*Based on the Inaugural Class of the Bhadrakali Group (2025), with Jonas Masetti*
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*"The study is something so much greater than we can imagine. When it really clicks, we get the pleasure of seeing the world around us changing without us changing anything."*
This sentence opens the inaugural class of the Bhadrakali Group, the 2025 regular Vedānta class. And it carries a paradox that is the heart of the teaching: the world changes when you stop trying to change the world.
Ten years later, the same truth
In 2015, Jonas opened his first regular group -- the Hanuman Group -- for a handful of students. Ten years later, in March 2025, the Bhadrakali Group begins with testimonials that show the reach of this work:
Raimundo, who 15 years ago received the Gītā on the street and understood nothing, now feels that "when you speak, you open a channel that completes."
Saulo, who studied with Glória Arieira in Campinas, walked through shamanism and ayahuasca, and now returned: *"I see you in the other person, I saw this transformation. It feels like I am being reborn."*
The paths are different. The destination converges.
Vedānta is not comfort
Jonas makes a distinction that may sound harsh at first:
*"Vedānta's role is not to comfort. Not because we will not welcome people, but because that is really not its role."*
In a world that values "safe spaces" and comfort as an end in itself, this statement is a stone in the shoe. But it makes sense when you understand what Vedānta proposes:
Vedānta is a means of knowledge. It is not therapy, not comfort, not self-help. It is a precise instrument for resolving a specific problem -- the confusion about who you are.
The distinction matters because confusing the means with the end generates dependence. Therapy may be necessary. Comfort is human. But the study of Vedānta has a different function: to neutralize problems that seem real but are not.
The trap of spirituality
Jonas warns:
*"Spirituality has many traps. Things that are useful, but once the usefulness is reached, sometimes they become a trap. We get stuck inside certain places, certain ways of thinking."*
Meditation that becomes escape. Retreats that become addiction. Concepts that become identity. Practices that were springboards become prisons.
Vedānta proposes crossing through all of that -- not accumulating more.
How to know if it is working
The criterion is simple and honest:
*"When you listen to the teacher speaking and can see this light of the mind organizing itself, you say: something is happening. I may not perfectly understand everything, but I can see it is different."*
If you see the difference, continue. If you do not, it is not the time.
No drama, no pressure, no guilt. The process has its own rhythm.
And the result is not abstract: *"I will see not just my thoughts changing, but my life satisfaction, my basic contentment, rising."*
The structure of transformation
Jonas describes a sequence:
- Accept -- before anything
- Recognize -- see what is there
- Create intimacy -- approach without fear
- Love can arise -- as a consequence, not as a starting point
This structure applies to the relationship with Vedānta, with the teacher, with yourself. You do not skip steps. And it begins inside a "prison" -- the prison of narratives we have built about who we are.
*"The journey begins inside this place, this prison. But how does it begin? When you listen to the teacher and can see this light of the mind organizing itself."*
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