Stree Shakti – An excerpt

Artwork: Vijaya Lakshmi~

Women are innately powerful and they only need to realise it. Every woman has within her the right blend of strength with grace, courage with compassion, affluence with values, and wisdom with vision. In her lies the seed for a profound social transformation. In many facets of life the world over, the modern woman has epitomised this ideal of Shakti, using her innate strength to create a more humane and just social order. In public life, many women have worked to highlight issues that increase global peace, social welfare and international equity. In economic life, they have worked to make corporations more socially responsible and communities stronger. In literature, they have found new voices to raise social consciousness. Women always make an impact wherever they go. They can shape societies and countries. The real strength of a woman is her emotion when she channelises it in the correct way. The fine female qualities like softness, gentleness, compassion, nurturing instincts should not be lost while becoming powerful. A truly empowered woman is one who is confident, creative and one who brings people together rather than create disharmony. Only her own sense of insecurity and her lack of confidence in herself can prevent a woman from being truly empowered. Our whole civilisation is based on the woman-force – Stree Shakti. The strength of a woman is persuasive not aggressive. Strength of a woman is elastic not brittle. Strength of a woman is subtle and not obvious. Women should feel empowered. They should never feel victimised. When you feel like a victim, you lose energy. You lose enthusiasm and you lose power. The spiritual path is where you get rid of both victim consciousness and culprit consciousness. Start praising yourselves. Praising is a divine quality. Recognise your strength as a woman. Yes, we need a lot of change in the society and you can bring about that change when you move from feeling like a victim, to feeling like a warrior.

~ Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar.