Lets worship Shakti this Navratri

Hindu religion is beautiful in the way its fluid. There are no 'tenets' as such. No single deity can claim supremacy. All the forms lead to a single source, God and 'his' Shakti,..... God himself is no 'being' but an entirety of what 'was', 'is' and 'can be'... So,in a transcendental sense, its nothing but energy... So, in fact God and Shakti are not two different entities... its the same. The terms would have come about probably because we humans feel a need to classify 'living' entities as 'male' and 'female'...

Oh! I am digressing from the title!!!!

We consider Navaratri as an auspicious period, or at least a 'good' period. We worship the Goddess and pay reverence to her... But do we understand her? She is Shakti.

While offering Poojas this Navratri, lets invoke the Shakti.

Shakti, for me, signifies two things: 'Female' part of our universe, 'Energy'.

- 'Shakti', the energy within us... doesn't really matter whether one is a male or a female. Lets realize and utilize the energy within us. Lets realize our potential. Potential as a human, potential as a citizen, potential as a child, potential as a sister, potential as a friend and so on.... Do we realize how much can we do... achieve... offer... to this world... and to ourselves...

- 'Shakti', the female ... A famous quote goes as follows...

“Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Watch your words, for they become actions. Watch your actions, for they become habits. Watch your habits, for they become character. Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”

Lets respect women through our words, actions and habits.... If you are a women reading this, it goes for you too... Lets not underestimate our sisters, mothers, daughters. Lets treat them as equals - equal as family members, equal as citizens, equal as human beings....

Lets give them equal opportunities, lets not assume them to be a 'weaker' sex... Shakti means Power, how can it be weaker?....

A society that worships 'Shakti, the female power' kills its daughters in the womb.... considers its daughters a 'burden'... considers wives to be 'nagging decorative home pieces'... considers women to be sex objects/ child bearing machines.... somewhere we all are aware of this paradox...

Let us supplement our prayer offerings with our thoughts and actions this festival season... Lets us pay our reverence to Shakti - ours and the universe's.