Meet Acharya Shunya — a spiritually awake internationally renowned and awarded spiritual teacher and scholar of nondual wisdom (Advaita) and a classically-trained master of Yoga and Ayurveda. The first female head of her 2000-year old Indian spiritual lineage, Acharya has dedicated her life to empowering health and elevating consciousness worldwide. Learning from Acharya is an opportunity like no other; she gives 21st-century seekers with the rare opportunity to receive authentic teachings, with a distinctly down-to-earth, feminine flavor. For more on Acharya and her practice, please read our exclusive interview below and check out her new book Sovereign Self , Claim Your Inner Joy and Freedom with the empowering wisdom of the Vedas, Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads.

Where are you based?
I am based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

You are the first female lineage-holder from an ancient line of Vedic spiritual teachers from northern India of your 2000-year old Indian spiritual lineage. Can you give our readers a description of your position and what sort of role you play in your community?
Thanks to tremendous good fortune, the sacred knowledge of the Indian yogis, collectively known as ‘Vedic wisdom’, came to me without me having to go search it outside my home. For fourteen long years, I was steeped in formal learning of the scriptures called the “Vedas” under my Guru, my grandfather who was the head of an ancient spiritual lineage, alongside regular schooling in arithmetic, biology, physics, etc.

Here in the west, the word “lineage” may sound rather mystical, but in India it is common enough. If you think about it, even the plants we grow can have a lineage. When they are bought at a nursery, we can cultivate them over many years, perhaps saving seeds and handing them forward with each generation. The seed you plant today may be carrying forth the impression of past seasons’ plantings, and of the first sacred hands that tilled a barren soil and gifted the generations yet to come the sweetness and beauty of new fruits and flowers.

A Vedic wisdom lineage emerges similarly; as children, we simply grow up within a family farm that cultivates “seeds of “wisdom” and the kinds learn things by osmosis and observation as well as through formal sacred instruction in ancient mystical texts, alongside regular schooling, just because it is the way things are done in this family. Like plants, we intuitively know where to reach out for the sun, when to take the shade of the large teacher tree, when to intertwine around the wisdom of an elder and when to drop our leaves of ego.

I am fortunate that I hail from one such ancient lineage from the holy city of Ayodhya in northern India. And what is more, when I was still a young girl, no more than 9 years old, my grandfather, who was also my guru, predicted that I would lead his lineage forward in the world. It was quite unbelievable back then, also because my lineage has not had a female lead in 2000 years. But here I am indeed confirming my teacher’s prophecy. Today, through my two books that have become huge bestsellers and have been translated into several languages across the globe, and through my classes via my Awakened Self Foundation with its international headquarters in San Francisco Bay Area, wherein I forward the timeless Vedic teachings that enable a global community of spiritual seekers to attain their full potential as healthy, authentic and awakened beings. Throughout all my teachings and writings, I sincerely to guide des modern seekers through the core concepts and practices, demystifying and contextualizing ancient wisdom for modern suffering. I am told I help awaken latent human potential to be healthy, joyful, resourceful, abundant, limitlessly expansive, and ultimately sovereign.

It is really exciting that you are the first female lineage-holder. We would love to know more about what has led you to this point -- was this always been an aspiration? What sort of preparation did you need?
Well, as the first female lineage holder of my 2,000-year-old Indian Vedic spiritual lineage, I do try to provide 21st-century seekers with the rare opportunity to receive authentic teachings, with a distinctly down-to-earth, feminine flavor. I never let my students and readers forget that our humanity is to be embodied and enjoyed.

You know, I never aspired to be who I am today. Life saw to that. I am sure glad I had the soul wisdom from my revered lineage close to me as I grew up and left my home to settle down after marriage in a new home (and as karma would have it, in a new country), because, quite contrary to my blessed childhood, all hell broke loose shortly after I got married, because my old buried patterns (karma) of inability to be powerful and self-assured inside relationships resurfaced almost out of nowhere! . When we lose touch with our inner sovereignty, we become shadow versions of ourselves, enslaved and imprisoned by our own self betraying, self-belittling minds. We become receivers and givers of unimaginable sorrow.

This way, in my voyage through my two marriages and motherhood, and my journey of first losing inner sovereignty and then regaining my sovereignty, through the same process of being a receiver and giver of human love, a wife, daughter-in-law, a mother, and now a master teacher to thousands, I perfected my Self-knowledge. My inner Guru awakened in the process. What I knew theoretically from the Vedas and my guru, changed from mere information into an internalized, lived, fiery emotional conviction. That is how I got into touch with something deeply powerful and fiercely authentic inside me! I once shied away from my own light and struggled painfully inside relationships. Today, I stand tall on the world stage, radiating my light as a spiritual teacher, and enjoy being inside all kinds of relationships, intimate as well as professional. After all, I no longer clutch or push away relationships, but simply enjoy them with non-clingy awareness, while celebrating my authenticity and upholding my boundaries with conscious awareness.

During the past 25 years, where have you been able to see yourself grow?
Once upon a time, I was trapped in the bondage of my own self-doubting, self-betraying mind. Not Now. Now my mind is my best friend. Instead of being irrationally attached to things, goals, and people that no longer serve me and incessantly fuel my spiritual ignorance, emotional bondage, and existential suffering, or remain entangled in self-diminishing beliefs and attitudes, my mind has become empowered as well as discerning from within, to act in mine as well as my planet’s dharmic best interest.

Your approach to teaching is by providing “whole-person learning opportunities.” Can you give us a description of what whole-person learning is and why it is important?
Can you master arithmetic by repeating a single equation? Can you become a master artist after using just one box of crayons to train yourself? Can you learn music from the first or loudest street-side musician who catches your attention? Then why would we settle for such a quick solution for the most sacred of our journeys?

Today, parts and pieces of a “whole” and often ancient knowledge tradition, get apportioned into bite-size practices. Can a positive affirmation or two, a mantra, no matter how mystical, a spiritual breathing technique, a series of yoga postures, a diet, or even a 20-minute, twice daily meditation prescription really be the panacea for our salvation from sorrow? Until we humans stop settling for quick techniques to gain the greater truth, we will keep settling for the crumbs. All these things give us a thrill that is, alas, short-lived…but not the realization of the inner light. For a sustained experience of inner divinity and abiding wellbeing, the whole person learning the opportunity that I like to champion is deep. It addresses all areas of our life, and does not offer quick, feel-good relief. It does not let people settle for worshipping me as their guru. I don’t let them stop until they find something worth worshipping inside themselves! It is a three-step process, what I unfold – Enlighten, Embody and Engage.

First, I “enlighten” the seeker about the nature of their true “Self”. I give them mystical knowledge to see themselves accurately, not just feel-good spiritual band-aids. This Self (as per the Vedic teachings) is infinite, complete, ever full, and you don’t necessarily need something or someone or some life situation to go a certain way so that you can feel fulfilled. Many people can feel quite equanimous in the exact situations that make others heartbroken. If living conditions are going in our favor, that is great. But if they are not in our favor, believe it or not, you can still feel great. All happiness is already present within you. Simply pause long enough to learn to find it within I tell them. I am enough is a contemplation.

Next, I help seekers “embody” this knowledge by acting with greater discernment and less desperation (more detachment) in the arena of relationship and professional life. It is possible to embody a greater awareness of “Self’ even as we go about playing our worldly roles as dads and moms and daughters and sons and employees and boss. If we keep remembering I am the Soul not the Role I am playing, then, we don’t get tangled up so much in other bodies around us. It is possible to create a life more wonderful than anything you can imagine, but it takes looking at who you are in a very different way. And that is what we are attempting to do, via the whole-person learning opportunity I offer through my classes and books like Sovereign Self: Claim Your Inner Freedom and Joy with the Wisdom of the Vedas, Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita.

Finally, for a whole person healing, it is not enough to be enlightened within our mind and embody it inside our relationships. I teach “engaging” with the world in a renewed fashion as “Sovereign Beings”. Let go of the crutches and find your new feet! All along, you were the Self whose very nature is pure love and you can engage in the world, from this space of love for all beings, for their upliftment and betterment. When a higher love (known as dharma) is activated within our hearts, it leads to an awakening of compassion, altruism, and empathy, toward not only humans but all living creatures. With dharma, one not only supports social justice, equality, basic goodness, and morality but also becomes an awakened participant in all kinds of relationships.

Our new-found wholeness must take us beyond our survival consciousness to express our higher propensities, innate human kindness, and sense of engaged responsibility and that is why I take my reader and students all the way, helping them journey from darkness to light, shadow to Self.

On your website, you offer a variety of courses and even retreats. What usually draws people to your programs? What are they usually excited to learn?
I feel like I am drawing the deeper seekers of truth and light to me.

Can you tell us more about your latest book Sovereign Self: Claim Your Inner Joy and Freedom with the empowering wisdom of the Vedas, Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads? What do you hope your readers are able to glean from your writing?
My newest book Sovereign Self (Sounds True, Dec 2020) is a guided experiential journey from shadow to self, powerlessness to power, and striving to be ‘spiritual,’ to simply relaxing into our true spirit authenticity —to celebrate the most joyful yet emboldened, creative and fearless version of ourselves, step by step. What I call Sovereign Self in my writings, ancient Hindu text Bhagavad Gita hails as “Atman” in Sanskrit, which literally means, that which is boundless or infinite in its freedom and capacities to be, become, (reinvent, and rewrite a new script), that is present within each one of us!

But here is a catch. We need a certain specific kind of “awakening wisdom” presented in a specific paradigm or delineated cognitive tools from the source texts to reclaim our forgotten connection with the Self. Thanks to this book, in which I honestly reproduce the ancient yet universal and surprisingly timeless path to inner awakening step by step, readers too (no matter what their background) can access their Sovereign Self, with each progressive page they read mindfully, and meditate upon the purposefully designed guided contemplations.

Do you think that Sovereign Self will be a useful tool for people who are not acquainted with you as a lineage -holder?
Absolutely. My lineage is simply the source of my knowledge, but it has no bearing upon the reader. For them, I have purposefully demystified and contextualized sacred concepts for modern life. Through Sovereign Self, my readers of every background can confidently begin the journey to radical self-acceptance—recognize their innate worth and wholeness. They will learn how we humans (all of us, without except) create our own prisons of shame, compulsion, blame, and obsession—and how we can use Vedic wisdom, to begin to break free.

What are three things that you would want your readers to take away from your book?
Learn to embody personal autonomy in your life and relationships. Original meditations and contemplative practices taken directly from my 2000-year-old Lineage.How to wake up from being a “sleepwalker” and find authentic freedom, everlasting joy, and unshakable sovereignty.

What are some ways that you recommend for people to begin their journey towards personal empowerment? How can people start this journey during shelter-in-place?
In today’s uncertain times, now, more than ever, the sanctuary beyond fear and impermanence lies within the re-discovery of your true invincible nature! When the Sovereign Self, with all its hidden powers, is known through right knowledge, meditations, and insights, we can become true masters of our destiny, able to forge a path of sovereignty in every circumstance, good or bad! And here are three interconnected suggestions I give my students regarding anxiety, especially when engendered from the pandemic: The next time you find yourself getting anxious, don’t fight that anxiety. Choose to observe it. You are separate from what you observe. This separation between the subject and the object, ushers in ease. Don’t push the uncomfortable feelings away that arise during the observation. Watch them as if from a distance like the vast sky watches clouds come and go (It’s when we push that fear away and wear masks of false bravado that anxiety becomes unbearable!) Once you have observed and allowed the clouds to do what they want to do (clouds of rage or sorrow), you shall find that these feelings will gradually fade away; just like clouds that had once covered up the sky, flow away, carried by the wind. It is like the heavy clouds have dissipated and the sky is clear as before, after all.

A lot of your work is focused on the self, but also on how to build healthy relationships. In the past two decades, digital romantic and non-romantic relationships have certainly been a viable option. Now because of Covid-19 and the need for isolation, digital is one of the main options people are pursuing in connecting (safely) with the world around them. Do you have any advice on how people can develop healthy online relationships? Do you see differences in healthy in-person relationships vs. digital?
It is really up to us what we bring to our relationships, whether they are in person or online. No one can stop us from being authentic if we want to. I teach online all the time, and have ben doping it for many years before the pandemic struck. And I have managed to touch hearts with my authenticity. So, my advice is to remain real, moment to moment, and our authenticity should come through whatever medium we express ourselves!

To learn more about Acharya Shunya please follow her via the below platforms:
www.AcharyaShunya.com
Facebook: Acharya Shunya
Twitter: @AcharyaShunya
Instagram: @AcharyaShunya

Let Acharya Shunya Give You 2000-Year-Old Vedic Wisdom