A Journey of Becoming
From my heart to yours

Stories that shaped me
By Hari Sakti

Over the past five decades, I’ve lived many lives within this one. I’ve started over more times than I can count, each transition arriving with lessons no book could teach. These shifts have strengthened my trust in Life as a kind companion, and the Divine as a loving provider. Even what felt like the darkest, most unfair moments have revealed themselves in time as purposeful – reorienting me toward my nature, my dharma, and deeper inner alignment. Each ending has released energy that has returned not as loss, but as fuel; for creation, for transformation, and for truth.

In my early twenties, a deep clinical depression took over my life, pulling me out of my studies, my work, my sense of normalcy. I became isolated, socially anxious, stripped of joy, curiosity, and connection. Shame settled in as a quiet, constant companion. I was trapped in the reality of my depression, and for a long time, I believed it would be permanent.

Then something shifted.

I found a book on karma. That simple moment became a portal, leading me to Buddhism, to a sangha, and to a daily practice. It wasn’t easy – there were setbacks, doubts, and many falterings. But slowly, something began to change. Looking back, I know it was the Divine who intervened, offering me strength, structure, and the grace to begin again.

That was the beginning of my spiritual path. Through steady daily practice, the light slowly returned. My hunger for truth reawakened, and I immersed myself in spiritual study. Morning after morning, I watched my inner world transform, and with it, my outer life. Opportunities opened, clarity deepened, and I moved toward the life I had once only dreamed of.

But life continued to teach. The material world, by nature, moves in waves – joy and sorrow, light and shadow, gain and loss. I’ve learned not to resist this, but to meet it with acceptance and awareness. To witness the space between stimulus and response. To eventually walk not away from the world, but more fully into it, with discernment and deeper purpose. And yes, often the soul’s greatest awakenings come through life’s most humbling moments.

Years later, I entered into a marriage that lasted nearly a decade. I remain deeply grateful for that chapter – for the companionship, the tremendous lessons learnt together, the shared passion for outdoor life, for skiing, travel, and the quiet life we built in Northern Finland. We created a home, a dog became our dearest friend, and we shared a world that gave me meaning and place. But over time, we grew apart. My spiritual path kept calling me inward, and I could no longer ignore the quiet knowing that something absolutely essential had shifted.

Sometimes, we outgrow versions of ourselves – and the lives built around them. To stay, just to fulfil the former idea of who we were, or to be accepted or approved by those who don’t live inside our very being, is its own kind of self-betrayal. So, with deep respect and mutual understanding, we let go. In a gradual process, I had outgrown my other roles and professional identities as well, and so with gratitude I left the life I knew – my work, my home, my community – and stepped into the unknown once again. To this day we have remained friends with my former spouse and his new wife, with positive appreciation for the shared lessons learnt, and that I consider as a gift from Above.

Eventually, I returned to India and began building a life from scratch. But just as I was finding my footing, the world shifted again. Covid struck. I was stranded in Thailand during a visa trip, unable to return. My belongings were still in India, and I had no plan, only a backpack and trust in the Divine plan instead. I returned to Southern Finland after a decade away, in the midst of a pandemic, without a roadmap – but was met with grace. I found work outside my field and comfort zone and stayed a full year. That time taught me a lot; surrender, adaptability, and humility.

Eventually, the doors to India reopened. Still during Covid I returned on an employment visa and settled in Rishikesh, serving in a spiritual project under the guidance of my Guru and mentors. Life there was not always easy, especially as a woman navigating traditional, male-led structures, but it was meaningful. I built deep connections, immersed myself in scriptural studies, integrated into the local community and adjusted culturally a lot. I helped pioneer a project that now continues in other hands. I’m grateful to have helped build the table that others now sit at in comfort.

But what followed the years in Rishikesh, was a period of painful misalignment. The environment I found myself in was not one that nourished me. I felt unseen under the institutional roles, misunderstood, and unable to express my voice fully or stand in my own power as a female. When your experience and story are walked over in the name of support, the spark that once was so bright slowly fades, until it is fully gone. I had poured myself out without receiving the kind of empowered reciprocity that allows a soul to thrive. I had lost my sense of autonomy and agency in the process of pleasing systems that I didn’t find to be inclusive to a person like me, someone not fitting into the traditional roles, and instead of thriving, I was alive but far from whole.

And so, I made a choice. Transformation called me once more.

After years in Rishikesh I left and moved to South Goa – again on my own, again into the unknown.

With the support of my mentors and my inner guidance, I made a plan. I packed my whole life into a truck and relocated to Goa to begin anew, and this is where Soul Flow with Hari Śakti is being born in its true form.

Leaving behind old patterns, mentalities, narratives, people, and places freed something within me. In a matter of months, I was reborn. Joy returned. Tenderness returned. The remaining parts of my nervous system slowly healed. Creativity started flowing again. I was slowly back home within myself.

I’ve come to see that I didn’t need a masculine force to restore the feminine within me – I needed to step away from the narratives that told me I did. In stillness, in nature, in the ocean’s presence, in hearing my own voice again, I found myself and my feminine strength back. The Divine feminine is not something to be granted from outside – it’s always there, waiting to be protected, honoured, and remembered.

Now, in this meaningful space between what was and what is becoming, Soul Flow has emerged – not as a role or performance, but as a natural continuance to who I am and where I’ve been. It’s like a Divine remembering and a life aligned with my nature.

After the release of the old, in just a short time the doors opened. I found a home I decorated with love, I built new connections, reunited with old friends and made many new, I laughed with the sun, danced in the rain, meditated with the moon. It has been a homecoming – just as Soul Flow is meant to be.

What I’ve learned is this:

Trust the unknown. Let go when the soul says so. Sometimes leaving what we once thought was everything, is the right decision.

The Divine holds you through it all.

And when things fall apart, it may simply be the clearing needed for something greater to rise.

Guru means the one who leads us from darkness into light. And life, again, has been one of the great Gurus for me.

I had once imagined Rishikesh as my forever home; after all I built a life of purpose from scratch there over the years. But this new land, with its wildness and quiet, suits my soul in ways I hadn’t expected. I have released old roles, old identifications, and allowed what is true to emerge. What I build now is more organic and more attuned. Rooted in the teachings I carry, but filtered through my nature, my voice, and my lived experience.

If you’re in a place of uncertainty – if everything feels like it’s falling apart – know this:
Sometimes, that collapse is grace in disguise.
The moment you surrender, God will carry you somewhere far more true.

You’re not alone. You are held.
In every step, there is a Divine embrace.

From my heart to yours,
Hari Śakti