Women should realise their strength and set goals.

Hear the resolute words of Sudha Murty, writer, philanthropist, and builder of lives: “Women should realise their strength and set goals.” These words are not spoken as suggestion but as command, a call to awakening. For too long, women in many lands have been told to measure their worth by silence and service alone, as if their power were a hidden thing. Murty reminds us that within every woman lies strength, vast and unyielding, waiting only to be recognized. And once it is seen, it must be guided, sharpened, and directed toward goals that shape destiny.

The ancients, too, knew this truth. In the Vedic hymns of India, women were not only keepers of hearth and home, but seers, scholars, and warriors of wisdom. Gargi debated sages in the courts, Maitreyi sought the eternal truth, and their words echo still. Their strength was not borrowed; it was their own. Yet as centuries passed, many were told to forget this legacy. Murty’s words stand as a restoration of memory, reminding women that they are heirs to greatness, and that to live without goals is to bury the gifts of their foremothers in silence.

History gives us countless examples of women who discovered their strength and set before themselves great goals. Consider Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi, who, though widowed and pressed by the empire’s might, refused to surrender her throne and her child. She mounted her horse, sword in hand, and rode into battle. She did not wait for men to define her path—she defined her own. Her strength was not only in her arm, but in her resolve, and her goal was freedom. Though she fell in battle, her name became immortal, for she had realized her strength.

In more recent times, look to Malala Yousafzai, a young girl in the valleys of Pakistan who refused to bow to terror. She set her goal on education, declaring that knowledge was her weapon and courage her shield. Though bullets sought to silence her, she rose from her wounds with greater fire, carrying her message to the world. By realizing her strength and setting her goal, she transformed personal struggle into global movement. Here we see Sudha Murty’s words fulfilled: strength unrecognized lies dormant, but strength awakened changes the earth itself.

But strength without direction is like a river without banks—it spills and scatters. To set goals is to give purpose to power, to channel energy into creation. A woman who knows her strength yet does not set her aim may endure, but she will not rise. Yet when she lifts her eyes and says, “This is my purpose,” the whole universe seems to bend to her will. Sudha Murty, through her own life of quiet determination and immense impact, shows that goals are not mere dreams—they are bridges between the possible and the real.

Understand this, O seeker: the world often seeks to convince women that their strength is small, or that their goals must be modest. But history and truth defy this lie. The strength of a woman is not only in her endurance, but in her vision; not only in her sacrifice, but in her power to create and transform. When this strength is realized and given a goal, it becomes a force that no obstacle, no tradition, no chain can hold.

Let this be the lesson: women must look within, see their strength, and refuse to deny it. They must lift their eyes to goals worthy of their spirit—goals in education, in leadership, in art, in science, in whatever field their soul burns for. And when they walk toward those goals, step by step, they will not only transform themselves, but their families, their communities, and their nations.

Thus is the teaching of Sudha Murty: “Women should realise their strength and set goals.” For in this realization lies freedom, in this direction lies creation, and in this union lies the power to shape a brighter world. Let no woman doubt her worth, and let no goal be deemed too high, for the strength within her is ancient, unbreakable, and divine.