close to the yogic slash Hindu way of meditation, even though they didn't call it that they call them they call it listening to that small still voice within. But it's the same thing. Up until that point, it was taken out of all the services, the time of silence because people started to fall asleep, or they weren't interested, or whatever. So they kept the moving. They kept him interested, or so they thought they didn't want them to just space out. But the Quakers were really one of these groups in there. I know there were others. I just, again, naming the Quakers who brought this from a Western perspective. Just be still and listen. Don't be talking all the time. Don't be if you pray, be quiet afterwards and Listen. And I think this was a phenomena that I wish I'd taken on more, I wish I'd become more popular either. Because then we would learn to go inward, instead of always listening to someone else's interpretation of spirit. And I think this is something that women have done for beginning of time again, when we get together in that way. So I think silence was a very important part of it. And, and Indra Devi, you know, I think the reason she stands out in my heart so much, is she was my first woman teacher, had all male teachers, I had all these swamis, all these gurus, all these male figures, that, to tell you the truth, I didn't know much different. I thought that this was the way because I didn't have any women teachers. And again, I mentioned I was in medicine. Same thing there. You didn't have women. In those times. Now we see more women doctors, and now fortunately, there's teachers teach women teachers teaching the women, which they weren't before. So when I met into Devi, she was already 90 years old when I met her. But I'll tell you, that spark you it was ageless, it was totally ageless. And what she taught me was not in words. She taught me by her actions, how to be kind, how to be humble, great teacher, but humility. And when I would see her up on stage with the men, this little tiny woman and a white sari, I think, wow. That's where the power is, even though they don't understand it. It's like an atom, she was like an atom, little but powerful. And I learned so much from her. And for some reason, she talked to me. And we became very close, and even did a week long reach silent, retreat together, leaving it. So what I learned from her was so important now to me. And I feel like, we need more teachers like that we need more mentors, we need people to show us, you don't have to be harsh, you can be kind. And sometimes it goes even deeper. When it goes kind, it's a little bit what just came to my mind when I used to have to give injections to people through my medical training. If they're tense, and the muscle is tight, you can't get that needle in. So sometimes you just stroke it, almost massaging it, to get it soft enough, or distract the person and then do it, and then it slides in very easily. So it's that kind of thing, learning to be kind, learning to be soft, and still having that fire in your heart and in your mind to to do something like this, to translate something like this.

Kamala Rose:

There is a very different quality to, to very genuine female teachers, I have learned so much from the women who have taught me and I've learned a lot from the men who have taught me but it is a very different metric. As we say. The the men that I've learned with have taught very traditional, I felt that I was in contact with a tradition that had an ancient feeling to it. Whereas with the women who have taught me I felt that instead it was more an experience of the transcendent, which is the real subject. In a way. You have more the spirit of the law versus the letter of the law. And I think we're learning in our work of working with the Bhagavad Gita that we're seeing both parts of it, we're seeing the space for the feminine, intuitive, transcendent, just be it kind of place. And we're seeing the structural, philosophical, metered, traditional rule aspect of it, and you're trying to be considered of both because we I think we both agree that real spirituality is where we're bringing both together. You know, we all have a male or a masculine and feminine, that doesn't have anything to do with genders of men and women, but a higher principle that should be balanced in all of us.

Nischala Joy Devi:

I think the law lessons learned from both. And again, I sat at my gurus feet for almost 25 years. And he was a very much an Indian, he was very much raised in that tradition, and yet made the leap to initiate women into the Holy Order of sanyas. So there was both parts. And being that I was one of the main teachers of the organization, I would always questioned him, when I saw something in the scripture or whatever. And most of the time, he would just tell me his tradition, just go with it. But I wasn't satisfied with that. And that's why I would continually go through and explore. And I think, Kamala, what you're saying is so important, we need all that we need both sides. The reason we're expressing mostly this feminine side is because it has not been expressed before. Because this is the part that's been left out of all the holy books, not just the Bhagavad Gita, everything the Bible's it's been left out of, it's been left out of the Quran, it's been left on all the books that inspire us, because we're not in it. We can't see ourselves, everything is he and him. So that's why we're focusing on that, to bring a little bit of balance back into that world, which has been so dominated by men. And women were seen as subservient. I remember even as a child, I was told, whoa, a teenager, I was told, if I had my period, I couldn't touch a plant, it would die. And women weren't allowed to even touch the Bible, it was considered they were dirty. And they had to be cleansed before they do that. So I think we need to get rid of all those superstitions, all those things that keep us back from moving forward into our own spiritual wholeness, which has been kept from us. And we have to find it in clandestine ways. But the thing about women is, they always found it, no matter what they had to do, no matter where they have to go. So there's a power in the masculine uniting with the feminine. And we hope that's what really what we're doing here.

Kamala Rose:

That is exactly what we hope we're doing with. With a text that has so much, the Gita is so so rich, and it is abundant in structure. And it is abundant, and transcendence and intuitive insight. So this is, this is our work. And we're glad to have all of you in the podcast world along with us. I think one of the things about the Bhagavad Gita that is so special is, I mean, there's many things that we'll be talking about in the course of this podcast. But you know, just seeing that seeing that the Gita has had is sort of known for a role of bringing an activist voice or bringing a way of thinking about the way we act, the way we live, and bringing some importance to that, bringing importance to who you are and what your opinion or worldview is. And the Gita is teachings on Yoga very much teach us how to channel that and to keep it clear, and without a personal motive for gain, to look instead to the world's welfare. And I know in an aspiring to do a translation. This is this has been a big part of what's motivated me to bring the Gita into a greater audience in the yoga community is just to understand as women, the power of our voices, the power of our votes, the power of our intention, and I think the Gita takes it that step further, where it gives us the tools of introspection, to understand why we think the way we do, and instead of giving a pass for if you feel inspired, do it, follow your bliss, go for it. It's I think more about examination, personal examination, understanding motive, understanding the why behind what You're doing, understanding the value of every human being the importance of kindness, the way you treat others, and balancing that with asserting your own agency in a way and asserting our own rights as individuals, seeing how that applies to the whole. So I think both of us come at this with a great deal of passion for inspiring the many, many women who have come to yoga and have found it difficult. I've kind of heard this is what the Gita is about. I'd like to be able to find my activist voice in it. But I'm but sometimes it can be difficult to find those parts when you need them. So that's, that's part of our story and how this has come here as we were both inspired to to bring this incredible text to a wider audience.

Nischala Joy Devi:

Well, we hope this was educational, and most of all enjoyable. And we look forward to your joining us next time for a woman's kita.

Unknown:

Thank you for joining us for a woman's Gita with Nischala Joy Devi and Kamala Rose. We would like to express our gratitude for the ongoing support for a woman's Gita, podcast and book from yoga gives back a nonprofit organization dedicated to the underserved women and children of India. Please join us again for our next episode. Coming soon. Namaste.