Waking the Mother — Ravi Singh Choudhary on Writing Jago Maa, the Feminine Divine, and India’s Living Spiritual Current
What does it mean to write a book about the goddess — not as a scholar, but as a devotee? Ravi Singh Choudhary reveals that Jago Maa, his ninth book and five years in the making, could only be written during the sacred window between Durga Puja and Kali Puja, when the right bhava descended.
In conversation with Prashant Pandey on Sangam Talks, Choudhary explains why he abandoned four chapters of an English draft — “Feminine Divine” does not carry the emotional charge that Maa does — and why all Indian spiritual writing must emerge from lived experience, not intellectual synthesis. The discussion moves through the Ardhanarishvara principle (Shiva and Shakti as inseparable), the crisis of Hindu temples being destroyed across the subcontinent, the spiritual model of the sadhak internalising the deity, and the systematic attack on the institution of the family from Western liberal frameworks. Choudhary argues that the invisible strength of India has always flowed through mothers — from Jijabai nurturing Shivaji on Ramayana to Birsa Munda’s formative culture — and that this unseen feminine civilisational force must be reclaimed before it is absorbed into a consumerist freedom that is, in reality, a more sophisticated enslavement.
About The Speaker:
Ravi Singh Chaudhary is an agricultural entrepreneur from Jharkhand and Bihar, working on the basis of Vrikshayurveda (the ancient Indian science of plant life). He is the author of several books including ‘The Dialectical Rishi’, ‘Rishi Intelligence’, and ‘Krishi Sanhita’, among others. He has also published a paper on the ‘Decolonisation of the Mind’. The speaker is a Mechanical Engineer by education. He has dedicated his entire life to the exploration of Indian philosophy and ancient science.
Prashant Pandey is the Director of the Centre for Hindu Identity Studies (CHIS), an organisation dedicated to the study and articulation of Hindu civilisational identity. A veteran journalist with nearly two decades of experience, he has worked across multiple leading national English newspapers. He has also been involved in the book publishing industry and has co-authored two books, including the notable work BBC’s True Lies — a critical examination of the BBC’s coverage and narratives on India.
