An important reason for writing this book and weaving the ancient texts into it was to reveal the innate power and grace of Sita. I describe her as an embodiment of what true feminism could be.
At one of my book launches, a woman asked me,
“How come you tell the contemporary part of the story in the first person? The narrator is a man, but you are a woman.”
When I reflect on what feminism has become today, I feel that much has gone astray. As long as women compete with men, the bhava—the inner state—of competition takes over. That is a masculine force. I think women sometimes need to walk in the moccasins of a man to understand certain aspects of feminism.
In the animal kingdom, roosters fight each other to prove their strength and fitness before the hen. They compete with one another. Peacocks display their magnificent feathers, while the female remains quiet and unassuming beside them.
In my dance book, my dedication reads:
“Shakti smiles as she lets Shiva win the competition. Her innate grace does not permit her to lift her leg in a way that would expose her vulva in Urdhva Tandava.”
(From ‚Lotusblüten öffnen sich – Ein Weg zur Selbstentfaltung‘, Angelika Sriram)
Sita does not care what the court whispers about her stay in Lanka. She leaves the court and enters the forest alone. In self-assured style she raises her children as a single mother near a hermitage.
What does this say to women today?
Our society is still governed largely by masculine thinking. Being queer may help one understand both masculine and feminine perspectives, but that alone changes very little. The feminine is not a quality belonging only to women; it is a consciousness inherent in every human being. To recognise this, we must first understand the polarity of the feminine and the masculine as expressed through symbolic and mythical images.
Governments are still predominantly shaped by men and by masculine patterns of thought. Women’s ways of thinking are often left out. Women in leadership positions are expected to adapt to masculine norms and to play by rules established by men.
I remember my Sanskrit classes. We translated sentences such as, “Flies come in the summer,” followed by, “The wife must obey the husband,” or, “The woman follows the man.” Was Sanskrit already captured by patriarchy, or are these grammar books simply written by men? Is the Ramayana interpreted only through a masculine logic, just as the Bible has so often been?
Returning to the feminine way: when I first heard the story of Sita, I thought she was a tragic figure—kidnapped and then forced to prove her innocence. Many young women today struggle with the interpretation of these episodes in the Ramayana.
To me, Sita is the embodiment of Mother Earth. She lives according to her own laws. The more she is exploited and destroyed by contemporary society, the more she will ultimately bring down the civilisation that exploits her. Earth is the greater force. So is Sita: self-assured and independent of masculine thinking. Like the Earth, she is determined by the forces of nature—the seasons, growth, decay, and renewal—not by man-made patterns of control.
If women who truly understood Sita – for the whole philosophy of the Ramayana is about realising who Sita is – were to hold positions of leadership, wars might come to an end.
That is why I wrote this book and why I hope readers will engage with its ideas.
Explaining feminist thinking – the discussion on menstrual leave is one very simple example. A society that values protection, care, and the health of its members above all else would no longer pursue profit at any cost.
Could capitalism eventually transform itself through feminine power? There would surely be less interest in the weapons industry and, consequently, less interest in war.
As Sita says:
“Weapons will change the character of the one who bears them.”
Humanity has already changed profoundly, but the logic that justifies war is still not rooted in feminine wisdom. I see Sita as the enduring anti-war figure. Yet her actions lead Rama to fight – not for new territory or personal gain, nor against other members of the human family, but against demonic forces. If feminine and masculine ways of thinking could move together in harmony, and begin to distinguish between the human mind and the demonic mind, we would have taken an important step forward.