What does power mean to you?

Someone asked on a group: What does power mean to you? 

She wrote that answering this question helped her understand herself better. 

Straight off, the first answer that came to me was: 

Vaishno Devi: Riding the lion in a bright red saree, with weapons in one hand and a lotus in another. Making an entire patriarchal society touch and wash the feet of the girl child, with love rather than conflict. That's what power means to me. Anne Frank. That's power. Power does not always have to mean conflict. In fact, the opposite - when your very presence leads to the desired outcome without you needing to lift a finger, and everyone does it willingly, out of a positive feeling like hope or love. That's power.

The power of Hitler, once over, is despised and regretted. The power of Martin Luther King and Gandhi, though long gone, is still a beacon to others. As people, they may have been imperfect, but their idea of power was based on something positive - love, inspiration, equality, non violence. And that is why, the power belongs to their ideals, and it is enduring. 

When we worship Laksmi, we worship the goddess. Same for Parvati and Saraswati. 

But in Vaishno, we, the North Indians, worship little girls as the embodiment of the goddess. This is a goddess that forces us to see the divine in that which is otherwise disadvantaged. We see that divinity, not because of fear, but because of our love of the goddess. That is power.