WOMEN,  PROUT   and   VARNAS

 April11,1994

          How are  varnas expressed through women?

     The varnas are expressed by women in a somewhat different  fashion than by their male counterparts.  When a woman is a shudra she toils very hard, gathering the wood, making the fire, tilling the soil, raising the children.  She labors with her own hands.  But her labors are not those of the male. They revolve around her children and the preservation of her family.  She has direct responsibility for the children.  The men may go off to battle, but the women will remain, raising the children, doing the wash, cooking the food. So this society may become ksattriyan but the vast majority of women will remain shudra due to their direct responsibility for their children.

     Now in a Ksattriyan society there may be some women who adopt the fighting spirit, but in the main a Ksattriyan society will be spearheaded by men. It is a part and parcel of a Ksattriyan era that women are not empowered, they are left behind to do homely tasks of a shudrian quality. So in the ksattriyan period the expression of women remains primarily shudra while the expression of men becomes dominant. When the society changes from matriarchy to patriarchy a ksattriyan period is ushered in. Then as some time goes on and the ages again change, the ksattriyan spirit begins to wane.

     Then the intellectual spirit begins to be kindled and the mind grows in magnitude. When this occurs there is more scope for participation on the part of women. Many women  begin to find expression in the mental sphere. The power of patriarchy lessens somewhat though in this arena women have also been oppressed. Yet more women have been leaders, have participated, have been acknowledged for their virprian qualities.  In the viprian era more women found scope but the intellectual emphasis also brought the dominance of patriarchal figures and oppressive leadership. The women finding scope became a threat to patriarchal authority.  So in this era more women  could participate. A greater percentage developed their mental skills.  But the emphasis shifted from reverence for the fertility of the female to reverence for the mental capacities of the male. In this period women found some scope despite oppressive forces. However, that scope was limited and women began to loose their basic association  with and power of their fertility.  Do you see? On one hand they advanced, on the other they lost. 

     It may be said that Vipran society was highly oppressive of women.  Many atrosities occured due to the enhansment of patricial values. A woman became the symbol of anamalistic tendencies.  The man sought a God devorced of human feelings, a God of the mind and spirit. There was no place in their cosmology for the worship of the Mother except as devoid of human qualities. Women gained vipran expression, but they lost theireessential power, their self respect. They too began to worship the male God who did not approve of feminine qualities. It was at this point that the last vestages of matriarchy collapsed.

          Now over time, with the advenct of capitalism and other vaeshiyan economic practices, women shifted into a greater arena of participation.  Now though women remained in the main more dominated by shudra obligations than their male counterparts, they had greater expression in the main focus of their age. They could participate, but they were not the holders of power. Women in the vaeshiyan era gained more status, more capacity to delve into the arena of trade and commerce. So their participation is extensive but their status is no more than it was. Why is this?  It is due to the nature of vaeshiyan mentality.  It is exploitative. So women can also be exploitative, can they not?  You  see now the family is cared for, the children 's survival held intact not by shudrian activity but by vaeshiyan involvments. So the women lend themselves to this vaeshiyan society. But they do not benefit from this.  It is only when there is a balance between all of these, when women can gain standing on their own merit and uphold it for themselves that this oppression of women will end. It has never been and never will be a matter of simple economics or even a matter of political freedom.  It is much more basic.  Women must gain political and economic rights. They must exercise those rights. But fundamental to this is their own evolution. Women must come forward and assert themselves, the times are changing.

     A new  era approaches. True balance lays in spiritual idealism.  It is spirituality and only spirituality which can bring a balance to human society.  That is why I say: Let there be a segment of society that develops inwardly and adopts the ideals of neo-humanism and let that segment govern the society.

     Now women as well as men must strive to become ideal human beings and to allow that Devine Entity full expression in their psycho-spiritual arena that they may lead their lives according to the will of that most gracious Entity. Then the society will achieve a true balance and all beings will find scope for their expression.

     It is sufficient.