Women's role and intelligence

[Guest guest]

Haribol Prabhus and Matajis,

 

Urmila.ACBSP (AT) pamho (DOT) net writes:

 

"Additionally, it is crystal clear in the sastra that women have varna."

 

In the Bhagavad-gita, the terms brahmana,etc. do not include women. In

9.33-34, women are separately mentioned in a series which includes all four

varnas. If women had varna, then Krishna's mention of women would be

needlessly repetitious. Therefore, a logical reading of this verse forbids

the direct identification of women with the varnas.

 

Regarding Krishna's silence on women's duties in passage delineating duties

based on nature and quality (18.41-44), one might incorrectly assume that

women's duties are covered according to their so-called varna. First of all,

there is no evidence there which modifies the pre-established usage of the

terms brahmana, etc. set earlier in 9.33. Secondly, duties mentioned in this

passage like "isvara-bhava" or lordliness and "jnanam" which traditionally

includes study of Shruti part of the Vedas glaringly contradict the

prescribed duties for women mentioned in the Mahabharata (Anushashana 20) and

elsewhere.

 

Similarly, the Bhagavatam also maintains this terminology throughout right

from the beginning at 1.4.28. Therefore it is clear that these shastra

directly identifies women as distinct from the particular varnas.

 

shyama (AT) shyamasundaradasa (DOT) com writes:

 

" In the Gita Krsna explains the duties of the four Varnas but nothing is

explicitly said about women’s role in VAD."

 

Another approach would be to say that the Gita does indicate women's duties

by the via negativa approach.

 

In 1.40, the main negative quality of women is "pollution" or unfaithfulness,

or lack of obedience to the husband or protector. This indicates that the

primary qualification or duty is chastity.

 

Secondly, in 18.41, Krishna is addressing those whose karma (prescribed

duties) are specifically determined (pravibhaktani) by their nature

(svabhava) which in turn is related to their gunas. Lord Krishna's silence

on women's duties in a discussion of guna-based duty is no accident. First,

that the duties mentioned for the varnas are *not* women's primary duties,

and second, a woman's activities are *not* primarily a function of her

specific individual nature and quality (svabhava and guna).

 

These conclusions correspond to what is positively stated to be stri-dharma

in the Bhagavatam and Mahabharata and Manu-samhita. The stri-dharma is

always the same: service to husband or protector according to her stage in

life. If her guna doesn't match her husband's as in some cases, it

eventually may: [ “Whatever be the qualities of the man with whom a woman is

united according to the law, such qualities [guna] even she assumes, like a

river (united) with the ocean.” Manu-samita 9.22].

 

In summary, the assumption that women have independent varna and duty in the

same sense that men do leads to unacceptable logical inconsistencies.

Furthermore, there is no lacuna in the Bhagavad-gita regarding women's

duties. It has been obvious right from the very outset (1.40).

 

ys

Gerald Surya