If we historically and culturally look at the phrase "bad boy" and "bad girl" through the lens of breaking the rules, defying societal expectations, and disrupting the status quo, then both Gautama Buddha and Rani Lakshmibai absolutely fit the description.

Here is how their actions digressed from the norms of their respective eras:

Gautama Buddha: The Ultimate Rebel Prince

In ancient India, a prince's absolute duty (kshatriya dharma) was to rule his kingdom, marry, produce heirs, and fight wars. Buddha completely rejected this script.

He abandoned the crown: In the middle of the night, he walked away from his palace, his wealth, and his royal responsibilities. By traditional standards, this was an act of extreme rebellion against his family and state.

He challenged the religious elite: He openly rejected the authority of the Vedas, opposed the complex ritual sacrifices of the priests, and completely disregarded the rigid caste system by allowing anyone to join his monastic order.

He chose his own path: Instead of following the established societal tracks, he became a wandering ascetic, essentially living as a counter-cultural drop-out of his time before founding a global movement.

Rejected family values, family name, family legacy, family ties, families expectations and even his societal and cultural expectations and obligations.

Rani Lakshmibai: The Defiant Warrior Queen

Nineteenth-century India expected royal women to remain in purdah (behind the walls, veils and curtains), manage domestic affairs, and submit to British colonial authorities. Lakshmibai shattered every single one of these expectations.

She refused to back down: When the British East India Company tried to seize her kingdom under the "Doctrine of Lapse" after her husband died, she famously declared, "Mera Jhansi nahi dungi" ("I will not give up my Jhansi").

She broke gender barriers: She didn't just rule from behind a curtain; she learned horsemanship, archery, and sword fighting. She dressed in male military attire to lead her troops into battle. She even trained and created a force led by women.

She became a revolutionary outlaw: To the British Empire, she was the ultimate "bad girl"—a dangerous rebel leader who refused to bow to their military might, choosing instead to fight to the absolute end on the battlefield.

These 2 and many more such individuals, bring forth and life forth the process, that Carl Jung had called as INDIVIDUATION ( an undivided, indivisible, whole self).

The process of individuation in Carl Jung's analytical psychology is the lifelong psychological journey of integrating the conscious ego and the unconscious mind, thebanima (the masculine) and the animys (the feminine) within us, to achieve and regain wholeness and self-realization.

Key Elements of the Process

Conscious and Unconscious Integration: Moving past the ego as the sole center of the psyche and bringing hidden, repressed, or dormant contents from the personal and collective unconscious into awareness.

Facing our Fears, Questioning the known and moving towards the hidden and the unknown.

The Persona: Dropping or seeing through the social mask or role adopted to interact with the outer world, to present a more acceptable image of ourselves.

The Shadow: Confronting, acknowledging, and integrating the rejected, dark, or unacknowledged parts of one's own personality.

Anima and Animus: Engaging with the contra-sexual inner archetype—the feminine image (anima) within a man or the masculine image (animus) within a woman—to balance inner opposites.

The Self: Reaching the center of psychological wholeness, where the ego recognizes it is part of a larger, unified totality.

Its never easy to address the inner conflicts and inner wars, to address our fears which cause suffering, but maybe wholesomeness is achieved by bringing together the broken, disintegrated, fragmented parts and not by keeping them seperate, unacknowledged and divided.