Strong, Brave, Confident, Inspired, Spirited

I am all of the above

But I never considered my self a Hindu, despite being born in a  Hindu family, practising Hinduism from the time I was born, I never identified my very foundation, my Astitva as a Hindu–As a Hindu woman
A Hindu woman, who is brave, strong, confident, inspired, positive and (same word as above).
I am proud of my country, I hold my head high with false pride of a Being Indian, of my country’s glorious humanitarian history, of my country’s uniqueness – India never invaded any country, India was invaded by many countries.
India, my land, my country, where my breath, my life is flooded by its ubiquitous history.
But wait: isn’t India’s glorious past&its peaceful persona, built unshakeably and undeniably on the principles and philosophy of Santana Hindu Dharma?
How and when did I separate India from its fabric of Dharma and Dharma from India, I know not.,but I realized that I see India and Hinduism as two independent entities, else, I who was proud of my country should be proud of my Hindu Astitva also.
But I was not.
I was ashamed of the pantheon of Gods in Hinduism
The elaborate rituals seem endlessly insipid
But the most significant, I was embarrassed, ashamed, and violently angry with the status of woman in Hinduism
Although I had a deep personal relationship with almost every God in Hindu pantheon of Gods, I had a deep personal dislike for the philosophy of my Astitva, where I saw my gender, my sisters being ill-treated, beaten, objectified and discarded. This hurt me.
I am a Woman first, Hindu next.
This battle in my inner space found no answers through my life and as daughter,  student,, Actor, and a friend.
My success as an actress only made me susceptible to the brutal reality of gender bias and harassment at a workplace; success doesn’t prevent brutality on a woman.

Success doesn’t give equality.  In fact, a successful woman unwittingly unleashes the violent, repressed diatribic juvenile behaviour of society in general, not only because she is successful, but also because of the fragile inner image, we evolve- the spiky spider’s web around us to protect ourselves from hurt, betrayal, and loneliness
I could not understand if this was how the woman in my country lived her life burdened by the seen and unseen shackles
I could not comprehend why in my country, India the land where greatest of greatest personalities walked, Avatars lived and radiated enlightenment, where all Humans were taught that we are not just children of God, but a reflection of God himself. 

A woman, I feel I am wearing the cast iron vest of the decades of the dark era where women were hidden away, suppressed and repressed.

Till the secret that was buried away for centuries was revealed to me, by my Guru, His Divine Holiness Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda Swami
“A HINDU WOMAN WAS RESPECTED AND REVERED AS – POWERFUL SACRED WOMAN.”

This made me revisit my suffering opinion 

“The humane values, its lifestyle, are what carved my likes and dislikes, my fears and my joy, my celebrations and my sorrow, it transcended beyond all relationships, but are all expressed based on my principles, and values for life
It connected me to that Avyaktha component of me that has made me powerful to face life.
Religions have the power to create social facts, culture and ethics in humans. It is this foundation that is our soft power, the space that we land in when we take any decision, consequentially building our quality of life Religion is not just a set of books, a series of lectures or places of worship. It goes much beyond all the mundane graph of life.