Navratri: Looking Beyond Patriarchy and Awakening the Goddess Within

15th Oct 2026 | Author - Viraj

Navratri is a great reminder that we need to look at the patriarchal system in our social structure as well as in our own personal structure. 

 

Let us first look at the social structure. 

India today continues to be, in many ways, a male-dominated society. We tend to value certain traits associated with masculinity, such as power, dominance and aggression. These traits are often celebrated as signs of strength and success, and we see them playing out in our social, professional and even personal lives. 

 

Even within the family structure, fathers have traditionally been considered the head of the family. Property, inheritance and decision-making have largely favoured men in many communities. It was only in 2005 that the Hindu Succession Act was amended to strengthen daughters’ equal rights in ancestral coparcenary property. 

 

Of course, there are exceptions. There are communities and regions in India where women have traditionally enjoyed greater autonomy and a different position within the family. But, by and large, patriarchy continues to influence our social and cultural structures, particularly in parts of North India. 

 

However, I think there is another dimension to this issue that we often overlook. 

Patriarchy is not just a social structure. It is also a personal structure. 

 

If we look at ourselves as individuals, each of us has different qualities within us. We have the capacity for logic as well as intuition, aggression as well as compassion, action as well as receptivity. 

 

But what are the qualities we consciously choose to develop? 

We tend to value power, control, logic and the ability to dominate. We often give less attention to qualities such as receptivity, creativity, artistic expression, compassion and the ability to connect with our hearts. 

I am not suggesting that logic, power or aggression are inherently masculine, or that creativity and compassion belong exclusively to women. These qualities exist in all of us. 

 

The question is whether we have created an imbalance by giving greater importance to certain qualities while neglecting others. 

And perhaps this imbalance within individuals is reflected in the imbalance we see in society. 

If that is the case, then maybe the answer lies in beginning with ourselves. 

 

What can Navratri teach us about this imbalance? 

If we look at Indian mythology, we have the Devas and the Devis. We have masculine forms of the divine, such as Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma and Krishna, and feminine forms such as Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati. 

The Devis offer us an interesting way to understand the qualities that we need to cultivate within ourselves. 

If we want to develop these qualities, we need to understand what the Goddesses really represent, beyond the rituals and the traditional forms of worship. 

Let us look at three of them. 

 

1. Durga: The courage to face our own negativity 

Durga is a Goddess who is never afraid of facing negativity. She is depicted as a powerful force who confronts and destroys the forces that threaten balance and harmony. 

But what if we look at Durga not just as a Goddess who fights external negativity, but also as a reminder of the battles we need to fight within ourselves? 

 

Can we face our own negativity? 

Can we acknowledge our self-doubt, our anger, our jealousy and our fears? 

Can we look at the traits within us that we don’t particularly like, rather than constantly trying to justify them or finding excuses for our behaviour? 

I think this is where the real challenge lies. 

 

It is relatively easy to identify negativity in others. We can easily see someone else’s anger, ego or arrogance. But when it comes to us, we often find ways to defend our actions. 

 

We justify our anger. We explain away our jealousy. We blame our circumstances or other people for the way we behave. 

But can we look at ourselves with honesty? 

 

Only when we are willing to acknowledge these qualities can we begin to work on them. We cannot transcend something that we are unwilling to recognise. 

 

Perhaps the real message of Durga is that strength is not just about fighting the negativity outside us. It is also about having the courage to face the negativity within us. 

 

2. Lakshmi: The quality of abundance 

Another Goddess who is very close to my heart is Lakshmi. 

Traditionally, we have looked at Lakshmi primarily from the perspective of money, wealth and prosperity. But I think Lakshmi represents something much larger. 

Lakshmi is about abundance. She is about growth. And abundance is not necessarily about how much we possess. It is also about how we experience what we already have. 

 

Do we feel that we have enough? 

Do we feel grateful for what life has given us? 

Are we able to appreciate our relationships, our experiences, our opportunities and the resources available to us? 

Or are we constantly living with a feeling that something is missing? 

One of the ways to experience abundance is to develop the quality of giving. 

 

In our Indian culture, daan has always been an important concept. Giving has been a part of our philosophical and spiritual traditions. In communities such as the Jain and Sikh communities, the practice of giving and service holds an important place in religious teachings and everyday life. 

 

But giving does not necessarily mean giving money. We can give our time, our knowledge, our attention and our care. We can share what we have with others rather than constantly focusing on what we need to acquire for ourselves. 

I think we need to cultivate this quality of daan in a much bigger way. 

The other quality related to abundance is contentment. 

 

Do we feel that what we have is enough? Can we appreciate what we have received instead of constantly comparing ourselves with others? 

Contentment does not mean that we stop growing or give up our ambitions. It simply means that our desire to grow does not have to come from a constant feeling of inadequacy. 

 

And this is where contentment and gratitude go hand in hand. 

When we learn to appreciate what we have, when we become more willing to give, and when we stop measuring our lives only through accumulation, we begin to experience abundance differently. 

 

Perhaps Lakshmi is not just about becoming wealthy. It is also about developing the capacity to feel abundant, to give generously and to live with gratitude. 

 

3. Saraswati: The humility to learn 

The third Goddess whose qualities we need to cultivate is Saraswati. 

Saraswati is traditionally regarded as the Goddess of knowledge, learning, music and the arts. She represents the pursuit of knowledge and the development of our intellectual and creative abilities. 

 

But what does it really take to acquire knowledge? 

I think the first quality we need is curiosity. 

Somewhere along the way, many of us develop the attitude that we already know enough. We become comfortable with our existing beliefs and assumptions. We stop asking questions, and we become less willing to consider perspectives that are different from our own. 

 

We need to ask ourselves: can we become more curious in our daily lives? 

Can we listen to others without immediately judging them? Can we question our own beliefs? Can we acknowledge that there is so much that we do not know? 

And along with curiosity, we need humility. 

 

Knowledge without humility can easily become arrogance. The more we know, the more we may begin to believe that we understand everything. But genuine learning requires us to recognise the limitations of our own understanding. 

 

Saraswati also reminds us of the importance of creativity and artistic expression. We often give enormous importance to productivity, achievement and measurable success, while overlooking the joy of creating something simply because it brings meaning to our lives. 

 

Can we make more space for art, music, creativity and exploration? 

Can we approach life with the mind of a learner rather than the certainty of someone who believes they already have all the answers? 

 

Perhaps Saraswati reminds us that wisdom begins with curiosity, grows through learning and is sustained by humility. 

 

Moving beyond patriarchy begins within us 

So, this Navratri, I think we need to look at how we can move beyond the patriarchal mindset, not just at a societal level but also at an individual level. 

 

Can we create more space for the qualities that we have traditionally neglected? 

Can we develop Durga’s courage to face our own negativity? 

Can we cultivate Lakshmi’s sense of abundance through giving, contentment and gratitude? 

Can we invite Saraswati into our lives through curiosity, humility and a willingness to keep learning? 

 

The idea is not to replace masculine dominance with feminine dominance. Nor is it about dividing human qualities into rigid categories of masculine and feminine. 

It is about creating balance within us. 

 

We need strength, but we also need compassion. We need logic, but we also need intuition. We need ambition, but we also need contentment. We need knowledge, but we also need humility. 

And perhaps the most important part of this journey is to recognise that these qualities are not something that exist only outside us, in the form of divine beings we worship. 

 

They are also qualities that we can consciously cultivate in our everyday lives. 

Maybe this is what Navratri offers us: an opportunity to look beyond the rituals and reflect on the kind of human beings we are becoming. 

 

Can we stop placing dominance and control at the top of our personal transformation, and make way for Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati within us? 

 

Perhaps the real celebration of Navratri begins when we stop looking at the Goddess only as someone to worship and start understanding her as a reminder of what we can become.