Years back we came in contact with a religious guru who
was the disciple of a great Saint. We had long discussions and got to learn
many things. One day he said, ‘Women can never attain moksha. They are inferior
to men. Their duty is to serve their husbands whole heartedly and pray for a
future male life, so that they can continue their spiritual practices to attain
moksha. One reason for this is their perpetual body consciousness. You can watch a lady: while talking to
somebody, they will be adjusting the pallu of their sari in between. This shows
that they can’t go beyond body consciousness, which is very vital.’
Is it the truth?
I didn’t feel it right at all. I believe that a soul has
no gender and it is the soul that is striving for moksha i.e., a jeevatma
trying to merge with paramatma.
Women have attained moksha, there are hundreds of women
saints and sages all over the country, but somehow, we know very few of them.
Saint Meerabai
Anandamai Ma
A
male dominated society won’t publicize them, and to add to that, most of these
women have expressly shunned any kind of publicity.
Present knowledge about women's roles in Hinduism
indicates that their position was highest during its earliest periods. During
the Aryan invasion and prior to the full development of the Vedic literature,
worship took place primarily in the home and required the presence of both the
husband and the wife. The Vedic literature also indicates that women were not
merely a silent partner in the rituals, but played a crucial role in them.
Denial for education
The earliest Vedic scriptures, the Rig Veda, indicate
that both men and women needed to participate in the rituals in order for them
to be effective. Moreover, the Rig Veda states that the rite of initiation into
the study of the Vedic texts is open to both men and women. Women were also
involved in the beginnings of the ascetic tradition. The prohibitions against
their entering the ascetic life, which required previous study in the Vedic
texts, increased as women's actual access to education declined.
Thus the prohibitions do not reflect an inherent bias
against women but rather reflect the social reality that with few women
receiving the necessary prerequisite education, few women were actually
qualified to enter the ascetic life.
Against the basic belief
Actually attempts to bar women, either in theory or in
practice, from attaining moksha are in fact contrary to basic Hindu belief.
Moksha in its simplest formula is attained when persons understand that their
true nature is Brahman.
To deny women access to achieving moksha is in fact
another way of denying that Brahman is both male and female, or beyond gender,
and thus is to deny the unity of Ultimate Reality. For if everything is
Brahman, then ultimately there is no meaningful distinction between male and
female.
Another point
Yesterday during sleep I got this message, ‘If women are
body conscious, men are lady conscious’, ‘Ha ha ha’ I laughed in my sleep, and
it was ringing in my ears when I woke up to this beautiful Sunday.
Yes, there is so much truth in this. Many male gurus,
when a female devotee comes to them don’t see a jeevatma approaching them,
but something else. This is in spite of our culture saying that apart from one’s
own wife, every other woman should be seen like a mother.
Many women have come to me seeking healing for the sadness and depression they gained by the inappropriate behaviour of their male
gurus, whom they had put on pedestals.
So finally I got an answer I liked very much, ‘If women
are blocked from attaining moksha because of their body consciousness, men are
blocked by their lady conscioiusness.’ Ha ha ha
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