What does security mean to a woman?

6 min readOct 16, 2020

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Question: What does security mean in the context of being a woman?

Acharya Prashant (AP): We will have to understand it fully and completely. Firstly, what does security mean and more so in the context of being a woman? What is danger? Because you talk about security when you are in danger.

Let us say, you face a snake and then the snake goes away. There are two kinds of happenings possible in this incident.

One; the snake goes away but never really goes away. Second; the snake actually goes away. It sounds like a riddle, right? I will make it simpler for you.

Let’s say there is a photographic plate in front of you and a mirror and a snake passes in front of both of them. Of course, the snake is fearful, it is a poisonous snake, it can cause death. So, there is danger, real danger.

When the snake is in front of the mirror and the photographic plate, it will show up in the mirror and in the photographic plate as well. You look into the mirror and what will you find? A snake. And you look into the photographic plate and there also what will you find? The snake. Because the snake is there, right now in that instant.

But then in a while, the snake goes away. Will the mirror still show the snake?

Listeners (L): No

AP: What about the photographic plate?

(L): It will still show the snake.

AP: Now the snake has caused a permanent imprint on the plate. The plate can never forget now that a snake passed in front of me. The snake is long gone, one year, two years and the snake is not returning. But the plate remembers permanently the snake has caused a permanent impression on the plate. The plate is living in perpetual fear, constant fear.

What are our minds like?

The mirror or the photographic plate?

(L): The photographic plate.

AP: It is alright to respond to danger when danger is in front of us. When the snake is there, alright, let the mind show the snake, let the mind occupy the snake when the danger is there.