Guest guest Posted June 4, 2000 Report Share Posted June 4, 2000 Interesting request! ========================= - Hollis F. Coker <coker <hindu 04 June 2000 03:49 Male superiority in Homes. > I would like if you can quote from your text [bhagavad Gita] any verse > that shows why women must submit themselves to their husbands. =====end of message===== Does anyone know of any such verse in the Bhagavad Gita? Pls reply directly. jay Vivekananda Centre London Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 4, 2000 Report Share Posted June 4, 2000 While there is- Thank you, Krishna!- no verse in Gita alluding to the superiority of men over women, there are verses which refer to "stree" (women) which are guaranteed to generate considerable discussion in our co-ed Gita study groups. Such a verse is found in Chapter 9 which refers to the ability of "even" women, vaisyas and sudras to attain moksha once they become His devotee. The word "even" can rankle a few who are too quick to judge. Sw. Chinmayananda has been careful to instruct us that when such a reference is made in Gita or upanishads one should understand that it refers to the mental qualities of an individual, rather than the physical circumstances of birth including gender and caste. Thus a "woman" is any man or woman who tends to be overly attached to the world, whereas a vaisya or sudra is one with a preponderance of rajas and tamas, as opposed to sattwa. When the above verse came up for discussion recently in our study group, many pointed to our beloved Amma, Swamini Sharadapriyananda, as an illustration of what the word "stree" in that verse did and did not mean. Hari Om! -raju chidambaram Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 4, 2000 Report Share Posted June 4, 2000 FYI: Our Text [bhagawad Gita] does not ponder on such petty ideas like woman should be submissive to their husbands! Now answering your question: There is no such verse. However, Bhawad Gita answers the question: "Who Am I?"... The questioner can be a man or a woman, irrespective to the gender, it replies that you are the omnipotent. Further, it clarifies that no one is inferior to anyone. Everybody, even the so-called socially condemned people, have equal opportunity/rights to know the highest truth (aka. Realization of one's own self) I remain yours, Madhava Vivekananda Centre [vivekananda] Sunday, June 04, 2000 9:47 AM list; Self Knowledge List Fw: Male superiority in Homes. Interesting request! ========================= - Hollis F. Coker <coker <hindu 04 June 2000 03:49 Male superiority in Homes. > I would like if you can quote from your text [bhagavad Gita] any verse > that shows why women must submit themselves to their husbands. =====end of message===== Does anyone know of any such verse in the Bhagavad Gita? Pls reply directly. jay Vivekananda Centre London ------ Failed tests, classes skipped, forgotten locker combinations. Remember the good 'ol days http://click./1/4053/5/_/489436/_/960101192/ ------ Discussion of the True Meaning of Sankara's Advaita Vedanta Philosophy focusing on non-duality between mind and matter. Searchable List Archives are available at: http://www.eScribe.com/culture/advaitin/ To from the list, send Email to <advaitin- > For other contact, Email to <advaitins Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 4, 2000 Report Share Posted June 4, 2000 Namaste, Gita X:34 : kiirtiH shriirvaakcha naariiNaa.n smR^itirmedhaa dhritiH kshamaa .. " of the feminine qualities Fame, Prosperity, Inspiration, Memory, Intelligence, Constancy, and Forbearance (I am)." Need one say more? Regards, s. >"Madhava K. Turumella" <madhava >advaitin >advaitin >CC: coker >RE: Fw: Male superiority in Homes. >Sun, 4 Jun 2000 12:51:51 +0300 > >FYI: Our Text [bhagawad Gita] does not ponder on such petty ideas like >woman >should be submissive to their husbands! > >Now answering your question: There is no such verse. > >However, Bhawad Gita answers the question: "Who Am I?"... The questioner >can >be a man or a woman, irrespective to the gender, it replies that you are >the >omnipotent. Further, it clarifies that no one is inferior to anyone. >Everybody, even the so-called socially condemned people, have equal >opportunity/rights to know the highest truth (aka. Realization of one's own >self) > >I remain yours, >Madhava > > > > >Vivekananda Centre [vivekananda] >Sunday, June 04, 2000 9:47 AM >list; Self Knowledge List > Fw: Male superiority in Homes. > > >Interesting request! >========================= > >- >Hollis F. Coker <coker ><hindu >04 June 2000 03:49 >Male superiority in Homes. > > > > I would like if you can quote from your text [bhagavad Gita] any verse > > that shows why women must submit themselves to their husbands. > >=====end of message===== > >Does anyone know of any such verse in the Bhagavad Gita? > >Pls reply directly. > >jay >Vivekananda Centre London > ______________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 4, 2000 Report Share Posted June 4, 2000 rajuateam [rajuateam] recently in our study group, many pointed to our beloved Amma, Swamini Sharadapriyananda, as an illustration of what the word "stree" in that verse did and did not mean. Hari Om! -raju chidambaram Thank you very much Rajuji: This is the question I personally asked Amma. I asked her while I was learning Gita. She told me that you can find no absolute man (100% man) nor an absolute woman. At this context she specifically referred another sloka from the fifth chapter. Actually, she asked me to recollect and recite these two slokas and later she explained the relation between the contexts. Here is the sloka which Amma referred: nakartRUtvaM nakarmANi lOkasya sRUjati prabhUH na karmaphala saMyOgaM svabhAvastu pravartatE || nAdattE kasya citpApaM nacaiva sukRUtaM vibhUh ajnAnEnAvRtaM jnAnaM tEna muhyaMti jaMtavaH || Gita 14,15 - 5th chapter Neither agency nor actions does the Lord create for the world, nor union with the fruits of actions. But it is Nature that acts. (14) The Lord takes neither the demerit not even the merit of any; knowledge is enveloped by ignorance, thereby beings are deluded. (15) Amma explained thus: "Gita being the Brahma Vida, explaining the highest truth. It is also a YogaSastra, hence trying to explain on how to achieve that Highest Wisdom. The explanation is given to the people who are thinking that they are limited, limited to the physical body, limited to the mind and intellect. And these are the people who created the false system of castes, these are the people who tried to put conditions on women, vaisya, soodra. The same people can in-future misguide the world using the slokas "striyOvaisastadhA soodraH". Keeping this point in picture, Krishna is declaring that it is "svabhAva" the nature of the beings that makes them perceive the plurality, of gender, of caste, of creed, of ethnic background, of wealth... Arjuna is one of the persons who got deluded with this plurality, carried away and told Krishna that women will get spoiled because of war (adharmA bibhavAt kRishna pradushyaMti kulastriyaH... jAyatE varNa saMkaraH 1-41) in the opening chapter. Hence Lord is explaining to Arjuna that *even* the so-called Strees, Viasyas and Sudras are eligeble. The word *even* is used because Arjuna had initially expressed the plurality of his mind... In the fifth chapter itself Krishna made it clear that the knowledge is enveloped by ignorance. It is ignorance which causes the bondage. It is ignorance which causes people to perceive the plurality. Beings get deluded. The word "muhyaMti" is used to specify the nature which consists of trigunas (i.e. Satva, Rajas, Tamas). The word "stree" consists three letters "sa, ta, ra" which are satva, rajas, tamas. So the beings (jaMtavaH) which are submissive to the play of the trigunas are strees......" Practically, Amma never accepted the caste system and gender discrimination. I remember some fanatic organizations even threatened her with life, for conducting sacred thread ceremony for boys and girls who are physically born in Backward Castes (mistakenly called by society as Soodras). She never cared. I could even say that some of those boys, born as BCs but initiated by Amma, can chant veda better than some of the pundits. These are the same pundits who warned Amma saying that she will go to hell for initiating women and soodras... We are planning to bring out Amma's scholarly work "The role of women and soodras in Manudharma Sastra". It is a monumental work, which took more than 10 years. Amma did so much research on this subject and I believe that we can not find a better scholarly work than this one. In this book she philosophically dismisses the arguments of the society which says women are inferior. Thank you very much. I remain yours, Madhava Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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