Swami Vivekanand said:
“Without Shakti (Mother Goddess), there is no regeneration in the world.
Why is that our country is the weakest and most backward of all countries?
Because Shakti is held in dishonour here.”
A woman is the most divine of Brahman’s creation.
Women are the supreme embodiment of Brahman because only they can emulate the fundamental qualities of Brahman – unconditional and selfless love, nurture and creation.
If a nation is to be truly called civilised, it is only when the women of that nation can walk alone anywhere in that nation, wearing whatever they want, speaking out freely and still hold their heads high and be treated with love, compassion, seriousness and respect by all men of that nation.
Women are not just equal to men, women are better than men in many aspects of the finer qualities of a human being.
They have more emotional strength, grace, patience, forgiveness, compassion, devotion, love and tolerance than men.
If there were more married women ruling this world, especially if they were mothers, especially mothers to orphans, we would not have so many wars and greed and selfishness.
Being a mother is the most satisfying but most thankless job in this world.
To give birth to your own child and raise it selflessly sometimes for decades without expectations is the most divine thing to do.
Many a times, children dont realise the value of their mothers until they become parents themselves.
In the times of Manu, Brihaspathi and Kautliya, a young beautiful woman could walk around in the middle of the night, in a lehenga and choli like our item girls and wear full jewelry also, and no harm would come to them.
Albeit the most safe women in those days were the Brahmin women, because the harshest punishments were accorded to those who harmed the well being of a Brahmin woman.
If you disregard the caste biases, which are not correct and should not be adopted, the concepts outlined, especially by Kautilya, for welfare of women and punitive the punishments for harming a woman’s well being were really good and remain timeless and valid even today not only in Bharat but all over the world.
The status accorded to Brahmin women in those days must be accorded to all women in these days especially for their welfare and safety of their well being.
Remember during the time of Kautilya, Maghadha was the greatest empire in the whole world.
Women were absolutely safe in those days – proof is in the sculptures of our temples – look at how the women were dressed in these sculptures. Proof is that there were many female monks traveling around all alone even in the deepest forests and they were secure.
For a more detailed understanding of the status of women during the time of Kautilya please read this article – The Position of Women in Kautilya’s Arthashastra by Pratiti Shirin.
In fact, if you see all our great epics like Mahabharat and Ramayana, the heroines Draupadi and Sita were given freedom to choose their husbands through Swayamwaras.
Men did not take dowry in these epics.
I think Sita is the most underrated and underappreciated person in Bharat.
According to my opinion, Sita is as much as a hero of the Ramayana as Rama.
In fact, Sita is the epitome of womanhood just like Rama is the epitome of manhood.
Rama is the embodiment of Dharma, but Sita is as much an embodiment of Dharma, and without whom Rama would not have fulfilled his destiny.
Rama did all the things that he did out of his karma, but Sita did all the things out of her own free will.
Everybody says that Rama underwent a lot of pain, his wife Sita was kidnapped, he banished her and he could not see his children born.
Rama felt the pain of these things, but it was Sita who actually undertook the pain of suffering these things personally.
Rama had no option but to honour his fathers promise.
But Sita chose the option of leaving a safe and luxurious palace and living in the forest with her husband for fourteen years.
Sita had the choice to return from Lanka with Hanuman, but she chose to stay in Lanka till Rama came and took her back.
Sita could have fought against her banishment, but she chose to stay banished and raised her two young children without the help or knowledge of Rama.
In ancient Bharat, especially in the South, women were given quite a good status.
The North of Bharat was always a patriarchal and somewhat misogynistic place and remains so even to this day.
In the South, the Goddess Shakti is given the highest prominence, even more than her consort Shiva.
In the South, women are rarely seen in purdhah or ghoongat.
In the South, women are also encouraged to get an education and given some amount of freedom in choosing their husbands.
But many communities in the South, also have the curse of the dowry system.
It is a failure of the governments of all countries especially FUKUS based “democratic” countries, that women still fear for their personal safety.
Our f🙊 up society places the onus on women to prevent themselves from getting assaulted.
In some cultures and religions I have seen girls as young as three being covered up in burkhas.
We are to blame for the plight of our women.
We condition them to be ashamed of the way they dress and the way they should behave.
Many times, the biggest enemies of women are women themselves, especially the so called “moralist” women who believe a woman’s sense of dressing and behavior defines the character of a women and will protect her against harm.
In fact instead of teaching women how to “behave”, we should teach our boys and men how to behave with women.
If my punishments for violent and sexual offences are enforced and a few of the most public faces of these crimes in all districts and cities, or even hoblis and city wards, are punished publicly and there is strict enforcement by the Defenders of the State, the crimes against women will come down.
But arming women or providing strict deterrence by harsh punishment is not a permanent solution to their well being.
The only solution for a permanent improvement in the status and well being of women will only come from a concentrated and concerted effort to educate and influence the youth of our country, especially the very young about the correct way to treat and respect women.
Once you become an adult, your mind is already set in stone, and it is very difficult to change the ways of an adult, even if you use a strong whip as a motivator.
People need to realise that women though different from men, should have an equal respect and right in the running of things, especially on issues that concern women.
Most cultures even so called “advanced” Western cultures, place women at a lesser role than men.
They are assumed to only be able to make rotis and babies.
Also almost all media and films whether Western or in Bharat, usually portray women as objects of desire.
Especially in the movies in Bharat, the hero’s actually crudely sexually harass women, but the women are eventually portrayed as falling in love with the hero.
There are some movies in Bharat that show a proper way to woo a woman, but many movies are actually crude sexual harassment depicted as love.
Most people blame the media for portraying women as objects of desire.
Most media are for profit ventures and whatever sells the most will be displayed the most.
So we cannot just blame media for portraying women as objects of desire, we have to also place a major portion of the blame on our society also.
Almost all scriptures including many of the Santhan Dharma, place men as guardians of women.
Women are much stronger than men spiritually, emotionally and mentally, but men are stronger physically and more suited to hard physical labour and fighting.
Men are also much bigger risk takers than women, and I believe that prudent risk taking is an important part to the evolution and growth of society.
I still believe that men should be guardians of women, but not in the sense of restricting their movements, but in the sense that they should be ready to defend and assist the well being of women.
I dont know why women want to do everything that a man can do.
Women were not created to do everything a man can do, women were created to do everything a man cannot do.
Women have the added responsibility of giving birth to children.
This affects the careers of working women.
Working women who have children should have their jobs protected for at least 18 months and they should get at least 80% of their salaries for one year.
This funding should be shared by both the employer and the state with the state providing a significant portion of the funding especially for small and medium sized businesses.
People tend to disregard a parent who stays at home to raise children.
A good parent who stays at home to raise their children well is priceless and their remuneration cannot be measured in monetary terms.
Another curse is the dowry system. I think it is a shame we have a dowry system.
The men who take dowry are no better than gigolos.
Women who are raped and molested should not feel bad and guilty, it is not their fault.
They should first seek revenge on their tormentor according to my laws, and once that is done they will emerge stronger and better women than dumbass ordinary people who mock these raped women.
There were some Representative DFIs even on TV and national radio that call unfortunate raped women “zinda lash” (living dead) and “fallen” women.
There are even bigger dumbasses who say these women asked for it by wearing revealing clothes or going out late at night and hence they deserved it.
These unfortunate women have already lost everything.
There is nothing more for them to lose.
So it is better that they stand up, ignore and spit in the faces of the dumbasses and DFIs who call them “zinda lash” and “fallen” and fight back since they only will gain from it as they have nothing more to lose.
The best swords of steel are made to go through the highest heat and most beating and molding called forging.
These women and children who are abused can become the strongest steel swords once they see the revenge on their tormentors and learn to stand up and fight back against the injustice that was done to them.
In my opinion, all law abiding women should be taught lethal self defense and many of them should even be allowed to easily get guns.
The punishments I have mentioned should be enforced strictly should also cause significant deterrence.
But as I said before, unless our society and youth are educated and influenced on how to treat and respect women, any amount of deterrence is useless.