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Meet Hansa Devi of No Mind Mala/VICHARA inspiration in Ridgway

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Hansa Devi.

Hansa, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Born and raised in Sweden, I started traveling when I was in my teens and ended up ‘dropping out’ of the traditional schooling system after an exchange year in High School in Colorado, USA. When I returned to Sweden, I had to re-take the year that I’d been enrolled in high school in the USA, since it didn’t count towards my grades in Sweden. Bit by the traveling bug, I started taking all the classes on my own (nothing was offered online back then!), while continuing to travel, going back to Sweden to take the tests. After graduating high school and med school (public health), I volunteered at a disaster relief organization in California. Soon after that, I started my grad studies in Sweden. While enrolled, I got a Rockefeller Foundation scholarship for a five month project in India. Two months in, my colleague and myself started the process of building a Non-Profit Organization on the ground in India. I lived and worked in India for two years. My now husband came out to visit in 2009 and we’ve been attached by the hip ever since. I moved back to Colorado with him, to Ridgway to be exact, and we got married in 2011. We’ve been here since.

While living in India, I did a lot of “soul searching” and took any opportunity I could to retreat and go inward. Long story short, I got malaria and realized that I was working myself to the ground. I told myself that I needed a year off, dedicated to yoga and meditation. A few months into that year, I realized that it couldn’t just be a phase, but rather needed to be a lifestyle, a way of being. Since then, we’ve taken the vow to each other to only engage in activities and jobs that resonates with us on a heart level. To an outsider, it may look like we make un-informed choices from time to time, but we’re truly just listening in deeply, letting our hearts guide the way, holding a strong conviction that we’re being guided. Our job is to stay receptive and open-hearted. It’s a very liberating way to live. And we find it important to live as an example of what a conscious life can look like. We look at all of life through the lens of sustainability and yogic sciences – on all levels.

The gemstone journey began when I lived in India (2008), where I received a number of blessed prayer beads (malas) from teachers and places I held great reverence for. There was a strong urge to cut the malas apart to share the blessings. I would include some blessed beads on each new piece that I made, and this became the start of the mala creation phase of my life. Since then, I’ve travelled extensively and collected beads, gems and materials to incorporate into my own sacred creation process. A lot of my time is dedicated to special order pieces, based on consultations with clients, incorporating the gemstone properties to help boost or balance people, one mala at a time.

Aside from the gemstone work, I am a student of life and of the vedas, the sacred scriptures of the far east. I have been deeply drawn to advaita vedanta, yoga philosophy, sanskrit and silence – which is where you’ll find me deeply entrenched when I’m not busy making malas. Over the years, my husband and myself have poured our energy into a few different business initiatives. Thirdeye Visionaries (www.thirdeyevisionaries.com) is a collaborative effort of his fine art and photography and my No Mind Malas (www.nomindmala.com). Panji is another business that has been our baby for the past five years (www.panjibags.com). Through Panji, we’ve explored natural materials and been making hard cases out of sustainable materials. This, like the rest, has been a true labor of love.

During early stages of the COVID breakout, many of our friends and students lost their foothold and requested more yoga philosophy to process what was going on, and to connect the dots in their lives in a new way. So, I started sharing my writings through a new initiative called VICHARA inspiration (www.vicharainspiration.com). There’s a new podcast associated with the same initiative (VICHARA podcast). This is just the beginning of the heART work that has been brewing for a long time.

Looking back, it may look like we’ve dipped our toes in a lot. And we have. However, all has been guided by a deep heart calling and feeling a responsibility to act on other signs than merely the voices of the “rational” mind. Simplicity, moderation, sustainability – as well as being intensively involved with Life, yet detached and equanimous – are corner stones in my life.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Ooooh. This is an intriguing question. I personally see challenges as stepping stones that help us mature, learn and grow. Every obstacle is truly an opportunity to move beyond our current beliefs and conditioning. In this regard, challenges are blessings.

Early on, I felt like I left a lot of people behind in Sweden. My friends, my family, especially my siblings. I will probably always look back and feel a bit bad about that. I felt like I deserted my younger siblings by continuing to travel by myself. But this was also a way for me to stay inspired and fulfilled, it was so healing for me on so many levels. Now, we have the most beautiful relationships, so I know it was the right thing to do, though it may always sting a bit in me when I think back on that.

Other than that, there has always been people with strong opinions questioning the life I’ve chosen to live. But even my mom, not long before she passed, finally expressed that I was living the life that she wish she could have lived. That gave me extra fuel to continue on the path we’ve chosen, which I know deep in my bones is true and right for me. But to focus on inner work, sadhana and yogic practices, and to live authentically, is often a threat to other people as we may challenge their status quo. I guess that’s one challenge that I’ve encountered again and again. But I’ve always turned it around to look deeper at my values and in the long run it has definitely strengthened my faith in following my heart in everything I focus my attention toward. It all boils down to attitude…

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the No Mind Mala / VICHARA inspiration story. Tell us more about the business.
No Mind Mala is a brand of handmade prayer beads where I work a lot with gemstone properties to boost and balance people as needed. This is extremely rewarding as I get to work a lot 1-on-1 with people during consultations, but also share the gemstone magic far and wide. I’ve been doing this work for a little over ten years now. I guess one of the things that sets me aside from other prayer bead brands is that I do all the work myself (on occasion, I get extra help from my husband). I’ve personally touched thousands of beads, which is part of the prayer that infuse the gemstones. I don’t take this work lightly. I create a certain atmosphere to work in and hold sacred space for each piece to be born. It is certainly fascinating work. Sometimes when I’ve sat down to make a piece for regular inventory, someone pops into my mind/heart and without calling out to that person, they feel drawn to the piece and brings it home with them. I’ve learned a lot about intuition during these past ten plus years, to say the least.

VICHARA is an initiative that’s born out of responding to students and practitioners alike, sharing my view on certain yogic values and topics as food for deeper contemplation. The aim is to provide resources and inspiration to people that are on a spiritual path, no matter what the tradition or lineage is. We’ve always enjoyed looking really closely at and challenging cultural and human belief systems – and to provide alternative ways of dealing with life. In short, VICHARA is an extension of that.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I’ve never felt so supported as I have in our tiny mountain town – Ridgway, Colorado. When I set foot here, I instantly felt at home. Over the years, we’ve received incredible support from both the Town of Ridgway and dear community members. In terms of the No Mind Mala business, I have made several hundreds of prayer beads to people in our town. We of course, also ship worldwide. However, I think it is more about following your passion and calling than about luck.

In terms of being able to live in the mountains and sustaining a business, we have a lot to thank social media for. My record for selling a piece is 7 min after posting on Instagram. I find myself having a love/hate relationship with social media and working on boundaries is a constant thing.

In terms of our business Panji – where we work with eco-friendly materials and manufacturing – one could say that we’ve had ‘bad luck’ as we’ve found it being like paddling upstream trying to introduce eco-friendly alternatives in the market place in the USA. If we would have been located in Europe, we’d have a long list of products produced by now. The cultural environment is just different here in the USA. Not saying this is good or bad, it just is what it is.

In terms of good luck and bad luck, we have a saying in our family that goes “good luck, bad luck, who’s to say?” For example, just because I missed the bus doesn’t mean that the universe is working against me, but may actually be saving me from witnessing an accident or something. This saying/mantra always puts things in perspective. What may seem as bad luck in the moment may be a blessing in disguise. I try to look at ‘good’ luck the same way, as to not get too attached to any certain outcome. Life gives us what we need in order to learn and evolve.

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Image Credit:
Photo Credits: Hansa Devi

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