Shakti Speaks

4. Shakti Speaks – On Women v/s Women

Aren’t women equally culpable in matters of patriarchy? Don’t they practise favouritism at home be it with their daughter or daughter-in-law?
I am always amazed why one woman (may be mother in law, boss or sometimes even colleague) can’t understand another (sister, daughter in law, subordinate …). The one who can give birth to male or female child, one who is known for her forgiveness …and her love.. why does she lack understanding toward another woman?

Women V/s Women

Power-plays between women: Why are we often our own worst enemies?

Sadhana switched off the TV in disgust. It was a much known scene from the Mahabharath, where Kunti tells her five sons to equally share Draupadi as a wife! And dutiful sons that they were, they did! And no one really asked what Draupadi had to say about that!

Or that part of the great story was not paid much attention to. Certainly not the way she had heard her own mother tell it. It was a footnote in a story about great warriors of Dharma, Maharathis who fought the good fight..

A new consciousness was awakening in Sadhana these days. Where she found herself questioning things that she had just accepted as ‘normal.’ Suddenly there were many rather unacceptable things everywhere she looked!

“Great Mother, Kunti had been a wife too. And an unwed mother. Surely she understood a woman’s feelings and the sanctity of her body. She (Kunti) may have willingly borne great sons from different gods for the sake of their dynasty. But why did she assume Draupadi would or worse, SHOULD make that same choice? Or did women never have the power to choose anyway?

Why berate our myths which perhaps need to be reinterpreted for modern times? Look closer to home. Saroja, my bai who comes to clean our home and works in four other homes, is the main bread-winner of her family. Her husband is a drunkard and she has to drop and pick up her young children from school, cook and clean and manage all chores, waking at 5am before everyone else and going to bed last. She has a mother-in-law and sister-in-law who live with them, who do not care to help her as it is expected to be her duty as the ‘good wife and daughter-in-law’. Worse, they disapprove of her wearing jewellery or looking beautiful, as it may attract the attention of other men. All the sarees I have given her are promptly taken by her MIL to be given in dowry to the unmarried daughter. Saroja is not expected to have any desires of her own!

Everywhere I look, I see this again and again, like a theatre of the distorted. Are women not the empathic sex? Don’t we feel love and kindness more than men? Why is it that we can shower it upon our fathers, husbands and sons, but somehow we end up denying and discounting other women’s voices and needs? Even if they are our own mothers, sisters, daughters and colleagues?”

Shakti speaks: “No one is your enemy, no one is your friend. All alike are your teachers.

Women are coming out of several thousand years of Patriarchy. Where the power has been in the hands of Men. That power, arising out of my shakti, which is the fuel for all life.

In their ‘dis-empowerment’ from Me, women have had to fight and feed on the scraps left over after the power-play between men and the world they normed. Do not judge women too harshly. For they were caught in the same drama: The false belief that my shakti is limited and to be traded as a weapon for survival.

As both Men and Women have cycled through the use and abuse of power, the time has now come for you to indeed reinterpret your mythologies, from a whole new level of consciousness.

I AM Shakti, the inexhaustible Source-Power of Creation, Preservation and Transformation, inside everyone. Awaken to Me and rise out of scarcity and fear into sufficiency and love.

In your journey to reclaiming your power and becoming masters of your own destiny, no one is your enemy, no one is your friend. All alike are your teachers.

Whether challenging you or supporting you, see the women in your life as together creating the perfect kshetra, field, for the distillation of your spirit! For the real you to shine through, resilient and inviolable. Together, they help you find and forge your dharma, your unique Heroine’s Journey to becoming all that you can be!

See the truth of their being and give thanks. For they serve you.

Nilima

By Nilima Bhat | Feb 18th, 2021 | Shakti Speaks

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