Does it mean Vedic culture considers all men to be intelligent?

We read in the post an understanding of why there is an apparent contradiction in the scriptures about a woman's intelligence . Depending upon how a woman is situated she maybe a shelter of maternity or a shelter of sexuality in the human society.

Now does this mean that only women can succumb to the lower nature due to bodily identification and that all men are free from bodily identification? And that all men are intelligent?

Seeing through the lens of the Vedic Definition of intelligence that we discussed earlier anyone who is not able to discriminate between matter and spirit is considered of low intelligence.

Even if men in general have a better ability at rational thought- but if

they are inclined towards a material conception of life versus a spiritual one- then that is not the sign of an intelligent person.

The environment in Kali Yuga is full of various distractions- whether the soul is in the man's body or the woman's body one must remain very vigilant and work hard to progress in their spiritual life.
Examples of Bharat Maharaja and Ajamila are there in the Srimad Bhagavatam to show how a moment of inattention and also staying away from the association of devotees can throw one off the path of devotional service.

Since the dharmic principles that kept society in check have been lost- there is a dearth of examples of model behaviors of men and women around us. This calls for proper training of Boys and Girls and men and woman.

CTW: Appreciating Gender Differences: Strengths and Weaknesses for men and women

Even though all of us are feminine souls (prakriti) with a masculine mindset (purusha), and although we all try to enjoy in the world as the master and as the center (and therefore repeatedly take birth after birth), in general it can be said that the male body is an imitation of the purusha principle and the woman’s body is an imitation of the prakriti principle. Hence, the nature of their activities in the world is different.

They are naturally attracted to each other, like the purusha and prakriti. The man is attracted to the woman as a protector and a giver of shelter, and the woman is attracted to the man in the mood of love and service.

Intelligence of men and women

The most fundamental difference between a man’s body and a woman’s body is found in the structure of their intelligence and emotions. This fundamental difference (manifested in a different brain structure) is meant to enable their various roles in society. 

Two sides of the brain- one side deals with emotions, the other deals with the analytical aspects. Men work with one side and the other - never both they may switch back and forth but its always on one side Women both sides constantly work - emotions and senses are always connected to one another. There may be more emphasis for one side or the other

This gives strengths and weaknesses to both parties.

• Dealing with philosophy:
• • For the men their strength is if they look at something especially philosophical -they can look at it purely analytically  without emotion -and say this is right this is wrong- reject the wrong. 
  • Their weakness is if they are emotional they don't actually analyze the situation. they just see what is the emotion and they move in the realm of the mind and go that way. 
  • Therefore they will do so many things- take an ism, take an issue and completely take it up without thinking what gain or loss may come or they become interested in sense gratification and absorb themselves without thinking of the consequences.
• Nurturing Role:
  • Whereas women, we see their strength is in the mood of a mother, means in the mood of mother- then the emotions are running at the same time one can analyze what is the best situation for dealing and helping others. 
  • A woman is emotionally wise and intuitive, and consequently she is very practical, soft, mentally strong, and can connect and reconcile contradictions. 
  • This gives her strength in developing nurturing relationships and creating a loving home for the children and husband.
  •  In the realm of emotions they can see what is the proper thing to do. Like we can see in the realm of the house they can decide the furniture is like this , the colors are like this put this here , there, etc - that is their expertise.
• Dealing with Children:
• • Or we can see the child is crying-because of the emotions the natural affection is there at the same time women can analyse "oh the child is hungry, tired, something is bothering them."
• •  Men cannot do that. Because of their emotions they feel they should do something for the child, but in that emotional state they cannot analyze what is wrong. If they try to analyze it then they would think- "what would I do with this anyway- its crying, its wet- like that" that is the strength of women . 
  • The weakness for the women is then when trying to purely analyze a philosophical subject or a practical situation one gets caught between understanding the situation this is correct, this is the philosophy this is correct- but also the emotion "Oh but what about this, someone may say that, this one may feel this".
• Dealing with the outside world:
• • For the man, the senses and emotions are separate, enabling him to cope with the harsh and competitive world outside without being harmed. His intelligence can analyze, separate, and differentiate more efficiently, because it is less emotionally involved.
  • Because of this connection between her emotions and her intelligence, sometimes it is not easy for her to separate them when necessary, especially in contact with the aggressive and rough world. Because of her physically weaker body, she tends to feel unprotected when not surrounded by a loving atmosphere (therefore, when women are forced to go out into this situation, they usually close up and toughen themselves, harming their soft feminine nature).
• Dealing with Distress:
• • She needs compassion, someone to listen to her, and someone to share with, while he needs practical solutions (when he offers her his practical solutions while she is distressed, it only annoys her). The sequence of her conversation moves from one emotional point to another, she loves spending time in heart-to-heart conversations, and discussions about others and their emotional world fascinate her. The man, however, is interested in practical-intellectual discussions, and his conversation progresses in a logical sequence. She is sensitive to subtleties and responds to them, while he might not even notice them, etc…
• Advantage of a woman's emotional nature in devotional service
  • Prabhupada did say that women’s soft-heartedness is, indeed, an aid in their Krishna consciousness, and that men’s tendency toward hard-heartedness can be an impediment. While a male body gives an overall advantage to a soul seeking realization of Krishna, a female body has two advantages–the tendency to accept and follow authority, and soft-heartedness.
  • “As soon as soft-hearted people such as women hear those transcendental pastimes of Lord Krsna, they immediately become attracted to Him. Soft-hearted women and girls are therefore very easily drawn to the Krsna consciousness movement. One who is thus drawn to the Krsna consciousness movement and tries to keep himself in constant touch with such consciousness certainly gets the supreme salvation, going back to Krsna in Goloka Vrndavana.” (krishna Book, chapter 90)
  • Why are women considered less intelligent:
  • Of course, being soft-hearted can also cause problems (all material facilities have their concurrent dangers), so that it is precisely the soft-hearted nature of women that demands protection: “woman are considered less intelligent. In the Bhagavad-gita… Their heart is very soft. Just like children, their heart is very soft. But their intelligence is not very sharp. ..They can be molded by another intelligent man to the proper channel. Therefore they require guidance. They require guidance.” (lecture Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.7.43 — Vrndavana, October 3, 1976)

Dharma (or a mood of service, commitment, and sensitivity to others) is designed to bridge and regulate the relationship between these two separate worlds, 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.

References:

Refer lecture and earlier part of the transcript here.

Dharma- The combination of matter and spirit

Comment by HG Urmila Devi Dasi  for the article “Women are Less Intelligent?”

Examples from Shastra: 

Sita Devi requesting Rama to give up weapons during their exile.

Kasyapa and Diti

Lord Siva and Sati

CTW: Appreciating Gender Differences: Physiology

• Size, weight and body shape:

• Men weigh more and are taller on an average. Women have a larger hip section than men,for giving birth to infants with large skulls
• Strength, power and muscle mass: 
• Females have less total muscle mass than males. Males are stronger than females.
• Skeleton: 
• Males have denser, stronger bones, tendons, and ligaments.Male and female pelvises are shaped differently. The female pelvis features a wider pelvic cavity, which is necessary when giving birth.
• The female pelvis is larger and broader than the male pelvis which is taller, narrower, and more compact. The female inlet is larger and oval in shape, while the male inlet is more heart-shaped.
• Respiratory System :
• Males typically have larger tracheae and branching bronchi, with about 56% greater lung volume per body mass.
• Skin and Hair: 
• Male skin is thicker (more collagen) and oilier (more sebum) than female skin,[29] but females have a thicker layer of fat under the skin. Males also generally have darker skin than females. The lighter skin in females helps their bodies synthesize more Vitamin D from sunlight and absorb more calcium, which is needed during pregnancy and lactation. Men have more body hair than females 
• Sensory systems
• Women are more sensitive to smell and have more pain receptors on their body.In addition to defined diseases and syndromes, many common “everyday” pains appear to overburden women rather than men. Therefore, studies consistently find that women report more severe pain, more frequent pain, longer-lasting pain, and wider-ranging pain than men.[94] For example, common painful conditions such as dysmenorrhea may predispose females to more widespread musculoskeletal pains.
• Brain and Nervous System:

• Human males, on average, have larger brains than females. According to a 1995 study, female brains are more compact than male brains in that, though smaller, they are more densely packed with neurons, particularly in the region responsible for language.
• Intelligence: In studies concerning intelligence, it has been suggested that the ratio of brain weight to body weight (rather than actual brain weight) is more predictive of IQ levels. While men's brains are an average of 10-15% larger and heavier than women's brains, some researchers propose that the ratio of brain to body size does not differ between the sexes.However, some argue that since brain-to-body-size ratios tend to decrease as body size increases, a sex difference in brain-weight ratios still exists between men and women of the same size.
• Auditory and Language Related Regions: 
• Studies using MRI scanning have shown that the auditory and language-related regions in the left hemisphere are proportionally expanded in females versus in males.
•  Conversely, the primary visual, and visuo-spatial association areas of the parietal lobes are proportionally larger in males.

Speech and Language: The corpus callous is located at the sagittal divide and is the primary commissure in the human brain. It connects the left

and right hemispheres of the cerebral cortex, which allows them to communicate with each other. With respect to language, males predominantly use their left hemisphere but females use both their right and left hemispheres. The right hemisphere controls emotion, so using the right hemisphere adds more prosody to speech.In males, the corpus callosum is larger than females.[71] However, the splenium and the isthmus subregions of the corpus callosum are larger in females. The genu subregion is larger in males. These subregions may serve as the basis for sex differences in language.

• Memory Storage and Spatial Mapping: 
• The hippocampus has been proven by imaging to be larger in women than men. The hippocampus is crucial for memory storage and spatial mapping of the physical environment. This structural difference may be responsible for variations in behavior between the sexes.
• Navigation: Studies show that women are more likely to navigate using landmarks, while men are more likely to estimate distance in space or orientation.
• Chronic Stress Studies of rats show that males could learn better in the face of acute stress, while chronic stress is dealt with better by females. Sex hormones may influence female hippocampal cells to tolerate brain damage better than the same cells in men. The studies of the rats' influx and deflation of hippocampal cells can be translated to the difference in memory and spatial behaviors between the sexes
• Amygdala:
• The amygdala, which is the structure that responds to emotionally arousing information, respond to the environment and reacts with stress. The male amygdala is proportionally larger than that in women, causing sex to be a determining factor in reactions to stress. In studies of rats, there are more numerous interconnections seen in males in regard to this structure, suggesting the same pattern in humans. Katharina Braun and company (Otto von Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany) studied a litter of Degu puppies removed from their mother and determined that hearing their mother's call produced a higher concentration of serotonin in males' amygdala and a decreased concentration in females' amygdala. In this case, stress causes females' emotion regulation to drop, while males seem to keep more of an even keel. While this study was limited to rodents, it provides a possible explanation of why anxiety disorders occur more often among human females than males

References:
Psychology of women: A Handbook of Issues and Theories
The Psychology of Women- Helene Deutsch
Sex Differences in Human Psychology
Sex Differences in Human Physiology
Emotions during Menstrual Cycle- womenshealth.about.com
Emotions during Menstrual Cycle- Dr Christina Hebbert

CTW: Appreciating Gender Differences

Today we will go through various studies to understand and appreciate Gender Differences between men and women. Our Creator - Lord Sri Krishna is Supremely wonderful. Understanding Gender differences is a great way to appreciate His creation and the thought behind it as well.

Men and Women have been created differently right from their physiology, to how they process information, to how they experience and express emotions all perfectly created to suit the role of being a man for men and for being a woman for women.

We will go through the data present in these links below:

CTW: Appreciating Gender Differences: Physiology

CTW: Appreciating Gender Differences: Social Behavior and Abilities

CTW: Appreciating Gender Differences: Emotions

CTW: Appreciating Gender Differences: Strengths and Weaknesses for men and women

We will also discuss how this difference in physiology affects decision making - we will see this from examples in shastra of Sita Devi, Sati and some other examples.