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The dignity of women:

A Spiritual Approach

By Garda GhistaPerhaps one of the most renowned sayings of Shri Prabhat Rainjan Sarkar is thatwomen are the most dignified section of society. Let us briefly examine theimplications of this momentous statement. In His book Ananda Vacanamrtam, Pt. 30on page 75, he explains in a nutshell the spiritual foundation of dignified living. Whensomeone rushes towards Supreme Consciousness, forgetting all else, and becomeselevated through this process, she or he is known as a sanctified being. When thatsanctified being does selfless service to those around her or him, then that person isknown as a dignified being. Sarkar has further stated in this book, that this is thereason why He referred to women as the most dignified section of human society.

Social Dignity

"The evolutionary forces have not stopped. The theatre of action has shifted to thepsychic level. Evolution is now expressing its power in the daily struggle of men andwomen everywhere to attain dignity."SarkariWhen it comes to family and work relationships, dignity means not degrading oneself by becoming petty, abusive/ vindictive, cynical/amoral or corrupt. In other words,not losing the innate feeling of love for everyone, as a form of love for the SupremeEntity. This love is called neo-humanistic love, as it metamorphoses physical,emotional and mental beings into new, divine human beings who are activelysurrendering to and loving their dearest Lord in each and every object of thisuniverse.Living in capitalist economic systems makes this difficult to achieve, as capitalismnurtures selfishness and self-centeredness. Women are surviving this assault onhuman dignity better than men are. Sociopathy is primarily a male phenomenon.Men commit the majority of murders. Men commit the majority of violence andrapes. Cooperative living is easier for women, because men are often verycompetitive and thus find it very difficult to work together over a long period of time.Misanthropy or hatred of humanity is increasing everywhere, but is exhibited moreby men.While the numerous programs of Prout fight against the exploitation that engendersthis social malaise, He always emphasizes that true dignity, true progress can only beachieved by becoming more and more spiritual. History has recorded so many rebelswho, when later in power, became reactionaries. This is because they were not realrevolutionaries, or what Sarkar calls nuclear revolutionaries or sadvipras. A nuclearrevolutionary is someone who is a revolutionary in each and every aspect of sociallife, be it in morality, work habits, art, music, engineering, domestic life, cooking,farming, and so on. Sarkar extols their glory, saying,"Theirs is a valiant and relentless fight against the obstacles created by

avidyama'ya'

(the illusive force of utter ignorance) which try to detract them from the path of theattainment of Brahma (Supreme Consciousness), their cherished goal, their finaldesideratum, their polestar, the only ideal of their lives. In the social sphere theystruggle not to reform society for the sake of reformation, but to combat the defects

and inconsistencies in all walks of life which are detrimental to spiritual life and astumbling block on the path of attaining the supreme goal. In short they seek tobuild a balanced, harmonious spiritual society. Their endeavor to remove the thornsscattered along the path of progress is ceaseless."So the essential root of such a revolutionary lies in the spiritual realm. Such a soul isnot merely spiritual but a unique revolutionary in the spiritual field, such as the greatTantric poet-saint Ammaiyar, who left her house and roamed the cremation groundsinging songs of love to Shiva. It is such intense pursuit of the Lord, that is thequintessence of nuclear revolution or what we have earlier called sanctity. In thesame way Sarkar calls upon us all:"With cosmic ideation set out from the starting point of morality and advancetowards supreme realization. Your feet may bleed, cut by the thorns scattered on theroad, the sky, rent asunder by the lightning and crashing thunder of the fearfulstorm, may fall on your head, but proceed you must. You are a born fighter. To fleethe battle in fear and hide like a corpse in the hills is ultravirus to your existentialvitality. You must advance towards the Supreme Entity, your original abode,smashing all obstacles on the path. From time immemorial you have been listeningto the sweetness of His divine call. Can you remain oblivious to it engrossed in yourlittle world created by ma'ya' (illusion)."

Sanctity

In citing the story of Madhalasa (the great mother & realized soul who lived in India2,000 years ago), Sarkar explains how she realized that women are naturally morespiritually inclined and devoted to the Beloved Lord than men. He further states thatwith this in mind he formulated his educational system. Why is it the case thatwomen are more devotional? Devotion starts as sentiment or emotion. For it is withemotional force that we take all of our existence away from external objects andinternal objects (ideas, complexes, attachments, etc.) and run towards the SupremeSubjectivity and surrender all 'I'. And it is this state of surrender or union that iscalled yoga or devotion.Generally women are more emotionally mature, articulate and often moreemotionally evolved than men. Men, according to Tantra (the essence of spiritualpractice that emerged 7500 years ago in Rahr, India), have greater capacity forconceptualization (though, like women, they use only 1% of it) as well as a greatercapacity to absorb microvita. Microvita are the smallest particles of life used toaccelerate physical, psychic and indirectly psycho-spiritual progress. However, thesephysical and mental capacities count for very little on the spiritual path incomparison with the radiant glory of devotion. As Sarkar has said, "the attempt tosurrender oneself through devotion forms the essential part of one's

sadhana

(spiritual practice)."There have been countless intellectuals and yogis who have had very little impact onhuman society - on the human heart. But great devotees like Chaitanya Mahaprabhutransformed hundreds of ordinary and even anti-social people into saints lost in theecstatic current of kiirtan (singing the Lord's Name). The memories of great devoteeslike Miirabai still continue to throb in the human heart.In general men are more capable of mental dedication to an ideal or a philosophy.Women are more capable of emotional dedication to an individual. While men havesometimes been encouraged to dedicate themselves to an expansive, powerful idea

(such as a mantra, for example) in order to attain true freedom, women have alwaysbeen hindered from expanding emotionally beyond domestic love into the infinitelove for the Beloved. Miirabai, the great poet-saint who gave up all to sing to herBeloved Lord is still abused by many males in her native state of Rajasthan, India.Some of these males even scathingly refer to her as a prostitute! Why? Only becausewhen her husband was hindering her from meeting with other devotees, she left himto devote herself full-time to singing devotional songs to the Beloved! In her culturalenvironment, it was considered sinful for her to do this. Even today in manycountries, people feel that women are only there to serve the husband and shouldnot think of serving the Lord full-time, whereas men are encouraged to do this.If women can transform their greater sentimentality or emotion into devotional love,they can very easily be established in the highest spiritual states of true love for ourBeloved. But in fact, in today's world, women are encouraged, (via pseudo-culturepropagated by the media) to repress emotions in the same way that men repressthem, and also to primarily think of men as sexual objects of pleasure. This is theexact same way men have been encouraged to think of women. We can see thiswhen reading newspaper and magazine articles by women journalists, who are oftenwriting in the same crude vein as many male journalists.If women focus their greater sentimentality away from limited physical, emotionaland mental objects and focus it entirely on our Beloved, who is the true realitybehind all these objects, they can become sanctified beings. For during the sweetchase after our Beloved, the collective force of their psychic existence is transformedinto a purely spiritual force. The greater the intensity with which one runs after theBeloved, the greater becomes one's sanctity and devotion. Since women naturallytend to be more extreme in demonstrating their love, for this very reason womenbecome sanctified more easily than men. This is the first reason why women are themost dignified section of society.Another reason given in Tantra why women are more sanctified is that men usuallyhave great attraction for

jinana

(knowledge) and

siddhis

(occult powers) for thepurpose of becoming recognized as a saint or a so-called guru. This very oftencauses men to fall away from the spiritual path. Even for those men who don'tentirely leave the spiritual path, this desire for knowledge (be it scientific, life-after-death, cosmology, etc.) and occult powers pollutes their devotional flow, no matterhow small that desire may be. Sarkar has scathingly rebuked those devotional fraudswho run after siddhis like mad dogs. He has even further ridiculed those who wastetheir life with endless questions, worries, backbiting and arrogant preaching of theirinfinitesimal store of knowledge. He unequivocally states that those who are realdevotees have minds becoming more and more saturated with the SupremeConsciousness. This state of being is diametrically opposite to the restless rapacity of those hankering after knowledge, occult powers and gurudom.Traditionally women have not been sidetracked by these cheap pleasures. Today dueto the negative impact of the massive imposition of male psychology (in order toachieve success and command respect in a male-dominated society), the devotionalflow of more and more women is becoming polluted by similar desires. Due to menhaving an attraction for knowledge and occult powers, it is said in Tantra that it ismore difficult for men to manifest their spiritual state externally than it is for women.It is the joyous imperative of all women to awaken each other to the irrepressiblebeauty of devotion. Through their indomitable collective rapture, men will also be