Upliftment of Indian womanhood – need of the hour

Dr. M. Lakshmikumari

To transcend the multifarious problems and confusions that riddle the human mind resulting from the feeling of dualism, it is necessary that the mind be exposed to the advaitic Truth - awareness of ONENESS. Advaita is the crest jewel of human thought, which our great country has upheld from time immemorial. Unless and until we in India fully comprehend the significance of advaitic thought and its special relevance for the survival of our multicultural nation, we may also, like many a nation of the bygone eras, soon slip into oblivion.

Matrudevo bhava’ is a mahamantra which contains within it a highly relevant, potent and practical message for universal peace and survival of mankind. For that very reason it is imperative that the strength and sanctity of motherhood be fully understood and made to manifest.

Is ‘advaita’ something ‘dry’ and ‘out of this world’ of day-to-day living? How can advaita be brought to inundate the multidimensional human feelings, emotions and transactions? If advaita is relevant as the Supreme Ultimate Truth, having nothing to do with human life, dry indeed it would be. But if it is allowed to descend from being mere knowledge in the brain, to cascade through and light up various human feelings and emotions, then something wonderful happens. Just as a seed soaked in water sprouts up putting up new leaves, just as a dry arid land touched by rain immediately gets covered with a green mantle of grass, just as a drying tree sprouts up all over again when watered so does the human mind gets enriched and enlivened, when the One Truth in the ‘advaita’ gets transformed into the ‘many’ in the human mind. Firmly rooted in Oneness, the human mind blossoms in the beauty of the diversity. In the treasure chest of the human mind there are any number of devices – emotions and feelings through which this wonderful transformation can be achieved. Like a musical instrument with many strings, mind can create an infinite variety of notes, unmake them and re-make them to create a harmonious orchestra of life if it so wills or vice versa. It is the awareness of advaitic truths that leads to harmony and peace. If this basic note is lacking only discordant notes emerge and such a life becomes filled with contradictions.

Standing on this pinnacle of advaita, how can this awareness of oneness be made part of the three main life-streams, Jnana Bhakti and Karma, making life extraordinarily rich and fulfilling! To understand this miracle God seems to have provided us with the glorious ideal of motherhood. In how many ways our Bharateeya culture has captured and expanded this ideal of motherhood! The Divine mother and her manifold bhavas as Lakshmi, Saraswati, Durga, Parvathy and other forms - each in essence indicating the rich potentialities and possibilities of the human mind, Mother Ganges, Veda Mata, Gita Mata, mother earth, this wonderful mother land of ours and so on - each one reveals the immense spiritual potential power and sanctity that lie hidden in motherhood. One can raise oneself to cosmic proportion meditating on this mystery of motherhood and its unfolding in infinite ways in this universe. To help us enter into the portals of such a meditation we have in front of us one’s own dear mother in whose milk we had the first taste of Life Universal.

 

Motherhood represents the principle of inter-relatedness, inter-connectedness and inter-dependence that hold together everything in the universe. The first unit of this phenomenon is our family. The ever fresh fountain of love that gives meaning and preserves family, as a unit is none other than the uncrowned queen of the house, the Mother. That is why we address Divine mother as Sri Maharajni, the empress of the Universe. Just as proton, neutron and electrons are held together by indefinable and invisible magnetic forces in an atom so do the various units of a home held in place without creating any disharmony by the magnetic power of love that the mother embodies. The power of that magnet lies in its extraordinary capacity to evolve ‘Oneness’ through love, sacrifice and service. These form the true nourishments for the children more than anything else. In its absence children wither away and their personality gets distorted. Unhappy homes are the breeding grounds for creating imbalanced men and women who in turn disturb the peace and harmony in the society.

When we explore the very origin of maternal instinct and the mysterious spiritual power behind, it will naturally take us to that ultimate primary cause of the universe, the Divine Mother Herself. SHE is the source and cause of all creation - the primeval energy - the primary cause, the Ultimate Truth. So is She the original source of motherliness - cause and effect relationship that we notice everywhere in the universe. Therefore when ‘Matruchetana’ is awakened in any one of us man or woman, there is a spark of the original transmutation of the ONE Truth into many. If one cares to meditate on this original instinct of motherhood and expand that ‘bindu’ into an all embracing feeling of love - awareness of inter relatedness - one can raise oneself to Universal Motherhood, to the status of Sri Mata. One need not be a mother in the worldly sense to achieve this, as motherliness is a spiritual awakening and elevation. In her gets embodied all that is best in creation - beauty (Lakshmi), knowledge (Saraswati) and action (Durga). All Godly powers are at her service. Such a mother is not only an adornment to her family but also a blessing to the society and the nation. She belongs to all. Diversities get merged in that ONENESS of motherhood and so do all problems based on duality wither away in her divine presence.

Such an expansive feeling of motherhood is very much needed in our society to rectify the mistakes that we are perpetrating in the name of caste, creed, religion, race and so on. All fanaticism, violence, terrorism etc. have their roots in the misguided notions of dividedness. To replace them with love, kindness and tolerance, the easiest way is the way of the mother. Manmade barriers can be broken down, sanity restored and peace created when true motherliness is made to manifest (be it in a woman or a man).

Unfortunately, majority of today’s women have lost this capacity for spiritual expansion. Materialistic hankerings distort her personality; disturb her innate qualities as mother, making her selfish, greedy, vengeful and blind. When children are exposed to this unnatural motherliness they fail to develop sustaining qualities in themselves. When the mothers at home spread unhappiness and bitterness slowly the whole society reflects that and peace and happiness disappear. On the other hand when true motherliness blossoms in a mother there is an expansion of personality and all petty feelings disappear.

Is it really possible for an ordinary woman to achieve such heights of perfection? Answer is yes. Our Puranas are full of stories of such exemplary mothers. In recent history we have the wonderful example of Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, inspired by whom Swami Vivekananda emphasised again and again the need to revive this Indian ideal of Motherhood for restoring the glory of our nation and to bring all round peace and well being.

My Turn

Banking Spiritual Silence

Dr. Lakshmi Kumari

A wife, at least in the early days of her marriage, has her life centered in her husband and for her everything has an aura of her love. When she becomes a mother that love is made very pure as it is devoid of even traces of lust and jealousy. Her home has now as its center her love for her children. A very good starting point indeed. All that is needed is for that centering to be reinforced with a new faith, a new urge to reach out to the spiritual Truth within and superimpose it on the acts of love and service without.

Many women have too little time to look after their children and their home. But they may be members of this society or that, engaged in children's programs, projects to help women, etc., etc. The work is good, no doubt, but it doesn't serve the real purpose of self-empowerment. At home you are a different person than what you are outside. There is a widening gap-the error or parallax goes on increasing. Simplifying and straightening our outer life would help us to find time and the mind to reorganize our inner life. Then more and more we are able to add beauty and charm to our outer lives.

Women with their God-given sense of wholeness can slip into this ever-widening circle of mutual adoration and understanding-if only they choose, if they care. When we discover this wholeness in creation and learn to absorb it unto us and start adding to the wholeness within and around us, our capacity to love, tolerate, accept and above all positively give and take become more intense and rewarding. The real "mother" wakes up inside.

The only condition to acquire this gift is to establish a connection with the unknown-the Invisible. Spirituality is not acquiring something from outside. It is a giving up-sacrifice, renunciation-of our small self and selfish interests and motivations so that the fountainhead within us starts gurgling out.

Housewives have a lot of time-provided they are not part of the rat race of living-when they are alone. Instead of spending it in dissipating activities like gossiping, reading some trash or watching character-destroying TV programs they could use it to create fields of creative silence within when they are in communion with something energizing within themselves. By this they can not only conserve their energy, but also enrich themselves spiritually.

Hours or minutes of silence can be incorporated into our lives, filling some odd leisure hour here and there. As we wait for the children to return from the school when the mind is alert and watching we can open it further, to be one with all the mothers, all their children and all the beauty of the children growing up. As we stand at the gate of the school whose heart does not get filled up at the sight of children rushing from class-bundles of joy rushing about here and there in all seriousness, reminding each other of their "silly" transactions. So on and so forth, life is full of beauty and harmony if only we open our spiritual vision.

Adding up moments, minutes and hours would be creating small savings deposits of energizing and invigorating spiritual energy within. As the quality of silence starts deepening, the colors and forms of trees, sounds of the chirping of birds, movement of leaves, everything becomes a source of joy and gives a deeply relaxing sensation. Slowly, without anybody noticing it, these precious moments can be made into a regular meditation at a particular part of the day. Loneliness stops to worry us, work doesn't tire us when the inner life is restored even by a minute fraction. This is the journey from the fragmented to the whole and is the best way open to many of us-housewives and mothers-to combat the divisive tendencies of the purely material life of today with its immense demands, problems and tensions. To make India assert her spiritual power, we women can have this small saving spiritual deposit scheme which can certainly add to our nation's spiritual wealth at this critical moment.

Lakshmi Kumari, Ph.D., is president of the Vivekananda Kendra, and editor of its magazine "Voice of Youth." She comes from Kerala and is a devoted follower of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda.