Akhilandeshvari is the “Goddess-Never-Not-Broken” or the Always Broken Goddess. You heard that right. And look at her; she is smiling calmly and shining brightly, looking quite grounded even though she is in many pieces.
Isn’t that how it really is for many of us? Another day is here and we have many pieces and moving parts. And we spend a lot of our energy putting things together, trying to make it all work to feel organized and amazing. Consider this… what if we put less energy into making things all fit together? We could embrace the power of what this goddess represents and actually surrender somewhat into the chaos. Accept our lack of control and embrace that our role can be to gracefully bring things together with love and consistency and commitment. And things will still be a little broken. And also amazing. In yoga, it is this breaking open that leads us to a deeper level of love and the power that comes from that connection.
Think about it; if you have had situations where you really thought your heart couldn’t handle much more, on the other side of that perhaps you felt an enormous shift into greater growth. What if we trust in that to move through whatever we are in the middle of now? To come to our yoga practice of pausing, getting grounded, breathing and letting it all move though us, enabling us to open to something bigger. No getting stuck in the form of pain or disfunction in the body, no getting foggy in the brain or closed off in the heart. Embark upon being opened up to take a step deeper into your graceful strength and be moved by that in the form of more powerful love in your heart, in your relationships, in your life.
So in a sense, Akhilandeshvari is reminding us to break open to life and all the beauty that comes through when we do.
And btw, she is looking so grounded while she is riding on a crocodile. That is fierce. She is navigation the flowing waters of life and instead of being consumed by the challenges, working with them to move forward in the flow.
Two popular images of Akhilandeshvari seem quite different, but to me, together they represent this balance of surrender and flow leading us into our power. The one in this blog is what my wonderful teacher, Kelly Blaser, sent to us in our studies. In this depiction, Akhilandeshvari’s relationship to Saraswati (the goddess of learning and the arts) seems natural in how there feels to be much wisdom and growth in the expansion off all that is going on. Another popular image (see the link below) is of her shrine in a a temple in India, where she is standing and appearing much more put together, seeming much aligned with Parvati, (the goddess of fertility and devotion and divine power). The two images, one where she is in all her beauty in the midst of chaos and aligned with her ability to learn and expand from it and the other where for the moment all is settled and powerful and beautiful and she is resonating very much with devotion and divine power seem like the perfect blend. Sometimes we are the all-settled, I-have-it-together individual and yet we know that the crocodiles and the breaking open is just around the corner. Learn to trust in this and move with grace. Works for me.
And if you have no chaos, consider allowing things to unfold on their own naturally for a while. That ought to do it and you will be freer for it. x
Student & teacher of yoga; striving to make the basics of yoga easily accessible to all for balance and ease. 
