Amanda Ramcharitar Yoga

In the Hindu philosophy the goddess or rather Devi, Tara (Sanskrit: Tārā, Devanagari: तारा) means “star”. As the star is seen as a beautiful but perpetually self-combusting thing, so Tara is perceived at core as the absolute, unquenchable hunger that propels all life.  She bears resemblance to that of the female Goddess Kali or Durga, the Goddesses that rescue goodness and destroys the negative.  She is meant to be the ultimate manifestation of Compassion, helps beings cross from suffering to happiness and to develop inner strength.

For the Buddhists the name represents the female incarnation of Buddha, and for the female Buddhists, Tara represents a strong yet feminine female nature and could be called the first feminist.  One old story goes, when the Buddhist monks recognized Tara’s spiritual nature, they prayed for her to be reincarnate as a man to gain enlightenment, Tara replied, the nature of the universe knows no gender, therefore transcending the monks sense of one and elevating to a higher understanding and vowing to always reincarnate in female form.

Even the gaelic or Irish had a mythological Tara as the site of the star of destiny.  Originally the site was where kings and queens sat, and is now a place that inspires the preservation of the earth or Gaia as some know it.

I came to know the beloved name because of a dear Aunt that recently passed.  She wore this name just as it was written in its Sanskrit intention, like a star burning bright with life and combusting just as a star does.  The metaphor of how a name can mimic life to me is quite amazing, one wonder’s if its destiny working itself out through a person’s existence.  My auntie Tara inspires goodness even now in memory.

Even more amazing to me is the Buddhists story that has been passed down for centuries and yet is still so relevant into this day.   There is so many orders in which women must bust down doors to have and hold their space, even in one’s home, even in one’s body.  Women are constantly under the barrage of having to fight for their right to live as they choose.  Unfortunately the fight in life can wreak havoc on a women’s femininity and expose the fuel of the star, doing away with the brilliant beauty.

If it’s one thing that my Aunt Tara, and the story of Tara has taught me, it is transcendence, it is possible to keep one’s brilliance with the understanding that an amazing energy underlies this skin, this mind. It is life and universal energy that brings us to exist on this earth, to live fully.  Whether sitting in mediation or fully expressing oneself in a conversation or dance, it is life’s privilege to know oneself.  For generations to come, hopefully when one’s life combust, with this understanding, as the star blends with space so we too will find freedom from form and blend with the universe around… and to have lived a full life so that whether you’re a Man or Woman, as Tara, the female is to be a celebrated form of life to have lived and return to.