Neha Kumari
The first semester of my PhD studies ended smoothly, and I treated myself with a short trip to Jwaladevi, one among 51 Shakti Peethas in Hindu mythology.
Scriptures hold that Goddess Parvati persuaded her husband, Lord Shankar, to attend the great yajna her father Prajapati Daksha was organising. Daksha had not invited Lord Shankar and insulted Lord Shankar when he participated. Parvati could not bear it and offered herself in the fire. This act later came to be known as Devi Sati. Lord Shankar, in deep anguish and anger, took the burnt body on his shoulder and started Tandava. To save the world from the known and deadly anger of Mahadev, Lord Vishnu set free his Sudarshana Chakra, by cutting the dead body into 51 pieces, falling in different places in the Earth.
Each such place is known as Shakti Peeth and it is believed that Sati’s tongue was dropped here. Devotees experience the Goddess reincarnated in flames( Jwala) even today and these flames burn flawlessly, without any source through fissures of rocks in this temple since then. I was not to write about all this, rather, the information that should be transmitted is the following:
Schoolgirl gang-raped by CRPF jawan, 3 others in UP,[deccanherald.com, Dec 4, 2019]
In the last 10 months, a rape every 5 hrs in Haryana: Selja, [Indian Express, Dec 7, 2019]
A man asks 12-year- old girl for a glass of water, enters the house and rapes her [iIshorts, Dec 7, 2019]
6-yr-old girl locked up in community hall’s toilet and raped; 19-yr-old held [Dec 7, 2019]
Police told me we will file a complaint after you get raped: UP woman [Inshorts, Dec 8, 2019]
Men enter UP rape survivor’s house, pour acid on her for not withdrawing case [inshorts, Dec 8, 2019]…And so on.
All the women in India involuntarily think today, where we all went wrong, do we not belong, who do we trust, is this our fate, why and until when?
The Earth has become a more dangerous place for xx chromosomes. India’s daughters are dolls and are the objects bearing the toxic masculinity and bestiality of sick men, who are growing in large numbers lately.
The wound has infected the whole country, and it should be mercilessly operated upon to ensure the well being and hygiene of the state body.
A female getting raped in India is not news, it has become routine for us, daily doses to take in with Sun and day.
Men all over the country hunt women in weak situations and positions of vulnerability and sexually assault them irrespective of age, profession, relation, place and so on. Each and every woman feels unsafe stepping out.
In addition to the heinous crime of rape, to kill and burn alive the victim is the new emerging trend to be ashamed of. Justice always stands at par in such cases, or the number dips to very low.
As the fast track courts are being made, the accused in one case had been encountered, though not constitutional the move has been lauded, for the hope to get justice had been bleak. The roots or such inhumane acts are possibly frustration, rage, inferiority, vengeance sick mentality, and to assert the supremacy and power, to name a few.
The problem is there. Women in rage have succumbed to fear but that should and will not be the way out.
We are not here to ask for what has been already ours. We cannot make ourselves invisible, backing out of the fields.
We need to check this. We need to aid our justice and that starts from ourselves.
Do not be a part of a system where women are treated as a second. Raise the bar of equality. We are human. We have choices. We have rights. Apart from the big scenario, an individual woman has to be always alert. She has to be brave. She should avoid situations. Yes, these we already do, Big Check.
She should be ready to attack in her defence. Such cases must outnumber those where she was the victim. Corrective and punitive: both approaches should be taken along and simultaneously.
Teach the child and boy to respect women. Make the men in your circle learn to behave the way they should have. Strengthen yourself physically and mentally. Learn self-defence skills. Girl, drop the fear and choose the instinctive courage of nature.
The way Prakriti and Purush, Shiv and Shakti, Yang and Yin complete each other, claim your space strategically by believing in yourself.
Some metro services have allowed women to carry pepper spray for their safety. Avail the aid given to you. Know the helpline numbers to dial in an emergency. Know the acts and rules that are there to protect your human rights.
Know thyself. Make yourself powerful. Outsmart the coward and sick people. Speak Subaltern. Support your clan. Rationalise the stigma. Live fearlessly and live long. Outnumber the Beasts.
Women are human. Do not succumb to fear. Rise speak and act for your cause. Be passionate. It is the need of the hour to be rationally dangerous to be safe.
Shakti Peethas are shrines or divine places of the Mother Goddess
Tāṇḍavam is a divine dance performed by the Hindu god Shiva.
Yajna literally means “sacrifice, devotion, worship, offering”, and refers in Hinduism to any ritual done in front of a sacred fire, often with mantras.
