🪔 Observation:
After many days, I watched a film today, 'Paradha' (Paradha), which in some way raises a big question about our suppressed, orthodox customs.
This film shook me to the core, because I saw myself in the main character, 'Subbu'. The film shows very deeply how a blind tradition is born, and how people carry it on without thinking. And the truth is, women have always suffered the most from such beliefs and bonds.
Just as the people in that film were slaves to a blind tradition without understanding it, in the same way I too was carrying many false and baseless beliefs on my shoulders.
The old burdens and those false beliefs 💭
* "A girl's greatest ornament is her husband."
* "A girl's real beauty is her long hair."
* "A woman is not complete until she has a husband and a child in her life."
* "A woman should always walk in the footsteps of a man."
I have carried countless such burdens in my life, and I have seen every woman around me enduring and carrying all of this.
But, just as a nameless photographer came into Subbu's life and everything changed, in the same way Acharya Ji came into my life and woke me from my own deep unconsciousness.
Subbu had to step out of her village to prove her innocence, and I had to step out to rise above the suffocating weight of my own beliefs.
Subbu also faced difficulties outside and then found a new direction. In the same way, everything was completely new for me too: a new city, new people, a new world, and a completely new me.
I stayed in Patna for two and a half months. There I set up a bookstall, learned a lot, met new people and talked openly. I made new friends, played sports, went around town, did everything. And the biggest lesson I got was the sense of ease between a woman and a man.
There, I thought that I want to see this same freedom in every girl. That is when I decided that I must return to the same mud from which the courage to become a lotus had awakened inside me. And so I came back home.
But this time not as a weak, sad and frightened woman, but as a consciousness! 💡
Just as Subbu's leaving home proved auspicious, my leaving also brought a positive change. The atmosphere at home changed in a way I had never imagined.
* Father: who used to say, "A veil is a woman's ornament, stay within it," today I walk around comfortably in lowers in front of him.
* Sister: who used to say, "Be free only after marriage," today is the one saying, "Don't get both sisters married, let them study and stand on their own feet."
* Brother: the brother who raised his hand on me when I talked about taking a job, today is the one who tells me, "Go, make your own identity, and don't get lost in this crowd."
It had been a full 7 months since I had spoken to my brother. There had been so many fights between us that I never thought this distance could ever be resolved this way. The brother who once said all sorts of things about Acharya Ji now calls him 'Acharya Ji' with respect himself.
He tells me, "If you want to spread his teachings, first study and understand them well yourself, otherwise you won't be able to explain them to anyone, and people will point fingers at his image."
Yesterday, that same brother went to drop me off in Patna himself and came to pick me up again.
This evening, while talking to Papa, the brother himself said, "If I had not understood in time, you would have ruined the lives of all your daughters." And this is one hundred percent true. Behind our two sisters' studies, the whole credit goes to our brother. It's just that the old social conditioning caught him in its grip too, and a distance came between us.
But after we left home, everyone at home started listening to them. Now there is no opposition at home about Acharya Ji. The donation that I used to give secretly, today that same brother says, "How will Acharya Ji's teachings spread without donations?" 🙌
Just as Subbu, by removing her veil, lifted that burden from everyone's head, and before that removed the veil of blind beliefs from people's eyes, I too want to do exactly the same. What no one in our village or nearby area had done till now, we two sisters have done.
The girl who never walked a single step alone without men in the house suddenly covered a long journey of many hours alone, and that too at night! 🌙
And the hair that had once become a big social bond for me, I removed it by my own choice.
Just as when Subbu removed her veil there was an uproar in the entire village, in the same way when I returned alone from Patna for the first time as a completely new personality, everyone started looking at me. All kinds of talk started, asking who this is, and I became the topic of discussion.
But in the midst of this, one person also turned out to be impressed by me. That's exactly what I wanted!
Now, holding the hand of that one person, I will awaken ten more people in the time to come.
Acharya Ji often says, right? "This world understands only the language of power; stake everything to gain that power."
Just for that inner and economic power, I have come back home. Now, by completing my studies well, I want to give a new direction to myself and to every woman here.
I know there are many dangers on this path, and I will get many bruises, but still I do not want to step back. I have to build a new society.
Now my steps have moved forward; I don't know what will happen next... but I cannot sit silent anymore. Wherever I see filth, it must be cleaned! 🧹🔥
