Women are given a greater importance in this country. Any beautiful thing in this nature is compared and spelled with female gender only. Even nature is termed with female gender, as ‘prakrti maatha’!. That is the greatness a woman possess. In simple words women can be revered with the statement given below:

यत्र नार्यस्तु पूज्यन्ते रमन्ते तत्र देवता: |

Which means that where women are respected and worshipped, there dwells the divine forces. Women represent peace and prosperity. In India, women are given a great importance than anywhere in the world, but the misconception that Indian women were suppressed prevails even today. This is just the result of the misinterpretation made by the westerners, which were later accepted by our so called ‘vicharavaadis’! And later our people started accepting it blindly!

When we consider a phrase from Manusmrthi which reads

पिता रक्षति कौमारे भर्ता: रक्षति यौव्वने |
पुत्र: रक्षति वार्धक्ये न तु स्त्री स्वातन्त्रमर्हति ||

A woman has to be protected by her father in her childhood, by her husband in her youth, by her son in her old age. At no stage in life should a woman be left alone and destitute. She deserves protection by man at every stage in her life.

Taking this phrase, our women were completely brainwashed stating that our country is male dominant and here women are treated as ‘abalas’. Then our women started hating men to an extent and considering themselves as equal to men and started challenging them in every aspect of life forgetting the fact that two different entities cannot and should never be compared! Each one is great in in their own way! At the same time, men also started looking at women as weaker sections and tried to put them under their control, stating that they are fit for nothing except for cooking and reproduction!

In India, we are taught to live a life of renunciation, liberality and sacrifice.

Our ancestors were not ready to take any chance in creating a satprajaa! Women are creators, teachers, inspirers, etc! They did always wish to prevent women from any kind of evils. May it be any kind of physical or intellectual or emotional threats! Until and unless a woman is free from evils, she cannot create a satprajaa (a worthy offspring)! It was the ultimate necessity for the welfare of mankind. So she was always protected with absolute care! It was not that she was exploited and was not properly educated. We can find many rishikaas like Apaala, Ghosha, etc and many scholars like Gaargi, Maitreyi, too. If they were not educated, how could we find these many female scholars in those days?

I agree the fact that women are bit seen with a mode of materialistic than immaterial. These consequences are not the result of one side, rather a two sided thing, as explained earlier. In Vedas, a woman is treated as the direct representation of god, god creates life and women bring life in to this world. That is why we are taught as Matr devo bhava which takes its first place, then comes pitr devo bhava, acharya devo bhava, etc.. Mother is a direct representative of God! Here, women can be thought as fire in yajna and a man is just an offering to fire, which is processed in fire only. Then the result of completion of yajna named life is obtained. Fire is a symbol of purity, like wise, a woman is also a symbol of purity. Yajurvedam describes women as follows:

Ede, ranthe kaamye chandre jyothyedathe Saraswathi mahee vishruththih|
Ethathe Agne namaani devebhyomaah sukrutham bruyaath||
(Yajurveda 8.43)

Meaning: The one who possess all praiseworthy qualities, giver of happiness, light of a home, a scholar who is away from being helpless, weak and pathetic, having noble thoughts and lofty behavior and well known, never to be beaten and rejected, are the qualities with which you Devi are named. Having possessed of these qualities, O Devi! advice me too the noble thoughts and deeds.

This is the beautiful description to define women, which portrays woman as a direct representation of god.

अदित्यै रास्नासीन्द्राण्या उष्णीष:| पूषासि धर्माय धीष्व || Yajurveda.38.3

Hey woman! You are the bridle of this earth, indeed, veritable crown of the householder. You are as supportive as the earth is. Give your heart and soul to the your Yagna of the house.

When performing a marriage, a man is asked to promise as “dharmecha arthecha kamehca nathi charami”, but a woman is never asked to promise so, because it is by default, understood that women are as pure as fire and direct representations of god. God is infinite. But, without understanding the finite form, it is not possible to understand the infinite form. Woman is a form of infinity in this universe because with mother we share few things, with friends we share something and etc.., but through a wife we will be able to realize all the roles, as she is the one with whom we share all the feelings. No matter what it may be! She performs every role efficiently. She plays the role of a mother at times, the role of a teacher too!

भोज्येषु माता शयनेषु दासी करणेषु मन्त्री क्षमया धरित्री

No one else can do this job, not even a mother who gives birth to us, where it is the wife who does these ‘n’ number of roles. She almost forgets her ‘self’ in working for others, she sacrifices herself, her most loved things, her ambitions, almost everything, for the welfare of her family. Its not that there are no exceptions! Women are emotional by nature. These emotions may lead her to greed and if it gets linked up with the 6 enemies – kama (desire), krodha (anger), lobha (greed), moha (infatuation), mada and maatsarya (jealousy) then there would even be pralaya (dissolution of the world)! as it is said sthree buddhih pralayaantakah! That is the tremendous capacity a woman has! The sanctity of a wife would remain only when she works knowing her responsibilities, without being greedy!

She is the most wonderful creation on earth! So is it wrong if she is protected? She has to be protected form such an environment which would make a bad impact on her mind and body. And more care is taken since she is the creator! every change in her would affect her creation. And would pose a threat to humanity too if neglected and not taken proper care! It was the main intention for not allowing women to get indulged in much social activities and not just to exploit them! But in later stages, this wonderful thought lost its existence and sanctity and became a point of hatredness and non-cooperation! So it would be appreciated if both men and women act with due responsibility, mainly social responsibility and love for each other, instead of thinking who’s great and who’s not!
Is not God a representative of infinity? Yes! In human domain, wife stands close to infinity, as she does n-number of roles by sharing every feeling of man. But people, that too men,stay ignorant of the greatness of a woman, especially a wife! Here woman is a sink and can be termed : “sthree eva jaganmulam!”

In order to understand the infinite nature of god to attain moksha(salvation), god has sent women (who also exhibits infinity to some extent, by performing n-number of roles) to earth. That’s why women are considered as a source to attain moskha, a state of complete Brahman (form of wisdom)’sthree brahma babhuvitha’, as the vedas say, which is attained when all desires are satisfied, that’s why it is said that “kami gani vadu moksha gami kadu” (a person who does not have any desire will never desire for moksha).
A woman is the most beautiful part of God’s creation. She starts compromising at a very tender age. She sacrifices her belongings for her brother. Later, she sacrifices her love for just a smile on her parents’ face. She sacrifices her full youth for her husband and children without complaint.Finally her life ends up compromising for the happiness of others. She is that creation of God whom no one can ever compete! Respect every girl/lady in your life. You will never know what she has sacrificed for you!

This fact has to be thoroughly understood by everyone and has to be injected in to every cell of human being only then the women will be respected and will not be treated like a machine to fulfill sexual desire and a machine to give birth. This note is not only for men who look at women with wrong prospective it is also to women who needs to hold the greatness of being a woman.And people have to understand that Evil has no substance of its own, but is only the defect, excess, perversion, or corruption of that which has substance.

This article is dedicated to that great woman, who is revered through out the world for her greatness, which she carried for many centuries. She is none other than ‘Bharath Matha’.

Author’s website: http://bharathiyasandesh.wordpress.com