Sharanagati

(from a talk of woman’s roles with Swami Tirtha, 13.08.2018, Ludashto)

(continued from the previous Friday)

Our topic here is to discuss the path of a woman. And even alone, it’s very difficult to interpret a women’s life. But the problem comes when you are in a company – either in a women’s company or in a men’s company. Because there is interaction. If there is no company, there is no interaction. When interaction comes, problems will also come. 

What I always tell to the male friends and male devotees is that what men think of women is filling libraries. But what they know about women is a short notebook with empty pages. Why is it like this? Because you represent the hidden secrets, not the open secrets. And men are basically motivated by their brain. You are basically motivated by your heart. Sun and Moon – an eternal conflict. To understand the heart – it’s impossible. But to feel the thoughts of others – that’s very interesting. 

There is another proverb that’s coming from a lady. She had eaten up some twelve husbands. And she said: “A woman for a man is always a question mark. While a man for a woman is always a solution.” I think it’s interesting. Because men don’t understand women. While you can use the energy, you can use the other side, the other principle for solutions. And I think if we remain on the body and mind platform, we shall always face these conflicts and frictions. Because this is the field of the differences. It’s not antagonistic, nevertheless it’s different. Therefore I feel it’s better to come more and more to the spiritual platform, where we don’t face the differences, but where we can find the unity also.

One hundred years ago a very strange phenomenon happened – this is the liberation of women. And what I think is that this question is overstressed. Just recently I heard of a person visiting an American college campus. He was inquiring after the department of male studies. And people told him: “Male studies? We have only female studies department here, not male studies”. Then he inquired: “Can you give me a proportion of your students?” “Yes, yes, two-thirds are ladies, but we don’t have male department. Because we have to defend women’s rights.” You see, this game is now on the opposite side. And if I start the initiative to have male departments, I think I will be censured. 

Why? Because you think that so far human society was dominated by the authoritarian and paternalistic male power. It was dominated by the Mars that you can see so beautifully shining on the horizon. But this time is over, now we shall shift to the Venus domination. We shall kill Mars – in the name of love, or of women’s rights, or I don’t know what. And I don’t say that there were no mistakes in the male domination. But I doubt that under the female domination there will be no mistakes. Why? Because if you are biased only on this one or that one – this is not right, this is not the higher synthesis. 

So this is about the theoretical background of these differences between the genders, of the differences between human beings, of these talents and physical limitations what we have received due to our birth. The main question comes: how to reach a higher spiritual state of consciousness? Because if we are on the low stage of existence, then we shall meet these conflicts; and how to come to a higher stage? 

I have a suggestion here, I don’t know what is your opinion about that. In one word, this is dignity. Dignity – how much this word is missing from today’s speech. If you respect yourself, then naturally you have to respect others, and most probably others will also respect you. So if you have a dignified stature and dignified appearance, it will invite different attention than let’s say if you are something else. This is what I call dignity.

I have a very dear friend and he said: “I had to chase after my lady for three years. She was not an easy one”. This is what I call dignity. And this family is running in a very exemplary manner. So I feel that this is a good asset that you can rely on, that you can build on, and then you can improve on this basis – dignity. If you are a responsible and dignified person, you will meet dignified people. 

(to be continued)