Throughout my lifetime, I have envisioned the concept of shakti as having inexhaustible energy and boundless dimensions. Its uncontainable presence makes identifying and expressing the true essence of shakti challenging. Yet, there are rare people in our lives who embody and define the many forms of shakti. For me, that person was my grandma, Jaya Mahadevia. 

 

Much like an aging banyan tree, my grandma was sturdy from years of weathering the harsh world around her, and she always extended branches to provide others with shade and fruit. The roots of her tree drew shakti from her passions and life experiences, invigorating her being with vitality. Sharing how she inspired me and those around her with her shakti became more critical when she passed away from COVID-19-related complications on April 23rd, 2020.

 

ROOTS OF SHAKTI

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Mental Shakti

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First and foremost, my grandma’s shakti drew its power from the fortitude of her mind. During the 92 years of her life, she lived through significant world events, including World War II and India’s independence movement. As a seventh grader, I vividly remember my grandma describing her childhood experience through these crises. The terror she felt during the curfews of the Indian independence movement was palpable in the quiver in her voice and the subtle shaking in her hands. She told me she would run as fast as she could after school to ensure she made it home before curfew fell. Sitting in the darkness and suffocating with fear as she heard gunshots outside her house became a daily ritual. Her harrowing descriptions drew stark contrasts to the situation we were in at that moment. We were sitting freely in her room, breathing in fresh air streaming from an open window, bathed in the afternoon sunlight. Surviving these periods of political unrest taught her how to keep her mind calm when the world outside seemed to be falling apart.

 

My grandma’s personal life also contributed to the development of her mental shakti. She was always taking care of others, whether it was her ten siblings or her five daughters, whom she raised independently after her husband passed away. Leading by example, she taught her daughters to be independent, strong women. A college graduate herself, my grandma understood the value of education. She instilled these values in her children, three of whom became physicians, while one got a law degree and another attained a bachelor's in commerce. My grandma continued to promote the value of education throughout India. Despite having to take care of her children and extended family on her own, she never failed to put aside as much money as she could manage to fund girls’ schools in small villages, such as the M. C. Amin Girls School in Bavla, Gujarat.

 

Another show of her mental shakti was her fierce desire to be independent. At the age of 60, my grandma shocked her family members and decided to take the next step in her life's journey: moving to the United States. My grandma sold the house in which she raised her children and used that money to move to America, joining her eldest daughter in a foreign land. Knowing very little English, my grandma steeled herself to face the plethora of challenges that come with moving to another country and leaving your home behind. Spending her entire life taking care of others made her dependable and self-sufficient. 

 

All of these experiences forced her to become familiar with powerful emotions such as fear, love, and grief. These emotions, powerful gusts of wind, kept on blowing at her, attempting to knock her down. Yet, with each obstacle, her tree grew taller and her branches became stronger, and she persevered by drawing from her roots of mental shakti. 

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