CHINNAIYAN MD, Kavitha M.

Kavitha M. Chinnaiyan, MD

SHAKTI RISING
Embracing Shadow and Light on the Goddess Path to Wholeness

KAVITHA M. CHINNAIYAN, MD, became drawn to the Direct Path through the teachings of Greg Goode and Sri Atmananda Krishna Menon. She has studied yoga, Sri Vidya Sadhana, Vedanta, and tantra through Chinmaya Mission and the teachings of Sri Premananda, Sally Kempton, and Paul Muller-Ortega. Chinnaiyan blends her expertise in cardiology with her knowledge
of Ayurveda, yoga, Vedanta, tantra, and the
Direct Path in her program for patients to discover bliss amid chronic illness. She is an integrative cardiologist in Michigan.

Her Website is: www.kavithamd.com

Can the wisdom of the Mahavidyas, goddesses who represent the light and the shadows within us, be relevant to our ordinary life? Drawing on her own search for the highest truth, a respected cardiologist invites readers to explore just how this ancient knowledge of the divine feminine can be applied to our own life and our spiritual search.

The ten forms of Shakti known as the Mahavidyas represent not only macrocosmic forces such as time and space, but also various interconnected shadow and light aspects in our psyche. The Mahavidyas have traditionally been steeped in esoteric and mystical descriptions, often removed from the practicalities of the spiritual journey.

In this book, which is written from the perspective of an ordinary woman—a cardiologist, wife and mother—these great goddesses come to life to reveal subtle aspects of the inner journey such as spiritual bypassing, spiritual materialism, and self-deception. The fierce symbolism of the Mahavidyas (Kali, Tara, Tripurasundari,
Bhuvaneshwari, Tripura Bhairavi, Chinnamasta, Dhumavati, Baglamukhi, Matangi, and Kamalatmika) are explored through the lens of yoga, tantra and Vedanta. These great goddesses become the focal points for inquiry into our various shadow aspects that keep us from realizing our eternal, unborn and undying
blissful nature.

With practices, self-inquiry prompts, and stories from the author’s own spiritual seeking, this
exploration of the divine feminine will gently reveal the source of your fear, pain, and suffering, showing you that when you allow those parts of yourself to arise and simply be, you can finally begin to heal, overcome your limitations, and open to the light and beauty of your true nature. Through exercises and contemplations of the progressive and the direct paths, you’re invited to embrace all aspects of yourself into wholeness, the essence of non-duality.

“Shakti Rising exposes in a deep way the practices of the Mahavidyas as an ensemble to arouse
and balance the energy of the Shakti in us. Kavitha Chinnaiyan underlines the constant cosmic play of the ten goddesses as if they were dancing in our unconscious, to unify and bring out the balance between light and darkness. This guide of self-discovery, based on a profound comprehension of yoga, Advaita, and tantra, is also very practical, and the exercises proposed are efficient. The images of the Mahavidyas will make the primal energy of the Shakti shine and manifest in front of your eyes. The reading itself is a sadhana. A precious book!”

—Daniel Odier, author of Tantric Kali, Tantric Quest, and Desire: The Tantric Path to Awakening

“Kavitha Chinnaiyan is a gifted and insightful scholar-practitioner. Her book is original, practi-
cal, and rooted in her deep understanding of the yoga and tantric traditions. Kavitha brings new
wisdom to the mystery of the Mahavidyas, the feminine energies of transformation. Highly recommended.”

—Sally Kempton, author of Awakening Shakti

“A remarkable journey along a path whose pavestones are the ten Mahavidyas, the creative forces of existence that are energetic doorways to either suffering or freedom. Read Shakti Rising in order to understand how the swirling energies of life have meaning for you, how you may transform
their shadow qualities into light qualities, and how to go beyond and see that what you truly are is awareness itself. You will emerge from this reading as you unwittingly entered: free and joyous.”

—Jerry Katz, editor of One: Essential Writings on Nonduality, and founder of www.nonduality.org

“Finally, and just in time, we are waking up to the vital need to honor the deep feminine. Kavitha’s
wise writing on the great wisdom goddesses shows how to respect and understand the feminine powers of life that have been maligned and suppressed for so long. Her timely book is the perfect interweaving of goddess awareness within a structure of practices that deepen wisdom and help us to live a fuller, deeper life, embracing feminine consciousness through the ten great wisdom goddesses.

Read this book, and awaken to the power of the feminine resurgence in
your life.”
—Uma Dinsmore-Tuli, author of Yoni Shakti

“With the charming combination of personal insights gained through ardent spiritual practice,
research, and study, Kavitha brings the Mahavidyas to life, where they become portals to inner beauty, joy, and fulfillment. I recommend Shakti Rising highly.”

—Shri Param Eswaran, father of ParaTan Inner Sakthi Yoga, and founder of the Mahavidya
Temple in Tamil Nadu, India, and Mahavidya Inner Health in Seremban, Malaysia

“This book is filled with marvelous paradoxes—it unites both progressive and direct spiritual
paths, and although rooted in rich and arcane Vedic imagery, it remains perfectly accessible and
simple to apply. Above all, Kavitha has somehow captured the quintessence of a timeless wisdom
and brought it down from the mountaintops for us all to learn from. I bow to both the author and
the teaching.”

—Richard Rudd, author of Gene Keys, and founder of www.genekeys.com

The Heart of Wellness

“Reading The Heart of Wellness is like bathing in a sea of warm healing waters ... loaded with truth, inspiration, medical wisdom ... must reading for anyone who wants to truly understand what it means to live whole-heartedly.”

——Christiane Northrup, M.D., ob/gyn physician and author of The New York Times bestsellers: Goddesses Never Age: The Secrete Prescription for Radiance, Vitality, and Well-Being, Women's Bodies,
Women's Wisdom, and The Wisdom of Menopause.

Although penned by a cardiologist at a major medical center, this book is not really about curing heart
disease...although that could well be such a result. It is not even about preventing it with certainty. It is
more about healing the heart that beats tirelessly in the chest by revealing the heart that is the seat
of our true nature.

How would your life be if you discovered that who you really are is eternal, unborn and undying, and bliss is your essential nature? It is quite natural for us to believe that we are limited beings because that is the default model in which the world operates.

To paraphrase from the book’s foreword by Dr. Joel Kahn, clinical professor of medicine at Wayne State University School of Medicine, “Dr. Chinnaiyan offers an entirely new approach to ‘wellth’ and illness.” He adds that she calls the path Bliss Rx, a paradigm-expanding approach to health, illness, self, and peace that blends her strong roots in both Eastern tradition and practices and her cutting edge practice as a Western-medicine trained, twenty-first century physician featured in “Best Doctors of America.”

Dr. Kahn continues with how the author has distilled the profound ex-periences and gains she has observed from her work into a paradigm shift going beyond the body and mind of just Western medicine. Her book brings an examination of spirituality and awakening from limitations which
are all too often the root cause of pain and suffering of the heart and entire body. Dr. Chinnaiyan doesn’t promise cures or disease reversal, simply the opportunity of allowing other, Eastern, influences to allow us to wake up to the blissfulness of our existence.

Dr. Chinnaiyan’s remarkable approach to health will transform our relationship with habits, lifestyle, and disease by integrating modern medicine with the ancient wisdom of Yoga, Vedanta, and Ayurveda. Her book demonstrates how to break free of the false assumption that disease is something you need to fight. Rather, it shows you how to explore the mind-body connection and your true nature so that you can end suffering and embrace the unlimited bliss of who you are.