Women & chanting of vedas.

[Guest guest]

SRIMATHE RAMANUJAYA NAMAHA.

 

Respected Sri Rajagopalan swami,

Pranams.

I have taken a long time to reply to your mail in

which you have commended my views on ‘guest as god’.

Please pardon me. The real reason for the delay is

that something in your mail struck me so much – making

me not even react to your kinds words of praise

showered on me which I accept with all humility as I

consider them as though they have been said by my own

father – that it took such a long incubation time to

come to be spelt in writing. It is the mention of

(among other sthothrams) Sri Sookhtham that you have

taught girl-children. Even I learnt it by hearing from

my father who used to recite it everyday as part of

daily Aradhana.

 

It all started with a jolt I received in a Ram temple

- continued with my mails on whether woman are

entitled to chant vedas and then with a ‘muraiyeedu’

to Bhagavad Ramanuja, and a ‘theLivu’ upon further

reading which I got authorised by Rama in the same

Ram temple (where it all started) a few days ago. It

took a few more days for me to decide whether I can

put down everything I felt in this mail or just

confine myself to text-based views. Since I found few

other readers evincing interest in this subject and

since there is no direct textual pramana in existence

to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to women taking up recital of

vedas, I thought it fit enough to present it as I

felt.

 

There is this component of certain mental feelings or

views which inevitably find their place in this mail

to substantiate how I arrive at the conclusion. I

request the readers to take them in their face value

and not think that this reader is boasting or have

lost balance. After all, Ramanuja based his theories

more on religious experience, metaphysics and ethics,

rather than on epistemology. Epistemology came in to

substantiate the conclusions of metaphysics arrived at

through psychology. He recognised this (religious

experience) as the core part of perception that have

come to be seen / felt in having its roots in

sruti-pramana.

 

Now on to the journey (dis-quieting one) that I

underwent…

It was a fore-noon when I reached this temple of Rama,

situated some 30 km from Mysore, in a village called

Kembhal. No one knows the history of this Rama because

the temple was not here some 5 years ago. It was to

the credit of some Keralite-astrologers who, through

‘sozhi-josyam’ said that a Ram temple was buried in

this area. An intense search was undertaken and it was

after a year,

the mollavar thirumeni of Rama, Sita and Lakshmana

(Anjaneya was not found till today) were found buried

in an abandoned well in the fields. A very small

uthsavar vigraham of all the 4 moorthis mounted on a

single base (usually found in Thirumaligai) was also

unearthed. The moorthys were eventually consecrated in

the same place where they were found, as per sasthric

ways. Adiyal had the first opportunity to get His

dharshan in January this year and was blessed by Him

soon when He gave me the opportunity to sit for the

sankalpam along with my husband for the annual

sahasra-kalashAbhishekam in the month of Chithirai.

 

The area is very much isolated, lonely that whenever I

come to visit Him during evenings/nights, I won’t be

feeling like going back. How can I leave Him alone in

this vayal-kaadu ? (agyaanam!!) Immediately I would

think, ‘no no. He is enjoying yEkAntham here with

Sita. This is His panchavadi. This Panchavadi is not

in vanam: it is in vayal (field).’ “Hey Ram, enjoy

your time here. Sita had always wanted to spend her

time in vana with you in yEkAntham. You never got a

chance to fulfil her desire after vana-vasa in

Ramavathara. Now you have got the chance. Spend your

time with no one to disturb you. Show Sita Arundathi,

next to Vasishta, who looks brighter in this dark

sky and make Sita happy by telling her how she too is

always close to you. Enjoy your time Rama, enjoy.”

Such is the dialogue I used to have with Rama of

Kembhal thinking that I have a rapport with Him in

understanding what each other thinks. (!!!???)

 

On that particular fore-noon, contrary to usual

practice, His sannidhi was closed before the

stipulated time. The archagar had to leave on some

chores it seemed. I was disappointed wondering how

this could happen. I have always stuck to temple rules

and had been in time. Even on occasions when I was

held up due to unforeseen reasons, I used to think

that this rapport works! I have found that He had

never disappointed me (not only in Kembhal, in other

temples too) whenever I had been late, allowing me to

have dharshan at least for a second before the screen

is drawn. Wondering whether I had committed any

apacharam, I remained there for some time.

 

Another devotee, an elderly person arrived then and we

came to know that he was a scholar in sanskrit. He

said that he would recite entire Valmiki Ramayana in

sanskrit if he is invited to do so in our home and he

has done recitals for umpteen number of times in his

life. I was too happy to have met him and wanted to

clarify some doubts. My first query was about Sri

Sookhtham. I asked him whether there is any

stipulation of time for reciting Sri Sookhtham, like

Brahma muhurtham or fore noon etc.

 

Flash came his reply, “Women should not recite Sri

Sookhtham, because that is vedam.” I felt an acute

pain as though I have been whipped. What I asked and

what he says. Hey Rama, is it so that I should not

recite Sri Sookhtham? I instantly turned to my side to

look at His sannidhi. Only the closed doors were

staring at me. No. Raman is not a saakshi (witness)

for what happened here. He is not a saakshi for what

this elderly person had said. Raman is not part of

this conversation, nor does He approve this statement.

That is why He had the doors closed even before I came

in. Knowing that this conversation is going to take

place, He had closed His doors. If He had stood there

as a witness for the talks, I don’t know how I would

have reacted. I would have either given up chanting of

this sthothram and others too, thinking that I do

not have His sanction. Or I would have grown sad that

I have been prohibited from reciting that beautiful

sookhtham which invites Lakshmi to our side.

 

But I would not have remained quiet. Ramanai summa

vittirukka maattEn. I would have asked Him how He made

such rules.. He had to answer me. Poosugira manjaLum,

thongugira charadum, nettriyil edum thilakamum, make

the woman herself an embodiment of Sri. How can she

then be considered unfit to invite Sri in the form of

Sookhtham? If the woman is not entitled to say this

sookhtham, no one else is. And I would have also asked

Him – don’t you know that such prohibition makes me

sad? Can you, whose name itself means giving happiness

to others, make me sad?

 

But the closed doors of Rama provided a consolation

for me. Yes, Rama closed His sannidhi – only to shut

Himself off from this unseemly predicament. He doesn’t

to this view. He made this understood by me

by closing His doors even before I arrived.

 

With this thought, I came home. By strange

coincidence, I read the first salvo on this issue in a

sister-list (in reply to a question from a female

devotee from Bangalore) that very evening itself on

the net. And the mails that I sent after that were all

known to the readers.

 

But all through, there was a nagging thought in my

mind. How this thought came to gain currency even in

the absence of any textual pramana. Another thought

that was slowly sinking in my mind was whether Rama

refused to stand as saakshi only with reference to Sri

Sookhtham or with reference to vedas in general. How

should I interpret it? Did I do enough analysis of the

whole issue? Or am I reacting in this way because I am

a woman? Did I do the analysis impassionately and

unemotionally?

 

I began looking for clues and I found something in the

Raamanuja bhashyam to the very first verse of Brahma

sutras. That will be discussed in the next mail.

 

--- Jayasree saranathan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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