Women and Emotions

 April 13, 1991

        Ba'ba' is speaking this morning again about women. He has been saying that women should place family first over duties in society or work. He says that for women emotional bonds are most important.  He was saying that most women are happiest when they can surrender in trust to a man on whom they can emotionally depend.  He said that even physically, women can be quite good at defending themselves.  It is the emotional protection that most women need. Therefore emotional relationships, i.e. family, should come first and work second for most women. He went on to explain that this does not mean all women should cook and scrub and clean and do shudra-type wife duties.  He says many women's interests are not for shudra work, but for medicine, the arts, psychology and other areas. So they should work in the areas of their interest. To relegate them to household labor is to virtually make them slaves. Each should do according to interest and ability. But He says family bond, family involvements, should be first for women, not work, whatever the nature of the work.  Emotional bonds are foremost.

     "Family need not prevent a woman from assuming a career, but women should not be forced to ignore children and husband for society.  It is a great sacrifice and harmful. Now you may ask why should a woman learn a profession if she will not dedicate 100 percent to her work?  The answer to this concern is that a woman is first and foremost a spiritual entity, an expression of the Supreme Progenitor. Now, for all,  psycho-spiritual development is the very purpose of human existence.  There is no other true purpose.  In order to fulfill this purpose, a woman should develop both intellect and emotion. No person should misutilize their potential.  All must develop. And not ignore their natural inclination to place sentimental expression foremost. They should not attempt to suppress this. Emotionality is a necessary expression. A world of reason and rationality without emotionality would be spiritually barren.

Q: "Ba'ba', aren't emotional bonds important for men also?

    "Not in the same way.  It is a weaker area for men.  For men, emotional bonds are essential, but they are not the primary focus for many men.  They are important no doubt, but reason and intellect dominate the masculine mind.  At times, men are emotionally underdeveloped.  Women also have emotional difficulties.  But in women, they are due to denial of emotional needs or suppression of emotional tendencies. In men, they are due to underdevelopment of the emotional sphere. In women, intellect can be very strong.  They are often intellectually well-endowed."

Q: Ba'ba', isn't it over-indulgence in emotions that women are said to have problems with?

     "No, my child, it is not over-involvement, but suppression of emotional needs that is the problem. If a woman is forced to suppress natural emotional needs due to a situation in which she must deny these needs, then distorted emotional expression comes. Women are not over-emotional. That is a male point-of-view.  It can equally be said that men are under-emotional."