India's Daughters ~ Living Goddesses

India’s Daughters ~ Living Goddesses

(a homage to Shaktirupini, who passed away today after battling for her life for 14 days, after a gruesome rape)

'The nature of all women is perfect wisdom' Machig Labdron - Enlightened Buddhist Master & Yogini 

We hang our head in shame for losing daughters to rape. Rape, a heinous demon who devours women, but keeps them alive, shackled in shame. Rape is a scheming, devious demon that converts the victim into a culprit. A raped woman brings the biggest shame possible to her family. She has become defiled & impure, who brings dishonour. Her family members hang their head in shame to have such a burden. A family that has a rapist son does not go through similar trauma. ‘Boys will be boys’, say the patriarchs. And their advise to women is to observe more restrictions in their dress and movements.

A woman who overcomes shame is invincible.

Women finally call the bluff. Sorry men, we refuse to be the keepers of your shame. Is it not the biggest paradox that women victimised by rape have been the ones who ‘loose’ the honour of  the family, the clan, the village.  By being raped, how is it we are the ones who bring shame on everyone. How come rape means our lives are over? Why does rape mean being  tainted for life, never outliving the stigma? Its just a heinous crime, and we women are going to talk about it. We are going to name our rapists. We no longer buy the shame theory and keep silent.

Making women the custodian of shame has been the single most powerful weapon to keep us subjugated. From the time we are born, we are taught to sit properly, talk properly, dress properly, behave properly so as not to attract ‘unwanted’ male attention. After all, boys will be boys, men will be men. If they grab, grope, molest, rape, it is because we invited it. Immorality is in our blood it seems. We must be kept veiled, covered, muted, scarved, invisible, so that society functions properly.

The End of Patriarchy

Our braveheart Shaktirupini turned the tables completely on this lopsided realtiy. We now throw off the blanket of shame. We are ok if you call us loose, characterless, sluts, shameless. These are your words, and they have lost power over us.  A woman who overcomes shame is invincible. You really cannot touch us or make us shrink anymore. We are impervious to barbs.

Why do you think the women identify so deeply with Shaktirupini? Why did they take her to their hearts so intensely? So many of my friends have cried so passionately for her. Perhaps it is because she was made of the fragments of all our souls. Perhaps she was a representation of our collective pain, anger and shame. That is why she had to die. She took it all with her. She santified us. She cleansed our burning shame, our faceless rage, our frozen pain. And she did it in a way that made the entire nation stand up and take notice.

Delhi erupted. The whole nation woke up. It was a spontaneous outburst of grief, shock and outrage. Young and old just took to protest and gathered in numbers so huge outside parliament that it was scary for the government. The power bastion was shaken to the core at the determination of the people. They did not have a leader, but they had a huge sacred sankalpa. To cleanse their country of rape. People who till now were mere vote banks became  enemies.  The government used its machinery to battle these unarmed people. This new army of the brave new world withstood water cannons and rubber bullets, lathi charge and violence by police, in the bitter Delhi cold. My heart went out to the citizens of our country who  still stood, drenched in the cold winter day, fuelled by a sacred fire. Obviously they were connected to a higher calling that provided immense strength.

Sadly, the Chief Minister of Delhi fought with the police commissioner for power, the Lt. Governor of Delhi shamelessly holidayed in the US till he was summoned, the Home Minister tried hard to look concerned, and the Prime Minister after 8 days of unexplained silence, asked the nation to remain calm.

The patriarchs were taken by surprise. The media played and replayed the reactions of the powers that be. Their fumbling, their reluctant and coerced rejoinders to the very hard questions the women were asking really pulled the veil off their callousness. They could not touch our hearts. Their efforts were forced by an outraged nation. They had no choice but to save face. Suddenly, they could not pull the right levers. Their righteousness, their holier than thou attitude and clever vocabulary with which they had pulled off endless attacks did not work. Because this was a crime where they could not shout, make venomous attacks on opposition. They were at a loss for the right words, because it did not exist in their vocabulary. These people do not know the language of respect, equality and dignity where women are concerned.  Their world did not take women seriously.

The Rules of the Game have changed forever

The rules of the game were changed overnight by Shaktirupini. She brought the entire nation down on its knees in shame. She came to shake us to the very core. In women she ripped open the doors of pain and rage we had shut tight as we did not know how to deal with it. The door was of powerlessness. In no time, women were ready to fight, to stand for their rights, to speak fearlessly, to ask for and take what is justly theirs. She really opened the doors wide for us and we said in a single voice ‘Enough’.

In men, she ripped out the hypocritical veil that hides a rapist, a voyuer, an oppressor, a molester, a mute witness and  a colluder. All the wisdom of the President, Prime Minister, and the entire entourage of ministers was inadequate to address this issue.  She single handedly exposed the  total lack of sensitivity of our leaders and police force. Our world had become deaf, mute, blind to the atrocities against women. Patriarchy stood exposed in all its ugliness. And with it the deeply pervasive nature of rape, the biggest symbol of patriarchy. This energy really has no place to hide now. It is being whipped every day. It is time for it to GO.

Women are rising the world over as powerful, divine beings. It is her time now. She is no longer ready to live the victim. She asks the men to clear the rapist within. We are Shakti. We are the compassionate mother, and if need be, we wear the skulls of demons that we kill in our neck. But we are truly tired of the war with men. We call for the laying of arms and the beginning of a holy partnership.

Is it a coincidence that the planet shifted out of patriarchy into a new cycle of the Divine Feminine on 21st December 2012? Every woman is claiming her Shakti form.  She is invoking her 10 arms and her sacred weapons now. She is fully capable of taking care of herself, AND her planet. The goddess in these times is not now found in temples, but in homes, offices and travelling in public transport. Get used to the living goddess. She is ready to teach the world a better way to live.  And the conscious men are walking with her in this journey, are fully embracing their Shiva form. Together, we will make a new world.