“Where Women are honored, There Gods are pleased”

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Swami Mukundananda’s keynote address on International Women’s Day 2021 was imbued with the true essence of being a woman. From the Vedic perspective, the respect accorded to women was encapsulated beautifully, as Swamiji narrated the ancient verses from Manusmriti:

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Meaning: Where women are worshipped, that civilization is divine and holy. Even the celestial gods rejoice by looking at such a society. However, where women are not accorded the respect they deserve, where they are victimized and oppressed, there the output of all the vedic rituals are nullified.?

Acknowledging that wordy definitions can be very limited, Swamiji mentioned that “Woman is the mother of man”. Hence the well-being of women is even more important than men on this planet.?

From a divine perspective, the nature of each soul is feminine. The soul is the shakti of the divine and thus every living creature is feminine. This was illustrated through the incident of the famous sage Meerabai, when she went to have darshan of Saint Jeev Goswami – a student of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, in Vrindavan. Based on his adherence to the order of monkhood, when Jeev Goswami denied meeting a woman, Meerabai surprisingly asked his students as to who else can be a male, apart from the supreme Lord Krishna?! Hearing this, Saint Jeev Goswami realized the confinement of his thoughts at the bodily level and begged forgiveness from Meerabai, who had risen above, experiencing every being as the soul. That is why the Srimad Bhagvatam also states that Lord Krishna was not only the beloved of the Gopis and also the beloved of the Gopis’ husbands!

However, we are far from the divine realm to fully experience the feminine self within ourselves. Hence to start with, we need to respect the female human species.?

God chose the female species to manifest forth creation. Thus, he endowed women with his highest glory and the finest qualities of care-giving and nurturing others. The western perspective of gender equality is a recent phenomenon as compared to the rich Indian civilization that worshipped its women addressing them as ‘Devi’. India – a land of scholars and seekers, was the home to many Rishis as well as Rishikas. Amongst the exceptional women were the Sages Gargi and Maitreyi, who were respectively celebrated as “Brahmavaadini” and revered through a dedicated Upanishad.

Ancient Indian had moral codes of conduct incumbent upon all in the society. The whole of Mahabharat and Ramayana is picturesque on how the insult borne upon women, resulted in the destruction of a deep Vedic scholar like Ravan and the entire dynasty of the Kauravas.?

It is interesting to note that co-education prevailed in the ancient Indian universities of Nalanda and Takshashila in India. However, as the country got exposed to multiple invasions, its sacred culture and glory got robbed and degraded from its moral pedestal.?

Despite all this, the medieval times witnessed many brave queens like Rani Ahilyabai Holkar of Malwa (present Indore), who distinguished herself by several accomplishments – most notably the reconstruction of Kashi Vishwanath temple which was destroyed by Aurangzeb. Rani of Jhansi is known for heroically commanding her forces during the Indian War of Independence. Her inspiration was penned down by the first woman satyagrahi - Subhadra Kumari Chauhan in “Khub Ladi Mardani Wo To Jhansi Wali Rani Thi”.

India’s modern women, like Shrimati Ramabai Ranade started the Hindu women speaking club – a precursor to today’s Toastmaster club, to enable women to speak up thereby empower them. The Indian perspective of inclusiveness and gender equality is reflected even in the early 1900, when three women leaders, Sarojini Naidu, Annie Besant, Bibi Ammam, sat side by side and received equal honor alongside stalwart political leaders and luminaries like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore. Thus, in many ways women in India meaningfully contributed to the society, nation, and world at large.

Unfortunately, the mindsets have deteriorated with time and if we want a better world, we all should contribute our bit in empowering women in our lives. Swamiji illustrated this through the recent life story of Baby Halder, who went on to become an acclaimed author from being a domestic worker bracing adverse circumstances.?

With Swamiji’s continued illustrations, it was clear that it is time for women to be given the opportunity to make this world better for all, by manifesting the inherent potential in them. The consciousness of a household is very much dependent on the consciousness of the lady of the house. It is only an enlightened woman who can bring up enlightened children.?

JKYog devotees are known to greet each other with “Radhey Radhey”. It is so because Radha Rani is the divine mother of the universe and we beg for her benevolence to help us meet the supreme Lord. Although Radha and Krishna are the same entity, the mother’s role and position is far more venerable than that of the father, because she is directly involved in making so many sacrifices. When Saint Tulsidas could not experience the grace of Lord Ram, he also banked on the far more expansive grace of Mother Sita. Thus, the mother of the universe in her many different forms, is venerable. Such fine qualities of the divine mother manifest in the female species of the human beings as well. Hence a mother’s love is one of the purest things in the material realm also.?

These examples are just a few drops of the ocean of wisdom and encouragement poured by Swamiji as He graced the occasion to celebrate extraordinary achievements by ordinary women. The underlying message for men was to develop the attitude of divinity towards women as the mother and for women, they need to believe in themselves, embrace their inner potential way beyond just being a caregiver and become a source of inspiration for generations to come. Realizing our God-gifted potential is the right way of giving back to the Almighty.