Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Addressing the apparent contradiction - Women are considered less intelligent vs a A Good wife means Good intelligence?

There are cases we see that women are more intelligent than men. But this statement cannot also refer to the soul because at the level of the soul because at the level of the soul both men and women are the same?

Where is this coming from if it is not related at the material level and not at the spiritual level?

Actually it is related at the interaction of material and spiritual level. As we discussed in a previous post that due to the Breakdown of Dharmic principles women as a class are left harmed. Although in many ways they are more free, they continue to be taken (even by themselves) as a sex object and to be used as a symbol for sexuality. The material-sexual atmosphere increases their material-sexual tendency and furthers them away from their devoted and loving nature. In fact, this transition between the higher nature of a saint/ mother/ nurturer to the lower nature of a prostitute/ seducer is rapid for women, since these are two aspects of their prakriti nature

Lower Nature:
  • Mis-identification of the spirit with matter is much stronger when the spirit is entrapped in the women's body.
    • To a large extent if the women is not spiritually minded her sense of self identity and self worth comes from the bodily form and therefore to understand that the self is not the body is that much more difficult.Women are more easily swayed to identify with their material body on account of its external beauty
    • Another aspect of this misidentification is that the female body leads to a excess of emotionality as compared to rationality

That's why bodily identification increases sign of less intelligent.

  • Women are less intelligent is not to restrict their capacities and potential and denigrate them  but to recognize that different bodies give us different limitations and endowment but to minimize the harm from the limitations and maximize the benefit from the endowments.The Social order in which women were primarily mothers and not allurers was standard in the Vedic Culture.

Higher Nature:

  •  In Vedic Culture the role of maternity is emphasized over the sexuality. Shelters of maternity not sexuality when this is emphasized then the emotionality of women can be used to care for the family members especially the children . It can help them to grow, if the women can become a devotee then her emotionality can help her experience devotional emotions and pass them on to her children.
  • So in this way, if women function as mothers primarily then whatever maybe the weakness of the particular body they have then the weakness doesnt harm them but it helps them and helps them help others. 
What goes on in modern society?
  • In contrast modern society downplays and to some aspect denies the maternal aspect of women and it over hypes the sexual aspect of women. This leads to increase bodily consciousness among women and men.
Does Modern Society really respect women or does it dehumanize them as objects of pleasure?
  • The modern society by treating women as sex symbols may give women more freedom and attention- but that doesn't lead to greater respect and security but it leads to greater insecurity and greater depersonalization. 
  • When a women is seen just as a sex symbol then she is not seen as a person but as an object.
  • When they are trained to be sex symbols when the sexual appeal decreases then the sense of self worth is lost- but if it is coming from her sense of identifying herself as a mother then a women cannot be a sex symbol throughout her life but she can always be a mother all her life. 
  • That is why the maternal role of a mother should be emphasized and the sexual role she be minimized that is what is vedic culture does.
  • The less intelligence is not to minimize women but to protect and cherish women so that their spirituality can be developed and cherished in a way that is beneficial to the full society and beneficial to themselves.

References:


No comments:

Post a Comment