TO CHANGE ONE’S MINDSET, ONE HAS TO FIGHT ONE’S INNER DEVILS

Ours is a land of believers and worshippers – worshippers of both male (yang) and female (yin) energy, Shiva-Shakti in other words. We revere gods and goddesses with equal fervour. Among them, Durga is venerated. She is considered a symbol of strength and courage, a protector above everything else. But this is only one part of the picture. In her other avatars, she is a nurturer, a symbol of abundance (Lakshmi), a symbol of knowledge and wisdom (Saraswati), and

a disciplinarian in the form of Kali who punishes wrongdoers.

A woman is all this if we take a look at the women around us. They nurture their families, protect them by keeping them out of harm’s way, inculcate values in them and teach them so much about human conduct and life. Not only this, most of the contemporary women are bread-earners too, thereby enhancing the material prospects of their families. Navratri is a celebration of female energy. This Navratri, let us pledge to change our mind-set toward women and

give them the care and respect they deserve. To change one’s mindset, one has to fight inner devils as well as societal ones. Let us fling away the veil that blinds us from realizing and respecting a woman’s contribution to the world. Above all, let us learn to listen to them with solicitude if they try to tell us about their travails and fears about what ails the world at large.