Acharya Prashant addresses the questioner's surprise regarding the large size of a goddess's idol compared to those of a rishi and Lord Shiva. He explains that this astonishment arises from a preconceived notion that in Indian tradition or mythology, goddesses and women are given a lower status. This flawed perception, he states, has been ingrained by modern education, media, and old stereotypes, which makes one accustomed to seeing gods as primary and goddesses as secondary or in service to them. When the goddess is depicted as immense, it challenges this conditioning, causing surprise. Otherwise, there is nothing astonishing about it, as the size of an idol is merely an indicator of its importance. Acharya Prashant clarifies that in true Indian spirituality, gender is not primary; the real focus is on consciousness. The height of one's consciousness and its divinity is what matters, and this divinity can descend upon both men and women. Since both men and women experience suffering, they both equally need and are entitled to this divine consciousness for liberation. Therefore, when one worships a deity, be it male or female, one is not worshipping the physical body but the divinity and the height of consciousness within them. If it were about the body, one could just worship their own. Applying this to the scene, the rishi is depicted bowing to the goddess because he recognizes 'Shivatva' (the essence of Shiva) manifested in 'Shakti' (the divine feminine). 'Shivatva' itself is genderless. It is not that the rishi is choosing Shakti over Shiva; he is simply bowing to the 'Shivatva' that he perceives in her. The speaker criticizes the common personification of deities like Shiva into characters with families and stories, explaining that this is a simplification for minds that cannot grasp the formless. The true meaning of Shiva is Truth, the Self, or Brahman, as in 'Satyam Shivam Sundaram' (Truth is Shiva, Shiva is Beauty). The size of the idols, therefore, represents the height of their consciousness, and a rishi is one who knows where to bow.