Posted by Ed Viswanathan on January 19, 1998 at 07:52:44:
In Reply to: WHAT DOES HINDUISM SAY ABOUT THE WOMAN? posted by gayathri on January 18, 1998 at 13:27:24:
EXCELLENT QUESTION. We have to look at WOMEN'S ISSUE IN HISTORICAL BASIS. All religious scriptures are part of history. All religious scriptures were written by men for men intially. ALL SCRIPTURES ARE THE RESULT OF SLOWLY DEVELOPED THINKING PROCESS IN MEN. With those facts in mind, it is easy to understand the STATUS OF WOMEN IN ALL RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. Intially Men looked upon women as mere objcets of pleasure and later men found women as an ally in life in all religions in the world.
In Hinduism, one side women are objects of worship of saints and seers and still one another side, like all other religions in the world, women are treated in a secondary role. SAKTI [ Goddess worship] started in India almost the same time, Vedas were written. Even Lord Brahma cannot do certain PUJAS without the presence of his consort SARASWATHI. SAKA AGAMAS and TANTRA glorify the supreme as the mother of the universe. All the avatars of Lord Vishnu came to TAKE CARE OF MOTHER EARTH. It is the belief of Hindus that THE LADY OF THE HOUSE IS THE JEWEL OF THE HOUSE. Everything good as well as bad, depends upon her. A lady who is devoted to her husband is greater than all the saints and celestial beings. That lady is known as PATHIVRATA.
On another side, like St. Paul in the Holy Bible, Sage Manu had written codes restricting the freedom of women. MANU wrore: WOMEN DO NOT DESERVE LIBERTY. St. Paul wrote in the Bible that WOMEN CANNOT SPEAK IN THE CHURCH AND THEY HAVE TO COVER THEIR HEAD. IF THEY WANT TO SPEAK THEN THEY HAVE TO GO HOME AND TALK TO THEIR HUSBANDS IN PRIVACY. Even in Geneis, EVE is considered to be the cause of downfall of man and God cursed her TO GIVE BIRTH TO CHILDREN IN PAIN.
God said: I WILL GREATLY MULTIPLY YOUR PAIN IN CHILD BEARING; IN PAIN YOU SHALL BRING FORTH CHILDREN, YET YOUR DESIRE SHALL BE FOR YOUR HUSBAND, AND HE SHALL RULE OVER YOU [GENESIS 3:16]
It is true that in Hindu scriptures, women are blessed to have many sons but never any woman is blessed to have a daughter!!!!!! Brihad Aranyaka Upanisd is full of prayers and ceremonies for the birth of a SON. Even in the story of Savitri, she is asking Yama to have MANY SONS and not MANY CHILDREN. Even Bhagavad Gita indirectly states that women, Vaishyas and Shudras are sinful births [ 9:32].
Of course, all the scriptures were written thousands of years before and one cannot make any judgement on Hinduism or any other religion on that. Let us face it, INDIA is the first to elect a woman to be the Chief executive. USA still has a long to have a woman as a president. Voting rights for women in USA happened only in 1950's.
Please read my book AM I A HINDU? Halo Books [ ISBN 1-879904-06-3 800-723-4508 415-892-0649 read www.amazon.com for deatils] to get detailed explanation of everything in 90 chapters. This book is highly recommened for all libraries by LIBRARY JOURNAL, BOOKLIST magazines etc and in India all papers and magazines have written very good reviews on this book.
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ED VISWANATHAN arvind-4@msn.com