Women of India, Leaders in Restoring Harmony

In an interview on CNN, Erin Burnett spoke with Fareed Zakaria about the international coverage of a gang rape in India, and the national outrage that the rape has sparked.  Both the coverage and the outrage, while fully merited, are unusual.  Zakaria made some interesting points about it.  

The first is that social media has made the spread of information accessible in ways that never existed before.  Many people in India, for example, do not have computers but they do have cell phones that receive text messages and can access the internet.  Now groups of people can be informed and mobilized in ways never before possible.  In the past, in the lore of repressing and weakening a segment of the population (in this case, women), the best way to do this was to keep them isolated from one another and without access to valuable information.  With those restrictions removed in this age of social media, women can work together and share empowering information – thus large groups of women demonstrating on the streets in India.

Another point made by Fareed (and others), is that rape is not about sex, it’s about power.  The worst and lowest kind of power – domination, control and destruction.  I heard a Buddhist teacher say many years ago,  “It is human nature to destroy what one is threatened by.  Men, threatened by the power of women, have tried to destroy it in every way – economically, socially, politically, spiritually, and physically.”   

This same teacher pointed out, and I have observed for many decades that this is true, that women are innately meant to express and exemplify power. Why?  Because (in Indian yoga terms), the kundalini or life force moves through them much more rapidly than in a man.   If you look at power in nature and in our physical world today, the more rapid the movement, the greater the power.  

Here in the West, women are making great strides, raising awareness of gender inequality and absurd and false stereotyping.  Victories in the boardroom and in government are being won.  My inspiration, however, for the women of India is that they leapfrog over the battles on many fronts being waged in the West and go right to the heart of victory.

I traveled in India many years ago, from Mumbai to Rishikesh, and I know that spiritual belief is paramount in many homes.  India is a democratic country rich in tradition.  In India, it is known that it is bad karma to suppress and dominate an entire segment of the population that is naturally and innately powerful.  It throws the whole nation and society off balance, upsetting the wheel of dharma.  Traditions exist to be honored, but they can adapt.

Women exemplify power from a spiritual point of view.  Power means leadership, education, and economic success.  Women are innately suited to deal with the complexity and rapid movement that is characteristic of power.  Bringing women to the fore in government, education, conservation, science, medicine – in every field of endeavor – will create a balance not seen in recent history (the last few thousand years).  India deserves to become a leader in restoring balance to the planet.  

Liz Lewinson is the author of Independence Ring, a book that explains how and why women need to reclaim their innate power, not just for themselves but to help many others.