The dignity of women:

A Spiritual Approach
By Garda Ghista
Perhaps one of the most renowned sayings of Shri Prabhat Rainjan Sarkar is that
women are the most dignified section of society. Let us briefly examine the
implications of this momentous statement. In His book Ananda Vacanamrtam, Pt. 30
on page 75, he explains in a nutshell the spiritual foundation of dignified living. When
someone rushes towards Supreme Consciousness, forgetting all else, and becomes
elevated through this process, she or he is known as a sanctified being. When that
sanctified being does selfless service to those around her or him, then that person is
known as a dignified being. Sarkar has further stated in this book, that this is the
reason why He referred to women as the most dignified section of human society.

Social Dignity
"The evolutionary forces have not stopped. The theatre of action has shifted to the
psychic level. Evolution is now expressing its power in the daily struggle of men and
women everywhere to attain dignity."
Sarkari

When it comes to family and work relationships, dignity means not degrading oneself
by becoming petty, abusive/ vindictive, cynical/amoral or corrupt. In other words,
not losing the innate feeling of love for everyone, as a form of love for the Supreme
Entity. This love is called neo-humanistic love, as it metamorphoses physical,
emotional and mental beings into new, divine human beings who are actively
surrendering to and loving their dearest Lord in each and every object of this
universe.

Living in capitalist economic systems makes this difficult to achieve, as capitalism

nurtures selfishness and self-centeredness. Women are surviving this assault on
human dignity better than men are. Sociopathy is primarily a male phenomenon.
Men commit the majority of murders. Men commit the majority of violence and
rapes. Cooperative living is easier for women, because men are often very
competitive and thus find it very difficult to work together over a long period of time.
Misanthropy or hatred of humanity is increasing everywhere, but is exhibited more
by men.

While the numerous programs of Prout fight against the exploitation that engenders
this social malaise, He always emphasizes that true dignity, true progress can only be
achieved by becoming more and more spiritual. History has recorded so many rebels
who, when later in power, became reactionaries. This is because they were not real
revolutionaries, or what Sarkar calls nuclear revolutionaries or sadvipras. A nuclear
revolutionary is someone who is a revolutionary in each and every aspect of social
life, be it in morality, work habits, art, music, engineering, domestic life, cooking,
farming, and so on. Sarkar extols their glory, saying,

"Theirs is a valiant and relentless fight against the obstacles created by avidyama'ya'
(the illusive force of utter ignorance) which try to detract them from the path of the
attainment of Brahma (Supreme Consciousness), their cherished goal, their final
desideratum, their polestar, the only ideal of their lives. In the social sphere they
struggle not to reform society for the sake of reformation, but to combat the defects
and inconsistencies in all walks of life which are detrimental to spiritual life and a
stumbling block on the path of attaining the supreme goal. In short they seek to
build a balanced, harmonious spiritual society. Their endeavor to remove the thorns
scattered along the path of progress is ceaseless."

So the essential root of such a revolutionary lies in the spiritual realm. Such a soul is
not merely spiritual but a unique revolutionary in the spiritual field, such as the great
Tantric poet-saint Ammaiyar, who left her house and roamed the cremation ground
singing songs of love to Shiva. It is such intense pursuit of the Lord, that is the
quintessence of nuclear revolution or what we have earlier called sanctity. In the
same way Sarkar calls upon us all:

"With cosmic ideation set out from the starting point of morality and advance
towards supreme realization. Your feet may bleed, cut by the thorns scattered on the
road, the sky, rent asunder by the lightning and crashing thunder of the fearful
storm, may fall on your head, but proceed you must. You are a born fighter. To flee
the battle in fear and hide like a corpse in the hills is ultravirus to your existential
vitality. You must advance towards the Supreme Entity, your original abode,
smashing all obstacles on the path. From time immemorial you have been listening
to the sweetness of His divine call. Can you remain oblivious to it engrossed in your
little world created by ma'ya' (illusion)."

Sanctity
In citing the story of Madhalasa (the great mother & realized soul who lived in India
2,000 years ago), Sarkar explains how she realized that women are naturally more
spiritually inclined and devoted to the Beloved Lord than men. He further states that
with this in mind he formulated his educational system. Why is it the case that
women are more devotional? Devotion starts as sentiment or emotion. For it is with
emotional force that we take all of our existence away from external objects and
internal objects (ideas, complexes, attachments, etc.) and run towards the Supreme
Subjectivity and surrender all 'I'. And it is this state of surrender or union that is
called yoga or devotion.

Generally women are more emotionally mature, articulate and often more
emotionally evolved than men. Men, according to Tantra (the essence of spiritual
practice that emerged 7500 years ago in Rahr, India), have greater capacity for
conceptualization (though, like women, they use only 1% of it) as well as a greater
capacity to absorb microvita. Microvita are the smallest particles of life used to
accelerate physical, psychic and indirectly psycho-spiritual progress. However, these
physical and mental capacities count for very little on the spiritual path in
comparison with the radiant glory of devotion. As Sarkar has said, "the attempt to
surrender oneself through devotion forms the essential part of one's sadhana
(spiritual practice)."

There have been countless intellectuals and yogis who have had very little impact on
human society - on the human heart. But great devotees like Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
transformed hundreds of ordinary and even anti-social people into saints lost in the
ecstatic current of kiirtan (singing the Lord's Name). The memories of great devotees
like Miirabai still continue to throb in the human heart.

In general men are more capable of mental dedication to an ideal or a philosophy.

Women are more capable of emotional dedication to an individual. While men have
sometimes been encouraged to dedicate themselves to an expansive, powerful idea
(such as a mantra, for example) in order to attain true freedom, women have always
been hindered from expanding emotionally beyond domestic love into the infinite
love for the Beloved. Miirabai, the great poet-saint who gave up all to sing to her
Beloved Lord is still abused by many males in her native state of Rajasthan, India.
Some of these males even scathingly refer to her as a prostitute! Why? Only because
when her husband was hindering her from meeting with other devotees, she left him
to devote herself full-time to singing devotional songs to the Beloved! In her cultural
environment, it was considered sinful for her to do this. Even today in many
countries, people feel that women are only there to serve the husband and should
not think of serving the Lord full-time, whereas men are encouraged to do this.

If women can transform their greater sentimentality or emotion into devotional love,
they can very easily be established in the highest spiritual states of true love for our
Beloved. But in fact, in today's world, women are encouraged, (via pseudo-culture
propagated by the media) to repress emotions in the same way that men repress
them, and also to primarily think of men as sexual objects of pleasure. This is the
exact same way men have been encouraged to think of women. We can see this
when reading newspaper and magazine articles by women journalists, who are often
writing in the same crude vein as many male journalists.

If women focus their greater sentimentality away from limited physical, emotional
and mental objects and focus it entirely on our Beloved, who is the true reality
behind all these objects, they can become sanctified beings. For during the sweet
chase after our Beloved, the collective force of their psychic existence is transformed
into a purely spiritual force. The greater the intensity with which one runs after the
Beloved, the greater becomes one's sanctity and devotion. Since women naturally
tend to be more extreme in demonstrating their love, for this very reason women
become sanctified more easily than men. This is the first reason why women are the
most dignified section of society.

Another reason given in Tantra why women are more sanctified is that men usually
have great attraction for jinana (knowledge) and siddhis (occult powers) for the
purpose of becoming recognized as a saint or a so-called guru. This very often
causes men to fall away from the spiritual path. Even for those men who don't
entirely leave the spiritual path, this desire for knowledge (be it scientific, life-after-
death, cosmology, etc.) and occult powers pollutes their devotional flow, no matter
how small that desire may be. Sarkar has scathingly rebuked those devotional frauds
who run after siddhis like mad dogs. He has even further ridiculed those who waste
their life with endless questions, worries, backbiting and arrogant preaching of their
infinitesimal store of knowledge. He unequivocally states that those who are real
devotees have minds becoming more and more saturated with the Supreme
Consciousness. This state of being is diametrically opposite to the restless rapacity of
those hankering after knowledge, occult powers and gurudom.

Traditionally women have not been sidetracked by these cheap pleasures. Today due
to the negative impact of the massive imposition of male psychology (in order to
achieve success and command respect in a male-dominated society), the devotional
flow of more and more women is becoming polluted by similar desires. Due to men
having an attraction for knowledge and occult powers, it is said in Tantra that it is
more difficult for men to manifest their spiritual state externally than it is for women.

It is the joyous imperative of all women to awaken each other to the irrepressible
beauty of devotion. Through their indomitable collective rapture, men will also be
awakened to truly unselfish love. This is why it is women who will provide the
impetus for nuclear revolution. It is our duty to knock on the door of every heart.
Sarkar has again and again declared that NOW is the time to manifest the glory of
kiirtan (singing the Beloved's Name). It is surely we women who feel the urgency of
the hour. It is surely we women who feel that it is our destiny to deluge and sanctify
this planet with His tremendous tenderness, to deluge His heart with more, more,
and ever more love.

Dignity
We have stated above that the extent to which a sanctified person becomes dignified
depends upon the degree of selfless service she or he performs. In general, women
are often capable of greater sacrifice and nurturing of those whom they care for.
When one becomes a sanctified being, i.e., when one becomes a neo-humanist, one
realizes only the Beloved (Supreme Consciousness) everywhere. While male
spiritualists are often satisfied with this realization (just as in the home men often
remain satisfied with feeling love for the family and do not feel the need to express
it), sanctified women feel a greater and more intense urge to lovingly serve their
Beloved.

This is why Sarkar has especially called upon all women, saying,

"You as the most dignified section of human society do something for the universal
human beings!"

Such women, as true neo-humanists are united more and more intensely with their
Beloved while incessantly serving their cherished Beloved who appears before them
and within them as the true reality of the numerous beings and objects of this
universe. This is why many seers have foretold that the coming spiritual revolution
will be one driven by the dynamism of devotional women. Hence we can say that
women are the most dignified section of human society!

"Let women be the vanguard of a new revolution which humanity must achieve for a
glorious tomorrow."
Shrii Shrii Anandamurtijii

Copyright The Author 2000