Many swamis and yogis in India told me that they hoped that in their next lives they would be reincarnated as women because women have true devotion, true humility, and this is the path to liberation.” —Swami Sivananda Radha, an American woman who emigrated to India where she became a spiritual teacher Mantras: Words of Power, p. 100 “In ancient India, the Sanskrit words a husband used to address his wife were “Patni” (the one who leads the husband through life); ‘Dharmapatni” (the one who guides her husband on the path of dharma or righteousness and responsibility); and “Sahadharmacharini” (the one who moves together with her husband on the path of dharma).  All these terms imply that traditionally women were meant to enjoy the same status as men in society, or perhaps even a higher one. In reality, all men are a part of women. Every child first lies in the mother’s womb as a part of the woman’s very being. Women are essentially mothers, the creators of life. Is God a man or a woman? The answer to that question is that God is neither male nor female. God is ‘That.’ But if you insist on God having a gender, then God is more female than male because the masculine is always contained within the feminine...That’s why each woman has a dharma towards the world and to herself. Along with men, she should shoulder equal responsibility in the growth and development of society.” —H. H. Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, (Ammachi) excerpted from her speech at the Global Peace Initiative of Women Spiritual Leaders, Geneva, Switzerland, 5/19/2003 I am calling all the women of the world to come back home, the home of divinity and dignity, so that this Earth can live in peace; otherwise it will become a cinder and there shall be no human race.  Neurotic men will wage atomic war and nothing shall be left.  The only saving factor which there can be is a dignified divine woman, and that has to be created all around.  So my calling is not to an individual nation, not to an individual person of a certain caste, creed, race or tribe.   I am calling today to all women of this planet Earth to return to their real essence; a dignified and divine real self.  I am calling upon the real self.  I am calling upon them to rise when everybody else sleeps.  I am calling them to do sadhana [daily yogini practice] because it can make them divine.  I am calling them to learn to do anything and everything within their reach so they can become once more that magnetic field which attracts righteousness, goodness, kindness and all-told positive human values.” ~ Yogi Bhajan,  August 12, 1977 “Ecstasy is the frequency that heals us and the earth.  Ecstasy is most definitely a feminist frequency, it is the prerogative of all women and all people that has been stolen from us in our surrender to the patriarchal view of life. Ecstasy is a tremendous energy, which, when exhibited by female shamans, healers, and other women who link directly to the source of consciousness, has been the cause of fear by patriarchal emissaries.  Patriarchy contains within it a massive plot to stamp out ecstasy, but we must reclaim this force without fear.   Yoga gives us some tools to do this.  Therefore, it is, at its truth, a feminist ally… Be aware not to fall into the patriarchal limitations that surround some schools of thought within yoga.  In order to stay free of this, once a woman has studied and is able to monitor the effects of her practice, she should define her own yoga, perhaps under sincere guidance at first, which will allow her to liberate herself as soon as possible.  Yogi Bhajan has done a lot of teaching for women to help increase grace, strength, and stamina, and he recognizes that the liberation of women is the key to happiness on Earth.” ~ Rivka Leah, Spiritual Midwife, British Feminist Yogini Ecstatica:  Woman’s Realms of Power pp.. 212-213                                                                          “Practicing yoga during pregnancy is one way to heal the split between soul and spirit found in our culture.  Prenatal yoga sexualizes spirituality and spiritualizes fertility.  It is the tantric practice of mothers.  Once the babies come planetside, our yoga practice shifts into karma yoga beyond belief.  We become servants to our babies and our path is bhakti yoga, the practice of devotion. Giving conscious birth is woman’s vision quest, par excellence.  It is ultimate sadhana, spiritual practice, – which requires purity in strength, flexibility, health, concentration, surrender, and faith.  Opening for conscious birth helps all power centers to open, especially the healing power of sexuality.  Along with that, we open our hearts.”                             ~ Jeannine Parvati Baker,  Ashtanga Yogini, Mother of six, Original author of prenatal yoga for the West Prenatal Yoga & Natural Childbirth, pg. Xii “Womb yoga offers a way to consciously face problems and to reestablish our relationship with our bodies and our psyches beginning at the center, by starting where it all began, our point of origin.. To understand the larger dimensions of our own power we must move beyond a primarily biological understanding of creativity.  We must being to positively recognize the womb as a powerful feeling center in women, from which place we can begin to heal not only ourselves but the world.  It is not only through our hearts that we experience our connections to family, lovers, and the world at large.  Closer to the earth than the heart, the type of feelings we experience in our wombs are more instinctual, harder to put into words but no less intensely felt or necessary for the survival of our whole being…. Like the heart, the womb is a place in us where fear and anger can become transformed into compassion, where our individual emotions can and do feed into the collective spiritual climate of the planet.” ~ Roxanne Kamayani Gupta, Ph.D. A Yoga of Indian Classical Dance – The Yogini’s Mirror, pp. 66-67                                                "Lotus Birth is a demonstration that all attachments, to placenta, to mother, to earth, will eventually cease of their own accord." ~Jeannine Parvati Baker, as quoted in Lotus Birth, by Shivam Rachana, pg. 103 “As yoginis we must conceive of a new liberation, one that does not seek a simplistic transcendence but rather a complex integration.   Realizing the union of body, soul, and spirit, of the male and female within, we must seed our own wombs., our creative centers, with our dreams and visions, in order to give birth to ourselves and a new conception of life.  I know I am not alone in this conviction.  Countless women throughout the planet our undergoing “labor” on all levels, in the hopes of bringing a new consciousness and physical reality into being.   By using yogic techniques that integrate the emotional and physical with the spiritual, woman, and men who have the courage to resonate with their own feminine power, can strengthen themselves not only to resist the negativity of these tumultuous times but to positively influence the direction of life on earth.” ~Roxanne Kamayani Gupta, Ph.D                                                 A Yoga of Indian Classical Dance – The Yogini’s Mirror, page 68             “The sense of gratitude, the feeling that women have, and their values are different from men.  That’s why we have to honor women, and encourage women, and give whatever we can to women, and we should not exploit women… I’m very sure that the future of yoga will be safe and solid because of all the yoginis.”                                             - Mr. TKV Desikachar excerpted from interview following the Krishnamacharya Yoga Festival, San Fracisco 2003

QUOTES FOR YOGINIS, PART II