Dharma (or a mood of service, commitment, and sensitivity to others) is designed to bridge and regulate the relationship between these two separate worlds of men and women, and make the cooperation between them conducive to spiritual advancement, until they reach full freedom from self-centeredness, or from the bodily identification of “I am a man”, “I am a woman”, returning back to the eternal spiritual nature – the prakriti nature.
When human culture deteriorates into a-dharma,
- Sense Gratification becomes the ultimate goal of life
- When “doing whatever I like” becomes the central value, with competition and utilitarianism as a prime and respected incentive for action; or more philosophically, when the spirit of purusha becomes almost the exclusive ideal, it is only natural that the spirit of prakriti, of giving and love, is diminished and gradually disappears.
- the entire atmosphere becomes saturated with self-interest, hypocrisy, and callousness.
- Competition for masculine supremacy
- The souls in the material world are by nature prakriti, or feminine, permeated with the spirit of purusha, or masculinity. That is to say, we are all egocentric here, trying to control and subordinate everyone else to our service, although our true happiness lies in service – in giving and in love
- The masculine ideal is seen as guaranteeing the fulfillment of more pleasure, and therefore men and women – all compete for such masculine supremacy.
- The result, of course, is imbalance, instability, lack of commitment, and insecurity.
- Due to the lack of connecting, bridging, and service – the feminine strength – or in a deeper sense, because of moving away from the spiritual ideal, the society, and even the nuclear family, turn from a supportive community into an aggressive and egocentric arena devoid of satisfaction.
- Misuse of the principles of religion- Abuse of power
- In such a state, the principles of religion are often used to justify egocentricity and even as a method for exploitation, abuse, and control of the strong over the weak – the weak gender. A woman is perceived as a means to satisfy the sexual needs of her husband and as mother for his children, in negation of all independence and freedom to fulfill herself beyond that.
- eg of inlaws, society elders. men and women exploiting the women because of the desire for purusha like supremacy
- Struggle to free oneself from the burden of religious oppression
- People want to enjoy freely, do what they like- they do not want to burden of regulative principles of religion guiding them and balancing them for they would have to sacrifice the demands of their mind
- Decry, criticize the religious principles because of our own lack of desire to follow them!
- The modern person defines himself or herself through the right for freedom – the freedom to fulfill oneself without the strict and confining laws of religion, the freedom to enjoy without fearing sin, the freedom to control one’s destiny, the freedom to explore the truth, and even the freedom to believe or not in the existence of God.
- The feminist fight for women’s liberation takes part in the struggle of the entire modern world to free itself from the burden of religious oppression
- The impact on women
- In the strife of fanaticism and religious oppression vs. sexual freedom, 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 “a saint and a prostitute” is rapid for women, since these are two aspects of their prakriti nature
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