‘All genders are equally divine’

Shakti symbolises power — the divine power to create, sustain and evolve. Woman is a storehouse of hidden powers and talents, but she is so suppressed that these remain dormant in her, unharnessed and unutilised.

Women have suffered mental and physical atrocities since ages. Sometimes she is humiliated in her home and at other times, outside the home. From childhood, she is taught to be dependent and constantly made to think that she is weak and fragile.

Can a religion that has Durga, Kali and Lakshmi as its three main goddesses say that a woman is inferior to men? No way! The truth is that you are not a body; existentially, you are god as in godliness. God is not a person but is existence.

In Atmashatakam, Adi Shankaracharya wrote:

I am thoughtless and formless

I am all pervasive and beyond senses

I am eternally present

Bondage and freedom is not in me

I am consciousness

I am Shiva

I am Shiva

Shankaracharya did not say these words for men alone. Nowhere does he say that man is Shiva and woman is not. He gave this knowledge to everyone, irrespective of gender. In higher knowledge, there is no scope for discrimination.

If the gurus of today, who are following the tradition of Shankaracharya say that a woman has no right to higher knowledge, then I can only pity their understanding. There can be no meeting point between the exalted teachings of Shankaracharya and the poor mentality of these so-called gurus.

The Upanishads say that Brahmn, the absolute Truth, is all pervasive. Is Brahmn scared to be present in women? If the answer is yes, then Brahmn is not all-pervasive; that which is not truth cannot be called Brahmn.

If a woman remains ignorant, can society progress fully? If in any society, the woman remains ignorant, illiterate and deprived of her rights, can that society or country flourish? Our country will not prosper as long as women are not given their rightful place. The day the women of this country awaken and empower themselves with knowledge, we will touch the height of prosperity. If you read the biography of any successful man, you will find the influence of a woman in his life. A woman’s contribution to a man’s life is immense. One way or the other, she has supported man in his work.

A woman is mother, daughter, sister, girlfriend, co-worker and wife — she enriches a man’s life. No woman should ever think of herself as ordinary. She should recognise her strengths, abilities and attributes. At the level of the body, there are biological differences, but at the level of mind, intellect and soul, there are no differences between men and women. We are not the body, senses, mind or intellect. We are divine.