India which is considered to be the oldest civilization in the world is full of paradoxes that can be seen and experienced by every citizen who calls himself/herself and Indian as well as by those people who visit the country to experience its ancient culture. So deep-rooted are these paradoxes that sometimes one wonders at the level of tolerance that Indians possess within them. Take, for instance, the tradition followed at some famous Shrines of Goddesses across India. One would not help but think that how come a Goddess in feminine form is looked after by men priests? Also one can’t really digest this that no women can enter the place where “Deity Idol” is kept. For it is only a privilege of “Brahmin Priests” who have been looking after the Deity Idol for ages. So just imagine how male-dominated is the so-called modern society in spite of the 21st Century where we all boast of being in. It is said that when men wish for power he invokes goddess Durga, when he wishes wealth he invokes goddess Laxmi, when he wishes knowledge he invokes goddess Saraswati, But !!! the same feminine gender cannot enter close to the idol of the goddess.
Isn’t it pathetic?
Since time immemorial women have always been at the receiving end of all kinds of atrocities committed in the form of wars, terrorist attacks, domestic quarrels and most recently now extremism of male domination. You goto any part of the world, and you would find a lot of cases where women are exploited from the time they are born till the time they die. So, the question that arises here is that ‘Why Women ?’. Why this hypocrisy ??? On one side women in Goddess form are worshipped by men & on the other side, the same men keep on exploiting them ?? Is this Justice? Everyone who is living on this planet called earth should ponder over this, that for what fault are women being subjected to these atrocities? Can anyone explain the reason for these cruelties & barbaric acts on women?
Nobel Laureate ‘Malala Yousoufzai’ stressed the subject of educating & empowering women in her maiden speech made at the Noble Peace Awards Ceremony where she expressed her anguish at the way in which young girls were pushed into child marriages and made to conceive while they themselves were still a child. Why this double standard between a boy child & a girl child?
Since Independence, the Government of India has been spending trillions to create mass awareness among its countrymen to change their attitude towards girl child, but the patriarchal attitude ruling the society has failed all the schemes of government with no change in attitude towards the girl child. The cases of female foeticides are still on the rise, cases of dowry killings are also very much increasing, cases of domestic violence are rising, cases of minor rapes are rising, So what has changed? nothing !! Men carry the same attitude of being a stronger gender compared to women who are forcibly considered to be a weaker gender. So how can these attitudes be changed? Who will do it? When will it happen? These are the questions for which society has no answer, not even the government. However, as ordinary citizens, we can make a resolve to slowly change the attitudes by getting united in our approach & thought pattern. YES indeed it can happen, because if one goes down history, then one would clearly see that it is we ourselves who have started this, so only we can stop this. Did anyone had planned 1000 years back that women should be exploited or harassed? Not really !! This has happened gradually over the years hence this will go away with hard efforts put over the years. The task is to challenge and root out the attitudes that were made years ago. So naturally, it will take time, but it is possible, provided there is a united will to do so.
There are thousands of advises that people would give out to root out this evil of gender bias from society, however experience shows that even in ancient times, Spirituality has been a game-changer to resolve this issue of gender bias. Yes, it’s true because Spirituality concentrates more on the subtleness of one’s being i.e Soul rather than physical aspect i.e Body. All the current issues faced by women in society today are due to powerful body consciousness that makes men into beasts. Human Energy is considered to be the most powerful & potent compared to all the powers in the world and that is the core of all the issues. If one learns the art of channelizing human energies in the right direction, then probably things would gradually start changing. It is this unchannelized energy that creates havoc in the society of which the natural victim are women. So, the crux of the matter is to channelize one’s energy through some positive activity and raise to a level of higher consciousness that is above the body and bodily relations and experience the power of divinity within the self. Imagine, if every one of us raises to this higher consciousness, the world would be a nice place for women to live in. So, c’mon let’s do it for the sake of our mother’s, sister’s, daughter’s and wives for they are the one’s whom we worship.
