DEIVATHIN KURAL # 125 (of Vol 2) Dated 26 June 2008

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 125 (of Vol 2) Dated 26 June 2008



(To-day’s e-mail is a continuation of Deivathin Kural # 124 dated 23 June 2008. These are translations of talks given by Periyaval of Kanchi Kamakoti peetam, over a period of some sixty years while he was the pontiff in the earlier part of last century. These have been published in Tamil by Vanadi Padippagam, Chennai, in seven volumes of a thousand pages each, as Deivathin Kural. To day we are proceeding from the middle of Page number 898, of volume 2, of the Tamil original. )



94. The reformists claim that, ‘The fact that girls are studying in colleges and getting employed in various professions is an indicator of progress. This has off set the injustice done to them in earlier times.’ My contention is that, there was no injustice done to them in earlier times! In a lighter vein, I would say that if at all there was some injustice in the earlier times men were the victims, not women! Let me explain. A male from a young age of seven has to learn all the Vedas, do ‘Nitya Karma Anushtaana’ (NKA for short) of Sandya Vandanam, Brhma Yagnam, Samitaa Daanam and other Samskara-s, and sub-serve the Guru for twelve years. Then from Brhmacharya Ashrama, he has to take on the Gruhasta Ashrama, doing all the NKA and Aupasanam, while earning a lively-hood. So His life is full of repetitive Samskaras. For a girl it is much simpler. Just by dedicating herself to his service, she surrenders her mind and body to his care and ‘pronto!’ she has no more Saadhana to do. Though this is considered as an injustice by the reformists, in my opinion she had a better bargain!

95. The Sastra-s were more considerate of the women because she had the important task of child bearing and nurturing the baby once it is born! The man had to go through a much tougher schedule of many Samskara-s, of Sravana-Manana-Nidityaasa-s to be able to achieve Mano-naasa and Atma-Saatchaatkaara / Self-Realization! That end result is more easily made available to a faithful lady who surrenders her all to her husband. By surrendering to his will, she overcomes her wants and desires and Ahankaara or Ego! She virtually learns to stop thinking. So, Mano-naasa just happens. Instead of looking for employment and promotions, this is the highest promotion! By doing so, there have been great ladies who had attained to much power and glory in this country.

96. Thiruvalluvar says that when such a woman instructs, the rain just pours! “… pei ena peiyum mazhai…” When she tells the Sun to stop rising, it continues to be night! Such a woman is able to argue with the God of Death and bring her husband back to life! No saint or Rishi or even Gods have been given the sort of exalted status given to such ‘Pati-vrataa-siromani-s’ that is, ladies who excelled by just being faithful to their husbands. Just by sprinkling drops of water on Brhma-Vishnu-Maheswara, Anasooya could turn them into small suckling babies and adopt them as her own! Our Sastra-s and culture venerate and deify such women. Women have never been held as chattels by us. By making women do all sorts activities that a man is meant for, the so called Reformation and Women’s Liberation has made their life more miserable.

97. So, Vivaham as a Samskara, kept both the men and women in some substantial amount of moral and financial control. It enabled the woman to gain the highest spiritual attainment by simply doing the natural role of a home maker. This automatically kept the man on the straight path, without going astray. Now what we have is a chaotical mix. Marriage is not just a matter of physical beauty, attraction, virility and sexual gratification only, but a process by which the man and woman make each other’s life a meaningful success. Success not only for themselves but to their elders, to their off-springs within the family and to society at large! There is a saying in Tamil which goes, “nalla kutumbam palkalai kazhagam”, meaning, ‘a good family is an institution like a University’.

98. No body seems to have noted the fact that by letting women get higher education and compete for all sorts of jobs, we have created insurmountable complications in the employment market! Till some time back, our attitude was to let her get employed so as not to waste her education, and not let her get bored with doing nothing at home. Then slowly the idea caught on that she could possibly save some for her own increasingly costly wedding! At least people used to consider it an insult to let her continue with employment after her marriage. But no. This Brahmin community has become increasingly fond of more and more greed for money, that employment has become inevitable even after marriage!

99. In the bargain, it is the family which has become unsettled, with possibilities of divorces and re-marriages galore! Sufferers are the children and their up-bringing. Another side of the problem is that, this situation has complicated the employment market. There are millions of qualified graduates of a variety of disciplines looking for employment. So the women by joining the fray have added many dimensions to the problem. There are families in which both husband and wife are employed. There are some in which the women is getting more pay than the husband! Instead of keeping and managing one’s life within ones earning, now there is more disgruntlement, whatever the income. Women having experienced certain amount of freedom can never go back to the earlier status-quo-ante! First the parents are shamelessly letting their daughters earn an income. Then the husbands are following suit. Now the women too think of it all as a great adventure! At what cost?

100. If you stay at home it is not to be considered as stuck up in a jail! We have Sastra-s, Purana-s, and classic literature in various languages. Once you develop an interest, one life time is not good enough for studying them. As Satsang, these could be read in groups. You do not have to have any detailed organizations for this like a club or something. This could be done in one’s houses by turn. We could prepare small packets of ‘Vibhuti and Kumkumam for distribution in the temples. Some rice could be carefully sorted and selected without its sharp pointed portion broken, to make ‘Atchadai’ and give it to the temples free of cost! The trouble now-a-days is that, everybody is thinking in terms of making more and more money. There is a Tamil proverb which says, “podum enra maname pon seyyum marundu”, meaning, ‘the mind that says enough is enough, is golden!’ More profit, more income, more expenditure, more inflation, more price rise, more the dissatisfaction and more deficiency—the cycle is vicious!

101. So, can the women come back to women like activities concerning the family and spiritual ennoblement? Instead of being answerable to one man, see how degrading it is to have to listen to so many others! Look at the enormous opportunities to lose the qualities of womanliness, by going out of the house on employment! Where is peace and contentment in doing this? Is this freedom when you do not have time for your own husband and children? The way it is going, it is only leading to widening the disparities and sense of deprivation!

(To be continued.)

Sambhomahadeva.