Majority demonic men of Bharatham : at war with its Infants, girls,women of all ages and children on thw whole. The planned rape of eight-year-old Asifa in a temple by several men, including a policeman who later washed the clothes she was wearing to destroy evidence, was particularly horrific. Asifa’s rape has outraged and shaken the entire country. Yet sexual abuse in India remains widespread despite tightening of rape laws in 2013. According to the National Crimes Records Bureau, in 2016 the rape of minor girls increased by 82% compared with the previous year. Chillingly, across all rape cases, 95% of rapists were not strangers but family, friends and neighbours.
Opinion
27/06/2018
1290.
Sub :
Majority demonic men of Bharatham : at war with its Infants, girls,women of all ages and children on the whole. The planned rape of eight-year-old Asifa in a temple by several men, including a policeman who later washed the clothes she was wearing to destroy evidence, was particularly horrific. Asifa’s rape has outraged and shaken the entire country. Yet sexual abuse in India remains widespread despite tightening of rape laws in 2013. According to the National Crimes Records Bureau, in 2016 the rape of minor girls increased by 82% compared with the previous year. Chillingly, across all rape cases, 95% of rapists were not strangers but family, friends and neighbours.
Ref
2. He gave us back our dignity : The Hindu, Prema Nandakuma;
3. Salutations to Divine Mother, the Sakti of Brahman! : Swami Sivananda
4. Talk given at the opening ceremony of the Ladies’ Section of the D.L.S. Tuticorin in 1951.
(Swami Chidananda)
5. THE MAIDEN OF TODAY IS THE MOTHER OF THE NEXT UNBORN GENERATION.
Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith Swami Lakshmidharananda addressing the National Seminar on '' Social Changes In India and Swami Vivekananda in Puducherry on Thursday. Photo: T. Singaravelou
His 150th birth anniversary observed with a seminar on ‘Social Changes in India and Swami Vivekananda’
In order to celebrate the 150 birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, the History Department of the Kanchi Mamunivar Centre for Post Graduate Studies (Autonomous) conducted an ICHR-UGC National Seminar on ‘Social Changes in India and Swami Vivekananda’.
Speaking at the seminar, Swami Lakshmidharananda of the Ramakrishna Mission, Vidyapith elaborated how Swami Vivekananda supported women in the society. He strongly believed that the women should be educated and that any decision regarding the welfare of widows and women should be in the hands of the women themselves.
“Vivekananda was not interested in addressing issues like widow’s remarriage or the age when the girls can be married off. Nor did he like men interfering their affairs. He categorically asserted that it is wrong, a thousand times wrong, if any man dare say, ‘I will work for the salvation of this woman or child’.”
It was not that Vivekananda was not concerned with women’s welfare and wanted to subvert any initiative for reformation. He wanted women to have full freedom to understand their own ideals, their problems and to propose solutions for their own betterment. He believed that women could tap and use their capabilities, if they were properly educated.
He believed in the self-respect and self-dignity of women and wanted no man to trample upon it, be it in the guise of protection or in the guise of reformation, he said.
In terms of the caste system, although he was against untouchability, Vivekananda pointed that almost all civilizations of the world were first governed and controlled by the priestly classes.
Questioning the supremacy and authority of the priests, warrior classes began to assert their rights and controls. Next the merchant classes, controlling the entire affairs of the state through the strength of wealth gathered through trade and commerce.
He believed that a time would come when the labour class and the masses would rise and gain supremacy by the power of their sweat and labour, he said.
The two-day seminar will feature various speakers from different parts of the country. At the inauguration, Director of IRISH in Kannur and former head of the Department of History at Pondicherry University K.S. Mathew delivered also spoke.
2.
Does one write deliberately as a woman or man when taking up pen and paper? I do not know. But right now, I am writing as an Indian woman. The Indian woman who has held up the torch of cultured living for millennia through self-sacrifice, incredible feats of physical and mental endurance and abiding compassion. I know that the pen is a sacred object; if used unthinkingly as Sanjay Srivastava has done ( The Hindu, Op-Ed, “ >Taking the aggression out of masculinity,” January 3, 2013), it might do more harm than good to the position of women in India.
Two portraits have been constant companions in my longish life as a housewife and writer. They have both infused in me the needed strength to face life despite scores of disappointments, frustrations and tragedies. One is the figure of Bharat Mata, rider on the lion, as though telling me: are you a weakling? You are as strong as this land, endowed with hurrying streams and gleaming orchards. Never give up! I learnt the connection between nature and the Indian woman when I read Sita say in Kavisamrat Viswanatha Satyanarayana’s Sri Ramayana Kalpavrikshamu that she has no fear of rivers and forests. Is she not the child of Mother Earth?
The other portrait has been that of Swami Vivekananda, with the caption: “Strength is life: weakness is death.” It is a message for men and women of India. Yes, indeed it was Swami Vivekananda who gave us back our dignity as women, our education, our strength of purpose and reminded us again that no woman is a zero. Inspired by him, a host of social reformers all over India opened a new, glorious page for Indian women. They educated themselves, took part in the Gandhian movement in vast numbers and became equal partners in work everywhere. Interestingly enough, they preferred not to jettison the received tradition that had helped them all along not go down under during the dark centuries in the past.
Hence, when I opened the Op-Ed page of The Hindu on January 3 and saw the familiar portrait of Swami Vivekananda and the photograph of young ladies full of the joy of life performing a ritual, I began reading the article. Certainly, the editor of the page had succeeded in drawing the immediate attention of readers. After I began reading it, I realised how childish an academician can be, and how cobwebbed his mind is when studying the history of the Indian society. After a good bit of verbiage trying to sound knight-errantish by repeating the word masculine, the author makes the pompous (almost laughable) statement: “Swami Vivekananda’s masculine photographic-pose was only one aspect of the cult of masculinity encouraged and tolerated by nationalism.”
What the picture represents :-
Actually Prof Srivastava can sit down with a whole portfolio of all the available photographs of the Swami and peruse each one of them. He will not find even one which will fit in with his boorish description. The one used for the article has eyes gazing with compassion at the sorrows inflicted upon Indian women, and a determination to help them overcome it. He had travelled all over India as a parivrajaka and endured untold hardships and realised that two things in Indian society needed immediate rectification: the condition of women and the condition of Dalits. Towards achieving women’s empowerment and caste equality he faced innumerable difficulties and disappointments but he won in the end. He was able to teach even the westerners to look upon women as mothers. According to him, women were not playthings for men, and women’s problems could be solved by true education, which was, according to him, “… a development of faculty, not an accumulation of words, or as a training of individuals to will rightly and efficiently. So shall we bring to the need of India great fearless women — women worthy to continue the traditions of Sanghamittra, Lila, Ahalya Bai, and Mira Bai — women fit to be mothers of heroes, because they are pure and selfless, strong with the strength that comes of touching the feet of God.”
Not ‘male-worship’ :-
Such inspiration flowing from him through the nationalist movement laid the red carpet welcome to women to join the Gandhian movement, removing fear and ignorance which had imprisoned them till then. It was Swami Vivekananda who brought to India committed women like Sister Nivedita and Sister Christine whose work for women’s education was truly monumental. Not only has the Indian woman received education but she also knows what is good for her, in inherited culture. As for Prof. Srivastava’s characterisation of Karva-Chauth as male-worship, does he not know that when Sister Subbulakshmi Ammal founded the Sarada Home (Widow’s Home) in 1912 at Madras, one of the works she made her inmates study was the story of Savitri and Satyavan in the Mahabharata? It was because, herself a child widow, she found that Savitri empowered herself before facing Yama by a tri-rattra vrata which was a discipline of meditation, yoga, studies and rituals. In the same way, Sister Subbulakshmi wanted the inmates to empower themselves with education and self-discipline to face life which was very harsh to the widow of those days. Celebrations of joy and the reaffirmation of holy ties is not male-worship. Such attempts to degrade beautiful traditions is a perversion of the mind. Is tying a rakhi to a brother to be considered as male-worship?
If Professor Srivastava wants examples of macho icons, let him seek them in the likes of Dasaratha, who sport many wives. They are a dime a dozen today. If he wants portraits on the same subject, he can have his choice from the various glossy advertisements for men’s vests and motorcycles. He ought to know that serious sociological research is not achieved by mudslinging.
3.WOMAN : Salutations to Divine Mother, the Sakti of Brahman! A MESSAGE -
(SRI SWAMI SIVANANDA)
WOMAN is the mighty work of God, the wonder of nature, the marvel of marvels, the abridgement and epitome of the world, the queen of the home, the real governess, the sweet companion and helpmate of man.
Woman is the energy-aspect of the Lord. She is the child of primeval power and holds the key of this world. She controls the destiny of children. She is the mother of Sankaras and Buddhas.
Woman is a mysterious mixture of softness, gentleness and grace. She is a compound of service, patience and love. She is Maya’s tempting charm and magic. She comforts and cheers up her husband, children and guests. Even Brahma the Creator failed to describe her fully. She is a kind of mysterious something that gives charm to this world. Without her the home is a void. Without her man is helpless. Without her this world loses all charm. Without her there is no creation.
—Swami Sivananda
The society in which only one half (man) has been spiritually inspired and guided is like a bird flying on one wing! It can hardly move an inch forward. It is only when both man and woman lead the Divine Life, both of them will be able to march forward with bold and gigantic strides to the great goal—God-realisation.
In India, woman has the custody of dharma. I would say that is the reason why, in spite of the many inroads into Indian culture of alien materialistic ideologies, India has been able to maintain the essential structure of her ancient civilisation. This is because, the Indian cradle song has been one of spirituality; and as the old proverb goes, the cradle impressions accompany man to the very end of his life in spite of the efforts of later life to erase them! It is the mother who is responsible for indelibly printing in the baby’s mind the spiritual impressions and later for sowing in the fertile virgin soil of the child’s mind healthy seeds, of true spiritual culture. Glory to the Indian mother, the maker of saints and sages!
I, therefore, consider it most essential that the Indian mother should be awakened to the true purpose of life and that she should be educated in the principles of Divine Life; so that she may lead the Divine Life herself, lead her children into Divine Life and exercise her influence over her husband, too, and enable him to lead the Divine Life. The family whose members all lead the Divine Life is really a blessed family of devas.
Whether she adopts the grihasthasrama or whether she chooses to remain a brahmacharini throughout her life—woman has a great part to play in building up the nation. The nation needs the services of brahmacharini nurses, doctors, teachers and social workers. To these especially, a thorough knowledge of yoga sadhana, of Divine Life, is most essential. They should be as rigid in regard to adherence to principles of Divine Life as their male counter-parts, the brahmacharis and sannyasins. The brahmacharinis should keep Maitreyi, Gargi and others as their ideal. They should always aspire to realise God through selfless service, devotion, the practice of yama and niyama.
The inherent divine qualities in the woman enable her to lead the Divine Life with much less struggle than man! Ahimsa: This is woman’s very nature! Satyam: though woman shares man’s evil tendencies in this respect, she is capable of more easily following the path of truth! Brahmacharya: Indian woman’s purity is unrivalled. When one ponders over the survival of these divine virtues in the Indian woman in spite of the powerful alien base influence, one is wonder-struck; what powerful personalities, what great upholders of dharma, what embodiments of righteousness and of daivi sampatti, the women of ancient India must have been! My humble obeisance to them! The very utterance of names like Sita, Savitri, Damayanti, Anasuya is purifying.
May God bless you all and enable you to shine as jivanmuktas and bhakta-siromanis in this very birth! May you all lead the Divine Life of Truth, Love and Purity!
4. Talk given at the opening ceremony of the Ladies’ Section of the D.L.S. Tuticorin in 1951.
(Swami Chidananda)
This book meets a long-felt need. It is an answer to a long existing but seldom expressed query. Many books are available on the subject of brahmacharya, but up till now almost all of them tend to be addressed to the youth, teenage students, young men and bachelors. We have not come across similar books specifically addressed to and meant for the guidance of maidens, teenage girl students, unmarried women or newly-wed brides in the beginning few years of their married household life. This is not fair to the growing younger generation of women folk at any given period of social history. Because the subject of the ideal of chastity, the discipline of self-control, the principle of abstinence from pre-marital or extra-marital sex-experience is of equal vital importance to our young women as it is to the young men.
5. CONCLUSION :-
THE MAIDEN OF TODAY IS THE MOTHER OF THE NEXT UNBORN GENERATION. -
The health of any new generation is founded upon strong and healthy mothers. The basis of health is the wise and rational voluntary control, conservation, and preservation of the all important sex-energy. Once this is recognised, self-restraint becomes an invaluable and covetable asset to one’s character and personality. It becomes a positive step and acquisition. This present book has as its aim and objective to inspire young women of India in particular and global human society in general towards a state of wise self-mastery as opposed to slavery to unbridled sensuality. Such self-mastery is a psychological and psycho-physical science which can ensure the welfare of our human race. It is respectfully offered by the Divine Life Society to the womankind of today as well as tomorrow. We hope it will be found useful and beneficial to one and all.
JAIHIND
VANDEMATHARAM
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