Where women are respected, honored and venerated – gods will dance in ecstasy! Where women are subjugated, insulted and ill treated – gods will vacate that place, nothing will prosper there – only misery and sorrow will prevail – that place will never have peace or happiness! This is the extract from Manusmruthi – the ancient Indian ethical & moral code book of culture.
How true it is even today! – if only if we open our eyes and take an unbiased look! The present and recent past generations of humanity may have taken objection to many tenets of Manusmruthi and argued about their irrelevance to the needs of the time – but no one can deny the fact that there are eternal principles in the order of creation and nature that continue to prevail timelessly. These principles remain “changeless laws” in the midst of all changes! Out dependence on gravity to stay on earth did not change – our dependence on Sun for energy did not change – our dependence on rains for food did not change … and these will never change – no matter how wildly different the Sci-Fi projections about the future of human survival and behaviour.
Despite all the impressive and concurrent technological progress in diverse fields of science & technology – ethical & moral degeneration of mankind witnessed in the modern times has not allowed the benefits of that material progress to contribute to life and provide happiness & peace to the mankind. The starvation for peace & happiness continues and is more rapidly & widely growing than the material prosperity. Why?
A woman is the center of any family unit anywhere in the world. She is the center of the circle called family. Everything originates from her and ends with her. Family is the fundamental unit of every society and societies make up the world. Hence it is not wrong to call the “women” who constitute 50% of the world population as the real social foundation of the world. Let us look at another description of an ideal woman in the ancient wisdom of India – put in a Sanskrit Shlokam.
Kaaryeshu Daasi – Karaneshu Mantri
Bhojyeshu Maata – Shayaneshu Rambha
Roopecha Lakshmi – Kshamaya Dharitri
Shaddharmayuktha – Khalu Dharmapatni.
Translation: An ideal woman as the wife shall function, act & serve the husband, imbibed with these 6-important qualities for performing her ardent duties –viz- Slave for personal needs – Intelligent advisor / minister in the management of home – Mother while feeding – Rambha (Celestial angel consort of heavens) in bed – Lakshmi (Vedic goddess of wealth) in beauty & appearance – Planet Earth in patience & forgiveness.
Look at the expectations from a Woman by Man! – With no recioprocal obligations defined what so ever! How unfair and one sided? It is a different matter that if truly a woman possessed these qualities – her man will be the real slave! The paradox is that women have hardly protested against this exploitation and simply accepted this to be the God’s dictum and have been struggling to fulfill all conditions to the best of their individual ability – barring their inability to naturally alter god given physical appearance and features! Women force women to comply with these rules!
Less we talk about the evil dowry system and female infanticide – better it is for us.
After occasionally equal and often unequal pleasures & enjoyment sharing – it is always the woman who goes through the enormous task of physiological, physical & mental strain of carrying and delivering the baby – and then bring them up as citizens with added emotional strain during that process. After all this done – she is only to be criticized by the other family members later for all the wrongs done by the child in the process of their growth. If the child behaves and performs well – the father and his family take the credit – but if not – the mother is to be blamed! Height of injustice – is it not?
Men historically have fought wars and killed each other enmass for hardly any rational reasons. It is always the women who kept the life going on planet earth – bearing the brunt of all brutality of men – tolerating every injustice – still loving those men for what they are … and also what they are not. The word “Love” & “Divine” should be considered and confirmed purely as feminine! To draw an example from Indian mythology – Ganga hands over Devavrat (later comes to be known as Bhishma) to his father Shantanu – after getting him trained under greatest of the Gurus – Bruhaspathi, Vasishta & Parasurama. In a long conversation between the father & son – Bhishma states the essence of his learning from all his Gurus as “Venerating the mother as God” When asked why – Bhishma replies as follows. There can be a bad father, bad brother, bad sister, bad husband, bad wife, bad friend, bad children, bad man or a bad woman – but never a bad mother! Even a bad woman is a good mother and hence venerable!
We all know that if you educate a male child an individual is educated. If you educate a female child – a whole family will get educated in future. Happy women make happy children. Happy children make happy citizens. Happy citizens make happy nations. Happy nations do not go to war and bring destruction to mankind.
Heaven on earth is possible if we take efforts to keep the women & children happy by caring for them and sharing with them all that we have!
MSR Ayyangar.
http://msrayyangar.com/2010/08/18/naari-%E2%80%93-the-woman-of-india/
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