Stauts of Women

[Guest guest]

Sri Keshava das asked:

>>>By the way what exactly is the way of thinking towards women. In the

opinion of the list members (with appropriate shastra pramanas) are women a

caste or do women have caste. ie Women brahmins, etc. And if so (barring 3

days a month) why should there be restrictions on them?<<<

 

As per my limited understanding of this subject, Women have caste just as men.

As we know, a Sudra man could marry only a Sudra woman, a Vysya man could

marry a Vaishya or a sudra woman, a Kshatriya man could marry a Kshatriya, or

a Vaishya or a Sudra woman. Needless to say that a Brahmin man could marry a

woman belonging to any of the four castes. Thus, it is clear that the caste

afflictions applies to both sexes.

 

However, the religious prescriptions and expectations of Brahmin men and women

are different and fits closely with the prakrithi dharmam of the two sexes.

 

For performance of Most Vedic rituals, a Grihastha has to be accompanied by

his wife. It is the woman who kindles the Agni in the homa kundam. The

benefits of religious performances, man taes the lead role, but his wife is

assured of half of the benefits. Without being accompanied by a wife, man gets

Zero benefit.

 

These are the reasons given why a woman does not take part exactly as a man in

Veda adhyayanam and rituals.

 

1. The Anushtanams are to be performed withou a break. This is not possible

for a cycling woman. The Agni ha sto be lept alive without a break- means

Agnikaryam goes uninterrupted (every day). There are some rare circumstances

in a man's life as well where he may be prohibitted at certain times (death of

relatives, birth of relatives, personal sickness etc.) however, these are less

common than the monthly interruptions for a woman

 

2. Rituals be performed in the top less attire: may not be appropriate for

most women to do so. The vakshasthalam (Hridaya sthalam) of the individual be

exposed to the Deity without any obstruction, other than air in between.

 

3. Vedic mantras are supposed to be very poweful and are all faminine by

nature. Thus, a woman chanting it may make it too powerful to bear (unless,

she is gifted with a rather coarse voice!).

 

4. Women get the benefits any way (as stated before).

 

For present day, for most of us, none of the above reasons are that valid- so

anyone (men or women of any caste or no caste) who likes to learn or do,

should be encouraged. This is the ground rules I(we) have established for our

Temple. We do have some resistance from older and or newer priests- but for

most part we have been able to implement. In my opinion if we don't do this,

all the precious kuladhanams we have will become so precious that it will be

known to only a handful of individuals and eventually become even more

precious (rare).

Also, let us not forget what Sri Ramanujar did in Ghoshti Puram. Should I say

more?

 

In this context, I remember my childhood days when our elders, rediculed

Public Gita Pravachans of Chinmayananda in Lal Baug glass house and such

placed telling that it is apacharam to Lords Words. Most of these were not

aware of Prabhupada and thus he was saved from their wrath.

 

Daasan

 

Tatachar (K. Sreekrishna)