Becoming the Devi: A Humanist Reading of Tantric Practice

There is a phrase often heard in spiritual circles: "Leave it to the Devi." I have always had a problem with that. My instinctive response has often been: "Bullshit lah… if something needs to be done, you do it."

My humanist grounding has never allowed me to comfortably surrender responsibility to something external. There is no divine rescue waiting for us. If anything is to change, we must act.

And yet, within my own Tantric training, my guru once said something that stopped me in my tracks: "Before you can sit there and worship the Devi, you must become the Devi." That line changed everything.

From Worship to Embodiment

In many religious frameworks, there is a clear separation:

The human is imperfect, limited, and seeking

The divine is perfect, powerful, and distant

Worship is the act of reaching upward Tantric practice, however, collapses this distance.

To "become the Devi" is not to imagine oneself as a supernatural being, nor to indulge in fantasy. It is to embody the qualities that the Devi represents, clarity, strength, decisiveness, compassion, and presence. The deity is no longer an external figure to be pleaded with, but an internal state to be realised.

Mantra as Transformation, Not Petition

When mantras are recited, they are often misunderstood as prayers, requests directed outward. But within a more grounded Tantric understanding, mantra functions differently. It is a tool of transformation.

Through repetition, rhythm, and attention, the practitioner reshapes their internal state. The mind stabilises. The body aligns. The emotional landscape becomes ordered. To chant the name of the Devi is not to call her from somewhere else. It is to condition oneself into a Devi-like state.

Reinterpreting “Leave It to the Devi”

With this understanding, the problematic phrase takes on a different meaning. “Leave it to the Devi” does not mean: Do nothing Avoid responsibility Wait for divine intervention

Instead, it can be read as: Allow the highest state within you, the Devi-state, to guide your response. This preserves both action and surrender, but redefines what is being surrendered. It is not responsibility that is let go of, but the illusion of total control.

When the Deity Refuses to Stay Still

There was another problem I kept encountering in my practice. My guru once asked me to choose an image to meditate upon. I couldn’t. No matter how hard I tried, I could not hold a fixed image in my mind.

Everything moved. Everything changed. The forms would not stay still. What I saw instead was light. Eventually, my guru simply said: “Then you meditate on the light.”

At the time, I thought I had failed the practice. Now, I am not so sure. Because what I began to notice was this: The deity refuses to stay still. In dreams and inner imagery, they were not frozen icons: Hanuman was dancing, Kali came alive, winked at me, and asked me to come closer. She even told me to observe people arguing in her temple. It was almost comical at times.

But also revealing. These were not static, untouchable beings. They were dynamic, responsive, almost… conversational. And then it struck me: Perhaps the problem is not that I cannot hold the image steady, but that the divine was never meant to be still.

The Image as Human Expression

We often assume that the image of the deity is something fixed and eternal. But is it?

The Saraswati of 100 years ago is not the same Saraswati we see today. Features change. Aesthetics evolve. Interpretations shift.

Which raises an important question: Are we looking at the divine… or at ourselves? The murti, the image, the form, these are not photographs of a supernatural reality. They are human expressions of what we believe knowledge, power, and wisdom look like. They are symbolic constructions. Not false but not fixed either.

A Humanist Alignment

Seen this way, Tantric practice aligns surprisingly well with a humanist perspective. It affirms: Human agency Personal responsibility The absence of external saviours but it also recognises something important: Human beings are capable of cultivating different states of being.

Clarity. Strength. Awareness. Presence.

Tantric deities, then, are not beings who act on our behalf. They are symbolic interfaces for human potential.

The Risk of Getting It Wrong

Of course, this is where things can easily go off track. Without understanding, phrases like “leave it to the Devi” can become: spiritual bypassing emotional avoidance passive dependence

And this is where my resistance still stands. Because if Tantra becomes an excuse to avoid responsibility, then something has gone very wrong.

Becoming Before Worship

The instruction remains clear:

Become first. Worship later.

Without embodiment, ritual becomes performance. Without transformation, devotion becomes projection.

To become the Devi is to:

act with clarity when confusion arises

stand firm when hesitation appears

respond with strength without losing compassion

It is not about escaping the human condition. It is about fully engaging with it.

Conclusion

Tantric practice, when understood through this lens, is not about surrendering one’s life to a divine force. It is about cultivating the capacity to meet life fully.

The Devi is not someone who will solve our problems. The Devi is who we become when we are ready to face them.

April 8th, 2026