It is International Woman's Day time of the year yet again, for the world. Here, in our own nation, any kind of an International Day celebration comes with mixed feelings, dilemma, acceptance, non-acceptance wrt to our desi-version of celebrations of the same being rooted in our Sanatana traditions and culture...
Anyway, can debate on that for someother day. Today, especially, a particular thought, running in my mind needs a writing for a thinking aloud and this may or may not be in particular relevance to the Woman's day fundu, but nevertheless the Day being an apt stimulus to mull over the following ...
Well, we often hear - so often, that it is almost a cliched statement now - that a woman is significant in all her roles as an infant, child, daughter, sister, mother, aunt, wife, sister-in-law, grandmother etc but then, so does a man, who can be as significant in all of his respective roles. So what is this about celebrating womanhood or manhood, I often wonder. And then it strikes me that most often this particular gender-oriented celebrations or such likes, often come as a comparative highlights and not necessarily a stand alone feature. Since, otherwise this aspect, both woman and man are just as much significant since both are humans and humans ARE significant ...!
So, this highlighting of a gender feature wrt to the other, is a case enough to be mulled over, not so much as a grave social behavior study as much as it is about factual observations and practical experiences ...
Without much beating around the bush, this question may be asked as to "What exactly it is to a male psyche to coexist with a woman who is single, unmarried, 'un-mingled'or 'un-maled' ever etc ?"
Does a presence of such a woman, goes out as some kind of a subtle challenge to the general element of masculinity to find a woman holding and sustaining her ownself in a male-dominated society without the aid of a male element to resource and to blossom her untouched feminity ...? Well, this may be so, if any woman holds her singleness as a particular challenge to the male counterpart, in resisting to be seduced, but if the singleness is more a consequential stance affected by domestics or/and then propelling circumstances or/and the deep impact of the renouncing-kind of spiritual values intently exposed right from a formative period of one's upbringing, then, that kind of singleness is more about a value-system of a character imbibed and internalized rather than the aggressive assertion of modern feminism that thrives on challenging and slamming 'male-ism' of seduction or/and patriarchy...
It requires utmost gentleness and consideration, for either of the gender to understand that both the genders may be vulnerable by default or by dormant, if and when the circumstances drive either of them to become gender-conscious of oneself in the presence of the opposite gender... If either misses or the background of the other gender being a person with certain set of internalized values, upbringing etc, then this may result in serious and lasting psychological setbacks for either.
In the present times, there are aspects in our society that has beautifully blended and balanced the modern and the progressive kind of lifestyle approaches of the West with that of eternal spiritual values or Sanaatana values of the Bharath, but then there are also dimensions to our society that has resulted in utter mismatch between the West and Sanaatana,which has probably got expressed in the form of un-grounded and un-checked personal and collective liberalism, freedom of expression, free-will etc and somehow the two factions of our society are unable to live thier own without being affected by the other and hence probably the two contradicting value systems of our society, try to over power or over-rule the other for self-validation ...
We come to know by reading Ramayana and Mahabharata that - to the elite class of the society, there is less constraint on free will and hence whatever they do or undertake to do, the society often tends to ignore slamming them for any defaults due to the power and influence they wield in the society and could get away with any defaulting where as a conservative middle-classer is extremely sensitive about her/his repute and credibility in the society since he/she is far removed from the power-mongering games of wielding influence, clout or self-power. If this was not the case, a certain washer-man would have never refused to accept his defaulted wife, quoting against Rama's acceptance of his wife or the sons of the blind king in Mahabharata would have never openly admitted of not following dharma in principle though well-versed in not breaking the rules of it, where as an oppressed villager of Ekachakranagar goes out of his way pleading his guest not to intervene in the matter of sending his family member as a food to the demon, lest it would make him a defaulter in the eyes of the fellow villagers...
Coming back to the topic, a woman or a man, in any of thier other roles of life, mentioned earlier, are a noble and glorious roles by itself, which has been already emphasized and upheld earlier, but this being the case, it is matter to ponder in deep agony as to why the aspect of integrated feminity, which may be coming across as being neither frivolous or liberal or compromising, is often made to feel less as a woman, a kind of attempt that somewhat attempts to stigmatize such a kind of feminity that is unrelenting to male-ism, by calling such an attitude to be more of a womanhood that is limited to motherhood or sisterhood, to somewhat prove that such a kind of role is more of a less empowered feminity as compared to the feminity which is considered to be empowered due to its readiness in aligning with male-ism...
Well, we have the ideal male-female divine symbolism in the Divine couple of Shiva and Parvati, which we ardently worship. The complementary male-female element of Shiva-Parvati is often depicted in the duet ananda-tandava dance which is often depicted in our Sanatana arts and performing arts, but then, what is to be remembered well is they represent the male-female element s the ideal husband-wife couple. It is in our Sanatana scripture, words like para-purusha, para-sthree has a definite meaning and dharmic relevance, even in the present times ...
All the above mulling is but a mulling over and not necessarily accusatory or inflammatory or defiance or agony, even ... The above is more of a calm but firm and realistic contemplation of what and hows of feminity and male-ism ...
Jai Maa ... _/\_
Anyway, can debate on that for someother day. Today, especially, a particular thought, running in my mind needs a writing for a thinking aloud and this may or may not be in particular relevance to the Woman's day fundu, but nevertheless the Day being an apt stimulus to mull over the following ...
Well, we often hear - so often, that it is almost a cliched statement now - that a woman is significant in all her roles as an infant, child, daughter, sister, mother, aunt, wife, sister-in-law, grandmother etc but then, so does a man, who can be as significant in all of his respective roles. So what is this about celebrating womanhood or manhood, I often wonder. And then it strikes me that most often this particular gender-oriented celebrations or such likes, often come as a comparative highlights and not necessarily a stand alone feature. Since, otherwise this aspect, both woman and man are just as much significant since both are humans and humans ARE significant ...!
So, this highlighting of a gender feature wrt to the other, is a case enough to be mulled over, not so much as a grave social behavior study as much as it is about factual observations and practical experiences ...
Without much beating around the bush, this question may be asked as to "What exactly it is to a male psyche to coexist with a woman who is single, unmarried, 'un-mingled'or 'un-maled' ever etc ?"
Does a presence of such a woman, goes out as some kind of a subtle challenge to the general element of masculinity to find a woman holding and sustaining her ownself in a male-dominated society without the aid of a male element to resource and to blossom her untouched feminity ...? Well, this may be so, if any woman holds her singleness as a particular challenge to the male counterpart, in resisting to be seduced, but if the singleness is more a consequential stance affected by domestics or/and then propelling circumstances or/and the deep impact of the renouncing-kind of spiritual values intently exposed right from a formative period of one's upbringing, then, that kind of singleness is more about a value-system of a character imbibed and internalized rather than the aggressive assertion of modern feminism that thrives on challenging and slamming 'male-ism' of seduction or/and patriarchy...
It requires utmost gentleness and consideration, for either of the gender to understand that both the genders may be vulnerable by default or by dormant, if and when the circumstances drive either of them to become gender-conscious of oneself in the presence of the opposite gender... If either misses or the background of the other gender being a person with certain set of internalized values, upbringing etc, then this may result in serious and lasting psychological setbacks for either.
In the present times, there are aspects in our society that has beautifully blended and balanced the modern and the progressive kind of lifestyle approaches of the West with that of eternal spiritual values or Sanaatana values of the Bharath, but then there are also dimensions to our society that has resulted in utter mismatch between the West and Sanaatana,which has probably got expressed in the form of un-grounded and un-checked personal and collective liberalism, freedom of expression, free-will etc and somehow the two factions of our society are unable to live thier own without being affected by the other and hence probably the two contradicting value systems of our society, try to over power or over-rule the other for self-validation ...
We come to know by reading Ramayana and Mahabharata that - to the elite class of the society, there is less constraint on free will and hence whatever they do or undertake to do, the society often tends to ignore slamming them for any defaults due to the power and influence they wield in the society and could get away with any defaulting where as a conservative middle-classer is extremely sensitive about her/his repute and credibility in the society since he/she is far removed from the power-mongering games of wielding influence, clout or self-power. If this was not the case, a certain washer-man would have never refused to accept his defaulted wife, quoting against Rama's acceptance of his wife or the sons of the blind king in Mahabharata would have never openly admitted of not following dharma in principle though well-versed in not breaking the rules of it, where as an oppressed villager of Ekachakranagar goes out of his way pleading his guest not to intervene in the matter of sending his family member as a food to the demon, lest it would make him a defaulter in the eyes of the fellow villagers...
Coming back to the topic, a woman or a man, in any of thier other roles of life, mentioned earlier, are a noble and glorious roles by itself, which has been already emphasized and upheld earlier, but this being the case, it is matter to ponder in deep agony as to why the aspect of integrated feminity, which may be coming across as being neither frivolous or liberal or compromising, is often made to feel less as a woman, a kind of attempt that somewhat attempts to stigmatize such a kind of feminity that is unrelenting to male-ism, by calling such an attitude to be more of a womanhood that is limited to motherhood or sisterhood, to somewhat prove that such a kind of role is more of a less empowered feminity as compared to the feminity which is considered to be empowered due to its readiness in aligning with male-ism...
Well, we have the ideal male-female divine symbolism in the Divine couple of Shiva and Parvati, which we ardently worship. The complementary male-female element of Shiva-Parvati is often depicted in the duet ananda-tandava dance which is often depicted in our Sanatana arts and performing arts, but then, what is to be remembered well is they represent the male-female element s the ideal husband-wife couple. It is in our Sanatana scripture, words like para-purusha, para-sthree has a definite meaning and dharmic relevance, even in the present times ...
All the above mulling is but a mulling over and not necessarily accusatory or inflammatory or defiance or agony, even ... The above is more of a calm but firm and realistic contemplation of what and hows of feminity and male-ism ...
Jai Maa ... _/\_
